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curring incidents, and admiring the versatility of mind which one time finds felicity in towns and midnight masquerades, and at another acknowledges happiness on the contrasted theatre of the rivers and wilderness, we sat down to our repast, and in a short time paid it the strong enco-: mium of a satiated appetite.

After which we returned to the house, where over a bottle of wine one hour longer we conversed on the pleasures of our rural sports and retired to rest with that heartfelt ease and serenity which follows an innocent and wellspent day.

Next morning after breakfast I with difficulty tore myself from this interesting family. You will excuse me for omitting the names of the amiable couple. They were emigrants of the first distinction from Ireland.

Two hours after leaving the island, I reached the lower settlement of Belleprie, a rising place on the right hand side, three miles below which on the same side I passed Little Hockhocking, Newbury settlement and Bar, Mas-taphy island and Big Hockhocking river, near the mouth of which I brought up in order to make a few observa-tions and enquiries.

The Big Hock hocking is eighty yards wide at its mouth,and yields navigation for loaded batteux to the press-place, sixty miles above its mouth. At the head of this navigation stands New-Lancaster, a town formed of about one hundred and fifty well built houses, and inhabited chiefly by Germans and Dutch from Old Lancaster in Pennsylvania, and the settlements in its vicinity. New-Lancaster seven years ago was but emerging from the woods, where the industrious people I have mentioned from the east, were tempted by the reputation of the lands in its neighbourhood to settle in and around it, and to encourage all their friends to flock to the Ohio State; and follow the example they had set them, for the advancement of their comfort and promotion of their prosperity. You may judge with what eagerness the town and country were set-tled when you learn that one hundred and fifty brick, frame and log-houses were erected in less than seven years,' and that land rose from one and two, to five, ten, fifteen, and even twenty dollars per acre. It has notwithstanding. sustained a sad reverse within these two years. The last summer alone gave landed and other property a fall of one

hundred and fifty per cent. This violent depreciation is to be attributed to a general sickness which attacked the settlement and swept off two thirds of the inhabitants, before its progress was checked by the setting in of the frost. Very few of the first settlers now exist! Seven years toil and labour concluded their reign, and in all probability seven more will extinguish the generation now rising in their place! What a gloomy prospect ! What a melan

choly reflection! And from whence arose a change and calamity so unexpected and painful to a liberal mind?

Avarice, and an inordinate craving after gold, form the well known characteristic of the Dutch. With them every consideration dissolves before views of acquirement, or prospects which hold out acquisitions of wealth. The first settlers of New Lancaster discovering lands to be of the first quality, bought up several thousand acres at a reduced price, erected a few buildings, and sent emissaries to their countrymen to tempt them into their speculations, and allow them for certain advantages a participation of their views. Many came, and by acting in a similar efficacious manner to sell their purchases and populate the place, ă few years numbered from six to seven thousand inhabitants, composed of artisans, shop-keepers, mechanics, and farmers. The head of the navigation being the most profitable place on which to erect a town, it was chosen for that purpose, and its being healthy or unhealthy made no part of the calculation, or entered into the consultations on the business. Those who settled on farms chose the vicinity of creeks and springs for their habitations, for if they chose high grounds, time would be lost in looking after water, "time is money," say the Dutch. Some intermittent fevers, and a few hundred deaths in the first three or four years began to spread suspicions, that all was not right; that swampy spots were pernicious to life, that the money gleaned off them could neither purchase happiness or maintain health. To build a new town, new houses and barns, and to clear new lands were changes and expences too heavy to be endured; things remained till two successive summers teeming with disease, consumed the bulk of the inhabitants of the settlement, and compelled the few remaining ones to abandon their avaricious intentions and learn in future how to live.

So entirely was health cast out of all consideration at the time of erecting New Lancaster, that the settlers were not turned from their intention though a swamp of great extent, and part of which immediately bounds the west of the town, lay directly before them and emitted an effluvia so noxious as could hardly be withstood. Nor did they reflect that another swamp of a still worse nature, called "the muddy prairie," lay contiguous, and cast out of its bowels an air so mephitic, that persons had to close their mouth and nose on crossing any part of it. Deer and other animals chaeed into these swamps by hunters, sink after a few struggles and never more appear. The swamps will never be drained. Their extent and character defy human industry; the depth alone being much greater than any adjacent streams. The prevailing disorders they disseminate are, agues, fevers, and violent reachings. The latter complaint is nearly always fatal; and is accompanied by all the symptoms of yellow fever, such as derangement, convulsions, and a general effusion of blood.

Three miles below the Big Hockhocking, on the Vir ginia shore, I passed the town and settlement of Belleville, and two miles lower down I enjoyed the sight of a beautiful island of the same name, covered with trees, shurbs and verdure; and after a run of ten miles further without impediment, I arrived at a very dangerous part of the rive er, distinguished by the name of the Devil's Creek. In passing the creek, which issues from the Virginia shore, I found it necessary to keep close round the left hand point to avoid being thrown by the current on dangerous rocks which lie in the bend above and below the mouth of the creek. I succeeded well, but not without seeing the danger which required much exertion to shun.

Having lost considerable time in my late excursions, I being seduced by the fineness of the evening, and promised lightness of the night, determined on not bringing too' till I should reach this place. I therefore continued on, past Amberson's Island, Goose Island, and by midnight came up to two islands which I understood to be but half a mile above Letart's Falls, universally feared as one of the most terrific parts of the navigation of the river. The roaring of the falls had reached us sometime before we made the islands, and reflections of propriety, safety, &c. were making such progress on my mind, that I began to repent of my determination, and to feel a disposition not

to proceed any further till morning. Prudence may arrive too late. The channel past the islands was close to the right hand shore, yet I dared not put the boat's head towards it, the current being impetuous, and the shore full of trunks of trees, breakers, and snags. Perceiving obstructions which were at once difficult and arduous to remove, I made preparations to shoot the falls. The men received my instructions with a silence which augured some fear; the waters uttered the most tremendous sounds, and the mist of their dashing rising into the air spread an ap parent fog on their surface from side to side. The scene was awful; there was no alternative. I took the helm and placing the hands on each bow with a pole to guard against rocks, followed the current to the second island, from thence to about one third of the river from the right hand shore, and there held it to the falls. The boat took chute in the most capital manner, past through like the flight of a bird and never once turned round. In taking the chute, I observed a sunken rock to my right, that formed a very large ripple, and several others to my left, which caused the water to boil and make a grumbling dullnoise. Instantly on dropping from the falls, it was necessary to take to the oars, to avoid an eddy of great power which sucked in logs and every thing else within its attraction, and cast them up about two hundred yards Tower down.

I arrived at Point Pleasant to breakfast, and found it a handsome little town, well situated on the confluence of the great Kenhaway with the Ohio, and commanding a very extensive view of the latter river. It contains about forty houses frame and log, and has not the aspect of ever being much augmented.. The few disconsolate inhabitants who go up and down, or lie under trees, have a dejected appearance, and exhibit the ravage of disease in every feature, and the tremor of the ague in every step. Their motive for settling the town must have been to catch what they can from persons descending the river, and from people emigrating from the S. W. parts of Virginia, with a view of settling lower down the river, and who must make Point Pleasant a place of deposit and embarkation. Were it not for the unhealthiness of the town, it would not be unreasonable to presume that this circumstance would render it in time a place of considerable note. Point Plea sant is two hundred and seventy miles from Pittsburg,

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LETTER XVII.

Further particulars of the Great Kenhaway River-Lead mines— attrocious massacre of Indians, the family of the celebrated Logan, the friend of the whites-its conse― quences the battle of Point Pleasant—the speech of Logan-Catalogue of Indian birds-Character of the mocking bird and the Virginia nightingale.

Mouth of the Great Kenbaway, July, 1806.

I FIND the Great Kenhaway to be a river of considerable character for the fertility of its lands, and still more, as leading towards the head waters of James's river. Nevertheless it is doubtful whether its great and numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expence to which it will require ages to render the inhabitants equal. The great obstacles begin at what are called the great falls, ninety miles above the mouth. below which are only five or six rapids, and there passable with some difficulty, even at low water. From the falls to the mouth of Greenbrier River is one hundred miles, and from thence to the lead mines, one hundred and twenty.

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The lead is found mixed, sometimes with earth, and sometimes with rock, which requires the force of gunpowder to open; and is accompanied with a portion of silver, too small to be worth separation under any process hitherto attempted. The proportion yielded is from fifty to eighty pounds of pure lead, from one hundred pounds of washed ore. The veins are at sometimes the most flattering, and others they disappear suddenly and totally. They enter the side of the hill and proceed horizontally. Two of them are wrought by the public, the more valuable of which is one hundred yards under the bills. These would employ about sixty labourers to advantage. There are not, however, in general, more than forty, and even these find time to cultivate their own corn. The veins have produced sixty tons of lead in a year; the average is from twenty to twenty-five tons. The furnace is a mile from the ore bank, and on the opposite side of the river,

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