_Knoxville_, the seat of government for the state of Tenessee, is situated on the _river Holstein_, here a hundred and fifty fathoms broad. The houses were, at this time, about two hundred in number, and were built chiefly of wood. Although it had been founded eighteen or twenty years, Knoxville did not yet possess any kind of commercial establishment, or manufactory, except two or three tan-yards. Baltimore and Richmond are the towns with which this part of the country transacts most business. The distance from Knoxville to Baltimore is seven hundred miles, and to Richmond four hundred and twenty. The inhabitants of Knoxville send flour, cotton, and lime, to New Orleans, by the river Tenessee; but the navigation of this river is much interrupted, in two places, by shallows interspersed with rocks. In the tavern at Knoxville travellers and their horses are accommodated at the rate of about five shillings per day; but this is considered dear for a country where the situation is by no means favourable to the sale of provisions. A newspaper is published at Knoxville twice a week. On the 17th of September, M. Michaux took leave of Mr. Fisk, and proceeded alone towards Jonesborough, a town about a hundred miles distant; and situated at the foot of the lofty mountains which separate North Carolina from Tenessee. On leaving Knoxville the soil was uneven, stony, and bad; and the forests contained a great number of pine-trees. Before he reached _Macby_, M. Michaux observed, for the space of two miles, a copse extremely full of young trees, the loftiest of which was not more than twenty feet high. The inhabitants of the country informed him that this place had formerly been part of a barren, or meadow, which had clothed itself again with trees, after its timber, about fifteen years before, had been totally destroyed by fire. This appears to prove, that the spacious meadows in Kentucky and Tenessee owe their origin to some great conflagration which has consumed the forests and that they continue as meadows, by the practice, still continued, of annually setting them on fire, for the purpose of clearing the land. M. Michaux stopped, the first day, at a place where most of the inhabitants were Quakers. One of these, with whom he lodged, had an excellent plantation, and his log-house was divided into two rooms. Around the house were growing some magnificent apple-trees: these, although produced from pips, bore fruit of extraordinary size and excellent flavour, a circumstance which proves how well this country is adapted for the culture of fruit-trees. At this house there were two emigrant families, consisting of ten or twelve persons, who were going to settle in Tenessee. Their clothes were ragged, and their children were barefooted and in their shirts.