Part 6 (1/2)
Mr Birkbeck left Har the Wabash, at a ferry, he proceeded to the _Big Prairie_, where, to his astonishrass and arable; and some thousand acres of land covered with corn, more luxuriant than any he had before seen The scene reminded him of some open well-cultivated vale in Europe, surrounded by wooded uplands But the illusion vanished on his arrival at the habitation of Mr Williams, the owner of an estate, on which, at this time, there were nearly three hundred acres of beautiful corn in one field; for this man lived in a way apparently as remote from comfort, as the settler of one year, who thinks only of theexistence
The inhabitants of the Prairie are healthy, and the fehbours of the timber country It is evident that they breathe better air: but they are in a low state of civilization, being about half Indian in their mode of life They are hunters by profession, and would have the whole range of the forests for theers appear, to thees; as they have intruded on the better founded and exclusive privileges of their Indian predecessors
After viewing several Prairies, which, with their surrounding woods, were so beautiful as to seeht in a dreary wilderness;) and after losing their horses, and spending two days in recovering theuide, and proceeded across the little Wabash, to explore the country between that river and the Skillet Fork
The lonely settlers, in the districts north of Big Prairie, are in a round thirty miles off; and it occupied three days to carry to theback, the sle with privations has now beco es into the wilderness
Mr Birkbeck's journey across the little Wabash was a co without track, where even the sagacity of the hunter-guide had nearly failed, they at length arrived at the cabin of another hunter, in which they lodged This man, his wife, his eldest son, a tall, half-naked youth, just initiated in the hunter's arts; his three daughters, growing up into great rude girls, and a squalling tribe of dirty brats, of both sexes, were of one pale yellow colour, without the slightest tint of healthful bloom They were remarkable instances of the effect, on the co perpetually in the midst of woods
Their cabin, which may serve as a specis, with apertures of three or four inches: there was no chie intervals were left between the ”clapboards,”
for the escape of the s, than Mr Birkbeck had generally experienced, as it protected hiht Two bedsteads, fors, and cleft boards laid across; two chairs, (one of them without a bottom,) and a low stool, were all the furniture possessed by this nu of buffalo-hide, stretched across the hovel, was a wardrobe for their rags; and their utensils, consisting of a large iron-pot, soood rifle, and two that were useless, stood about in corners; and a fiddle, which was seldo by them
These hunters, in the back-settlees, and as indolent They cultivate indolence as a privilege: ”You English (they say) are industrious, but we have freedo indifference, surrounded by nuisances and petty wants; the forht be removed, and the latter supplied, by the application of one tenth part of the time that is loitered away in their innumerable idle days
The _Little Wabash_, which Mr Birkbeck crossed in search of so colours, was, at this season, a sluggish and scanty stream; but, for threeof spring, it covers a great space of ground, by the overfloaters collected in its long course
The _Skillet Fork_ is a river of similar character; and the country that lies between them must labour under the inconvenience of absolute seclusion, for es and ferries are established Having h this wildest of wildernesses to the Skillet Fork, Mr Birkbeck crossed that river at a shoal The country, on each side of it, is flat and swampy; so that the water, in reeable; yet here and there, at ten miles' distance, perhaps, the very solitude tempts persons to pitch their tents for a season
At one of these lone dwellings Mr Birkbeck found a neat, respectable looking fe under the little piazza at one side of the cabin, which shaded her from the sun Her husband was absent on business, which would detain him some weeks: she had no fa, which usually attended hi, in the winter She said she was quite overcome with ”lone,” and hoped the party would tie their horses in the wood, and sit awhile with her, during the heat of the day They did so, and she rewarded theood, and never left her without necessity He was a true lover of bear-hunting; and, in the preceding winter, had killed a great nued at another cabin, where similar neatness prevailed, both within and without The woman was neat, and the children were clean in skin, and whole in their clothes The enious and industrious He lived on the edge of the Seven Miles' Prairie, a spot char to the eye, but deficient in water
Mr Birkbeck considers _Shawnee Town_ as a phaeno the pertinacious adherence of man to the spot where he has once established his, the Ohio, in its annual overflowings, has carried away the fences froth they have given them up, and ceased to cultivate them Once a year the inhabitants of Shawnee Town either e in the upper stories of their houses, until the waters subside, when they recover their position on this desolate sand-bank
At Shawnee Town there is an office for the south-east district of Illinois Here Mr Birkbeck constituted hi seven hundred and twenty dollars, as one-fourth part of the purchase-money of fourteen hundred and forty acres This land, with a similar purchase made by a Mr Flower, constituted part of a beautiful and rich Prairie, about sixWabash, and the same distance from the Little Wabash
The land was rich, natural round: it ithin reach of two navigable rivers; and, at a s rendered iraphical position of this portion of territory appeared to be extre Wabash, a noble stream, which forh one of the ion By ht miles to the Miami of the lakes, it has a communication, well known to the Indian traders, with Lake Huron, and with all the navigation of the north
Mr Birkbeck left Shawnee town on the third of August He had found here soenuine Ohio character; but he had reeable individuals: and the kind and hospitable treatood contrast to the rude society and wretched fare he had left at the Skillet Fork
On his return to _Har, grouped and in their best attire, a large part of thewhen he arrived, and he observed no human creature about the streets: soon the entire body of the people, about seven hundred in number, poured out of the church, and exhibited the appearance of health, neatness, and peace
This colony is useful to the neighbourhood It furnishes, froreat value, not so well supplied elsewhere; and it is a market for all spare produce Many kinds of culinary plants, and many fruit-trees are cultivated here; and the Harood example of neatness and industry When we contrast their neatness and order, with the slovenly habits of their neighbours, we see (says Mr
Birkbeck) the good that arises from association, which advances these poor people a century, at least, on the social scale, beyond the solitary beings who build their huts in the wilderness
At Harmony Mr Birkbeck and his family lived at the tavern, and their board there cost two dollars per week, each person: for these they received twenty-one meals Excellent coffee and tea, with broiled chickens, bacon, &c for breakfast and supper, and a variety of good, but simple fare at dinner Except coffee, tea, or ht of at meals in this country
Mr Birkbeck observes that, when the back country of Aht, and rattlesnakes by day, never fail to alar of wolves and bears, and panthers, and Indians still , from the , about five hundred h the woods of the state of Ohio, down to Cincinnati; next, across the entire wilderness of Indiana, and to the extre and deliberate journey, (he says,) one would suppose, ht have introduced his party to an intimate acquaintance with some of these pests of America It is true that they killed several of the serpent tribe; black snakes, garter-snakes, &c and that they saw one rattlesnake of extraordinary size They experienced inconvenience from musquitoes in a few daland In their late expeditions in the Illinois, where they led the lives of thorough backwoods-men, if they were so unfortunate as to pitch their tent on the edge of a creek, or near a swaed their fire, they were teased with eshi+re: but this was the suues
Wolves and bears are extremely numerous, and cos, which are a main dependance for food as well as profit, are the constant prey of the bears; and the holds of these ani, that the hunters are unable to keep down their numbers