From Vincennes the first week brought us to Louisville; a distance of near one hundred and [137] fifty miles. I had been instructed, by the persons who cashed my bill at Vincennes, to consult with a broker of this town who was requested to exchange those notes which were not at par for others that were so, taking a per centage for the transaction—he did so; and the reader is informed, in order that he may have some idea of the state of the banks and of public credit, that twenty-five per cent or one quarter was the difference of value of notes between Louisville and Vincennes.[46]
The end of the second week brought us again to Maysville, or Limestone on the Ohio, which divides Kentucky from Ohio State. The country does not lose on the review; even in Indiana it seems to be cultivated to greater extent than at first sight it appeared to be; the weather is delightful, and the various tints with which the foliage glows is far beyond the reach of pen or pencil. This season is called here the Indian [138] summer, and indeed the agreeable temperature of the air, the beauty of the day, and the variety of forest scenery I could much wish to describe though vain would be the attempt. Let the reader imagine the finest autumnal day in England, and suppose an unvaried succession of such days, as far from oppressive heat as from cold; let him then cull from our woods every tint of autumn's foliage, heighten every colour in imagination, and add more; then perhaps he may have a faint idea of the Indian summer season.
At Lewis's tavern in Indiana we witnessed a fine appearance of the aurora borealis; beautiful columns of light in constant motion and of great breadth continually darted upward, extending and shortening by turns while others crossed these; the whole moved gradually towards the west. At this place we were overtaken by a lady and gentleman, their child and nurse, returning from Lexington from an excursion to the new settlement of Indostan on the White river;—they travelled in their own carriage, (a chariot) it may therefore be well supposed that the roads were tolerably good. Their arrival caused a good deal of consultation and contrivance for the night's accommodations; there was but one room for both [139] parties, which, by hanging up sheets and other substitutes for curtains, was at length divided into four;—beds were then spread, and all slept quietly without furnishing any scene in which either Scarron or Fielding would have delighted: 'tis true we set fire to the log chimney, for the night was cold, and we had piled the faggots a little too high, but this was luckily seen before retiring to rest, or it might have been attended with serious consequences to us. My host, a shrewd spirited little fellow, strutting about in the short cloak a l'Espagnol worn here, and with his black worsted remains of stockings full of holes, which did not in the least damp his self-conceit, told me next morning, on my remarking the scarcity of houses of entertainment for travellers, that indeed another good house besides his own was much wanted on the road.
Great is the facility of acquiring money here if a man has judgment; he first looks out for some spot where a tavern is wanted, he immediately cuts down the trees around and puts together a rude log hut, which he covers with shingles (wood tiles;) a board is then inscribed "tavern," or "house of entertainment." Inside you find it very sparingly furnished, but he has got some fowls and spirits, and if he minds, his fortune is made. Travellers are plentiful, and his charges [140] as high as if he could treat them with every comfort, instead of putting two people commonly, and sometimes three, into a bed; in a room, too, containing four, five and six beds! The horses are put into another inclosure of logs, the interstices of which near a foot wide, (in summer an advantage,) are not at all closed even during the severity of winter.
At Paoli town, Indiana, we arrived on the day of militia muster, and found there a considerable concourse of people, for it appeared to be a holiday. It would have been idle to look for the regular uniform, correctness of evolutions and discipline, where probably neither the power nor the wish to attain these existed; a few only wore a uniform of neat grey colour with sash and long feather; the rest in the usual dress, and each man armed with his rifle. The amusement or chief exercise of the day, beyond the roll call, seemed to be firing at marks, at which they have justly established a character for great dexterity. Yet the American has but little skill with his arms in hitting a moving object, whether running or flying; indeed he scarcely ever attempts it, and he must too have his accustomed weapon or it is a chance if he succeeds;—a man dexterous with his rifle was admiring the pistols I carried, and wished to [141] try them; he shot twice at fifteen paces without even hitting the tree on which the mark was placed: that the pistols may not be supposed faulty, I mention, though no practiser with the weapon, that I hit close to the mark each shot, and with both, for he would change thinking mine might be the best. The same person with his own rifle without a rest, (which aid by the way is frequently taken advantage of,) at sixty yards shot from a tree a piece of paper no larger than we could see. Towards evening the multitude dispersed, and again the silence of the desert prevailed.
At Louisville we first saw the effects of a violent epidemic disease which had attacked the horses, and many were dying of it. The disorder appeared first upon the tongue, without any previous symptoms of fever that I perceived; blebs or blisters rose, broke, and increasing in number the whole tongue shortly became completely skinned and much swelled; the malady extended itself gradually down the throat, and the animal died, more it would appear from inability to take in food than immediately owing to the disorder.—Almost every horse we met on the road had caught the infection; at Louisville and Frankfort, at the last in particular, I saw near forty altogether in one yard: various were the [142] modes of treatment; some bled them and gave physic upon the first appearance; diet, soft mashes with nitre honey and the insides of gourds: the animals seemed to suffer greatly from hunger. The local applications were a mixture of copperas, alum, and blue vitriol pulverized and rubbed upon the tongue twice or more each day, in order to destroy the activity of the disease, and a frequent washing between these applications, with honey and alum water. This was the mode of treatment I adopted,[47] for three of my horses caught it, and they all recovered, though one was reduced so low that I was obliged to exchange him at Maysville. With the others we continued the journey without the delay of one day, and they were in better condition on re-entering Philadelphia than when they left it.
At Lexington (Kentucky) we stopped at the Indian Queen which is a good house. Another change of notes became here necessary; those of the Bank of the United States were not to be procured, and no others being received with any certainty on the road, I sold the notes changed at Louisville for dollars at a further discount of two and a half per cent, and even [143] for this bargain I was again beholden to the good offices of the same gentleman who had kindly cashed my draft when going westward. My dollars were put into a bag, and as I returned swinging them along to the tavern, the weight caused some reflections on the different effects on mankind of specie and paper as circulating mediums;—the first, by its weight obviously tends to make one think more of expenditure even in small sums; the latter, by the facility it affords of carrying in the pocket-book sums of any magnitude must have a directly reverse effect;—perhaps one of the greatest evils attendant upon the paper money system may be attributed to this cause, and the very inconvenience which I now experience of carrying an inconsiderable sum in specie might therefore, if general, be an important means of raising the value of money, and of establishing economy in public and private affairs.
25th. Quitted Mr. Chamber's hospitable house at Maysville; and crossing the river ascended the steep hill which immediately presents itself in the State of Ohio.—On reaching the top we received the first intimation of a change of weather—snow had fallen and did not disappear the whole day from the shade; gales of wind now blew, and rain had lately fallen in different [144] parts in sufficient quantity to render the roads wretchedly bad: our progress was now slow and frequently difficult;—we passed several laden waggons of emigrating parties either set fast in the clay and digging out, or broken down and waiting for the aid of some distant blacksmith. This was a sad change of scene, however we kept up a good spirit, and having a light though strong carriage, good cattle, and helping these with our own exertions up some of the steepest hills, we surmounted all difficulties, and arrived without accident the end of the fourth week at Washington, Pensilvania, distant from Vincennes about five hundred miles.
Travellers, whether through unformed tracks of distant countries or over the mighty mass of waters, must possess minds little susceptible of impression, if they do not, in such situations, feel themselves more peculiarly under the protecting hand of providence. To pass safely a length of way, where a false step might frequently bring destruction, is alone a subject of thankfulness; but to have seen themselves within a moment, a hair's breadth of destruction, and to be preserved, must bring the sentiment to their minds with tenfold force: one day while traversing Ohio State, a gust of wind blew off the top of a large dead tree, which fell with a [145] tremendous crash on the spot over which in another moment of time we should have been passing!
At West Union, a small town with a good court-house, we had intended to sleep; but on arriving found the whole place full of people and to obtain beds impossible; at which the owners of the tavern very civilly expressed their regret, and though in the midst of hurry and bustle thought to speak for beds to the owner of a good private house, three or four miles further who happened to be in the inn. While the horses were feeding however, we went into a room, the table of which was covered with a profusion of fowls, ham, veal, beef, and many other symptoms of plenty; to partake of which the hostess very hospitably pressed us, and, that we might not be backward in accepting her proffered good cheer, assured us that it would be no loss to them, as every thing on the table would be swept away not to appear again; for especially upon these occasions nothing was ever brought on a second time.—"Have you no poor people to accept of the remains?" said I. She knew but of one family, she replied, to whom it could possibly be acceptable, and she did not think even these would receive it. An additional instance this, proving that food is abundant in [146] this country. Paid here for a new horse-shoe about eighteenpence sterling.