with evidences of tin, and sands of gold which are found along the St. Francois river, in Madison county-the evidences of tin being reported to us by that devoted and scientific investigator of geology, Dr. H. A. PROUT, and the sands of gold by the unimpeachable testimony of CHARLES GREGOIRE, Esq. the other articles being well and generally known to be found in the State-all these articles of wealth in Missouri will necessarily add to the material glory of the whole country. And they will be speedily developed, displayed and applied to use by the instrumentality of the geological survey.

The corn, wheat, hemp and tobacco soils, will also be made to produce even more abundantly than now, by the light and various genial influences flowing from the geological survey.

And not only the farming and mining interests, but the manufacturing and mercantile also, as a necessary consequence, would feel and manifest the healthy, stimulating effect of the geological survey; yet with and above all these interests rises that of the railroad system of Missouri, with its 1200 miles of main, leading trunk lines, which, more powerfully and more immediately than any other interest in the State, will be pushed and secured by the consummation of this measure. Indeed the railroad companies of Missouri, as the routes of their roads run through varied fertile and mineral regions, the evidence of whose wealth rests too exclusively on hearsay testimony, would be richly repaid by obtaining a geological survey of their respective routes at their own cost. Then they would have the record evidence, enabling them, as is acknowledged by railroad Engineers, to build their roads cheaper, by discovering the best material; to increase the amount of their stock subscription, by raising its value; to sell their bonds at higher rates, by strengthening their security; and by directing a stream of population, labor and capital along their roads, to promote their prosperity with redoubled energy.

Let then an earnest enthusiasm be aroused in this cause throughout the whole State. The more enlightened the people become on this subject, the stronger will their feelings, in its favor, grow. Let petitions be sent from every district in the State to each of its Senators and Representatives in Congress. Let all parties unite as one man on this leading measure of public policy for the benefit of every portion of the State, now and forever-the Geological Survey for the present-the perpetual endowment of a farm

ing and mining College for the future. Let each one of the railroad companies of the State send their memorials to Washington city, urging prompt action on the memorial of the Legislature, which was sent to Congress during the first half of the present century:* for the value of our railroad enterprises, as above shown, would be rapidly promoted by accurate disclosures of the unknown or merely rumored wealth along their routes. Let the mercantile and manufacturing interests whose prosperity is based on the products of the soils and the mines of the State, join with the railroad companies, and all political parties, to drive this measure with all their force; and may the people of Missouri never rest in the prosecution of these claims till this grant is gained, and this plan carried out. Then the mountains and the vallies of Missouri will become famous throughout foreign lands. Population, labor and capital will flow into this State, where the tide to California will return. Thousands of tons of railroad iron will soon be annually rolled out here; here the mechanic-the manufacturing the useful arts will flourish, sustained and adorned by the gold and the Fine Arts drawn from other lands. Here, in this heart of the Union, the pulsations of commercial life, will diffuse health and energy-along the veins and nerves of locomotion and communication, on railroads and on telegraphs, by the Gulf and by the Lakes, by the Atlantic and by the Pacific oceans,-throughout the whole body of the business world.

NOTE.-On examination of the last annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, we find that the government of the United States has granted land to the State of Illinois for Internal Improvements, amounting to 1,109,861.61 acres more than have been granted to Missouri for that purpose. Further; that the railroad grants to Illinois amount to 2,134,253 acres more than the railroad grants to Missouri, although the area of Illinois contains only 35,462,389 acres, while that of Missouri contains 41,623,680 acres; and finally, that the General Government retains only 4,115,969.97 acres in Illinois, while it holds 22,722,801.41 acres in Missouri.-EDITOR.

* See Western Journal, vol. 2, May, 1849.

ARTICLE II.

Valley of the Ohio.

BY MANN BUTLER, ESQ.

Continued from page 426, vol. XI. No. 6.

ESCORT OF GUNPOWDER FROM FORT PITT TO KENTUCKY.-FIRST CONSIDERABLE INVASION OF KENTUCKY, UNDER THE INDIAN CHIEF

BLACKFISH, IN 1776. ADVENTURES OF GEN. JAMES RAY, HIS SPEED, HIS LABORS FOR THE BESIEGED; SIEGE OF HARRODSTOWN, OF LOGAN'S STATION; HEROISM OF LOGAN; REINFORCEMENT BY COL. BOWMAN, CAPTURE OF DANIEL BOONE AND 27 MEN; SIEGES OF BOONESBOROUGH; RETREAT OF THE CANADIANS AND INDIANS; BRITISH PROCLAMATIONS TO THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY.

Clark and his associate having obtained these important benefits for his fellow-countrymen in the wilderness, were preparing to come again to the interesting colony; when they heard that the supply of gunpowder, obtained with so much difficulty from Virginia, still lay at Fort Pitt. Jones and Clark then determined to return to Kentucky by that place, to obtain an article so precious in the existing condition of the frontier.

At this extreme western point, there were many Indians lurking about, apparently for the purpose of making treaties; but who were in reality spies on the movements of our countrymen, whose intention to descend the Ohio they seemed to suspect; and would, in all probability, try to interrupt. Under these circumstances, our party resolved to prosecute their voyage without delay; and with no more than seven boatmen, with indefatigable exertions, pursued the whole way by Indians, they got fafe to Limestone Creek, just above the present town of Maysville, in Kentucky. The party went up this creek with their boat, and having buried their precious cargo at considerable distances apart, they then turned their boat adrift, and directed their course to Harrodsburg. Here they expected to procure a sufficient escort for the gunpowder.

On their way through the woods, they came to a solitary cabin, one of Hingston's, on the west fork of Licking river. While resting here, some men, who were sent out surveying, happened to come to the same place, and informed our envoys, that the Indians had not recently done much mischief; that Col. John Todd was in the neighborhood with a small body of men, who might escort the gunpowder to its destination. Clark, however, with his usual

promptitude, after having waited for this reinforcement for some time in vain, set off for Harrodsburg, accompanied by two of his men, leaving the residue with Jones at Hingston's. Soon after

Clark had left, Col. Todd arrived; and upon being informed of the precious deposit on the river bank, thinking his force sufficient to effect its removal, marched with ten men for that purpose. When they reached the country about the Blue Licks, they met, on the 25th of September, 1776, with an Indian party, who were following the trail of Clark and his companions. This hostile body attacked the whites with so much vigor, as to route them entirely, having killed Jones with some others, and taken some prisoners. Among the latter was Col. Campbell.*

Fortunately for Kentucky, the prisoners were true to their countrymen, and preserved the secret of the military stores inviolate. A party from Harrodsburg afterwards brought them in safety to their overjoyed friends.

On the 29th of December, 1776, a large body of Indians attacked McClellan's fort on Elkhorn Creek,+ and killed McClellan and two others, which drove the residue of the inhabitants to Harrodstown. This necessarily produced great alarm; it was soon much increased by an attack of the Indians upon James Ray, his brother, and another man, who were clearing some land about 4 miles from Harrodstown, at the Shawnee Springs, the late residence of this venerable and distinguished pioneer; the last whom the author had the high gratification of knowing personally. The hostile party consisted of forty-seven warriors, under the command of Blackfish, a chief who will again meet our notice; attracted by the noise of the axes, they rushed upon the party of choppers, killed the younger Ray, and took the third man prisoner. The elder Ray escaped by his uncommon swiftness of foot. So remarkable was this young woodsman for his running, that Blackfish mentioned it to Boone, when he took the latter prisoner the next year at the Blue Licks. The chief remarked that some boy

at one of the forts or stations had outrun all his warriors. Fortunate it was for the infant fort at Harrodstown, that Ray possessed such nimbleness of foot: for without his escape to give the alarm, the station might have been surprised, as the party had

* The co-partner of Conolly on 2,000 acres below Louisville, bordering on the canal.

The site of Georgetown, Scott county, Kentucky, also called Royal Spring, from its copious supply of water.

been at the Shawnee Springs. In consequence of Ray's informa tion, everything was done to strengthen the forts, and prepare for the expected storm. On the next morning, the Indians, with the precaution usual to them, not to prosecute an expedition immediately, after any circumstance has happened, calculated to put an enemy on his guard against it, appeared before the fort, on the 7th day of March, 1777.

The militia had been organized but two days before. The Indians began by setting fire to an out-cabin, on the east side of the fort; this, the garrison not believing to be the act of the enemy, rushed out to extinguish. The Indians now attempted to intercept their return; but our people retreated, until they got to a piece of woods, which then covered the hill, now [in 1833] occupied by the courthouse in Harrodsburg; here each man took to a tree, or tree-ed, as it was called in the language of the times. In this conflict, on which so much depended in the infancy, the very formative state of the colony, one Indian was killed, and four of the whites were wounded, one of whom died. Our people made good their retreat to the fort; the Indians soon after retired. The early time, at which this first siege of Harrodsburg was laid, and the paucity of settlements in the country, only make this, generally speaking, insignificant affair, worthy of being related. But the capture of Harrodsburg would have incalculably delayed the settlement of the country, if it had not led to further and still more fatal triumphs of the enemy.

During this year [1777], the Indians collected in great numbers round this devoted place; so much so, as to prevent any corn from being raised about the fort. During this period of danger and want, Ray, then but about 17 years of age, used to rise before day, and with an old horse, the only one left by the Indians, out of forty brought by his father-in-law, Major McGary, to the country, proceeded as cautiously as possible to Salt river, riding in the water, as well as in the bed of any stream in his way in order to conceal his route. On leaving the river, when sufficiently out of hearing, our young woodsman would kill enough to make a considerable load of meat; he would then take it to the suffering garrison by night-fall. This was accomplished, too, when older hunters, stimulated by these boyish exploits, attempting the same enterprise, were often killed by the Indians. These isolated facts derived from the lips of the gallant actor, with much more, that