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Show Tl AVELS TIIROUGH NORTH AMERICA: ville, that of the other, [even hun dred aml twenty-cJ· g1 1- t •• Both • tb ef~ towns draw their fupplies of foreign manufaCtures from Phdadelphla, and by landcarriage. Suppotlng then that the navigation of the Shenan~~ab: lhould be perfeCted, there would be a faving of ~our hundred a~1d thu ty~ fix miles of land carriage from going to W aGungton by the Sh~nan_ doah and Patowmac infl ad of going to Philadelphia; fuch a fa~mg, 1t might be imagined, woald draW the whole of this trade tO w_aG1111gton. Whether the two weftern ftates, Kentucky and Tene!fee, w11l trade to New Orleans or not, at a future day, in preference to any of thcfe places, will be invcfiigated prefently·. By means of Cheat an d M onongal 1 e 1a n·v ers 1't h. as .b een {hewn; that an opening may be obtained to Pittfuurgh .. Thts w1ll ~e a route of about four hundred and fifty miles from WaG11ngton, and m it there. will be one portage, from the Patowmac to Cheat River, of thirty-feven miles, and perhaps two or three others; but thefe will be all very fmall. It has been a[ceroined beyond doubt, that the Pittfuurgh merchant can have his goods conveyed £·om New York, by means of the Hudf~a and Mohawk rivers, to Ofwego, and from thence by the lakes OntanOr and Eric, and the Alleghany River, to Pittfumgh, for one third of the fum which it ofts him to tranfport them by land from Philadelphia. He prefers getting th m by land, becaufc the route from New York is un-certain; his goods may be loft, or dat.naged, or delayed months beyond the time he expeCts them. From Hudfon River to the Mohawk is a portage of ten miles, or thereabouts; and before they can get to Ofwcgo are two or three more. At Ofwego the goods mufl: be fhipped on board a vefid fuitablc for navigating the lakes, where they are expofed to tempe!l:s and contrary winds. At the Falls of Niagara is a portage of nine miles more; the goods mufl: here be {hipped again on board a veffcl on Lake Erie, and after arriving at Prefqu' Hie mufl. be conveyed over another portage preparatory to their being laden in a boat upon the Alleghany River. The whole of this route, from New York to Pittiburgh, is about eight hundred miles; that from the federal c'ty not much more than half the difi:ance; if therefore the merchant at Pittiliurgh can get his goods conveyed from New York for PROBABLE TRADE OF \V ASHINGTON. 43 for one third of wl at he pays for the carriage of them by lJ.nd from Phila iclphi,t, he ought not to pay more than one fix th of the fum for their carriage from the federal ity; it is to be con ludeJ, thcr fore, tha t he wilt avail himfclf of the latter route, as there will be no oL~ec:lion. to it on account of any uncertain ty in the mode of conve; ance, arifing fro n il:orms and con trary winds. The p oplc in Pittfuurgh, and the weftern country along the waters of the Ohio, draw their fupplics from Phibdelphia and Baltimore; but they fend the pro uClions of the country, whi ch would be t o bulky for land carriage, down the Ohio and Miflilllppi to New Orleans. I• rom PittilJ ur ()'h to New Orleans the di{bncc is two thoufimd one hundred b and eighty-three miles. On ::m average it takes about twenty-eight days to go down there with the fiream; but to return by water it takes from fixty days to three month s. The pafh'1ge back is very laboriou s as well as tedious; on which accoun t they feldom think of bringing back boats which arc fent down from Pittiliurgh, but on arriving at New Orleans they are broken up, and the plank fold. Thefe boats are built on the clleape.fl: confirul'tion, and cxprefsly fur the purpofe of going down fircam. The men get back the befl: way they can, generally in {hips bound from New Orleans to the fouthern fl:ates, and from thence home by land. Now, if the pa!Etge from the Ohio to the Patowmac is opened, it cannot be fuppofed that the people in Pittiliurgh and the vicinity will continue thus to fend the produce down to Orleans, from whence they cannot bring any thing in return; they will naturally fend to the federal city, from wh nee they can draw the fupplies they are in want oC and which i , fo much nearer to them, that when the navig:: nian is perfeCted it will be poffible to go there and back again in the fame time that it requires merely to go down to New Orleans. Bnt although the people of that country which borders upon the Ohio and its waters, in the vic::inage of Pittfburgh, may h ave an intereft in trading to the fLdcral city, yet thofe who live towards the mouth of that river will find an int.erell: equally great in trading to New Orkans, for the Ohio Rivc1· is no lcfs than cle,·en hundred and e ighty three miles in leng th. How far down upon the Ohio a commercial intcrcourfe will be kept up G a with |