72. Early literature relating to travel in America. Title page of Thornton's pamphlet in description of Fitch's boats. Thornton was a member of Fitch's company in Philadelphia, when the vessels were built and operated.

demonstrations were necessarily without effect. The collective popular opinion of a newly created state resembles in many ways the mentality of an individual in the early period of self-consciousness. Some things are beyond its comprehension.

access.

A knowledge of what Fitch did has been easy of The contemporary records, some of which are here reproduced, have been open for men to read. Yet it has been the custom to dismiss him, in discussing the development of steam travel in America, by saying he lived before his time. The expression is a familiar one, often adopted by a people for application to such a case in an effort to rid themselves of responsibility and place the blame where they wish it might belong

on the man who had presumption to do things his contemporaries did not appreciate. But the splendor of inspiration and original creation is not dimmed by such an artifice. No man is born before his time, for the days in which he lives belong to him, and are the ones that witness the performance of his labor. If what he offers is not accepted by his fellow men it is not because he is before his time, but because they refuse to walk beside him and accept the years of advancement that lie within his gift. The greater loss is theirs; not his. So it was in this case, and so passes the last individual figure of the story. Fitch was a genius cursed with a knowledge of the greatness of his own derided achievement. There can be no fate more sad than that.

It is idle to consider what would have happened if men of power had fought with one another for the privilege of aiding him and enriching themselves, as would be the case in like circumstance to-day. Had that thing happened the whole country east of the Mississippi would probably have been overrun by the aid of steam some

twenty or twenty-five years before it was conquered in that way, with resultant consequences on all social and economic progress, both in America and the world, which forbid speculation. Fitch's method of travel was laughed aside, but did not dic. It slept.

CHAPTER XVI

THE AGE OF THE FLATBOAT, ARK AND KEEL-BOAT BEGINS EFFECT OF THE OPENING OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY A MILLION PEOPLE DRIFT THROUGH THE INTERIOR LIFE ON THE FLATBOATS CONTRASTS OF TRAGEDY AND REVEL DESCRIPTIONS AND USES OF THE VARIOUS CRAFT BY WHICH THE FIRST GENERAL TRAVEL TO THE OHIO COUNTRY AND MIDDLE WEST WAS ACCOMPLISHED

T

HE era of the flatboat, ark and keel-boat had already begun. With the passage of the Northwest Ordinance by the Congress of the Confederation in 1787 the territory now included in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin was thrown open to settlement, and a general public interest in the immense region beyond the mountains and the Ohio River swept through the original seacoast colonies. Hundreds of thousands of the population, to which aggregate each state contributed a share, decided to journey to the western country and set up new homes in the forest. Preparations for the migration affected every locality of the East. That part of the interior toward which the eyes of the coast inhabitants were now turned was unknown in its details to the bulk of the people, though a knowledge of its essential characteristics and the best ways of getting there had been spread through the occupied areas by means of tales brought back by numerous frontier travel

73.-River travel before the age of steamboats. The covered keel-boat, or barge, was for many years the principal river craft for quick journeys, especially up-stream. Barges often had sleeping bunks, but passengers carried their own bedding. The captain blew a horn at starting time. This and the illustrations to No. 90, inclusive, show the various types of drifting and man-propelled boats used from about 1788 until after the general introduction of steamboats, and indicate the manner in which hundreds of thousands floated down the Ohio and Mississippi to settle in the interior.

lers. The country was known to be densely wooded, and very fertile after the forest had been swept away. It could most easily be reached by the Ohio River, which traversed the border of the region for nearly a thousand miles and whose numerous tributaries furnished routes through the southern part of the inviting lands for considerable distances. The northern section of the territory affected by the Ordinance was all but unknown. It was not considered at the beginning of the first general westward rush of the people, because it could not be penetrated. The difficulties and dangers of such an attempt were too great to be wisely undertaken.

A journey to the head waters of the Ohio, at the time