[37] The Pennsylvania legislature, having purchased from the Indians the land north and west of the Allegheny River, in 1789 ordered a tract opposite Pittsburg to be laid off in lots and sold to satisfy the claims of the state troops. Allegheny City, thus established, by its proximity to Pittsburg shared in the rapid growth of the latter, becoming a borough in 1828 and a city in 1840.--ED. [38] The building of keel-boats, barges, and later brigs and schooners, had been one of the foremost occupations of Pittsburg since 1790. Seaworthy ships were here launched and floated to New Orleans, whence they sailed to foreign as well as domestic ports. See Harris’s _Journal_, volume iii of our series, pp. 349, 353. Steamboat building was begun here by agents of Fulton, seven years previous to Flint’s arrival.--ED. [39] Stephen Bayard, a colonel in the Revolutionary army, later a merchant in Pittsburg, bought from the Penns, when the town was laid out (1784), thirty-two lots on the present Penn and Liberty streets; a district known for many years as Bayardstown.--ED. [40] An American writer.--FLINT. [41] For the Pittsburg _Navigator_, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our series, note 43.--ED. LETTER VI Descend the Ohio from Pittsburg to Beaver--Occurrences and remarks there _Atkinson’s Tavern, by Beaver, 28th October, 1818._ As a great part of my notes since I last wrote, relate to rapids, bars, islands, &c. I shall omit the description of many of them, as being altogether uninteresting. On the 14th of October, I embarked on the Monongahela, about half a mile above its junction with the Allegany. A gentleman to whom I had been introduced, very kindly assisted me in arranging my lading, and rowed me down to the lower point of the town. The Allegany being a clear, and the Monongahela {67} a turbid river, their compound, the Ohio, as might be expected, is of the intermediate character. The mud, that covers the gravel at the height of three or four feet above the present level of the water, shows, that a very slight rising of the river carries much soil along with it. One of the earliest writers who gives a detail of the beauties of this river, states, that the bottom, and even fishes, may be seen in several fathoms of water. During the present dry season, the bottom is indistinctly visible at the depth of five or six feet. The water, when taken up in a bright tinned vessel, appears to be perfectly limpid; but after standing in it for an hour, a very small sediment is deposited. From the experience of boatmen, and others who drink this water, it is understood to be healthful.