946

INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

tain only about 750,000 acres, and of this Symmes eventually paid for less than 250,000. As soon as he had obtained from Congress the patent to his lands, he published (November 26, 1787) a pamphlet, setting forth in most glowing terms the beauties and value of the " Miami Lands," together with the advantages offered to the first settlers.

Encouraged by the reports of the fertility of the soil, the prospects of larger gains, and the advantages to be secured for themselves and their families, a small party, composed mostly of land surveyors and agents, immediately left New Jersey to visit the "Miami Purchase." Among this party was Matthias Denman, who bought from Symmes the eighteenth section and the fractional section seventeen bordering on the Ohio River, of the first fractional range of Symmes's lands, between seven and eight hundred acres, at a price of five shillings per acre, continental currency, then worth but five shillings per pound. Upon this land, for which Denman paid, in real value, only about $125, is now situated the principal portion of the city of Cincinnati, with its thousands of elegant palaces and business blocks, valued at upwards of a hundred million dollars.

When Denman arrived at Limestone (now Maysville, Ky.), he associated himself with Colonel Robert Patterson and a person named Jean Filson, a Frenchman from Kentucky, who acted as a school-master in Lexington, and likewise as a. land-surveyor. Filson was a man of some prominence in the western backwoods, having written a " History of Kentucky," which was published in Philadelphia, and of which a French and German edition had likewise appeared, the first in Paris, the latter in Frankfort-on-the-Main. These three men resolved to found a town upon the Denman purchase, of which Filson, who knew the place, prepared a plan, calling it Losantiville. This name which was a curious combination of Greek, Latin, and French, was to designate at once the locality of the town: " L," standing for Licking; "os" the mouth; "anti" opposite; and "ville," the village   The village opposite the mouth of the Licking River.