Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

NEW-YORK, Dec. 22.

Letter from an officer of distinction to a gentleman in Carlisle, dated Bank of the Ohio, above the Big Kanawha, 12th October, 1785, contains the following particulars:

"I take this opportunity to inform you that I have got thus far without any manner of accident, or even a man sick, notwithstanding the low state of the river, which had frequently kept them in the water, and carried me a tedious voyage. I have met several people on the river, who give different accounts of matters: some are very much frightened and tell amazing stories; others, less so, contradict these; however, I believe the fact is, that the Indians frequently steal the people's horses, and sometimes kill the people, which, I fear, will be the case till we are more their masters by possessing the western posts. This opinion is so much your own, that little is requisite to be said on it. I find the treaty will be of greater consequence than any yet concluded. I expect it to be transacted in the presence of a great number of the principal people of the low country, and with a very large collection of Indians: and that any decisions or determinations will be succeeded with strict punctuality, as the Indians stand in some awe of these people, who will be witnesses of all that will be done, so that ignorance can be no further excuse, nor will breach of treaty be suffered from these premises. I have great hope that the business will be attended with the most happy and beneficial consequences to our country in general."

I am greatly surprised at the progress which government has made in the western world. They are beginning to be of consequence not only to the states to which they belong, but to the confederation at large; they will certainly, in a short time, rival the old, or Atlantick part of the states in some of the principal articles of export. Tobacco of the first quality is produced in the most extravagant abundance. Hemp, flax, lumber, beef, pork, butter, wheat, corn, flax-seed, &c. &c. will be in the greatest plenty. I have not a doubt but as good silk as in the world. In short, if they had but artizans to manufacture the natural productions, I am convinced, even in the present infant state, the people would almost laugh at import: and I think it will come sooner to perfection in manufactures than the states on the Atlantic, as these will depend on their imports, and rather suppress than encourage, in consequence of the ease with which luxuries can be obtained, while these must grow internally rich in consequence of their long land carriage; which will keep luxury at a distance, and give value to their own fabrications.

The division line of the state of Pennsylvania and the United States, the works of the great Rittenhouse, is a monument not only of his abilities as a mathematician, but his perseverance and industry as a great and good public servant; it is also a measure of great wisdom in the state, as it fixed their boundary and jurisdiction determinately, and transmits it without equivocation to posterity. His exactness is beyond my ideas of these things."