and its longest day is fourteen hours, and forty odd minutes. Its surface is sufficiently undulated, and abundantly channeled by streams of water. The seasons are mild, and the atmosphere healthy. There are many hills, distinguished in consequence of their magnitude, and elevation, by the name of KNOBS. Other mountains there are none, exclusive of those immediately connected with the Cumberland mountain; and they have not yet obtained names of distinction.

Six large rivers, but of unequal size, traverse the country; having their sources towards the east, and uniting with the Ohio, on the north-western boundary. These are in order from east, to west, Licking, the Kentucky, Salt, Green, Cumberland, and Tennessee, rivers,-each, affording navigable water for boats, to considerable, but unequal, distances, from the Ohio. Of the Cumberland river, KENTUCKY claims both extremities, but not the whole extent; of Tennessee, only the lower part. The others are entirely embraced within her limits.

This delightful country, and these majestic rivers, from time immemorial had been the resort of wild beasts, and of men, no [1767.] less savage, when in the year 1767 it was visited by John Finley, and a few wandering white men, from the British colony of North Carolina; allured to the wilderness, by a love of hunting, and the desire of trading with the Indians, who were then understood to be at peace. These were a race of men, whose origin, lies buried in the most profound obscurity, the conjectures of the learned notwithstanding; and who, after a long intercourse with European colonists, had not arrived at the shepherd state; of course not practised in the arts of agriculture, or mechanics; but dependant on fishing, and hunting, by the men—and a scanty supply of maize, raised by the women, with imperfect instruments,-for subsistence. Their clothing, they fabricated from the skins of wild animals, and the incidental supply of coarse cloths, obtained from itinerant pedlers, who at times, visited their camps, or towns. Sometimes at peace-but more generally at war, these Indians, however diversified by tribes, may be characterized, as active, vigilant and enterprizing in their pursuits; of a dark red complexion:

black hair, and eyes, straight limbs, and portly bodies; equally crafty, or brave, as circumstances require; and remarkable for the sagacity of their conceptions, and the brevity of their speech.

Besides the distance of this country from the populous parts of the colonies; the almost continual wars with the frontier Indians, and the claim of the French King to the regions of the Mississippi, and Ohio, had prevented all attempts to explore it, by public authority. While SPOTSWOOD, was governor of Virginia, he seems to have taken, mentally, a comprehensive view of the vast plain lying between the Allegheny mountains and the Mississippi, and to have recommended a plan for reducing it, into the possession of his Brittanic Majesty. But in this, he was not supported by the court of St. James; and the country remained as before; known only on the English maps, as filling up certain degrees of latitude and longitude; to a much later period.

After the commencement of the war of 1739, between Great Britain and Spain, which soon involved the whole house of Bourbon; the same SPOTSWOOD, who then lived in retirement, was appointed to command the colonial troops; and assured that his favourite project of occupying the regions of the Ohio, should be carried into immediate execution. In this enterprize, it is conjectured he would have been warmly supported, by many of the Virginians; but his death, which soon after took place, again retarded its accomplishment: and the kindling spark of Virginia spirit for military enterprize, was permitted to become extinct, for the want of fuel-which could alone be furnished by the court, or mother country.

The war, which afterwards took place, between Great Britain and France, about the year 1754, in America, carried many of the colonists, to the upper waters of the Ohio; and at the peace of 1763, the British crown was left in possession of fort Pitt. But no attempts had yet been made to explore Kentucky, much less to occupy the country. So far from either, that settlements on the western waters, were prohibited; or restrained to the Ohio company; who directed their views to the north-western parts of Virginia. Whence the settlements

were extended with the recent conquests, even to fort Pitt-at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers; whence. flows the Ohio.

These circumstances, in connexion with the known tardiness of the human mind, in familiarizing itself with countries, "which the eye hath not seen," will satisfactorily account for the ignorance which prevailed in Virginia, relative to Kentucky, at the time it was in a manner discovered by Finley, and his party, as already mentioned.

The country, once seen, held out abundant inducements to be re-visited, and better known. Among the circumstances best adapted to engage the attention, and impress the feelings of the adventurous hunters of North Carolina, may be selected the uncommon fertility of the soil, and the great abundance of wild game, so conspicuous at that time. And we are assured that the effect, lost nothing, of the cause. Forests those hunters had seen-mountains they had ascended--vallies they had traversed deer, they had killed--and bears, they had successfully hunted. They had heard the howl of the wolf; the whine of the panther; and the heart-rending yell of the savage man; with correspondent sensations of delight, or horror: But thesę were all lost to memory, in the contemplation of Kentucky; animated with all the enchanting variety, and adorned with all the majestic grace and boldness of nature's creative energy. To nature's children, she herself is eloquent, and affecting. Never before had the feelings of these rude hunters experienced so much of the pathetic, the sublime, or the marvellous. Their arrival on the plains of Elkhorn, was in the dawn of summer; when the forest, composed of oaks of various kinds, of ash, of walnut, cherry, buck-eye, hackberry, sugar tree, locust, syca more, coffee tree, and an indefinite number of other trees, towering aloft to the clouds, overspread the luxuriant undergrowth, with their daily shade; while beneath, the class of trees the shrubs, the cane, the herbage, and the different kinds of grass, and clover, interspersed with flowers, filled the eye, and overlaid the soil, with the forest's richest carpet, -The soil itself, more unctuous and fertile, than Egypt's

boasted Delta, from her maternal bosom, gave copious nutriment; and in rich exuberance sustained the whole, in matchless verdure.

Here it was, if PAN ever existed, that without the aid of fiction, he held his sole dominion, and Sylvan empire, unmo lested by CERES, or LUCINA, for centuries.

The proud face of creation here presented itself, without the disguise of art. No wood had been felled; no field cleared; no human habitation raised: even the red man of the forest, had not put up his wigwam of poles and bark for habitation. But that mysterious Being, whose productive power, we call Nature, ever bountiful, and ever great-had not spread out, this replete, and luxurious pasture, without stocking it with numerous flocks, and herds: nor were their ferocious attendants, who prey upon them, wanting, to fill up the circle of created beings. Here was seen the timid deer; the towering elk; the fleet stag; the surly bear; the crafty fox; the ravenous wolf; the devouring panther; the insidious wild-cat; and the haughty buffaloe: besides innumerable other creatures, winged, fourfooted, or creeping. And here, at some time unknown, had been, for his bones are yet here, the leviathan of the forest, the monstrous mammoth; whose trunk, like that of the famous Trojan horse, would have held a host of men; and whose teeth, nine feet in length, inflicted death and destruction, on both animal and vegetable substances-until exhausting all within its range, itself became extinct. Nor is it known, although the race must have abounded in the country, from the great number of bones belonging to the species, found in dif ferent places, that there is one of the kind living on the American continent, if in the universe,

Such were the aspects which Kentucky exhibited, when, in 1767, it was seen by John Finley and his comrades. They traversed the boundless scene, with sensations of wonder and delight, never known by them before: and thence returned home the same year, to give to their friends, an account of the new Eden, which they had found. Their narrative excited much curiosity, some belief, and not a little doubt; but raised

up no immediate adventurers, for the pathless wilderness which intervened; and the yet darker forests, which overshadowed, the promised land.

At this time the name of Kentucky, was but faintly heard in the eastern parts of Virginia. Nor is it known that any one, from that colony, had ventured across the great Laurel ridgewhich then seemed to bound her western prospect, as well as territory. It is true that Doctor Walker, a gentleman of Virginia, of more than common intelligence and enterprize, had, about the year 1758, led a small party to explore Powell's valley, on the east of the aforesaid ridge, which he called Cumberland mountain; a break, or depression in the height of which, attracted his attention, and received the name of Cumberland gap. On this tour, the Doctor obtained some intelligence that the Ohio was to be reached at no great distance, in a north-eastward direction; and he determined to make it a visit, in his route home. His party consenting to accompany him, they steered for the Cumberland gap, which they passed through, and descending the mountain, which had afforded to them the perspective of a new region, found at its base, a large river; but not to be mistaken for the Ohio; and on this, the Doctor bestowed the appellation of Cumberland, also. The Duke of Cumberland, in mother England, being with him, a favourite character, at the time.

Under the impression that the Ohio was to be found east of north, he took an erroneous course, which kept him in a rough and mountainous country, until having passed the Kentucky river, which he named Louisa, he came upon Big Sandy: having escaped the beautiful Ohio, and the fertile regions of the west, no less worthy of enlightened curiosity. Thence he returned home, after a journey of prodigious labour, and difficulty, as ignorant of Kentucky, as if he had remained at rest; with such an idea of the country, that he did not again attempt to explore it. Nor was his representation of it, calculated to excite others, by any other motive than curiosity; the gratification of which, was restrained, by apprehended privation, labour, and danger, to be incurred, by the attempt.