May 20th, having parted with Mrs. Waters, her charming daughter, and the rest of her family, they being destined for Nashville, we cast off, and rowed out of Cumberland river against the back water of the Ohio, whose true current we took on turning the lower point of Cumberland.
{251} The first three miles brought us abreast of Lower Smithland, a settlement on the left—having passed all Cumberland islands, and after dropping four miles lower, the sea ran so high, from a strong wind up the river, that we judged it prudent to row in and moor under a low willow point on the left, where we remained all the rest of the day and night, and had a violent tornado at midnight, of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain.
May 21st, we proceeded early this morning and at five miles and a half passed the mouth of Tennessee river joining the Ohio on the left from the S. E. and nearly half a mile wide. There are two islands at its mouth, the second one of which has an abandoned settlement on it. In the next eleven miles we passed three small settlements on the right, being the first habitations we had seen below Lower Smithland, and at noon, a mile below the last, we rowed into the mouth of a creek at the bottom of a bay, which forming an eddy, makes a fine landing for boats of all sizes, on the right shore.
On fastening the boat, a corporal from Fort Massack just above the landing, came on board, and took a memorandum of our destination, &c. We landed, and approaching the fort, we were met by lieutenant Johnston, who very politely shewed us the barracks, and his own quarters within the fort, in front of which is a beautiful esplanade, with a row of Lombardy poplars in front, from whence is a view upwards to Tennessee river, downwards about two miles, and the opposite shore which is one mile and a quarter distant—the Ohio being now so wide.
The fort is formed of pickets, and is a square, with a small bastion at each angle. The surrounding plain is cleared to an extent of about sixty acres, to serve for exercising the garrison in military evolutions, and also to prevent surprise from an enemy. On the esplanade is a small brass howitzer, and a {252} brass caronade two pounder, both mounted on field carriages, and a centinel is always kept here on guard. The garrison consists of about fifty men. Some recruits were exercising. They were clean, and tolerably well clothed, and were marched in to the barrack yard preceded by two good drums and as many fifes. The house of captain Bissel the commandant, is without the pickets.
Though the situation of Massack is pleasant and apparently healthy, it is a station which will only suit such officers as are fond of retirement, as there is no kind of society out of the garrison, and there are only a few settlements in the neighbourhood, which supply it with fresh stock.
This was one of the chain of posts which the French occupied between Detroit and Orleans, when that nation possessed Canada and Louisiana. It had fallen into ruin, but it has been reconstructed by the United States’ government. It keeps its original name, which it derived from a massacre of the French garrison by the Indians.[182]
At one o’clock we proceeded on our voyage, and in half a mile turning a little to the right with the river, we entered a very long reach in a W. N. W. direction, and at three miles passed a new settlement on the right where the river is two miles wide, with a very gentle current. The current carried us twelve miles and a half farther, without our perceiving any signs of inhabitants on either shore, we then rowed in to Cedar Bluffs or Wilkinsonville, where we found an eddy making a fine harbour, and an ascent up a low cliff by sixty-two steps of squared logs, to a beautiful savannah or prairie of about one hundred acres, with well frequented paths through and across it in every direction. We observed on it, the ruins of the house of the commandant, and the barracks which were occupied by a small United States’ garrison, until a few years ago, when it was removed {253} to Fort Massack; some time after which, about two years ago, the buildings were destroyed by the Indians.
Though our harbour here was a good one, yet we did not spend our night with perfect ease of mind, from the apprehension of an unwelcome visit from the original lords of this country, recent vestiges of whom we had seen in the prairie above us.
May 22nd, at day break we gladly cast off, and at a mile below Wilkinsonville, turned to the left into a long reach in a S. W. by S. direction, where in nine miles farther, the river gradually narrows to half a mile wide, and the current is one fourth stronger than above. Three miles lower we saw a cabin and small clearing on the right shore, apparently abandoned, five miles below which we landed in the skiff, and purchased some fowls, eggs, and milk, at a solitary but pleasant settlement on the right just below Cash island. It is occupied by one Petit with his family, who stopped here to make a crop or two previous to his descending the Mississippi, according to his intention on some future day.