the river directly after dinner prevented his being favoured with our company at his house.
Two block houses still remain in Marietta, out of which it was very unsafe to go singly previous to Wayne's treaty, as the Indians were always lurking about, on the watch to shoot and scalp, when such opportunities were given them, and in which they were frequently but too successful.
CHAPTER XV
Trade wind—Vienna—Belle-pres—Little Kenhawa river—Browning's
tavern—Blennerhassett's island, handsome
seat and fine farm.
At half past two we proceeded from Marietta, accompanied by a Mr. Fry, a genteel and well informed young lawyer, from the vicinity of Boston, in search of an establishment in some part of this new country. We had also as a passenger, a countryman, by trade a house carpenter, who resided in Virginia, {108} about fifty miles lower down the river, and was returning home after a trip up and down the Muskingum as one of the crew of a keel boat.
There was a fresh S. W. wind, which is a trade wind on the Ohio every day during summer, generally commencing about eight o'clock in the morning, and ceasing about five in the afternoon, during which a boat with a sail could ascend against the stream, from two to five miles an hour, in proportion to the force of the wind; on which account I would recommend it to navigators ascending the Mississippi and the Ohio in the summer season, to be provided with a sail, as it will accelerate their voyage very much, besides saving them a great deal of labour.
It blew so fresh this afternoon, that even with the aid of our passengers, and a strong favourable current, we could scarcely make any progress against the wind, which also occasioned a considerable roughness of the water. By
