Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/109

 enough for keeping head against the wind, which twirled his vessel round, and occasionally drifted him up the stream. He put ashore, as did also a family boat, that could not get onward.

The wind having increased, I found it expedient to land at Wellsburgh, and wait till the gale abated. The waves were too large for such a small bark, and, in making the crossings necessary to keep in the proper channel, I was in danger of exposing the broadside too much to the weather.

Wellsburgh, (formerly Charlestown,) stands on the Virginia side of the river. It is a small town; I observed in it a court-house, a jail, a large store-house, and several taverns. The margin of the river is so shallow, that I could not push my skiff within twelve feet of the dry ground. There is no wharf or artificial landing place here, or at any of the towns that I have seen by the river. The floods sweep off almost every thing that is erected within the banks; even the roads that are scooped out of the beach are at times destroyed. Taverns (out of town) have only a rude foot-path cut in the bank, and many of them have not a trace formed by the hands of man.

Afternoon. The wind calmed, and I proceeded downward. I came up with two young men in a {80} small skiff; one of them put off his coat to row, and the other paddled with an oar. Their intention was evidently to keep before me, but they were soon disappointed. When one small boat comes up with another, a sort of race is almost invariably the consequence. I have already acted a part in several of them, and have uniformly got foremost. On one occasion I was opposed by three men in a smaller skiff than my own. I impute my success to the superior construction of my vessel, and to the extraor