3d. We found our ark had sprung {115} a leak from hitting on the rocks yesterday, so that we were obliged to be frequently pumping. The country below New Albany less settled than above, but most on the Indiana side.[129] At noon we passed Salt river; it crosses Kentucky from north to south, and in a wet season, at least, it is navigable a good distance. We afterwards passed Otter creek, and found the country more cultivated; and at dusk, Doe creek; our progress thirty miles. We purchased at Louisville "The Pittsburg Navigator," to serve instead of a pilot. We found much difference, in regard to distances, between the book and the accounts we received on the river; but the directions respecting sand-banks and islands we found pretty correct; and these were of some use to us.
4th. At ten o'clock, we reached the town of Northampton, in Indiana; a place of twenty-five or thirty log-houses. We landed for some whiskey; for our men would do nothing without, and but little with too {116} much of it. The river narrower than above Louisville, and the current brisker; this was generally the case where the river was narrow, as by islands, sand-banks, &c. In the evening we passed Little Blue river and two islands. Thirty miles this day.
5th. At nine o'clock we passed the Big Blue river, sixty or seventy yards wide; it rises in the north of Indiana, and runs south and south east, till it enters the Ohio, eighty-seven miles below Louisville. The country much resembles that below Wheeling, rocky, and the hills close to the river, first on one side then on the other. We landed at several cabins to procure provisions, but found them very scarce, most of the settlements being new. We met a keel-boat, the people on board greatly in want of provisions; they applied to us, but our stock was too low to supply them with any. At dark we passed Flint island, without any difficulty; this is said to be a bad place. We made about thirty miles.
6th. At nine o'clock we reached Rome, {117} the capital of Perry county,[130] a town of Indiana, laid out in 1818; about twenty houses built, and building; a stone jail begun, the second floor laid with solid logs, ten or twelve inches thick, the roof not put on. We purchased sixteen pounds of very lean beef for a dollar; it was killed the evening before, and salted immediately, yet such was the heat of the weather it was scarcely eatable. No bacon, pork, or vegetables to be procured. A garden is the last thing that is thought of by the generality of the Americans. We landed at several cabins and procured a few small potatoes, and some ears of green Indian corn, (here called roasting ears,) but we boiled them; they ate something like green peas, but not quite so good. We bought an old skiff for a dollar, to supply the place of the one we lost on the Falls. Our progress nearly seventeen miles.
7th. We started at sun-rise, as we generally did, but the wind was so much against us we were obliged to anchor at eight {118} o'clock, at Clover creek. We landed in Indiana, and got near a bushel of peaches for ten-pence. Here we saw some children setting off to school; one boy came to the cabin to light his segar, that he might take a whiff going along to school. The men smoke segars, and many of the women (at least the married ones) pipes; we frequently saw women nursing their children with pipes in their mouths. And we often saw them washing on the banks of the rivers, as there is plenty of drift-wood. It saves the trouble of carrying fuel and water; and it is colder on the banks of rivers than near their cabins. Most of the women were surrounded by a number of young children; indeed, the first thing that strikes a traveller on the Ohio is the immense number of children, many of them almost naked. They do not appear healthy; but they look happy, rolling in the water and dirt. We often saw very little boys swimming in the river, sometimes leading others that could not walk: thus {119} the dread of water wears off while they are very young: I never heard of any of these children being drowned.
At ten o'clock we again set forward till two o'clock, when we passed Doe creek; the wind still getting higher, we anchored till near sun-set, when we again floated on. We found it was often the case for the wind to rise or sink with the sun; and that it was almost always from the south, south west, or west; and very seldom from the north, or east; and as the Ohio runs towards the south west, it was but seldom in our favour. And from what I have heard and read, the wind is generally the same as we found it; and this is the reason why vessels are so long descending the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, at least in low water. At high water they descend much more rapidly, as the current is then a great deal swifter, and the wind makes but little difference. But vessels with sails, often proceed as quickly up the Ohio as those do that float down; so that the advantage that is lost one way is {120} gained the other. This day only seven miles.
8th. At day light we grounded on a sand bar for a few minutes; and at eight o'clock reached Troy, a small town of Indiana; and afterwards passed Anderson's river, from fifty to sixty yards wide.[131] The wind rising, obliged us to anchor a short distance below. I landed on the Indiana side, and walked three or four miles down the bank. I found a little cabin, situated on a small plantation, surrounded on all sides with high rocks, except against the river. The soil was so rich that the Indian corn was the largest I have ever seen; the owner said, it was eighteen feet high, but I think he made the most of it. I picked up a stick about six feet long, and, by measuring it with that and my own height, I should judge the highest of it was from fourteen to sixteen feet. There were great quantities of beans, pompions, and melons, running on and between the corn, all very luxuriant; in short, much larger than I ever {121} saw before or since. I then went to the next cabin; most of the way very rocky, but there the country more open; the owner was winnowing wheat, by the wind without any fan. The wheat was very coarse; it was sown in the spring; he said the land on the river was too rich for wheat, and subject to floods in the winter and spring; and when sown in the spring subject to rust or blight. But Indian corn came to high perfection. I saw a bear skin hanging up to dry; he informed me the country some distance back was rough and unsettled, and abounded with bears, wolves, deer, racoons, opossums, polecats, and other wild animals; and that they had frequently hunting parties. I asked him if a wounded bear was not a dangerous animal; he said he had frequently wounded them, and never saw one attempt to turn. He had, during the course of his life, killed more than a hundred. In their hunting parties they have always some stout dogs with them; but, he said, it was common for one man to {122} go alone, but never without dogs. Here I tasted the ripe fruit of the pawpaw or papaw, an extremely rich fruit, in flavour something like a pine-apple. I did not relish it; this they told me was often the case at first tasting it, but when accustomed to it people were fond of it. We did not see any more of these trees on the Ohio, but my son and Mr. C. saw a great many of them on the Wabash, in their voyage up that river. From this cabin I walked two miles, mostly through woods, to another; no provisions to be procured here, the people being newly settled. In this walk I passed fourteen or fifteen wild turkeys, in a field. As they only gently walked into the woods, I did not suspect they were wild ones; but mentioning them at the cabin, I was told there were no tame turkeys for many miles, but plenty of wild ones.
We returned to our ark, but, the wind continuing high, we could not proceed. At sunset we had a heavy tempest; the storm increased after we were a-bed. The {123} thunder and lightning, and the wind equally strong, and afterwards the rain poured down in torrents; and, driven on by the winds, came into our ark in every direction; so that most of us got completely wet in our beds. It continued for an hour, and was, by far, the most awful storm I ever knew. It made our ark shake very much, as we lay in shallow water, the wind driving us against the sand; but we were in no danger of being driven on shore, as the water shallowed very gradually, and we were a considerable distance from the bank. We had no large trees near us; and indeed it is advisable to avoid anchoring, during a thunder storm, near heavy timbers, as old trees frequently then fall.
9th. In the morning we set forward; afterwards some of us landed in Kentucky, and went about a mile to a horse-mill, where we procured some flour and vegetables. We continued on the river banks for near five miles; the country mostly in a state of nature. In the afternoon we {124} went to a cabin, and purchased some provisions; here we saw a small piece of land planted with cotton, just beginning to ripen. The person who belonged to it was from South Carolina; he said this cotton was as good, if not better, than that in Carolina. But most I have heard speak on the subject, say that the southern cotton is much better than that on the Ohio; and that it will not pay for raising in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois, except a little for home use. In the evening we passed some very high rocks named "The Lady Washington," and near them the small town of Rockport, in Indiana.[132] We met with a bad sand-bar, that took us two hours strong exertion to get over. This day twenty-five miles. Weather warm and pleasant; mosquitoes a little troublesome.
10th. Soon after day-light we passed Yellow Banks, but we did not see the town. We afterwards passed an island, called in the "Pittsburg Navigator," number seventy. In the evening the men landed, at a small place {125} in Indiana, to get some whiskey, but none to be had, to the great disappointment of our two men, who did not stay to learn the name of the place, but came away in a great rage because there was no whiskey to be had. This was pleasing intelligence to us, as they had been very troublesome when in liquor, especially Thomas. About thirty miles this day.