Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/275



General observations on the State of Tennessea.—Rivers Cumberland and Tennessea.—What is meant by East Tennessea or Holston, and West Tennessea or Cumberland.—First settlements in West Tennessea.—Trees natives of that country.

The state of Tennessea is situated between 35 and 36 deg. 30 min. latitude, and 80 and 90 deg. 30 min. longitude. It is bounded north by Kentucky, south by the territories belonging to the Indian Cherokees and Chactaws, west by the Ohio, and east by the Alleghany Mountains, which separate it from Virginia and North Carolina. Its extent in breadth is nearly a hundred and three miles {230} by three hundred and sixty in length. Prior to the year 1796, the epoch of its being admitted into the Union, this country comprised a part of North Carolina. The two principal rivers are the Cumberland and Tennessea, which flow into the Ohio eleven miles distant from each other, and are separated by the chain of mountains in Cumberland.

The river Cumberland, known to the French Canadians by the name of the river Shavanon, derives its source in Kentucky, amidst the mountains that separate it from Virginia. Its course is about four hundred and fifty miles. It is navigable, in winter and spring, for three hundred and fifty miles from its embouchure; but in summer, not above fifty miles from Nasheville. The river Tennessea, named by the French Canadians the Cherokee River, is the most considerable of all those that empty themselves into the Ohio. It begins at West Point, where it is formed by the junction of the rivers Clinch and Hol