A more fortunate issue attended the expedition of Colonel Logan, who had been detached by General Clark from his camp at Silver creek. opposite to Louisville, to return to Kentucky, and raise as expeditiously as possible another party to go against the Shawanees, whose attention it was supposed, would be engaged by the Wabash expedition. Logan repaired home, and soon returned with *"a competent number of mounted riflemen." On this rapid expedition, a town of the Shawanees was burned, a few warriors killed, and a number of women and children brought away prisoners. This, as usual, consolated the public mind in some degree, for the misfortunes of General Clark.†

CHAPTER X.

Earliest attempts at Navigating the Mississippi, by Americans-Colonels R. Taylor and Linn-Negotiations between Jay and Gardoqui-Discontents at Pittsburg, and in Kentucky-Trade of Wilkinson with New Orleans-Suspicions of his fidelity-First Newspaper in Kentucky-Constitution of the United States.

The attention must now be directed to the navigation of the Mississippi, which at this time began to excite the public interest from Pittsburg to Louisville; these were the extreme points of any dense population, with wide and fearful gaps between. Previous to narrating the agitation and intrigue, which rapidly and widely connected themselves with this tender subject of western interest, some notice will be taken of the earliest experiments in navigating this powerful and turbulent river.

Marshall 1,251.

†This expedition was prepared in conformity to resolutions of the inhabitants of the district, assembled at Danville sometime in 1786; the month is not mentioned in the proceedings; they are signed by William Kennedy as chairman. These resolutions, together with an order of the executive of Virginia, were acted on by the inilitary officers of the district, who met at Harrodsburg, on the 2d of August, 1786. These gentlemen, among other resolutions, adopted one appointing "Genera! George Rogers Clark to act as general officer, and have the command and direction of the army at this time, ordered in offensive operations against our enemy, Indians." The doubts which were entertained about the legality of impressments for provisions, &c., were submitted by the officers to Judges Muter and Wallace, and the Attorney General, Innes. These officers certified it as their opinion, "that the executive have delegated to the field officers of this district all their power" in regard to impressments, "and that they have a right to impress, if neces sary, all supplies for the use of the militia, that may be called into service." This opinion is directed to Colonel Benjamin Logan, as President of the Board of officers.

The earliest Anglo-American enterprises in this direction, and indeed of wonderful boldness, which the author has been able to collect, are, 1st. That of Colonel Richard Taylor, formerly of the county of Jefferson, and often honored with distinguished public trusts. This gentleman, in company with his brother Hancock Taylor, both of Virginia, was at Pittsburg in 1769, and thence descended the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, to the mouth of Yazoo river. From this point the brothers passed through the country of the southern Indians to Georgia, and thence to Virginia. This information has been obtained from a deposition of Colonel Taylor in a suit at law. The second was communicated to the author by Captain William B. Wallace, a most worthy veteran of the Revolution, lately descended to the grave, covered with years and with honors: this gentleman related that John Whitaker Willis, John Ashby, and William Ballard, were engaged in the battle of 1774, at Point Pleasant, and after the engagement visited Kentucky. That being afraid to return by the usual route, they hollowed out a pirogue (formed out of the body of a large tree) and passed down the rivers to New Orleans. From this port the party made its way to Pensacola; here they were assisted by the British governor, and were conveyed round to Charleston, in South Carolina. Ashby was of Fauquier county, in Virginia; Willis, of Stafford; both neighbors of Captain Wallace, in Virginia. The next effort at this perilous navigation was made *by Colonels Gibson and Linn, the latter the grand-father of the present Dr. Linn, of St. Louis, now in the Senate of the United States from Missouri.

These gentlemen descended the Mississippi in 1776, from Pittsburg to New Orleans, by the orders of Virginia, it is presumed, in order to obtain military stores for the troops stationed at the former place. So extraordinary an adventure may well require particular confirmation to the mind of the reader; it can be furnished in the most remarkable manner. *John Smith, now or lately of Woodford county, in this State, was in 1776, engaged in reconnoitering this country in company with

* Louisville Directory, 103, by the author.

James Harrod, so eminently distinguished in the history of Kentucky difficulties and dangers. On their return the companions separated; Harrod to go to North Carolina, and Smith to Peter's creek on the Monongahela. While traveling on the bank of the Ohio, the latter discovered Gibson and party descending it, who hailed Smith, and prevailed on him to embark in this, one of the boldest of the western adventures. The party succeeded in its object, and obtained a supply of one hundred and fifty-six kegs of gunpowder from New Orleans; which Smith helped to carry round the Falls to the mouth of Bear Grass creek in the spring of 1777. Each man carried three kegs along the portage, one at a time. The powder was delivered at Wheeling first, and thence conveyed to Pittsburg. Independently of this particularity of circumstance, solemnly asserted on oath in a deposition at law, by a respectable party in the transaction, it was frequently mentioned by Colonel Linn in his life time, and is still known as his information, in the family left by this gallant and energetic man.

Among the first buddings of intercourse rather than of trade with New Orleans from the western country, must be reckoned the voyages of Messrs. Tardiveau and John A. Honore, the latter an ancient and respectable French merchant of this city. These gentlemen left Redstone, now the town of Browsville, on the Monongahela, in 1782 and 3, when there were but two houses in the place. The navigation of the western rivers was then much infested by banditti of white men, as well as of Indians. The French gentlemen mentioned, were both stopped by the Indians, and the former robbed by them; indeed the river was as much debarred to trade, by the Spanish government, as by the Indians. American property was seized and confiscated by the Spaniards on its only way to a foreign market.* A negotiation on this subject, as well as other matters of national difference, had commenced in 1785, between Mr. Jay and Don Diego Gardoqui, the representative of Spain in the United States. "Congress had expressly ordered the Secretary for Foreign Affairs to stipulate both for the territory of the United Jay's Life 1, 235, 236.

*Wilkinson, vol. 2, appendix, 6 & 13.

States according to the treaty with Great Britain, and for the navigation of the Mississippi, from its source to the ocean. Don Gardoqui, on the other hand, declared, that the Spanish king would never permit any nation to use that river, both banks of which belonged to him." Under these circumstances, Mr. Jay was called before Congress to communicate his views on the negotiation; "he informed Congress, that Spain was ready to grant the United States extensive and valuable commercial privileges; and that it was in her power, by her influence with the Barbary States, and by her connexion with France and Portugal, greatly to injure the commerce of America, and to benefit that of England. But that at present, the questions respecting the Mississippi, and territorial limits, prevented any commercial arrangements whatever; that his own opinion of the justice and importance of the claims advanced by the United States, had undergone no change; but that, under present circumstances, he thought it would be expedient to conclude a treaty with Spain, limited to twenty or thirty years, and for the United States to stipulate, that during the term of the treaty, they would forbear to navigate the Mississippi below their southern boundary," as it has been seen, was recommended by Virginia during the Revolutionary war. This recommendation by Mr. Jay, was founded on the opinion, "that however important the navigation might ultimately be, it would not probably be very essential during the proposed term; and that, therefore, it might be good policy to consent not to use, for a certain period, what they did not want, in consideration of valuable commercial privileges." The views of Mr. Jay were sanctioned by seven States, but opposed by the other six; still the Spanish minister would not consent to any treaty whatever, implying a right in the United States to the navigation in question; the negotiation proved fruitless, and was finally terminated by Gardoqui's return to Europe. This is an authentic account of the negotiation under the old confederation in regard to the navigation of the Mississippi; which, however, we might claim, the United States were in no position to extort by force of arms, under so feeble a government as then existed. It was in weak

ness and insignificance closely allied to what the German Empire used to be in Europe; it was, in the language of a favorite Revolutionary figure, a political barrel of thirteen staves without a hoop. Let us for a moment reflect, what would have been the effect of this session for twenty years, as actually authorized, or thirty years as the utmost limit proposed by the Secretary. Twenty years from 1786, would have brought the commercial limitation to 1806; four years after the suppression of the right of deposite at New Orleans. This itself blew the

western country into a flame, that would have consumed all the ties of the confederacy, had its councils have slumbered over interests, so precious to this section of the United States. What then, would have been the feelings of the country; what would have been its prosperity, had its trade with New Orleans been suspended for thirty years? Sagacious as the views of Mr. Jay generally were, they have been outstripped in this instance by the growth of the western country, beyond the anticipations of our wisest statesmen. Our progress has been a race scarcely checked by an accident on the course. Rumors of this negotiation, *"when no post-office existed in Kentucky, and when no safe or certain mode of conveyance for letters or newspapers was established between this district and the rest of the Union," must necessarily have subjected the conduct of the United States' government, then held in New York, to much misconception, and to no little misrepresentation by intriguing or mistaken candidates for political promotion. These exaggerated representations on the subject of a navigation, so deeply and vitally interesting to the United States, had produced an association at Pittsburg, which transmitted to Kentucky a most erroneous account of the Spanish negotiation, well calculated to kindle the passions of her people. This statement purported "that John Jay had proposed to the Spanish minister, to surrender the navigation in question for twenty or thirty years." The truth was, that the proposition was submitted to Congress, and was supported by seven north-eastern States, against five southern ones; but the offer if made, which does not certainly appear,

* Marshall, 1, 255.