Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Col. R. M. STEWART, the prudent and energetic President of this company, returned from New York on the 18th September, having made satisfactory arrangements for means to prosecute the work. The Board of Directors will meet on the 3d, and the Stockholders of the company on the 7th of November next, at Chillicothe. The people of North Missouri should do all in their power to build this road out of their own means; as the Grant of Congress will secure a premium for the stock, and the business of the road will repay large dividends. We are pleased to notice the genial influence exerted by this enterprise, near the heart of North Missouri, as appears by the following item taken from the Trenton Pioneer. CHILLICOTHE.--Duty called us to this prospering town and neighbor of ours a few days ago, and we were surprised as well as gratified to witness the effect the Railroad has had on it. The time has been, when some were loud in their predictions of the downfall of Chillicothe; but if such opinions were seriously entertained, it needs but a glimpse of the place now, to convince all that they were "false prophets ;" and if she ever was in the ashes, she has arisen, Phoenix like, and donned the garb of prosperity, energy and industry. The improvement of Chillicothe, within the past two years, is unparalleled in the history of country villages, and she now stands prominently, as a place of much importance in the business world. There are several steam saw mills in the vicinity of this place, and everything around, gives flattering evidence that the motto of the people is "onward." North Missouri Railroad. On the 6th September, 1853, the first division of this road was located from St. Louis to St. Charles; and on the 15th of Oct., thirty proposals were made to build this division, the most of which proposals are held under consideration. On the last mentioned date the two corps of engineers, one having started from the Iowa boundary, and the other from St. Charles, met in the town of Mexico, Audrain county. They will survey different routes that the character of the country may be fully disclosed, and the most practicable route discovered. Pacific Railroad. On the 24th day of October, 1853, the tax-payers of St. Louis county voted on the proposition of the County Court, whether the county should subscribe $300,000 to the capital stock of the company, raising the total subscription of the county to this road to $500,000, and the result was 3,724 votes for, and 862 against the subscription; majority 2,862 in favor. The amount of city and county subscriptions of St. Louis to the Pacific Railroad is now $1,000,000, which with the private subscription in St. Louis $605,000, amounts to $1,605,000. This fact must arouse the people of the other counties along the line to subscribe their proportionate shares, and carry on the road out of their own resources. Alton & New York Railroad Connexion. On the 17th October, 1853, the Railroad connexion between the cities of Alton and New York-between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic ocean-was established. The Chicago and Mississippi R. R. Co. advertise that passengers can be transported from New York to St. Louis in 60 hours, and from Chicago to St. Louis in 20 hours. We are informed that a trip from New York to St. Louis, via Railroads to Alton, was made in 57 hours, and from Chicago to St. Louis in 19 hours. This connexion will accumulate trade as well as travel on the northern route, and greatly enhance the profits on the whole line. Passengers leave St. Louis in the morning at 7 o'clock and, after ferrying the river to Alton, take the cars on the Chicago and Mississippi R. R. to Bloomington, then on the Illinois Central to Lasalle, then on the Chicago and Rock Island to Chicago, then on the Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan to Toledo, and so on, by the Lake shore and New York Railroads, and arrive at New York city in less than 21 days. COMMERCIAL STATISTICS. [From Hunt's Merchants' Magazine.] Revenue of the United States for the Fiscal Year ending June 30th, This comparison will enable us to make a closer estimate of the total dutiable imports for the last fiscal year, than the one previously given: Rec'd from Customs. Dutiable Imp's. Free Goods&Specie. Tot. Imp's. $183,252 508 $29,692,934 $212,945,442 228,127 710 30,000,000 258,127,710 ........ $47,339,326 62 58,931,865 52 Foreign Imports at New York for 8 months, from January 1st. Total imports...... $102,678,192 $100,357,337 $89,546,572 $138,108.804 Withdrawn from warhouse. 7,094,156 8,132,230 10,925,568 9,972,966 Exports from New York to Foreign Ports for Eight Months, ending Domestic produce... Total exports...... ..... August 31st. 1850. 1851. 1852. 1853. $27,428,526 $28,904,460 $27,452,183 $34,845 630 463,299 396,630 588,442 1.090.526 3,070,365 2,600,688 2,966,285 2.865.901 5,413,548 27,771,129 18,531.341 13.763,567 $36,375,738 $59,672,907 $49,538.251 $52,565.624 Total, exclusive of specie 30,962,190 31,901,778 31,006,910 38,802,057 Comparative Deposits at the Philadelphia Mint for the first eight months of the year, and the shipments from San Francisco : LITERARY DEPARTMENT. Valley of the Ohio. ITS CONQUEST AND SETTLEMENT BY AMERICANS. BY MANN BUTLER, ESQ., Author of the "History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky." Continued from page 341, vol. X. No. 65. This is a curious relic of frontier adventure; it is full of particulars of the hardships of Indian life, as well as the dangers and difficulties of a moodman's carreer. Its author was, afterwards, long distinguished in the councils of Kentucky. The next class of explorers was not from Virginia or Pennsylvania by the route of the Ohio river; but from North Carolina, by the way of the Cumberland Gap, one of the celebrated routes through the wilderness. These may have been traders with the southern Indians, for peltries, which have ever been a subject. of eager traffic on the frontiers. There was a route called the warrior's road or path (it is delineated in Filson's map of Kentucky,) "leading from the Cumberland ford along the broken country, lying on the eastern branch of the Kentucky river, and so across the Licking (river), toward the mouth of the Scioto."* It was much frequented by the northern and southern tribes in their passage through Kentucky, whether for the purposes of war or of hunting. Along this line of communication, it may be supposed, that John Finley was engaged in traffic with the Indians as early as 1767. Certain it is, that Daniel Boone received his first information respecting Kentucky from Finley, upon his return to North Carolina, where they both lived. It was not, however, till May, 1769, that Boone left his home, on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, in quest of the famed hunting grounds of Kentucky. To do this, he and his five companions, John Finley, John Stewart, Joseph Holden, James Moncey and William Cool, were compelled to pass the broad mountain chain ridge, which separates the Atlantic waters from those of the Mississippi. After thirty-eight days of travelling, without any of the appliances of modern locomotion, but in bare woodman's costume. This primitive route, through all the hardships, difficulties and dangers of a mountainous wilderness-the uncontested domain of the Indian, led across the vallies of the Holston and Clinch rivers, to the head waters of the Cumberland or Shawnee river; thence along the Warrior's Path, previously mentioned, by the Cumberland ford, over the head waters of the Kentucky river, to its eastern branch or Red river. But let us listen to his own words dictated to John Filson :† "We proceeded successfully, and after a long and fatiguing journey, through a mountainous wilderness, in a western direction, on the 7th day of June (1768) following, we found ourselves on Red river, the northernmost branch of the Kentucky river; where John Finley had Annals, p. 114. † See Filson's Kentucky and Amer. Biog., XXIII. formerly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an eminence we saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky." The first impressions made upon these rude, but skilled observers of nature, can but be interesting to their descendants, and the millions who have profited by their hardy enterprise. "We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all sorts through this vast forest. The buffaloes were more frequent, than I have seen cattle in the settlement, browzing on the leaves or cropping the herbage on these extensive plains."* The luxuriant canebrakes, the luscious pasturage of Kentucky, its numerous streams stocked with fish, and, above all, its salt licks, rendered it a most favorite haunt of the game of the forest. Such is the universal description of the pioneers; no terms seemed grand enough to describe the fertility, the luxuriant growth and superabundant game of this Sylvan El Dorado. Is it, then, wonderful, that the Indian should adhere pertinaciously to his claims on this great natural park? It was the garden spot of the red man. The party continued "hunting with great success, until the 22d of December, 1769;" when shortly after this, John Stewart, one of Boone's North Carolina companions, was killed by the Indians. He appears to be the first, so far as is known, of the numerous victims slaughtered in Kentucky by the Indians during their long, desperate and ruthless struggle with the white man, for their beautiful hunting grounds. This frontier war survived the revolutionary contest with Great Britain; and raged from the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774, to that of the Maumee, under General Wayne, in 1794. Still, our author says, that he, and his brother Squire Boone, (who had reached the country some time before with supplies for his roving relative,) continued during the winter undisturbed by the Indians, until about the 1st of May, 1771, when they both returned to North Carolina. But the solitude and danger of an Indian wilderness could not deter the heroic hunter from visiting the country again, under more propitious circumstances. Exploration of the wilderness seemed the ruling passion of Boone's soul. This was much assisted by the trodden paths and roads made by the wild beasts, and particularly the buffaloe, which lay in their way; in this manner they were led to many of the salt springs; at which sait has since been made for the consumption of its present inhabitants. The fondness of the wild game for salt is as great, and the condiment as necessary to the game of the forest, as to the domestic herds and quadrupeds. During 1770, a party of about forty stout hunters, "from New River, Holston ond Clinch," united, "for the purpose of trapping, hunting and shooting game, west of the Cumberland mountains." "Nine of this party, led on by Col. James Knox, reached Kentucky, and from the time they were absent from home, obtained the name of the Long Hunters." This expedition reached the country south of the Kentucky river; and became acquainted with Green river, and the lower part of the Cumberland. In addition to those parties, naturally stimulated by the ardent curiosity and love of daring novelty incident to early and Filson. † Marshal's Kentucky, vol. 1, 9. Idem. |