barren land, the value of which has been lately discovered to be greater than ever was expected, as it presented, at the first settlement of the country, a marshy appearance, which it was not supposed could be overcome by cultivation. The industry of our inhabitants has overcome this obstacle; and the barrens are fast becoming very valuable land. The other part of the district consists of barrens, and also of wet and flat land, timbered with sugar and beech trees, and is at this time quite unsettled. From this variety of soil great advantages arise. In our bottoms, we raise corn in great abundance; in our uplands, wheat and other small grain; while our barrens, or prairies, furnish most desirable pastures for grazing. We have thus a soil, in which an equal portion of the inhabitants are engaged in raising different articles of produce, and greatly assist each other by furnishing a home market for different kinds of stock and the produce of the soil. But to return.

In the winter and spring of the year 1787, Major John O'Bannon and Arthur Fox, two enterprising surveyors in Kentucky, passed over into the district to obtain a knowledge of the country, for the purpose of making entries of the land, so soon as the office should be opened for that purpose. They explored with their companies the whole extent of country along the Ohio, and passed some distance up the Scioto and Miami rivers, and some of their tributary streams. On the 1st day of August, 1787, Colonel Anderson opened the office for receiving the entries of lands in the district, at which time entries of the bottoms of the Ohio were made, and also a large portion of the bottoms of the Scioto and Little Miami rivers. About that time, or shortly before, several expeditions from Kentucky made excursions into the district, for the purpose of destroying the Indian towns. Simon Kenton, a name celebrated among backwoodsmen, was along in almost all of these expeditions,

and returning home attempted some entries of lands, in which he was not successful, on account of his want of sufficient skill in making them.

So soon as it was made known to Congress, that entries had been made in the district northwest of the Ohio, by virtue of the continental warrants, an act was passed in July, 1788, by which it was resolved, that Congress. would consider all locations and surveys made on account of the troops, between the Scioto and Little Miami as invalid, until the deficiency on the southeast side of the Ohio should be ascertained and stated to Congress; and the Executive of Virginia was requested to inform Congress of the deficiency, if any, and the amount of it. This act, together with the danger apprehended from the Indians, obstructed further entries and surveys in the district until an act of Congress, passed in August 1790, repealed the act of July 1788, which removed all difficulties as to the entries and surveys, previously made or subsequently to be made. This act also regulated the mode of obtaining patents, and was amended by the act of 1794, and other subsequent acts.

The difficulty about the early locations of lands northwest of the Ohio in this district, arose from the ignorance of those engaged, as to the extent of jurisdiction ac- . quired over those lands by the United States, from Virginia, by her cession in March, 1784. This is shown from the fact that the governor of Virginia issued patents on a number of surveys in the district. These patents were of course void, and were subsequently cancelled, and patents issued by the President, under the seal of the United States. We will now return.

The first excursion made by General Massie into the interior of the district northwest of the Ohio, was in the year 1788; but no account of the particulars of this expedition or his companions is now known. He was probably in company with Arthur Fox, who was at that

time engaged in surveying lands in the district, and a particular friend and companion of Massie. A letter from his father, about this time, refers to this expedition.

"Goochland Co. Oct. 4, 1788.

LOVING SON :-I received yours, favored by Mr. Underwood, wherein you inform me that you had made a trip over the Ohio; that you had tarried there but a few days. I am afraid that you venture too much. Should you escape after doing what you have engaged, I would advise you to drop venturing too much, &c. By your last, you say that you can finish all you have undertaken by spring. God send you a safe return, &c. I will keep a cask of cider till the first of April expecting to see you, if God is willing.

"I am your loving father,

"NATHANIEL MASSIE."

For some time, during the prohibition of entries made by the act of Congress, of the lands of this district, Massie was engaged in writing in Col. Anderson's office, in order to acquire a complete knowledge of the business of locating and surveying. His character for dispatch in business and enterprize gained him the friendship and confidence of Col. Anderson, who had the control of the warrants, placed in his hands by his brother officers and soldiers. A very large amount of these, so soon as the act of Congress of August, 1790, removed all further obstruction, he placed in the hands of Massie, to enter and survey on such terms as he could obtain from the holders of them. As the risk of making entries was great, and as it was desirable to possess the best land, the owners of warrants, in most cases, made liberal contracts with the surveyors. One fourth, one third, and sometimes as much as one half acquired by the entry of good lands were given by the proprietors to the sur

veyors. If the owners preferred paying money, the usual terms were ten pounds, Virginia currency, for each thousand acres entered and surveyed, exclusive of chainmen's expenses. These terms cannot appear extravagant, when we consider, that at that time the danger encountered was great, the exposure during the winter was severe, and that the price of first rate land in the west was low, and an immense quantity in market.

The locations of land warrants in this district prior to 1790, were made by stealth. Every creek which was explored, every line that was run, was at the risk of life from the savage Indians, whose courage and perseverance was only equalled by the perseverance of the whites to push forward their settlements. It was a contest for dominion and the bravery, the stratagem, and the boldness displayed by the Indians in executing their plans, could only be equalled by their fearless onsets in attacks and their masterly retreats when defeated.

The Indians, at this time, had among them a number of master spirits, and it is greatly to be regretted that the history of their exploits is lost forever. The patient resolution and fortitude with which they contended against superior discipline and numbers, the wiles and stratagems displayed by them during their long and bloody wars, proved that they possessed intellectual qualities of the first order. Their fortitude in enduring pain, fatigue, and starvation, was unequalled, except by such of the whites as were long disciplined in the Indian school.

Besides exposure to the Indians while surveying, the surveyors in the district had other difficulties to encounter. By passing the Ohio, they placed that river between them and their place of retreat, in case they were defeated and pursued. The season of the year, too, chosen by them for surveying was the depth of winter, as they were then more secure from interruption; as the Indians were at that time of the year in their winter quarters, and

when hunting were found in small bodies. Against danger and exposure, the surveyors were without shelter in

the district.

CHAPTER III.

Ir is now believed by many persons, that the men who effected our independence and those who first settled the western country, were more robust and hardy than the present race of men. This is a mistaken notion. It was their constant exercise of mind and body, which braced and invigorated their constitutions to endure the constant draught that was made upon them, that rendered them so hardy. The weak and feeble, and all such as were predisposed to disease, who ventured on the frontier in those days of peril and privations, soon fell by sickness, or in sudden retreats lost their lives by the Indian's tomahawk, and were no more heard of. The remnant of those pioneers, who still linger amongst us, are the gleaning of the most hardy of the original stock. Their long lives prove much in favor of activity and hardihood, yet for both qualities they were indebted to the circumstances by which they were surrounded: the occasion made them what they were. It is believed that man is, and has been, the same in all ages of the world. He is civilized or barbarous, strong and active, or weak and indolent, as are his companions. The habits and manners of the old frontier-men were a perfect state of nature, where every one was his own judge, and righted his own wrongs and was his own dependence in difficulties. It cannot now be conceived or believed, how soon an active, lively, and enterprizing young man would unlearn to practice the artificial rules of civilized life, and acquire the customs and habits of the frontier-men, or even the more ferocious