cultivate it with the plough, taking care to keep it well weeded and hoed; but if they can afford to purchase slaves, it is planted on parallel ridges, twelve or fifteen feet high, made with the hoe. Spinning the cotton employs the women and children. I one day stopped at a house to get a draught of milk, where the mistress had just received a prizę of ten piastres from the legislature of the state, for producing the best piece of manufactured cotton. The wealthy encourage this rivalship amongst the women, by wearing calicoes made in the country.

Those emigrants who are not able to purchase lands, hire them for eight or ten bushels of maize, for every acre they clear; and, by their bargain, they are obliged to build a log-house on the farm.

Many churches are not yet built in Tenessee: to supply the deficiency, it is common for the people to meet in the woods of a Sunday, to hear a discourse from some itinerant preacher.

East Tenessee lies between the highest part of the Allegany and the Cumberland Mountains, and is watered by a great number of small rivers, that descend from them, and cross it in all directions. It is a hilly country, and not very fertile, and produces, principally, pines and oaks, of different species; one of these is called the over-cup white oak, the acorns of which are as large as an egg.

Maize, or Indian corn, is much cultivated here, but it does not grow to such perfection as on the

western

western side of the mountains, where it reaches to the height of eleven feet; and the ears are often nine or ten inches long, and thick in proportion. Numerous berds of cattle are reared by the farmers, who send them four or five hundred miles, to the towns on the sea coast. Though these animals are very wild, from living in the woods, and have a number of rivers to cross, and uncultivated forests to traverse, yet very few of them are lost in the journey.

Not being satisfied with the general account I had received of East Tenessee, I determined to direct our course that way. We advanced through beautiful forests, and were frequently entertained by the owners of plantations, thickly scattered on the borders of the road, though always sequestered in the midst of woods. The inhabitants live in good loghouses; most of them are assisted by negroes, and emjoy plenty with content.

We observed a stone house belonging to General Winchester, much superior in elegance to most of the dwellings in the country. In order to finish it completely, carpenters were had from Baltimore, at nearly seven hundred miles distance. We halted at Fort Blount, which was erected to defend the first emigrants against the Indians, who opposed their settlement; but being no longer necessary, the fortifications are destroyed. Roaring River, one of the branches of the Cumberland, receives its name from the confused noise occasioned by the falls of

the

the water, over the sudden depressions of its bed, which is formed of large, flat stones, close to each other. These falls are six, cight, or ten feet in height, and follow one another so closely, that they may be compared to a vast flight of steps. Large round stones, five or six feet across, lie in the middle of the river; but it is not possible to say how they came there.

The right bank rises in some places to a hundred feet, and is overtopped by projecting rocks, in some parts covered with a kind of white moss, resembling

snow.

The prospects are rendered still more romantic, by a number of magnificent cascades, formed by large rivulets, which, after meandering through the forests, fall over the shores of Roaring River, and are lost amidst its waters. The rocks are covered with moss, which forms a verdant carpet, beneath the rich flowering trees and shrubs that grow here in great variety.

On the banks of this river are several caverns, that produce alum of so pure a quality, that the inhabitants use it in dyeing, and export it to Kentucky.

Having supplied ourselves with provisions, we entered the mountainous territory of the Cherokees. At midnight we encamped near a small river, where there was plenty of grass, and after having made a fire, lay down in our blankets, watching our horses by turns, with Sancho, lest the Indians

should

should steal them, which they are very apt to do, without the strictest precaution.

In the morning we packed up our baggage, and met several flocks of wild turkeys, forty or fifty in a company. A party of Indians, who were seeking for summer grapes and chinquapins, a well-tasted small species of chesnut, crossed our road, and in exchange for some of their fruit, received a couple of loaves of bread, which to them is a great luxury; their common food being chicfly deer's flesh roasted.

Small boards, painted black, are nailed against the trees, to show travellers how far they have gone; after passing two of these, since our traffic with the Indians, we saw a carriage full of wealthy emigrants, followed by their negroes on foot. At the confluence of the rivers Clinch and Holston, we passed a pallisaded fort, built on a high bill, called West Point. About a mile beyond it, the road goes through Kingstown, composed of nearly forty loghouses. In the evening we reached Knoxville, which is the seat of government of the state of Tenessee. It is but a small town, built almost entirely of wood, and has no manufactures but that of tanning leather: there is, however, some trade, and the stores are better furnished than those at Nashville.

The traders obtain goods from Philadelphia by land, which is distant six hundred and forty miles;

and

and they send flour, cotton, and lime, by the river. Tenessee, and New Orleans, which is as far.

A merchant, who is now setting off for Philadelphia, will take this letter, and forward it to England by the first vessel that sails for that port. I am your very affectiouate friend,

HENRY FRANKLIN..

LETTER XX.

Arthur Middleton to his Brother Edwin.

DEAR EDWIN,

Morgantown.

THE love of variety supports me under the. fatigues and hardships we are often obliged to suffer in passing through uninhabited or savage districts; and I console myself when I have no other bed than the hard ground, that when I return to my native. country, the meanest accommodations will satisfy me, nay, will appear luxurious, in comparison with. those I have often been glad to procure amongst the wilds we have traversed.

We have lately passed through the territory of the Cherokee Indians: they are a warlike people, and vigorously resisted the intrusion of the first settlers. Their stature is above the middle size,

and