and New Hampshire have in any one year. Our house builders work out, on an average, nine months in the year, and then work indoors, the other months; or they travel south, and there spend the winter, at their business, where the weather is warmer and their wages higher.

Immediately on the shore of lake Erie, the weather in winter, is about three degrees colder than it is twenty miles south of the ridge, where the lake rivers rise. And it is about ten degrees colder at Cleveland than at Cincinnati, in winter. Traveling from the lake southwardly, a very sensible difference is experienced on reaching the Scioto valley. So in the heat of summer, in traveling to the lake, a coolness, highly invigorating is felt by the traveler from our valley. Hence, a tour to the lake, is advisable in summer, for those who suffer from the heat of the south.

the case.

Whether our atmosphere will continue to become more and more dry, as our forests disappear before us, we cannot positively say, though we can see no reason why it should not be All the effects which the cultivation of the whole valley of the Mississippi, will produce on our climate, cannot be certainly foreseen, but we believe, that our seasons will become warmer and drier. They will be more healthful in the states west of us, warmer, drier and more equable in temperature, and possibly, the soil will be less productive, in this state, than at present.

[To all human appearance, this great valley is intended by its great, good, and wise Author, for a vast number of people in which to live, move about, and act, and eventually, to control forever, the destinies of the most powerful nation on the globe. After the next census, will be the time to fix on the course which we and our posterity will forever pursue, in governing ourselves and the eastern people. Thus far we have been mere "hewers of wood, and drawers of water" for the east. As the wheel of time revolves, we, who are now at the bottom, shall be on its summit. We shall do ourselves justice, in due time, and be, what we must be, an overwhelming majority of this nation.]

CIVIL AND POLITICAL HISTORY.

PERIOD FIRST.

THIS PERIOD EXTENDS FROM THE FIRST DISCOVERY AND NAVIGATION OF LAKE ERIE, BY THE FRENCH, IN 1680, TO THE SETTLEMENT OF MARIETTA, April 7th, 1788. IT COMPRISES

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT YEARS.

THE first Europeans who visited this region, were the French. In 1680, La Salle, a Frenchman, started on an expedition, and passing up Lake Erie and Lakes St. Clair and Huron and cruising along Lake Michigan, disembarked near where fort Chicago now stands. He traversed the intermediate country between that place and the Illinois river. He descended that stream to its mouth. Descending the Mississippi, he arrived at length, at its mouth, after passing through many dangers and great hardships. Going home to France, he returned by sea, to the mouth of the Mississippi, and in endeavoring to pass through the country by land, to Canada, he lost his life, being murdered by one of his own party, somewhere in what is now the state of Illinois, as near as we can judge from his narrative. From this period, forward, the French Missionaries, visited the valley of the Mississippi very frequently, and their government was engaged in sending persons among the Indians to conciliate them; and military men were sent to examine the country, and select the most eligible sites for fortifications. Whoever looks at the map of the country traversed, will at once perceive with what prudence they executed their commissions. Quebec, Montreal, Oswego, Niagara river, Presque-Isle, De

troit, Mackinaw, the Straits of St. Mary, Chicago, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, &c. &c. were as well selected for military posts, as could possibly be done, even at this day, when this country is well settled and of course, well known.

The first vessel ever launched by Europeans, on the upper lakes, was the Griffin, built by La Salle, in 1680, and was lost on its return voyage from Chicago to Niagara river. After its departure it was never heard of, nor is the fate of any of its crew known. Not a white man dwelt on the borders of that lake, nor in the Western States. Sixty years had elapsed since the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth rock. The western states were one vast wilderness, inhabited only by savages and wild animals. The contrast is consoling to all the friends of human happiness.

The French intended to keep possession of the Canadas and of the whole valley of the Mississippi, which they claimed either by actual settlement, or by discovery; as well as by their treaties with the Indians, and confirmed to them, as they said, by the treaties of Aix La Chapelle &c. with the European governments. That they intended to erect a great and powerful State in the new world, is evident from the vast expenses they were at, in building forts at all the proper points of communication; from the great extent of their church establishment; their large endowments for colleges and other schools of learning. Their extreme anxiety, to keep possession of this vast territory is seen in every thing they did respecting it. Professor SILLIMAN in his "Tour between Hartford and Quebec," justly remarks, that "he knows nothing that has excited his surprise more in Canada, than the number, extent and variety of the French institutions, many of them, intrinsically of the highest importance, and all of them, according to their views, possessing that character." "They are the more extraordinary," he remarks," when we consider that the most of them are more than a century old, and at the time of their foundation, the colony was feeble and almost engaged in war. It would seem from these facts, as if the French contemplated the establishment of a permanent, and eventually, of a great

empire in America; and this is the more probable, as most of these institutions were founded during the ambitious, splendid and enterprising reign of Louis XIV." We add, that Louis XV., pursued the same policy towards his American empire as his predecessor had done. The Marquis Gallisonere, Governor General of new France, (as all this western country was called by them) in the year 1749, sent out an expedition, commanded by Louis Celeron, for the purpose of depositing medals at all important places, such as the mouths of the most considerable streams, and at remarkable places, such as the largest mounds, and other ancient works. Most of these medals, perhaps all, which were made of lead, containing "a proces verbal," drawn up by order of the Governor General, contained blanks to be filled up with the date of the time of depositing them, and the names of the places, rivers, or objects where they were deposited. I had, for a considerable time, in my possession, such a medal, which stated it to have been left at the mouth of Venango river, where that stream empties into the Belle riviere or river 'Oyo,' as the Ohio was called by them. This medal was a thin plate of lead, and the lettering was rudely done. It asserted the claims of Louis XV., to all the country watered by the "riviere Oyo" and branches, and was deposited at the mouth of "Venango riviere," Aout 16th, 1749.

Such medals as the above were deposited in many places over the western country, and many ancient coins, belonging to the Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Germans, &c., were also left at many places. It is one hundred and fifty eight years since the Griffin sailed across Lake Erie.

The French began to erect a line of forts, for the purpose of connecting Canada with the valley of the Mississippi, as early as 1719, and continued to extend them into this country, until they had established them, at all the most important points. After erecting Fort DuQuesne at Pittsburgh, they established posts in the direction of the Potomac, but, the English finally conquered Canada, and most of their western posts, all indeed, along lake Erie, and on the waters of the Ohio, fell with Canada and were surrendered at the peace of 1763. It was

J

this war, in which the Indians engaged, on the side of the French, against us, of which Logan speaks, in his address to Lord Dunmore. It was, indeed, a long and bloody war, in which, Louis XIV., XV. lost Canada, and all the country watered by the Ohio river.

From 1764 up to 1774, there was no Indian war, on this frontier, between the whites and the Indians; and had it not been for some badly disposed, and bloody minded men, perhaps, those scenes of cruelty and bloodshed, which we are compelled to notice, though slightly, might possibly have been avoided altogether. But so it was, and our regrets, cannot alter the facts, which now form a portion of history, and having been acted on our territory, belong to Ohio's history.

LORD DUNMORE'S WAR OF 1774.

From the peace made with the Indians by Sir William Johnston, at the German Flatts, on the Mohawk river, in the 1764, until the spring of 1774, there was no Indian War on the Ohio river. On the 27th of April, 1774, Captain Cresap, at the head of a party of men, at Wheeling in Virginia, heard of two Indians and some of their families, being up the river hunting, not many miles off; Cresap and his party followed them, and killed them, without provocation, in cold blood and in profound peace! After committing these murders, on their return to Wheeling that night, in their bloody canoes, they heard of an Indian encampment down the river, at the mouth of Captina creek, and they immediately went, attacked and murdered all these Indians. After these unprovoked and cruel murders, a party under Daniel Greathouse, forty seven in number, we believe, ascended the river above Wheeling, about forty miles, to Baker's station, which was opposite the mouth of Great Yellow creek. There keeping his men out of the sight of the Indians, Captain Greathouse, went over the river, to reconoitre the ground, and to ascertain how many Indians were there. He fell in with an Indian woman, who advised him, not to stay among them, as the Indians were drinking and angry. On receiving this friendly advise, he returned over to Baker's block