could not have been mistaken; and he would have claimed his reward. The allegation presupposes that the entire plan of the Commander-in-chief, was concerted by his officers, after he had crossed the river, and placed himself in front of a vastly superior enemy, knowing that a retreat was impossible.

The fact was not so- -his plan was his own-it was conceived in his own mind, on the west bank of the Delaware -was communicated to his officers on the bank of the Sampink, and manifestly saved his army, and secured the independence of his country.

BURNET'S NOTES

ON THE

NORTH-WESTERN

TERRITORY.

CHAPTER I.

Population of the Territory in 1795-6.- Description of Cincinnati at that time.-Progress of settlement from 1788 to 1800.-Public buildings.-Social influence of the garrison.-Ordinance of 1787.-Its provisions.-Appointment of officers under it.-Treaty of Fort Harmar.-Re-organization of the Territorial Government.-Legislation of the Governor and Judges.— The Maxwell Code.

In the winter of 1795-6, Governor St. Clair and Judge Turner, who had recently visited the white settlements in the Territory, estimated their population at fifteen thousand souls, including men, women and children: At that time, Cincinnati was a small village of log cabins, including about fifteen rough, unfinished, frame houses, with stone chimneys. Not a brick had then been seen in the place, where now so many elegant edifices present themselves to the eye; and where a population is found, estimated at eighty thousand souls.

The city stands on a lower and an upper plane. The former rises about sixty feet above low water mark, and extends back from the river, about sixty-five or seventy rods. The latter is about forty feet higher than the former, and extends in the same direction, an average distance of about a mile and a half. When the town was laid out, and for several years after, the surface of the ground, at the base of the upper level, was lower than on the margin of

the river; in consequence of which, there was a narrow swamp or morass formed, which extended the entire length of the town, and subjected the inhabitants, during the summer and fall, to agues and intermittent fevers.

In September, 1796, the writer of this sketch, had one of those attacks, at the chief hotel of the village, owned and kept by Griffin Yeatman, an early emigrant from Virginia. His bed stood in a large room, neither lathed nor plastered, originally intended, and occasionally used, for a ball room; but ordinarily occupied as the common dormitory of the establishment. At the time referred to, there were fifteen or sixteen others lying sick in the same room, which gave it very much the appearance of a hospital. Unpleasant as the condition of those invalids was, not a murmur, or complaint was heard. Most of them had been accustomed to very different accommodations in sickness, but they knew they were as well provided for and attended to, as circumstances would permit, and were therefore contented.

The emigrants who were in the Territory in 1796, were few in number, and were located in different and remote settlements, between which there was but little intercourse. The country they inhabited was wild and uncultivated, and was separated from the Atlantic inhabitants, by a broad belt of rugged mountains, equally wild and uncultivated, containing scarcely the semblance of a road, bridge, ferry, or other improvement, to facilitate intercourse with the Atlantic states. The adjoining regions, on every side, were also uncultivated and without commerce, or the means of creating it. At that time, the primitive mode of transportation across the mountains, by pack-horses, had been but recently exchanged, for the greater convenience of the heavy Pennsylvania road-wagon, which wended its way slowly through the mountains. The country contained neither shelter nor protection for civilized man; nor had it any thing in the form of constitution or law, till after the promulgation of the Ordinance of 1787.

A correct idea of the progress made in settling the Territory, may be formed from these facts; that the first emigrants planted themselves at the mouth of the Muskingum, in the spring of 1788-that, at the close of 1795, after the lapse of seven years, the white population, of all ages, and both sexes, was ascertained to be fifteen thousand, according to the best information that could be obtained by the Governor and Judges, who had visited almost every settlement in the Territory; and that in 1800, by a census taken under the authority of Congress, the number was ascertained to be 45,365; being the entire population acquired by all the settlements in the Territory during the first thirteen years, after their commencement.

Prior to the Treaty of Greenville, which established a permanent peace between the United States and the Indians, but few improvements had been made, of any description, and scarcely one of a permanent character. In Cincinnati, Fort Washington was the most remarkable object. That rude, but highly interesting structure, stood between Third and Fourth streets produced, east of Eastern Row, now Broadway, which was then a two-pole alley, and was the eastern boundary of the town, as originally laid out. It was composed of a number of strongly built, hewed-log cabins, a story and a half high, calculated for soldier's barracks. Some of them, more conveniently arranged, and better finished, were intended for officers' quarters. They were so placed as to form a hollow square of about an acre of ground, with a strong block-house at each angle. It was built of large logs, cut from the ground on which it stood, which was a tract of fifteen acres, reserved by Congress in the law of 1792, for the accommodation of the garrison.

The artificers' yard was an appendage to the Fort, and stood on the bank of the river, immediately in front. It contained about two acres of ground, enclosed by small contiguous buildings, occupied as work-shops, and quarters for laborers. Within the enclosure, there was a large two