WITH
HISTORICAL,
GEOGRAPHICAL AND
ETHNOLOGICAL NOTES
AND
BY
WILLIAM M. DARLINGTON
_______________
PITTSBURGH
J. R. WELDIN & CO.
1893
________
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE TRAVELS OF MR. JOHN PETER SALLEY, A GERMAN LIVING IN THE COUNTY OF AUGUSTA, IN THE COLONY OF VIRGINIA, TO THE WESTWARD OF THAT COLONY AS FAR AS THE RIVER MISSISSIPPI, BETWEEN MARCH, 1741, AND MAY, 1745.1
________
It may be necessary, before I enter upon the particular passages of my travels,
to inform my readers that what they are to meet with in the following narrative
is only what I retained in my memory. For when we were taken by the French we
were robbed of all our papers, that contained, writings relative to our
Travels.
In the year 1740 I came from Pennsylvania to that part of Orange County now called Augusta, and settled in a fork of James river close under the Blue Ridge of Mountains on the West Side where I now live.
In the month of March 1741/2 one John Howard came to my house and told me that he received a commission from our Governor to travel to the westward of this Colony as far as the river Mississippi in order to make Discovery of the Country and that as a reward for his labour, he had the promise of an Order of Council for ten hundred thousand Acres of Land and at the same time obliged himself to give equal shares of said land to such men as would go in Company with him to search the Country as above. Whereupon I and two men and Charles Sinclair (his own son Josiah Howard having already joined with him) entered in covenant with him bind-
1Referred to in Col. Burwell's letter dated August 21, 1751.
254 |
APPENDIX. |
ing ourselves to each other in a certain writing and accordingly prepared for
our journey in a very unlucky hour to me and my poor family.
On the sixteenth of March 1742; we set off from my House and went to Cedar Creek about five miles, where is a Natural Bridge over said Creek reaching from the hill on the one side to the hill on the other. It is a solid Rock and is two hundred and three feet high, having a very large spacious arch, where the water runs thro'. We then proceeded as far as Mondongachate now called Woods river,1 which is eighty five miles, where we killed five Buffaloes, and with their hides covered the frame of a boat, which was so large as to carry all our Company, and all our provisions and utensils with which we passed down the said river, two hundred and fifty two miles as we supposed, and found it very rockey, having a great many Falls therein, one of which we computed to be thirty feet perpendicular and all along surrounded with inaccessible mountains, high precipices which obliged us to leave said river. We went then a south west course by Land eighty five miles, where we came to a small river and there we made a little Boat which carried only two men and our provisions. The rest travelled by land for two days and then we came to a large river, where we enlarged our Barge so as she carried all our Company, and whatever loading we had to put into her. We supposed that we went down this river two hundred and twenty miles, and had a tolerable good passage; there being only two places that were difficult by reason of Falls. Where we came to this river the country is mountainous, but farther down the plainer, in those mountains we found great plenty of coals, for which we named it Coal river, where this river and Woods river meets the north mountains end, and the country appears very plain and is well watered,
1Now Kanawha.
|
TRAVELS OF JOHN PETER SALLEY. |
255 |
there are plenty of rivulets, clear Fountains and running streams and very
fertile soil; from the mouth of Coal river to the river Allegany1 we
computed to be ninety two miles, and on the sixth day of May we came to
Allegany which we supposed to be three quarters of a mile wide, and from here
to the great Falls on this river is reckoned four hundred and forty four miles,
there being a large spacious open country on each side of this river, and is
well watered, abounding with plenty of Fountains, small streams and large
rivers; and is very high, and fertile soil. At this time we found the clover to
be as high as the middle of a man's leg. In general all the woods over the Land
is of great plenty and of all kind, that grows in this Colony excepting pine.
On the seventh day of June we entered into the river Mississippi, which we
computed to be five miles wide. In the river Mississippi above the mouth of the
Allegany is a large Island on which are three towns inhabited by the French who
maintain Commerce and Trade both with the French of Canada and those French on
the mouth of the said river. We held on our passage down the river Mississippi.
The second day of July and about nine o'clock in the morning we went on shore
to cook our breakfast. But we were suddenly surprised by a company of men, to
the number of ninety, consisting of French men Negroes and Indians who took us
prisoners and carried us to the town of New Orleans, which was about one
hundred leagues from us when we were taken and after being examined upon oath
before the Governor first separately one by one, and then altogether we were
committed to close prison, we not knowing then (nor even yet) how long they
intended to confine us there. During our stay in Prison we had allowed us a
pound and a half of bread a man each day, and ten pounds of pork per month for
each man, which allowance
1Ohio.
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Dft. Ex. 123.
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