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Show • ~0 TRAVELS TilROUGII NORTI-I AMERICA: every dl.f CI....n.L ·l0 11 • B,v .a. portaror e of nine miles at th ... Fal.l s of Niag1ra, th · nav1· ga t.1 0n o f 1.. al·c Ontlrio and the St. Lawrence 1s opened on one H · • • • fide, and at the other th:lt of Lake Superior, by a fbll n1ortcr portage at the Falls of St. Mary. This lafl l.tke, which is at leai1 iJJtccn hundred 1niles in circumference, is fupplied by no lels than forty rivers; and beyond it the water communication extends for hundreds of tniles farther on, through the Lake of the \Voods to Lake vVinniprg, which is t1.iH larger than· that of Superior. But fuppofing that the immenfe regions bordering upon thefe lake~ and rivers were already peopled, it is not to be concluded, that b caufe they arc connc<..'l:ed by water with the Patowmac, the federal city nHtft necdfarily b~; the mart for the various produtlions of the whole country. There arc difrercnt fea rorts to w1tich the inhabitants will trade, ~ccording to the fituntion of each particular part of the country. ~ebcc, on the river St. Lawrence, wi l1 be one ; New York, connected as has been !hewn with Lake Ontario, another; and New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mi!IiDi~ppi, which by the late .treaty with Spain has been made a free port, a third. rr he federal city will come in alfo for its {hare, and yvhat this !1ure will be it now rernains to afcertain. Situated upon the banks. of the Patovnnac, there are already two towtJ \ and both in the vicinity of the federal city. George 1'own, which contains about t\VO hundred and fifty houfes; ant! Alexandria, with double the number. The former of the{(; fiands about one mile above the city, nearly oppofite the large r.ock in the river, which 1las been fpokcn of; the latter, fcvcn miles below it. Confiderablc ouantitics of ... produce ~re already fcnt down the Patowmac to each of thefe :towns, and the people in the country arc beginning to look thither in return for a part of their fupp1y of foreign manufaCtures. It has been tnaintaincd, therefore, that thefe two places, already in the practice of trading with the back fcttkrs, will dt.aw the ~rcotcr part of the country tr:.1d~ to them[elves, to the prejudice of the federal city. Doth thcfc towns Jvvc as great advaqta.ses in point of fituation as the city; tbc intcrc:i1s of the three places thLrcfore mufl. unqueftionabJy for a time clafh togetl.1cr. lt can hardly be doubted, however, but that the ft:dcral • PROBABLE TRADE OF w·ASIIINGTON. federal city will in a few years colnp1etcly cc1ipfc.: the other t\"'lO. l}corgc Town can furni(h the people of the back country \Vith fi)J cign Inanuf.'lCl.nres, at fccond h.mcl only, fi·orn Ihltirnorc and Philaddpl ia; Alexandria itnports directly frorn Europe, but on a very contratlcd tcale: rnorc than two thirds of the good, which arc fcnt frqn1 thence to the back country arc procured in the i~une n1anner as at GL:orgc 1'own. In 11eithcr place arc there n1crchants with hrgc capitaL; nor have the banks, of which there is one in each town, fufJ1ci ·n t funds to af.tord tlwm 1nnch anlO:ance; but tnerchants with large c,lpita1s ~1e prcpat ing to n1ovc to the city. As foon alfo as the feat of govern nent is fi .'ed there, the national bank, or at I call: a large branch of it, will be ct1.abliihed at the fame tin1c; this circurnfl ance alone w i1l afford the people of the city a decided advantage over thofe of Alcxandri.l and G orge 'fown. Added to all, both thefc towns arc in the territory of Colu1nbia, that is, in tbe difl:riet of ten 1nilcs round the city which is to be fubjetl: to the laws and regulations of congrefs alone; it tnay be, therefore, that encouragcn1ents will be held out by congrcfs to thofe who fettle in the city, which will be refufcd to fuch as go to any other part of the territory. Although Alexandria and George Town, then, tnay rival the city while it is in its infancy, yet it cannot be imagined that either of thern will be able to cope with it in the end. 'l'he probable trade of the city n1ay for this reafon be f}wkcn of as if neither of the other places cxifled. It n1ay be taken for grant d, in the firrt place, that the -whole of the country bordcri1 g upon the Patowmac river, and upon thofe ri vcrs which £dl into .it, will trade \Vith the city of W afhington. In tracing the courfe or the Patown1~c all thcfe rivers were not enumerated; a better idt:a of them n1ay be had 1i·onl an infpeetion of the n1ap. Shenandoah, which is the longcil, is not navigable at prefent; but it has been furveyt: d, and the company for itnproving the navigation of the Patownuc have Hated that it can be n1adc fo fiH· one hundred tnilcs. 1-.his would. be coming VL:t y ncar to Staunton, behind the Blue Mountains, and whi<.h is on the high road frotn Kentucky, :-tnd Ii·01n the new ib.tc of TencfTcc, to the city of Philadelphia. Frankfort, the c.1pital of the fonncr of thcfc fiatcs, is nearly eight hundrccltnilcs fron1 Philadelphia; Knox- G ville, |