I know not the length of this wonderful shoal; it had been represented to me to be twenty-five or thirty miles.

If so, we must have descended very rapidly, as indeed we did, for we passed it in about three hours." On the twentieth the little fleet arrived at the mouth of the Tennessee and the voyagers landed on the bank of the Ohio.
"Our situation here is truly disagreeable.

The river is very high and the current rapid, our boats not constructed for the purpose of stemming a rapid stream, our provisions exhausted, the crews almost worn down with hunger and fatigue, and know not what distance we have to go or what time it will take us to our place of destination.

The scene is rendered still more melancholy as several boats will not attempt to ascend the rapid current.

Some intend to descend the Mississippi to Natchez; others are bound for the Illinois--among the rest my son-in-law and daughter.