Upon admiring a large strong dog the other day, his owner told me he was very necessary on account of the wolves which are yet numerous: the dogs here are as mixed a breed as the people, and a thorough-bred is not to be seen. Deer are plentiful, also rackoons and squirrels; the wild Turkey we saw yesterday, which seemed to resemble exactly our dark tame breed.
Ferry at Maysville, on the Ohio
5th. Several parties on horseback have passed us on the road, making inquiries of the way to a methodist preachment, and to judge from the [63] immense numbers that collect on these occasions fanaticism seems to have taken deep root here.
6th. Started with my host on an expedition through the woods to visit a farm belonging to him. We took our guns uselessly for we saw no game of any kind, but, on arriving at the farm, got some good peaches and drank the pure water of a fine spring; being warm, he directed me to let the water run upon my wrists for some time before drinking, to prevent the effects of suddenly taking cold water while heated; these sort of cautions have probably been handed down from the native hunters. We passed a kind of vine which has a poisonous quality,[26] the leaves being rubbed on the skin will raise irritating blisters. The Poplar tree, my host observed, made better shingles for covering roofs, if painted, than the Cedar, which is commonly used unpainted; perhaps any of the poplar tribe may do, and where a light covering is required might be advantageously employed in England.
A large party of settlers from the state of Illinois came by, they are returning to that of New York, to the same spot they quitted a year and a half ago. The account they give is that a fine fertile tract of land about forty miles from the river Illinois, and not far from its confluence with the Mississipi, was purchased by them, and they [64] settled upon it last summer; since which period they had lost eight of their party by dysentery, fever and ague, and that the remainder had determined to quit the purchase, and return with the loss of all their time and nearly all their money. These are facts much lessening our sanguine expectations as to the western paradise; however, I am resolved to proceed and endeavour to ascertain the truth on all the points for which I undertook the journey. One of the above party told me, that when ill he had paid a fee of twenty-five dollars for one visit of a Physician, the distance being about twenty miles; if this be true the medical science at least must meet with sufficient encouragement.[27]
The state of Ohio took a rough leave of us down a rocky precipitous hill, at the foot of which we found ourselves safe on the bank of the river; and driving down to the water's edge into a team-boat lately established, were, about dark landed on the other side, and comfortably received at a good family inn at Maysville kept by Mr. Chambers, a sensible clever man, who came to it from Jersey State about seventeen years ago, and [65] who has, by judgment in the purchase of land &c., made a good fortune for himself and family: some lots about the town, which he bought for four hundred dollars six years since, are now worth some thousands; such is the rapid increase in the value of property in this country when a man makes a good hit.
On quitting this State, through which we have travelled from Wheeling in a south-west direction to Maysville or Limestone, (Kentucky,) the impression it has made is not so favourable as I had been led to expect; though our course comprehended but a small part of it, yet we passed through the most populous districts, if we except that around Cincinnati. Instead of a garden, I found a wilderness; land speculators have got a considerable part in their baleful clutches to make their market on the wants of the poor settler; but I am apt to think have been themselves outwitted, owing to the superior attraction of the more distant western country: yet is Ohio a desirable one, as it contains within itself most articles of the first necessity and perhaps more; coals in abundance, lime, stone for building, iron and other metals, with fine rivers for transporting commodities of all kinds. The face of [66] that part which I saw, is exceedingly hilly, in some places approaching to mountains; but the soil in general well adapted to grazing, and the whole strongly resembling our county of Derby upon a gigantic scale. The northwest part of the State, an immense tract of country, has been lately ceded by the natives to the United States,[28] and I believe has been surveyed, allotted, and is now offering to the public at one and a quarter dollar per acre ready money: of its fertility much is reported, and its communication with Lake Erie, and by it with the other lakes and the eastern markets, will render it perhaps more desirable than the part we have travelled over.