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Title: Six months in America, vol. 2 (of 2)
Author: Godfrey Thomas Vigne
Release date: May 26, 2026 [eBook #78758]
Language: English
Original publication: London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Co., 1832
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIX MONTHS IN AMERICA, VOL. 2 (OF 2) ***
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SIX MONTHS
IN
AMERICA.
[Illustration:
G.T. Vigne, delṭ T. S. Engleheart, sculpṭ
LOCKS ON THE RIDEAU CANAL, AT BYTOWN, ON THE OTTAWA RIVER.
_Published by Whittaker & C^o. April 10, 1832._]
SIX MONTHS
IN
AMERICA.
BY
GODFREY T. VIGNE, ESQ.
OF LINCOLN’S INN, BARRISTER AT LAW.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
WHITTAKER, TREACHER, & CO.
AVE MARIA LANE.
1832.
LONDON:
Manning and Co., Printers, 4, London House Yard,
St. Pauls.
SIX MONTHS IN AMERICA.
I now left Washington to proceed to Harper’s ferry. The English and
American ideas of the picturesque are widely different. The Englishman,
who sees enough of cultivation in his own country, travels to other
lands in search of wilder scenery, and gazes with delight on the
immense forests of America. The American would readily dispense
with the romantic, and wonders that every body is not like himself,
an admirer, by preference, of a rail-road, a canal, or a piece of
newly cleared ground. Excellent as these are in their way, I really
believe that the Americans, of the middle and lower class, regard them
not merely with reference to their beneficial effects, but as the
_ne plus ultra_ of the beautiful. When I inquired which was the
prettiest road towards Harper’s ferry, “Go by such a road,” was the
reply; “it runs by the side of the canal, sir.” However, it so happened
that the canal-road lay also along the bank of the Potomac, and the
scenery certainly was very pretty. At a distance of two miles from the
road, and thirteen or fourteen from Washington, are the Great Falls of
the Potomac. I did not turn out of my way to see them; I have seen a
great many, and purposed visiting Niagara.
After all I had heard, I must say, that I was disappointed with
Harper’s ferry. The Shenandoah and Potomac rivers unite at the foot
of the Blue Mountains, through which they have forced, or rather
worn a passage; but the rivers are of the same width. The mountains,
composed of limestone, and schistose rocks, are of moderate and uniform
elevation, and they appear to be perfectly acquiescent, while the
stream glides in silent triumph over its smooth though rocky channel,
without the least appearance of exasperation.
I visited the United States’ arsenal, containing 70,000 stand of arms.
The chief armourer was an old Englishman, who served at the battles
of Alexandria and Trafalgar. I observed that, with the exception
of the ramrod and touchhole, which was of brass, every part of the
musket, lock, barrel, and bayonet, was browned. They were not ranged
in order, as in other arsenals, but were kept in boxes, so that there
was no display whatever. From the arsenal I proceeded to Captain
Hall’s manufactory of patent rifles. With one of these, after a little
practice, a man may load and fire eight or nine times in a minute. The
arrangement is very simple. The barrel appears to have been divided
from the breech with a fine saw. The breech is raised by means of a
hinge and a spring, which is struck by the hand, and when loaded is
immediately shut down, so as to form part of the barrel, similar to
that of a screw pistol. The great advantage gained by the invention of
this rifle is, that with it a soldier can load, and defend himself with
his bayonet at the same time.
There are also some large saw mills here well worth the attention of
the traveller.
I proceeded up the well-cultivated valley of the Shenandoah, and
arrived at Winchester, a neat and considerable town; thence to a
good inn in the middle of the forest. In my way I crossed the sandy
ridge and the Capon Mountains, though they hardly deserve such a
name, being, to all appearance, scarcely higher than the Wrekin in
Shropshire. I breakfasted at Romney, a pretty village on the south
bank of the Potomac. A little farther on, the road is frowned upon
by an overhanging rock of bastard lime-stone: its appearance is very
singular. The strata are disposed in arches one within the other, so
that, with the aid of fancy, its surface may be thought to resemble the
solid frame-work of a stupendous bridge. The highest arch, to which the
others are parallel, is nearly semi-circular with a radius of 270 feet.
When the mail, in which I was travelling, arrived at the north branch
of the Potomac, we found it so swollen by the late rains that a
passage seemed not only dangerous but impracticable. The coachman,
however, a cool and determined fellow, crossed over on horseback; he
then returned, placed one of the passengers on the near leader, and
resolutely drove his four horses into the torrent, which was sixty or
seventy yards in width, running like a mill-race, and so deep that
it reached nearly up to the backs of the horses. I was with him on
the box. The inside passengers pulled off their coats, and prepared
to swim. The water forced itself into the coach; but we reached the
opposite bank without disaster. On the preceding evening the coachman
had only prevented the mail from being entirely carried away, by
turning the horses’ heads down the stream, so that the coach and horses
were swimming for nearly thirty yards. I think the American coachmen,
in general, are good drivers: the horses are well adapted to their
work, and in fine condition: in summer they are allowed any quantity
of oats they can eat, and in winter a little Indian corn is mixed
with them. It is too heating to be much used in the stable during the
summer months; one feed of Indian corn is supposed to contain as much
nourishment as two of oats. The coaches stop every five or six miles,
and the horses drink at least half a pail of water; they could not work
without it on a hot day. The roads in the country would puzzle the most
experienced English coachman; they are often execrably bad,—and require
making, not mending,—with the roots of trees sticking up in the middle
of the road. The expense of finishing good roads through the forest
would be enormous, far too great to be borne at present; but in the
neighbourhood of the large towns I have sometimes seen them in a state
of inexcusable neglect.
Cumberland is delightfully situated in the valley of the Potomac,
surrounded by lofty hills, out-topped by the distant Alleghany, which
had appeared in sight towards the close of the day.
Virginia is famous for its breed of horses. Till I passed through that
state I had not seen a horse with at all the shape and figure of an
English hunter; but in Virginia I have seen horses on the road, and
brood mares in the pastures, displaying a great deal of blood and
symmetry. In all parts of the Union which I visited, a well-bred horse
is termed a “blooded horse:” but the Americans are quite at liberty
to use what terms they please. Besides the paces usually known in
England, the horse in the United States is valuable according to his
performances as a square or natural trotter, a pacer, or a racker. A
racker is a beast that can trot before, and canter behind, at the same
time. The recommendations of a pacer are, that he moves his fore and
hind legs on the same side at the same time, like a cameleopard. When
hiring a hack, you are questioned as to which you would prefer. As
there is no fox-hunting, a fast trotter is considered the most valuable
animal next to the racer. A horse that can trot a mile in two minutes
and a half, is not thought very extraordinary.
At Cumberland I joined the high road or “turnpike,” between Baltimore
and Pittsburgh, and soon afterwards I began the ascent of the Alleghany
for the second time. The road passes over Keyser’s ridge, one of the
highest parts of the mountain, rising to a height of 2800 feet above
the level of the western rivers. The mountain presented the same
distant and interminable forest view that I beheld when I passed over
it in Pennsylvania; but in that state, there were more patches of
cultivated land to be seen here and there in the vicinity of the high
road. Silence and tranquillity to a degree I never before witnessed,
are, I think, the prevailing characteristics of the American forests,
where the Indian is no longer an inhabitant. They are dark, but never
gloomy, excepting where they are composed of pine trees: they are
solitary, and are silent as the grave, without inspiring horror. They
are curious and interesting to the European traveller. In Europe the
eye is frequently attracted by the ancient relics of feudal grandeur,
or the formidable structures of modern, and more civilized warfare. But
the wild scenery of America is dependent for its interest on nature,
and nature only; the mountain pass is without banditti, the forest is
without fastness, and the glens and glades are quiet and legendless.
I was never tired of the forest scenery, although I passed through
it day after day. The endless diversity of foliage always prevents
it from being monotonous. Sycamores and tulip trees of most gigantic
dimensions, are to be seen on the banks of the smaller rivers, or
creeks, as they are termed in the United States. With the more stately
trees of the forest are mingled the sassafras, the gum-tree, the
hickory, and many others that are new to the European eye. But the
most beautiful sight is afforded by the wild vine that entwines itself
round the acacia, and covers every branch of it with a green tile-work,
extended in festoons to the nearest trees; like those which are to be
seen in the vineyards of Italy.
Soon after passing the Alleghany, I was shown the remains of an old
entrenchment in a meadow on the left of the road: it was formed by
Washington, then a Colonel in the British service, when pursued by the
Indians after the defeat of General Braddock. A little further on, on
the right hand, on the bank of a small stream, I saw the spot where
the General was buried on the 9th of July, 1755; having neglected
the precautions recommended by Colonel Washington, who offered to
scour the forest alongside his line of march with the provincial
troops; he was attacked by the Indians in a defile on the banks of
the Monongahela, when within about ten miles of Fort du Quesne, at
Pittsburgh, then occupied by the French, and which he was marching to
besiege: his bravery was of little use; all the officers about his
person were killed, he had five horses shot under him, and at last he
himself received a mortal wound. He was conveyed away by his retreating
soldiers; but soon afterwards died, and was buried in the middle of
the road, and the wagons and horses were allowed to pass over his
grave, in order to conceal the spot from the pursuing Indians. With
his dying breath he acknowledged to Colonel Washington the error he
had committed in not following his advice. He presented him with his
horse, and gave his parting injunction to an old and faithful attendant
to enter into the service of Colonel Washington, and remain with him
till the day of his death. Fort Du Quesne was afterwards taken by
General Forbes, and the name was changed to Fort Pitt, in compliment
to the British minister. The magazine and part of the wall, are all
that remain of it at present, and are to be seen near the point of
confluence of the rivers at Pittsburgh.
At Washington town, I attended a black Methodist meeting; they are to
be found in every considerable town in the Union, but I had never seen
one before. The preacher was a half-cast, or quarteroon, as the negroes
call them, and he and his congregation were all ranters; he talked the
most incoherent nonsense, and worked himself up to such a pitch of
frenzy, that his appearance was almost that of a maniac. At intervals I
was nearly stunned by the noise he made; and I could not help thinking
of the speech of the frogs in the fable, who said to the boy as he
pelted them, “It may be very good fun for _you_, but _we_
really find it exceedingly disagreeable.”
As I approached Pittsburgh the forest became less extensive, and the
country exhibited a more general appearance of cultivation, although
it may be broadly asserted that the Americans are at least fifty years
behind us in agriculture; yet there are many gentlemen’s estates on
which more than ordinary care and labour have been bestowed, and
which, consequently, are far in advance of others. I observed some good
farming adjacent to the road. Some part of the country I am speaking
of, might have been mistaken for the more wooded parts of England, had
it not been for the worm or zigzag fence which is in universal use
throughout the United States, and offers but a poor apology for the
English hedge row, although they are sometimes composed of cedar logs.
Pittsburgh is built on the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela
rivers, both of them being about a quarter of a mile in width, whose
united streams form the Ohio. They are both passed by a fine wooden
bridge.
The city contains 12,000 inhabitants; but if the suburbs are included
in the calculation, its population will amount to nearly 23,000. It
may be called the western capital of Pennsylvania. It manufactures
annually about 18,000 tons of iron, and the same quantity of steel.
It has also an extensive manufactory of cotton and glass. Bituminous
coal is found in the greatest plenty in the neighbourhood, and in
consequence of the smoke and black dust from the manufactories, the
shopkeepers complain that it is impossible to keep any thing clean.
I entered Pittsburgh on the 4th of July, on which day, as every one
knows, the Declaration of Independence was signed at Philadelphia. It
is, of course, always and universally a day of rejoicing in the United
States. The militia are called out, a public dinner is always given
in every town and village in the Union, and an appropriate oration
is delivered by the appointed orator of the day. I regretted I did
not arrive in time to be present at the dinner, which had taken place
under the shade of some trees on the opposite side of the Alleghany,
but I heard a great number of sentiments delivered, without being
drank. Any bystander wrote an idea upon a slip of paper and handed it
to the orator, who read it aloud to the company. They were all more or
less patriotic, but usually couched in the most ridiculous bombastic
language. The cause of reform in England, was a frequent theme of
eulogy. William the reformer was applauded as being more glorious than
William the Conqueror. Henry Brougham was coupled with Henry Clay, and
a drunken Irishman requested “parmission to give a woluntary toast,”
and lauded his majesty to the skies, in terms which I cannot pretend to
recollect.
On this day died, at New York, James Monroe, the fifth president of the
United States, having twice held that office from 1817 to 1825. His
eulogy was spoken by Mr. Adams, who appears to be the orator-general
upon such occasions, and who, in the true spirit of republicanism,
thinks it no degradation to take his seat as a member of congress after
having once filled the president’s chair. Mr. Monroe was five years
of age at the date of the Stamp Act. At an early age he joined the
standard of Washington, when others were deserting it. He was present
at the celebrated passage of the Delaware at Trenton, was wounded in
the subsequent engagement, and was afterwards present in the actions
of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He took his seat in the
federal congress in June 1783, at the age of twenty-four. He was at
first opposed to the adoption of the articles of the constitution,
believing them to be imperfect, and of little remedial efficacy;
although he was decidedly in favour of some important change in the
existing government under the articles of confederation. Mr. Monroe
was appointed by President Washington, the minister plenipotentiary to
the court of France, and was received with splendid formality by the
national convention; but being unsuccessful in his negociations, he was
recalled, and Mr. Pinkney appointed in his place. He was afterwards
appointed governor of Virginia. When Napoleon had 20,000 veterans
assembled at Helvoet-sluys, ready for embarkation to Louisiana. Mr.
Monroe was sent over by President Jefferson on a special commission. On
his arrival, the war between Great Britain and France was rekindling,
and the danger to Louisiana was averted. In conjunction with Mr.
Pinkney, the then United States’ minister at Madrid, he concluded the
treaty by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States, in the year
1803. This state was in the possession of the Spaniards from 1762 till
1800, when it was again ceded to the French, the original settlers. The
United States paid 15,000,000 of dollars for it; Mr. Monroe afterwards
went to England as minister plenipotentiary, he was present in Paris at
the coronation of Napoleon. He returned to the United States in 1807,
and became secretary of state in 1811, and afterwards secretary at war.
In 1817 he was elected president, and was re-elected in 1821 without
opposition. His opinion on the subject of internal improvements, was,
that a power of establishing a general system of internal improvement
had not been delegated to congress, and he returned a bill to the
house, in which it originated, with a justification of his exercise
of prerogative, in an able and elaborate exposition of the reasons
for the refusal of his assent. It is a very singular fact, that Mr.
Monroe is the third out of four deceased presidents, who have died on
the 4th July. The circumstances attending the deaths of Presidents
Jefferson and John Adams were very extraordinary. A committee of five
was originally appointed to draw up the articles of the constitution.
Jefferson and Adams were selected as a sub-committee, and were in fact
the real framers of the constitution. These two gentlemen died on the
4th of July, in the same year, and the news of their decease arrived
at exactly the same time on the same day, at Philadelphia, where the
Declaration of Independence was signed.
From Pittsburgh I rode to Braddock’s field. It was pointed out to me
about three hundred yards from the bank of the Monongahela. The ground
has been considerably cleared since the action took place; but it
seems to have been admirably adapted to the Indian mode of warfare,
on account of the undulating surface of the field, that enabled the
Indians, with the aid of the forest with which it was then covered, to
lie in ambush, and fire without being perceived. When, as a child, I
used to read the account of this sanguinary conflict, as narrated by
the highlander in the history of “Sandford and Merton,” little did I
dream that I should ever stand upon the field of battle.
From Pittsburg, I proceeded for fifteen miles down the western bank of
the Ohio to Economy, a German settlement, under the superintendence
of Mr. Rapp, conducted on a system somewhat resembling that of Mr.
Owen of Lanark. The members call themselves the “Brothers;” and have a
community of property. Any person, of any country, however poor, may
become a member, by conforming to the rules, and submitting to learn
one of the trades or other occupations which are taught in the society.
If he be weary of its regulations, he is at liberty to leave it, and
takes with him, from the public fund, all that he brought into it: his
earnings, during his stay, becoming general property. It is open on
the same terms, even to the entirely destitute. The town is regularly
built, and extremely neat: there are 4000 acres of land belonging to
the establishment, cultivated by the members, and at the expense of
the society; they have a good museum, an admirable band, and public
concerts twice in the week. The “Brothers” are chiefly Lutherans, from
Wirtenberg, where I understood they originally attempted to form a
society of the same kind, but it became obnoxious to the government,
and was suppressed. Mr. Rapp himself is a Lutheran clergyman, and
preaches the doctrine of brotherly love. His first settlement was
on the Wabash river, several hundred miles to the south; but he sold
the place to Mr. Owen, whose philanthropic exertions were, as usual,
unattended with success. Mr. Rapp occasionally goes to Philadelphia, in
search of recruits amongst the latest importations from Germany; and it
will be readily believed, that he enlists none but his own countrymen
to undergo this voluntary confinement, and second schooling. It is
scarcely necessary to mention, that marriage and a continuance in the
society, are incompatible. It is said, that Mr. Rapp’s system has been
sufficiently successful to cheat him into the idea, that his calling,
if not of the prophetic, is, at least, of the patriarchal order.
At Economy, I joined the passing steam-boat for Maysville. For about
a hundred and fifty miles of its course, the average width of the
Ohio is not greater than that of the Thames at Vauxhall bridge. It is
often very low; and not navigable for steam-boats. The water is then
extremely clear; but when I saw it, the river had been swelled by the
late rains, and was very muddy. The surface of its unruffled and rapid
stream was nearly covered by trunks of trees, which had been washed
down by the torrents from the forests, and rendered it often necessary
to stop the engine, in order to prevent accidents to the paddles. In
our passage down the river we passed, amongst others, Blennerhasset’s
Island, so called from its having been the residence of a person of
that name, who had involved himself in the supposed conspiracy of
Colonel Barr, who, in 1806, fitted out an armed expedition on the
Ohio, with which he intended either to make a hostile incursion into
the Spanish territories, or, according to the more general belief, to
make himself master of New Orleans, with a view to the formation of an
independent power. Blennerhasset had beautified the island at a great
expense, but his property was confiscated by order of government.
We passed Wheeling, a town containing about 6000 inhabitants, and
manufactories of the same kind as those at Pittsburg. At this place, it
is said, that the Baltimore and Ohio rail-road is to come in contact
with the river.
Maysville is a much prettier town, with a more picturesque situation;
and looks well, in spite of its red houses. I ascended a hill whence I
had a fine view of the Ohio, which is here above a quarter of a mile
in width. It is observable of its banks, that they never rise to any
height, directly from the water, on both sides of the river at the same
time. If they are abrupt on the one side, the opposite shore is sure
to display a fine strip of cultivated land intervening between the
hills and the river, in the back ground. Near Portsmouth, on the Ohio,
is a slip of ground containing 4000 acres, the whole of it planted
with Indian corn, but it is hidden from the view of the steam-boat
passengers by the trees on the margin of the river.
About twenty-four miles from Maysville, on the road to Lexington, is a
very fine sulphureous spring, called “the Blue Lick.” There are several
houses in the neighbourhood for the accommodation of visiters, who
resort thither for the benefit of the water.
Lexington is the neatest country town I had yet seen in the United
States; the streets are regular and spacious, and delightfully shaded
by acacia trees, which are planted before every house: it contains
about 6000 inhabitants. Although comfortable and cheerful in its
appearance, Lexington is the only place of note in the United States,
whose prosperity, for several years, has been on the decline. It could
boast of excellent society; but being an inland town, and supported
only by the surrounding country, it is now paying the penalty for
having enlarged itself beyond its means of supply. One additional
cause of its decline is the great increase of steam navigation on
the Ohio and Mississippi, which affords so much greater facility to
travellers going to New Orleans than the land route, which runs through
Lexington. A college which had been established here did not answer the
expectations of its founders, and a few years since was unfortunately
burnt.
Till lately the greatest confusion prevailed through the whole of
Kentucky, in consequence of the complicated state of titles to
landed property, which has considerably retarded the advance of its
prosperity. Lands were sold by the government of Virginia before
the separation of Kentucky from that state, without having been
previously surveyed and marked out. The consequence was, that four
or five different persons entered with their warrants of possession,
as purchasers of the same lots, where, in many cases, their interest
had already been sold and re-sold. The endless litigation occasioned
by this state of affairs produced a law, limiting the time of action
to seven years, after which the occupier was to remain in undisputed
possession of the property.
The system of country banks has been still more ruinous to Lexington,
and the state of Kentucky generally. They were first established
towards the end of the year 1817. The persons principally connected
with them were members of the legislature; about forty of them were
opened with, of course, a very limited capital, but an unlimited
supply of paper. The establishment of the branch bank of the United
States obliged them to pay in specie, and the consequence was the
greatest embarrassment in their affairs. The directors enacted what
laws they pleased, to save themselves from the impending ruin: they
abolished imprisonment for debt, and passed what were called stay
laws,—general and particular enactments, which extended the time of
payment; a desperate mode of proceeding, and which only served to
plunge them deeper in the mire. Those who were of opinion that payment
of debts, contracted at a time when paper was the only currency,
could not now be demanded in specie, contrived to get a law passed
establishing a new court, filled by judges whose opinions coincided
with their own, and who were removable at pleasure. The decisions
of this court were at variance with those of the old one, and a new
and old court party immediately arose. The judges of the new court,
however, immediately resigned. Public and private credit is still at
a low ebb, and the ultimate ruin of many of the leading families in
the state, who are connected with the banks, appears, I was informed,
almost unavoidable.
A rail-road to Louisville is shortly to be commenced, which will, no
doubt, much benefit the town and surrounding country. At the distance
of a mile stands the English-looking residence of Henry Clay, Esq.,
whose public services are too well known to need any remark here.
I visited several caves in this neighbourhood; that called Russell’s
cave, distant about six miles, is most worthy of attention. It is
three quarters of a mile in length, formed in a rock, composed of
innumerable strata of marine shells, embedded in lime-stone. The action
of water, occasioning an immense pressure, is evident at first sight.
A delicious spring issues from the cave, which unfortunately was so
swollen as to prevent my entrance. Three miles hence, I observed two
Indian forts. The larger is surrounded by a trench, which is now about
seven feet deep and three quarters of an inch in length. In the swollen
one the ditch is considerably deeper and more distinct, encircling it
on every side, excepting where an entrance, wide enough to admit a
carriage, has been left untouched by the spade.
At Lexington, I was much amused at the master-aping manners of the
slaves. They give themselves great airs. On Sundays they either hire
hacks, or more commonly ride their masters’ horses. I saw dozens of
them, attended by their females, playing the agreeable on horseback,
and “doing a bit of park” “à la militaire.” The slaves of the southern
states are a very happy race. In some places their numbers constitute
a “plaie politique,” equally troublesome, and far more formidable,
than the system of poor laws in England. In many places they far
outnumber the whites, who are obliged to use great precautions, and
restrict their slaves in many particulars. About twenty years ago a
conspiracy was formed by the negroes at Lexington: a house was to be
set on fire, and whilst every one repaired to the spot, they were to
take possession of a large stand of arms kept at the inn, and the
defenceless crowd were to be fired upon. The bank was to be plundered,
and the town burnt. The conspiracy was discovered by a negress, who, on
the preceding evening, told her master that the leaders were below, in
deliberation, and that if he would listen, he would be convinced of the
truth of what she said. He did so, and they were taken into custody.
There are still such animals in existence as slave merchants, but
they are not numerous. Slaves are purchased in different parts of the
country, and sent down the Mississippi to the sugar plantations at New
Orleans. An able-bodied young negro is worth three hundred dollars, and
the merchant is encouraged in his brutal traffic by a sure market, and
a profit of at least thirty-five, and frequently of forty or forty-five
per cent., after deducting the necessary expenses for food and
clothing, and making allowances for losses by death and accident. Three
or four years back, one of these men and his assistants were murdered
on the Mississippi by a cargo of slaves, who spared no torture that
could be applied by means of fire and steel.
In Virginia, if a black is freed by his master he is presented as a
nuisance by the grand jury, and generally is not allowed to remain in
the state. In Kentucky, a freed man cannot leave his native county
without quitting the state entirely; and a master who emancipates his
slave, is obliged to give security to the county for his maintenance.
Even a white man, who would be called a vagrant in England, is there
liable, not only to be taken up but to be sold, for two or three
months, to the highest bidder, who has the power of treating him as a
slave, if he refuse to work. When any ship arrives at Charleston in
South Carolina, the police immediately go on board, and have the power
of arresting the black cook, or any free negro they find there, who is
placed in confinement till the ship is ready to put to sea again. So
jealous are they of the presence of a free negro, that a master is not
permitted to emancipate his slave without sending him out of the state;
and if a slave has left South Carolina, in the capacity of valet with
his master, and has once obtained his liberty, by setting foot in a
free state, he is never allowed to return. At Washington, the sound of
the slave auctioneer’s hammer may be heard within a short distance of
the capitol. In Virginia, the country of Hampden-Sydney College, the
slave population amounted, in 1830, to 469,724, being larger than that
of any other state, and bearing a proportion to the whites of rather
less than four to six. In Georgia there is a county, most appropriately
called Liberty County, where the slave population is to the whites as
five to one.
The slave children are not instructed to read or write at the expense
of their masters; if they enjoy these advantages, they have been taught
by persons of their own colour. If they could write, they would forge
their pass-papers, and run away; and those who can, are always ready
to do this for those who cannot. The slave population could not be
educated, and remain long in a state of bondage. Its march of intellect
would be stronger and more terrible than the fire in the vast American
forests which it would traverse: to check it is impossible, and flight
is unavailing; so that the only means of avoiding destruction is to add
vigour, and give direction to the flame.
Chè più facil sarìa svolger il corso
Presso Cariddi alla volubil onda,
O tardar Borea allor che scote il dorso
Dell’ Appennino, e i legni in mare affonda.
The apparent advantage of procuring labour for nothing is often far
outweighed by the consequences arising from the idle and careless
manners of the slaves, and the expense incurred in their maintenance.
Two white men will easily perform the work of three negroes, when the
weather is not intolerably hot. They do as little as they can for
their masters; but on a holiday they will work for each other like
real slaves. Even an unaccustomed eye would recognize a slave district
by the slovenly appearance of the farms, and of every thing connected
with them. The residence of the slaves is usually at some little
distance from the dwelling-house of their master. The quarter, as it
is termed, consists of a number of small huts, with a larger house
for the overseer, and will sometimes contain three hundred or four
hundred negroes, with their families, and all more or less distantly
related to each other. An arable farm will scarcely pay, unless its
superintendent be a man of skill, firmness, and perseverance. So much
depends upon him, that if he be a person of that character, a good
farm, one year with another, will return a profit of eight or ten
per cent.; but it is usually not so large, and is never equal to the
emolument of an attentive agriculturist in the northern states, where
slaves are unknown.
By the last census, the total population of the United States was
12,856,165: of these 2,010,436 were slaves, existing only in what are
termed the southern states, of which Maryland is the most northerly. It
is said, that supposing an inclination to secede from the Union should
be prevalent in the southern states, the danger they would incur from
their inability to defend themselves against their black population,
would be a sufficient reason for their thinking twice on the subject.
There can be no doubt, that the slaves, with an offer of liberty, would
prove a most formidable weapon in the hands of an enemy. This, however,
is not very likely to take place, at least not as yet. Before I quitted
America a partial insurrection had taken place in Virginia, in which
sixty or seventy persons were brutally massacred by the negroes; and
it is most probable that the state legislature will consider of some
measures by which the superabundant slave population may be effectually
disposed of. Their attention will probably be directed to the colony
of Liberia, on the windward coast in Africa, hitherto supported
exclusively by the funds and management of the colonization society,
which provides vessels for the transportation of slaves manumitted
on condition of their departure for that place. Within the last few
years two or three hundred negroes have been annually sent out of the
country in this manner. The capital of the colony, which is defended
by a garrison, is called Monrovia, because it was founded during the
presidency of Mr. Monroe. The blacks support themselves by traffic with
the natives, and by cultivating the soil.
* * * * *
I really think I had not seen more than one or two ponds in the United
States, before I entered the state of Kentucky; there, they are
common enough, and plenty of bull-frogs may usually be heard grunting
in the mud on their margins. With the aid of a little fancy, there
is certainly some truth in the assertion, that the noise they make
resembles the words “blood and ’ounds,” repeated in a very deep and
coarse human voice.
I confess that I had formed an erroneous idea of Kentucky, at least,
of that part of it through which I passed. Contrary to my expectations,
I found the land as much cleared as in any state I had previously seen.
The soil is very rich in many parts; and will produce five or six crops
of Indian corn or wheat, in successive years, without the assistance
of manure. It is a positive fact, that the grazing farmers will not
unfrequently pull down and remove the sheds in the fields, sooner than
incur the trouble and expense of clearing away the quantity of manure
that has accumulated in them. Labour is dear, and land is cheap; so
that a farmer who can clear good fresh land whenever he pleases, has
no inducement to be at the expense which is necessarily laid out on a
farm in England, before it is rendered sufficiently productive. The
dressing of land, by laying on manure or otherwise improving it, would,
in Kentucky, be considered generally, a waste of labour. Hemp is the
staple article of produce in this state.
The finest specimens of American forest scenery are to be found in
Kentucky: the oaks and sycamores, in particular, grow to an immense
size, and throw a delicious shade on the soil beneath; which is
often free from all kinds of underwood, and covered with a carpet of
greensward,—affording the finest pasture ground imaginable to great
numbers of cattle, which are constantly grazing there. I was forcibly
reminded of the beautiful description in the opening scene of “Ivanhoe.”
I had resolved to visit the great Mammoth cave in Kentucky, distant
about 120 miles from Lexington, on the right of the Nashville road. I
accordingly proceeded in that direction, and soon arrived on the banks
of the Kentucky river. I considered this ferry as a most beautiful
specimen of Indian scenery. The river is here seventy or eighty yards
across, and flows with a dark and quiet stream, between two very high
cliffs, whose bold, bare, limestone fronts are seen to great advantage,
as they rise above the mass of forest, that intervenes between their
base and the water. It bore some resemblance to Swinsund ferry, on the
frontier of Sweden and Norway, although certainly inferior.
Shaker’s town is occupied as the name implies, by persons of that sect.
One of their number, which amounts to a few hundreds, is an architect,
and this accounts for the superior build of their houses. From Glasgow,
a cross road conducted me to Bell’s tavern, a solitary house standing
at the meeting of the Lexington and Louisville roads, to Nashville,
in the midst of what are called “the barrens.” These barrens, it is
supposed by many, were originally Prairies, or “Pararas,” as they are
called by the lower class of Americans, but are now principally covered
by dwarf oaks. Wild turkeys, deer, pheasants, and the bird called
the barren hen, which is also the prairie hen, and the grouse of the
northern and middle states, are found in the barrens; cougars, wolves,
foxes, &c. are also to be met with there. At Bell’s tavern, which, by
the way, is a very comfortable little country inn, I procured horses
and a guide, and set out for the Mammoth cave. After an agreeable
and shady ride of seven miles, I arrived at a small lonely log house
tavern, built about a hundred yards from the mouth of the great cave.
There are several smaller caves in the neighbourhood; but the only
one of these I visited was the white cave; of no extent, but curious,
on account of the number, and diversified shape of its stalactitic
formations, formed by the depositions of water, dropping through the
limestone rock.
Immediately in front of the inn, begins a narrow path winding down a
dark ravine, which conducts to the cave. Its entrance is overshadowed
by the dark foliage of the surrounding trees, and its appearance
altogether is exceedingly gloomy, and calculated to inspire a feeling
of horror. The presence of two beautiful humming birds very much
heightened by contrast the effects of the scene. They were darting in
all directions, as quickly as the eye could follow; sometimes passing
with the greatest rapidity across the mouth of the cave, or remaining
for an instant, motionless in the air, as they sipped, on the wing, of
the water that was incessantly dripping from the projecting rock. I
could not but think of the incantation scene in “Der Freychütze.”
The very sudden encounter of cold air at the mouth of the cave, is more
agreeable than safe during the hot weather. Not that the air itself
is damp or unwholesome; on the contrary, it is particularly dry and
healthy. I have been told of its acting as a febrifuge, and can easily
believe it. A great quantity of salt-petre was made there during the
late war. The works still remain, but have not been used for many
years. The salt was procured by pouring water over a wooden trough,
filled with the earth from the cave, which, when saturated, was allowed
to run off; was then boiled, and the salt separated by vaporization. By
this process, two pounds of salt-petre were procured from one bushel
of earth. The air is so highly impregnated with the saline particles,
that meat, butter, cheese, and many other substances, after remaining
a short time in the cave, become of a bright red colour, and are
unfit for use. I was attended by an old man, and two boys, sons of the
landlord, each of us carrying a small lamp, with an additional supply
of grease to trim them. The rock is very low near the entrance, but
soon expands to a magnificent size. The average width and height may be
about seventy feet, but in some places it is more lofty, and far wider.
I first visited an antechamber, and walked a mile before I reached the
end, where there is a small but curious waterfall, that has worked
its way into the side of the rock in a serpentine direction. Sulphur,
red and yellow ochre, may be picked up there; and gum borax, sulphate
of magnesia, and sulphate of soda, are found adhering to the walls
in considerable quantities, but not in every part. We returned from
the antechamber and proceeded up the principal part of the cave. The
roof and sides were but little broken, and in general their evenness
and regularity of angle were surprising. The walking was very good at
first; but our passage was soon impeded and rendered fatiguing, by
the enormous number of loose blocks of limestone, that were heaped up
on every side. At intervals we came to a small pyramid composed of
broken fragments, raised by the aborigines, who have left traces of
their existence throughout the whole of North America. I pulled down
one of them, and found only the remains of a fire; similar marks are
to be seen on the bare rock in many parts of the cave. Pieces of cane
with which Kentucky originally abounded, within the memory of many
now living, were strewed around, having evidently afforded the fuel
with which these fires were fed. In some places the face of the rock
had been slightly worked, but for what purpose will for ever remain
undetermined. The floor of the cave is generally parallel with the
surface of the ground above, as no great rise or fall is perceivable
throughout its entire direction. At about the distance of a mile and
a half from its mouth, the cave takes a majestic bend to the left,
and two miles further we arrived at what is called “the cross roads.”
From this large and gloomy expanse, four distinct caverns branch out
in different directions. The glare of our lamps was just sufficiently
powerful to display the opening on the left. It looked as black and
dismal as darkness could make it, and was formed by vast fragments of
rock, thrown together with a confusion equalling that at the pass in
the Pyrenees, usually known by the name of Chaos. We clambered over
them, and after half an hour’s walking, we arrived at what seemed to be
the termination of the cavern; but, in the corner on the left, is a
kind of natural chimney, through which we climbed to another chamber.
It did not much differ from the other parts of the cave, excepting that
it is much wider in proportion to its length, and the roof blacker. A
solitary bat was clinging to it, and was the only living animal I saw
in the cave. No others inhabit this mansion of utter darkness. The
small pyramids of stone, and the marks of fire, were very numerous. We
explored the other branches of the cave in succession. At intervals the
huge blocks of limestone rose nearly to the roof, and seemed to set
progress at defiance; but, after mastering the summit, we were enabled
to continue, till we reached another and similar difficulty. The cave
never appeared to such effect as when seen from the top of one of these
eminences; because its downward dimensions were not visible by the
light of the lamps, and a bottomless pit was an easy conjecture. The
most terrific place is what is called the cataracts; here, the floor
sinks away to a greater depth, and a large chasm is formed on one side
by gigantic mis-shapen rocks, fearfully disposed over the head of the
explorer, as he gladly descends to refresh himself with a draught of
the pure, delicious water, that falls from the roof. I thought I had
never before seen anything so unearthly, excepting perhaps, the crater
of Vesuvius. We subsequently entered a smaller part of the cave, which
is gradually contracted into so narrow a passage, that we were obliged
to crawl on all fours. It led us, in a few minutes, to the brink of
a large black pit, down which I tossed some fragments of stone, and
we heard them descending from rock to rock, for the depth, I should
judge, of 150 feet. In this manner I visited three, and I have reason
to believe, all the four extremities, of the principal branches of the
cave. I had been told that it was as much as twelve miles to the end
of the cavern which I entered through the chimney, and that the cave
itself had been explored for more than fourteen. The guides make it out
to be more than double its real length. I was more than six hours under
ground, and moving almost incessantly, during which time, as nearly
as I could calculate, I walked but nine or ten miles. The extreme
ends of the principal branches, I should say, were between four and
five. There are several smaller chambers, which I did not visit, but I
heard that they contained nothing new, or different from the others;
and feeling greatly fatigued, was glad to emerge into the open air. I
found it requisite to pause at the entrance: there is no intermediate
temperature between the cool, but not chilly air of the cave, and the
sultry atmosphere of noon. The sensation was extraordinary; with both
my arms extended, one hand would be warm, at the same time that I would
gladly withdraw the other from the contact of the colder air of the
cave. Those who do not take the precaution of waiting a few minutes,
are almost invariably attacked with giddiness, or a fainting fit.
I had erred in believing that the huge bones of the mammoth and other
quadrupeds at present unknown, had been found in this cave; and in
imagination I had listened to the dying cries of agony sent forth by
those stupendous animals as they struggled in the thundering billow
of the deluge that had risen, and rolled into their hiding place, and
reduced them to a state of frenzy and desperation. But it has received
its name of the “mammoth cave” only on account of its superior size
and extent: the term being frequently applied where size or importance
is intended to be designated. For instance, the branch bank of the
United States at Cincinnati, is called the Mammoth bank. None but human
bones have been found in this cave. These were often dug up by the
saltpetre manufacturers, and were usually found lying side by side, but
separated and covered over by a rough slab of limestone. I was informed
that upwards of a hundred skeletons had been there unearthed; and it is
probable that more are still remaining in different parts of the cave.
In general they are not larger than those of the ordinary race of men.
They are doubtless the remains of some of that ancient nation, whose
very name is unknown; whose customs and occupation are unrecorded;
whose chiefs and heroes remain unchronicled, and whose existence is to
be traced only in the monuments of death or warfare.
The manner in which this and the other caves in Kentucky have been
formed may, perhaps, be more than conjectured. They are all composed
of secondary limestone, resting on a substratum of sand,—a singular
formation, but one that is common in this part of America. The sand may
have been gradually dislodged by the action of water; a theory which
the sloping nature of the ground between the cave and the Green river,
only a few hundred yards distant, does not contradict. A gentleman
informed me that he had lately witnessed a similar process. He had
for a long time watched the increase of a small sand bank, that had
been forming in a stream on his own property in the lower part of
Kentucky,—and upon further examination he found, as he expected, that
a cave had been gradually hollowed out by the action of the water
behind it. The whole of this country and the region watered by the
Mississippi, is diluvial, and in many places marine shells and the
fossil remains of marine animals have been found in great abundance.
In the neighbourhood of the cave, there are a great many wild turkeys,
and a tolerable sprinkling of deer, but both were difficult of approach
at that season of the year. I was exceedingly anxious for a shot at a
wild turkey, but committed a great error in loading with ball only; and
although I contrived to get three or four fair shots on the ground,
and on the wing, yet I confess through eagerness to have missed them.
Once I contrived to near a brood, but had the mortification, although
close to them, to hear them rising one by one on the other side of
a thicket; and when I did pull at the last bird, my gun, which was
loaded with shot, missed fire through the badness of the copper cap.
After vainly toiling through the forest in search of a deer, for one
whole August day, I was poacher enough to drop down the Green river
in a canoe, in the vicinity of the cave, at two in the morning, in
order to get a shot at one whilst feeding upon the moss at the bottom
of the river. A light was placed at the head of the boat with a board
behind it. I sat in the middle of the canoe, which was paddled forward
by a man at the stern; both of us being as silent as possible. The
darker the night, the better; the deer stand gazing at the light, till
the canoe almost touches them; they appear as white as a sheep, and
the aim of a Kentucky rifle is usually too true, at any reasonable
distance, to render the death of one of them an uncertainty. But I
was again unfortunate. I had been disappointed in the attendance of an
experienced hunter, whom I had engaged to go with me, and my companion,
who was a novice, allowed three deer that were standing close to
us, but not distinguishable by me among the tall sedge, to run off
untouched by the random shot I sent after them. The back-woodsmen are
excellent marksmen, their rifles are long and heavy, carrying a very
small ball, often not bigger than a large pea. With these a good shot
will alternately hit and miss the head of a squirrel at sixty yards
distance.
I returned to Bell’s tavern with the determination of advising every
travelling friend who visited Kentucky, by no means to leave that state
without having seen the Mammoth cave; and I think that a sportsman,
well provided with dogs, guns, &c., might well spend a week in a very
satisfactory manner by taking up his quarters at Bell’s tavern. When
we had forded the Green river, the coachman addressed a man on the
opposite side, and asked him how his wife was, “Thank ’e, I guess,
she’s smartly unwell this morning,” was the reply.
Louisville is about ninety miles from the cave. For the last twenty,
the road runs along the banks of the Ohio, passing through the most
magnificent forest of beech trees I had ever beheld. There is nothing
remarkable in the appearance of Louisville. It is a large and regularly
built town, containing 11,000 inhabitants. From this place the larger
steam-boats start for New Orleans. Those that come from Pittsburgh are
of smaller dimensions, on account of the shallowness of the water.
The course of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Louisville is about 600
miles, and thence, to its confluence with the Mississippi, is nearly
300 more. The length of the Mississippi, from its junction with the
Ohio, is 1200. The falls, or rapids of the Ohio, are immediately below
Louisville, and part of them may be seen from the town.
I had been very desirous of seeing St. Louis and the Missouri;
but the season was too far advanced, and that part of the country
is exceedingly unhealthy during the summer heats. Steam-boats run
thither constantly, in three days, from Louisville. There is also a
land conveyance, which occupies nearly the same time on the journey,
and passes through the great Prairies, in Indiana and Illinois.
Wild turkeys are there very plentiful; quails and Prairie-hens are
frequently to be seen from the road in great abundance; and I would
strongly recommend any traveller who is fond of shooting, and who will
put up with very indifferent accommodation, to proceed for about one
hundred miles, or even less, by this road, into the Prairies, for the
purpose of shooting. It must, however, be added, that he will probably
kill much more than he can either eat or carry away.
That there is a great quantity of game in some parts of America is
indisputable; but it is equally so, that it is fast decreasing in
others. Unless some attention be paid to preserving, deer will become
extremely scarce, except in the unsettled country; and the breed of
wild turkeys will be extinct, as they are not found much to the west of
the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Go where you will, you are told
there is plenty of game of some kind; but the sportsman who relies on
this information at this season of the year, while the trees are yet
thick with foliage, will be surely disappointed. I have occasionally
stayed for a day at different places, where I had been induced to
believe that I should find some sport; but I seldom found any game,
although I always took with me some person well acquainted with the
woods. The want of dogs must certainly be taken into consideration.
The inhabitants of Kentucky may be called the Gasçons of America.
They have a humorous, good-natured, boasting, boisterous peculiarity
of language and manner, by which they are known in all parts of the
Union. To a stranger, they are courteous and hospitable; but amongst
themselves, they quarrel and fight, like the Irish, for fun; or merely
to see which is the best man, without any provocation; and they evince
great partiality for their own state—which they familiarly denominate
“Old Kentuck,”—perhaps more than the inhabitants of any other in the
Union.
Kentucky was originally used by the Indians as a hunting-field, and for
no other purpose. The neighbouring nations agreed never to build upon
it.
From Louisville, I proceeded in a steam-boat to Cincinnati, in
eighteen hours. About forty miles on this side of the town, we passed
the mouth of the stream, so well known by the name of the “Big Bone
Lick,” on account of the number of the bones of the mammoth and other
animals that have been frequently dug up in its vicinity. There is a
sulphur-spring, and a house for the accommodation of visitors. Our
distinguished countryman, Mr. Bullock, whom I saw at Cincinnati, had
been lately residing on the spot for three months, and had had twenty
men constantly employed in digging. He had discovered, amongst other
animals, the bones of a smaller and distinct species of migalonyx;
an animal having partly the generic character of the armadillo, and
partly that of the sloth, and nearly equalling the rhinoceros in size.
But the most remarkable remains were those of a young colt, and a
gigantic horse, that could not have been less than twenty-four hands
high. Unfortunately, however, for the advancement of science, they were
all destroyed by a fire, which took place about three weeks before
my arrival. The fossil remains of about thirty animals, now supposed
to be extinct, have been found at the Big Bone Lick; and Mr. Bullock
conjectures that there are no more remaining. That the animals did
not perish on the spot, but were carried and deposited by the mighty
torrent, which it is evident once swept over the face of the country,
is probable, from the circumstance of marine shells, plants, and
fossil substances having been found, not only mixed with the bones,
but adhering to them, and tightly wedged into the cavities of the
skulls—“those holes where eyes did once inhabit,” were often stopped up
by shells or pieces of coral, forcibly crammed into them.
From the Big Bone to the Blue Lick, a distance of about sixty miles,
there is a buffalo-path. Those animals existed in great numbers in this
part of the country, within the memory of many individuals now living.
They passed from one favourite spring to the other in vast herds,
always pursuing the same path, seldom turning to the right or left, and
overturning very young trees, or any slight obstacle that might occur
in their line of march. They have, however, long been killed off from
the eastern side of the Ohio, and Mississippi; not being seen nearer
than within fifty miles of St. Louis. They are found in innumerable
herds in the widely extended plains of the Missouri, and towards the
region of the rocky mountains. The Indians kill a great many of them,
for the sake of their skins, which sell in Philadelphia at four dollars
a piece, while that of a bear may be purchased for three. They are so
numerous, that this traffic occasions no perceptible difference in the
size of the herds. An Indian will drive an arrow so hard that the point
will appear on the other side of the buffalo. At certain seasons of
the year, their tramping and bellowing may be heard at a vast distance
on the plains, by putting the ear to the ground; and in this way, if
heard in the morning, incredible as it may appear, it will sometimes
be evening before the hunters can come up with them. The bonassus,
exhibited some years ago in London, was merely the common American
buffalo; which is, strictly speaking, the bison, or animal with the
hump, and not the buffalo. The bison is found of different sizes and
under different names in Africa, in Asia, in the island of Madagascar,
and on the Malabar coast; and exists, as we have seen, in immense
numbers in North America; and it will associate with, and breed with
tame cattle: but the real buffalo, which has no hump on the shoulder,
is not found in the New Continent, but is common in India, and in
Africa, near the Cape. I have also seen them in the Pontine marshes,
where they are used for agricultural purposes. A marked difference
between the buffalo and the bison, from the different varieties of
which, it is supposed, that our domestic animals have descended, is to
be observed in the fact of the tame cattle refusing to breed with the
buffalo, and in the period of gestation in that animal being extended
to a whole year.
The navigation of the Ohio and the Mississippi, is often rendered
dangerous by the trunks of trees, or snags, as they are called, which,
in floating down the stream, get entangled and stick fast in the mud at
the bottom; presenting a most formidable, and frequently unseen point
near the surface of the water. Our steamer ran upon one of them, but
was soon got off again by means of a long spar of wood that was dropped
into the water, and then used as a lever, with the side of the boat
for a fulcrum, by means of a rope wound about the capstan and fastened
to the top of the spar. In the midst of the confusion, an American
stepped up to me, and said, “Stranger, I guess we’re in a bad fix!”
To be in a good or a bad fix is an expression very commonly made use
of in cases of dilemma. Speaking of a man placed in the stocks, for
instance, a common American would remark, that he was in a “bad fix,”
without the least fear of committing a pun, even at Philadelphia,
where the disease is very prevalent. The American error is detected in
the formal and decided accentuation of particular syllables in several
common words, and in the laughable misuse of many others; and not in
any mispronunciation of the language, generally. The word Engine,
for instance, is pronounced Engīne; favourite, favourīte; European,
Eurōpĕan, &c. A patois, or provincial dialect, such as is heard in the
more distant counties in England, is unknown amongst the natives of the
United States; and the similarity of language to be heard in every part
of the Union that I visited, could not but attract my attention as an
Englishman. To travel by the mail, for two or three hundred miles, and
to sit beside a coachman who spoke as good English as the one with whom
I first started, had certainly, at least I thought so, the effect of
shortening the distance.
The education of the poorer classes is very much attended to, excepting
perhaps, in the more western states, where the inhabitants think they
can get on just as well without it. In the Atlantic states, there is
not one person in five hundred (I am speaking of native Americans),
that cannot read and write. The mail would often stop opposite a
solitary log-house, in the midst of the thickest forest, and throw
down a newspaper, which was immediately picked up, and spelled over
with the greatest avidity. Most of the back-woodsmen can talk with all
reasonable correctness of the state of Europe generally, but the reform
bills in England, and the Liverpool rail-road, were always amongst the
most prominent subjects of eager inquiry. An Englishman cannot travel a
mile in a stage coach in the United States, without being asked whether
he has been on the Liverpool rail-road. In Europe, and in France
particularly, it is, “Have you seen de tunnel under de Thames?” It is
the usefulness in forwarding the prosperity of a country that suggests
the American query: whilst with the Frenchman, the use is entirely out
of the question; he thinks merely of the magnitude and the novelty of
the undertaking, and never fails to remark, that the engineer was a
native of France. A great proportion of the inhabitants of the eastern
states are Dutch and German. They are very numerous in different parts
of Pennsylvania, where they have the character of being good and
industrious farmers; but in other respects, they are very ignorant and
opinionated, refusing the education that is offered to them gratis for
their children, who are, of course, far behind the young Americans in
intelligence. I have often, when passing through the forest, stopped
to ask a cottager’s child of what country he was. A very frequent
answer was, “Please, sir, father’s an Irishman, and mother’s Dutch;”
and “I was raised here!” The latter expression is very commonly used
when the place of nativity is inquired after. I have been frequently
addressed with, Where were you raised, stranger? I guess you’re from
the old country? There are about half-a-dozen words in constant
use, to which an English ear is unaccustomed, in the sense they are
meant to convey, such as—“to fix, to locate, to guess, to expect, to
calkilate, &c.” The verb “to fix,” has perhaps as many significations
as any word in the Chinese language. If anything is to be done, made,
mixed, mended, bespoken, hired, ordered, arranged, procured, finished,
lent, or given, it would very probably be designated by the verb “to
fix.” The tailor or bootmaker who is receiving your instructions, the
barkeeper who is concocting for you a glass of mint-julep, promise
alike to fix you, that is, to hit your taste exactly. A lady’s hair is
sometimes said to be fixed, instead of dressed; and were I to give my
coat or my boots to a servant to be brushed, and to tell him merely
“to fix” them for me, he would perfectly understand what he had to do.
There is a marked peculiarity in the word “clever.” In America, a man
or woman may be very clever without possessing one grain of talent. The
epithet is applied almost exclusively to a person of an amiable and
obliging disposition. Mr. A. is a man of no talent! no! but then he is
a very clever man! According to their meaning, Buonaparte was terribly
stupid, and Lord North was a very clever fellow indeed.
To say nothing of their oaths, their expressions are sometimes
highly amusing. I have heard a horse described as a “raal smasher
at trotting,” and a highway robbery considered as a “pretty middling
tough piece of business;” with a vast number more of the same kind. I
beg it may be understood, that I mean these remarks to apply chiefly
to the middle and lower classes of Americans: the language of every
one is perfectly intelligible, and as I have before remarked, there
is no patois: I think it should rather be called a “slang.” There is
also much less of the nasal twang than I had been taught to expect in
American parley. Still I was informed, that many Americans when they
hear a man talk, will instantly mention with certainty the country
in which he has been long resident, being able to detect some words,
accents, or expressions peculiar to each state. The English language
does not contain words enough for them. The word congressional is
a fair coinage from “Congress,” like the word parliamentary from
parliament. But a member of congress is said to be deputized; and a
person in danger, to be jeopardized. I remember that about two years
ago being in the Jardin des Plantes, I was nearly “cameleopardized”
by the giraffe that kicked at me. In New York I observed that a
gunmaker had put up over his door, “Flint and steel guns altered
and percussionized.” Although the meaning of all this is perfectly
understood, still it is American, not English; and although the English
language be in use, yet the very un-English construction and distorted
meaning of many sentences, render it so different from the language
spoken in good society in England, that I do not think it can safely
be dignified with the name of good English. But the English spoken in
the first circles in all the larger cities of the Union, is usually
very good: so that between the language of the English and the American
gentleman, the difference is exceedingly slight; but still there is a
difference here and there, by which I think any person of observation,
who had been in the United States, could decide upon the country of the
speaker, unless of course he had resided in England. I should however
add, that I have in a few instances met with gentlemen whose language
and pronunciation would have deceived any one.
At Baltimore whilst taking a sketch, I told a drunken ill-favoured old
nigger, that I would take his picture. He accordingly placed himself
in attitude, and I soon hit him off with the camera-lucida. He was
very much pleased, and showed the picture to his coloured friends, the
slaves, who were working near me. He soon returned with an old black
as ugly as himself, and said, that this man wished to have his “title”
taken too.
We arrived at Cincinnati, the emporium of commerce, and the largest
city in Western America, containing 30,000 inhabitants, and thirty
different places of worship. In appearance it differs from most of the
larger towns in the United States, on account of the great improvement
that has taken place in the colour of the houses, which, instead of
being of the usual bright staring red, are frequently of a white
grey, or a yellowish tint, and display a great deal of taste, and
just ornament. The public buildings are not large, but very neat and
classical; I admired the second Presbyterian church, which is a very
pretty specimen of the Doric. The streets are handsome, and the shops
have a very fashionable air. The principal trade of Cincinnati is in
provisions. Immense quantities of corn and grain are sent down the Ohio
and the Mississippi to New Orleans. Part of it is consumed by the sugar
planters, who are supposed to grow no corn, and part is sent coastwise
to Mobile, or exported to the Havannah and the West Indies generally.
In the United States, the word “corn” is applied exclusively to the
Indian corn or maize, other grain is specified by name as in England.
The quantity of flour received in 1831 at New Orleans, amounted to
370,000 barrels, about 150,000 barrels more than had been received in
any former year. A great quantity of flour had also been shipped to
England, but it is very often soured by the warmth of the water in the
Gulf of Mexico. In 1828, the quantity of sugar produced at New Orleans
was 88,878 hogsheads of 1000 pounds each, and in 1827, the number of
sugar plantations was seven hundred, in which an aggregate capital of
45,000,000 of dollars was invested.
Cincinnati has displayed more wisdom than her opposite neighbour in
Kentucky. A speculative system of banking was carried on about the same
time, and was attended with the same results as those I have before
noticed when speaking of that state. Credit was not to be obtained,
commerce was at an end, and grass was growing in the streets of
Cincinnati. But the judicature, with equal justice and determination,
immediately enforced by its decisions the resumption of cash payments.
Many of the leading families in the place were, of course, ruined, and
at present there are not above five or six persons in Cincinnati, who
have been able to regain their former eminence as men of business.
But it was a sacrifice of individuals for the good of the community,
and fortune only deserted the speculators in order to attend upon the
capitalists, who quickly made their appearance from the eastern states,
and have raised the city to its present pitch of prosperity.
Cincinnati professes to have two excellent inns, both of which give
promise of every comfort: the table was very good, but my rest was
destroyed, not merely disturbed, by the worst of vermin. A clean bed,
be it but of straw, is a _sine quâ non_ with an English traveller;
and as I did not feel perfectly well after breathing the unhealthy
fogs of the Ohio, I had consoled myself with the idea of a comfortable
sleep for that night at least. But I was wofully disappointed, being
nearly in a fever; and when I was permitted to close my eyes for a few
minutes, I dreamed of the most unconnected subjects,—bullfrogs, and
universal suffrage, for instance.
I started by the mail, in order to cross the country to Lake Erie.
Before we were out of the town, the near leader became unmanageable,
and the coach was overturned in the open street. I was on the box, and
expected to be kicked to pieces, as I fell close to the horses; but
providentially they all four galloped off with the two front wheels,
and no one was hurt. It was scarcely day-light—no one was up—the
coachman went after the horses, and it fell to my lot to deliver the
coach of her nine inside passengers, who scrambled out one by one
through the window, guessing and ‘calkilating’ the whole time.
By the evening, we had reached the Yellow Springs; a fashionable
watering place, taking its name from the colour imparted to the rocks
by the water, which is chalybeate. A large boarding house for the
accommodation of visitors is the only building of consequence in the
neighbourhood.
At Centreville, about twenty miles from the springs, is, or rather was,
for it has been partly destroyed, a remarkably fine Indian fort; being
a deep ditch lying between two raised banks, and inclosing a space of
three quarters of a mile in circumference, on which the town is built.
On the outside is a large mound, which had been lately opened, and was
found to contain a number of human bones.
At a distance of nine miles from the springs, on the Sandusky road,
stands Springfield, a small thriving town, which like most of those
in this part of the country, is exceedingly neat and clean. In the
neighbourhood is a considerable number of English settlers, chiefly
farmers from Yorkshire. There is no doubt that any man who is able
and willing to work for his livelihood, can always, in two or three
years, make himself master of a farm, in the back woods, in this or
any other part of the Union. The average value of uncleared land, is
a hundred dollars for eighty acres. A single man can every where earn
at least twelve dollars a month. Provisions are exceedingly cheap; a
sheep or a deer, can be purchased for a dollar; wheat may be about two
shillings the bushel, and an acre of Indian corn, which is only one
shilling the bushel, will produce twice the quantity that is raised on
an acre of wheat. It is unfortunate that the common class of British
emigrants are too much disposed to believe that a land of liberty is
identified with a land of promise, and that when they emigrate to
America, no difficulties will ever present themselves. The consequence
is, that exaggerated accounts of their first troubles, bearing no
proportion to their real privations, are frequently sent home to
their friends in England: but I am convinced from my own observation,
and occasional colloquy with my emigrant countrymen, that it must be
a man’s own fault, however poor he may be at first, if he be not,
in a very few years, to use a common phrase, completely above the
world; be his occupation what it may. The English and Scotch commonly
travel a long way into the western country, where they become farmers
and graziers; the Irish prefer remaining in, or near the principal
towns, and what is very unusual in Irishmen, they find employment as
road-makers, canal-diggers, or bricklayers. Witness the result of free,
and protecting institutions.—Fifty years ago, the population westward
of the Alleghany did not exceed 15,000; now it amounts to 5,000,000!
The population of priest-ridden Mexico has not increased for centuries.
Columbus, the capital of the state of Ohio, contains nearly 4000
inhabitants. Its appearance is very promising, but there is nothing in
it to detain the traveller.
At Mansfield I was obliged to remain a day and a half, in consequence
of the late rains having rendered the streams impassable. Fortunately
I placed myself in very good quarters, at the inn or tavern, where I
met with the greatest civility and attention, and far more comfort
and cleanliness than is often found at a country inn in the United
States. I passed a whole morning unsuccessfully with my gun in the
woods. “Well, stranger, are you going gunning this morning?” “Yes;
and pray what game is there in the forest here?” I inquired. “Why,
sir, there is robin, and some turkey, and considerable squirrel, about
sundown.” The robin is a very common bird of the fieldfare genus, with
a red breast, a little larger than our redwing. However, I met with no
turkey, and contented myself with seeing my companion hit or “scare”
(terrify) the squirrels with his rifle. Sassafras, sarsaparilla, and
ginseng, are found in these forests. The latter root is so plentiful
as to be an article of commerce; great quantities of it are sent to
the coast, and exported to China, where, as is well known, it is very
highly prized, being considered a panacea.
The last five miles into Sandusky, or Portland, lie over a small
prairie; but it is not a good specimen, as the herbage is short, and
copses of stunted trees are frequent. Prairies are either dry or wet.
The wet prairies are, in fact, nothing but a marsh covered with long
grass, and have been so from any indefinite period of time. Of the
dry prairies some may have been originally wet, and some may have
been cleared by the Indians, for the purpose of using them as hunting
fields. But the former supposition, if the fact could be ascertained,
would probably, in most cases, be found to be the true one.
The shores of the lake at Sandusky are exceedingly flat. I was
fortunate in finding a steam-boat there, which was going to Detroit,
Green bay, and the Saut de St. Marie, at the entrance of Lake
Superior, and would afterwards return to Buffalo. The “Superior,” as
she was called, was, I think, the most comfortable steamer I had yet
entered; her upper deck, about one hundred and twenty feet in length,
was of great width, and afforded a most excellent promenade. We
had on board upwards of sixty passengers, many of whom were ladies;
and there was plenty of room for us all, with the advantage of an
excellent table, and a small band. The lake afforded us a supply of
most delicious fresh water. Soon after leaving Sandusky we passed
in sight of Put-in-Bay, in the Bass Islands, forming one of the
finest natural harbours to be found any where. Commodore Perry lay at
anchor there on the night previous to the 10th of September, 1813,
on which day he gained his victory over our fleet in the vicinity.
Night soon closed in upon us. We passed Malden, or Amherstburg, as
it is more usually called. The British squadron lay at anchor there
previously to its engagement with Commodore Perry. A boat pushed off
in the darkness, and asked to be taken in tow. “Who are you?” very
properly asked the captain. “We, British!” was the ludicrous answer
of some French Canadians, and the steamer passed on. A company of the
79th was stationed at Malden. In the morning we found ourselves at
Detroit: this place was a considerable French settlement so long ago
as the year 1759, when it fell with the Canadas into the possession
of the British, and is now increasing with a rapidity to which it is
fairly entitled by its situation, on the outlet of the great lakes.
The French unquestionably displayed their usual tact and foresight in
their choice of the different points of communication in the extensive
chain of forts which was originally continued from the Canadas to the
Mississippi—the proof is, that all of them are of great importance at
the present time. A similar but more enlarged instance of this, the
highest grade of military strategy, is to be found in the vigorous
and persevering policy of Great Britain, which has secured to her a
chain of fortresses by which, as a gallant American General-officer
expressed himself to me, “She has check-mated the world.” The master
mind of General Bernard, the elève and aid-de-camp of Napoleon, and
perhaps the first engineer now living, whom I had the honour of meeting
at Washington, has displayed itself in the very extensive and accurate
military surveys, which he has taken in almost every part of the United
States. The fortifications which he has constructed, have rendered the
estuaries of the United States altogether inaccessible to an invading
fleet. General Bernard, as is well known, has lately quitted the
service of the United States, and returned to France.
The wharfs and buildings at Detroit extend along the river side for
about a mile, and exhibit much of the bustle of a commercial town. The
streets are spacious and regular,—the largest is more than half a mile
in length, and contains some excellent shops and a capital hotel. That
part of the bank upon which the city is built, is slightly elevated
above the rest of the country, and commands a view which, although
generally flat, is far from being uninteresting. The farms are laid out
in narrow slips of land, which run parallel to each other, and at right
angles to the river, reaching to the edge of the forest, distant about
two miles from the city. By this means the first settlers were enabled
to build their habitations within a short distance of each other; they
had a smaller space of road to keep in repair, and afforded each other
a mutual support against the sudden attacks of the Indians. At Detroit,
the American General Hull surrendered to General Brock during the last
war, but the city was subsequently retaken, previously to the battle
of the Thames.
We entered the lake of St. Clair,—about thirty miles in length, and
twenty five in breadth; we passed a considerable distance from its
banks, but they appeared to be very flat and uninteresting. On the
right is the mouth of the river Thames; made remarkable by the victory
obtained over the British by a superior force under the American
General Harrison. The celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, fell in the
engagement; and the importance of this victory to the Americans was
felt by the dissolution of the hostile Indian confederacy consequent on
the death of their leader.
On the left of the entrance to the river St. Clair, is a large wet
prairie: on the right are several islands, forming to all appearance
but one extensive morass, and abounding in wild fowl. As the channel
became narrower, we perceived that the American banks were far more
settled than those on the Canada side; but they soon alike presented
nothing but a dense mass of forest trees, at a slight elevation above
the water.
After moving on for about thirty miles, we arrived at Fort Gratiot at
the head of the river; it contained a small garrison, just sufficiently
strong to resist an attack from the Indians. The pay of an American
private is eight dollars a month, with an allowance of one ration per
diem; but his duties are far harder than those of the British soldier,
which accounts for the frequency of desertion. A lieutenant in the army
receives but sixty dollars a month, after deduction for subsistence,
forage, fuel, quarters, and expenses for servants. The pay of a captain
after the same deduction, amounts to about eighty dollars a month.
The stipend of a naval captain amounts altogether to four thousand
four hundred dollars a year; his cabin is furnished better, and the
allowance for breakage is more liberal than that of an English officer
of the same rank.
I here saw an Indian dance: the performers, an old man and his sons,
advanced towards us, on a forest path, looking like wood demons,
jumping and racing with each other, and uttering a small shrill cry at
intervals; they were nearly naked, bedaubed all over with clay, and
began the dance with light clubs in their hands: sometimes they writhed
on the ground like snakes, at others they shook their clubs at each
other, and used the wildest and most extravagant gestures. The old
Indian beat time on a small skin stretched across a piece of hollow
tree. When stooping to the ground and looking upwards, his features
and figure reminded me of the celebrated statue of the “Remouleur” at
Florence.
The whole of this part of America is inhabited by the Chippewas, by
far the largest tribe of Indians on the shores of the great lakes. The
waters of Lake Huron had been agitated by a furious north wind, and
headed directly on the mouth of the river; the current was running with
such velocity, that the steam boat did not effect her passage without a
long and very severe struggle, and when at last fairly out on the lake,
she made so little progress that she was obliged to put back. Some of
the passengers amused themselves with fishing, and caught some black
bass; as for myself, I proceeded with two Indians in a canoe to the
morass opposite the fort, which abounded in wild fowl of all kinds;
I contrived to shoot several ducks, notwithstanding the unseasonable
cries raised by the Indians in token of their delight, on seeing a
bird fall. Their quickness of sight and hearing answered nearly all
the purposes of a water spaniel, when I could not immediately find a
wounded bird. At length we made another attempt, and entered the vast
expanse of Lake Huron. The coast on the right stretched away to the
north nearly at right angles; and we gradually lost sight of it. Our
course was along the western shore, where the banks were, or seemed to
be, a little higher; but still very low, appearing nowhere to exceed
thirty feet in height. The unbroken and interminable forest, with which
they are covered, contains more game than any other part bordering on
the lakes, being less frequented by hunters. The American elk (the
wapiti of the Egyptian Hall), the moose, and common deer are found
there, with plenty of bears, wolves, and other wild inhabitants of the
forest; the moose has the power of remaining under water for a very
long time, and, when in danger, has been known to plunge into a pool,
and remain at the bottom for more minutes than I care to mention here.
We steered directly for the Saut de St. Marie, at the foot of Lake
Superior, and distant two hundred and twenty miles. One mile of the
coast on any of these lakes will give a very tolerable idea of the
whole of them, with, of course, some exceptions. Yet although there
was but little variety in this respect, the voyage was exceedingly
interesting. The fineness of the weather, the cool breeze so refreshing
after the sultry heat to which I had been exposed, the comparative
absence of musquitos, and the ever present recollection that we were
sailing on the great lakes of North America, where, comparatively
speaking, so few had been before me, gave a tone to the excursion
that compensated for more commanding scenery. As we passed Saganaw
bay, we were very nearly out of sight of land. The Mannito, or Spirit
islands were the next objects that presented themselves to our view:
these are supposed by the Indians to be inhabited by spirits, the word
_mannito_ in the Indian language, signifying spirit. We then
passed Drummond Island, which during the last war contained a British
fort and garrison, but has been since abandoned. Some ruins on the
large island of St. Joseph were visible from the steam boat; they were
the remains of a fort, which was suffered to fall to decay, previously
to the fortifications being erected on Drummond’s Island. On the
American bank, near the entrance of the river St. Marie, we observed
a spot called the Sailor’s Encampment. The forest had been partially
cleared away, and there was no vestige of humanity remaining. Some
years ago, a sloop was wrecked there; the crew suffered incredible
hardships, and many of them died from want, before the survivors
contrived to make their escape. We entered a cluster of small islands
at the mouth of the river, and I thought this the finest piece of lake
scenery I had yet witnessed; as far as I could judge _en passant_,
they appeared to be chiefly composed of gneiss, lying in large masses
of rock, resembling those that are so common in some parts of Sweden.
In comparing these with the islands of Killarney, and Loch-Lomond, I
should remark, that the full rich foliage did not seem complete without
the arbutus; and the dark tint of the fir trees, with which they were
covered, was not relieved as in the Scottish lake, by the exquisitely
delicate appearance of the weeping birch.
It was a remarkably fine evening: as the steamer passed rapidly on, her
paddles seemed to take infinite pleasure in defacing the astonished
surface of the water, and splashed away through the liquid crystal with
as little ceremony as if they had been propelling a mere ferry boat.
Every thing besides was hushed and tranquil: the very passengers, who
had all assembled near the forward part of the deck, were intensely
gazing upon the scene around them; and watched in almost breathless
silence, as the vessel rounded each bend in the deep, but comparatively
narrow river, that developed in quick succession some new and more
beautiful object at every turn. Suddenly we heard the screams of a
party of Indians, who had descried us from their wigwams on one of
the islands, and were paddling after us in a canoe with all their
might. One of them was a chief, who displayed the flag of the United
States. In the course of the afternoon, we had been amusing ourselves
by shooting with rifles at a bottle attached to a line about forty
yards in length; this had been left hanging from the stern, and the
endeavours of the Indians to catch hold of the string afforded us
no little amusement. Their faces were deeply stained with the red
extract from the blood root (Sanguinaria Canadensis); they were in the
best possible humour, and their wild discordant laugh, and the still
wilder expression of their features, as they encouraged each other
to exertion with quickly repeated and guttural exclamations, enabled
us to form some idea of their animated appearance, when excited to
deeds of a more savage description. By dint of the greatest exertion,
they contrived to seize the string; they held on for a moment by it;
it snapped, and the canoe was instantly running astern at the rate
of seven or eight knots. They again had recourse to their paddles,
and used them with redoubled energy; we then slackened our pace for
a minute or two, and threw them a rope, by which they soon pulled
themselves under the stern. We conversed with them through the medium
of an interpreter, and made them presents of bread and spirits. They
seemed very thankful, threw us some pigeons which they had killed, and
fired a _feu-de-joie_ with their fowling-pieces at parting.
The next morning we came in sight of the Saut, resembling the inclined
plane of a large artificial dam. The scenery, though not grand, was
decidedly curious and picturesque. On the right are the Canadian
settlements, and the original establishments of the north-west company:
the left bank is lined by a succession of small neat-looking country
houses and white cottages. Near the Saut stands the fort, large enough
to contain three companies; but then garrisoned, I believe, with but
eighty men. Every thing about it was in excellent order: before our
drawing up to the landing-place, we were boarded by several Indians
with moccasins (leathern sandals), belts, tobacco pouches, and bark
work, for sale.
The Saut de St. Marie most effectually prevents any vessel from
ascending the river to Lake Superior, excepting such as are light
enough to be towed up. As the steam-boat could not proceed farther,
we embarked in canoes on a small canal, which has been cut from the
fort to the river above the Saut, and paddled away for the entrance
of the lake. Immediately after I had started, my canoe began to leak;
she was instantly drawn on shore by the Indians close to a wigwam, and
turned keel upwards. A light-coloured pitch, extracted from a species
of pine, was boiled in about ten minutes. A piece of canvass was then
besmeared with it, and laid over the leak on the outside. Another layer
of pitch was followed by another piece of canvass, and then a third and
last plaster of the pitch was spread over the whole. In a quarter of
an hour she was again launched perfectly water tight. These canoes are
of a light and most elegant construction. They are made of birch bark
extended over a slight frame of cedar, and fastened or rather sewed to
it, by the flexible roots of the young spruce tree. They are usually
about fifteen feet in length, and can carry seven or eight persons
without danger. Some of them, however, are much larger.
The land on each side of the river presented much the same appearance
as that we had hitherto seen. Lake Superior may be fairly said to
commence at the Point aux Pins, a flat sandy promontory, distant
about six miles from the Saut. Beyond it, the surface of the water is
suddenly enlarged to a width of three or four miles; and though the
open expanse of the lake is not visible from the Point, yet the high
and abrupt ridges of land that rise immediately at the entrance of the
lake, and the clear expanse of cloudless sky that was extended beyond
them, clearly informed us, that the mighty inland ocean was near at
hand. Lake Superior is six hundred and seventy miles in length—of
course a vast deal larger than the British Channel,—the water is as
clear as crystal, and cool in the hottest weather. Being chiefly
supplied by land springs, the quantity of water that falls over the
Saut is much greater than that which is poured into the lake by its
tributary rivers and streams, which are comparatively small and
insignificant. The sailors in the steam-boat would occasionally peel a
large potatoe, and throw it in advance of the boat, and by the time she
arrived at the spot where it fell, the potatoe has sunk to the depth of
thirty or forty feet, but from the clearness of the water, its shape
and colour were perfectly distinct.
Of all the different places we touched at on our voyage, the Saut
had the strongest claims on our time and attention. We were much
mortified at being obliged to leave it the same afternoon. The captain
determining to return, contrary, I believe, to the wish of every one
on board. Only one or two canoes that had started earlier than the
others, were able to proceed farther than the Point aux Pins.
In our way back to the steamer, every canoe shot down the Saut. This
is an exceedingly dangerous experiment, except when they are guided by
people who have been long accustomed to the management of them. The
Saut, which is the only outlet to the waters of Lake Superior, may be
about one-third of a mile in width, and about half-a-mile in length;
the fall in that space being about twenty-four feet. The canoes, with
the paddles fore and aft, soon began to feel the effect of the current,
and were immediately after carried forward with great velocity. In many
places the waters were without foam, and perfectly transparent, and the
large loose rocks at the bottom were distinctly seen; many of them rise
nearly to the surface, but were avoided by the remarkable dexterity
of the steersman, where the slightest want of skill must inevitably
have overturned the canoe. The descent occupied between three or four
minutes. The rapids on the left bank were evidently more furious, and
are very seldom descended.
The Saut de St. Marie was originally occupied by the French as a
military and trading port. At the foot of the rapids there is, I was
informed, some of the finest fly-fishing in the world: the trout are
very fine, in enormous quantities, and rise very freely. But our
inexorable captain cared for none of these things. White-fish (supposed
by some to be of the salmo genus), are also exceedingly plentiful.
Their flavour is remarkably fine and delicate.
The next morning we approached the island of Michilimackinac,
signifying in the Indian language, the Great Turtle; and so called
from its outline bearing a supposed resemblance to that animal when
lying upon the water, though I cannot say that I could discover so
flattering a likeness. When within a short distance it appeared to be
diamond-shaped, with an angle projecting towards us, and the sides
regularly scarped by the hand of nature. Apparently about the centre
of the island rises what in America is called a “bluff;” a word which
is provoking from its absurdity, and constant recurrence in American
descriptions of scenery. What is a bluff?—I asked, and so would any
other Englishman: “A bluff, sir! don’t you know what a bluff is? A
bluff, sir, is a piece of rising ground, partly rock, not all of it,
with one side steep, but yet not very steep, the other side sloping
away, yet not too suddenly; the whole of it, except the steep side,
covered with wood; in short, sir, a bluff is a bluff!” The word, I
think, may do well enough to express a small rough rocky hill, but
sometimes it happens that a bluff is highly picturesque, and then to
talk of a most beautiful bluff, is something like talking of “Beauty
and the Beast.” As a substantive, and, in the sense in which it is used
in America, the word is exclusively their own, and it really would not
be fair to call it English. Nevertheless, there is, and shall be, “a
bluff” in the midst of the island of Michilimackinac, rising to the
height of more than three hundred feet above the waters of the lake,
which have been ascertained to be about six hundred feet above the
level of the Atlantic. On the left side of the island is the town, and
above it appeared the fort. In the bay were several trading sloops,
smaller craft, and Indian canoes; and the sun shone brilliantly on the
whole of this enlivening scene, which we saw to the best advantage.
The town may contain about eight hundred inhabitants, exclusively of
the garrison. The Indians are sometimes to be seen in great numbers,
even to the amount of one thousand or one thousand five hundred, who
live in wigwams close to the water’s edge. A wigwam, or Indian village,
is a collection of small tents constructed of matting and birch bark.
The day before, we had met twenty-two canoes in the open lake, each
containing seven or eight Indians, who were going from Mackinac to our
settlement at Pen-y-tang-y-shen, on Lake Huron, to receive their annual
presents from the British government.
Mackinac is the rendezvous of the North-West American missionary
establishment. It contained six missionaries; of whom four were
Presbyterian, one a Catholic, and one of the Church of England, and
a large establishment for the instruction of one hundred children, of
whatever persuasion.
A very curious and regularly shaped natural Gothic arch, on the top of
a rock at the north-eastern side, elevated about two hundred feet above
the level of the lake; a huge isolated calcareous rock; and a small
cave called Skull Cave, are the natural curiosities of the island.
The principal trade is the fur trade, which is carried on there to a
great extent, chiefly through the medium of Canadian _voyageurs_.
The fort, which is kept in admirable order, commands the whole town,
but is itself commanded by another eminence in the woods behind it.
During the late war a strong party of British and Indians pushed
across from Drummond’s Island, with eleven pieces of cannon, and
being favoured by the darkness of the night, contrived to gain this
eminence, distant half-a-mile, without being perceived by the Americans
in the fort, who had not received notice of the war having broken
out. They beat the “reveillée” as usual in the morning, and were
exceedingly astonished to hear it immediately answered by the British,
who were above them. Resistance would have been useless, and the fort
surrendered. The remains of the old British fortification are still to
be seen upon the hill: it is called Fort Holmes, after Major Holmes,
a gallant American officer, who was advancing to retake it, and met
his fate at the head of the attacking column. Mackinac was given up to
the Americans by the treaty of Ghent, in 1814. There was originally a
French fort and settlement on the main land of the Michigan territory.
The first British garrison who occupied it were murdered by the
Indians, and the fort and settlement were afterwards removed by the
British to the island.
I amused myself with shooting pigeons, which are to be found on the
island in great numbers. I was quite surprised at the extraordinary
facility and quickness of eye, with which my guide, half Indian and
half Canadian, discovered them sitting in the thickest foliage; his
sight seemed to me to be far keener than that of an English sportsman
when looking for a hare. The woods with which the island is covered,
are principally composed of hazel and maple; I could have fancied
myself in a Kentish preserve, but that wild raspberries were in great
abundance in the open spaces.
In the evening I went to see the Indians spear fish by torch light.
A lighted roll of birch bark, emitting a most vivid flame, was held
over the head of the boat, where the Indians were stationed with their
spears. The water was excessively clear, and the fish were attracted by
the light, and several of them were instantly pinned to the ground at
the depth of four or five feet.
About ten miles north-east of Mackinac are the St. Martin’s islands;
one of them abounds in gypsum. At about the same distance from Mackinac
and on the main land, I was informed that there was a remarkably fine
trout stream that would amply repay the fly-fisher for his trouble in
going there. There is no fly fishing at Mackinac, but very fine fish
are to be taken with a bait: they have pike, bass, white-fish, and what
are called salmon-trout, in great perfection. As to these last, I very
much question whether they are of the salmo genus at all; as they never
rise at a fly. They certainly are not what are called salmon-trout by
English sportsmen, nor are they the large butt-trout of the English
lakes. I saw a boat-load containing a dozen that had been caught in one
night weighing from fifteen to twenty pounds each; they more resembled
in every respect the fish called the salmon in the Lake Wenner in
Sweden, and which I have seen taken of an enormous size below the
falls of Trollhätta. The meat at this season (August) was white, but
well flavoured. I was informed that it becomes of a reddish colour in
October or November.
Mackinac is an excellent market for Indian curiosities.
Our next destination was Green bay, on Lake Michigan. On our way we
passed several fine-looking islands,—all thickly covered with forests,
and apparently uninhabited. A fort and a flourishing settlement are
to be seen at Green bay; but there is nothing attractive about either,
and the country is very flat and uninteresting, except to a sportsman.
There are plenty of wild fowl to be found at Duck creek, about three
miles off, and I proceeded there in hopes of shooting some, but did not
fall in with them until it was too late to have much sport. However,
I chanced to meet an old Indian who had been more successful, and I
carried back to the steam-boat two silver ducks, which answered every
purpose, as no questions were asked. My guide had been enumerating to
me the different wild animals to be found in that part of the forest,
and I chanced to ask him, if foxes were plentiful; his answer was
amusing, “Yes, sir; there is considerable fox.” In the very darkest
part of the forest, about two and a half miles from the mouth of the
creek, was the residence of an Indian doctress and fortune-teller.
I landed there out of curiosity to have my fortune told; but her
manner, her language, and the substance of what she said, differed in
no respect from that of a common English gipsy woman. She shuffled a
dirty pack of cards, and told me of the fair lady and the dark lady,
the false friend and the true friend, the treasure to be found and the
journey to be taken, with the same chapter of accidents and unavoidable
dangers. I purchased some of her medical herbs: the principal plant was
sarsaparilla. I observed wild rice growing in great abundance on the
margin of the stream.
By passing up the river at Green bay, a traveller may proceed in canoes
down the Wiskansaw river to the head of the Mississippi, having only to
pass over one mile of terra firma; so that with this single exception,
the whole distance from Quebec to New Orleans may be travelled by water.
We left Green bay, and returned to Mackinac, and passed the day much
in the same manner as before. Our evening’s entertainment was rather
of a novel description. A Catholic priest, whom we had previously
left at Mackinac, and who was known to be an eloquent man, was going
to preach in the chapel, and accordingly many of us went to hear him:
he had come to the island for the sole purpose of holding a religious
controversy with some of the Presbyterian clergy. The expected meeting
did not however take place; and having been, or fancying himself to
have been very much wronged, he entered into a long explanation of
the whole affair. He read letters and papers, and commented upon them
in his robes from the altar; he made a long tirade, in which sarcasm
and ridicule were successively prominent, and wound up his speech more
suited to the bar than the pulpit, by accusing his adversary of telling
a “thumper.” Whether he was in the right or the wrong was little to the
purpose: in common, I believe, with every one that heard him, I thought
the whole proceeding was exceedingly disgraceful.
We now steered again for Fort Gratiot, and passed to Detroit and Lake
Erie. From Detroit to Buffalo it is three hundred and fifty miles.
We touched at several posts; and in short, after a voyage of one
thousand eight hundred and ten miles, performed in nineteen days,
we arrived at Buffalo, and fired a salute of twenty-four guns, one
for each state. The distances the steam-boat had passed over were as
follows. From Buffalo to Detroit, three hundred and fifty miles; to
Fort Gratiot, seventy-five; length of Lake Huron, two hundred and
twenty; from the mouth of the river St. Marie to the Saut, and back
to the Lake, one hundred miles; thence to Mackinac, forty miles; to
Green bay, one hundred and eighty; back to Mackinac, one hundred and
eighty more; thence to Fort Gratiot, two hundred and forty; to Detroit,
seventy-five; to Buffalo, three hundred and fifty; total, one thousand
eight hundred and ten miles. The voyage altogether had been very
pleasant, and the weather so favourable that quadrilles were danced
on deck almost every evening. On one night only, the surface of Lake
Huron was agitated by something like a squall, and the rolling of the
steam-boat was exceedingly disagreeable. I had nothing to complain
of, but the conceit and untameable insolence of the stewards; which
were remarked, and I have no doubt will be remembered, by many of the
warmest admirers of liberty and equality who were on board.
Buffalo is a large, thriving and cheerful town, containing about
fourteen thousand inhabitants. The principal street is spacious and
handsome, and of great length.
And now for Niagara, the diapason of fresh waters! An hour’s drive
brought me to the village of Black Rock, where the Niagara river is
about half a mile in breadth, and runs from the lake with a very
strong current. Opposite to Black Rock are the remains of Fort Erie,
unsuccessfully besieged by the British in 1814.
I proceeded along the side of the river. Its rapidity soon ceases, and
it presents a surface as still and as calm as that of a lake. A turn
of the road brought my voiture to a small inn, close to the field of
battle of Chippewa, fought during the last war. At this spot, which
by the road is about four miles distant, we were within hearing of the
deep hollow roar of the cataract, and first saw the spray that arose
from the gulph beneath. Both are sometimes perceptible at a far greater
distance. The moon was just rising, and threw a faint, pale light over
the river, which is here expanded to a breadth of several miles. There
was scarcely a ripple to be seen; the whole sheet of water was tranquil
and resigned: the stream appeared to cease flowing, while all nature,
hushed and breathless, listened with it to the distant thunders of the
cataract. This scene is continued for about a mile further, and thence
the tale is soon told. The bed of the river begins to slope, and the
agitation of the waters indicate the commencement of the rapids. The
mighty stream rushes forward with ungovernable violence—its confusion
and exasperation are increased every instant—it nears the brink of the
precipice in a state of frenzy—and bounds over it to its destiny of
mist and foam, in unexampled volume, and with terrific impetuosity.
This stupendous fall has been frequently and well described; and I do
but trespass on your patience in remarking, that it is divided into
three parts by two islands—a larger and a smaller one. Including these,
the bed of the river immediately above the fall is suddenly narrowed
to about three quarters of a mile. The fall of the rapids above,
commencing near the village of Chippawa, two miles from the brink of
the cataract, is estimated at ninety feet. On the American side, the
river is precipitated from a height of one hundred and sixty-four feet:
on the Canadian bank, the fall is about ten feet less; but contains by
far the greater quantity of water, the precipice having been worn into
the form of a vast crescent by the “green water,” (so called on account
of its brilliantly transparent colour when the sun shines on it), which
falls from the middle of the river in a solid mass, not less than five
or six feet in thickness, and is driven forwards with an impetus that
hurls it into the gulph below, at a distance of fifty feet from the
base of the rock.
The finest general view is, I think, to be obtained from the top of Mr.
Forsyth’s hotel (where, be it added, having just entered the British
dominions, we drank his Majesty’s health in a bumper, at the table
d’hôte), because the whole surrounding country and the rapids, which
of themselves are worth a long journey, are seen at the same time. The
bottom of the fall it is true is not visible; but I believe the view
will not be thought the less magnificent on that account, as it is
very possible from that spot to imagine the height of the fall to be
even greater than it really is. I may also be allowed to remark, that
I think the immediately surrounding scenery is sufficiently in keeping
with the grandeur of the cataract, although I am aware that many are of
a different opinion. The country is on the same level both above and
below the fall, as the river precipitates itself into a channel which
it has formed in the solid, but soft fetid limestone, and which, as is
usually contended, has been hollowed out by the receding cataract, all
the way from Lewistown, distant seven miles.
This fact has been sometimes doubted, but it would appear, without
much reason. It has been ascertained that an irregular ledge of rock
is extended between the lakes Erie and Ontario, at a varying distance
from either of them; sometimes piercing through the soil that covers
it, and in many places jutting out with salient and re-entering
angles, like an immense fortification; and it has been supposed that
the Niagara river has found its way into one of the ravines formed
between them, which has thus become the bed of the river, towards lake
Ontario. This theory, however, is very much weakened, if not entirely
overthrown, by the observations of our countryman, Lieutenant Owen,
who, when employed on the government surveys in the years 1815, 16, 17
and 18, contrived to force his boat nearer to the foot of the falls
than any person had ever done, and ascertained by repeated soundings,
that the nearly constant depth of the river from Lewistown to the
falls, was about two hundred feet, excepting in limited spaces, where
it did not exceed forty-five feet. These spaces or points he conceived
to be composed of granite “in situ,” or of some other rock, which
being harder than the soft lime-stone of which the bed of the river is
generally composed, had offered a proportionably greater resistance to
the regular action of the falling element.
Having first stripped off my clothes, and enveloped myself in an
oilskin dress, I followed a guide, who conducted me under the fall.
This is a service of some danger, as a single false step in some
places might prove fatal. As we crept along the side of the rock we
encountered a most furious gust of wind, that increased in violence
till we were fairly behind the sheet of water, and arrived at what
is called the Termination Rock. Here we remained for a few minutes,
gasping for breath, stunned with the noise, and drenched with a shower
of spray. If I wished to speak I was obliged to put my mouth close to
the ear of the guide, and to raise my voice to the utmost; and it was
with the greatest difficulty that I could look upwards for a moment,
and glance at the tumbling element, as it rushed over the edge of the
rock that towered high above our heads, and then fell into the abyss
within arm’s length of us, with the rapidity of lightning.
About half-a-mile below the fall, the river is crossed in a ferry-boat.
On the American side a wooden bridge of admirable construction conducts
the visiter to Goat Island, the larger of the two which divides the
fall. A walk of a few minutes will lead him to another bridge, thrown
from rock to rock, till it actually overhangs the edge of the principal
part of the cataract. I am fully persuaded, that when any one who has
seen the fall from this spot asserts that he is disappointed, it is
but a proof of insufferable affectation, or what Johnson would call
“stark insensibility.” It is possible, that some flat-souled Dutchman,
who would think of nothing but how he might turn the course of the
river by a dam; or some passionless manufacturing Yankee, who would
“guess it to be a pity that such an all-mighty water power should
remain unemployed,” might regard the scene, when viewed from any other
point, and remain unmoved by its grandeur; but it is next to impossible
to look upon it from this bridge, and not be affected with something
like awe and astonishment. Let the atheist—and, if he will, with wine
and warmth in his bosom—repair to this spot, as is usual, by moonlight,
when one-half of the cataract is in shade, and the other glistening
with more than snowy whiteness,—he may there gaze in security, and
enjoy the _sublime without terror_; but should one thought of
annihilation trouble him—should he covet the pinion of the bald eagle
as he fearlessly glides over the abyss, or envy the finned tribe that
can live and revel in the boiling gulf beneath—let him reflect, that
his reason is with him, the undoubted substitute for these physical
advantages; his reason, alike the promoter of his happiness and the
medium of his misery. Then, turning to a more tranquil scene, let
him gaze on the silvery spirit-like beauties of the lunar rainbow;
let him observe the worlds upon worlds that throng the heavens above
him, declaring the existence of their Creator as they roll onward in
eternal obedience to his will, but in silent amazement at his meaning;
and let him ask why his reason should be, as it were, so tantalized by
his senses. Had no lesson been intended, the firmament might as well
have been placed far beyond the reach of mortal sight, and perhaps the
little he can see and know of it may teach him to believe in, and hope
for, another and happier home, by proving to him, at once, how much
must be withheld from him, and how much must remain to be enjoyed.
I am not aware whether the experiment has ever been tried, but I should
conceive that the effect of a Bengal light sent up from this bridge, on
a dark stormy winter’s night, would be exceedingly fine.
At about two miles below the fall, the river again becomes a torrent. I
proceeded along the edge of the chasm through which it rages, in order
to visit “the Whirlpool,” whose deep and gloomy appearance well repaid
me for a very hot walk.
I procured a hack, and rode to the abyss in the side of the river,
known by the appellation of the “Devil’s Hole.” I followed a party who
had descended the ladders before me; we all, as I learned afterwards,
took a wrong path to the right, which soon conducted us to the edge of
a small but impassable precipice, and under the impression that we had
seen all that was worth seeing, we re-ascended the ladders and returned
to Niagara, after having enjoyed a very fine view of the river from the
bold flattened rock, that is projected on the left hand.
The road by which I passed down the Canadian side of the river, for
the purpose of joining the steam-boat on Lake Ontario, at but a very
short distance from Niagara, lies over the field of the murderous and
severely contested battle of Bridgewater, or Lundy’s Lane, which was
fought on the night of the 25th of July, 1814, and terminated without
much advantage to either party. A few miles further on, to the left,
is a heavy-looking pillar, erected to the memory of General Brock, who
was killed early in the battle of Queenston, October 13, 1812, in which
the Americans were forced to repass the river with great loss, whilst
several thousands of their militia were idly looking on from the other
bank.
Near the mouth of the river, on the Canadian side, is Fort George;
on the American bank stands Fort Niagara, in which the notorious
William Morgan, who wrote a book, in which, as I have before remarked,
he revealed the secrets of freemasonry, was confined under false
pretences, previously to his being murdered by some fanatic masons, and
afterwards, as it is supposed, pitched into the lake, or the Niagara
river.
I am afraid I shall be excommunicated by my American readers, as I
visited neither the Erie nor the Welland Canals; not even the Locks at
Lockport, or the Deep Cut, or the Mountain Ridge. The Welland canal,
however, is unquestionably a great national work, and reflects much
credit upon the spirited individuals by whom it was undertaken; by
its means, the obstacles presented to navigation by the falls of the
Niagara, have been effectually overcome, and a communication opened
between the lakes Erie and Ontario.
Ontario is one of the deepest of the lakes; its mean depth being about
six hundred feet. It has been ascertained that the bottom of lake Erie,
which is two hundred and seventy miles in length, is six feet higher
than the surface of lake Ontario. The distance between the two lakes is
thirty-five miles, in which space the river Niagara is supposed to fall
about three hundred feet, which is therefore the depth of lake Erie.
I embarked in a splendid steam-boat, “the Great Britain,” proceeding to
Kingston, at the other end of the lake. I could not but remark, that
although a finer vessel, her table was by no means so well supplied as
that of the American boat in which I had made my excursion to the great
lakes.
During the short time we remained at Kingston we were entertained by
the band of the 66th, which gave us the national airs of England and
America in the finest style: the principal British naval establishment
and dockyard on the lakes, is at Kingston. I observed two first-raters
and a large frigate on the stocks. The St. Lawrence, of one hundred
and twenty guns, which made one cruise at the end of the last war, was
rotten, and half sunk in the water. There were several smaller vessels
in ordinary, but those on the stocks are not to be proceeded with,
according to the stipulations of the treaty of Ghent.
Immediately afterwards, we entered the thousand “islands,” extending
for sixty miles up the river St. Lawrence. There are in fact, twelve
hundred of them, and although certainly very picturesque, are without
variety, and much resemble those on the lakes, being flat and thickly
covered with trees. Their number is not of course perceived, as they
lie so closely together along the side of the channel that they appear
more like points or promontories from the main shore.
I quitted the steamer at Cornwall, and entered a large boat with a
number of ladies and gentlemen who, like myself, wished to descend the
rapids. In our way to Montreal we were obliged to change our mode of
travelling by land and water, no less than four times in one day. The
river above Montreal is full of rapids. The most formidable of these
are called the Long Saut and the rapids of the Cedars. We passed down
two or three of minor consideration, and then commenced the descent
of the “Long Saut.” Our boat was carried along at a great rate for
several miles, and soon approached the only part that can be considered
dangerous, where the river was running with appalling violence. The
waves as soon as they are formed, do not subside and then swell up
again at regular distances, but dart furiously onward, racing and
crowding upon each other in a most extraordinary confusion of spray
and foam, that rises to a height of four or five feet, and splashes
over the sides of the boat, to the great discomfiture of the ladies’
dresses, and the very serious looks of the gentlemen. The boatmen
directed our attention to the rapids of the “Lost Channel” on our left,
from which we were divided by an island. They are far more dangerous
than those we were passing, and at a distance of half-a-mile, we could
see that the river was most terribly agitated. The “Lost Channel”
receives its name from the number of persons that have perished there.
In the old French war, three hundred British troops were lost in the
torrent; the first boat took the wrong channel, the others followed,
and all went to pieces. The floating bodies first intimated to a French
garrison on the river below, the surprise that had been intended for
them. The boatmen are of course usually experienced persons, and if
sober there is no danger; but it is not always that they are so. At one
place our tipsy pilots allowed the boat to swing across the stream:
fortunately the worst of the rapids were passed, or an accident might
have occurred. Both the Long Saut and those of the Cedars which we saw
from the road, are certainly more boisterous than those at the Saut de
St. Marie, on account of the greater body of water in the St. Lawrence,
but the descent at the latter is more rapid as the fall is far more
precipitate in proportion to its length.
I entered a steam-boat on the banks of the Ottawa, which although a
noble-looking stream in other respects, is dark and dirty in comparison
with the St. Lawrence. The latter river seems not to relish the
alliance. A sudden change is perceivable in the colour of the water,
the line of junction being distinctly observable; and for scores of
miles down the St. Lawrence, its clearer waters confine themselves
to the eastern bank, while those on the western are discoloured by
the “Ottawa tide.” I afterwards ascended the Ottawa. We arrived at
La Chine, and proceeded by land to Montreal. The mountain behind it
was already in sight, but the city itself by this road, remained
hidden till we were within a very few miles of it. I passed through
it the same evening, intending to see it on my return. The Hercules,
a very fine steam-boat, carried me to Quebec in about twenty hours;
touching at “the Three Rivers,” eighty-four miles from Quebec, and
ninety-six from Montreal. Six miles from Quebec, we passed the mouth
of the Chaudiere river, celebrated for its falls, which are situated
about three or four miles from the spot where it empties itself into
the St. Lawrence, whose banks, every where interesting, become still
more so on approaching Quebec, being thickly lined with Canadian
villages. Every cottage is white; the churches are of the same colour,
with their spires covered with tin, and are frequently to be seen at
a great distance out-topping the neighbouring forest and glistening
in the sunbeam. In some places the river is two miles in width; but
at Quebec it is narrowed to about a mile, which adds to the beauty
of the view by making the lofty banks appear higher than they really
are. On the left are seen the fortifications on Cape Diamond, the
most elevated spot in the vicinity of the city. On the right is Point
Levi. At different distances down the river are Cape Tourment and the
Beaufort mountains, and the Isle of Orleans, dividing the river into
two channels—that on the left being dangerous for any but very small
vessels. The city itself was not visible till the boat was standing in
for the landing-place. Numerous merchant ships were lying at anchor in
different parts of the river; whilst rafts, ferry-boats, and smaller
craft, were moving in all directions. The Government-House, or Castle
of St. Louis, was the most prominent object: below it on the right,
is the old parliament house. The space which intervenes between these
buildings and the water, is occupied by the lower town, which like
all lower towns, is far more dirty and lively than the upper ones,
where some of the streets are dull and even gloomy. The only two
large steeples in Quebec, are those of the Protestant and Catholic
churches. The upper town is surrounded by a strong rampart, and cannon
are planted in every place where they could be used with advantage in
case of a siege. The whole city is commanded by the fortress on Cape
Diamond, which it is supposed, when finished, will be impregnable. The
interior works occupy a space of about six acres, and are advanced to
the edge of the precipice, where it is about three hundred and fifty
feet in height. In 1775, the American General Montgomery and his two
aides-de-camp were killed by the same cannon-shot at the water’s edge
beneath the fort.
I think I shall never forget the appearance of the view from the
ramparts. It is very beautiful and inexpressibly enlivening. In
looking down the river, the isle d’Orleans is on the right; in the
extreme distance is Cape Tourment; while on the left is a gently
sloping bank, exhibiting all the varied hues of extensive cultivation,
between thirty and forty miles in length, and from two to five and
six miles in width, and reaching from the margin of the water to the
foot of the Beaufort mountains. The most conspicuous villages are
Indian Lorette, Charleburg, Beaufort, and the Chateau Richer, easily
distinguished by their light steeples covered with tin. Beside these,
many hundreds of white cottages are scattered over the plain; and the
road to Montmorenci is entirely lined with them. I was reminded by the
prospect, of the highly cultivated garden that environs a city on the
eastern coast of Spain. Olive trees and vineyards, it is true, there
were none; but olive trees and vineyards are not missed at a great
distance, and the Charleburg country is backed by the fine range of the
Beaufort mountains, which although not of the highest elevation, can
yet boast of a very picturesque outline; and being thickly covered with
a noble forest, have at least one advantage over the barren rocks that
usually rear their heads in the vicinity of a Spanish “vega.”
On the south side of the city, at a distance of two miles, are the
plains of Abraham, and at their further extremity, is Wolfe’s cave. The
view from the bank above is scarcely less enchanting than that I had
so lately turned from. On the western horizon are seen the mountains
which by the late decision of the king of the Netherlands are to
form the boundary line between the Canadas and the United States. The
intermediate landscape is most delightful; large yellow patches of
cultivation rescued from the apparently endless forest, are espied
in different directions, each surrounding some thriving village in
the interior, whilst the opposite banks of the river are fringed with
Canadian cottages, as white as lime and brush can make them; and the
intervening and majestic waters of the St. Lawrence having at length
escaped from the turbulence of the rapids, are seen flowing beneath, as
calmly and as silently, as when, during the darkness of a night more
than seventy years ago, the gallant Wolfe was floated on the retiring
tide to his victory and his grave.
Till within a year or two, the stone close to which he breathed his
last, was remaining on the field; but the proprietor, a person of
infinite taste, has had it removed, part of it having been used for
the purposes of the builder, while other parts of it are constantly
undergoing a process of subdivision for the benefit of the curious.
A plain, but very elegant stone obelisk, worth a dozen such as
Washington’s monument at Baltimore, or General Brock’s at Queen’s Town
Heights, had been lately erected to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm.
The idea of paying this late tribute to the memory of those illustrious
soldiers, originated with Lord Dalhousie. A singularly chaste classical
inscription from the pen of Dr. Fisher, the editor of the Quebec
Gazette, will be engraved in front of the monument. It is as follows:
WOLFE——MONTCALM.
MORTEM. VIRTUS. COMMUNEM.
FAMAM. HISTORIA.
MONUMENTUM POSTERITAS.
DEDIT.
A. S. 1827.
A longer inscription will be placed on the other side of the monument.
An aged nun is now living in the Ursuline convent at Quebec, who
remembers having held a taper when the remains of the chivalrous
Frenchman were lowered to his grave in the chapel vault. I saw a small
oval slab of marble, which was shortly to be fixed in the wall near the
spot where he is buried. It bore the following inscription:—“Honheur á
Montcalm: ledest in en lui derobant la victoire, l’a recompensé par une
mort glorieuse.”
Quebec was taken from the French in the reign of Charles I., 130 years
before the death of Wolfe, but being thought of little value, was given
up in the same reign to Louis XIII., by the treaty of St. Germain.
At Lorette are to be purchased the best Indian moccassins, and other
leathern curiosities, at the house of Mere Paul. The three Huron chiefs
who visited England in 1825, and who were introduced in the first
circles in London, may now be seen, any hot day, sober or intoxicated,
just as it may happen, sitting perhaps in the dust, before the doors
of their cottages. They take great pleasure in showing the medals and
portraits they received in England, and the queen, or wife of the
principal chief—a short, dumpy, masculine woman—occasionally comes to
Quebec to sell moccassins, and has no aboriginal antipathy to a glass
of gin. She constantly wears in her bosom (and very close to it too) a
silver medal, presented to her husband by the Lord Mayor. There is some
good woodcock shooting at Lorette, and a very pretty waterfall,—the
foam spreading itself over the rocks, so as to resemble the finest
lacework.
On looking up the course of the St. Lawrence, from this very
interesting village, a wide opening is discerned in the distant bank,
once apparently the channel of the river, which at some time as is
supposed, by a junction with the mouth of the river St. Charles, made
an island of the promontory on which Quebec now stands.
The Canadian cottages are in general extremely neat, the windows,
in particular, being remarkably clean; and occasionally a tall pole
or flag staff, is placed in front of one of them, to indicate the
residence of an officer of militia.
Of the falls of Montmorenci, I will only remark, that they are well
worth the ride, or the walk, or the sail to them. The splendid view
of Quebec, the river, and the surrounding country, that is enjoyed
from the ground above them is a sufficient recompence; and no stranger
should leave Quebec without paying them a visit. The same may be said
of the falls of the Chaudière. They are in fact much finer than those
of Montmorenci, and within riding distance.
At Chateau Richer there is one of the best snipe grounds in the
Canadas. In October they may be shot in extraordinary numbers, but
should the sportsman be disappointed in finding his game, he may
proceed to the falls of St. Anne, distant twelve miles. I mention
this, supposing him to be a regular water-fall man. I had ceased to be
so since I had seen Niagara. The different accounts I heard of Lake
Charles prevented me from going there. Some told me it was full of
cat-fish, and large frogs, which eat the little ones; others called it
a beautiful lake, and that good trout-fishing was to be had there. I
certainly eat some small ones, which had been caught there, of a most
delicious flavour.
[Illustration:
G. T. Vigne, delṭ T. S. Engleheart, sculpṭ
JACQUES CARTIER, WITH SALMON FISHING.
_Published by Whittaker & C^o. April 10. 1832._]
The attractions of Jâques Cartier, twenty-seven miles from Quebec,
were not to be so trifled with. This is the finest place for salmon
fishing in the Canadas, and a very pretty spot into the bargain. All is
as it should be; there is a small, but clean and comfortable country
inn: the landlord throws a fly beautifully; his sister, a very pretty
Canadian girl, waits at table; and the mother broils the salmon _à
merveille_. The river, at all times a torrent, and now very much
swollen by two whole days’ rain, was rushing with the greatest fury
through the narrow channel it has worn for itself through the solid
rock. The bridge, which is close to the inn, is a very neat government
work. Under it is a hole, forty or fifty feet in depth; and when
the river is low and clear, salmon may be seen lying there in great
numbers. But the season was too far advanced, the weather too cold,
and the river too high; and my friend and I, seeing that we could not
expect sport, returned, having killed but one salmon a-piece in the
course of the afternoon. A fine open ledge of rocks extends along the
side of the river, affording some excellent fishing stations. The place
is named after Jâques Cartier, who first sailed up the St. Lawrence in
1535, and founded the city of Montreal. He is said to have wintered
there, at the mouth of the river which bears his name. On his return
to France, he was of course coolly received, as he brought no precious
metals. He sailed a second time, with orders to establish a colony on
the St. Lawrence, but having had the misfortune to quarrel with the
Indians, he returned to his native country to die of a broken heart.
The Canadian peasantry are of the middle size, or under it. Although
they breathe some of the purest air in America, their countenances are
worn, and unhealthy in appearance. They may be said to be smoke-dried,
being seldom without a pipe in their mouths, and in winter they shut
themselves up in their cottages, and breathe an atmosphere of tobacco
fumes. I am not of course speaking of the athletic progeny of British
settlers, when I affirm that a tall, fine hale-looking man is rarely
to be met with. Nevertheless, the French Canadians are a brave, hardy,
independent race, and happier, I should imagine, than any peasantry in
the world. They pay no taxes, or just sufficient to keep the roads
in repair. Most of them have small farms, and find a ready market
for the produce; and those who have no land of their own, can easily
find employment with those that have. They never give away money,
but are exceedingly hospitable in other respects; and the poor Irish
emigrant, who is travelling barefoot and pennyless to the place of his
destination, is sure of a meal at any cottage where they have one to
give. There still remains much of the French _naiveté_ in their
character, and at a few miles from Quebec, they know and care as little
about the proceedings of government, as the Irish peasant did, and does
now, about Catholic emancipation. Without meaning to detract from the
merit of their charity, it may be remarked, that there is something
like a spirit of conciliation, if not of apprehension, mixed up with
it, for they are afraid that the “_Bas de soie_,” as they call
the stockingless Irish, will finally drive them and their descendants
from house and home.
* * * * *
The population of Upper Canada, which I did not visit (my time being
occupied in the unexpected voyage on the Great Lakes), is about
250,000. That of Lower Canada may be estimated at 500,000; but the
amount in both provinces is rapidly increasing. Sixty thousand
emigrants had landed at Quebec in 1831, before the river was frozen up,
being more than double the number that arrived in 1830. Many of them
brought out considerable sums of money. One morning, during my stay at
Quebec, an old Scotchman, who had lived about fourteen years in the
Canadas, returned from Scotland with ninety of his countrymen, whom
he had persuaded to follow him: he himself bringing with him several
thousand pounds, and the others possessing one, two, or three hundred
pounds a-piece. Two thousand of the emigrants that arrived in Upper
Canada, were small farmers from the North of England.
The soil of Upper Canada is as productive as any in the world, so
that the emigrant has no occasion to pass into the United States, in
order to obtain a better, unless he proceed to particular spots where
he would be liable to catch a fever and ague, and where the excessive
heats together with the moisture and richness of the soil, render it
so hastily prolific, that it is often a matter of great uncertainty
whether a crop will arrive at perfection. The strong natural prejudice
in favour of the British flag; the fact that the British manufactures
can be purchased after payment of a very trifling duty of two per
cent., whereas they must have paid an average duty of 30 per cent., if
coming _viâ_ the United States: that lands of equal fertility,
and possessing equal advantages of situation, are sold at one half
the price that is paid in the United States: that the climate of the
Canadas is most decidedly the healthier of the two; are additional
and substantial inducements to a permanent residence in the British
colonies. Good land in the best situations is sold by the Canada land
company at from 10s. to 15s. the acre: their sales for the year 1831,
having amounted to 100,000 acres at an average price of 10s. per acre.
One-seventh of the lands in every township in the United States is
reserved for the payment of the clergy; and the agent for the clergy
reserves, is authorized to sell 100,000 acres a year at 15s. an acre.
The nature of uncleared land is known by the timber which grows upon
it. Where a great variety of timber abounds, the soil is generally a
black loam. A clayey soil is known by the great proportion of firs
intermixed with other trees, but when they grow alone, it is found that
sand usually predominates. This is also the case where there are none
but oaks and chestnut trees. Potatoes and turnips succeed better than
any other crop on newly cleared land.
Both in the United States, and the Canadas, great quantities of sugar
are made from the maple tree. The molasses are an excellent substitute
for sweatmeats. In the month of March, a notch is cut in the tree, and
a small pipe of wood is fastened into it, through which the sap runs
into a wooden trough that is placed to receive it, and in this manner
from five to seven pounds’ weight of sugar may be obtained annually
from one tree. The process of boiling and preparing the sugar takes
place in the forest.
The agents of the Canada Land Company, on the arrival of emigrants at
Quebec or Montreal, for the season of 1832, undertake to convey them
free of expense to York or the head of Lake Ontario, in the vicinity
of the choicest lands, provided the emigrants pay a first instalment
in London, Quebec, or Montreal, or two shillings an acre upon not
less than one hundred acres: and the Company’s agents in all parts
of the Upper Province, will give such emigrants every information
and assistance in their power. Should emigrants on their arrival at
York not settle on the Company’s lands, the money paid by them will
be returned, deducting the actual expense of conveyance. At York
there are large buildings expressly appropriated to the reception of
emigrant families previously to their finding employment; and both the
government and the Canada Land Company have waggons drawn up on the
wharfs, in order to convey them and their baggage from the place of
landing.
I cannot add any thing new to the particulars given in the printed
papers relating to emigration, which are issued both by government and
the Canada Land Company; to say nothing of the “Wiltshire Letters,”
or the “Hints to Emigrants,” published at Quebec. These may all be
purchased for a few pence, and the information they contain is, of
course, derived from the best sources. Their instructions and advice
on the subject of imposition, which might be practised upon emigrants
at their first arrival, will be found most useful.
Wheat at the Canadas, according to the distance from the place of
export, varies from 3_s._ to 5_s._ 6_d._ the bushel; beef (winter)
2½_d._ the pound, (summer) 3½_d._ to 4_d._; mutton in the winter is
2½_d._ the pound, in summer it is a little dearer; potatoes are from
1_s._ to 2_s._ the bushel; a goose or a turkey may be purchased for
2_s._ or 2_s._ 6_d._, and a couple of fowls for 1_s._ or 1_s._ 6_d._
Ship-carpenters can earn from 5_s._ to 7_s._ a-day; labourers 2_s._
6_d._ to 4_s._ a-day; handicraft tradesmen from 5_s._ to 7_s._ 6_d._
a-day; house-servants receive from 26_s._ to 36_s._ a-month, with
food; females from 15_s._ to 30_s._ a-month, with food. In Quebec and
Montreal, excellent board and lodging may be obtained in the principal
hotels and boarding-houses at 20_s._ to 30_s._ a-week. A labourer
or mechanic would pay 7_s._ to 9_s._ 6_d._ a-week, for which he
will get tea or coffee, with meat for breakfast, a good dinner, and
supper at night. An excellent private dwelling-house may be rented
at from 100_l._ to 150_l._ a-year unfurnished; shops according to
their situation at from 30_l._ to 100_l._ A farm of 100 acres with
20 or 30 acres clear, with a dwelling house, may be purchased in the
Canadas for 150_l._ to 300_l._ according to the situation. There are,
I believe, few persons who would not allow that emigration should be
encouraged, at all events as a temporary remedy, and the rage for
building discouraged, provided it can be done by just and legitimate
means. The British government have an emigrant agent at Quebec; it
encourages emigration, and finds co-operation and assistance in the
Canada Land Company and the Emigrant’s Hospital at Quebec. Yet if the
timber trade in the Canadas were suddenly destroyed by the measures
which are said to be in contemplation, the immediate consequence would
be, that the efforts of government in regard to one object would be
neutralized by its own acts with reference to another. At present,
there are from six hundred to eight hundred ships employed every summer
in the timber trade. They sometimes carry out a cargo of coals, or
salt, both paying a very insignificant freight (coals sell in Quebec at
26_s._ the chaldron) or more usually go out as it is termed in ballast,
and thus afford facilities of emigration at an exceedingly cheap rate,
to thousands whose absence from Great Britain is an advantage to both
countries, as far as population is concerned; and who otherwise benefit
the mother country by affording an additional market for her cotton and
other manufactures, which they soon find the means of purchasing. In
destroying the Canada timber trade by a sudden increase of duties, she
is depriving herself of all these advantages. She would bring sudden
ruin upon a numerous class of individuals who have large capitals
invested in saw mills, and other buildings connected with the trade;
she would deprive thousands of the means of buying and selling land; a
number of ships would be thrown out of employment; emigration would be
stopped, or at least greatly impeded for want of the facilities which
are now given; England would not gain in the affections of the Canadas;
she would lose a rapidly increasing market, and the benefit of a fine
race of British peasantry, who would be ever ready to fight in defence
of their newly adopted country.
The timber is cut in the winter, before the sap rises. Suppose then
that the new duties were imposed, that the trade had consequently
ceased, and that next year a war, by which the Baltic would be closed,
should break out about the month of March, no timber would have been
cut and prepared in the Canadas, and there can be no doubt that Great
Britain would be obliged either to purchase inferior timber, cut in
the summer, and prepared at a great additional expense, or remain
without a supply of timber for sixteen months. It is said, and with
truth, that clearing, for the sake of the timber only, rather impedes
than assists the progress of cultivation,—a few trees only being
selected on a given space, which are squared on the spot, while the
lumber and branches are left to present additional difficulty to the
farmer by becoming entangled in the underwood; and it has been also
remarked, that the annihilation of the trade would benefit the Canadas,
by augmenting the capital and labour that is annually expended in
agricultural purposes, and that the additional quantity of exported
wheat, would soon make amends for their temporary loss: but it should
also be considered, that the white-pine, which forms much the largest
proportion of the timber exported from the Canadas, is in many places
found on a rocky and sandy soil, which is not available for the
purposes of cultivation, and moreover that the quantity of wheat
exported, is already increasing with the tide of emigration to an
incalculable amount.
In a mercantile and political view, it would be better that the Canada
timber trade should not be interfered with; but if any increase of the
duties be resolved upon, it should certainly be gradual. One reason why
the Canada timber is not so much liked as that which comes from the
Baltic, is, that it is not so well squared and finished off for the
market. In the first year, a gradual increase of duties might remedy
this defect, by encouraging competition, while at the same time both
the British government, and the Canadian capitalist, would be enabled
to see their way more clearly.
A great proportion of the lands in Lower Canada is divided into
seignories, which were originally granted by the French crown, under
the feudal tenure. No seignory has been created since the conquest
in 1759: but when crown lands have been disposed of, they have been
granted in what is termed free and common soccage, and laid out
like the old seignories, of which there are about two hundred, in a
direction of N.N.W. by E.S.E., nearly at right angles with the banks
of the St. Lawrence. The seignor then made grants or “concessions” to
his under tenants, which by the old French custom were thirty acres in
length, by three, fronting the river. This measurement, however, is now
often departed from. The seignor receives from his tenants an annual
rent of a very trifling amount, which is not redeemable: he is, also,
entitled to a mutation fine, called “lods et vents,” being one-twelfth
part of the money paid by the purchaser of land within the seignory.
The old French law compels the tenants to bring their wheat to be
ground at the seignor’s mill. This custom has been sometimes objected
to, but no complaint can be reasonably made on the score of its being
an injury to the farmer. It imposes no burden, because he can have
his wheat ground at his own door, and if the seignor’s mill does not
perform the work properly, he may take it to another.
In the Canadas, the civil and criminal laws of England are in force
generally, subject to provincial alterations. The old French law,
which was in existence previously to the year 1663, is still the law
of property, with some exceptions, in Lower Canada. None of the laws
enacted in France since that period, extended to the colony unless
enregistered there. This is the reason why the ordinance of 1673, for
the better regulation of trade, is not in force. The criminal laws of
England were transplanted into the colonies, by 14 Geo. iii. c. 83,
and, of course, none passed since that period can become law in the
Canadas, unless they are particularly specified and included in their
provisions. Properly speaking, the Canadas have no commercial code.
Great confusion sometimes arises respecting the decisions according to
the English custom of merchants, and those made under the old French
code, and actions at law are frequently settled according to what
appears to be the principle of natural justice, rather than according
to established precedent. This surely conveys a reflection upon the
wisdom of the provincial legislature; but the fact is, that the
mercantile community is not sufficiently represented in the house of
assembly for Lower Canada.
Lower Canada is divided into three judicial districts—of Quebec, the
Three Rivers, and Montreal, the boundary line being drawn nearly at
right angles with the St. Lawrence.
There are but three courts of justice—the Court of Appeal, the King’s
Bench, and the Summary Court. The governor sometimes sits as president
of the Court of Appeal; but the chair is more often filled by one of
the chief justices. The court is formed by all the members of the
executive council.
The Court of King’s Bench is divided into a superior and inferior
court. The latter has jurisdiction only where the matter in dispute
is of the value of ten pounds or under. There are a chief justice and
three puisnè judges at Quebec; the same at Montreal, and a district
judge at the Three Rivers. When the superior court is held at this
latter place, it is held by one of the chief justices, two puisnè
judges, and the district judge. The summary courts have jurisdiction
over property to the value of one hundred francs, and are held once a
month before a commissioner appointed by the provincial government,
on petition from the country inhabitants. Quarter sessions are held
regularly before three magistrates, with much the same power as in
England, for the punishment of offences against the criminal law; and
petty civil cases may be disposed of daily by one or more magistrates.
A magistrate is required to have property of the real actual value of
300_l._, and the oaths upon taking office are very strict.
A barrister may act as an attorney and solicitor at the same
time,—which, as in the United States, appears to have originated
in the impossibility of making the profession pay, without such an
arrangement. Pleadings may be written in either language, and English
and Canadian French are spoken almost indiscriminately in the courts.
I have observed great and unavoidable confusion in the inferior court
of King’s Bench—the judges, counsel, solicitors, clients, and witnesses
all talking occasionally at the same time in either language, just as
it may happen; and in the midst of the uproar, the Stentorian voice
of the officer of the court may be heard as he endeavours to restore
tranquillity by calling out Silence! (English), Silence! (French),
in quick succession. But the proceedings in the superior court are
conducted with all the decorum of an English court of justice; and
the old jealous British lion, painted in the king’s arms over the
heads of the judges, frowns grimly upon the scene, with a pair of
eyebrows sufficient to inspire even ermined dignity itself with awe
and veneration. Many of the powers belonging to a court of equity,
are exercised by the court of King’s Bench under the old French law.
It grants injunctions by a process termed a sequestre. It takes care
of the property of minors, and appoints curators of the persons and
property of lunatics. The law of entail by a limitation, called a
“substitution fidei commissaire,” is well known in Lower Canada, but
seldom acted upon.
The attention of the legislature has of late been called to the state
of the law of dower and mortgage, both of which are often productive
of great confusion and actual injustice. Supposing there has been no
renunciation of her dower by the marriage contract, the wife upon
her marriage is entitled to a dower of one-half of the estate of
inheritance then in the possession of her husband; and this dower is
of itself an estate of inheritance which descends to her children,
supposing they take nothing by the “communautè,” an arrangement by
which the wife is entitled to one-half of all property real and
personal, acquired subsequently to the marriage. A communautè may exist
with a settlement or without one, as in the case I have proposed.
At the death of the wife in the life time of the husband or _vice
versâ_, the law permits the children to elect—between one-half of
the property in communautè to be enjoyed immediately, and the real
estate which would have formed the dower of the wife had she survived
her husband, which is not to be divided amongst them till after the
death of the surviving parent. It sometimes happens that the husband
and wife have joined in the sale of the estate, perhaps for the present
benefit of the children, and with their knowledge. This sale, however,
cannot deprive the children of their estate of inheritance in the dower
after the decease of the wife, and although it is justly reckoned
disgraceful for the children to claim the estate from a purchaser under
such circumstances, yet it is sometimes done in cases where there was
nothing left to be divided in communautè. A gentleman informed me that
such an instance had occurred to himself. He had purchased an estate,
and had been in possession about twenty years. It had been sold by
the husband and wife upwards of forty years; but they were both still
living, and he was much surprised one day at being informed by the
children, that at the decease of their mother, they intended to come
upon him for the amount of the dower, as there was no prospect of
receiving any thing by the communautè.
Till lately, under the then existing law of mortgage, a purchaser could
seldom be sure of buying an unincumbered estate; a previous possessor
in want of money might have been before a notary and have borrowed
of a dozen different persons, on what is called a tacit mortgage. No
title deeds were required by the lender, but all the property of the
borrower is liable for the amount borrowed; and claims of this kind
were constantly made upon estates even after the possessor, who had
taken all pains to clear them off, had reason to think himself secure
in the enjoyment of them. But by a bill that passed the legislature in
1828, newly purchased property is cleared against creditors who do not
put in their claims within four months, the rights of widows and minors
forming an exception.
No writ can issue to secure the person of a debtor in the common gaol
until all his property real and personal has been sold, the real
property having been advertised in the Gazette for four months. At the
expiration of that period, attempts are sometimes made by a fraudulent
debtor or his friends, to evade imprisonment by a purchase in the
debtor’s name of real property to a trifling amount, which must be
again advertised, and so on; although of course wherever the attempt
to defraud can be made apparent, the courts of justice will interfere.
In cases of a commercial nature where a judgment has been obtained, the
debtor has the right of being enlarged, upon giving security that he
will not leave the limits of the city.
In general, the Canadian farmers when old and unable to work, make
over their property by a notarial writing to one of their sons, on
condition of his paying a certain sum of money to his other children;
a custom which has the effect of preventing too great a division of
real property. In the deed, which is rather curious, it is stipulated
that the old man is to be supported by his son; that he is to receive
from him a certain quantity of tea, sugar, and tobacco; he is to be
furnished if necessary with a horse to ride to chapel on Sundays and
festivals; and when dead a certain number of masses are to be said for
his soul.
The governor of Lower Canada is assisted by an executive council,
composed of any persons whom he chooses to recommend to his majesty
for appointment. The legislative council, of which the members are
also appointed by the king for life, and the Lower House, or House
of Assembly, consisting at present of eighty-four members. The Chief
Justice is the Speaker; and the puisnè judges of Quebec are members
of the Legislative Council; but it is in contemplation to procure
an act of Parliament to remedy this unconstitutional arrangement.
Independently of the objection that could be urged against it as an
abuse, the judges find ample employment for their time in their other
avocations. They were placed there as a matter of course when the
colony was in its infancy; but the reasons have ceased as the colony
has increased in wealth and population. The Legislative Council is
composed of the principal officers of the province, and other persons
of consideration. Their number is unlimited, but is usually about
thirty. The members of the House of Assembly are elected in the same
manner as the members of the House of Commons in England. Quebec and
Montreal return four members each. There are but two boroughs; William
Henry or Sorel returning one member, and the “Three Rivers” returning
two members. The other members are returned by counties, but no
qualification whatever is required of any. This is an advantage in a
young country, where society is comparatively small, and wealth is so
often separated from talent. The qualification necessary for a voter is
real property to the annual value of forty shillings. In the towns the
payment of ten pounds a-year rent is sufficient, and single women are
allowed to vote. The sittings of the Legislative Council, and the House
of Assembly, do not usually occupy more than ten weeks in the year,
commencing about the middle of January.
By far the larger proportion of the House of Assembly are of the
radical persuasion. Like the rest of the old French Canadians, they
have a strong negative attachment to the British government: because
they are satisfied with the protection they enjoy, and are aware that
they could not exist without it; but their proceedings evince little
actual gratitude or affection for the mother country. Their grievances,
whether they are those that really do exist, or those that are to
be traced in the imaginary discontents of a few leading demagogues,
being frequently discussed with more than constitutional jealousy, and
with more petulant vehemence than is merited by the redressing and
conciliatory spirit of the British government. And yet when we consider
the events that are passing in Europe, it is not singular that such
should be the conduct of a people, of whom it is said, that when a
constitution was first talked of, they would have preferred that their
country should have continued under the direction of a governor and
council, or rather under that of a governor alone.
During the last session a bill passed the house of assembly, for an
allowance to the members of 10_s._ a-day, beside their travelling
expenses, but was rejected by the legislative council. Nevertheless
when the Supply Bill came under consideration, the house of assembly
tacked on the desired amount for the payment of their members, and
the bill in that state was most inconsistently consented to by the
legislative council.
Another instance of unconstitutional irregularity may be mentioned.
The 31st of Geo. iii., c. 31, declares who shall be qualified to sit
as members of the assembly, but it creates no disqualification to
sit and vote in persons accepting offices of trust and profit, after
their election. By this act also, no bill reserved by the governor for
the royal signature shall have any force or authority within either
province, unless his majesty’s assent thereto shall be signified
within the space of two years from the day on which the bill shall
have been presented for his majesty’s assent by the governor. In the
year 1830, after various proceedings in the same matter, a bill for
the disqualification of persons accepting government offices, until
re-elected, from sitting in the legislative assembly, was passed by
both houses, and the governor thought it of sufficient importance to
reserve it for the royal assent. Two years, as we have seen, is allowed
for the signification of his majesty’s pleasure, and if no answer is
given in that time, the bill passes into a law forthwith. The bill was
sent to England, and long before the time had expired, the impatient
house of assembly entered a resolution on their journals, that any
member accepting an office under government shall be considered as
vacating his seat _ipso facto_, with the capability of being
re-elected. As to the justice of the case, there can be no doubt; but
when they themselves had commenced the application in a constitutional
manner, their subsequent attempt to fly in the face of the prerogative
does not reflect much credit on their loyalty.
The net revenue of Lower Canada for the year 1830, was 128,345_l._
3_s._ 4_d._, being an increase of 5200_l._ over the preceding year.
The bulk of this sum is at the disposal of the provincial legislature;
and is expended in the country on internal improvements of every kind.
The proposed civil list for the year 1831 amounted to 19,500_l._; but
14,000_l._ of this is all that is asked of the province by the royal
message, besides a reservation by virtue of the prerogative, of what
are termed the casual and territorial revenues of the crown, such as
the rents of the Jesuits’ estates, rents of the king’s posts, &c.
&c., which, to use the words of the governor’s message, of the 23d of
February, 1831, can operate in no degree as a tax upon the people, or
tend either in their nature, or in the mode of their collection, to
impede or impair the prosperity of the province. But nevertheless the
committee of the house of assembly have resolved never to compromise
what they call the natural and constitutional right of watching over
and controlling the receipt and expenditure of the whole revenue. Will
they object when the remuneration of their clergy is thrown upon them,
as is contemplated by the British government?
It would be tedious, and far beyond the limits of this work, to enter
into a detail of all the grievances complained of by the house of
assembly; many of them have been, or are in the way of being, remedied,
and they may be found in the report of the committee of the house
of commons on the affairs of the Canadas, in 1827. They complain in
their petition to parliament that the affairs of the province were
growing worse under the existing government; that the value of land
was diminished; that there was a waste of the public revenue; that
the enactment of beneficial laws was rejected by one branch of the
legislature composed of persons dependent on the government; that the
creditor of the government had not sufficient remedy; that sufficient
security was not required of persons having the disposal of the public
moneys; that the independence of the judges was not sufficiently
consulted; and they asked for the appointment of a resident agent for
the colonies, in England, &c. &c.
One of the schemes at present in agitation in the house of assembly
is the entire dissolution of the legislative council; a measure which
that more loyal body do not exactly relish, and on the 31st of March,
1831, they passed a number of resolutions expressive of their loyalty,
and respectfully setting forth their grievances at the same time. In
the report of a special committee of the house of assembly appointed
for taking into consideration the governor’s message, in which his
majesty, relying on the liberality and justice of the legislature of
Lower Canada, invites them to consider the propriety of making some
settled provision for such portion of the civil government of the
province, as may upon examination appear to require an arrangement of
a more permanent nature than those supplies which it belongs to the
legislature to determine by annual votes; it was resolved, that as
information relative to the expenditure of the sum demanded for casual
expenses, and divers services, and of the manner in which the rents of
the Jesuits’ estates, and the other casual and territorial revenues,
are applied, was still refused by the British government; they had
therefore deemed it inexpedient to make “aucune allocation permanente
ulterieure pour les depenses du gouvernement;”—the legislative council,
in their resolutions noticed above, having expressed a cordial
disposition to concur with his majesty’s government in making such an
arrangement.
The Jesuits’ estates, the convent, and the seminary, hold the city of
Quebec in signory. The convent of the Jesuits is now converted into a
barrack, and forms one side of the market-place in the upper town. By
the way, I should recommend any traveller to visit the market-place in
the lower town, where he will see some of the old French Canadians,
with their long pig-tails tied up with eel-skins. The order of the
Jesuits was suppressed at the conquest of the colony by the British.
Government took possession of the estates belonging to them, and has
since enjoyed the whole revenue, amounting to about 2500_l._ per
annum; and though frequently applied to by the provincial legislature,
has thought fit to conceal the manner in which it has been employed.
Amongst other expenses, those incurred in the building the episcopal
church, were, it is said, defrayed from this source.
Before I quitted Quebec, I was present at a ball, given by a lady and
gentleman who had been united for the first time that day fifty years,
and were again married on that morning by a Catholic priest.
* * * * *
I returned from Quebec to Montreal by the John Bull steam-boat,
probably the largest river boat in the world. Montreal is considerably
larger than Quebec, and contains 50,000 inhabitants. Its front towards
the river will be much improved by a fine quay which is now building.
The principal objects are the convents and the new Catholic cathedral,
a very large and handsome specimen of the simple gothic; but its
internal decorations do not correspond with its majestic exterior.
The view from the mountain of Montreal, nearly 700 feet high, is of
the same kind, but I think inferior to the view from the ramparts of
Quebec. The city is nearly two miles distant, and is seen to great
advantage lying along the bank of the magnificent St. Lawrence, whose
broadly expanded waters can be followed by the eye for many a league,
both above and below the city. On the opposite side, the country is
one vast flat plain, from which the isolated mountain of Chambli, and
another peak at a few miles distance, abruptly arise; and by relieving
the monotony of the view, have the merit of giving it a decided tone
and character, to which it would not otherwise be entitled. The horizon
is formed by the bold outline of the distant mountains of Vermont, and
those of the eastern part of the state of New York.
I left Montreal to make an excursion up the Ottowa. The beauty of this
river, the situation of Bytown, and the Rideau canal, were themes
of admiration with every one who had seen them. I went on board a
steam-boat at the village of La Chine, and in a few hours we were in
sight of St. Ann’s, and alongside the rapids, which we passed by means
of a short canal. About this spot the clear but dark-coloured “Ottowa
tide” is chequered by many a green isle, if they can be so called, when
clothed, as I saw them, in the diversified and brilliant colours that
characterise the foliage of the American forest during the autumn.
Every variety of green can be discerned—from the darkness of the fir,
to the silvery leaf of the poplar or the willow—while the unaccustomed
eye is delighted by the bright yellow of the fading hickory, and the
admirable finish which is given to the picture, by the broad patches
of deep and actual crimson of the sumach and the soft maple. I must
again repeat, that I have seen nothing of the kind that can equal the
surpassing beauty of an American forest in “the fall.” It may with
justice be compared to the brilliancy of a bed of tulips. We entered
the lake of the Two Mountains, so called from two lofty hills on the
right. On the top of one of them, Mount Calvary, is a chapel built by
the Jesuits, and connected with the Indian village on the margin of
the lake by a line of chapels, placed at intervals in the pathway. Its
sudden appearance in the bosom of the forest, is extremely effective
and picturesque. Immediately behind the Indian village is a large
bank of white sand, which in the distance may be easily taken for
a well-cleared stubble field. At Carillon we were obliged to leave
the steam boat, and proceed by land to the town of Grenville, along
the side of the canal, cut for the purpose of avoiding the rapids of
the “Long Saut,” which, when the river is swollen, are said to be
exceedingly violent, even more so than those of the St. Lawrence. I
found the banks on both sides of the river were cleared and cultivated
to a degree that far exceeded my expectations, whilst the unfinished
canal gives employment to several hundred poor emigrants, who were
living chiefly in log-houses along the road-side, ranged amongst many
other dwellings of a better description.
The Ottowa, although perceptibly inferior to the St. Lawrence in width
and volume, is still one of the largest second-rate rivers in North
America. Below Carillon, which is thirty-five miles from St. Ann’s,
I observed nothing excepting the foliage I have mentioned, that an
acquaintance with American scenery had not rendered familiar; but on
approaching Grenville a lofty range of hills, containing rich mines
of plumbago, ranges very majestically on the north bank of the river,
which in many places is widened to a surface equalling that of a small
lake, with its shores broken by majestic headlands. Soon afterwards,
cultivation comparatively ceases, and the river bears a resemblance to
the wilder part of the Ohio above Louisville, excepting that the forest
trees on its banks and islands, are not so lofty as those of the latter
river.
Bytown is 65 miles from Grenville and 120 from Montreal. It is divided
into an upper and lower town; containing many excellent houses. Thirty
years ago, there was scarcely an habitation in the vicinity, excepting
that of Philemon Wright, Esq., a Bostonian, and one of the best farmers
in Canada, who with singular enterprise and sagacity, foresaw that at
no very distant period it must become a place of importance, and as the
Americans would say, “located himself” in the untouched forests of the
Ottowa. A new world has sprung up around him, and he now predicts, with
great appearance of truth, that Bytown will become the capital of the
country: a glance at the map will shew the justice of his reasoning.
The Ottowa or Grand river, runs through the country for about 500
miles above Bytown. In its course it is joined by several considerable
streams, by means of which a water communication can be extended to
Hudson’s bay on the north; and on the south it is connected with Lake
Huron, which is not more than 100 miles distant, through the medium
of Lake Nipisany; and as the Saut de St. Marie, at the foot of Lake
Superior, is said to be 800 miles nearer Montreal than to New York, it
is highly probable that a considerable proportion of the product of
the country around the great lakes, even from the further part of Lake
Michigan, will find its way to the Ottowa.
The pretty, unpretending fall of the Rideau, so called by the
French from its resemblance to a white curtain, is seen on the left
immediately before the boat rounds the headland that conceals the
locks of the celebrated Rideau canal, which are suddenly presented to
the view, lying in a slope, between two lofty and precipitous banks,
nearly perpendicular towards the river. That on the right is 160 feet
in height, composed of limestone. On the area of the top, which may
be from 500 to 600 yards in circumference, are the barracks and the
hospital. It will probably be the site of an impregnable fortress,
which might be built for 60,000_l._; an expense which should not
be spared, when it is considered that the splendid works on the canal,
at present unfortified, might be destroyed in half-an-hour. The locks
themselves, eight in number, are magnificent in every respect, and
reflect the highest credit on the engineer, Colonel By. In length they
occupy a space of 1260 feet, and from the surface of the river to the
top of the bank there is a perpendicular rise of 84 feet. Each lock is
134 feet long, 33 wide, and 17 in depth. The canal, for several miles
above Bytown, is supplied by the Rideau river, and before it reaches
Kingston on Lake Ontario, a distance of 140 miles, a head of water is
obtained by means of thirteen dams of different dimensions, the largest
being 300 feet wide and 65 deep. The navigation is continued by means
of these dams, as there is not above seven or eight miles of excavation
throughout the whole distance.
On the supposition that military stores are to be sent from Montreal to
supply the troops in Upper Canada, or a fleet on Lake Ontario, it is
intended that they should pass through the channel behind the island of
Montreal, which is not yet rendered navigable; that they should proceed
up the Ottowa, ascending the rapids by means of the Grenville canal,
and upon arriving at Bytown, be forwarded to Kingston along the Rideau,
which thus affords a method of communication infinitely shorter than
any land conveyance,—an additional advantage arising from its great
distance from the American frontier, and proportionate security from
hostile incursion. Although the Rideau canal is principally a military
work, it will be of the greatest importance in a commercial point of
view, on account of its affording a direct means of conveyance by its
communication with a number of smaller streams that intersect it at
intervals, and which will enable the settlers who live many miles from
the banks to forward the produce of their farms, with certainty and
celerity. The difficulty and expense of conveyance was originally
a great drawback upon the use of British manufactures in the Upper
Province; they paid a freight from Quebec of 5_l._ a ton; but by
means of the Rideau canal, the freight has been reduced one-half. Land,
according to its situation on different parts of the canal, was selling
from two to five dollars the acre; crown lands at a fixed price of
1_l._ the acre. On application to any of the crown land agents,
a ticket may be obtained, containing a permission to cut timber on a
certain space of ground, on payment of a duty to government of one
penny the foot.
On the opposite side of the river stands the village of Hull. A winding
road about a mile in length conducted me to the bridges thrown over the
fall of the Ottowa, which according to the usual appellation bestowed
by the French upon any fall of magnitude in the Canadas, is termed the
“Chaudiere,” or “boiler.” The bed of the river is divided into five
channels formed in the solid rock, with more or less of a fall in
each of them. The largest may be about thirty feet in height, and from
its greater violence has worn away the precipice for a considerable
distance behind the others, which project and recede in a most singular
manner, whilst the river not contented with so many ways of escape,
rolls over the bare ledge of the rock that is extended between them, so
that its eager waters are tumbling in all directions. The whole width
of the stream immediately at the head of the fall, is more than half
a mile. It was not particularly full when I saw it, but was darting
through the bridges with extreme violence. In the spring, when the
river is swollen by the melted ice and snow, the whole of the rocks
are so deeply covered by the flood, that there is little or no fall to
be seen even at the Chaudiere, as the principal fall is called; and
I could easily conceive that the rush of water at that season of the
year must be tremendous. The whole scene was exceedingly curious;
and although rather disappointed at first sight, I felt myself amply
repaid for my excursion to Bytown. When it was first understood that
a bridge was to be thrown across from rock to rock, an old American
who had known the river in its fury, and firmly believed that such a
scheme was impracticable, was heard to predict with great emphasis, and
corresponding action, that some day or other “it would go right slit
to immortal smash.” Many of the poor Scotch emigrants answered to my
inquiry as to their destination, that they were “ganging to Perth;” a
thriving town, about fifty miles above Bytown, and situated between the
Ottowa and the Rideau canal. Thirty miles on the river above Bytown, is
the settlement on the Lake “des Chats.”
On the evening of the fatal field of Culloden, the unfortunate Prince
Charles Edward presented himself, wearied and alone, at the door
of a hut, and requested sustenance and momentary concealment; the
inmate, a poor tailor, who recognized his person, mounted guard at the
door whilst his illustrious guest was sleeping within, on a pallet
of heather. He was soon aroused by the tailor, who awakened him by
exclaiming in Gaelic, “My prince, core of my heart! save yourself, for
the enemy are upon you.” A party of cavalry were galloping towards
the hut, and the prince had just time to escape through a small back
window, and reach the Morven mountains. For his greater comfort in
repose he had deposited his sword upon a bench in a corner of the hut;
and in the precipitancy of his flight he had forgotten to take it with
him. The tailor had just time to conceal it, by removing the earth and
burying it under the heather. The cavalry demanded the prince, saying
that they had information that he had taken refuge in the hut, and
carried off the tailor as their prisoner, who was afterwards confined
in Edinburgh castle. In the mean time the sword still remained where
he had buried it, but the hut became a heap of ruins. Whilst the “Clan
and Disarming Act” (afterwards repealed by the exertions of the Duke
of Montrose) was in force, he dare say nothing about the sword, but
upon his death-bed in Breadalbane, the poor tailor informed his cousin,
Finlay Mc Nauton, where the sword was to be found. He searched and
found it, in the spot where it had lain from 1745 to 1784. The belt
and scabbard were rotted with moisture, and the blade of course nearly
covered with rust. It is the real old Highland basket-hilted claymore.
On the rust being removed, the burning heart of the Bruce surmounted
by the crown of Scotland became visible on the blade. Between them is
engraved “Le Chevalier.” On the reverse are the words, “Vive le Roi,”
extending the whole length of the blade. Finlay Mc Nauton joined the
veteran battalion, and died at Gibraltar, the sword being still in his
possession. Upon his death, it passed with the rest of his effects
into the hands of John Mc Nauton, his brother, who is still alive
at a very advanced age in Glengary, the oldest settlement in Upper
Canada. Who would expect to hear that this sword, positively the most
classical object in America, is now, as it were, lying in state on
the banks of the Lake “des Chats,” in the wild forests of the Ottowa,
not less than 150 miles from Montreal. Mc Nab of Mc Nab, the nephew
and representative of the late laird, founded the settlement with the
advice and under the auspices of his kinsman, the Earl of Dalhousie,
the late governor of Lower Canada. He has collected around him about
two hundred of his clan, whose forefathers followed his ancestors in
the hour of battle, and have now gone with him in the day of their
distress to clear and cultivate the wilderness of the Ottowa under his
superintendence. He has possession of the sword, and never shows it to
a stranger but in the presence of his piper, who is ordered to play
the whole time. It was given to him by John Mc Nauton, who added in
Gaelic, that “some damned long-legged fellow of a Sassanach had asked
him for the sword and offered him money for it, but that he would
never disgrace the clan of Mc Nauton by giving over that sword to an
Englishman.”
The boundary line between Upper and Lower Canada leaves the St.
Lawrence about 28 miles below Cornwall, and after running in nearly a
straight direction, comes in contact with the Ottowa river at Point
Fortune, opposite to Carillon. It pursues the course of the river for
many a league beyond the habitations of civilised society; and then
strikes off to Hudson’s bay. During the last session, an Act was passed
in the provincial Parliament for the appointment of Commissioners to
ascertain its exact direction, in order to satisfy the borderers,
who complained of being subjected to the laws of either province
alternately. The idea of an union of the two Canadas has apparently
been dropped for the present. Perhaps the majority of the British
inhabitants in both provinces would be in favour of such a project, or
at all events would not offer much opposition to it; but the French
population in Lower Canada would display a most violent aversion to any
change of the kind. The old French law would of course be superseded
by the laws of England subject to provincial alterations, and the
French Canadian influence in the government would decline in proportion
to the importance of the British interest in the House of Assembly,
which would be increased by the accession of delegates from the Upper
Province. Upper Canada would have no objection to a port of entry, by
which her share of the duties on imports would be exactly regulated
by the quantity she consumed. Every ship trading to the Canadas must
of course discharge her cargo either at Quebec or Montreal. By the
arrangement, solicited and obtained by Upper Canada in 1822, no duties
can be laid on goods imported or passing into Lower Canada without the
consent of both provinces, or by the British parliament; and the just
proportion of the duties due to each province settled by arbitration,
and its share paid over to the Upper Province. The proportion it now
receives by the existing regulation is 25 per cent.; but this it will
be seen must be increased, when it is considered that by far the
greater number of the settlers resort to the Upper Province, that the
French Canadian peasantry usually prefer the coarse cloth of their own
manufacture, and that therefore the bulk of the imports from Great
Britain must find their way to the northern shore of Lake Ontario.
It is probable that much confusion would ensue for a length of time
after an union should take place, and it is equally so, that the
Canadas themselves would eventually be gainers by the measure; but the
more serious question is, whether it is not better for the mother
country to have two parties there, instead of one; and whether it
would be politic in Great Britain to promote an arrangement that would
render the colonies far more independent than would be consistent
with their allegiance to their mother country. As it is, the French
Canadian interest is really on the decline, and the British population
is wonderfully increasing. Every thing considered, the Canadas are
improving with a rapidity not surpassed by any country upon earth; and
I humbly conceive, that experimental interference should be deprecated,
because it would lead to a certain interruption of their present career
of prosperity, for the sake of a distant and not certain advantage.
* * * * *
I returned to Montreal. When a traveller approaches Montreal he
naturally turns his eye to the mountain behind it, and feels surprised
that there is no fortification by which a city of so much importance,
and so near the American frontier could be commanded,—strictly
speaking, a fort should be built on the top of the mountain, and at
La Chine, and on Nun’s island, by which, together with the batteries
on St. Helen’s island in the river, immediately opposite to the
city, the passage of the St. Lawrence would be effectually defended.
But, when it is considered that the top of the hill, or mountain, is
three miles from the city; that it requires eleven pounds of powder
to throw a thirteen-inch shell to the distance of one mile; that all
the fortifications in the world would not preserve the Canadas to us,
if the natives were against us; that the Americans could never take
Montreal so long as the Canadians would fight on our side; that there
is a prospect of a lasting peace between Great Britain and the United
States; and finally, the probability that before another half century
has passed away, the Canadas will cease, by a bloodless negociation, to
be a British colony—an enormous expense may well be spared, by leaving
the city in its present state.
The picturesque island of St. Helen’s, contains a small garrison, and a
large quantity of military stores. On the angle of the saluting battery
on the south-west corner of the island, the French flag waved its last
in the Canadas.
I left Montreal, after having discovered that there was a pack
of fox-hounds kept close by, and that they hunted regularly, and
occasionally on by-days. They had not been long organised, but promised
very well. I was also present for one day during the races. The course
is two miles in length, and in excellent condition, being railed off
the whole distance. I saw one race, which was admirably contested;
but the ground was not well attended, and the others did not go off
with spirit. I was told, however, that there was a great prospect of
improvement, as the Canadians were beginning to be fond of the sport.
The excitement would have been much greater if it had lasted but two
days instead of four; and a public ball afterwards would not have been
amiss.
I then crossed the river in a steam-boat to La Prairie, distant nine
miles from Montreal. A miserably bad road conducted me to Blair Findie,
and subsequently to the very pretty village of Chamble, where orchards
and corn-fields were to be seen on all sides. Both these places,
particularly the former, are well known to the Canadian sportsmen as
the favourite haunt of the woodcock—perhaps the best in America. They
are found in great numbers in the low birch woods around Blair Findie,
where a good shot will sometimes kill above twenty couple in a morning,
and I heard that in one instance as many as eighty couple were killed
in two days by two guns.
The beginning of October is the best season for shooting all kinds of
game in the Canadas.
The American woodcock is considerably smaller than the European bird,
seldom or very rarely exceeding eight ounces in weight, and its plumage
is, I think, handsomer. The spots of brown on the back are larger and
deeper, and the breast, instead of being marked with dusky bars, is
of a fine almond colour. Their flavour is similar. The American bird
when flushed, rises very rapidly, with a small shrill quickly repeated
whistle, and seldom flies beyond a distance of one hundred yards.
Sportsmen who do not mind the heat, will find the shooting exceedingly
good in the month of July, when the woodcocks first return from their
southern haunts for the purpose of breeding. In the northern States
and the Canadas, they may be shot till the first fortnight in November
has elapsed, after which they retreat to a warmer climate for the
winter. No pheasant, partridge, or quail, is strictly speaking found
in North America. The partridge, so called in the States, is the quail
of the Canadas: but although on account of its size and general
appearance it might easily be mistaken for the latter bird, it is in
fact a species of the new genus, “ortyx.” The difference between the
real quail and the ortyx of America, like that between the long and
short-winged hawks, consists in the structure of the wing: in the
one, the second feather is longest; in the other, the fourth, which
evidently unfits it for taking a long flight. The “ortyx virginianus”
has become naturalized in Suffolk, and has been shot near Uxbridge. A
species of the genus coturnix, or real quail, has been found near the
Straits of Magellan. The pheasant of the States is the partridge of the
Canadas, and is in fact a very handsome species of grouse, feathered
down to the toes, and having in a great measure the habits of the
capercaily, living entirely in the woods, and treeing readily when put
up by a small dog. I have before noticed the grouse, or barren, or
prairie hen. In the Canadas there is also a darker coloured species,
called, the spruce partridge. A large grouse, nearly allied to the
capercaily in size and colour, is found near the Rocky Mountains; and
although five or six different kinds of grouse are to be found in North
America—including, I believe, the ptarmigan—yet the black and red game
of Scotland are not among them. A smaller species of red grouse is
plentiful in Newfoundland.
The same animal is called a hare in the States, and a rabbit in the
Canadas. It never burrows; its usual colour is that of the European
hare and rabbit mixed, and the meat is dark, like that of the European
hare. A larger species which turns white in the winter, and is termed
on that account, the varying hare, is more common in the Canadas than
in the States, but is no where plentiful. I would here remark that any
traveller who brings his gun with him, and has a decided wish to see
some American shooting, should bring his own dog with him; any that he
can depend on for general purposes, be it of what breed it may.
America offers a fine field to the ornithologist, and even a traveller
who is usually careless of the study of natural history, cannot fail to
be delighted with the variety of beautiful birds which he will see in
merely passing through the American forests, more particularly in those
of the States. Red birds, blue birds, and yellow or Baltimore birds (a
species of starling), will frequently fly across his path; turtle doves
are constantly alighting in the road before him; a large, magnificent
species of woodpecker, with a red crest, usually termed the woodcock,
will sometimes make his appearance; a great variety of the same
genus, particularly a small species with a marked plumage of black,
white, and crimson, are almost always in sight; he will be startled
and deceived by the mew of the catbird,—and his eye and ear will be
attracted by the brilliant plumage of the blue jay, the singing of the
mocking-bird, the melodious flute-like whistle of the wood-thrush,
or the instantaneous buz of the passing humming-bird. Considering the
wildness of the country, I was very much surprised at the scarcity of
the larger birds of prey; a small brown vulture, commonly misnamed the
turkey-buzzard, is however an exception. I never saw but one bald eagle
in America: he was beating for his prey over the mountain of Montreal;
his snow-white head and tail being discernible at a great distance.
They are more numerous on the sea coast, near the haunts of the
fish-hawk (osprey). When this latter bird has taken a fish, the bald
eagle who has been watching his movements from a neighbouring height,
will commence a most furious attack upon him, will force him to drop
his prey, and frequently seize it before it can disappear under water.
The bald eagle is the national emblem of the United States. It was well
remarked by Dr. Franklin, that the wild turkey would have answered
the purpose better, being exclusively indigenous to North America, and
having an innate and violent antipathy to red coats.
Chambli is a large, straggling village, containing perhaps 5000
inhabitants, of which 4000 are communicants at the Catholic church.
The Catholic doctrine, divested of the pomp and absurdity of ceremony,
being no where more strictly adhered to, than amongst the peasantry
of Lower Canada. The houses are scattered around what is called the
basin of Chambli—a lake about three miles in length and two in breadth,
formed in the Richelieu river. A canal is now forming, which in a few
years will contribute very much to the prosperity and importance of
the village of Chambli and the surrounding country. When finished,
the course of navigation between lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence,
at present impeded by the rapids at Chambli, will be safe from
interruption; so that the produce of “the townships,” as the lands
granted by the crown are termed, will be conveyed directly to Quebec
instead of passing through Montreal.
An old fort built by the French is standing at the foot of the rapids.
The situation is selected with their usual judgment, it being scarcely
assailable from the water. Chambli has also barracks for 1000 horse,
and 15,000 infantry, but at present they are unoccupied.
I would recommend every one who has time at his disposal, to ascend
the Belleisle mountain, distant eleven miles from Chambli. It is
principally composed of granite, and rises abruptly from the plain to
a height of more than 2000 feet. From the top may be seen the finest
view in the Canadas. The eye roams on every side, over a vast extent
of country, and the uniform direction of the “concessions” or lands
held in signorie, contributes not a little to the singularity of the
prospect. On the north, the St. Lawrence is visible on a clear day
as far as the “Three Rivers,” which is half-way to Quebec; on the
south and east, are the mountains of New York and Vermont. The city
of Montreal, at the distance of seventeen miles to the westward,
would appear like a white streak on the banks of the river; but that
the superior height of the towers of the cathedral are distinctly
relieved by the dark wooded sides of the hill, whose elevation is much
diminished by the distance. The Richelieu river appears to run at the
foot of the mountain, and the whole of its course is visible from lake
Champlain to the St. Lawrence. The mountain itself is exceedingly
picturesque; a small and very pretty lake being embosomed in its
well-wooded recesses, like that of Tarni near Tivoli. The ascent from
Chambli occupied a day; but I thought myself amply repaid for the time
I had expended, and the fatigue I had undergone. I proceeded to St.
John’s, and took the steam-boat for lake Champlain. In a few hours we
passed the old fort at Rouse’s point, which by the late decision of the
king of the Netherlands, on the boundary question, is now in possession
of the Americans, although it stands on the Canadian side of the river.
By the treaty of 1783, the boundary line between the United States and
Lower Canada was imperfectly defined as extending “from the north west
angle of Nova Scotia (now New Brunswick) to that angle which is formed
by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix river to
the Highlands; along the said Highlands which divide those rivers that
empty themselves in the river St. Lawrence from those which fall into
the Atlantic ocean.” But as the land had never been surveyed, so that
the position of these Highlands might be ascertained, and it having
always been disputed which were the rivers referred to, commissioners
were appointed at the treaty of Ghent, to determine the true boundary,
and as they could not agree, the king of the Netherlands was proposed
as an arbitrator. Two lines were laid before him, on one of which
he was to decide; one drawn by the Americans on the north of the
Temisconata lake, and the other by the British 300 miles to the south
of it. His majesty, however, in his award followed neither of them; but
has drawn a line between them to the river St. John, transferring to
the United States about six millions of acres; and has brought the most
northerly point of the boundary for sixty miles within thirteen miles
of the St. Lawrence, whilst 200 miles below, it strikes off to the
south-east after having approached within fifty miles of Quebec. The
old French Canadian settlers on the St. John and Madawaska settlements,
and who, like the rest of their countrymen, have a mortal antipathy to
the Americans, are exceedingly annoyed at being thus transferred into
the dominion of the States; but as both Great Britain and the United
States are dissatisfied with the decision, it is probable that some
other arrangement will be made.
We then passed the isle Aux Noix, the British naval establishment on
lake Champlain, I observed several schooners on the stocks, remaining,
like the ships at Kingston, as they were at the close of the war, and
several old gun boats that appeared to have taken part in it. The
expenses of the fort, which effectually commands the passage from the
lake, are the same as those of a frigate; and, as such, are placed on
the naval establishment instead of the military.
Upon entering the lake, the shores appeared extremely flat and
uninteresting. We touched at Plattsburg, and passed over the scene of
Mc Donough’s victory over our fleet in the last war. We then arrived
at Burlington, and at nine o’clock the next morning I started to cross
the New England, or Yankee States, on my way to Boston. The coachman
drove six-in-hand, and in a very workmanlike manner, without locking
the wheels, but descending several hills so steep that as a Yankee
expressed himself, It was like driving off the roof of a house. A
detailed description of the road is unnecessary: it wound through the
beautiful and well cultivated valleys of Vermont and New Hampshire,
running for many miles along the banks of the Onion and Connecticut
rivers; whilst the forests on the hills around were every where clothed
in their splendid autumnal garb, and overshadowed some of the prettiest
and happiest looking villages I ever saw in any country; the houses
being chiefly white, with green blinds, and otherwise displaying an
excellent taste in design. Whole fields were strewed with enormous
pumpkins, and others were covered with broom corn, which is no bad
substitute for oats. We passed through Montpelier, and skirted the
rocky mountain of Monadnoc, stopping to look at the Bellow’s fall, on
the Connecticut river, and afterwards arriving at Concord, where the
fire of the British troops was returned by the Americans for the first
time during the revolutionary war, on the 19th of April, 1775. General
Gage had sent them to seize and destroy some stores which had been
secretly collected at Concord. They succeeded in their attempt, but
were subsequently obliged to retreat. The fight took place at the north
bridge, about three quarters of a mile from the bridge over which the
road now passes. The inhabitants are proud, and justly proud, of this
event.
At Lexington, six miles nearer to Boston, stands a plain monument to
the memory of the militia men who were fired upon and dispersed by the
British troops on the same morning, previously to their advance upon
Concord.
I entered Boston by the light of innumerable lamps, that plainly
marked the direction of its many bridges, and took up my quarters at
the Tremont hotel,—decidedly, taken altogether, the best house in the
United States. The table and the bed-rooms were equally good, which is
not the case at any other I had seen. In appearance it more resembles
a government building than a hotel. Breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper
are served up, as usual, at a certain hour; and although that hour at
breakfast time is liberally extended, yet if it happens that a person
be detained too long, he must either go without his dinner, or put up
with cold and disfigured viands placed before him with an ill grace by
a tired waiter, or pay extra for a meal expressly served up for him;
as the hotel charges are two, or two dollars and a half a-day, and it
makes no difference whether he attends the table d’hôte or not.
The principal theatre is exactly opposite the Tremont. The front is
ornamented with Ionic pilasters supporting an entablature and pediment.
The interior is tastefully arranged, but is seldom visited by the first
circles.
The Indian name of Boston was Shawmut, its first English appellation
was Trimountain, and its present name was given in 1630.
At an early day after my arrival, I took the opportunity of ascending
the capitol, which stands on the most elevated corner of “the Common.”
The Common, according to the usual English signification of the word,
deserves a better name, as it is the prettiest promenade in the States.
It contains about seventy-five acres, disposed in a sloping direction
from north to south, varied by other eminences, of which the most
conspicuous is formed by the not yet quite levelled remains of the
British fortifications of 1775. It is surrounded by trees, and the best
houses in Boston; some of them being large and handsome, and not the
less deserving of the epithet because they are of a stone colour, or
any other than that of red brick. But at Boston generally I observed
greater taste in this respect than in any other of the cities which I
visited. On one side of the Common is a mall, or promenade, formed by
parallel avenues of fine elm trees; but yet, notwithstanding the beauty
of its situation, it is deserted by the Boston belles for the gay
glitter of the fashionable shops in Cornhill or Washington street.
To the best of my recollection, every capitol or state-house that
I have seen, or of which I have seen a picture, is surmounted by a
dome or cupola,—that of Boston is particularly conspicuous; but the
smoothness of its exterior is but ill assorted with the richness of the
Corinthian columns in the facade: it should be grooved like the dome of
St. Paul’s. The present heavy appearance of the cupola at Washington
would be very much improved if it were altered in a similar manner.
The capitol at Boston contains a very fine statue of Washington,
by Chantrey. From the top is obtained a fine panoramic view of the
whole city, with the bay, its islands, and their fortifications; its
bridges, wharfs, and enormous warehouses. On the north is the memorable
Bunker’s Hill, with part of the fine obelisk that is to be; the
navy-yard, and the suburb of Charlestown. The bay of Boston, like that
of New York, is fondly thought by some of the inhabitants of each city
to be as fine, if not superior in beauty, to that of Naples;—whether
they have seen it or not, is of little consequence; the bay of Boston,
with its flat treeless islands and headlands, shall be as fine as the
bay of Naples, and so may it remain!
The city resembles Baltimore more than any other in the Union: as a
collection of buildings it is prettier, but I prefer the environs of
the latter city, to the more distant hills that form the amphitheatre
of Boston; which is too large to add much effect to the landscape.
Boston contains 70,000 inhabitants, and the first bridge and the first
canal in the United States were constructed there. It appeared to
me the neatest city in the Union; and although there is no edifice
particularly striking, yet there are many that are handsome, and there
is an air of civic importance pervading every street in the place, so
that the eye does not easily detect the absence of any object that is
necessary to complete the appearance of a place of such pretensions as
Boston. The Fauneuil Hall, named after the founder, who lived a hundred
years ago, must not be forgotten. It is the cradle of American liberty;
because, within its walls, were held and heard the consultations and
the eloquence of those who more than fifty years back were first
aroused to resentment and resistance by the obstinacy of the government
of England. It contains an original full-length portrait of Washington
in his regimentals, by Stewart. The figure is excellent, but the horse
is very indifferently executed. The other ornaments in the hall, are
emblematical of the purposes to which it is applied. Public meetings
and dinners are held there, and the company usually leave behind them
the decorations that have been mottoed for the occasion. The name of
“Skrzynecki” was very conspicuous, among a multitude of others.
Societies have always been in vogue among the young Bostonians. The
objects of some of them are ridiculous enough. Many years ago a sum of
500_l._ was raised by subscription for the purpose of converting
the Jews in England. At a much later period, a self-constituted college
of young fellows sent a diploma to the Emperor of Russia; another gang,
who called themselves “the Peace Society,” sent a deputation to the
same august personage, requesting him to become a member. His answer
was very gracious, and was accompanied by a valuable diamond ring.
A Massachusett’s farmer, hearing of this, immediately packed up and
dispatched to him an enormous turnip (“considerable vegetable”) as a
specimen of American agricultural produce. He received no diamond
ring; which was not a fair return, as it was quite reasonable to
suppose that, as of yore, the head of a “noble Swede” would not be an
unacceptable present to the Autocrat. A pair of colours, which ought to
have been worked by the fair hands of the Boston belles, were lately
forwarded to the Poles through the hands of General Lafayette; and
before I quitted the United States, a meeting favourable to the Poles
was held at New Orleans, and “an army in disguise,” consisting of no
less than twenty-nine volunteers, was waiting at New York in order
to sail to their assistance. The delay, I understood, had arisen on
account of a dispute as to the place of embarkation, because, in case
of their triumphant return, the city that last held them would be
entitled to the whole honour of the expedition.
I was present at a meeting in the Fauneuil Hall, held for the purpose
of adopting resolutions, and electing representatives to attend the
grand meeting on the Tariff question, which was held on the 26th of
October, at New York.
The literary institutions at Boston are very numerous, and the number
of booksellers’ shops is quite surprising. Upwards of 60,000 dollars
are annually expended in public education, and perhaps an additional
150,000 may be the amount laid out in private establishments. There
are fourteen infant schools in the city, and sixty primary schools
affording the means of education to about 4000 children. The next in
order are the grammar-schools and the Latin school, from which the boys
are qualified to go to Cambridge (Harvard) university. Upon entering
the infant schools, the first questions I chanced to hear were very
national, characteristic, and amusing. “When goods are brought into
a country, what do you call it?—Importing goods! and when goods are
taken out of a country, what do you call it?—Exporting goods!” with a
most joyous and tumultuous emphasis upon the distinguishing syllable
of either answer. Cambridge, or Harvard University is about three
miles from Boston, and situated within a large enclosure. The centre
building, amongst several others detached, and standing apart, is of
stone, and contains the lecture and dining rooms, and a library of
37,000 volumes, the best in America. I was shown nothing remarkable in
it, excepting a valuable manuscript of the aphorisms of Hippocrates.
I also saw the apartment containing the philosophical apparatus, and
another in which there was a very good collection of minerals. I could
not refrain from a hearty laugh at the contents of a paper which was
wafered on the outer door of the library, and which I was malicious
enough to copy whilst the librarian was absent in search of the keys.
“Missing, the first and second volumes of the catalogue of books in
the library of Harvard university! If the person who borrowed will
return them immediately to their place on the table, he will oblige
all those who have occasion to consult them, and no questions will be
asked.”—(_Signed by the Librarian_).
The whole annual expenses of an undergraduate do not amount to more
than 250 dollars; for this he is boarded, and instructed by the
lectures of different professors on every subject, from divinity to
“obstetrics” and medical jurisprudence. Christianity is respected and
promoted in its broadest sense, not according to the tenets of any
particular sect: the professor of divinity being obliged to declare
his belief in the Scriptures, as the only perfect rule of faith and
manners, and to promise that he will explain and open them to his
pupils with integrity and faithfulness, according to the best light
that God shall give him, &c.
Massachusetts is the only state of the Union in which a legislative
jurisdiction is made for the support of religion. In every other, a
person is at liberty to belong to any sect, or none if he pleases; but
in this state the constitution compels every citizen to be a member
of some religious order, or pay for the support of some teacher of
religion, although in making the choice it allows him to follow the
bent of his own inclinations.
With respect to the salaries of clergymen it may be mentioned, that
in the large cities they vary from one to three thousand dollars, and
from five hundred to a thousand in the more populous country parishes,
exclusively of perquisites. Every clergyman is paid by his own
congregation; so that his engagement with them is a kind of contract.
At Boston, I attended the Unitarian chapel, in order to hear the
celebrated Dr. Channing, whose preaching was so popular during his
residence in London a few years ago. His language was very fine,
his accent purely English, and his manner more subdued than that
of American preachers in general, who are usually too oratorical
to be impressive. I was fortunate in hearing an exposition of his
doctrine. He considered Christianity as only a kindred light to nature
and reason; that the germs or seeds of the different excellences in
the character of Christ were to be found in the bosom of every man,
but that he alone possessed them in an eminent degree; and that the
doctrine of the atonement had its foundation in the fears of guilty
mankind, &c. &c. The extraordinary eloquence of the preacher did not
however make me a convert to his tenets; yet it riveted my attention
for more than an hour, and I came away with the impression that he
was one of the very finest preachers I had ever heard; although I was
not shaken in the conviction, that where there is no settled form of
prayer, the principal part of the service must necessarily be the
sermon, and that the sermon, if it be at all worth hearing, instead of
containing religious admonition, is usually filled with a discussion
on controverted points of doctrine.
The medical college at Boston is a department of Harvard university.
There has been and still is, as in England, a difficulty in obtaining
subjects for dissection in the United States. It is remedied by
different laws in different states: the more usual provision being,
that the bodies of persons who die in almshouses, or by the hands of
the executioner, or who are unknown, shall be given up for that purpose.
When at Boston, I was favoured with the sight of an admirable
picture just finished by Mr. Alston; the scene being taken from Mrs.
Radcliffe’s novel of the Italian, where the assassin, who is obliged
to commit murder at the instigation of the monk, is terrified by the
fancied apparition of a bleeding hand. The monk, with a stronger
intellect and more determined purpose, is raising the lamp that he
may be enabled to see more clearly into the darkness of the vault.
A better flame and a more murky atmosphere were never painted. The
outline of the figures is extremely good, and the terror in the
countenance of the murderer is finely contrasted with the cool, stern,
and incredulous gaze of the monk.
Mr. Alston, who is the first, if not the only historical painter in
America, has been employed for many years upon a very large picture,
which is not to be seen by any one till finished. The subject is
Belshazzar’s Feast; and the figures are as large as life. He intends to
rest his reputation on the success of this painting, which will not see
the light till he himself is perfectly satisfied with it. Many parts
of it are said to have been repeatedly altered. On one occasion when
it was threatened by fire, Mr. Alston requested a particular friend to
assist him in its removal, but made him walk with his back towards the
picture, that he might not catch a glimpse of it.
Lowell, the Manchester of America, is twenty-seven miles from Boston,
and may be visited in the way from Burlington to Boston. Twelve years
ago there was scarcely a house in the place; and only eight years
ago it formed part of a farming town, which was thought singularly
unproductive, even in the midst of the sterile and rocky region with
which it is surrounded. At present it contains 8000 people, who are
all more or less connected with the manufactories; and thirty-three
large wheels, which are the movers of all the machinery in the place,
are turned by means of canals supplied by the prodigious water-power
contained in the rapid stream of the Merrimack river. There is no
steam-power there, and consequently little or no smoke is visible,
and every thing wears the appearance of comfort and cleanliness. At
present there are 50,000 cotton-spindles in operation at Lowell,
besides a satinet and carpet manufactory. A good English carpet weaver
who understands his business, may earn a dollar a-day; but the calico
weaving is chiefly performed by females, whose general neatness of
appearance reflects the greatest credit upon themselves and their
employers. No less than 40,000 additional spindles had been contracted
for, and workmen were employed upon them in the large building called
the machine-shop, which of itself is well worth the attention of the
traveller. The vast buildings belonging to the Merrimack and Hamilton
companies, are very conspicuous from the road by which the town is
approached from Boston, particularly the latter, which are ranged along
the side of the canal. As yet there is, I believe, no linen manufactory
in the United States. Lowell contains the most extensive cotton-works;
but as a manufacturing town merely, its population and business are
perhaps trebled at Pittsburg on the Ohio. The scenery about Lowell is
not deficient in interest and beauty, but it scarcely merits further
description.
The prices of provisions at Boston for the last two or three years
have been as follows: the best beef has sold at eight or ten cents
(nearly five-pence halfpenny) the pound; mutton from six to eight
cents: venison from ten to twenty-five cents; salmon from ten to twelve
cents, and other fish from two to four cents. Butter from fourteen to
sixteen cents; cheese fourteen and a half; coffee from thirteen to
fourteen cents. Tea of course varies in price according to its quality;
the best tea in all the larger cities selling from about one dollar
and a quarter to two dollars a pound. Before the East India Company
entered into the Canada tea trade, the colonies were supplied from the
United States. But now the course of smuggling, which from the nature
of the country it is morally impossible to prevent, is decidedly in
favour of the Canadas. The duties on tea in the United States have been
reduced nearly fifty per cent, since the 31st of December, 1831; but
still the duties in the Canadas are very much lower; the best gunpowder
tea, for instance, paying a duty of twenty-five cents, whilst in the
Canadas it pays but four pence, and hyson tea paying a duty of eighteen
cents in the United States, and but sixpence in the Canadas, &c. The
Americans have petitioned for a further reduction in the duties; but
it appears that none will be made as yet. If the American government
would allow the tariff duties and the national debt to expire at the
same time, it is not difficult to foresee, that as it is the amount of
duties which governs the trade, the provinces would again be supplied
from the United States, unless the British government should lower
their duties also; and then if this were to be done, and the United
States and the Canadas were on the same footing, as the East India
Company are supposed to purchase their teas as cheaply as they can
be purchased, no fear need be entertained by the Canadas that any
advantage will be gained over the British trade with regard to the
expenses of importation. And in addition to this, the rapid means of
communication with the Upper Province, afforded by the Rideau canal,
will, it is supposed, bid defiance to hurtful competition on the part
of the Americans, when either the time or the cost of conveyance is
considered. The course of the tea trade between the United States
and the Canadas has been so much in favour of the British colonies,
that the East India Company intend this year to send out four ships
to Quebec and Halifax, instead of two as heretofore. Many of the old
contraband traders have amassed large fortunes: the consumer, whether
royalist or republican, having been by no means averse to render
assistance where it was obviously for his own benefit to do so.
At Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, house rent is about fifteen
per cent. cheaper than at New York, where the rent of a good house,
situated, for instance, on a par with those in Gloucester-place in
London, would amount to one thousand or one thousand two hundred
dollars a year; but counting-houses and other houses taken for their
convenient situations with reference to commercial purposes, would rent
in either of the largest cities just mentioned, at a higher rate than
in London.
The assessment or tax upon houses varies in the different cities, from
five to eight dollars in the thousand.
At Boston, the wages of an in-door male servant are from ten to
eighteen dollars a month; of females from one and a quarter to two
dollars a week.
The expense of keeping a horse at livery in either of the larger cities
is about ten dollars a month; but if groomed by a gentleman’s own
servant it may be done for half that sum exclusively of the groom’s
wages. Hay has been very abundant in Boston market for the last two or
three years, and has sold at from ten to fifteen dollars the ton. Oats
at forty-five to fifty cents the bushel, wholesale price.
In Boston a carriage and a pair of horses, including the coachman’s
wages, &c., may be kept at an annual expense of three hundred and fifty
dollars, about 80_l._
I shall ever feel grateful for the hospitable reception I met with at
Boston. The society is excellent—the Bostonians more resembling the
English than the inhabitants of any other city I had visited; and the
bearing and appearance of some of them being so aristocratical that
they have much ado to keep one another in countenance. The governor of
Massachusetts is entitled “his excellency,” and the lieutenant-governor
is addressed as “your honour.” The belles of Boston dress exceedingly
well, better perhaps than any others in the Union; Philadelphia and
Baltimore not excepted. At New York, as I have before remarked, the
colours of their dresses are far too gaudy, and certainly ill-judged as
to the manner and the time of wearing them.
I believe that there is in England a very mistaken idea of American
society; as I have frequently been asked, what could not but appear
to me the most unfair and absurd questions on this subject. With us
the term “yankee” is generally one of ridicule, if not of disdain;
but to apply it in that sense to all the members of society in the
United States, is far too indiscriminate to be just. There is, as
I have before remarked, an aristocracy in every city in the Union;
and, perhaps, as many as four or five different sets or circles,
notwithstanding their boasted equality of condition. As far as I have
been able to judge from what I have seen and heard, the American ladies
are certainly not (generally speaking) what in England would be called
accomplished—in music and drawing, for instance: and still fewer of
them are entitled to the appellation of “a blue;” but if exceedingly
pretty features, elegant dress and manners, and agreeable and sprightly
conversation are to have the same weight with us in forming an opinion
of the state of society in America, that we should allow to them if
speaking of society in England, I cannot but affirm that the refinement
of first circles in the larger American cities is very far advanced,
and much farther than it has credit for in England. Gentlemen, who
are such from feeling, from habit, and from education, are to be met
with in every part of the States; men who are quite distinct from the
tobacco-chewing, guessing, calkilating, fixing, locating, expecting,
and expectorating yankee, whose very twang, even in the merriest
moments, has something in it that is absolutely provoking to the ear of
an Englishman, and in whose presence one is often tempted to exclaim,
“Be their constitution what it may, for heaven’s sake let us have
something gentleman-like!”
I would here earnestly recommend every traveller in the States, never
to leave any thing to be done by another which he can reasonably do
for himself; and never to defer any arrangement which had better be
made over night, in the expectation that all will go smoothly in the
morning, unless of course he have with him a confidential European
servant. With ordinary care there is not much fear of losing any
thing by theft; but the Yankees are often as careless of the property
of others, as they are careful of their own. Above all things, let
him, as “Bob Short” has it, “be sure to keep his temper.” Anger is
of not the slightest use, and a man may as well be out of humour
with his mantelpiece, as with a Yankee. Independence is visible in
the countenance both of the Englishman and the American: but in the
one, it is stamped as it should be on the forehead; with the other,
it is more often entwined in the curl of the nether lip. Never take
the corner inside a coach on a rainy day, you’ll be wet to the skin:
carefully avoid comparison between any thing that is American, and any
thing that is European, particularly if it should be English. I have
several times received a friendly caution from Americans themselves on
this head. There are liberal minded men in the States who will talk
like gentlemen on every subject; but I believe there is nothing unjust
in the remark that jealousy of England and English arts, and English
improvements, and English manufactures, may be reasonably classed as
the most prominent of their national failings,—and that out of what may
be designated as steam-boat acquaintance, there are not fifty men, from
Maine to Louisiana, who can listen to such a comparison without biting
their lips.
I left Boston, as I did Baltimore with regret, and proceeded to
Providence, the capital of Rhode Island. In the way, I passed through
Pawtucket, a very considerable manufacturing town on the banks of the
Blackstone river.
Providence contains nearly 20,000 inhabitants, several manufactures,
and some exceedingly good private houses. In the neighbourhood, by the
assistance of a friend, I procured some excellent woodcock shooting.
Upon my return, I chanced to be standing with my gun in my hand near
the bar of the inn, when a very decent looking American cooly removed
a cigar from his mouth, and most civilly addressed me with, “Well,
stranger! how do you prosper in gunning?”
At Providence I embarked for New York in the splendid steam-boat,
the President, passing by Newport, a large and populous place, much
resorted to on account of the sea breeze, which is said to be cool
and refreshing during the greatest heats of summer. The Providence
river is one of the finest harbours in the Northern States, and the
best station for ships of war; as a junction could be effected with a
fleet from the Chesapeake in less than forty hours, with the same wind
that would be adverse to a ship sailing from Boston harbour, and would
perhaps prevent a junction in less than ten days: the next morning I
found myself once more at New York—standing just where it did when I
first left it; and after the lapse of a day, I embarked in a steam-boat
to proceed up the North or Hudson’s river. The extreme rapidity with
which we were hurried through the water soon carried me into the
midst of the most superb river scenery I had yet beheld in America.
I congratulate myself upon having deferred this excursion to the end
of my tour instead of seeing it at first, and would recommend every
traveller to do the same, because all that will be seen afterwards of
the same description will probably lose by a comparison. The western
bank soon presents a perpendicular of trap-rock, so denominated on
account of its basaltic formations and general appearance, “the
palisades,” continuing for nearly twenty miles along the river, and
forming a natural wall or precipice, which varies from twenty feet to
500 feet in height, nor is the elevation sensibly diminished by the
great width of the stream. On the east or opposite bank, at a distance
of twenty-five miles from New York, my attention was excited by the
beautiful situation of a small village embosomed in woods and still
farther concealed by a projecting headland. Upon inquiry I found it
was Tarrytown, where Major Andrè was made prisoner, and its appearance
immediately became doubly interesting. Whether he was or was not a
spy, cannot, I think, be determined without an answer to the inquiry,
“suppose he had succeeded?”—but whether the cause of freedom would have
thriven the worse for the generous dismissal of a noble-minded enemy,
or whether the memory of Washington would have descended to posterity
the less untarnished in consequence of such an action, are questions
which are still less problematical. Major Andrè was executed at Tappan,
on the other side of the river, standing on the boundary line between
the states of New York and New Jersey.
The penitentiary at Sing Sing, is the next object of attraction; it is
built by the convicts themselves, in the shape of a rectangle, 40 feet
by 480. The system of solitary confinement adopted there, is the same
as that of Auburn in the western part of the state of New York. The
prisoners are confined separately, and are brought out to work together
in the lime-stone quarries immediately adjoining the prison, but are
never allowed to utter a syllable to each other. It would appear that
under all circumstances this system is not more likely to prevent
crime, than that which is pursued in Philadelphia; and on the other
hand, with regard to the reformation of a prisoner in after life, I
should humbly conceive the latter mode to be preferable; because as
one prisoner is never seen by another, it is very clear he cannot be
recognized, but can commence a new life without risking a sneer from a
former companion in confinement.
I had lately enjoyed the agreeable society of two French gentlemen,
who were travelling for the French government, with instructions to
visit the different prisons in the United States in which the system of
solitary confinement was adopted, with a view of ascertaining whether
it was practicable in France. They informed me, that as far as they
had seen, they were of opinion that the system could be adopted, were
it not for the expense to be incurred in those alterations which would
be necessary. A criminal condemned to imprisonment in France is turned
in amongst a number of other persons, is fed during the period of his
detention, and comes out of the prison just as he entered it.
We soon came in sight of Westpoint, at the commencement of “the
Highlands,” and the most beautiful part of the river. This spot was
selected in the year 1802, as the site of the military college of the
United States. The buildings connected with the establishment are
situated on a small plain, elevated about 160 feet above the surface
of the river. The venerable ruins of Fort Portnam, are conspicuously
perched upon an eminence 440 feet higher; but the ascent is still
continued behind them. The whole of the ground belongs to government,
the immediate vicinity of the college being within the jurisdiction of
the courts of the United States.
The dress and appearance of the cadets is extremely neat; consisting
of a slightly braided jacket, and trowsers of grey cloth: their
number is about two hundred and sixty. The academic staff is composed
of thirty-three officers, and gentlemen who act as professors and
assistant professors. The cadets are instructed in almost every
branch of science, but in no language, excepting French. They are
publicly examined every year, in the presence of fifteen visiters,
who are invited to attend, and have an allowance made them for their
travelling expenses. Amongst other places, I visited the drawing
academy, and another apartment, in which were several cadets studying
fortification. When there, I could not avoid remarking that on one of
the tables, by the side of the drawing utensils, lay a half demolished
roll of tobacco. The disgusting habit of chewing tobacco is common
in every part of America; even the men in the upper classes are not
entirely free from it: but it surely might be discontinued (by express
prohibition, if necessary) by the officers and cadets of the most
gentlemanly establishment in the Union, and against which, laughable
as it may appear, objections have been raised on account of the
aristocratical ideas which the young men bring with them into society.
The annual expenses of each cadet, do not exceed three hundred and
fifty dollars. He is examined at the expiration of four years: if he
does not pass, he is allowed another year of grace. There are usually
on the average about a hundred candidates for admission on the list,
and about thirty are annually accepted: a preference being given to
the sons of revolutionary officers, or of those who served in the last
war. Out of the whole number admitted, I was informed that more than
half of them leave the college from incapacity, disorderly behaviour,
or other reasons, before their time has expired; and that about
one-fourth of them usually take their leave within a year after the
commencement of their studies. Every cadet must have attained the age
of fourteen before admittance, and is originally intended for the army;
but in the event of his not getting a commission, the education he
has received, amidst the present and universal confusion of rail-roads
and water-powers, will ensure him three dollars a day for his services
as a civil engineer. The cadets form on parade every day at one hour
before sunset, and have a very soldier-like appearance, occasionally
practising the guns at a target on the opposite side of the river.
The band, towards the maintenance of which each cadet contributes
twenty-five cents a month, is said to be the best in the States. If a
young man does not distinguish himself, he will probably remain in the
ranks of the cadet corps during the four years of his probation; but if
he display more than ordinary abilities, he may become a corporal after
the first, and a sergeant after the second year; and may subsequently
get his commission as second lieutenant in the army.
Kosciusko served in the American ranks during the war of Independence.
His cenotaph is a very conspicuous object at Westpoint; and at a
picturesque spot which he is said to have frequented, and is known by
the name of Kosciusko’s Garden: a small fountain, regarded at this time
with peculiar reverence, bubbles up through a plain marble slab, and
trickles over the letters of his name, as if it wept its all to his
memory.
Cannon are cast at the foundry on the east side of the river, nearly
opposite to Westpoint. On that side also, a mile or two below, is
the house which was occupied by Arnold when he was carrying on his
traitorous correspondence with the British officers. The spot where he
held his conference with Major Andrè, is overshadowed by a small grove
of trees, easily distinguished by their superior height. I understood,
at Westpoint, that General La Fayette during his visit in 1824, had
said he was dining with Arnold, when he received from Major Andrè the
letter which informed him of his capture, and that Arnold immediately
made some excuse for leaving the table, and escaped, as is well known,
by running down a very steep bank, and ordering some boatmen to row him
to the British sloop of war which brought Major Andrè, and was then
lying in the river awaiting his return.
The American musquet carries but eighteen balls to the pound. The
charge of powder is also proportionably less. A general officer who
served in the last war, informed me that having observed the shoulders
of the British prisoners, he frequently found them black for a month
after their capture; and not being satisfied with the smallness of the
charge of powder which had been already diminished by an order from the
American head-quarters, he himself, then a colonel, went round to every
man in his regiment, previously to an engagement, to see that it was
still further reduced according to his own order. The men were thus
convinced of the necessity of reserving their fire, and of taking a
steady aim, so that, perhaps, one shot in ten took effect, instead of
one in sixty; the number usually allowed in European warfare. He also
informed me, that during the obscurity of the night, and the confusion
which took place at the battle of Lundy’s-lane, he observed a regiment
forming on his flank, and being unable to discern immediately whether
they were British or Americans, he jumped upon the top of a fence for
a better view, and immediately became a mark for a volley of British
musquetry, of which every shot passed over his head. This no doubt was
partly caused by the old method of “making ready;” in consequence of
which the musquet was frequently discharged before it was brought to
the shoulder, from the perpendicular position in which it was held. The
British troops suffered more severely than they otherwise would have
done on account of the colour of their uniforms, the least portion of
which so easily exposed them to the rifle of the back-woods man.
Soon after quitting Westpoint we passed the town of Newburg, leaving
the Catskill mountains on our left. I did not visit the hotel at the
top of them, as the season was too far advanced, and everybody had left
it. The view from it is said to be, and must be, magnificent. We then
arrived at Albany, which has been for thirty years the capital of the
state of New York; it is a handsome and thriving city, containing about
20,000 inhabitants.
Every traveller should contrive to be at Albany on Sunday morning, in
order that he may proceed to Shaker’s town, about eight miles distant,
and attend the public worship of the sect. At Lebanon, in the same
state, there is a larger establishment, but it is more out of the way.
Their mode of worship is certainly the most extraordinary that is
adopted in any Christian community. About fifty men and fifty women
were arranged _en masse_ with their faces towards each other, and
with an intervening space of about ten feet. The service commenced by
an elder coming forward between them, and delivering a few words of
exhortation. Several others followed his example at intervals during
the service; one, more eloquent than the rest, who was descanting on
the proper government of the passions and the abuse of talent, thought
fit to illustrate his argument by a quotation from Gay’s fable of
“The Grecian youth of talents rare.” Hymns were then sung by them in
their places, each of them shaking the whole time. They then performed
a regular dance, holding hands, advancing and retiring, to a most
uproarious tune, sung by a few of them formed in a small circle, who
gave the words and the tune to the others as they afterwards paraded
in pairs around the room, singing very loudly the whole time—hopping
heavily, first on one foot, then on the other—flapping their hands
the whole time before them, with their elbows stuck into their sides,
and looking for all the world like so many penguins in procession.
It was not till the end of the service that they all fairly fell on
their knees, and sung a hymn, as if they were asking pardon for their
vagaries.
I really think I had never seen such a curious collection of heads
and features: the chin and lower part of the face were generally very
small, giving to some an appearance that was perfectly idiotic, whilst
others displayed a more subdued modification of that wildness of gaze
which might have distinguished the fanatic companions of Balfour o’
Burley: but there was scarcely one among them, either male or female,
whose features were not remarkable on one account or other.
From Albany I proceeded to Schenectady, in the rail-road carriage,
which whirled me forward with a rapidity very little inferior to
that with which I had been carried between Liverpool and Manchester,
but by no means so silently or so smoothly, as the rattling was very
loud. Thence I went to Utica, a town that at present contains 10,000
inhabitants, but intends at some future period to be the capital of
the state of New York. Its pretensions are founded on its present
prosperity, arising from the Erie canal, which passes through it in its
way from Albany to lake Erie, its central situation, and the gradual
westward movement of the surplus population of the more eastern cities.
From Utica I visited the Trenton falls, fifteen miles distant. I was
very much disappointed: there was not much water in them, and they
appeared more like artificial cascades than a natural cataract. The
trout fishing in the West Canada creek, on which they are situated,
is, I conceive, the best recommendation for a visit to the Trenton
falls. Possibly Niagara had spoiled me for every waterfall. It is, I
think, the author of the “Diary of an Invalid,” who remarks that having
seen St. Peter’s, he should be contented with his parish church ever
afterwards. I thence proceeded to Saratoga, the Cheltenham of America:
but the company which throng to it from all parts of the Union, being
its only attraction, and the season being over, I passed through it
without stopping there more than an hour. The vicinity of Ballston
Springs, which are near it, are much prettier. The waters of both are
saline and chalybeate at the same time. The guide books are so filled
with accounts of the marches, counter marches, successes, distresses,
and final surrender of General Burgoyne, that I make no apology for
merely remarking, that he surrendered to the American General Gates
at Schuylersville in the county of Saratoga on the 17th of October,
1777. From Saratoga, I proceeded to Lake George, passing by Glen’s
falls, so admirably described in Mr. Cooper’s novel of the Last of
the Mohicans. Unfortunately for me the steam-boat on the lake was laid
up in ordinary, and I was obliged to content myself with a ride for
a few miles along the banks. As far as I could judge, I thought the
scenery equal to that of the finest of British lakes, generally, with
the exception of Loch-Lomond. It is thirty-six miles long; but it has
no where the majestic breadth of the famed Scottish lake. Its mountains
are not so lofty as Ben Lomond, and it has not the weeping birch of the
highlands of Scotland, or the arbutus of the lakes of Killarney; but it
can boast of an unrivalled clearness of water, a most delicious perfume
from the gum cistus (vulgo, sweet fern) which grows abundantly on its
margin; and the autumnal foliage reflected on its surface is certainly
far more beautiful and brilliant than any thing of the kind that Great
Britain can display. Cultivation was to be seen in many parts; but
there were no splendid country seats, and the majestic beauty of this
lovely lake must be contented to remain destitute of those unrivalled
ornaments, so long as democracy holds sway over the mountains that
surround it.
At the head of the lake stands the village of Caldwell, and near it
are the ruins of Fort George and Fort William. It would far exceed the
limits of this work, were I to take notice of the numerous battles
that have been fought during the last eighty years in the vicinity of
Lake George; for an account of the massacre that took place after the
surrender of Fort William-Henry, by Major Monroe, to the French troops
under the command of the Marquis of Montcalm in 1757, I will again with
pleasure refer you to the “Last of the Mohicans.”
I should mention that there is excellent bass fishing in the lake, and
that all necessary information &c. may be obtained at the lake tavern
at Caldwell. The bass is taken with a spinning minnow, and when hooked
affords for a short time, even more sport than a salmon; but is much
sooner exhausted.
Sandy Hill was my next destination. In my way, I passed over the ground
where General Burgoyne surrendered, and in a few hours again entered a
steam-boat, at Albany, with the intention of returning, for the last
time, to New York.
Before I went to America, I had no idea in how short a time a meal
could be dispatched; but to see “bolting” in perfection, it is
necessary to go on board an Albany steam-boat. The cabin is cleared as
much as possible, the breakfast is laid, and the free negro stewards
are placed as guards at the top of the stair-case, to prevent any
gentleman from walking in before the bell rings. As the hour draws
near, conversation is gradually suspended, and the company look as if
they were all thinking of the same subject. Groups of lank thin-jawed
personages may be seen “progressing” towards the door, and “locating”
themselves around it, in expectation of the approaching rush, listening
to the repeated assurances of the black stewards within, that no
gentleman can by any possibility be admitted before the time. At length
the bell rings, and the negro guards escape as they can; if they are
not brisk in their motions, they stand a chance of being sent headlong
down stairs, or jammed in between the wall and the opened doors.
In less than a quarter of a minute, 150 or 200 persons have seated
themselves at table, and an excellent breakfast of tea, coffee, eggs,
beefsteaks, hot rolls, corn cakes, salted mackerel, mush, molasses,
&c. is demolished in an incredibly short space of time. The crowd then
slowly re-ascends the staircase—and three-fourths of them are quite
surprised that they should be afflicted with dyspepsia! The music which
usually accompanied the feasts of the ancients, will never be revived
by the Americans who are more likely to exclaim in the beautiful
language of Euripides,
Σκαιοὺς δε λεγων, κοὺδὲν τι σοφοὺς,
Τοὺς προσθε βροτους, ουκ ἄν ἁμάρτοις,
Οἵτινες ὕμνους επὶ μὲν θαλίαις,
Επὶ τ’ εἰλαπίναις, καὶ παρὰ δείπνοις
Εὕροντο, βίου τερπνὰς ακοάς.
* * * * *
ἵνα δ εὔδειπνοι
Δαῖτες, τι μάτην τείνουσι βοάν
Τὸ παρὸν γαρ ἔχει τέρψιν ὰφ’ αυτοῦ
Δαιτὸς πλήρωμα βροτοῖσιν.
* * * * *
Whilst I remained at New York, I employed my time in visiting the
dock-yard, the race-ground on Long Island, and other places which I
had left unseen. The race-ground is inclosed with a high paling, and
although well kept, is not on so large a scale as might be expected.
The Americans believed that their horse, Eclipse, was faster than his
celebrated English ancestor, till a paper appeared in their Sporting
Magazine, proving that had they run together, their horse, which is
undoubtedly a very good one, particularly up hill, would have been
thoroughly beaten. They have a mare, named, I believe, Arietta, which
is said to be exceedingly fast for a mile, and is coming to England, to
try her speed at Newmarket.
The Americans boast that they are able to raise an army of cavalry
at a moment’s notice; and they refer you to the backwoods, and tell
you that a boy can ride almost as soon as he can walk. This is true
enough of their riding to plough, or to church, or along the road;
but I do not remember to have seen a horse take a leap in the United
States but once,—and he had no rider on his back. It is very rarely
that an American is seen with a good seat on horseback. I should say,
generally, that the Americans were bad riders, excepting the New
Yorkers,—and they are Americans. I think _they_ are the worst I
ever saw. They have neither a military seat nor a fox-hunting seat, nor
a Turkish seat, nor even what Geoffrey Gambado would term “the mistaken
notion;” but they ride up and down the Broadway with the toe almost
invariably very much below the heel; and the back and shoulders, like
the “genteel and agreeable” of the same author, of course inclined
forward: at the same time it must be confessed, that as they have
neither cavalry nor fox-hunting, it is not surprising that they cannot
ride.
I witnessed an extraordinary exhibition, purporting to be a burlesque
upon the militia system, and got up with no inconsiderable share of
humour. A person on horseback, masked, in the uniform of Napoleon,
wearing a small figure of him on either shoulder, and carrying an
enormous tin sword, headed a band of ragamuffins, habited as their
wit and ingenuity dictated to them. Pasteboard, pumpkins, spits, and
hay-bands, with a hundred other things of the same kind, being put in
requisition to aid the spirit of buffoonery, and assist in ridiculing
the militia. The only motto among the many that was good and pointed,
was “soldiers in peace, citizens in war.” But the whole scene, although
acted on a less serious occasion, was worthy the days of Anacharsis
Klootz.
I cannot forbear to relate an instance of that mock modesty of which
the Americans are sometimes accused. I was at a ball, and was guilty
of joining in a quadrille. When the time for the “dos a dos” arrived,
I advanced to perform that part of the figure in the same manner as
I should have done at a ball in England; but I found that the lady,
who was dancing opposite to me, receded instead of coming forward,
and my movement had attracted considerable attention. I felt that I
had committed some error, and my partner, who had travelled a great
deal in Europe and had often danced quadrilles in France and England,
kindly hinted to me, with a slight archness of smile, that I had made
a mistake.—“We do not dance the dos a dos here; we have left off that
part of the figure!”
Two circumstances contributed to render my voyage home agreeable: one
was, that I sailed in the splendid new ship the “North America;” the
other, that she was commanded by Captain Macy. As the steam-boat slowly
towed us from the wharf, I felt gratified and grateful for the kindness
I had met with in America; and I unhesitatingly affirm, that if an
Englishman be treated otherwise it must be his own fault. I looked at
the retiring city: I thought the houses were not so very red, after
all; and I tried to persuade myself that the bay of New York was as
beautiful as the bay of Naples: but I found that I could not show
my gratitude at the expense of what appeared to me to be the truth;
namely, that it is and must ever remain very far inferior. Partiality
is apt to elicit some very contrary opinions. The New Yorkers think
their bay equal in beauty to the bay of Naples: when the Dutch had
possession of the country, they called it the New Netherlands. But
these are trifles, and as such I hope they are pardonable.
I advise you to go to America: at this period there is no country
equally interesting, nor one so likely to remain so, till it falls to
pieces, probably within less than half a century, by its own weight.
If you are an ultra-tory you will, perhaps, receive a lesson that may
reduce you to reason; if you are a radical, and in your senses, as an
Englishman and a gentleman, you are certain of changing your opinions
before you return; and you may prepare yourself accordingly. You will
be gratified by visiting a land, that come what will, must ever remain
a land of liberty, which the Saxon blood alone is capable of enjoying.
So little, it may be remarked, do the French understand the term, that
it is only since the last revolution that they have acquired the “droit
de l’initiatif,” or the right by which any member of the chamber of
deputies can by himself bring in a bill or “projet de loi,” whenever he
pleases; a right which the members of the house of commons in England
may be said to have enjoyed for two centuries. Previously to the late
changes in France, it was necessary that a number of members who wished
to introduce any measure into the chamber, should petition the king for
leave to do so; otherwise, as is well known, it was brought forward by
the minister alone. You will be gratified by seeing so much of what
may be termed the aristocracy of nature in the primæval forests, the
vast lakes and majestic rivers of North America; and still more so by
having visited a land where man is supposed to be more his own master
than in any other civilised part of the world, and where his energy
meets with co-operation in the natural resources of the country, and
commands success at the hands of his fellow men. You will then be
able to form an opinion whether the state of society be more or less
enviable than that to which you have been accustomed; whether the
fine arts are more likely to flourish; whether men in their public or
private characters as husbands, as fathers, as brothers, as gentlemen,
are better, more honest, or more amiable than among yourselves; or
whether the government under which they live is more calculated for the
encouragement of true religion, the shelter of virtue, the enjoyment
of life and liberty; or, if fair allowance be made for the advantages
incidental to a new country, whether it is better adapted for the
advancement of national prosperity, than the institutions of your
native land.—Go to America, canvass the pretensions of the Americans,
and then judge for yourself.
THE END.
Manning and Co., Printers,
4, London House Yard, St. Paul’s.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and
inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
The city of Pittsburgh is spelled as Pittsburg in some instances. This
inconsistency was left intact.
Inconsistent hyphenations have been left as is.
Page 48. “antehamber” replaced by “antechamber”.
Page 64. “distincts pecies” replaced by “distinct species”.
Page 123. “Nigara river” replaced by “Niagara river”.
Page 210. “oxtyx virginianus” replaced by “ortyx virginianus”.
Page 215. “St Lawrence” replaced by “St. Lawrence”.
Page 218. “St Lawrence” replaced by “St. Lawrence”.
Page 259. “Catshill mountains” replaced by “Catskill mountains”.
Page 275. “privmæval” replaced by “primæval”.
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