Narrative of a Journey Down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789-90

An extended eyewitness account of a late-eighteenth-century descent of major western rivers that combines travel description, practical detail on river navigation and boat life, portraits of frontier settlements, encounters en route, and recollected episodes from the Revolutionary era. Written from long-remembered experience and augmented by a prefatory memoir and illustrative notes, the narrative balances vivid anecdote with observations of pioneer customs, hazards of river travel, and the shifting human and natural landscape along the Ohio and Mississippi.