{210} In the district of Jeffersonville, there has been an apparent interruption of the prosperity of the settlers. Upwards of two hundred quarter sections of land are by law forfeited to the government, for non-payment of part of the purchase money due more than a year ago. A year’s indulgence was granted by Congress, but unless farther accommodation is immediately allowed, the lands will soon be offered a second time for sale. Settlers seeing the danger of losing their possessions, are now offering to transfer their rights for less sums than have already been paid; it being still in the power of purchasers to retain the lands on paying up the arrears due in the land office. This marks the difficulty that individuals at present have, in procuring small sums of money, in this particular district.
FOOTNOTES:
[119] Fearon.—Flint.
Comment by Ed. Henry Bradshaw Fearon, a London surgeon born about 1770, was sent to the United States by an association of English families to investigate suitable sites for their residence. He found little that pleased him, as appears from his account, Sketches in America (London, 1818).
[120] The process of cutting the bark round trees, to destroy their growth, is called girdling, or deadening.—Flint.
LETTER XVIII
Passage to Cincinnati—Depression of Trade—Population—Manufactures—Institutions—Banks—Climate—Temperature—Springs—Quantity of Rain—Thunder—Lightning—Aurora-Borealis—Tornadoes—Earthquakes—The Ohio unusually low in 1819—Meeting of the Citizens of Cincinnati—Notice of three Indian Chiefs on their way for Washington City—Remarks on the Pacific Disposition of Indians, and their motives for wars.
Cincinnati, (Ohio,) June 26, 1820.
I have come from the Falls of the Ohio to this place, by a steam-boat in twenty-nine hours, the average rate of sailing being about 61/4 miles per {211} hour. The downward passage is performed by the same vessel in about fifteen hours, (nearly at the rate of twelve miles an hour.) From this it appears that the current moves at the rate of about 27/8 miles each hour. The late M. Volney[121] estimated the hourly velocity of this river in very low stages of water, at two miles. His result is probably a little more than the mean rate along the whole length of the river. The steam-boat is one built exclusively for the accommodation of passengers. She measures one hundred feet on the keel, twenty-five feet on the beam, and draws only three feet and three inches of water. The cabin is an elegant apartment, forty feet long, and eighteen feet wide. Adjoining to it are eight very neat state rooms. The water wheel is situated in an aperture astern, where it is protected from coming in contact with logs, which are numerous in the river.
Cincinnati suffers much from the decline in business. The town does not now present any thing like the stir that animated it about a year and a half ago. Building is in a great measure suspended, and the city which was lately over crowded with people, has now a considerable number of empty houses. Rents are lowered, and the price of provisions considerably reduced. Many mechanics and labourers find it impossible to procure employment. The same changes have taken place in the other towns of the western country. Numbers of people have deserted them, and commenced farming in the woods. They will there have it in their power to raise produce enough for their families, but, with the present low markets, and the probability of a still greater reduction, they can have no inducement but necessity for cultivating a surplus produce.