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and growth of commerce and trade in that section, it is to the
rivers of the trans-Alleghany country that we must look for a
corresponding picture in this early period
While road building in the East gives a clear picture of the rise
and growth of commerce and trade in that section, it is to the
rivers of the trans-Alleghany country that we must look for a
corresponding picture in this early period. The canoe and pirogue
could handle the packs and kegs brought westward by the files of
Indian ponies; but the heavy loads of the Conestoga wagons
demanded stancher craft. The flatboat and barge therefore served
the West and its commerce as the Conestoga and turnpike served
the East.

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arrival at New Orleans he was unable to find a ship sailing to
New York
Baily had intended to return to New York by sea, but on his
arrival at New Orleans he was unable to find a ship sailing to
New York. He therefore decided to proceed northward by way of the
long and dangerous Natchez Trace and the Tennessee Path. Though
few Europeans had made this laborious journey before 1800, the
Natchez Trace had been for many years the land route of thousands
of returning rivermen who had descended the Mississippi in
flatboat and barge. In practically all cases these men carried
with them the proceeds of their investment, and, as on every
thoroughfare in the world traveled by those returning from
market, so here, too, highwaymen and desperadoes, red and white,
built their lairs and lay in wait. Some of the most revolting
crimes of the American frontier were committed on these northward
pathways and their branches.

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