U.S. Data Repository
http://www.us-data.org/
 -- USGenNet Inc. --
 
Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on 
the following page:
<http://www.us-data.org/fineprint.html>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
History of Wetzel County, West Virginia
by John C. McEldowney, Jr., 1901

Page 45
French Traveler
VOLNEY'S TRAVELS IN WETZEL.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century the celebrated French
traveler, Volney, traveled through Virginia and crossed the river
into Monroe county, Ohio, near New Martinsville. He was under the
guidance of two Virginia bear hunters through the wilderness. The
weather was very cold and severe in crossing the dry ridge on the
Virginia side. The learned infidel became weak from cold and fatigue.
He was in the midst of an almost boundless wilderness, deep snow
under his feet, and both rain and snow were falling upon his head. He
frequently insisted on giving up the enterprise and dying where he
was, but his comrades, more accustomed to the backwoods fare, urged
him on until he at length gave out, exclaiming: "Oh, wretched and
foolish man that I am, to leave my comfortable home and fireside, and
come to this unfrequented place, where the lion and tiger refuse to
dwell and the rain hurries off. Go on, my friends; better that one
man should perish than three." Then they stopped and struck a fire,
built a camp of bark and limbs, shot a buck, broiled the ham, which,
with the salt bread and other necessaries they had, made a good
supper, and everything being soon comfortable and cheery, the learned
Frenchman was dilating largely and eloquently upon the ingenuity of
man.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other
articles in this book by going to the following URL which contains
a linked index for the book.

http://www.us-data.org/wv/wetzel/history/mceldowney.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------