Two miles and a half from hence we left Cash river, a fine harbour for boats about thirty yards wide at its mouth, on the right, and from hence we had a pleasant and cheerful view down the river, in a S. S. E. direction five miles to the Mississippi.
First on the right just below the mouth of Cash river, M’Mullin’s pleasant settlement, and a little lower a cabin occupied by a tenant who labours for him. A ship at anchor close to the right shore, three miles lower down, enlivened the view, which was closed below by colonel Bird’s flourishing settlement on the south bank of the Mississippi.[183]
We soon passed and spoke the ship, which was the Rufus King, captain Clarke, receiving a cargo of tobacco, &c. by boats down the river from Kentucky, and intended to proceed in about a week, on a voyage {254} to Baltimore. It was now a year since she was built at Marietta, and she had got no farther yet.
At noon we entered the Mississippi flowing from E. above, to E. by S. below the conflux of the Ohio, which differs considerably from its general course of from north to south.
FOOTNOTES:
[181] For the early history of Nashville, see Michaux’s Travels, vol. iii of this series, p. 61, note 103.—Ed.
[182] On the history of Fort Massac, and the origin of its name, see Michaux’s Travels, vol. iii of this series, p. 73, note 139.
Captain Daniel Bissell, the commandant at this point, had welcomed Burr on his descent of the Ohio two years before Cuming. Bissell joined the army from Connecticut as lieutenant, in 1794, being made captain in 1799. During the War of 1812-15, he became brigadier-general and served on the northern frontier, winning a slight skirmish at Lyons Creek. He resigned from the army in 1821, and died in 1833.—Ed.
[183] The Missouri point opposite Cairo was acquired by an American from the Spanish government, but no settlement seems to have been made thereon until 1808, when Abraham Bird, who had several years previous removed from Virginia to Cairo, crossed over and built a home at this place, thereafter known as Bird’s Point. This property was in the hands of the Birds for three generations.—Ed.