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INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES.

that if, on examination, it did not prove to be the most eligible place, he would return and erect the fort at the Bend. The visit was quickly made and resulted in a conviction that the Bend could not be compared with Losantiville as a military position. The troops were accordingly removed to that place, and the building of a block-house commenced. That movement produced by a cause whimsical and apparently trivial in itself, was attended with results of incalculable importance. It settled the question, whether North Bend or Cincinnati was to be the great commercial town of the Miami country. Thus we see what unexpected results are sometimes produced by circumstances apparently trivial. The incomparable beauty of a Spartan dame produced a ten years' war, which terminated in the destruction of Troy; and the irresistible charms of another female transferred the commercial emporium of Ohio from the place where it had been commenced to the place where it now is. If this captivating American Helen had continued at the Bend, the garrison would have been erected there, population, capital, and business would have centered there, and there would have been the Queen City of the West."

Hardly was the "Fort Washington," as it was called, at Losantiville completed when General Harmar, in December, 1789, removed his head-quarters from Marietta thither, taking possession of the fort with three companies, leaving Major Denny in command of Fort Harmar. On the second day of January thereafter Governor St. Clair arrived at Fort Washington, on his way to Fort Steuben, stopping over for a few days. He was much pleased with the fort and the settlement adjoining it, so he at once resolved to remove the seat of government from Marietta to Cincinnati. He issued on January 5th a proclamation, dividing the entire territory into four counties, as follows : All that portion lying east of the Scioto River and south of the treaty line was called Washington county; that part lying between the Scioto and the Big Miami rivers was called Hamilton county; the territory between the Big Miami and