Note 49 — PREFACE (continued 3)

It was in the beginning of November when I crossed the Ohio near Louisville; at that time a fine new steam vessel, of I believe two hundred and fifty tons burthen, was waiting the rise of the water. What a daily loss this detainer must have been to the proprietors! Many people were staying at Louisville in order to go passengers by her to New Orleans, a journey of between fifteen hundred and two thousand miles, which was to be performed in six days independent of wind: to get back it would require three or four weeks. This vessel was to convey the western mail to New Orleans—the accommodations in every respect were excellent and the whole interior was fitted up in the most complete manner; the price to New Orleans for each passenger was, I understood, forty dollars.—Welby.

Comment by Ed. The first steamboat mail to New Orleans was carried in this year by Captain Shreve upon his boat, named in honor of the occasion, "Post-Boy."