Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/213

 Ellison, near Manchester.[136] He himself is four years from Tanderagee, in the county Armagh, Ireland, from whence he came with his family to inherit some property left him by a brother who had resided in Washington, Kentucky, but two hundred acres of land adjoining my tract near Maysville, was all he had been able to obtain possession of, although his brother had been reputed wealthy. I have met many Europeans in the United States, who have experienced similar disappointments.

My equestrian companion finding that I did not walk fast enough for him, parted from me soon after we left Allen's. At two miles from thence I came to Brush creek, a beautiful river about sixty yards wide. A new state road crosses the river here, but as I had been informed, that there was no house on it for ten miles, I preferred keeping up the bank of the river on the stage road, which led through a beautiful but narrow unsettled bottom, with Brush creek on the right, and a steep, craggy precipice on the left, for a mile and a half. I then ascended and descended a steep and barren ridge for a mile, when I forded the creek to Jacob Platter's finely situated tavern and farm on the opposite bank.

Having rested and taken some refreshment, the growling of distant thunder warned me to hasten my journey, as I had five miles through the woods to the next habitation. The road was fine and level,—the gust approached with