"Late at night on the fourth day after quitting Pittsburg, they arrived in safety at Louisville, having been but seventy hours descending upwards of seven hundred miles. The novel appearance of the vessel, and the fearful rapidity with which it made its passage over the broad reaches of the river, excited a mixture of terror and surprise among many of the settlers on the banks, whom the rumor of such an invention had never reached; and it is related that on the unexpected arrival of the boat before Louisville, in the course of a fine still moonlight night, the extraordinary sound which filled the air as the pent-up steam was suffered to escape from the valves on rounding to, produced a general alarm, and multitudes in the town rose from their beds to ascertain the cause. I have heard that the general impression among the Kentuckians was, that the comet had fallen into the Ohio; but this does not rest upon the same foundation as the other facts which I lay before you, and which, I may at once say, I had directly from the lips of the parties themselves." The water on the falls did not allow the Orleans to pass on to Natchez and she consequently made use of her time of detention by making several trips to and from Cincinnati. Toward the last of November she was enabled to pass the rapids, and after having weathered out the earthquakes, reached Natchez about the 1st of January, 1812. This boat was finally wrecked near Baton Rouge, where she struck on her upward passage from New Orleans. From this event we may date the prosperity of Louisville as a fixed fact. At the head of ascending and the foot of descending navigation, all the wealth of the western country must pass through her hands. Such advantages as were here presented could not go unheeded. It became only necessary for the people to be convinced of the efficacy of steamboat navigation, and the opportunities held out to the capitalist by Louisville must be seen and embraced.