y. This company claimed to have become
the fortunate possessor of unnumbered acres in the valley of the Scioto,
and was anxious to share its good fortune--for a consideration--with
Eastern and European capitalists. It was desirous of securing an agent
to negotiate its sales in Europe, and, quite naturally, its choice fell
on Joel Barlow, the only American having a reputation abroad who was at
liberty to undertake the mission; and, since the company bore a good
repute and offered fair remuneration, the poet very gladly embraced its
offer. He does not seem to have met with much success in England, but in
France his reception was much more encouraging. An estate in the New
World was a veritable _chateau en Espagne_ to the mercurial Frenchmen,
and they purchased with some avidity; but just as the agent's ground was
prepared for a plenteous harvest news came that the Scioto Company had
burst, as bubbles will, leaving to its dupes only a number of
well-executed maps, some worthless parchments called deeds, and that
valuable experience which comes with a knowledge of the ways of the
world. Barlow, being the company's principal agent abroad, came in for
his full share of the abuse excited by its operations; and yet it is
evident that he was as innocent of its real character as any one, and
that he had accepted the position of agent with full confidence in the
company's integrity. Its collapse left him as poor as ever, and a
stranger in a strange land, notwithstanding he was surrounded here by
conditions that assured him the generous and honorable career which had
been denied him in the New World.

Of the foreigners who then thronged cosmopolitan Paris, none were so
popular as Americans. Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, by their
courtesy and dignity, joined to republican simplicity, had provided
passports for their countrymen to the good graces of all Frenchmen:
besides, the name "republican" was a word of magic import in France at
that time. Barlow's reputation as a poet was also of great service to
him at a time when literature exercised a commanding influence both in
society and politics. He was presented at court, admitted to the
companionship of wits and savants, and was enabled, by the favor of some
financial magnates, to participate in speculations which proved so
successful that in a short time he was raised above the pressure of
want. But in less than a year after his arrival the Revolution broke
out, and involved him