speculators and were never of any substantial benefit to the pos

sessors.

When I resided there, this district, formerly so level, rich, and beautiful, had the most melancholy of all aspects of decay-the tokens of former cultivation and habitancy, which were now mementos of desolation and desertion. Large and beautiful orchards left uninclosed, houses deserted, deep chasms in the earth, obvious at frequent intervals. Such was the face of the country, although the people had for years become so accustomed to frequent and small shocks, which did no essential injury, that the lands were gradually rising again in value, and New Madrid was slowly rebuilding with frail buildings adapted to the apprehensions of the people.

VOYAGE OF THE FIRST WESTERN STEAMBOAT.

THE first western steamboat was the New Orleans, a craft of four hundred tuns burden, which was built at Pittsburgh in 1811. The origin of this boat and the history of her first voyage, is thus given by Latrobe, from which it will be seen that she narrowly escaped being overwhelmed in the great earthquakes that signalized the latter part of that year in the annals of the West.

The complete success attending the experiments in steam navigation made on the Hudson, and the adjoining waters previous to the year 1809, turned the attention of the principal projectors to the idea of its application on the western waters; and in the month of April of that year, Mr. Rosevelt of New York, pursuant to an agreement with Chancellor Livingston and Mr. Fulton, visited those rivers with the purpose of forming an opinion whether they admitted of steam navigation or not. At this time two boats, the North River and the Clermont were running on the Hudson.

Mr. Rosevelt surveyed the rivers from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, and as his report was favorable, it was decided to build a boat at the former town. This was done under his direction, and in the course of 1811, the first boat was launched upon the waters of the Ohio. It was called the "New Orleans," and was intended to ply between Natchez and New Orleans. In October, it left Pittsburgh on its experimental voyage. On this occasion no freight or passengers were taken, the object being merely to bring the boat to her station. Mr. Rosevelt, his young wife and family, Mr. Baker, the engineer, Andrew Jack, the pilot, and six hands with a few domestics, formed her whole burden. There were no woodyards at that time, and constant delays were unavoidable.

When as related, Mr. Rosevelt had gone down the river to reconnoiter, he had discovered two beds of coal, about one hundred and twenty miles below the rapids of Louisville, and now took

tools to work them, intending to load the vessel with coal, and to employ it as fuel, instead of constantly detaining the boat while wood was procuring from the banks.

Late at night, on the fourth day after quitting Pittsburgh, they arrived in safety at Louisville, having been but seventy hours descending upward of seven hundred miles. The novel appearance of the vessel, and the fearful rapidity with which it made its passage over the broad reaches of the river, excited a mixture of terror and surprise among many of the settlers on the banks, whom the rumor of such an invention had never reached; and it is related, that on the unexpected arrival of the vessel before Louisville, in the course of a fine, still moonlight night, the extraordinary sound which filled the air as the pent up steam was suffered to escape from the valves, on rounding to, produced a general alarm, and multitudes in the town rose from their beds to ascertain the cause.

I have heard the general impression among the good Kentuckians, was, that the comet had fallen into the Ohio; but this does not rest upon the same foundation as the other facts which I lay before you, and which I may at once say, I had directly from the lips of the parties themselves. The small depth of water in the rapids, prevented the boat from pursuing her voyage immediately; and during the consequent detention of three weeks in the upper part of the Ohio, several trips were successfully made between Louisville and Cincinnati. In fine, the waters rose, and in the course of the last week in November, the voyage was resumed, the depth of water barely admitting their passage.

When they arrived about five miles above the Yellow Banks they moored the boat opposite the first vein of coal, which was on the Indiana side and had been purchased in the interim of the State government. They found a large quantity already quarried to their hand and conveyed to the shore by depredators who had not found means to carry it off, and with this they commenced loading the boat. While thus employed, our voyagers were accosted in great alarm by the squatters of the neighborhood, who inquired if they had not heard strange noises on the river and in the woods in the course of the preceding day, and perceived the shores shake-insisting that they had repeatedly felt the earth tremble.

Hitherto, nothing extraordinary had been perceived. The following day they pursued their monotonous voyage in those vast solitudes. The weather was observed to be oppressively hot, the air misty, still, and dull; and though the sun was visible, like a glowing ball of copper, his rays hardly shed more than a mournful twilight on the surface of the water. Evening drew nigh, and with it some indications of what was passing around them became evident. And as they sat on deck, they ever and anon heard a rushing sound and violent splash, and saw large portions of the shore tearing away from the land and falling into the river. It was, as

my informant said, an awful day; so still that you could have heard a pin drop on the deck! They spoke little, for every one on board appeared thunderstruck. The comet had disappeared about this time, which circumstance was noticed with awe by the crew.

The second day after leaving the Yellow Banks, the sun was over the forests the same dim ball of fire, and the air was thick, dull, and oppressive as before. The portentous signs of this ter rible natural convulsion continued and increased. The pilot, alarmed and confused, affirmed that he was lost, as he found the channel everywhere altered; and where he had hitherto known deep water there lay numberless trees with their root upward. The trees were seen waving and nodding on the bank without a wind, but the adventurers had no choice but to continue their route. Toward evening they found themselves at loss for a place of shelter. They had usually brought to under the shore, but everywhere they saw the high banks disappearing, overwhelming many a flatboat and raft, from which the owners had landed and escaped.

A large island in mid-channel, selected by the pilot as the better alternative, was sought for in vain, having disappeared entirely. Thus, in doubt and terror, they proceeded, hour after hour, until dark, when they found a small island and moored themselves at its foot. Here they lay, keeping watch on deck during the long winter's night, listening to the sound of the waters which roared and gurgled horribly around them, and hearing from time to time the rushing earth slide from the shore, and the commotion as the falling mass of earth and trees was swallowed up by the river. The lady of the party, a delicate female who had just been confined on board as they lay off Louisville, was frequently awakened from her restless slumber by the jar given to the furniture and loose articles in the cabin, as several times in the course of the night, the shock of the passing earth was communicated from the island to the bow of the vessel. It was a long night, but morning showed them that they were near the mouth of the Ohio. The shores and channel were now not recognizable, for everything seemed changed. About noon of that day they reached the small town of New Madrid, on the right bank of the Mississippi. Here they found the inhabitants in the greatest distress and consternation; part of the population had filed in terror to the higher grounds, others prayed to be taken on board, as the earth was opening in fissures on every side, and their houses hourly falling around them.

Proceeding from thence, they found the Mississippi unusually swollen, turbid, and full of trees, and after many days of great danger, though they felt and perceived no more of the earthquakes, they reached their destination at Natchez at the close of the first week in January, 1812, to the astonishment of all; the escape of the boat having been considered an impossibility.

The Orleans continued to run between New Orleans and Natchez, making her voyages to average seventeen days, until 1813 or '14, when she was wrecked near Baton Rouge by striking on a snag.

In the course of the few years succeeding the construction of the Orleans, several other boats were built and launched upon the western rivers. Yet such was their want of success that the public had no faith that steamboat navigation would succeed upon the western waters, until the trip of the Washington in the spring of 1817, when she went from Louisville to New Orleans and returned in forty-five days. This boat was of four hundred tuns burden, and was built at Wheeling under the direction of her captain, H. M. Shreve. "Her boilers," says Judge Hall in his Notes, "were on the upper deck, and she was the first boat on that plan, since so generally in use."

SKETCH OF TECUMSEH, AND THE INDIAN WAR OF 1811.

THE celebrated Shawanee chief, Tecumseh, was born a few years before the war of the revolution, at the Indian village of Piqua, on Mad river, about six miles below the site of Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio. His tribe removed from Florida about the middle of the last century. His father, who was a chief, fell at the bloody battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. From his youth he showed a passion for war; he early acquired an unbounded influence over his tribe from his bravery, his sense of justice, and his commanding eloquence. Like his great prototype, Pontiac, humanity was a prominent trait in his character. He not only was never known to ill-treat or murder a prisoner, but indignantly denounced those who did, employing all his authority and eloquence in behalf of the helpless. In 1798, Tecumseh removed with his followers to the vicinity of White River, Indiana, among the Delawares, where he remained for a number of years. In 1805, through the influence of Laulewasikaw, the brother of Tecumseh, a large number of Shawanees established themselves at Greenville. Very soon after, Laulewasikaw assumed the office of a prophet, and forthwith commenced that career of cunning and pretended sorcery, which enabled him to sway the Indian mind in a wonderful degree. Throughout the year 1806, the brothers remained at Greenville and were visited by many Indians from different tribes, not a few of whom became their followers. The Prophet dreamed many wonderful dreams, and claimed to have had many supernatural revelations made to him; the great eclipse of the sun which occurred in the summer of this year, a knowledge of which he had by some means attained, enabled him to carry conviction to the minds of many of his ignorant followers, that he was really the earthly agent of the Great Spirit. He boldly announced to the unbelievers, that on a certain day he would give them a proof of his supernatural powers by bringing darkness over the sun. When the day and hour of the eclipse arrived, and the earth even at mid-day was shrouded in the gloom of twilight, the Prophet, standing in the midst of his party, significantly pointed to the heavens, and cried