5th. At nine o'clock we passed the Big Blue river, sixty or seventy yards wide; it rises in the north of Indiana, and runs south and south east, till it enters the Ohio, eighty-seven miles below Louisville. The country much resembles that below Wheeling, rocky, and the hills close to the river, first on one side then on the other. We landed at several cabins to procure provisions, but found them very scarce, most of the settlements being new. We met a keel-boat, the people on board greatly in want of provisions; they applied to us, but our stock was too low to supply them with any. At dark we passed Flint island, without any difficulty; this is said to be a bad place. We made about thirty miles.
6th. At nine o'clock we reached Rome, { 117} the capital of Perry county,[130] a town of Indiana, laid out in 1818; about twenty houses built, and building; a stone jail begun, the second floor laid with solid logs, ten or twelve inches thick, the roof not put on. We purchased sixteen pounds of very lean beef for a dollar; it was killed the evening before, and salted immediately, yet such was the heat of the weather it was scarcely eatable. No bacon, pork, or vegetables to be procured. A garden is the last thing that is thought of by the generality of the Americans. We landed at several cabins and procured a few small potatoes, and some ears of green Indian corn, (here called roasting ears,) but we boiled them; they ate something like green peas, but not quite so good. We bought an old skiff for a dollar, to supply the place of the one we lost on the Falls. Our progress nearly seventeen miles.
[130] This town, a hundred miles below Louisville, was settled in 1808 by two pioneers named William Taylor and Joseph Wright. For many years it was the seat of Perry County, but in half a century did not acquire more than two hundred inhabitants.--ED.
7th. We started at sun-rise, as we generally did, but the wind was so much against us we were obliged to anchor at eight { 118} o'clock, at Clover creek. We landed in Indiana, and got near a bushel of peaches for ten-pence. Here we saw some children setting off to school; one boy came to the cabin to light his segar, that he might take a whiff going along to school. The men smoke segars, and many of the women (at least the married ones) pipes; we frequently saw women nursing their children with pipes in their mouths. And we often saw them washing on the banks of the rivers, as there is plenty of drift-wood. It saves the trouble of carrying fuel and water; and it is colder on the banks of rivers than near their cabins. Most of the women were surrounded by a number of young children; indeed, the first thing that strikes a traveller on the Ohio is the immense number of children, many of them almost naked. They do not appear healthy; but they look happy, rolling in the water and dirt. We often saw very little boys swimming in the river, sometimes leading others that could not walk: thus { 119} the dread of water wears off while they are very young: I never heard of any of these children being drowned.