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A little questioning developed the fact that thirty acres at the head of the island belong to this man, who rents the ground to a market gardener, together with the comfortable farmhouse which occupies the site of Blennerhassett's mansion, but reserves to himself the privilege of levying toll on visitors.
The superscription on the letter, written in fine hand, ran thus: "To Colonel Aaron Burr, care of Mr. Harman Blennerhassett, Blennerhassett's Island, opposite Belpre, Ohio, U. S. A." Burr waited until the boat was in motion before entering his cabin to open and read the belated billet-doux, for such he judged the missive to be.
The militia of Wood County, Virginia, crossed over to the island and camped on the most eligible grounds they could find, the premises nearest Blennerhassett's buildings.
At the foot of Blennerhassett's Island there was only two feet of water in the channel, and the boats dragged themselves over the bottom by "sparring," a process somewhat like an invalid's pushing his wheel-chair along by a pair of crutches.
What do you say to taking a tour to Blennerhassett's with me in my piroque? I've got as snug a piroque as ever oversot." There was no reason why Arlington should not seize this offered opportunity of once more visiting the island, and pay his respects to the proprietor, whom he had some curiosity to meet.
On these occasions he spake with great freedom and boldness. Many of his letters exhibit all that sagacity and talent for which he was so pre-eminently distinguished. It has been seen by the extract from Blennerhassett's private journal, that he did not complain in 1807 of any act done by General Andrew Jackson.
Burr took with him to Blennerhassett's his daughter, Theodosia, a charming woman, the wife of a South Carolinian, Allston. The attractions of the daughter, and Burr's own address and magnetism, completely overcame both Blennerhassett and his wife.
It did not take long to make the rounds of the prim, Puritan village, and though he caught sight of more than one pretty maid peeping with coy curiosity from cottage window or garden plot, he saw no face comparable with that which he had cherished in memory since seeing the original in Blennerhassett's parlor.
In August, 1806, in consequence of this overture, Burr visited Blennerhassett at his house on the Ohio, and the next day rode with him to Marietta, and there they separated, Burr being on his way to Chilicothe. From Marietta to Blennerhassett's was about fifteen miles. Some time after Burr returned to Blennerhassett's.
Blennerhassett's is some three and a half miles long; of its five hundred acres, four hundred are under cultivation in three separate tenant farms. We landed at the upper end, where Blennerhassett had his wharf, facing the Ohio shore, and found that we were trespassing upon "The Blennerhassett Pleasure Grounds."
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