the
explosive end of too many of the early boats--were next in the field, and
the latter won fame by being the first boat to make the up trip from New
Orleans to Louisville. Another steamboat, the "Enterprise," carried a
cargo of, powder and ball from Pittsburg to General Jackson at New
Orleans, and after some service on southern waters, made the return trip
to Louisville in twenty-five days. This was a great achievement, and
hailed by the people of the Kentucky town as the certain forerunner of
commercial greatness, for at one time there were tied to the bank the
"Enterprise" from New Orleans, the "Despatch" from Pittsburg, and the
"Kentucky Elizabeth" from the upper Kentucky River. Never had the
settlement seemed to be so thoroughly in the heart of the continent.
Thereafter river steamboating grew so fast that by 1819 sixty-three
steamers, of varying tonnage from twenty to three hundred tons, were
plying on the western rivers. Four had been built at New Orleans, one each
at Philadelphia, New York, and Providence, and fifty-six on the Ohio. The
upper reaches of the Mississippi still lagged in the race, for most of the
boats turned off up the Ohio River, into the more populous territory
toward the east. It was not until August, 1817, that the "General Pike,"
the first steamer ever to ascend the Mississippi River above the mouth of
the Ohio, reached St. Louis. No pictures, and but scant descriptions of
this pioneer craft, are obtainable at the present time. From old letters
it is learned that she was built on the model of a barge, with her cabin
situated on the lower deck, so that its top scarcely showed above the
bulwarks. She had a low-pressure engine, which at times proved inadequate
to stem the current, and in such a crisis the crew got out their shoulder
poles and pushed her painfully up stream, as had been the practice so many
years with the barges. At night she tied up to the bank. Only one other
steamer reached St. Louis in the same twelve months. By way of contrast to
this picture of the early beginnings of river navigation on the upper
Mississippi, we may set over some facts drawn from recent official
publications concerning the volume of river traffic, of which St. Louis is
now the admitted center. In 1890 11,000,000 passengers were carried in
steamboats on rivers of the Mississippi system. The Ohio and its
tributaries, according to the census of that year, carried over 15,000,000
tons of freight annually, mainl