[37] The Catholicks have lately erected a small but handsome brick church of one story at the north east end of Liberty street, the ground for which, I understand, was gratuitously presented to them by Gen. O’Hara. The inside work of the church is yet in an unfinished state.—Cramer.
[38] The Methodists are now engaged in collecting a voluntary subscription for either the building, or the purchase of a house for the use of their society.—Cramer.
[39] Our author was here at a time when politicks ran high the colouring he has given the rancour, in consequence, among the inhabitants, may be a little too deep. Be this as it may, party politicks, or at least, political rancour, has subsided, and the citizens generally, intermingle in social societies, and interchange the various offices of friendship and of trade without interruption, however they may differ in political sentiment, or be opposed to each other in the election of the various candidates to publick office. Conceiving, perhaps, that a moderate difference of political opinion, is a natural consequence of our political institutions, and a requisite to their existence in the purity in which they were at first established.—Cramer.
[40] Died, August 1809.—Cramer.
[41] Of these early Pittsburg physicians, Dr. Nathaniel Bedford came out as a surgeon in the British army, and located here in 1765; his colleague, Dr. Stevenson, arrived about the same time and later served as a Revolutionary soldier. Dr. Mowry entered the office of Bedford as an apprentice (1786), attended lectures under Dr. Rush at Philadelphia, and attained high rank in his profession.—Ed.
[42] There are three others established here lately, a German, a French, and an English physician, the latter of whom is of the Friends’ society, of the name of Pennington, considerably advanced in years. He came to this place in the fall of 1809, and is said to be skilful.—Cramer.
CHAPTER IX
Departure from Pittsburgh—The Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers—Brunot’s island—unfortunate death of two gentlemen—Baldwin’s mill—Neville’s island—Middletown—Logstown—Beaver creek—Beaver town—Fort M’Intosh.
On the 18th July, 1807, accompanied by my intelligent and valuable friend A——, I departed from Pittsburgh, in a batteau, or flat bottomed skiff, twenty feet long, very light, and the stern sheets roofed with very thin boards, high enough to sit under with ease, and long enough to shelter us when extended on the benches for repose, should we be benighted occasionally on the river, with a side curtain of tow cloth as a screen from either the sun or the night air. We had a pair of short oars, or rather long paddles, for one person to work both, and a broad paddle to steer with; and a mast, and a lug or square sail to set when the wind should favour us; we had a good stock of cold provisions and liquors. The river being neither flooded, nor very low, was just in that state, to promise a pleasant passage to its navigators. The current running between two and three miles an hour, allowed time to examine every thing worthy of curiosity, and the water was sufficiently high to prevent delays through grounding on any of the numerous flats, which impede the navigation of the first two hundred miles, during the principal part of the summer and fall, and yet not so high as to prevent our being able to see and remark all the shoals or rocks of any consequence, which gave us an opportunity {73} of proving Mr. Cramer’s Navigator which we had with us, of correcting it in a few places, and of adding to it a sketch of the river, in its very winding course, between Pittsburgh and Limestone or Maysville, in Kentucky.[43]
In a quarter of an hour after embarking on the Monongahela we passed its confluence with the Allegheny, and entered the Ohio formed by the other two.