navigation revolutionized the river trade. These brigs and schooners were, without doubt, distinctively down river craft, which never returned; they were therefore the export carriers, and the importance of their place in history may be found in the fact that their appearance marks the rise of the export business to a position of prominence, as the use of the keel-boat marked the rise of what may be called interstate commerce.
In the year 1792 the company of ship-builders previously mentioned, Tarascon, Berthoud, and Company, who put the first keel-boats into business on the Ohio, built the schooner "Amity" of one hundred and twenty tons, and the "Pittsburgh," a ship of two hundred and fifty tons. In 1793 the schooner "was sent to St. Thomas, and the ship to Philadelphia, both laden with Flour. The second summer, they built the brig 'Nanina,' of two hundred, and the ship 'Louisiana,' of 350 tons. The brig was sent direct to Marseilles; the ship was sent out ballasted with our stone coal, which was sold at Philadelphia, for 37 1-2 cents per bushel. The year after they built the ship
