Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/97

 reprehensible system of living continually on salt and smoked meat fried in the pan produces those acrid humors that render expectoration more difficult.

The 15th traveled 27 Miles and arrived at Nashville. Supper, bed and breakfast 2 shillings.

The 16th started to go and visit Colonel Hays[170] a wealthy inhabitant to whom I had been recommended the previous year by Governor Blount, Governor of the Country known under the name of Western territories, South west of the Ohio. This Country, which is estimated to have 60 Thousand inhabitants, in consequence of the considerable annual immigration and of the rapid increase of population, has just been erected into a State governed by its own representatives under the new name of the State of Tennesee from the name of a very large river that runs through the whole Houlston Country, the Cumberland Country, the Country of the Cheroquis Indians and other adjacent countries. This large river falls into the Ohio 9 Miles above fort Massac. It was known by the French, who were the first to discover the Countries in the interior of North America, under the name of Cheroquis River and it is so designated on the French Maps. I met at Colonel Hays's several inhabitants of the neighborhood who came to confer upon current matters in connection with the election of new civil and military Officers.

The 17th and 18th of February 1796 remained at Colonel Hays' on account of bad weather.

The 19th concluded the bargain for the purchase of a