Proceeding, on the twenty-eighth, at the dawn of day, by half past five we were abreast of Green township, a small hamlet of six or seven houses, on the right, in French Grant, three miles below Greenupsburgh. Six miles lower, we left on the right, Little Sciota river, about thirty yards wide.
Half a mile further, on the same side, we passed a stratum of iron ore, and a mile below that, a stony point projecting and sloping downwards, forming a fine harbour for boats, when the point is not overflowed. Tiger creek, about twenty yards wide, and apparently navigable for boats, flows in from the Kentucky side, three miles lower down, opposite to which, from Little Sciota river, the bottoms are very narrow, being confined by a picturesque range of low rocky cliffs and mountains, with a few straggling pines overtopping the other trees on their summits.
Three miles further we stopped at Portsmouth on the right, and breakfasted at John Brown’s tavern. Mr. Brown is a magistrate and keeps a store. After breakfast, the wind blowing too fresh up the river for us to make any progress without great labour, I walked to the upper end of the town, through a straight street, parallel to the Ohio, about half a mile long, on the top of a handsome sloping bank. I returned by a back street, which brought me to the banks of the Scioto, which river, running from the northward, falls into the Ohio a mile below Portsmouth, at an angle of thirty-three degrees, leaving only sufficient room between the two rivers for two parallel streets, on the one of which fronting the Ohio, building lots of a quarter of an acre, now sell at fifty dollars each. There is a {141} narrow level near a mile long below the town to the point of junction of the Scioto with the Ohio, which cannot be built on, as it is annually inundated by the spring floods: there is now a fine field of corn on it, and it would all make excellent meadow. Mr. Massie, of Chilicothe, who is proprietor of both it and the town, asks fifteen hundred dollars for it, though it does not appear to contain fifty acres.[107]
Portsmouth is in a handsome and healthy situation, though rather too much confined by the Scioto’s approach to the Ohio, so far above its confluence with that river. It is likely to become a town of some consequence, as it is the capital of the county of Scioto. It is only two years since it was laid out, and it now contains twenty houses, some of which are of brick, and most of them very good. I was shewn the scite of a court-house intended to be erected immediately.
Alexandria, in sight, below the mouth of the Scioto, is on a high, commanding bank, and makes a handsome appearance from above Portsmouth, to travellers descending the river. It is eleven years old, but it has not thriven, and the erection of the town of Portsmouth so near it, has caused it to decline rapidly. It has still however the post-office for both towns.
There is a remarkable naked, round topped, rocky mountain, on the Virginia side, opposite to Portsmouth, which forms a variety to the forest covered hills, which every where meet the eye of the traveller through this western region.
We observed here, vast numbers of beautiful large, green paroquets, which our landlord, squire Brown, informed us abound all over the country. They keep in flocks, and when they alight on a tree, they are not distinguishable from the foliage, from their colour.[108]
FOOTNOTES:
[105] Samuel Hunt of New Hampshire was born in 1765, and after studying law travelled in Europe for three years. Upon his return he was twice sent to Congress from his native state (1802-05), and declined the third election in order to convey a colony to the Ohio, where he had negotiated a purchase in the French Grant from the owner, Gervais. He engaged as a housekeeper, Miss Cynthia Riggs; and came out on horseback in the fall of 1806. Cuming’s fears were realized, for Hunt died a few days after he had passed. The New Hampshire colony emigrated later (1810), however, under the lead of Asa Boynton, and the name of Burrsburgh was changed to that of Haverhill.—Ed.
[106] Jean Gabriel Gervais conducted the movement which led to the congressional grant for the French of Gallipolis, and received four thousand acres for services therein. He lived at Gallipolis until the final sale of his lands. The income resulting from the investment of the funds, permitted his return (1817) to pass the evening of his life in his native Paris.—Ed.