I shall conclude this, with mentioning two singular occurrences. The passage of a steam-boat from Pittsburg to Louisville, seven hundred miles in fifty hours; and the marriage of a girl in this place, at the age of eleven years and three months.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] For a biographical sketch of Andrew Ellicott, see Cuming’s Tour, volume iv of our series, note 213.—Ed.
[72] For the early history of Cincinnati, see Cuming’s Tour, volume iv of our series, note 166.—Ed.
[73] i. e. Divination by the wand. This science may be fashionable, but unquestionably it must be a novelty, as the occult sciences, particularly that of divination, can only exist with the vulgar.—Flint.
[74] Portsmouth Gazetteer, No. 4.—Flint.
[75] These stories are found in the apocryphal chapters of the book of Daniel in the Old Testament; for Idol Bel, see chapter 14; for Susanna, see chapter 13.—Ed.
[76] The “New Orleans,” built for Fulton and Livingston at Pittsburg in 1811, was the first steam-boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Having made a triumphant journey down to New Orleans, an object of wonder at every town on the way, she did not attempt to return, but ran between that city and Natchez until her destruction in 1814. The “Enterprise,” the fourth steam-boat on Western waters, after serving Jackson in his defense of New Orleans, made the first attempt to steam up the river, reaching Louisville in twenty-five days. But the water was high and she frequently found an easy course over inundated fields, so that it was reserved for the “Washington,” which made a like journey in 1817, to demonstrate the value of the steam-boat for Western commerce.—Ed.
[77] Lorenzo Dow, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, began his work as a Methodist preacher in New York in 1779. He spent some years in Ireland, endeavoring to convert the Irish to Methodism; also in England, where he introduced camp-meetings, not without opposition from a large part of the English Methodists. Upon his return to America, he travelled from place to place, holding revivals. During his later life he was almost fanatical in his bitterness towards the Jesuits, and, as Flint implies, his zeal led him to make extravagant statements.—Ed.
[78] For the Swiss settlement at Vevay, see Bradbury’s Travels, volume v of our series, note 164.—Ed.