some
places it changed the course of the Ohio so that where there had been
dry land there was now deep water, and where there had been deep water
there was now dry land. One evening the captain of the "Big Fire
Canoe" fastened his vessel to a large tree on the end of an island.
In the morning the people on the steamboat looked out, but could not
tell where they were; the island had gone: the earthquake had carried
it away. The Indians called the earthquake the "Big Shake": it was
a good name, for it kept on shaking that part of the country, and
doing all sorts of damage for weeks.

[Footnote 7: Pittsburg: see map in paragraph 135.]

199. The "Big Fire Canoe" on the Mississippi; the fight between steam
and the Great River; what steamboats did; Robert Fulton's
grave.--When the steamboat reached the Mississippi, the settlers on
that river said that the boat would never be able to go back, because
the current is so strong. At one place a crowd had gathered to see
her as she turned against the current, in order to come up to the
landing-place. An old negro stood watching the boat. It looked as
if in spite of all the captain could do she would be carried down
stream, but at last steam conquered, and the boat came up to the shore.
Then the old negro could hold in no longer: he threw up his ragged
straw hat and shouted, 'Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! the old Mississippi's just
got her master this time, sure!'

Soon steamboats began to run regularly on the Mississippi, and in
the course of a few years they began to move up and down the Great
Lakes and the Missouri River. Emigrants could now go to the west and
the far west quickly and easily: they had to thank Robert Fulton for
that.

Robert Fulton lies buried in New York, in the shadow of the tower
of Trinity Church. There is no monument or mark over his grave, but
he has a monument in every steamboat on every great river and lake
in America.

[Illustration: TOWER OF TRINITY CHURCH.]

200. Summary.--In 1807 Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania built the first
steamboat which ran on the Hudson River, and four years later he built
the first one which navigated the rivers of the west. His boats helped
to fill the whole western country with settlers.

What did Mr. Livingston say about Louisiana? What did such people
think we were like? What would a traveller going west then find? What
is said of the country west of the Mississippi? Who helped emigration
to the west? What did he find? T