ed on the aspirant
having crossed the Alleghany Ridge, and added something to the stock
of intelligence of the region beyond, the title to all of which had
been conferred by royal patent on the colony at Jamestown.

Possessed of Canada, with strongly defended positions at Fort Duquesne
(Pittsburg) and Fort Chartres, near the confluence of the Ohio and
Mississippi, with the even then important city of New Orleans, the
wily statesmen of the reign of Louis XIV. conceived the plan of
enclosing the English colonies in a network of fortifications, and
ultimately of controlling the continent. So cherished was this policy
that treaties made in Europe between the crowns of France and England
never extended their influence to America, and for almost a century
continued a series of contests, during which Montcalm, de Levi, Wolf
and Braddock distinguished themselves and died. The result is well
known, Canada became English, the northern point _d'appui_ of the
system was lost, and the Ohio was no longer under their control. This
prologue to the beautiful engraving of Cincinnati is given because,
though Pittsburg and Louisville are important cities, Cincinnati is
the undoubted queen of the river.

It was not, however, until the war of the Revolution that serious
attention was generally directed to the Ohio, for the brilliant
expedition of Clarke against Kaskaskia (which is almost unknown,
though in difficulty and daring it far exceeded Arnold's against
Quebec,) was purely military. Immediately on the termination of the
war, emigrants began to hurry to the Ohio, and by one of the hardiest
of these, Cincinnati was commenced in 1789. By the gradual influx of
population into the west Cincinnati throve, and soon became the chief
city of the region.

For a long while Cincinnati was merely the depot of the Indians and
fur trade, the most valuable of the products of which required to be
transported across the mountains and through forests to the seaboard.
At that time Cincinnati presented a strange appearance; the houses
were of logs, and here and there through the broad streets its
founders so providentially prepared, were seen the hunter, in his
leathern jerkin, the Indian warrior in full paint, and the husbandman
returning home from his labors. Almost from the establishment of the
northwest territory Cincinnati had been the home of the governor; and
it was the residence of St. Clair, long the only delegate in congress
of the whole nor