part is now presented for the first time and the whole of it put in form to be of interest, if not of value. The recent destruction of the Columbia bridge prompted my writing a sketch of it, so that there might be a record made of its continuous history, and I will open this paper with that sketch

struggles with Maryland cen- tered here. Two bandits, named Lowe, terrorized everybody a year or more, until a body of constables from Lancaster county shot and crippled them in their cabins Just opposite Co- lumbia. About 1732, nearly 200 Mary- landers appeared opposite the present Columbia and began to