Quick Work. The Britannia arrived at the dock in Boston this (Sat.) morning, July 3, at a few minutes before 8 o'clock. By extraordinary exertions we have received the news brought by her, and are enabled to lay it before our readers this evening. Immediately after her arrival our Express started off upon the railroad for Norwich via Worcester. When about 35 miles this side of the later place the locomotive came in contact with a freight train, causing a violent shock, which threw the gentlemen who had charge of the papers from the car, and seriously bruised him. The hands were all injured, but not seriously. By this unfortunate accident the Express was detained two hours, but, notwithstanding, it reached Norwich at half past 12, a distance of 104 miles in 24 hours running time. From Norwich to this city 135 miles, the Express was brought by the steamer Norwich, Capt. Elliott, chartered for the occasion. She showed her spirit by screwing her steam "to the sticking point," and driving through the Sound at the rate of 16 to 18 miles per hour. An extraordinary excitement prevailed along the whole line of the Express. The depots and public places along the railroad were thronged to see it pass. When the boat left Norwich nearly the whole city gathered on the dock to cheer her on her way. As she came down the river she was saluted by the ringing of bells and firing of cannon. $26,681,337 53 23,914,409 40 When she reached this city a couple of our incomparable compositors had already put the news in type on board of her, and it was ready for the press. Too much praise cannot be awarded to Adams & Co., of the express Line, for their faithful and persevereing efforts to forward this enterprise. Mr. Farnsworth, of that firm, had the management of it, and to his spirit and energy we are largely indebted for its triumphant success.-N. Y. Sun. Treasury Notes. Treasury Department, July 3, 1841. Amount of Treasury Notes issued under the provisions of the acts of Congress of 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, Montgomery e... 39,406 ..... $3,766,928 13 Westmoreland .. Redeemed of those issues Leaving outstanding the sum of.. Issued under the act of Feb. 1841, viz. Prior March 4, $673,681 32 Since March 4, 4,049,349 70 27 8-10 1,348,203 1,724,033 The counties marked e, are in the Eastern District, the 4,578,767 00 others in the Western. Redeemed of that issue.. New county from Centre and Lycoming. New county from Northampton and Pike. + Including seven townships (population in 1830, 6,764) now in Monroe county. In the remaining townships making the present Northampton county, the population has increased 25 per cent. since 1830. § Including these townships now part of Monroe county. Clarion county (new) is included in Armstrong and Venango. Washington county is the only county in the State which has diminished in population during the last ten years without losing territory-why has this been the case? 908,644 Eastern district....... 755,484 815,389 Western do = 592,719 20 2-10 37 5-10 7 The UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL REGISTER, is published every Wednes day, at No. 76 Dock street. The price to subscribers is Five Dollars per annum, payable on the 1st of January of each year. No subscription received for less than a year.Subscribers out of the principal cities to pay in advance. PRINTED BY WILLIAM F. GEDDES, N. 119 CHESNUT STREET, Where, and at 70 Dock M, Mubscriptions will be received. HAZARD'S UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL VOL. V. REGISTER. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. ̧ PHILADELPHIA, WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 1841. Sketches of the First Settlements in To the Editors of the Louisville Journal: No. 2. Indians, with their families, going down to the falls for the purpose of hunting. The company remained at the mouth of the Kenawha until the 1st of June, when Capt. Bullitt. with three of his own men and those of the Delaware Indians, crossed the Ohio to go to Chillicothe on the Scioto in A controversy has lately taken place, as to the first perma- order to have a good understanding with the Shawnee and nent settlement in Kentucky, which I deem it my duty to Delaware Indians. The balance of the company proceeded elucidate, as far as the facts, which I have long since collect down the Ohio, examining the land and creeks from the ed, in relation to the subject, will justify. After a laborious mouth of Big Sandy down to the mouth of the Scioto, where investigation, it has been my settled opinion for more than they arrived on the 11th of June, and were joined by Capt. thirty years, that Harrodstown (now Harrodsburg) was per- Bullitt and his men on the 13th they having come down the manently occupied in March, 1775, and Boonsborough in Scioto in a canoe. The captain reached Chillicothe on the the month following (April.) There may be some dispute 5th of June, and was received with great pomp and apparent as to the nature and extent of the occupations; but, accord- hospitality. Being detained several days in a wigwam in ing to the simple facts, I think there can be no doubt, when the suburbs of the town, he was at length marched up to the connected with the events of 1774; from which time Har- council-house by about 115 warriors, and made his speech rodsburg was really occupied. But if the building of nine- on the 9th of June; and on the next day received a friendly teen or twenty houses, and occupying them, as well as rais- answer. The Indians had no objection to the whites seting corn and vegetables for five or six years, is a settlement, tling and cultivating the land, but reserved to themselves the then neither Harrodsburg nor Boonsborough can claim the right of hunting on it. I have copies of these papers, and a palm of primogeniture. It belongs to the French who built letter from Richard Butler, a white man who lived among a small town on the Kentucky shore of the Ohio, opposite the Indians, explaining to Capt. Bullitt the views and feelthe mouth of the Scioto, as early as 1755, as will be seenings of the Indians at that time, which will explain the causes hereafter. But, if we confine the question to the English or of future hostility. James McAfee and Robert McAfee, in Saxon race, a simples atement of facts will be sufficient to settle their journal, say: "At the mouth of the Scioto, on our side i'. I have now before me the historical sketches and narra- of the Ohio, (Kentucky side,) there is a small town of ninetions of McClung, Metcalfe, and Flint, also a letter written teen or twenty houses completely built, some of square logs, by my worthy friend Nathaniel Hart, of Woodford county, (hewed,) and clapboard roofs, with good doors, windows and Ky., and, in comparing their statements with each other, I chimneys, and some cleared ground, which appear to have observe a material difference in dates, while the general facts been built by the French during the last war. After Capt. are stated tolerably correctly. Finding that I could not har- Bullitt rejoined the company, they proceeded down the Ohio monize their statements with the proper dates, I turned to to the mouth of Licking, which was explored by Robert some old Journals in my possession, and notes taken in per- McAfee thirty or forty miles up. Here Mr. Douglass resonal conversations with General Ray, Capt. Chapline, Wil-mained behind, to make some surveys, and Capts. Bullitt liams, Sodowsky, (or Sandusky) and my uncle James McAfee about the years 1804, '5, and '6, when I had a lawsuit of my own on hand, and was also engaged in another which involved the dates of the first occupation of Harrodstown, and my own residence on Salt river. From these early records and conversations I have gathered the following statements, which I believe to be true. boy, and Taylor, and their companies, went on to the Big Bone In the years 1769, '70 and '71, Daniel Boon, his brother, At the mouth of the Kentucky, (or Levisa as written in the McAfee journal) river, Capt. Bullitt and his company parted with the McAfee company and Hancock Taylor on the 8th of July; Capt. Bullitt intending to go on to the falls, and Hancock Taylor and the McAfee company to ascend the Kentucky river into the interior. On the 9th of July they arrived at Drennon's lick, where they found John Drennon and Martin Bracken, who had anticipated them two days by crossing the country the day before they reached the mouth of the Kentucky. This was ever afterwards considered in no favorable light by the balance of the company. At Drennou's lick there were thousands of Buffaloes, deers and elk, and many bears, wolves, eagles and other birds of prey; for miles round the land was swept of grass; and the buffalo roads were described by James McAfee to be as large as the road leading to Williamsburg, Virginia. Here James McAfee and Samuel Adams encountered a perilous adventure in passing round the outskirts of the lick. A gang of nearly five hundred buffaloes became alarmed, and commenced running towards where they stood; there was no turn ing them. Adams had barely time to scamper up a leaning mulberry, and McAfee behind a tree about two feet in diameter, and there by close pressing side ways, the horns of the buffaloes scraping the bark on each side, he stood until the storm was over, while Adams hung on the mulberry like a coon, closely eying his friend to whom he could afford no relief. This incident furnished many an evening's amusement to them and their friends. From Drennon's lick they pursued a south-east course, along the buffalo road, and crossed the Kentucky river below where Frankfort now stands, at the place where the dam and lock are now built, and proceeded up the branch to a fine spring, where they hid a fishgig, and tomahawk, at the root of a gum tree, (the same spring I expect, from which the town of Frankfort is now watered.) Thence, passing down the valley leading to the present penitentiary, Robert McAfee had six hundred acres of land surveyed, including the whole town of Frankfort, and all the flat marsh land, which was afterwards converted into a valuable meadow by the Hon. John Brown. This was on the 16th day of July, 1773, and was the first survey ever made on the Kentucky river. The company then took the ridge which leads out towards Lexington and Versailles; but, apprehending a scarcity of water, they turned to the river and crossed it about seven miles above, and proceeded up to the Cove spring, now on the turnpike road leading from Frankfort to Harrodsburg, in the upper end of Henderson county where Major Lillard formerly lived. Here they encamped the 19th, 20th, and 21st of July, and found Salt river (which they called Crooked creek) about three west, and went down to the mouth of Hammond's creek, where they commenced surveying four hundred acre tracts of land for themselves and friends, and cutting down brush wood and piling it, as well as deadening timber on their several tracts. The company continued to survey the river up to where Wilson's station was afterwards built two miles above where Harrodsburg now stands. The company stopped at the mouth of the Harrodsburg branch on the 29th, and platted their several surveys; and on the S0th made two more surveys. On the 31st July (Saturday) the surveyor, Mr. Taylor, started for the Falls of Ohio with two men of his company, and the McAfees started to go up the Kentucky river home, and passed over a part of the Harrodsburg tract of land, and lay that night under the cliffs of Dick's river, about four miles above its mouth. They proceeded up the Kentucky river and along its middle fork, crossing the Cumberland mountain to Powell's valley. In this route, which they accomplished in sixteen days, they suffered hunger, starvation and fatigue, until one of the brothers, George McAfee, was exhausted, and was saved by the killing of the only deer they had seen for a week. In their route home they met Boon, preparing to move his family to Kentucky, with forty other individuals. This party was at tacked by the Indians, and Boon's eldest son killed, which, defeated the enterprise, and Boon returned to his former residence on Clinch river. I have been more minute than I intended in the foregoing remarks, which are chiefly taken from my father's and uncle James McAfee's journal, and may satisfy the curious who may wish to know the precise route by which the first surveyors and adventurers approach ed the interior. 1774. This year a more vigorous attempt was made to settle in the interior of Kentucky, especially on Salt river, and in the vicinity of Harrodsburg. Captain James Harrod, William Fields, James Brown, John Cowan, Jared Cowan, Abraham Chapline, Azariah Davis and others, making thirty one in all, came down the Monongahela and Ohio to the mouth of the Kentucky river, in the month of April, and as cended the Kentucky river in canoes to the mouth of a creek called Landing run, in the lower end of the present county of Mercer, and east of the village of Salvisa, thence across to Salt river near McAfee's station, and up the river to Fontaine Blue and to the place where Harrodsburg now stands, This company was followed, in two or three weeks after wards, by eleven others, consisting of Capt. David Williams, James Sandusky, and others; making in all forty-two men, Capt. Harrod and his party encamped at the Big spring, on the east of the place, where it was agreed to lay off a 1 town. They then explored the land in every direction.Harrod soon found what he called the Boiling spring, six miles south of Harrodstown, where he cut down brush and made his improvement, and where his widow now lives.— But the Big spring was their rallying point. An acre of ground was cleared at Fontaine Blue, (a large spring, three miles below Harrodsburg.) and corn planted. A cabin was built on Salt river, where my mill now stands, and Harrod's company, after they were joined by Williams and his men, agreed to lay off a town at their camp, giving each man a half acre lot, and a ten acre out lot; which was done, as near as I could ascertain from Capt. Chapline, on the 16th of June. And, what is remarkable, Col. Daniel Boon, under the orders of Gov. Dunmore, coming to this camp, on his way to the falls to warn the surveyors of their danger from the Indians, had one lot laid off for himself adjoining a lot for a man by the name of Hinton, who soon after, with four others, built each a good cabin. The cabin built by Hinton was afterwards known as Hinton or Boon's cabin. These cabins stood on the south side of the town branch, near where Archibald Woods now lives, and about one hundred and twenty yards below the town spring, and were occupied as a common rallying point until the tenth of July, when the Indians fired upon a party of this company, killing Jared Cowan at Fontaine Blue, and the whole company at that time left the country. Thus we find Boon at Harrodsburg, in June 1774, taking part in the town then laid out into lots, upon which four or five cabins were built. It may, however, be denied that this was a permanent settlement, as the whole company left the country. But surely the building of houses and occupying them for a time constitutes a settlement, even if temporarily left with the professed design of returning; which was the case, as will be seen by the concluding narrative of the next year's operations, which will finally test the priority of settlement. 1775. In the latter part of February, 1775, the McAfee company, with the addition of William McAfee and Samuel McAfee, two other brothers, and David Adams, John Higgins, and Sevier Poulson, again left Bottetourt county, (in Virginia,) and came to Kentucky by Cumberland Gap, along the trace marked by Boon in 1774, when he came to the country to warn the surveyors of the expected Indian hostilities. They arrived at James McAfee's spring on the 11th of March, passing Harrodstown; and on the fourth day afterwards (the 15th) Capt. Harrod and his company again came to McAfee's camp, on their way to Harrodstown. In this company were nearly all the former men and several others, and Harrodstown was again occupied about the middle of this month. Robert, James, and Samuel McAfee cleared two acres of ground at James McAfee's spring, putting a brush fence round it, and planted apple seed for a nursery and peach stones which they had brought with them for that purpose. Robert McAfee, my father, planted the same on the place where I now live; and I well recollect eating apples and peaches from these trees many years after. Some of these peach trees were alive in 1792, and I have two apple trees of this original stock, which are yet flourishing and bearing apples every year. George McAfee and Wm. McAfee cleared several acres at a spring near the town branch, a few hundred yards south of Mr. Jos. Morgan's, and about a mile from Harrodsburg. This company left Harrodstown about the 10th of April, leaving John Higgins and Sevier Poulson to plant some corn, and look after their land, so as to warn others from interfering with them; they were to remain in Harrodstown and at the cabin built on Salt river, which was covered with bark for that purpose.Higgins and Poulson staid till June, and then returned with Hogan, Denton, and others, who were returning for their families. In September, 1775, James and John McConn, David Adams, and John Higgins having previously returned to Bottetourt, returned to Salt river, with forty head of cattle, which they drove with them to James McConn's land, one mile below J. McAloo's station, and remained all winter, and until June, 1770, olearing tifeen acres of ground, and planting the whole in corn. But we must now return to Col, Boon and the settlement of Boonsborough. Some narratives place Boon's arrival at |