Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1819-12-04
PROM THE ST. LOUIS rxaU1nEn.

always been looked upon as the natural
sites of cities, and the map of every nation
on earth will shew that such situations
have always given birth to large, popu-
lous, and commercial towns.
Perhaps there is not a point ON the
globe where more water unites by the
junction of two rivers than that at the
confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi.
From the time Of their first discovery
the point of their union has been deemed
the natural situation of great city; but
several causes have combined, until late
| ly, to prevent the commencement of
town there. Until lately the Indian title
was not extinguished, and of course 10
settlement could be made and the Opt
Mon had become universal that the sur
rounding country was subject to annual
inundation.
Since five or six years, however, the
Indian title has been extinguished E; the
lands have been sold out; settlements
have been made in the fork of the rivers;
and the fact is ascertained that the i'm
mediate point only, consisting of some
miles of alluvial soil, is overhowed.
Above this the land is high on the i'm
mediate banks of the rivers, and oonti-
nues SO back into the country without
limitation.
AS soon as the lands were liable to be
entered, some citizens of ST. Louis and
of Cincinnati made large entries in the
neighborhood of the forks, and laid off a
town on the first point Of high ground On
the Illinois side; but the lots have not
been brought into market, except a few
to actual settlers.
Within year past this town has been
made the scat OF justice of the county
which contains it, and has become the
residence of about thirty families, and
has three commercial stores.
1t is probable that part of the lots in
short time will be brought into mar
ket.
The proprictors have. given time for
the country to become settled, for the
public to learn that the place is not over
flowed, and for the light of experience
to shew that place Of deposit, in other
words commercial city, is indispensa-
| bic to the western trade at the L outh of
the Ohio.
| From that point steam boats of the
/ largest class may always run to New
Orleans, being neither affected by low
water in the summer nor by ice in the
winter. Old habits are hard to be got
rid of, and the experience Of the pre-
sent year will teach the steam boat own
ers that the navigation OF the Ohio, Cum
berland, and Tennessee, during the sum-
mer is out of the question, and that they
aust follow the order of nature, which
assigns large vessels to deep water, and
small ones to shallow streams.
Besides a commercial place the mouth
of the Ohio presents the proper situation
! for the arsenal of the western country.
The strength and resources of Ten
nessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
and Missouri, the western parts of Vir-
ginia, Pennsylvania, and Newly ork, and
the northern part of Alabama, will con-
centrate at this point, and move with the
greatest rapidly Whenever the public
service shall require.
! Steam boats from thence have gone to
Newt Orleans in four days, and returned
| in eleven. The country admits of a level
road between, distance four hundred and
fifty miles, over which stage, at the
same rate it runs on the Atlantic coast,
ten miles an hour, can go in three Or
fourda Telegraphic dispatches could
be worked between them in less than
thirty. minutes.
| AS commercial situation and mill
I tary arsenal, the mouth of the Ohio may
therefore be looked upon as equal to any
position on the globe.
/ Towns grow up in the west with ra-
pidity unknown in any other part of the
world.
i Every where persons are seen exclaim-
ing that they have seen the time when
they could have got for few dollars lots
in certain towns which are now worth
tens of thousands.
Let them compare the advantages,
say which of all the towns in their know
ledge have presented such rational pros
poets Of wealth and importance as the
, one which is commenced at the mouth
of the Ohio?
\ The name, however, attached to this
. place, is truly inappropriate AMERFicA
is the name of two continents, and cannot
: be reduced down to alocal, application OF
, two miles square. .E{
BALTIMORE, OCT 81.
The Venezuelan privateer schr. Al