to command are to receive the pay and allowance of militia, and to act under the laws and regulations of this State, now in force, as militia. The inhabitants of this post will be informed by you, that in case they accede to the offers of becoming citizens of this Commonwealth, a proper garrison will be maintained among them, and every attention bestowed to render their commerce beneficial; the fairest prospects being opened to the dominions of both France and Spain.

“It is in contemplation to establish a post near the mouth of the Ohio. Cannon will be wanted to fortify it. Part of those at Kaskaskia will be easily brought thither, or otherwise secured, as circumstances will make necessary.

“You are to apply to General Hand, at Pittsburgh, for powder and lead necessary for this expedition. If he cannot supply it, the person who has that which Capt. Lynn brought from New Orleans can. Lead was sent to Hampshire by my orders, and that may be delivered you. Wishing you success, I am, Sir, your humble servant.

P. HENRY.

“With these instructions and twelve hundred pounds in the depreciated currency of the time, Colonel Clark, (for such was now his title,) on the 4th of February started for Pittsburgh. It had been thought best to raise the troops needed beyond the mountains, as the colonies were in want of all the soldiers they could muster east of the Alleghanies, to defend themselves against the British forces. Clark therefore proposed to enlist men about Pittsburg, while Maj. W. B. Smith, for the same purpose went to the Holston, and other officers to other points. None, however, succeeded as they hoped to; at Pittsburg Clark found great opposition to the intention of carrying men away to defend the outposts in Kentucky, while their own citadel and the whole region about it was threatened by the savage allies of England; and Smith, though he nominally succeeded in raising four companies, was unable essentially to aid his superior officer after all. With three companies and several private adventurers, Clark at length commenced his descent of the Ohio, which he navigated as far as the Falls, where he took possession of and fortified Corn Island, opposite the spot now occupied by Louisville.”

It is only necessary to state here that Clark’s success in this expedition was complete and perfect, and that a more brilliant campaign has probably never been performed by any general. More than this does not immediately concern this history.

It is estimated that Col. Clark left in his new fort on this island about thirteen families, when he proceeded on his journey to Kaskaskia. And so brave, hardy and resolute were these pioneers, that, notwithstanding they were separated from the nearest of their countrymen by four hundred miles of hostile country, filled with savages whose dearest hunting grounds they were about to occupy; notwithstanding they knew that these relentless savages were not only inimical on account of the invasion of their choicest territory, but were aided by all the arts, the presents and the favors of the British in seeking to destroy their settlements; notwithstanding all these terrifying circumstances, those dauntless pioneers went quietly to work, and with the rifle in one hand and the implements of agriculture in the other, deliberately set about planting, and actually succeeded in raising a crop of corn on their little island. It is thus that Corn Island derived its name. And truly so bold and heroic an act as this of that feeble band deserves a perpetuity beyond what the mere name of the island will give it. Columns have been reared and statues erected, festivals have been instituted and commemorations held of deeds far less worthy of renown than was this little settlement’s crop of corn. But like many other deeds of true heroism, it is forgotten, for there was wanted the pen and the lyre to make it live forever. The founders of the parent colony themselves did never greater deeds of heroism than did these pioneers of Louisville. And yet the very historians of the fact speak of it without a word of wonder or of admiration. Even in Louisville herself, now in her palmiest days, the Pilgrim’s Landing is commemorated each returning year, while the equal daring, danger and victory of the Western Pioneer has sunk into oblivion. But it is ever so. Men may live for a hundred years within the very roar of Niagara, and yet live uninspired until the same sound falls upon the ear or the same sight greets the eye on the far-off shores of the Evelino or the Arno. Erin’s Bard has ever told the praises of the Oriental Clime; the Lord of English verse has tuned his lyre under a foreign sky; the Mantuan Bard has sung “arma virumque Trojæ” and the Poet of Italy has soared even beyond the bounds of space in search of novelty; so must we wait for a stranger hand to weave the magic charm around the pioneers of our forest land. Let this frail record, at least, lend its little quota toward the honorable preservation of the names of Captain James Patton, who piloted the first boat over the falls, Richard Chenoweth, John Tuel, Wm. Faith, and John McManus, the only names that history or tradition has given us of those earliest settlers of our native city.

The chief subsistance of this little band had of course to be derived from the products of the chase, for the Indians would never have allowed them to attain a sufficiency of food by the slow and laborious processes of agriculture. Indeed one of the historians of this period roundly states that Kentucky could never have been settled had the products of the soil been the only resource of its pioneer inhabitants. Fortunately the woods of Kentucky so abounded in game, that it was easy for its early settlers to supply themselves with abundance of food from these sources. But the difficulty of carrying their game at all seasons of the year and all stages of the water to their insulated home, and the various annoyances of their constrained position on the island, united with the encouragement they derived from the wonderful success of their old commander in Illinois, soon determined the little colony to remove to the main bank of the river. And accordingly in the fall of 1778, or more probably in the spring of 1779, having built a fort on the eastern side of the large ravine which formerly entered the river at the present termination of Twelfth Street, they emigrated thither and thus laid the first permanent foundation of the present city of Louisville.

It was about this time that we have the first record of a social party in our city now so celebrated for its elegant entertainments and luxurious repasts. The bill of fare on that memorable occasion had at least the great and unusual merit of novelty to recommend it. We give the account of the event in the words of its own historian: “It is related,” says he, “that when the first patch of wheat was raised about this place, after being ground in a rude and laborious hand-mill, it was sifted through a gauze neckerchief, belonging to the mother of the gallant man who gave us the information, as the best bolting cloth to be had. It was then shortened, as the housewife phrases it, with Raccoon fat, and the whole station invited to partake of a sumptuous feast upon a flour cake!” How little of a prophet would he have been accounted who had then predicted that, in less than sixty years, the inhabitants of the very spot where they then stood should have at their command all the fruits and viands of every quarter of the globe!

It may not be inappropriate at this period of our history, and while upon this subject of parties and feasts, to extract, partly