GROWTH OF THE WEST. STEAM-POWER, 21 



The immediate vicinity of Natchez and New-Orleans had indeed begun to con- 

 tribute toward the cultivation of a supply of co/^ow, amounting to something more 

 than sufficient to meet the expense of clearing and cultivating their lands — 

 while the inhabitants of Louisiana were enjoying the proud satisfaction of hav- 

 ing succeeded in making Avhat they then deemed to be respectable crops of 

 yugar. 



The quantity, however, of 5Mi^rtr or cotton annually produced for exportation or 

 for inland trade, prior to the ye'ar 1800, I have not been able to ascertain: but I. 

 learned from my friend, Daniel Clark, and other distinguished citizens of New- 

 Orleans and Natchez in the years 1802-3, that these promising products of Agri- 

 culture (cotton and su2;ar), had prior to that period contributed greatly to im- 

 prove the condition of the Agriculture of these sparse settlements, and give to 

 the commerce of New-Orleans a degree of activity and an interest far surpassing; 

 anything which the occasional trade of Kentucky tobacco and provisions, or the 

 peltries and furs obtained from the Indian trade, had ever produced. I am un- 

 der the impression, however, that the settlement around Natchez, with the cot- 

 ton-planters of Louisiana and West Florida, could not have furnished in any year 

 prior to 1800 more than is now often brought to this city in one day — say 12,000 

 bales ; nor that the supply of sugar could in any year prior to that period have 

 exceeded 5,000 hogsheads. 



When 1 state to you that the sugar crop of Louisiana has been gradually in- 

 creasing, until it has amounted to 200,000 hogsheads in one year, (the last year,). 

 1 am sure 1 need not trespass upon your time by details, such as the statistics of 

 the country will furnish you in abundance. 



I will conclude with a concise outline of the progress of improvement in the 

 valley of the Mississippi by presenting to you a few simple facts, embracing the 

 principal causes and prominent results of this Herculean progress of improve- 

 ment. 



From the date of my fiat-hoat trip down the Holstein, Tennessee, Ohio, and 

 Mississippi rivers, to the last year of the War of 1814-15 — though the populatiort 

 of the Western States had grown from half a million to nearly three millions — yet 

 until the last mentioned period, few men had the temerity to predict that this 

 mighty river would ever afford such facilities to any description of ascending- 

 boats or other vessels, as to establish a respectable commercial intercourse be- 

 tween the vast bodies of fertile lands and mineral wealth of the upper and mid- 

 dle regions of the valley of the Mississippi and the sea. The great rapidity of 

 the current, and the numerous snags and other impediments by which the navi- 

 gation was obstructed, rendered such an intercourse almost hopeless. In May, 

 1799, I met three small barges carrying thirty tons burden, and navigated by 3G 

 oars each. They then made but one trip in the year — departing from Louisville 

 at the close of the sickly season in October, and returning tliither in the follow- 

 jng spring. Their price for freight was ten cents per pound, or twenty to twen- 

 ty-five dollars per barrel for sugar or rum or brandy. 



' It was not until long after this period, that an account of Robert Fulton's dis- 

 covery of the successful application of steam-power to boats and other vessels in- 

 spired me with the pleasing hope that the time was not far distant when boats 

 of a larger class would be seen ascending the Mississippi river to Louisville, ia 

 less than one month. But it was not until the year 1821 that I ventured to pre- 

 dict that the time would come, when vessels carrying 800 tons burden might be 

 seen by persons tiien living, departing from New Orleans with a full cargo, and 

 rn^nningto Louisville, a distance of near Hfteen hundred miles, in some few hours 

 short of six days ! Tliis consummation, so long and fervently desired by me, I 

 have had the inexpressible happiness of witnessing. 



In this great triumph of the genius of Fulton will be found why it is that, ia- 

 the short space of twenty-five years, the population of the valley of the Missis- 

 sippi has grown from three millions to eleven millions ; and, above all, that the 

 chivalry of the West — the fighting men of the valley of the Mississippi — have 

 multiplied from three hundred thousand to seventeen hundred thousand! Ag^ 

 riculture has increased in an equal ratio. 



I must here break off my narrative, with a promise to complete it soon and 

 send it by mail. 



I am wilh great respect and esteem your friend, 

 J. S. Skinner, Eeq. Editor, &.c. i.c. EDMUND P. GAINE3L 



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