Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 3).djvu/203

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  • teen houses, and now contains more than a hundred and

fifty, half of which are brick. It is situated on a delightful plain, and watered by a small river, near which are several corn mills. Every thing seems to announce the comfort of its inhabitants. Seven or eight were drinking whiskey at a respectable inn where I stopped to refresh myself on account of the excessive heat. After having replied to different questions which they asked me concerning the intent of my journey, one of them invited me to dine with him, wishing to introduce me to one of my fellow-countrymen arrived lately from Bengal. I yielded to his entreaties, and actually found a Frenchman who had left Calcutta to go and reside at Kentucky. He was settled at Paris, where he exercised the profession of a school-master.



{122} CHAP. XIV


Lexinton.—Manufactories established there.—Commerce.—Dr. Samuel Brown


Lexinton, the manor-house for the county of Fayette, is situated in the midst of a flat soil of about three hundred acres, like the rest of the small towns of the United States that are not upon the borders of the sea. This town is traced upon a regular plan, and its streets, sufficiently broad, cut each other at right angles. The want of pavement renders it very muddy in winter time, and rainy weather. The houses, most of which are brick, are disseminated upon an extent of eighty or a hundred acres, except those which form the main street, where they are contiguous to each other. This town, founded in 1780, is the oldest and most wealthy of the three new western states; it contains about three thousand inhabitants. Frankfort, the seat of government in Kentucky, which is