Page:A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana.djvu/14

	8 mouth of the Muskingum on the 7th of April, and immediately began to clear the land on the eastern side of the river. In the month of August, eight families had arrived, who inhabited the temporary buildings, erected for their accommodation, on that pleasent [sic] and commanding situation where the beautiful and thriving town of Marietta now stands. In the course of the autumn more arrived, so that, at the beginning of June, 1790, there were twenty families on the ground.

It was the intention of this company, among whom were many of the officers of the revolutionary army, to have made a rapid settlement, but the Indians beginning to commit depredations, checked the emigration from the Atlantic States. In the winter of 1791, several persons in the out settlements were killed, and others taken prisoners. The people were obliged to erect posts of defence at Bellepre and at Wolf Creek. Marietta was strongly stockaded, and the inhabitants lived in a garrison state, until after the victory gained by General Wayne, on the 20th of August, 1794.

Soon after the Ohio company had made this purchase, another contract was made with Congress by Col. John C. Symmes, for a tract of land supposed to contain about one million of acres, lying within the following limits: beginning at the mouth of the Great Miami river, and thence running up the Ohio to the mouth of the