THE OHIO. 81 



emigrants from distant parts, in search of a new home. Purer pleasures 

 I never felt ; nor have you, reader, I ween, unless indeed you have felt 

 the like, and in such company. 



The margins of the shores and of the river were at this season amply 

 supplied with game. A Wild Turkey, a Grouse, or a Blue-winged 

 Teal, could be procured in a few moments ; and we fared weU, for, 

 whenever we pleased, we landed, struck up a fire, and provided as we 

 were with the necessary utensils, procured a good repast. 



Several of these happy days passed, and we neared our home, when, 

 one evening, not far from Pigeon Creek (a small stream which runs into 

 Xhe Ohio, from the State of Indiana), a loud and strange noise was heard, 

 so like the yells of Indian warfare, that we pulled at our oars, and made 

 for the opposite side as fast and as quietly as possible. The sounds in- 

 creased, we imagined we heard cries of " murder •,"" and as we knew that 

 some depredations had lately been committed in the country by dissatis- 

 fied parties of Aborigines, we felt for a while extremely uncomfortable. 

 Ere long, however, our minds became more calmed, and we plainly dis- 

 covered that the singular uproar was produced by an enthusiastic set of 

 Methodists, who had wandered thus far out of the common way, for the 

 purpose of holding one of their annual camp meetings, under the shade 

 of a beech forest. Without meeting with any other interruption, we 

 reached Henderson, distant from Shippingport by water about two hun- 

 dred miles. 



When I think of these times, and call back to my mind the grandeur 

 and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores ; when I picture to my- 

 self the dense and lofty summits of the forest, that everywhere spread 

 along the hills, and overhung the margins of the stream, unmolested by 

 the axe of the settler ; when I know how dearly purchased the safe navi- 

 gation of that river has been by the blood of many worthy "Virginians ; 

 when I see that no longer any Aborigines are to be found there, and 

 that the vast herds of elks, deer and buffaloes which once pastured on 

 these hills and in these valleys, making for themselves great roads to the 

 several salt-springs, have ceased to exist ; when I reflect that all this 

 grand portion of our Union, instead of being in a state of nature, is now 

 more or less covered with villages, farms, and towns, where the din of 

 hammers and machinery is constantly heard ; that the woods are fast 

 disappearing under the axe by day, and the fire by night ; that hun- 

 dreds of steam-boats are ghding to and fro, over the whole length of the 



