368 The Winning of the West 



ously, for game swarmed. The hunters supplied 

 them with quantities of deer and wild turkeys, and 

 occasionally elk and buffalo were also killed; while 

 quantities of fish could be caught without effort, and 

 the gardens and fields yielded plenty of vegetables. 

 On July 4th the members of the Ohio Company en 

 tertained the officers from Fort Harmar and the 

 ladies of the garrison at an abundant dinner, and 

 drank thirteen toasts, to the United States, to Con 

 gress, to Washington, to the King of France, to the 

 new Constitution, to the Society of the Cincinnati, 

 and various others. 



Colonel May built him a fine "mansion house/* 

 thirty-six feet by eighteen, and fifteen feet high, 

 with a good cellar underneath, and in the windows 

 panes of glass he had brought all the way from 

 Boston. He continued to enjoy the life in all its 

 phases, from hunting in the woods to watching the 

 sun rise, and making friends with the robins, which, 

 in the wilderness, always followed the settlements. 

 In August he went up the river, without adventure, 

 and returned to his home. 18 



Such a trip as either of these was a mere holiday 

 picnic. It offers as striking a contrast as well could 

 be offered to the wild and lonely journeyings of the 

 stark wilderness-hunters and Indian fighters who 

 first went west of the mountains. General Rufus 

 Putnam and his associates did a deed the conse- 



18 Journal and Letters of Colonel John May; one of the 

 many valuable historical publications of Robert Clarke & 

 Co., of Cincinnati. 



