Nobody before had ever seen such a sight as that boat moving up the river without the help of oars or sails; but from that time people saw it every day.  When Fulton got back to New York in his steamboat, everybody wanted to shake hands with him—­the crowd, instead of shouting fool, now whispered among themselves, He’s a great man—­a very great man, indeed.

[Footnote 5:  See map in paragraph 55.]

[Footnote 6:  See map in paragraph 55.]

198.  The first steamboat in the west; the Great Shake.—­Four years later Fulton built a steamboat for the west.  In the autumn of 1811 it started from Pittsburg[7] to go down the Ohio River, and then down the Mississippi to New Orleans.  The people of the west had never seen a steamboat before, and when the Indians saw the smoke puffing out, they called it the “Big Fire Canoe.”

On the way down the river there was a terrible earthquake.  In some places it changed the course of the Ohio so that where there had been dry land there was now deep water, and where there had been deep water there was now dry land.  One evening the captain of the “Big Fire Canoe” fastened his vessel to a large tree on the end of an island.  In the morning the people on the steamboat looked out, but could not tell where they were; the island had gone:  the earthquake had carried it away.  The Indians called the earthquake the “Big Shake”:  it was a good name, for it kept on shaking that part of the country, and doing all sorts of damage for weeks.

[Footnote 7:  Pittsburg:  see map in paragraph 135.]

199.  The “Big Fire Canoe” on the Mississippi; the fight between steam and the Great River; what steamboats did; Robert Fulton’s grave.—­When the steamboat reached the Mississippi, the settlers on that river said that the boat would never be able to go back, because the current is so strong.  At one place a crowd had gathered to see her as she turned against the current, in order to come up to the landing-place.  An old negro stood watching the boat.  It looked as if in spite of all the captain could do she would be carried down stream, but at last steam conquered, and the boat came up to the shore.  Then the old negro could hold in no longer:  he threw up his ragged straw hat and shouted, ’Hoo-ray! hoo-ray! the old Mississippi’s just got her master this time, sure!’

Soon steamboats began to run regularly on the Mississippi, and in the course of a few years they began to move up and down the Great Lakes and the Missouri River.  Emigrants could now go to the west and the far west quickly and easily:  they had to thank Robert Fulton for that.

Robert Fulton lies buried in New York, in the shadow of the tower of Trinity Church.  There is no monument or mark over his grave, but he has a monument in every steamboat on every great river and lake in America.

[Illustration:  TOWER OF TRINITY CHURCH.]

200.  Summary.—­In 1807 Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania built the first steamboat which ran on the Hudson River, and four years later he built the first one which navigated the rivers of the west.  His boats helped to fill the whole western country with settlers.