After breakfast had been disposed of, there was a great confusion all through the little settlement. Work of all kinds was at a standstill for that morning, as all wished to add their mite to giving the adventurous families a hearty send-off.
“AT LAST THEY WERE AFLOAT ON THE OHIO, BOUND INTO THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY THAT LAY FAR AWAY TO THE WESTWARD.”
Before the sun had mounted three hours high in the eastern heavens the last word had been spoken; and amid the cheers of the assembled people, old and young, the ropes that held the large flatboat to the shore were cast off.
At last they were afloat on the Ohio, bound into the unknown country that lay far away to the westward. Day after day, and week after week, they expected to continue to float ever onward, spending the daylight in making such progress as lay in their power, and either anchoring at night in the stream, or else, if it were deemed safe, tying up to the shore.
Again and again had they listened to the sober warnings from those who expected to stick to the old settlement. And now the current had taken hold of their clumsy, but staunch, craft, and was commencing to hurry it along, as though anxious to sever the last ties binding them to these good friends.
By degrees the shouts died out in the ever-increasing distance, and the bold pioneers began to pay more attention to their duties.
Then a bend of the river shut out the last glimpse of the waving hats and kerchiefs, and a great silence came upon the scene, broken only by the creak of the big steering oar, or the gurgle of the river against the planking below.
The start had been made, and all seemed well. They were headed into a wilderness that was next to unknown, and it had required almost as much courage for these valiant souls to thus break away from the settlement, and start upon this voyage of discovery, looking for a new homestead in the wilds, as was shown by Christopher Columbus, when, braving the traditions that declared the world to be flat, he set sail into the western seas, under the firm conviction that in this manner he could reach the East Indies.