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memorial to Congress, from the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army, entitled to land-bounties under the resolves of September sixteenth, 1776, and August twelfth, 1780. This memorial was forwarded to General Washington by Rufus Putnam, upon the sixteenth of June, 1785; and by him was transmitted to the President of Congress, together with Gen. Putnam's letter, which gave at length his views respecting the settlement of the western country, and the location of military posts there. But at that time the final grants of Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, had not been made; and the Federal legislature, upon the twenty-ninth of October, 1783, having under consideration a memorial from General Armand, resolved, that, much as they desired to fulfil their engagements to the officers of the army, they could not, at that time, assign them any particular district.

century and a half, elapsed since the first European Northwest Territory, was by the presentation of a visited the Ohio valley. We shall, therefore, speak principally of the results, giving such details only, as are least accessible and most interesting. There were a few events, connected with Ohio, previous to the Revolution, which had a bearing upon her present condition. One was, the rejection by France, in 1755, of the offer, made by England, to give up all her claim to the territory west of a line drawn from the mouth of French Creek, twenty leagues up that stream toward lake Erie, and from the same point direct to the last mountains of Virginia which descend toward the ocean. The Indians between this line and the Mississippi were to be considered independent; but France was to retain Canada, and her settlements on the Illinois and Wabash. Had this offer been accepted, there is little doubt, from the ability always shown by the French in the management of the Indians, that their colonies would have been planted upon the Scioto, the Miami, and the Maumee; so that, even though the country had finally come under the control of the British colonists, it would have borne the marks of French manners, prejudices, and habits. Another event worthy of notice (we omit the war of 1756, as too well known to need comment) was, the proclamation of the king in 1763, after the treaty of Paris, forbidding his governours in America to grant any warrants of survey or patents "for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers that fall into the Atlantick ocean from the west or northwest;" or upon any lands not ceded by the Indians. The effect of this proclamation was to prevent all attempts to settle any part of what now forms the state of Ohio; which, had it been done by Virginia, (within whose charter the Northwest Territory was thought to lie,) would have been accompanied, probably, by the introduction of slavery; and at any rate by a tinge of monarchical feelings and ways of thought, that, in the twelve years which elapsed before the Revolution, might have obtained some foothold in that territory.

In this manner, the soil of Ohio remained wholly untouched by Europeans until the Revolution. And, during that struggle, it was preserved from settlement by the contest which arose among the States with reference to the ownership of the vacant lands; slavery being thus again prevented from entering its bounds, and the less worthy and moral kept back, until the settlers of Marietta and Cincinnati had given somewhat of a character to the population. Nor was this all; for, when Jefferson's proposal to exclude slavery from the Northwest Territory after 1800 was defeated, it was so by the favourers of slavery, all the free states voting for it; and yet it was to that defeat, that its total exclusion was owing, three years later.

We cannot enter into an examination of the protests, remonstrances, and petitions, which resulted in the cession, by all the states, of their vacant lands to the Union: but must content ourselves with the bare statement, that New York conveyed her claims to Congress on the first of March, 1781; that Virginia released hers upon the first of that month, three years later; while Massachusetts delayed till the nineteenth of April, 1785, and Connecticut till the fourteenth of September, 1786.

Meanwhile, upon the twenty-second of October, 1784, the Five Nations had relinquished to the United States all their claims to the grounds west of Pennsylvania; and, upon the twenty-first of the following January, the Wyandots and Delawares, by the treaty of Fort M'Intosh (which post stood near the ground now occupied by Beaver, Pennsylvania) gave to the whites the whole south of what is now Ohio. The Indian title being thus done away, and all the state claims but that of Connecticut given up, Congress, upon the twentieth of May, 1785, passed their ordinance for the disposal of lands in the West. Under this ordinance, Thomas Hutchins, geographer of the United States, assisted by a surveyor from each state, proceeded to examine and divide the newly-acquired territory.

Among those, who at that time visited the region in question, was Colonel Benjamin Tupper. During the summer and fall of 1785, this gentleman, acting as temporary surveyor for Massachusetts, made himself acquainted with the country about the Muskingum; and, being fairly carried away by its beauty and seeming fertility, was strongly instrumental, it is believed, in causing its selection as the resting-place for the colony that went out nearly two years afterward, under the patronage of the Ohio Company. Indeed, there is reason to think that Tupper's visit to the West was the immediate cause of the formaThus was the state, of which we write, reserved, tion of that company; which resulted from a meetapparently, until all was ripe, to try within her lim-ing of those entitled to land-bounties, called through its the experiment of democratick institutions, originating under the most favourable circumstances. The first men that trod her soil as citizens, were soldiers of the Revolution; the companions and friends of Washington; and they went to a land which could, when they entered it, bear up, as it has been said, no other than freemen.

The first step that was taken towards settling the

the newspapers by General Putnam and Colonel Tupper, in January, 1786. The meeting took place upon the first of March; the "Ohio Company of Associates" was organized, and the resolution taken, to collect a million dollars' worth of certificates, and to employ some one at the West, who should select a spot, for which they might definitely contract with Congress. Congress, on their part, showed a

disposition to do all in their power to forward the settlement of the northwestern lands; and with that view, upon the twenty-first of April, 1787, passed a resolution, authorizing the sale of those surveyed townships, which might remain after the portion assigned the army had been drawn for, for publick securities; the sale to commence upon the twenty-first of the following September, and the price not to be less than one dollar per acre.

came to the conclusion that Zane really preferred the Muskingum to any other point, and wished to purchase it himself when the sales should begin during the following September. This impression did away what little doubt still remained in his mind; and, returning to the east, he laid his proposal to contract with Congress for all the land along the Ohio, between the seventh range of townships and the Scioto, and running back as might be afterward agreed upon, before the directors of the Company of Associates.

Before this publick disposition of the lands commenced, however, it was the purpose of the Associates to make a separate contract for that part of the His choice being approved by them, he addressed territory, which their agent in the West might select a memorial to the legislature of the confederation, as most suitable. This agent was General Samuel asking them to empower the Board of Treasury to Holden Parsons, who, as Indian commissioner, had, make the proposed contract. This memorial was in the year 1786, visited the Ohio country as far reported upon on the fourteenth of July, the day after down, at least, as the mouth of the Great Miami, the passage of the well-known Ordinance of 1787; where a treaty was concluded, on the thirty-first of and the report was passed, and the Board authorized to January, with the Shawanoe nation." This gentle make the contract, on the twenty-third of that month. man, in the spring of 1787, selected, after due exam- Information of this act of Congress having reached ination, the same spot which had pleased Colonel | New York, Rufus Putnam and Manasseh Čutler, for Tupper-the valley of the Muskingum. At the themselves and their associates, wrote upon the mouth of this river he proposed to have the chief twenty-sixth to the Board of Treasury, offering to city, while the purchase was to stretch along the accept the proposition of the report with some few Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto, so as to include the variations, but providing that the company should half of the rich valley that borders that stream. receive no more land than they paid for. Three Many things acted as inducements to this selection; months passed before the contract was finally concluthe beautiful scenery and rich soil upon the banks of ded,the indenture bearing date October twenty-seven; the clear "Elk-eye;" the protection that would be and, when the patents issued, in 1792, the million and afforded to the settlers by Fort Harmar, built in 1786, a half of acres named in this contract, were diminand then the frontier post; the near neighbourhood ished to something over eleven hundred thousand; of Western Virginia, from which men and food the rise in continental certificates having prevented might be had in time of need; the knowledge, that the Company from securing the sum they had exwithin the selected territory were coal, salt, and iron, pected. In consequence of this non-performance, and (as strong an inducement as any) the expecta-by the Associates, of their original plan, they lost tion, then entertained, that through the Cuyahoga the rich lands upon the Scioto, their western range and Muskingum would be the communication be-of townships being the fifteenth. tween the Ohio and Lake Erie, while the bulk of All being now ready for actual emigration, a plan the Atlantick trade, it was thought, would pass the mountains from James river and the Potomack, and flow down the Kenhawa.

of the city, which was to be built at the mouth of the Muskingum, was prepared in Boston; and, by a vote of the company in November, one hundred setOne other thing is said to have influenced Gener- tlers were to be sent forward at once; being furnishal Parsons; this was the advice of some persons, ed with provisions while on the way to the new that were supposed to be good judges, that he should country, and taken into pay at four dollars per month, not select the spot he did. The story is this, and, from their arrival at Pittsburgh till the following as our informant had it from General Rufus Putnam, May. Each man was to provide himself with "a we suppose it to be correct. After General Parsons good musket, bayonet, and cartridge-box;" and if had examined the country immediately about the he had besides an axe and hoe, and the mechanick junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio, he pro- his needful tools, he was to be transported free of ceeded up the valley of the former, that he might cost. Accordingly, in December, one party assemhave a view of the interiour. Having gone many bled at Danvers, Massachusetts, and upon the first miles, he met with one of the Zanes, four of which of January, a second detachment left Hartford. family were among the most noted of the frontier Their route was the old road, nearly that followed rangers. Zane was probably engaged in salt-ma- by Braddock; and it was April before the united king at Salt Creek, which runs into the Muskingum, parties left the Youghiogany, and began to flost about ten miles below the present town of Zanes-down toward their destined home; so that any who ville. Parsons, well knowing that the man he had chanced upon knew, from an acquaintance of fifteen years or more, the whole of what now forms the state of Ohio, asked his advice touching the location of the purchase which the Ohio Company proposed to make. Zane, having pondered the matter, and consulted with some of the old Delaware Indians that lived thereabout, recommended the general to choose either the Miami country, or the valley of the Scioto, in preference to that which he was then examining. What it was that made Parsons doubt the good faith of the pioneer, we know not; but he

might have counted upon the wages which they were to receive after passing Pittsburgh, and which were to be paid in land, must have found their farms but small, compared to their expectations.

Upon the seventh of April, 1788, this little band of forty-seven persons landed, and encamped upon the spot where Marietta now stands; and from that day Ohio dates her existence. The river, at whose mouth this first colony of the new settlers placed itself, was noted, even then, as the scene of many interesting historical events.

THE MAIDEN'S ROCK, LAKE PEPIN, ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

WINONA.

Lake Pepin is an enlargement of the Mississippi River, of about twenty-one miles in length and generally two and a half in breadth, and situated a few miles below the Falls of St. Anthony. It is encircled by majestick bluffs, with the agreeable exception of an occasional opening of fine meadow-land. The surface of the lake presents a smooth and sluggish expanse of water, unchecked by a single island, extending itself, generally unruffled, nearly as far as the eye can reach. In a high wind, however, it is reputed of very dangerous navigation, and on such occasions the voyageurs warn you le lac est petit, mais il est malin. About halfway up the lake, its eastern bank rises to a height of near four hundred and fifty feet, of which the first one hundred and fifty are formed by a perpendicular bluff, and the lower three hundred constitute a very abrupt and precipitous slope, which extends from the base of the bluff to the edge of the water. The wildness of the scenery, and its contrast with the shores of the river below, render it one of the most interesting spots on this vast flood of water. There is here also, what we seldom meet with on the lengthened Mississippi, a high projecting point, a precipitous crag resting upon a steep bank whose savage features singularly contrast with the peaceful lake whose waters lave its base. But the associations connected with this spot, invest it with a superiour interest, while at the same time, they throw a gloom over the bright features of the scene. It is remembered, as the theatre of one of the most melancholy incidents, that often occur in the history of the Indians. We give the tale in the simple language of a guide, who accompanied Major Long in his northern expedition.

"There was, in the village of Keoxa, in the tribe of Wapasha, during the time that his father lived and ruled over them, a young Indian female whose name was Winona, which signifies "the first-born." She had conceived an attachment for a young hunter who reciprocated it; they had frequently met, and agreed to a union in which all their hopes centred; but on applying to her family, the hunter was surprised to find himself denied, and his claims superseded by those of a warriour of distinction, who had sued for her. The warriour was a general favourite with the nation; he had acquired a name, by the services which he had renderea to his village when attacked by the Chippewas; yet, notwithstanding all the ar

*Father Hennipin was the first European who ever saw this lake. He reached it in 1680, and called it the "Lake of Tears, because," says he, "the savages who took us, consulted in this place what they should do with their prisoners; and those who were for murthering

as, cried all the night upon us, to oblige, by their tears, their companlons to consent to our death. Its waters are almost standing, the

stream being hardly perceptible in the mid-lle."

dour with which he pressed his suit, and the countenance which he received from her parents and brothers, Winona persisted in preferring the hunter. To the usual commendations of her friends in favour of

Winona

the warriour she replied, that she had made choice of a man who, being a professed hunter, would spend his life with her, and secure to her, comfort and subsistence, while the warriour would be constantly absent, intent upon martial exploits. Winona's exposhaving succeeded in driving away her lover, began tulations were, however, of no avail, and her parents to use harsh measures in order to compel her to unite with the man of their choice. To all her enreaties, that she should not be forced into a union so repugnant to her feelings, but rather be allowed to had at all times enjoyed a greater share in the affeclive a single life, they turned a deaf ear. tions of her family, and she had been indulged more, than is usual with females among Indians. Being a favourite with her brothers, they expressed a wish that her consent to this union should be obtained by persuasive means, rather than that she should be compelled to it against her inclination. With a view to remove some of her objections, they took means to provide for her future maintenance, and presented to the warriour all that in their simple mode of living an Indian might covet. About that time a party was formed to ascend from the village to Lake Pepin, in order to lay in a store of the blue clay which is found upon its banks, and which is used by the Indians as a pigment. Winona and her friends were visited the lake that her brothers offered their preof the company. It was on the very day that they sents to the warriour. Encouraged by these, he again addressed her, but with the same ill success. Vexed at what they deemed an unjustifiable obstinacy on her part, her parents remonstrated in strong landience. guage, and even used threats to compel her into obeWell," said Winona, "you will drive me to despair; I said I loved him not, I could not live with him; I wished to remain a maiden; but you would not. You say you love me; that you are my driven from me the only man with whom I wished to father, my brothers, my relations, yet you have be united; you have compelled him to withdraw from the village; alone, he now ranges through the forest, with no one to assist him, none to spread his blanket, none to build his lodge, none to wait on him; yet was he the man of my choice. Is this your love? But even it appears that this is not enough; you would have me do more; you would have me rejoice in his with one whom I do not love, with whom I never can absence; you wish me to unite with another man, be happy. Since this is your love, let it be so; but soon you will have neither daughter, nor sister, nor relation, to torment with your false professions of affection." As she uttered these words, she withdrew, and her parents, heedless of her complaints, decreed that that very day Winona should be united to the tions for the festival, she wound her way slowly to warriour. While all were engaged in busy preparathe top of the hill; when she had reached the summit, she called out with a loud voice to her friends below; she upbraided them for their cruelty to herself and her lover. "You," said she, "were not satisfied with opposing my union with the man whom I had chosen, you endeavoured by deceitful words to make me faithless to him, but when you found me

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resolved upon remaining single, you dared to threaten me; you knew me not if you thought that I could be terrified into obedience; you shall soon see how well I can defeat your designs." She then commenced to sing her dirge; the light wind which blew at the time, wafted the words towards the spot where her friends were; they immediately rushed, some towards the summit of the hill to stop her, others to the foot of the precipice to receive her in their arms, while all, with tears in their eyes, entreated her to desist from her fatal purpose; her father promised that no compulsive measures should be resorted to. But she was resolved, and as she concluded the words of her song, she threw herself from the precipice, and fell, a lifeless corpse, near her distressed friends. Thus, has this spot acquired a melancholy celebrity; it is still called the Maiden's Rock, and no Indian passes near it, without involuntarily casting his eye towards the giddy height, to contemplate the place, whence this unfortunate girl fell a victim to the cruelty of her relentless pa

rents

But

This tragedy was enacted many years ago. we are told that "there were in the circumstances of this case, several conditions which tended to impart to it a peculiar interest; the maid was one who had been a favourite in her tribe; the warriour whom her parents had selected was one of note; her untimely end was a publick one; many were the witnesses to it; it was impressive in the highest degree; the romantick situation of the spot, which may be thought to have had some influence over the mind of a young and enthusiastick female, must have had a corresponding effect upon those who witnessed it." It did produce an indelible impression upon its witnesses; and the Indian now who has even received the tale from others, relates it with deep and unaffected feeling. It is one of those cases which show how completely the savage is swayed by passion, and presents at the same time a test of its sineerity and constancy.

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A hint to wives." If I'm not at home from the party to-night, at ten o'clock," said a husband to his better and bigger half, "don't wait for me." "That won't," said the lady significantly, "I won't wait, but I'll come for you.' He returned at ten precisely.

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AN INDIAN STORY.

BY WILLIAM C. BRYANT.

"I know where the timid fawn abides
In the depths of the shaded dell,
Where the leaves are broad and the thicket hides,
With its many stems and its tangled sides,
From the eye of the hunter well

"I know where the young May violet grows,
In its lone and lowly nook,

On the mossy bank, where the larch tree throws
Its broad dark boughs, in solemn repose,
Far over the silent brook.

"And that timid fawn starts not with fear
When I steal to her secret bower,
And that young May violet to me is dear,
And I visit the silent streamlet near,

To look on the lovely flower."

Thus Maquon sings as he lightly walks
To the hunting ground on the hills;
'Tis a song of his maid of the woods and rocks,
With her bright black eyes and long black locks,
And voice like the musick of rills.

He goes to the chase-but evil eyes

Are at watch in the thicker shades; For she was lovely that smiled on his sighs, And he bore, froin a hundred lovers, his prize, The flower of the forest maids.

The boughs in the morning wind are stirred
And the woods their song renew,

With the early carol of many a bird,
And the quickened tune of the streamlet heard
Where the hazels trickle with dew.

And Maquon has promised his dark-haired maid,
Ere eve shall redden the sky,

A good red deer from the forest shade,
That bounds with the herd through grove and glado,
At her cabin door shall lie.

The hollow woods, in the setting sun,
Ring shrill with the fire-bird's lay;"
And Maquon's sylvan labours are done,
And his shafts are spent, but the spoil they won
He bears on his homeward way.

He stops near his bower-his eye perceives
Strange traces along the ground-

At once, to the earth his burden he heaves,
He breaks through the veil of boughs and leaves,
And gains its door with a bound.

But the vines are torn on its walls that leant,
And all from the young shrubs there

By struggling hands have the leaves been rent,
And there hangs, on the sassafras broken and bent,
One tress of the well-known hair.

But where is she who at this calm hour,
Ever watched his coming to see,
She is not at the door, nor yet in the bower,
He calls-but he only hears on the flower
The hum of the laden hee.

It is not a time for Idle grief,
Nor a time for tears to flow,
The horrour that freezes his limbs is brief-
He grasps his war axe and bow, and a sheaf
Of darts made sharp for the foe.

And he looks for the print of the ruffian's feat,
Where he bore the maiden away;

And he darts on the fatal path more fleet
Than the blast that hurries the vapour and sleet
O'er the wild November day.

"Twas early summer when Maquon's bride Was stolen away from his door;

But at length the inaples in crimson are died, And the grape is black on the cabin side,And she siniles at his hearth once more.

But far in a pine grove, dark and cold,
Where the yellow leaf falls not,
Nor the autumn shines in scarlet and gold,
There lies a hillock of fresh dark mould,
In the deepest gloom of the spot.

And the Indian girla, that pass that way,
Peint out the ravisher's grave;

"And how soon to the bower she loved," they say, "Return'd the maid that was borne away

From Maquon, the fond and the brave."

Happiness consists in the preservation of a firm and equal mind.—Horace.

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