ON THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI.
Kentucky was made a State in 1792, and Tennessee in 1796. All south of Tennessee and west of Georgia was formed (1798) into the Mississippi Territory. On the east, or American, shore of the Mississippi, settlement was mostly confined to the places mentioned in "The Founding of Louisiana" as villages. None had outgrown this condition. Most were simply plantations. Population had increased (1785) to thirty-eight thousand persons, chiefly by the coming-in of refugees from Nova Scotia and St. Domingo. And blacks were already numerous enough to cause uneasiness among the planters. The cultivation of cotton and sugar was growing to importance; but the Spaniards at New Orleans wanted all the water to their own mill, as the proverb has it, which meant nearly the same thing as closing the river to American trade altogether.
The Falls of the Ohio had already begun to assume importance both as a depot and shipping-point. They were a natural stopping-place for all boats going up or down the river. Hence Louisville had grown up above the falls as the port of a remarkably thrifty cluster of inland settlements which had taken the place of the primitive stations of the first settlers.
On both sides of the Ohio the Indians made a determined stand against the coming in of white settlers. But bravely as they fought, their power was so broken in many bloody conflicts, that they were, at length (1794), glad to sue for peace. Shorn of power, they were now confined within narrower limits. England gave up (1795) the lake fortresses. All roads to the West being now open, they were speedily thronged by an army of settlers.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The Sources of the Missouri. About the time Mackenzie crossed the mountains (see chapter "[Hudson's Bay to the Pacific]"), an employee of the North-west Company, named Fidler, is reported to have gone from Fort Buckingham to the head of the Missouri. Traders from St. Louis ascended the river at this period, but how far is uncertain.
[2] France played her own Game. It is notorious that the French minister, Vergennes, intrigued with the British minister, Shelburne, outside the knowledge of the United States Commissioners. See "Life of Lord Shelburne."
[3] North-west Territory was ceded to the General Government by the States to provide a means for paying off the debt incurred during the war. In thirty years it had half a million people. Connecticut reserved a strip along Lake Erie to herself.