Travels from St. Louis to New Harmony.—Mr. Owen’s System and Experiment.
On the 10th of April at seven o’clock, P. M. we left St. Louis, in the Mexico, a neat boat with a low pressure engine. We went down the stream so rapidly, that we advanced fourteen and fifteen miles per hour. We received an unpleasant shock during the night from a snag. It gave the vessel such a violent blow, that all were roused from sleep, and sprang out of bed: I thought that the boat was going down. Happily we were only scared this time. Towards morning we hastened past Cape Girardeau, and all the places which we had seen a few days before. It was agreeable for us again to come something more southerly, and recognize traces of vegetation. We reached the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi about twelve o’clock in the day. We then quitted the Mississippi, and steered into the Ohio.
At the period when the French extended their posts from Canada to New Orleans, the Ohio was known to them under the name of “La Belle Riviere;” Mr. Choteau, Senr. used this appellation constantly in speaking of it, while conversing with me. The water of the Ohio is much clearer and purer than that of the Mississippi, which is evidently very foul from the confluence of the Missouri. At the union with the Ohio, this difference in the colour of the streams is striking, when you pass from the turbid waters of the Mississippi into the purer current of the Ohio. They are divided from each other by a perceptible line, disturbed cloudings being visible on each side of this line.
I took a solemn leave of the majestic father of rivers, the Mississippi; but, with God’s permission, not an eternal one.
The banks of the Ohio are at first very low, and exposed to inundations. Upon the right bank, eleven miles above the mouth, lies a small place, consisting of a few wooden houses, called America. It is built upon a bank raised several feet above the highest water-mark. It is only three miles hence across to the Mississippi. A project, therefore has been agitated, and a company formed with a capital of ten thousand dollars, to cut through this narrow piece of land, to unite the rivers sooner, and gain an easier navigation. Since the bank is not exposed to overflow at this point, as I have remarked before, a town may be established here, in process of time, when this design is carried into effect, that will be extremely important and wealthy.
About six miles from the mouth, stand a tavern and warehouses, on the right bank, which is called Trinity. In this vicinity there are several rocks concealed under the water, that must be very dangerous at a low stage of the river. Some miles higher, thirty-seven and a half miles from the mouth, fourteen hundred miles from New Orleans, and three hundred and thirty-four and a half from Louisville, is Fort Massac, situated on an eminence on the right bank. The remains of a stockade, two block-houses, and barracks, are what is left of this fort, which gains its name from the massacre of the French garrison by the Indians. As long as the western military posts of the United States were kept up, an infantry company remained here in garrison. This fort has been abandoned for a long time. Nine miles higher up on the left bank, the Tennessee river flows into the Ohio, upon which the Western Navigator makes the following remarks: “This river is the largest branch of the Ohio, and is navigable for large boats more than six hundred miles. It rises in the north western part of Virginia, and runs through the whole breadth of East Tennessee, in a south-westerly direction. Afterwards it enters at the north-east corner of Alabama, through the breadth of which it runs, then turning in a northern direction, nearly in a direct line with the western boundary of that state, it flows through Tennessee and a part of Kentucky, in which it discharges itself into the Ohio.” The right bank of the river on which we were now sailing, belongs to the state of Illinois, and the left to Kentucky. Both shores are thickly covered with woods. Although our course up the stream did not equal the speed with which we had descended the Mississippi, yet we made handsome progress.
On the second night we went on, in spite of the snags, and without accident. On the third day, 12th of April, we were delighted with the prospect of the beautiful banks of the Ohio, thickly covered with wood. The right shore especially is rocky, and occupied by neat dwellings and little settlements. During the night we had passed the mouth of the Cumberland, an eastern tributary river to the Ohio. This is one of the largest rivers in Kentucky. It rises in the Cumberland mountains, in the vicinity of the heads of Clinch and Kentucky rivers, flows in a westerly direction more than two hundred miles, enters the state of Tennessee, reaching Nashville, after meandering through that state one hundred and twenty miles, in the thirty-sixth degree of north latitude, or thereabouts, flows then one hundred and twenty miles in a north-west course, and discharges itself into the Ohio.
This mouth of Cumberland is eight hundred and ninety-four miles from Pittsburgh, and ten hundred and thirty-five from New Orleans. On the right shore we saw the little town of Golconda, afterwards the Cave in Rock, where a considerable cavern runs into the rock. It reaches one hundred and fifty feet deep under the hill, and was used by a robber in former days for a place of residence, whence he sallied out and plundered the passing flat-boats and smaller craft.
Towards noon we reached Shawnee town, on the right bank, ten hundred and ninety-five miles from New Orleans, and eight hundred and thirty-four from Pittsburgh. The Western Navigator says, “Shawnee town was formerly a village which belonged to the Shawnee Indian nation, and bore its name. It is at present a handsomely situated town, in Gallatin county, state of Illinois. It contains a post-office, a land-office, and a bank, called the Great Bank of Illinois, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. Although it is subject to be overflowed, yet it is nevertheless a considerable place, since it is the centre of the emigrants going to Kaskaskias, St. Louis, &c.” It appeared to me safe from inundation, as it lies upon a tolerably elevated bank. The houses, of which many contain stores, are mostly of wood, yet I observed many of brick. It may contain eight hundred inhabitants, mostly white persons. The states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, lying between the Mississippi and Ohio, hold no slaves; a slave coming here from other states is free: and yet these states are only divided by the Mississippi from Missouri, and by the Ohio from Kentucky and Virginia, in which three states, slavery still exists.
Ten miles above Shawnee town we passed the mouth of the Wabash, a western tributary of the Ohio.