p27 1817 Journal Thomas Dean

places where we stopped, very poor. There were no seats or furniture in the house, so we cooked our food, took it on board, and ate as we sailed. The wind became fair and we ran down before a light breeze to below Pigeon Creek, then beat down about two or three miles to the Red Bank at the village of Henderson, Ky., where we stopped at about half past 8 P. M. After some time I found poor lodgings for our company. We thought of walking out to see a steam mill, but in the morning we concluded not to.

July Sth. We understood that the steam mill would not ' he in operation through the day, and Ending the poverty of the place to be so great, we concluded to cleanse our boat and proceed, for we could get neither Hour, meal, milk, but- ter, nor cheese, and our stock was small. We thought best to run down farther, although we had not eaten since we took breakfast at Frenchma.n's Island. After our boat was cleansed, we reloaded, passed down the river five or six miles to the place of a wealthy planter of Kentucky, who had many slaves, from one of whom we bought some onions and cucuxnbers. The gentleman was very polite to us and furnished us with greens, squashes, etc. He had a fine plan- tation and about one hundred slaves in diierent parts of his lands. We started about half past 11 A. M., went down t the river and took our breakfast as we sailed. The wind , was ahead, as it usually was. We sailed till near sundown, * then went on shore near Straight Island, made a fire, and i cooked our supper. We concluded to run down to the mouth of the Wabash in the night. The boatswain and I took the watch, the rest turned in about 10 P. M., and we went to near the head of Wabash Island. We concluded to go