Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/172

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good land at reduced prices is not to be had generally in the eastern states, for when a forced sale is made, creditors commonly take good care it shall make about its value, or sufficient to cover the debts. Where there are no creditors, it may sometimes, but not often, be otherwise.

5th.—We rode this day over our English General Braddock's grave. To prevent the Indians, then in pursuit, from discovering his body, he ordered it to be buried in the midst of the road, at the foot of the Allegany mountains, in 1756.[39]

I slept at Cumberland, on the Monongahela, where are the remains of a British fort once used against the Indians.[40]

6th.—Off, an hour before day-light, along the banks of the Monongahela. Just as we were starting, up came a Mr. Morgan and six negroes, requesting of the gentlemen passengers that he and his negroes might be graciously permitted to share the stage with us: we consented. My companions' compliance, indeed, surprised me a little, and in came Morgan and his black cattle. He had been round the country jobbing, like a pig-jobber in England, and had bought half a score; but they, feeling themselves in a free state, snuffed {165} up free air, and took the liberty to escape. He was unable to recover more than six; four were lost and most reluctantly abandoned. He bought them, he said, for a gentleman planter, in the distant territory of Missouri, to which they were going down the Ohio river. Within two miles east of Washington, Pennsylvania, we found that the strap, which confined our luggage, had given way, and scattered Morgan's trunks