but by no means surprised at the news I brought him, and informed me further, that such doings were common, frequently two or three times a week; and that twice a year, or at the spring and fall races, they continued for fourteen days without interruption, aided by the licentious and proffigate of all the neighbouring states. As to the savage practice of fighting in the manner of wild beasts, my host entertained no hopes whatever of ever seeing it put down. It might be called a national taste, which the laws appeared afraid to violate; and therefore it reared its head above authority. Few nights elapsed without the exhibition of this new gymnastic; few mornings appeared that did not bring to day a friend or acquaintance with the loss of an eye, or the mutilation of half his features. Alarmed at this account, I asked whether this kind of conduct spread down the river. I understood that it did on the left-hand side, and that I would do well to land there as little as possible that many of the small inns on the Virginia and Kentucky shore, were held in solitary situations by persons of infamous character, driven from the interior and the head waters, by the gradual encroachments made on them by morals, religion, and justice. At such taverns, there were always persons at no loss for a subject of quarrel. The invariable consequence of which was, the loss of sight, and sometimes of life, and the total confiscationof property, by the villians, who, on maiming, or murdering the innoffensive party, rush out of the house, sieze his boat and descend the river, never more to be heard of-the Tandlord swearing he had never seen them before, or had any knowledge to what place they belonged. All the taverns, however, are not so bad. There was generally to be found one of a better sort in towns and villages where there was some semblance of law, or some apprehension of justice. I again demanded how a stranger was to distinguish a good from a vicious house of entertainment? I was answered, by previous inquiry, or, if that was impracticable, a tolerable judgment could be formed, from observing in the landlord, a possession, or an absence of ears: many of the proprietors of small inus being men who had left those members nailed to certain penitential market crosses in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, in lieu of certain horses and cattle of which they had from time to time become the illegal owners. Furnished with these useful

instructions, I left my kind entertainer, and retired to my inn with a view of passing a peaceable night. It was not so ordained. It seems the store keepers, and the principal citizens, knowing the people had no intention of returning to their avocations, had resolved to amuse themselves, and associated for the purpose of having a ball and supper at the principal inn. On my arrival the landlord, with much politeness, told me, that my quality of stranger and a gentleman, gave me a title to enter the public room. I benefited by this intimation, yet, notwithstanding the delicacy and hospitality it conveyed, I could not resist casting a glance, en passant, at the head of my host, to observe whether it was provided with ears. Pleased on perceiving these ornamental appendages, or, to follow up the quaker's idea, these indications of character and safety, I entered the ball-room, which was filled with persons at cards, drinking, smoaking, dancing, &c. The music consisted of two bangies, played by negross nearly in a state of nudity, and a late, through which a Chickesaw breathed with much occasional exertion and violent gesticulations. The dancing accorded with the harmony of these instruments. The clamour of the card-tables was so great, that it almost drowned every other: and the music of Ethiopia was with difficulty heard. A man should never judge of the principles of the entertainment of others, by his individual conceptions. This ball, considered a violent vulgar uproar by me, afforded the utmost delight to the assembly, and possibly would have concluded with infinite joy and satis faction at an early hour next day, had not an untucky wight of a drunken politician, seized a friend by the throat, and threatened to annihilate him, if he did not drink

Damnation to Thomas Jefferson." A bustle and crowd collected about the parties; the ladies and the music made a precipitate retreat, and I quickly followed, and learned from the landlord, who sat by his fire-side perfectly conposed, that the ball was over-that a row had commenced, which was the signal for the retreat of the graces, and a general break up. I hinted at the propriety of his interference, when he very coolly told me, that if there were any ruffians in company, it was fit they should be kicked out, and that bad as the place was, there were always gentlemen at his balls who obligingly took that office on themselves. His words were soon verified. A cry of out, out;

whip them all! issued from the room, immediately after a torrent rushed through the passage, and a noise of sticks, and cries, and execrations of every shade, modulation, and sort. The door locked on the whole party, and silence again restored, we visited the theatre of the late effervescence, and found but one person stretched on the ground. I was proceeding to express some apprehension, when my host exclaimed-" Oh! it is Mr. he is only drunk, he will remain here quietly till morning." With that he drew him along the floor to a corner, and having placed a few chairs as a guard, considered that he had done much towards his accommodation..

Though it was by this time far advanced in the night, and I felt no disposition to retire to rest; my mind was too much agitated and full, to benefit by a too sudden, or forced repose; and I preferred the conversation of mine host one. half-hour longer. It turned on the events of the day, and the evening amusement. He very candidly admitted all I said in favour of more civilized recreations; and even went so far as to tell me a variety of anecdotes, which from a respect for human nature, I suppress. Were it not for the intervention of a row, which he considered an innocent occurrence, the close of balls could never be ascertained. He had known them to continue for six and thirty hours together, and many of the men, at other times, have remained to gamble and drink for weeks after the original festival. These balls and rows were frequently followed by duels. That ball or row was thought a mild one, which did not produce from two to three of the latter. “An affair of this kind happened" said my landlord, “a few balls back, involving in its consequences, out of the common, and rather of a melancholy kind. A dispute," continued he, "took place, in my house, between two young men, who had been the most intimate friends, as much so that one of them, Mr. H. who is my neighbour, was to be married the Sunday after the ball and the dispute, to the sister of the other, Mr. B. who lives but a small distance up the town. The ties to be formed from this intention, former intimacy, and the interposition of love and friendship, were all of no avail: to fight they were determined; place and time were cautiously appointed. But love is not easily to be deceived. Maria the sister of B. and the betrothed of H. received the fatal intelligence;

hastened to the ground, and arrived-but in time only to hear the shot, and receive a bleeding lover in her extended arms. The lead past through his lungs-he instantly expired. The senses of Maria are lost: she knows no person: she has not spoke to a human being since I can shew her to you to-morrow; a slender tall figure, her head and bosom covered with a black veil; her motion quick, and her air disturbed. She passes every day in her way to a favourite grave, and returns with an appearance still more dejected and broken-hearted. But the poor maid will soon. join her lover, and leave a world in which she imagines she has no friend. I could hear no more, the Virginian himself was moved. I ordered a light, and gaining my chamber cast myself on a bed to rest: yet not before I cursed the ferocity of manners which reigns in this place, and which caused the eternal wretchedness and misery of an object so aimable and instructing as my landlord's Maria. It is intolerable. It is infamous. Farewell you can account for my abrupt conclusion..

LETTER XII.

mail coach road from Philadelphia to Lexington in Kentucky seven hundred miles.—Accommodations on the road -enchanting valley and creeks-their origin-history of the first settlement of Cooandanaga by Irish emigrants— its judicious regulations-Mr. Fitzpatrick its head-manner of passing Sunday in this little republic-general situation of its inhabitants-Long reach-Indian imitation of animals.

Marietta, State of Ohio, May, 1806,. I HURRIED out of Wheeling with a precipitation which precluded all further enquiries, and perhaps in a state of mind unfavourable to the pursuit of any farther knowledge of that place. There is a very beautiful island directly opposite Wheeling, to which there is a ferry, and another Serry from the island to the Ohio shore, where commences

a road leading to Chilicothe, and the interior of the State of which that town is the capital. The road for the most part is mountainous and swampy, notwithstanding which a mail coach is established on it, from Philadelphia to Lexington in Kentucky, through Pittsburg, Wheeling, and Chilicothe, a distance of upwards of seven hundred miles, to be performed by contract in fifteen days. Small inns are to be found every ten, or twelve miles of the route. They are generally log huts of one apartment, and the enter tainment consists of bacon, whiskey, and Indian bread. Let those who despise this bill of fare remember that seven years since this road was called the Wilderness, and travelTers had to encamp, find their own provisions, and with great difficulty secure their horses from panthers and wolves. Another remark is to be made on this great road. Directly on ascending the mountain in the rear of Wheeling, an immense deep and gloomy valley appears in view; twelve miles long, by from two to six broad. It is completely surrounded by high mountains, through which there is but one small pass serving for the current of the water of a beautiful creek that traverses the valley twelve different times in search of a level to facilitate its course to the Ohio and the sea. The road crosses the creek at every travers, and, for the entire length is nearly a perfect plain, adorned with trees of the most sumptuous growth; with corn and wheat of an unexampled luxuriance, and encircled by an amphitheatre of mountains, whose summits of eternal verdure are often embraced by the clouds. The soil, composed of decayed vegetable substances, and putrid animal remains, appears like a fine garden mould; it is from three to sixteen feet deep, and judging from the channel of the creek, is deposited on gravel and lime-stone rock. There are eight settlers on this enchanting spot, who have to regret nothing but the too transient visits of the sun, who in his meridian glory looks down on this little world, sheds upon it its most fervid rays, until intercepted by the mountains, towards the south he sets in the vigour of the day. I was about to give you a chain of philosophical reasoning and evidence to bear me out in an opinion that this valley was formed by the subsiding of water which found an avenue in a circuit of the mountain, and by attrition wore it to its base, when it lost its volume and immensity, and assumed the gentle character of the pres