Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 1
by Prinz von Maximilian Wied · English · Gutenberg #38784 · 779,306 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 1
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Maximilian, Prince of Wied's, Travels in the Interior of North America, 1832-1834, part 1
Author: Prinz von Maximilian Wied
Editor: Reuben Gold Thwaites
Illustrator: Karl Bodmer
Translator: Hannibal Evans Lloyd
Release date: February 7, 2012 [eBook #38784]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38784
Credits: E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Melissa McDaniel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF WIED'S, TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, 1832-1834, PART 1 ***
E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Melissa McDaniel, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 38784-h.htm or 38784-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/38784/pg38784-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38784/38784-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
http://www.archive.org/details/earlywesterntrav22thwa
Transcriber's note:
This book's editors sought to "reproduce the old text as
closely as practicable, with its typographic and orthographic
peculiarities." The transcriber has honored that intent.
The pagination of the original journal edition here reprinted
is indicated by enclosing, within brackets, the number of the
page at its beginning, e.g. [pg. 24].
Unnumbered illustration pages have been moved to the closest
reference in the text.
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text
enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
Volume XXII
Early Western Travels
1748-1846
A Series of Annotated Reprints of some of the best and rarest
contemporary volumes of travel, descriptive of the Aborigines and
Social and Economic Conditions in the Middle and Far West, during
the Period of Early American Settlement
Edited with Notes, Introductions, Index, etc., by
Reuben Gold Thwaites, LL.D.
Editor of "The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents," "Original
Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," "Hennepin's
New Discovery," etc.
Volume XXII
PART I OF MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF WIED'S, TRAVELS IN THE
INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, 1832-1834
Cleveland, Ohio
The Arthur H. Clark Company
1906
Copyright 1906, by
The Arthur H. Clark Company
All Rights Reserved
The Lakeside Press
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company
Chicago
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXII
PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXII-XXIV. _The Editor_ 9
TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA. [Part I,
being chapters i-xv of the London edition, 1843.]
_Maximilian, Prince of Wied._ Translated from the
German by _Hannibal Evans Lloyd_
Author's Preface 25
Translator's Preface 31
Text:
CHAPTER I--Voyage to Boston, Stay in
that City, and Journey to New York,
from May 17th to July 9th, 1832 37
CHAPTER II--Stay in New York, Philadelphia,
and Bordentown, from the 9th
to the 16th of July 57
CHAPTER III--Residence at Freiburg and
Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, from July
30th to August 23rd 72
CHAPTER IV--Journey to the Pokono,
and through the Blue Mountains to
Mauch Chunk, in the Coal District,
from the 23rd to the 30th of August 87
CHAPTER V--Description of Mauch Chunk
and its Coal Mines--Journey through
the Lehigh Valley to Bethlehem, and
last Residence in that Town, from
August 31st to September 16th 119
CHAPTER VI--Journey from Bethlehem
to Pittsburg, over the Alleghanys, from
September 17th to October 7th 128
CHAPTER VII--Journey from Pittsburg to
New Harmony, on the Wabash, from
the 8th to the 19th of October 144
CHAPTER VIII--Description of the Country
about New Harmony, in Indiana,
and Winter Residence there from
October 19th, 1832, to March 16th, 1833 163
CHAPTER IX--Journey from New Harmony
to St. Louis on the Mississippi,
and our Stay there, from March 16th
to April 9th 198
CHAPTER X--Journey from St. Louis to
the Cantonment of Leavenworth, or
to the Borders of the Settlement, from
the 10th to the 22nd of April 237
CHAPTER XI--Journey from the Cantonment
of Leavenworth to the Punca Indians,
from April 22nd to May 12th 255
CHAPTER XII--Voyage from L'Eau qui
Court to Fort Pierre, on the Teton
River (the Little Missouri), and Stay
there, from May 13th to June 4th 291
CHAPTER XIII--Voyage from Fort Pierre,
on the Teton River, to Fort
Clarke, near the Villages of the Mandans,
from the 5th to the 19th of June 330
CHAPTER XIV--Voyage from Fort Clarke
to Fort Union, near the Mouth of the
Yellow Stone River, from the 19th to
the 24th of June 356
CHAPTER XV--Description of Fort Union
and its Neighbourhood 375
ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME XXII
Facsimile of title-page to Maximilian's _Travels_ 23
(The following are text cuts in original)
Bear-trap 107
Indian pipes 175
Neck-yoke and plow 175
Formations of limestone rocks 213
Omaha Indians 269
An Omaha boy 269
Omaha war club 269
Punca war club 269
Punca Indians in buffalo robes 287
Method of wearing hair 287
Bows, arrows, and quiver 287
Tents of the Sioux 319
Plan of Fort Pierre 319
Dakota pipes 323
A Dakota, with plaited hair 323
A Teton 323
Hill of baked clay 323
Antlers of deer 347
Sioux burial stages 347
A Blackfoot musical instrument 361
Stone battle-axe 361
Assiniboin pipes 361
Pipe for warlike expeditions 361
PREFACE TO VOLUMES XXII-XXIV
Early trans-Mississippi exploration was undertaken largely in the
interests of science. The great expedition of Lewis and Clark
(1804-06) was, both in conception and plan, a scientific excursion.
Bradbury and Brackenridge voyaged up the Missouri (1811) in search of
rare plants and animals, Nuttall sought the Arkansas (1819) on a
similar errand. Long's expedition (1819-20) was entirely scientific,
both in organization and objects; while Townsend crossed the continent
with Nathaniel Wyeth (1834) to secure a harvest of rare birds in the
mountains and beyond. In the early nineteenth century, scientific
collection was the chief object of ambition among thoughtful
explorers--to secure for the world a complete catalogue of its plants
and animals was worth much toil and hardship, heroic endeavor, and
mighty daring. To such, the still unknown regions of the New World
offered strong attractions. There were in the trans-Mississippi and in
South America, spread out upon mountains and prairies and bordering
far-flowing streams, fresh races of barbarians yet uncontaminated by
civilized contact, beasts of prey, birds of brilliant plumage, and
unknown plant species.
Among those to whom this call of the New World came clearly, was a
German savant, prince of a small house in Rhenish Prussia. Even while
upon Napoleonic battle-fields, he felt a desire for the wilderness,
and news of the victory of Waterloo reached him upon the far-distant
rivers of Brazil. His later journey to North America was but the
completion of a purpose formed in early boyhood. Alexander Philip
Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, was born in the quaint capital of
his little Rhenish sovereignty in September, 1782. The eighth child of
the reigning Friedrich Karl, natural aptitude for study early marked
his career for that of a scholar. Nevertheless, in obedience to the
call of patriotism, he entered the Prussian army and was present at
the battle of Jena. Soon thereafter he was captured and for some time
suffered imprisonment. Exchanged and returned to Neuwied, he continued
the scientific pursuits which had long interested him; but a fresh
military crisis called him once more into service, in which he rose to
a major-generalship, won the honor of the iron cross at Chalons, and
entered Paris with the victorious army in 1813. Reminiscences of this
warlike experience came to him twenty years later in the Missouri
wilderness, when he notes that the song of the Assiniboin warriors
before Fort McKenzie resembled that of the Russian soldiers heard in
the winter of 1813-14.
While successful as a soldier, at heart Maximilian was a searcher for
knowledge. In his boyhood his mother had encouraged his love for
natural history, and under the direction of his tutor he had begun a
collection that was creditable to a youth. Later, in his university
course, he came under the influence of the celebrated Professor Johann
Friedrich Blumenbach, and as a favorite pupil absorbed from him a keen
desire to contribute to the world's stock of knowledge. Throughout
what leisure he could snatch in the Napoleonic campaigns, the young
prince was planning a scientific expedition to Brazil, and no sooner
was he finally released from martial duties than he made preparations
that culminated, early in 1815, in a departure for that country.
Joined in South America by two German scholars who had preceded him
thither, the trio spent two years in the tropical forests of that
country, studying its flora and fauna, and above all the native races.
After the return to Germany, Maximilian's succeeding years were spent
in arranging his collections and preparing for publication the results
of his journey. His _Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817_
(Frankfurt, 1820-21) was soon translated into French, Dutch, and
English; later appeared _Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien_
(Weimar, 1825-33), designed to accompany the atlas of ninety plates,
entitled _Abbildungenen zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens_ (Weimar,
1822-31). The publication of these works gave Maximilian an honored
place among scientists, and proclaimed his ability as an exploring
naturalist.
By 1831 the prince was engaged in preparations for his second great
enterprise--a visit to North America, including a scientific
exploration of the trans-Mississippi region. Embarking on an American
packet at Helvoetsluys, May 17, 1832, our traveller arrived in Boston
amid the salvos of artillery ushering in the anniversary of American
independence.
Maximilian was accompanied on this voyage by a young Swiss artist,
Charles Bodmer, whom he had engaged to paint primitive landscapes in
the New World, together with portraits of its aborigines. The artist's
work proved eminently successful, as evidenced by the rare quality of
the plates engraved from his sketches, which we reproduce in the
accompanying atlas, our volume xxv. Bodmer--born in Zurich in
1805--had studied in Paris; after his excursion to America with
Maximilian, he returned to his former haunts, finally settling with
the artist colony at Barbizon, in the forest of Fontainebleau, where
he became a successful landscapist, and received medals of honor at
the salons of 1851, 1855, and 1863, and in 1876 the ribbon of the
legion of honor. One of his canvases was purchased by the French
government for the Luxembourg gallery. His son Henri, also a painter,
was recently exhibiting in the Paris salons. During the winter spent
at Fort Clark, Bodmer experienced several adventures. At one time he
was for several hours lost upon the prairie; again, his paints and
oils congealed in the zero-blasts of the Dakotan winter. His interest
in his task, however, was unwearied; by cajolery, bribery, and rare
patience he secured sittings from famous Indian chiefs, faithfully
presenting their portraits to the world in the full equipment of
savage finery, thus giving us an unexcelled gallery of Indian types
and costumes.
In addition to this admirable artist--in some respects perhaps the
most competent draughtsman who has thus far sought to depict the North
American tribesmen--Prince Maximilian was accompanied by his faithful
jaeger Dreidoppel, who had been with him in Brazil, and who rendered
efficient service on the Missouri hills and prairies.
"There are," our author tells us in his preface, "two distinct points
of view" from which the traveller may study the United States--he may
consider its present conditions and its future prosperity; its
resources, population, immigration, and "gigantic strides of
civilization." Maximilian's own purpose, however, was to collect data
concerning the remnants of its aboriginal population, and the
primitive state of its fields and forests; these he sought to observe
and to perpetuate both in description and drawing. The America of the
Eastern states had therefore slight charm for our traveller, his
object being to reach the frontier as soon as was consistent with his
scientific purposes.
Tarrying briefly in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, communities
which he describes in a few terse sentences, he sought the forests of
Pennsylvania for preliminary experience in the simpler phases of
woodcraft and hunting, as well as to visit the German immigrants
settled in this region. He had expected to journey westward by way of
the Great Lakes, but the appearance of cholera at Detroit and Buffalo
made this plan impractical; instead, he visited the Moravians at
Bethlehem, and made a leisurely journey through northern Pennsylvania,
inspecting the coal mines and the geological structures. In the early
autumn the prince and his two companions reached Pittsburg, but there
finding the water in the Ohio too low for navigation, they went
overland to Wheeling, where they embarked (October 9) for the descent
of the river. At Louisville, they found that the cholera scourge had
preceded them, whereupon with but a brief stay they continued their
voyage to the Wabash, where they turned aside to visit the colony of
naturalists settled at the Indiana town of New Harmony.
For some years Maximilian had been in correspondence with Thomas Say,
the entomologist, who had accompanied Major S. H. Long's expedition,
and was now managing the property of William Maclure, president of the
Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, who had purchased Robert
Owen's communistic settlement on the Wabash, founded in 1825. Owen's
two sons, Robert Dale and William, were still in the vicinity,
together with Charles Alexander Lesueur, a French naturalist of
repute. Even more attractive than the society of the scientists was
the presence of a good library of Americana and natural history, at
that time probably the best west of the Atlantic seaboard. Here,
therefore, on the banks of the Wabash, our naturalist contentedly
spent the winter of 1832-33, preparing for his journey into the Far
West, and studying the antiquities and natural sciences of America.
During these months, Bodmer made a voyage to New Orleans, but returned
in time to set forth with his patron, March 16, 1833. After a
steamboat journey to the mouth of the Ohio and up the Mississippi,
they arrived at St. Louis before the departure for the interior of the
usual spring caravans of the Western fur-traders.
At this entrepot of the wilderness trade, Maximilian presented letters
to its prominent citizens, and was invited by General William Clark to
accompany a deputation of Sauk and Foxes, headed by Keokuk, on a visit
to the imprisoned Sauk chiefs, Black Hawk and his confreres, at
Jefferson Barracks. The interest with which Maximilian regarded these
first North American barbarians whom he had come so far to see, is
well expressed in the narrative. Black Hawk he describes as a "little
old man, perhaps seventy years of age, with grey hair, and a light
yellow complexion, a slightly curved nose, and Chinese features, to
which the shaven head, with the usual tuft behind, not a little
contributed." The meeting between the prisoners and their free
countrymen appeared to the prince most affecting.
Maximilian had desired to visit the Rocky Mountains and their
inhabitants, and accordingly planned to join one of the annual
fur-trading caravans that, under the auspices of the Rocky Mountain
Fur Company, set off for their rendezvous in the heart of the
Cordilleras. From this purpose he was dissuaded by General Clark,
Major Benjamin O'Fallon, and other St. Louis folk cognizant with the
situation. They represented to the illustrious traveller that these
caravans avoided rather than sought the Indians; and that if they met,
the encounter was apt to be hostile rather than friendly. It would
also be extremely difficult to transport any extensive collections of
fauna and flora by the land route. They thereupon advised a visit to
the American Fur Company's trading posts on the Missouri via that
company's annual steamboat, a plan which met the approval of the
scientist and his companions.
The tenth of April, 1833, the travellers boarded the "Yellowstone," on
its third trip to the posts of the upper Missouri. Before parting with
Major O'Fallon, the latter gave them a manuscript map copied from one
prepared during the Lewis and Clark expedition by Clark himself, the
topographer of that famous exploring party. This chart was constantly
used by the prince. His narrative recites the daily routine and
incidents of the river voyage on the outward route. By April 22 the
steamer had reached Fort (then Cantonment) Leavenworth, and ten days
later they were at Bellevue, just below the present Omaha. It was not
until the eighteenth of May that the prince's party were greeted by
their first sight of buffalo, and by the last of that month they had
arrived at Fort Pierre, the company's main post among the Sioux. Here
our travellers were transferred from the "Yellowstone" to her sister
steamer, the "Assiniboine," a newer, larger boat with, however, a
lighter draught; the latter was to continue to the upper river, while
the "Yellowstone" returned to St. Louis.
Slowly the party steamed up the river, past the Sioux territory and
the Arikara villages into the land of the Mandan and the Minitaree,
where on June 18 they were landed at the company's Fort Clark, just
below a Mandan village several miles above the present Bismarck, North
Dakota. Tarrying here but one day, the steamer continued its journey
to the mouth of Yellowstone River, where Fort Union was reached on the
twenty-fourth of June. After spending two weeks at this point,
Maximilian and his suite were transferred to a keel-boat, and
continued their voyage to Fort McKenzie, on Maria's River, among the
treacherous Blackfeet.
Here, during a stay of two months, the German naturalist was initiated
into the mysteries of the fur-trade, came to understand the jealousies
and rivalries of Indian tribes, and witnessed a battle before the
stockade of the fort, between Blackfeet and Assiniboin warriors.
Because of this intertribal quarrel and the consequent restlessness
and untrustworthiness of the neighboring barbarians, it was deemed
inexpedient by the fur-traders for the travellers to advance farther
into the Rockies, and Maximilian had need to content himself with such
glimpses of the mountain ranges as could be had from the bluffs of
Maria's River, and the upper reaches of the Missouri. The
"Assiniboine" having long since departed on the home trip, the chief
factor at Fort McKenzie built a barge for the princely visitor, upon
which Maximilian embarked (September 14), together with a small crew
of _voyageurs_, two cages of live bears, and several animal pets.
Since wintering in the mountains had proved impracticable, our author
determined to occupy the long cold months now at hand with the most
interesting aborigines of the upper river. For this purpose he
selected the Mandan and Minitaree, both because of their settled
habitations and of the interest that these tribes had awakened in
previous travellers. Known first to the early French explorers, it was
from their villages that the Verendrye brothers had in 1742 set forth
on their explorations toward the "Shining Mountains." Located at the
upper bend of the Missouri, they were readily accessible to British
traders of the Assiniboin and Saskatchewan valleys, who were found as
habitues in their villages by Lewis and Clark, in 1804-05. Accordingly
Maximilian requested permission of the American Fur Company officials
to pass the winter at Fort Clark, the Mandan post. McKenzie
accommodatingly ordered to be built for the famous traveller a small
house within the stockade, and every facility to be given him for
making records of the neighboring tribesmen. In company with Toussaint
Charbonneau, Lewis and Clark's former interpreter, the German visitor
attended various ceremonies, dances, and feasts, took many portraits
of the chiefs, and studied the manners and customs, and myths and
superstitions of this vanishing race. The latter part of the winter
the prince suffered with a serious attack of scurvy, from which,
however, he recovered in time to set forth for the lower country on
the breaking up of the ice.
By the eighteenth of May he was once more at Fort Leavenworth. After
brief visits at St. Louis and New Harmony, he journeyed eastward by
way of the Ohio Canal and Lake Erie, stopped to wonder at the majesty
of the Falls of Niagara, and on July 16, 1834, embarked at New York on
the Havre packet for the Old World. A large portion of his collections
were left behind at Fort Pierre, to be forwarded with the season's
furs by the annual steamer. A fire occurring on the "Assiniboine," but
few of these natural history specimens ever reached him, and one
object of the prince's American visit was thereby frustrated.
An interesting reminiscence of the visit of Prince Maximilian is found
in the journals of Alexander Culbertson, a young fur-trade clerk who
accompanied the scientist from Fort Union to Fort McKenzie. Culbertson
says: "In this year an interesting character in the person of Prince
Maximilian from Coblentz on the Rhine, made his first appearance in
the upper Missouri. The Prince was at that time nearly seventy years
of age [fifty-five], but well preserved, and able to endure
considerable fatigue. He was a man of medium-height, rather slender,
sans teeth, passionately fond of his pipe, unostentatious, and
speaking very broken English. His favorite dress was a white slouch
hat, a black velvet coat, rather rusty from long service, and probably
the greasiest pair of trousers that ever encased princely legs. The
Prince was a bachelor and a man of science, and it was in this latter
capacity that he had roamed so far from his ancestral home on the
Rhine. He was accompanied by an artist named Boadman [Bodmer] and a
servant whose name was, as near as the author has been able to
ascertain its spelling, Tritripel [Dreidoppel] ... McKenzie
subsequently visited him in his palace at Coblentz, where he lived in
a style befitting a prince, and was received with great cordiality and
entertained with lavish hospitality. He inquired whether the double
barrelled gun and the meershaum had reached their destination, as he
had remembered his promise and forwarded them soon after his return to
Europe. They had not, and never were received, for it subsequently
appeared that the vessel in which they were shipped was lost; so they
are probably now among the ill-gotten hoards of the Atlantic."[1]
The years immediately following the prince's return to Europe were
spent in preparing the results of his journey for the press. This
proved to be his last foreign expedition, but he nevertheless
continued absorbed with studies and consequent collections at his
native place until death removed him in 1867. A few months before that
event he wrote an interesting letter in English to the artist George
Catlin, whose account of Mandan religious ceremonies had been
discredited by many. The prince therein speaks of reviving the "quite
forgotten recollections of my stay among the Indian tribes of the
Missouri, now thirty-three years past," and says that not only does he
know "most of the American works published on the American Indians,"
but he possesses many of them.[2] His library and collections are yet
cherished as the chief treasures of Neuwied, where his grand-nephew
Wilhelm still directs the principality's affairs.
The narrative of Maximilian's North American journey was first
published in German, having been written, as the author says, for
foreigners rather than Americans, its title being _Reise in das Innere
Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834_ (Coblentz, 1839-41), and its
form two handsome quarto volumes, with an atlas of Bodmer's
remarkable engravings. A French edition in three volumes, with the
atlas, appeared at Paris in 1840-43. The Englished version, undertaken
by H. Evans Lloyd, was issued in London in 1843, in one quarto volume.
This latter translation we here reprint for the first time. In
addition we have included in the Appendix to our volume xxiv, the
twenty-three Indian vocabularies, one of the glories of the German
original, which feature has never been reproduced in any other of the
translated editions. Carefully recorded and scientifically collated by
a trained observer and scholar, they form a contribution to American
philology now impossible to duplicate. But five years after
Maximilian's visit to the upper river, smallpox broke out among the
tribes, and carried its ravages to such an extent that bands once
powerful were reduced to scanty remnants. The Mandan were at the time
reported to be absolutely annihilated; a few, however, are still
living on Fort Berthold reservation, in North Dakota. Maximilian's
observations are the more valuable because made in the plenitude of
that tribe's power and prosperity, before their diminished numbers
made them subservient to the invading fur-traders.
In addition to the vocabularies, and unique in the present English
edition, we present Maximilian's account of the Indian sign language,
his catalogues of birds for both the Missouri and Wabash river
valleys, and a summary of his meteorological observations on the upper
Missouri. All of these were omitted from the London edition of 1843.
It has been our purpose to give to American readers the entire
scientific as well as narrative product of the prince's famous
expedition.
While the chief value of the present work lies in its ethnological
significance, it is highly interesting as an historical description of
natural conditions west of the Mississippi, seventy years ago. The
author's style is simple, natural, and unforced, rather the expression
of the scientific than of the literary type of mind. A traveller of
today, gliding across the plains and along the windings of the
Missouri in a palace-car, may follow the pages of Maximilian and the
plates of Bodmer, and thus obtain as clearly as words and pictures can
express, an accurate presentation of the trans-Mississippi region in
1833. These volumes are thus a fitting supplement to the work of the
prince's great progenitors, the American explorers, Lewis and Clark.
In preparing this volume for the press, the Editor has had throughout
the valuable assistance of Louise Phelps Kellogg, Ph.D., who in turn
has been aided by Clarence Cory Crawford, A.M. The translations from
the German, not given by Lloyd, have been made for the present reprint
by Asa Currier Tilton, Ph.D., chief of the department of maps and
manuscripts in the Wisconsin Historical Library.
R. G. T.
MADISON, WIS., November, 1905.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Montana Historical Society _Contributions_, iii, pp. 206, 207.
[2] Smithsonian Institution _Report_, 1885, part ii, p. 378.
PART I OF MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF WIED'S, TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR
OF NORTH AMERICA
Reprint of chapters i-xv of London edition: 1843
TRAVELS
IN
THE INTERIOR OF
NORTH AMERICA.
BY
MAXIMILIAN, PRINCE OF WIED.
WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD,
AND A LARGE MAP.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,
BY H. EVANS LLOYD,
TO ACCOMPANY THE ORIGINAL SERIES OF EIGHTY-ONE
ELABORATELY-COLOURED PLATES.
SIZE, IMPERIAL FOLIO.
LONDON:
ACKERMANN AND CO., 96, STRAND
MDCCCXLIII.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Immense additions have been made of late years to our knowledge of the
extensive continent of North America. A large portion of that country,
which, only a few years ago, was covered with almost uninterrupted
primeval forests, and a scanty, scattered population of rude
barbarians, has been converted, by the influx of emigrants from the
Old World, into a rich and flourishing State, for the most part
civilized, and almost as well known and cultivated as Europe itself.
Large and flourishing towns, with fine public institutions of every
kind, have risen rapidly, and every year adds to their number.
Animated commerce, unfettered, unlimited industry, have caused this
astonishing advance of civilization in the United States. The tide of
emigration is impelled onwards, wave upon wave, and it is only the
sterility of the North-west that can check the advancing torrent.
We already possess numerous accounts of these daily-increasing States,
and there are many good statistical works on the subject. We have even
excellent general works on the physical state of this continent, among
which Volney's "Tableau du Climat et du Sol des Etats Unis," holds a
high rank.[3] Little, however, has yet been done towards a clear and
vivid description of the natural scenery of North America: the works
of American writers themselves on this subject, with the exception of
Cooper's and Washington Irving's animated descriptions, cannot be
taken into account, as, in writing for their countrymen, they take it
for granted that their readers are well acquainted with the country.
For this reason I have endeavoured, in the following work, to supply
this deficiency to the best of my ability, and have aimed rather at
giving a clear and faithful description of the country, than at
collecting statistical information. Hence these travels are designed
for foreign, rather than for American readers, to whom, probably, but
few of the details would be new.
There are two distinct points of view in which that remarkable country
may be considered. Some travellers are interested by the rude,
primitive character of the natural face of North America, and its
aboriginal population, the traces of which are now scarcely
discernible in most parts of the United States; while the majority are
more inclined to contemplate the immigrant population, and the
gigantic strides of civilization introduced by it. The account of my
tour through a part of these countries, contained in the following
pages, is chiefly intended for readers of the first class. I have
avoided the repetition of numerous statements which may be found in
various statistical publications; but, on the contrary, have aimed at
a simple description of nature. As the United States were merely the
basis of my more extensive undertaking, the object of which [vi] was
the investigation of the upper part of the course of the Missouri,
they do not form a prominent feature, and it is impossible to expect,
from a few months' residence, an opinion on the social condition and
character of that motley population.
The indulgent reader, following the author beyond the frontier of the
United States, will have to direct his attention to those extensive
plains--those cheerless, desolate prairies, the western boundary of
which is formed by the snow-covered chain of the Rocky Mountains, or
the Oregon, where many tribes of the aborigines still enjoy a peaceful
abode; while their brethren in the eastern part of the continent are
supplanted, extirpated, degenerated, in the face of the constantly
increasing immigration, or have been forced across the Mississippi,
where they have for the most part perished.
The vast tracts of the interior of North-western America are, in
general, but little known, and the government of the United States may
be justly reproached for not having done more to explore them. Some
few scientific expeditions, among which the two under Major Long
produced the most satisfactory results for natural history, though on
a limited scale, were set on foot by the government; and it is only
under its protection that a thorough investigation of those extensive
wildernesses, especially in the Rocky Mountains, can be undertaken.[4]
Even Major Long's expeditions are but poorly furnished with respect to
natural history, for a faithful and vivid picture of those countries,
and their original inhabitants, can never be placed before the eye
without the aid of a fine portfolio of plates by the hand of a skilful
artist.
In my description of the voyage up the Missouri, I have endeavoured to
avail myself of the assistance of an able draughtsman, the want of
which I so sensibly felt in my former travels in South America. On the
present occasion I was accompanied by Mr. Bodmer, who has represented
the Indian nations with great truth, and correct delineation of their
characteristic features. His drawings will prove an important addition
to our knowledge of this race of men, to whom so little attention has
hitherto been paid.
After mature consideration, I have judged it desirable to throw the
account of my voyage on the Missouri itself into the form of a
journal, as the daily notices were numerous, but the variety very
trifling; so that the patience of the reader will unfortunately be
tried a little in this part of the narrative. In those uninhabited,
desert countries the traveller has nothing but the description of the
naked banks of the river, and the little diversity they afford,
interrupted at times by the adventures of the chase, and occasional
meetings with Indians; the reader will therefore excuse many
observations and unimportant descriptions, which would have been
omitted if the materials had been richer in variety. I need still more
indulgence with respect to many observations on natural history, but
for this the loss of the greater part of my collections will be a
sufficient excuse. The cases containing them were delivered to the
Company, to be put on board the steamer for St. Louis, but not
insured; and, when the steamer caught fire, the people thought rather
of saving the goods than my cases, the contents of which were,
probably, not considered to be of much value, and so they were all
burnt. This may be a warning to future travellers not to neglect to
insure such collections.
Though the main object of my journey, namely, to pass some time in the
chain of the Rocky Mountains, was defeated by unfavorable circumstances,
I should have been able, but for the loss of my collections, to
communicate many new observations, especially in the department of
zoology, which are now more or less deficient. The accounts of the
tribes of the aborigines, and [vii] especially of the Mandans and
Manitaries, are more complete, because I spent a whole winter among
them, and was able to have daily intercourse with them. Authentic and
impartial accounts of the Indians of the Upper Missouri are now
especially valuable, if the information that we have since received is
well founded, namely, that to the many evils introduced by the Whites
among those tribes, a most destructive epidemic--smallpox--has been
added, and a great part of them exterminated: according to the
newspapers, the Mandans, Manitaries, Assiniboins, and Blackfeet have
been swept away except a small remnant. The observation of the
manners of the aborigines is undoubtedly that which must chiefly
interest the foreign traveller in those countries, especially as the
Anglo-Americans look down on them with a certain feeling of hatred.
Hence we have hitherto met with little useful information respecting
the Indians, except in the recent writings of Edward James, Long, Say,
Schoolcraft, McKinney, Cass, Duponceau, Irving,[5] and a few others;
and as good portraits of this race have hitherto been extremely rare,
the faithful delineation contained in the portfolio of plates
accompanying this work will be interesting to the friends of
anthropology and ethnography.
Several men, of great eminence in the learned world, have had the
kindness to contribute to the publication. President Nees Von Esenbeck
has undertaken the determination and description of the plants which
I brought home;[6] Professor Goldfuss, of Bonn, that of some fossil
shells; Professor Goeppert, of Breslau, that of the impression of
fossil plants from Mauch Chunk;[7] Professors Valenciennes at Paris,
and Wiegmann at Boston, the comparison of some zoological specimens
with those in their cities;[8] and Lieut.-Col. W. Thorn, the
construction of the map; for which obliging assistance I beg leave to
offer to these gentlemen my sincere thanks.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Consult James's _Long's Expedition_, in our volume xiv, p. 75,
note 41.--ED.
[4] We reprint the account of Long's expedition in our volumes
xiv-xvii.--ED.
[5] For Edwin (not Edward) James and S. H. Long see preface to our
volume xiv, pp. 10-13, 25, 26; for Thomas Say, _ibid._, p. 40, note 1;
for Washington Irving as an authority on Western history, Gregg's
_Commerce of the Prairies_, our volume xix, p. 161, note 2.
Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) was a well-known traveller,
ethnologist, and historian. Born in New York, he studied at both
Middlebury and Union colleges. His first tour to the West was in
1817-18, when he made a collection of minerals in Missouri and
Arkansas. In 1820 he accompanied Cass's western expedition, and the
following year acted as secretary of the Indian Commissioners at
Chicago. In 1822 he was made Indian agent at Mackinac, where he
resided for seventeen years, having married a descendant of a Chippewa
chief. In 1837 he was promoted to superintendency of the Northern
department, whence he resigned (1841) to devote himself to literary
work. In 1847 Congress authorized the publication of a work upon
Indian tribes, to which Schoolcraft devoted the latter portion of his
life. It appeared as _Historical and Statistical Information
respecting the History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes
of the United States_ (Philadelphia, 1851-57). Schoolcraft belonged to
many learned and historical societies, received a medal from the
French Institute, and was in his day the chief authority on American
Indians. Besides the work already cited, he published much, chief of
which is _Personal Memoirs_ (Philadelphia, 1851); _Summary Narrative
of an Exploratory Expedition to the Source of the Mississippi River in
1820, resumed and completed by the Discovery of its Origin in Itasca
Lake in 1832_ (Philadelphia, 1855).
Thomas Lorraine McKenney (1785-1859) was superintendent of trade with
the Indian tribes, 1816-24. In the latter year he was made head of the
bureau of Indian affairs in the war department, also serving
frequently as treaty commissioner. The work to which reference is here
made, is _Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes_ (Baltimore, 1827).
Lewis Cass (1782-1866) had unusual opportunities for contact with the
tribesmen. After taking a prominent part in the War of 1812-15, he was
for eighteen years governor of Michigan Territory. His contributions
to Indian bibliography were a series of articles published in the
_North American Review_, xxvi-xxx (1828-30).
Peter Stephen Duponceau (1760-1844) was a Frenchman who came to
America during the Revolution. Settling at Philadelphia, he became a
member of the American Philosophical Society, and contributed to its
_Transactions_ several articles on the structure and grammar of Indian
languages.--ED.
[6] Christian Gottfried Nees von Esenbeck (1776-1858), a famous
botanist and physician. He first engaged in the practice of medicine,
but in 1818 went to Erlangen as professor of botany, the next year
being called to Bonn, then being professor at Breslau (1831-52). The
number of his published works is considerable.--ED.
[7] Georg August Goldfuss (1782-1848) was born at Bayreuth, and became
privatdocent at Erlangen, then professor of zoology and mineralogy at
Bonn and director of the zoological museum.
Robert Goeppert (1800-1884) was a botanist and palaeontologist. First
studying medicine at Breslau and Berlin, he was professor of botany in
the university at the former place (1831-39). In 1852 he was chosen
director of the botanical gardens at Breslau, where he remained until
his death.--ED.
[8] Achille Valenciennes (1794-1864) was a French zoologist, a friend
and fellow-worker with Cuvier, and director of the Paris zoological
museum.
Arend Friedrich August Wiegmann (1802-41) was for a time professor of
zoology at Berlin. He founded (1835) _Archivs fur Naturgeschichte_.--ED.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
The author, in his Preface, gives so full an account of the objects
and results of his travels in the interior of North America, that it
would have been unnecessary for me to prefix any observations of my
own, were it not for some circumstances, connected with the
translation, which seem to require explanation.
The prospectus of the German original announced that the work would
consist of two large quarto volumes, accompanied by a portfolio of
above eighty beautifully coloured copper-plates, executed by eminent
artists at Paris, from the original drawings. Some specimens of the
plates having been brought to London, were so much admired by many
competent judges, that Messrs. Ackermann were induced to agree with
the Paris publisher for a limited number of copies of the plates; and
as it might justly be presumed that the English purchasers would be
desirous of having the narrative of the travels, it was resolved to
publish a translation compressed into a single volume. By selecting,
however, a page of a large size, the translator has been able to
retain all the most interesting parts, omitting only minute details of
the measurements of animals, &c. All the chapters illustrative of the
manners, customs, traditions, and superstitions of the Indians are
given without abridgment, and these, as the author justly observes,
are by far the most attractive and valuable portions of the work. The
papers in the Appendix, giving an account of the plants collected, are
also inserted entire, and have been kindly revised by my friend Sir
William Hooker.[9]
The principal omission is that of the very extensive vocabularies of
the languages of the different Indian tribes.[10] They are written so
as to represent the pronunciation in German, and have, in numerous
instances, special directions, as thus: kontschue (_on_ as in French,
_schue_, short and quick, _e_1/2). It appeared to be a hopeless and
unprofitable task to rewrite these vocabularies, and to represent the
true pronunciation in English. Those who are curious in such matters
will find many specimens in Mr. Catlin's interesting work.[11]
The numerous Indian proper names are, of course, written in the
original as pronounced in German. It has been thought best to leave
them unchanged, merely requesting the reader to observe, in general,
that the consonants are pronounced as in English; only that _ch_ is
guttural, as in the Scotch word _loch_; that _sch_ is pronounced _sh_,
and that the vowels have the same sound as in French, _ah_, _a_, _ee_,
_o_, _oo_.
The author alludes, in his Preface, to the recent fearful ravages
which have been caused among the Indian races by the small-pox. The
origin and extent of these ravages will be seen from the following
very affecting letter on the subject:
[pg. ix]"NEW ORLEANS, _June 6, 1838_.--The southern parts of the
United States, particularly Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, are
as healthy as can be wished; there has been no appearance of the
yellow fever, and even at the Havannah only a few isolated cases
have occurred. During the autumn, winter, and spring, the
small-pox has carried off many victims among the whites, and
thousands of the Indians; but it has now wholly disappeared in
the territory of the Union, in consequence of a general
vaccination of persons of all ages. On the other hand, we have,
from the trading posts on the western frontier of the Missouri,
the most frightful accounts of the ravages of the small-pox
among the Indians. The destroying angel has visited the
unfortunate sons of the wilderness with terrors never before
known, and has converted the extensive hunting grounds, as well
as the peaceful settlements of those tribes, into desolate and
boundless cemeteries. The number of the victims within a few
months is estimated at 30,000, and the pestilence is still
spreading. The warlike spirit which but lately animated the
several Indian tribes, and but a few months ago gave reason to
apprehend the breaking-out of a sanguinary war, is broken. The
mighty warriors are now the prey of the greedy wolves of the
prairie, and the few survivors, in mute despair, throw
themselves on the pity of the Whites, who, however, can do but
little to help them. The vast preparations for the protection of
the western frontier are superfluous: another arm has undertaken
the defence of the white inhabitants of the frontier; and the
funeral torch, that lights the red man to his dreary grave, has
become the auspicious star of the advancing settler, and of the
roving trader of the white race.
"The small-pox was communicated to the Indians by a person who
was on board the steam-boat which went, last summer, up to the
mouth of the Yellow Stone, to convey both the government
presents for the Indians, and the goods for the barter trade of
the fur dealers.[12] The disorder communicated itself to several
of the crew of the steam-boat. The officers gave notice of it to
the Indians, and exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent any
intercourse between them and the vessel; but this was a vain
attempt; for the Indians knew that presents and goods for barter
were come for them, and it would have been impossible to drive
them away from the fort without having recourse to arms. Two
days before the arrival of the steam-boat, an express had been
received at the trading fort, 2000 miles west of St. Louis, with
the melancholy news of the breaking-out of the small-pox on
board; this was immediately communicated to the Indians, with
the most urgent entreaties to keep at a distance; but this was
as good as preaching to the winds. The survivors now lament
their disobedience, and are as submissive as the poor dogs which
look in vain in the prairie for the footsteps of their masters.
The miserable remnants of the Indians implore us not to abandon
them in their misfortune, and promise, if we will take pity on
them, never more to disobey our commands.
"The disease first broke out about the 15th of June, 1837, in
the village of the Mandans, a few miles below the American fort,
Leavenworth, from which it spread, in all directions, with
unexampled fury.[13] The character of the disease was as
appalling as the rapidity of the propagation. Among the remotest
tribes of the Assiniboins from fifty to one hundred died daily.
The patient, when first seized, complains of dreadful pains in
the head and back, and in a few hours he is dead: the body
immediately turns black, and swells to thrice its natural size.
In vain were hospitals fitted up in Fort Union,[14] and the
whole stock of medicines exhausted. For many weeks together our
workmen did nothing but collect the dead bodies and bury them in
large pits; but since the ground is frozen we are obliged to
throw them into the river. The ravages of the disorder were the
most frightful among the Mandans, where it first broke out. That
once powerful tribe, which, by accumulated disasters, had
already been reduced to 1500 souls, was exterminated, with the
exception of thirty persons. Their neighbours, the Bigbellied
Indians, and the Ricarees, were out on a hunting excursion at
the time of the breaking-out of the disorder, so that it did not
reach them till a month later; yet half the tribe was already
destroyed on the 1st of October, and the disease continued to
spread. Very few of those who were attacked recovered their
health; but when they saw all their relations buried, and the
pestilence still raging with unabated fury among the remainder
of their countrymen, life became a burden to them, and they put
an end to their wretched existence, either with their knives and
muskets, or by precipitating themselves from the summit of the
rock near their settlement. The prairie all around is a vast
field of death, covered with unburied corpses, and spreading,
for miles, pestilence and infection. The Bigbellied Indians and
the Ricarees, lately amounting to 4000 souls, were reduced to
less than the half. The Assiniboins, 9000 in number, roaming
over a hunting territory to the north of the Missouri, as far as
the trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, are, in the
literal sense of the expression, nearly exterminated. They, as
well as the Crows and Blackfeet, endeavoured to fly in all
directions, but the disease everywhere pursued them. At last
every feeling of mutual compassion and tenderness seems to have
disappeared. Every one avoided the others. Women and children
wandered about in the prairie seeking [pg. x] for a scanty
subsistence. The accounts of the situation of the Blackfeet are
awful. The inmates of above 1000 of their tents are already
swept away. They are the bravest and the most crafty of all the
Indians, dangerous and implacable to their enemies, but faithful
and kind to their friends. But very lately we seriously
apprehended that a terrible war with them was at hand, and that
they would unite the whole of their remaining strength against
the Whites. Every day brought accounts of new armaments, and of
a loudly expressed spirit of vengeance towards the Whites: but
the small-pox cast them down, the brave as well as the feeble;
and those who were once seized by this infection never
recovered. It is affirmed that several bands of warriors, who
were on their march to attack the fort, all perished by the way,
so that not one survived to convey the intelligence to their
tribe. Thus, in the course of a few weeks, their strength and
their courage were broken, and nothing was to be heard but the
frightful wailings of death in the camp. Every thought of war
was dispelled, and the few that are left are as humble as
famished dogs. No language can picture the scene of desolation
which the country presents. In whatever direction we go, we see
nothing but melancholy wrecks of human life. The tents are still
standing on every hill, but no rising smoke announces the
presence of human beings, and no sounds but the croaking of the
raven and the howling of the wolf interrupt the fearful silence.
The above accounts do not complete the terrible intelligence
which we receive. There is scarcely a doubt that the pestilence
will spread to the tribes in and beyond the Rocky Mountains, as
well as to the Indians in the direction of Santa Fe and Mexico.
It seems to be irrevocably written in the book of fate, that the
race of red men shall be wholly extirpated in the land in which
they ruled the undisputed masters, till the rapacity of the
Whites brought to their shores the murderous fire-arms, the
enervating ardent spirits, and the all-destructive pestilence of
the small-pox. According to the most recent accounts, the
number of the Indians who have been swept away by the small-pox,
on the western frontier of the United States, amounts to more
than 60,000."[15]
The general correctness of the melancholy details given in the above
letter has been confirmed to me by several travellers who have visited
these nations since they were desolated by this awful epidemic. The
almost total extinction of these tribes greatly enhances the value and
importance of the full and interesting particulars imparted by his
Highness.
H. EVANS LLOYD.[16]
CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE,
May 1st, 1843.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) was early devoted to the
study of natural history, making scientific journeys to Scotland in
1806 and to Iceland in 1809. Later (1814), Hooker prosecuted a nine
months' botanical tour on the continent of Europe. The following year
he married and settled on his estate where he commenced an herbarium;
from 1820 to 1841 he was regius professor of botany at Glasgow, being
in 1836 knighted for eminent service to science. From 1841 till his
death he was director of Kew Gardens, London. Hooker's interest in
American scientific development was marked, and he dispatched many
pupils on botanical tours to unknown parts of the new continent.--ED.
[10] Reprinted in our volume xxiv.--ED.
[11] George Catlin was born in Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, in 1796, of
a New England family; his mother was a woman of artistic tastes, and
had lived on the Indian border. Early in his career, Catlin heard much
of the traditions of the aborigines, and thus was unconsciously
prepared for his later life work. In 1817 he was sent to study law at
Litchfield; returning to Pennsylvania two years later, he practiced in
the rural districts until 1823, when he abandoned the law, and going
to Philadelphia became an artist. For several years he was employed in
painting miniatures and other portraits, going as far as Washington
and Albany to execute orders. Having met at the former city a
deputation of American Indians, Catlin was imbued with a desire to
paint the portraits of these vanishing tribesmen, and in 1832 went
west with this purpose in view. Eight years were spent in native
lodges and fur-trade camps; then, with a wealth of material widely
known as Catlin's Collection, he opened a museum--first in the United
States (1837-39), then in London (1840-44). In 1845 he took his
collection to Paris, where he remained until expelled by the
Revolution of 1848. He thereupon re-opened his London museum, with
additional material; but in 1852 became involved in debt, and his
collection was shipped to the United States, where it remained
neglected until 1879, when it was presented to the National Museum at
Washington. Meanwhile Catlin visited South and Central America
(1852-57), and resided thereafter in Europe, returning to the United
States in 1871 only to die the following year at Jersey City. The work
here referred to was _Letters and Notes on the Manners and Customs of
the North American Indians_ (New York and London, 1841), more commonly
cited by the title of later editions, _Notes of Eight Years' Travels_.
In an appendix are several vocabularies of the Mandan, Blackfeet,
Arikara, Sioux, and Tuscarora Indians.--ED.
[12] This was the American Fur Company's steamer "St. Peter's," which
carried the annual outfit and supplies to the Missouri River forts.
Larpenteur, in charge at Fort Union, says that the vessel arrived June
24, 1837. See Elliott Coues, _Forty Years a Fur-Trader on the Upper
Missouri_ (New York, 1898), pp. 131-135.--ED.
[13] For the Mandan see Bradbury's _Travels_, in our volume v, pp.
113, 114, note 76. This should be Fort Clark, not Fort Leavenworth--an
evident _lapsus calami_. Fort Clark, named for General William Clark,
was an American fur-trade post built among the Mandan in 1831. See
_post_, chapter xiii, for a detailed description.--ED.
[14] For Fort Union see _post_, chapter xv.--ED.
[15] Authorities differ as to the numbers perishing by the scourge of
1837. H. M. Chittenden, _History of American Fur-Trade of the Far
West_ (New York, 1902), p. 627, thinks fifteen thousand a large
estimate.--ED.
[16] Hannibal Evans Lloyd (1771-1847), a well-known linguist and
translator, especially interested in works of travel and science. His
father had been in the Seven Years' War, of which he wrote a history.
Early in life the son studied German, and published a grammar and
dictionary of that language, as well as an _Englisches Lesebuch_
(Hamburg, 1832) for the use of German students. Lloyd lived for
several years in Hamburg, and was present during the French invasion
in 1813, of which he afterwards wrote an account. Among his other
original works were lives of George IV of England, and Alexander I of
Russia. His translations were from Swedish, German, and Italian,
having Englished Katzebue's _Voyages_, Orlich's _Travels in India_,
and Maximilian's Brazilian travels. Under the signature "H. E. L.,"
Lloyd was a frequent contributor to the _London Literary Gazette_
(1817-39). His translation of Maximilian's _Travels_ is clear, simple,
and straightforward; the German original sustains small loss either of
style or meaning, although the translator saw fit in many cases to
abbreviate the prince's prolix descriptions, and to eliminate not only
the exceedingly valuable linguistic material, but much other
scientific matter.--ED.
TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1832, 1833,
AND 1834
[PART I]
CHAPTER I
VOYAGE TO BOSTON, STAY IN THAT CITY, AND JOURNEY TO NEW YORK, FROM MAY
17TH TO JULY 9TH, 1832
Voyage--Boston--Festival of Independence--The American
inns--Charlestown--Monument on Bunker's Hill--Cambridge--New
England Museum--Pawtucket--Providence--Embark on board the
Boston--Voyage to New York--Fine view of that city.
Voyages to North America are become everyday occurrences, and little
more is to be related of them than that you met and saluted ships, had
fine or stormy weather, and the like; here, therefore, we shall merely
say that our party embarked at Helvoetsluys, on board an American
ship, on the 17th of May, in the evening, and on the 24th saw Land's
End, Cornwall, vanish in the misty distance, and bade farewell to
Europe.
Even when we were in latitude 48 deg. 40', and for several days
afterwards, we had very unfavourable weather and violent storms, which
were succeeded, on the 10th of June, by calms. On such days, shoals of
dolphins crowded round the ship, and some men got on the bowsprit to
throw the harpoon at them. The mate was at length so fortunate as to
drive his harpoon through the body of one of these monsters of the
deep, an event which was hailed with loud cheers. By the aid of
several sailors the heavy prey was drawn upon deck. The animal, after
it was wounded, made desperate efforts to free itself, and the harpoon
had nearly given way, when the fish was secured by a rope thrown under
the pectoral fins.
[pg. 2] On the following day we had some of the flesh dressed as steaks,
which we found to be very good; indeed, we preferred them to all other
meat. I did not know, at that time, that I should soon find dog's
flesh relishing! It is necessary to remove the blubber immediately;
because, if this precaution be neglected, the flesh contracts a taste
of train oil. The liver in particular is excellent.
On the same day we were to the south of the bank of Newfoundland, and,
therefore, steered in nearly a northerly direction. On the 19th we
were in a thick fog. White and other petrels flew round us, with some
gulls, and birds resembling sea swallows, with a forked tail. We
sounded, but found no bottom. On the 20th, however, we were on the
bank, where, at half-past eight in the morning, the temperature of the
air was +5-1/4 deg. Reaumur, and that of the water, +2-3/4 deg. At two
in the afternoon, with thick fog, the temperature of the air was +8 deg.;
that of the water, +4 deg. We then had a calm, and sounded in thirty-five
fathoms. Large whales and flocks of sea-birds showed that we were on
the bank. A hook and line being thrown out, we caught a fine cod, from
whose stomach clams were taken, which served as a bait for other fish.
We were on the middle of the lower point of the great bank, when large
dolphins, quite black, called by the Americans blackfish, swam rapidly
past in long lines, alternating with porpoises, which threw up white
foam as they leaped and tumbled on the waves. A diver was shot while
swimming, and flocks of black petrels hovered round us. A dead calm
succeeding, a boat was put out to give chase to the latter. Fat was
thrown out to entice the birds, and many of the little black petrel,
(_Procellaria Pelagica_), were shot, and also some of the birds,
called by Charles Bonaparte,[17] _Thalassidroma Wilsonii_, which very
nearly resemble each other in colour, as well as in shape. A snow
white gull (probably _Larus eburneus_) flew about the ship. On the
26th of June, we had been just forty days at sea, and at noon were off
the lower part of Sable Island bank, in fifty-five fathoms, but did
not see the island itself. We steered towards Nova Scotia, but the
wind soon forced us in a southerly direction. We had many indications
of the vicinity of land, and from this time we proceeded more
satisfactorily, till the 3rd of July, at noon, when, to the joy of
all, we descried land. Cape Cod Bay lay to the south of us, about
fifteen miles distant. It showed low sandhills, with dark bushes on
them. About two o'clock we could distinguish a lighthouse of moderate
height, with a wind-mill, and several other buildings. As the wind was
unfavourable, we were obliged to tack often, in order to sail into the
great bay of Massachusetts, which we did in the finest and most lovely
weather. The cool of the evening had succeeded the heat of the day;
the dark blue mirror of the sea shone around us, moved only by a
gentle breeze, while a few white or dark brown sails hastened to the
coast, which was already veiled in the evening mist.
Sublime repose prevailed in this extensive and grand scene, our ship
alone was in a state of activity. Various preparations were made for
the approaching landing, while we Europeans looked eagerly at the
distance. I had hoped in vain for a sight of the famous sea serpent;
it [pg. 3] would not shew itself. I had, in the sequel, opportunities to
speak with several American naturalists on the subject, but they all
looked upon the story as a fable.
The moon rose in the utmost splendour, and lighted up the unagitated
surface of the sea, and the fishing-boats which lay at anchor. Before
midnight we saw Boston lighthouse, and soon afterwards several other
such lights on the coast, which are a most welcome sight, and increase
the impatience of the stranger in a remote quarter of the globe.
The following day (4th of July), on which I landed for the second time
in the New World, was the anniversary of the day on which America
proclaimed its independence. Early in the morning, the salutes of
artillery resounded from the coasts, which we now saw clearly before
us. In the centre, in the direction of the city of Boston, was the
white lighthouse, with its black roof, on a small rocky island,[18]
and around it several little picturesque islands, partly of white
sand, with plots of grass; partly rocks, which adorn the beautiful
bay. At a distance we saw some low mountains, the coast covered with
numerous villages, obscured by the smoke of the gunpowder, and numbers
of ships and boats sailing in every direction, all adorned with gay
flags in honour of the day. We passed in succession several islands,
the lighthouse, the telegraph, and drew nearer and nearer to the coast
of the Continent, diversified with gentle eminences covered with corn,
or beautifully green as in England: and here and there, in the bays
and inlets, adorned with lofty trees. These coasts, with the numerous
white buildings of the towns and villages, presented a most charming
scene in the splendour of the morning sun. At length the long-expected
pilot came on board, and in the bay, on our right, we saw the city of
Boston, and many steam-boats before it. The sea had no longer the blue
colour, but the green tinge which it has on all coasts, and was
covered with medusae, and the leaves of the sea grass, which grows on
these shores. The heat was very great, 18 deg. in the shade, by Reaumur's
thermometer, on board the ship, when we cast anchor at India Wharf,
Boston, on the forty-eighth day of our voyage. The temperature in this
oblong basin, which is surrounded with large magazines of naval
stores, was by no means agreeable at the moment of our arrival; we,
therefore, left the ship as soon as possible, and repaired to the
Commercial Coffee House, where we took up our quarters.
Boston, an extensive city, with above 80,000 inhabitants,[19] reminded
me, at first sight, of one of the old English towns; but various
differences soon appeared. The streets are partly long and broad,
partly narrow and irregular, with good flag pavement for foot
passengers; the buildings are of brick or stone; but in a great
portion of the old town the houses are of wood; the roofs are, for the
most part, covered with shingles; the chimneys resemble those in
England, but do not seem to be so lofty; the dark colours of the
buildings give the city, on the whole, a gloomy appearance. [pg. 4]
There are many important buildings and churches, which have been
described by numerous travellers. In the front of the houses there are
frequently little plots of garden, next the street, in the English
fashion, planted with tall, shady trees, and flowers. Strangers will
immediately look for American plants, especially for those species of
trees which are generally cultivated in Europe; but, instead of them,
they will observe only European trees, such as Lombardy poplars,
Babylonian willows, syringa hibiscus, chestnuts, elms, &c., and it was
with much difficulty that I found some stems of the catalpa, which was
just then on the point of flowering, and some other native trees.
Besides the little grass plots, planted with flowers, in the front of
the houses, there are, in Boston, many plantations and avenues of very
tall and shady elms, which, like the same species in England, are
remarkably vigorous and flourishing. Among these avenues, the
principal is that called the _Commons_, where there were fireworks in
the evening of the 4th of July.
Washington-street is looked upon as the finest and longest street in
Boston; its length is nearly equal to that of the whole city. Here, as
in the first cities of Europe, there are numerous fine and elegant
shops, with the most costly articles; and the productions of the West
Indies. Cocoa-nuts, oranges, bananas, &c., are nowhere to be found so
fresh, and in such perfection as in the seaports of North America. On
account of the celebration of this day, most of the shops were closed;
but then the entire population seemed to throng the streets, and the
gay crowd was very interesting to strangers, as it was not difficult
to catch the general features. Though a great part of the Americans
have much of the English stamp, there are, however, some essential
differences. The peculiar character of the English countenance seems
to have disappeared in America, in the strange climate; the men are of
a slenderer make, and of taller stature; a general expression of the
physiognomy seems to be wanting. The women are elegant, and have
handsome features, but frequently a paleness, which does not indicate
a salubrious climate, or a healthy judicious way of living.[20] Straw
hats, trimmed with black or green ribbons, were in general use. Cloth
was much worn, and everything was according to the newest English and
French fashions. Among the busy throng were a great number of negroes,
who, in the Northern and Eastern States, have been made free. Not far
from the public walks was a small narrow street, almost entirely
inhabited by negroes and their hybrids. The stranger in Boston looks
in vain for the original American race of the Indians. Instead of its
former state of nature, this country now shows a mixture of all
nations, which is rapidly proceeding in the unjustifiable expulsion
and extirpation of the aborigines, which began on the arrival of the
Europeans in the New World, and has unremittingly continued.
After we had enjoyed a hasty view of the city, we returned to our inn,
where we had an opportunity of making ourselves acquainted with many
new customs, differing from those of Europe. It must be confessed that
the arrangements in the large and much frequented inns of [pg. 5] the
great towns in the United States, are, in many respects, inferior to
those of Europe. The rooms are very small, and all have beds in them:
parlours, that is, rooms without beds, must be hired separately. The
hours for meals are fixed--three times in the day; and the signal is
usually given, two or three times, by ringing a bell. In general, a
number of persons habitually take their meals in these inns; they
besiege the house before the appointed time arrives, and, when the
signal is given, they rush tumultuously into the eating-room; every
one strives to get before the other, and, for the most part, the crowd
of guests is far too great, in proportion to the number of the black
attendants. Then every one takes possession of the dish that he can
first lay his hands on, and in ten minutes all is consumed; in laconic
silence the company rise from table, put on their hats, and the busy
gentlemen hasten away, whom you see all the day long posted before
the inns, or at the fire-side in the lower rooms, smoking cigars and
reading the colossal newspapers. The hat, which the Americans seldom
lay aside, except in the company of the women, is always taken off at
table, which is certainly no small exertion in this land of perfect
liberty, as Captain Morrell expresses it.[21] Elegance of dress is far
more common in America than in Europe; but then this is all that the
gentleman in America cares about, when he has finished his mercantile
business, read the newspaper, and performed his part in the government
of the State. I have often been surprised at the crowd of idle
gentlemen before and in the American inns, who spend the whole day in
total inactivity; and these elegant loiterers are, in fact, a
characteristic feature of these inns. Here, too, there is a peculiar
arrangement, which many travellers have noticed, and which we do not
meet with in ours--I mean the bar-room, where a man stationed behind
the bar, mixes compounds, and sells all sorts of beverages, in which a
quantity of ice and of freshly gathered peppermint leaves are
employed. Very agreeable cooling liquors are here prepared, which the
heat of the climate calls for. In the evening the European is
surprised at being desired to pull off his shoes before a number of
people in the bar-room, and to exchange them for slippers, which are
piled up in large heaps. The attendance is, in general, indifferent.
There are scarcely any white servants, or, at least, they are almost
useless; all menial offices must be performed by blacks, who, though
free people, are still held in contempt by the Americans, who so
highly estimate the dignity of man, and form a rejected caste, like
the Parias in India.
At the approach of evening, on the 4th of July, the whole population
of Boston was in motion; but the streets were soon entirely deserted,
and all the inhabitants had collected in the promenade, called the
Commons. The sight was highly interesting. An extensive piece of
ground, covered with green sward, stretches in a gentle slope to the
water, and is surrounded by avenues of lofty, shady elms. Numerous
paths cross each other in the centre, and here there is a gigantic
elm, with a wide-spreading crown, measuring from thirty to forty paces
in diameter. We regretted that the great crowd of people rendered it
impossible to approach this fine tree, on [pg. 6] this busy evening. All
Boston, rich and poor, was here assembled, in the most elegant
dresses. Groups were sitting, or lying in the grass; rows of tables
and little stalls were set out, where there was a real oyster feast,
in which the people indulged to an extent that rendered the appearance
of the tables anything but inviting. As it grew dark, there was a very
indifferent display of fireworks, on the eminence, in honour of the
day, the expense of which was defrayed by subscription. Several
companies of city militia had previously paraded the streets; they are
all volunteers, who equip themselves, and that in a very superior
manner; but their uniforms are very gay and motley, as may be
expected, where every one is left to follow his own taste. Each
company, or troop, had a different uniform--one red, another blue,
and, in part, richly embroidered with gold. There were very few men in
a company. It seemed very strange that the musicians, who preceded
them, were, for the most, in plain clothes of all colours, with round
hats. "The Yankee-doodle," the favourite popular song of the
Americans, was heard in different directions; and it is much to the
credit of this motley assemblage, that there was no impropriety of
conduct or unseemly noise. The effect of the light on the mixed crowd
of whites and negroes was very interesting, and we enjoyed the scene
till the coolness and damp of the night air made us retire to our inn.
On the following morning, the shops were opened, and Boston resumed
its usual appearance of commercial activity. Our baggage was put on
board a schooner bound to New York, to which city I wished to go by
land. Our next excursion was to the monument on Bunker's Hill, from
which there is the best view of the surrounding country.
Early in the morning we got into our carriages, and drove rapidly
through the streets, refreshed by the cool morning breeze, where many
wagons were arriving with the productions of the environs. We noticed
vehicles of various descriptions, with four or two wheels, often with
an awning of linen, or leather, open at the sides, and drawn by two or
four horses. The drivers, generally in a white summer dress, with
straw hats, sit on a bear skin, which is here worth eight or ten
dollars. On the causeway, out of the city, the dust was troublesome,
but a number of water-carts (like those used in the streets of London)
were already preparing to water the road.
Boston is joined to the continent by a narrow tongue of land, at the
two sides of which creeks, or bays run into the land. Over these
creeks there are several long wooden bridges, made to draw up in the
middle, one of which leads, in a north-west direction, to the
neighbouring town of Charlestown; another, more to the south, to
Cambridge, where there is a college, or university. All these places
have been described by several travellers. We took the road through
Charlestown, to the Navy Yard, close to which is the eminence on which
the Bunker's Hill monument is erected. The hill is called Breed's
Hill, and immediately beyond it is Bunker's Hill, where the English
troops were posted during the battle fought in 1775. The Americans
were repulsed, and lost their leader, who was a physician. The
monument in memory of this action [pg. 7] has been begun on the
foremost, or Breed's Hill. The granite (Quincy granite) employed in it
is found in the neighbourhood, and is of a grey colour.
It was intended, originally, that this monument should be 210 feet
high; it is now meant to be only 180 feet high. What is already done
is a pyramid between fifty and sixty feet in height, which was covered
with a temporary wooden roof. Withinside, a convenient stone staircase
leads to the top, and from the small windows in the roof, there is an
incomparable view over the city of Boston, Charlestown, the two
inlets, the long bridges, the Bay of Boston, with its diversified
islands, and the ships with their white swelling sails, coming from,
and bound to, all parts of the world. Looking into the country, there
is an alternation of verdant hills, numerous villages, and dark woods;
the whole forming a highly picturesque landscape. Cattle were grazing
near the monument, on the green hill; a well-dressed boy was employed
in milking the cows.[22]
From Bunker's Hill we went to Cambridge, and had, on this road, the
first sight of an American landscape. Meadows, partly covered with
arundinaceous plants, corn-fields, and European fruit trees,
alternated with small thickets and groves. The apples that grow here
are said to be yellow, and not particularly good; they are chiefly
used to make cider. On almost all these fruit trees we saw
caterpillars' nests of extraordinary size, they being often a foot and
more in diameter. The butterfly which produces them must be in vast
numbers, and it is surprising that more care is not taken to destroy
them. The road was bordered with trees, as is generally the case here;
we observed _Celtis occidentalis_, Lombardy poplars, partly lopped,
and not growing to any great height. The thickets consisted of oaks,
with various deeply indented leaves, in general of a beautiful shining
green; different kinds of walnut, ash, and elm, which always attain a
great height here, and, where they stand free, the stems are clothed
with thick boughs down to the ground. The low thickets were of a
bright green, and in adjacent meadows, which were partly marshy, grew
plants, much resembling those of Europe, such as _Ranunculus_,
_Pyrethrum_, several with white flowers of the genus _Syngenesia_;
both a white clover and a red clover, common with us, seemed to be
generally cultivated, as well as potatoes, corn, and maize. This part
of the country has, on the whole, the European character--like
England, for instance--but it is even now more wooded, and pines of
different kinds give a variety: the population, too, is distributed in
a different manner. In one of the nearest thickets, a little songster
(_Sylvia aestiva_), and some other birds, reminded me that I was not in
Europe, but on the borders of the northern part of the New World, and
the beautiful Icterus Baltimore flew to the higher thickets; and I
very well distinguished its black and bright red plumage. These new
objects gave [pg. 8] us great pleasure, and we only regretted that we
could not immediately pursue them. On the summit of the gentle
eminences we came to Cambridge College, which is very agreeably
situated on a verdant lawn, shaded with trees, and surrounded by
avenues of elms, Weymouth pines, maples, ash, planes, and other shady
trees. The buildings stand separately; and in all the gardens of the
neat habitations, we observed, in general, European plants--the rose,
syringa, hibiscus, and but few American plants, of which the trumpet
tree was not then in blossom. My visit might have been very
interesting if I had known that Mr. Nuttal,[23] one of the most active
naturalists and travellers in North America, held an office in this
college.
On our return to Boston, we visited many of the curiosities of the
city, which are enumerated in various works. Among them I mention only
the New England Museum,[24] as in part, at least, an institution for
natural history, but where the expectation of the stranger is
grievously disappointed. These museums, as they are styled, in all the
larger cities of the United States, except, perhaps, the Peale Museum,
at Philadelphia, are an accumulation of all sorts of curiosities, the
selection of which is most extraordinary. Here we find specimens of
natural history; stiff, awkward, wax figures; mathematical and other
instruments, models, bad paintings and engravings, caricatures; nay,
even the little prints out of our journals of the fashions, &c., hung
up without any order. Among the animals there are some interesting
specimens, but without any ticket or further direction. This
collection was placed in several stories of a lofty house, in narrow
passages, rooms, and closets, connected by many flights of steps; and
to attract the public, a man played on the harpsichord during our
visit--a concert which could have no great charms for us.
Boston, however, has much that is worthy of notice, and numerous
excellent institutions, respecting which the many descriptive works
may be consulted, which treat on the subject more in detail than a
passing traveller can do. As my time was limited, I took places in a
stage-coach that was to set out at noon for Providence, from Bunker's
coach-office, at the Marlborough hotel. The establishment of
stage-coaches, and the mode of travelling in this country, have been
accurately described by Duke Bernhard of Saxe Weimar;[25] I therefore
merely say, that we went in a commodious stage, with nine seats
inside, and four good horses, which carried us at a rapid pace from
Boston to New Providence, forty-one miles distant, where we embarked
for New York.
The causeway was a good, solid, broad road, paved in some places, and
very dusty at this dry season; it led over low hills and plains. Near
the city there is a great number of pretty, and some elegant country
houses; and as they became less numerous, they were succeeded by the
houses of the farmers and planters, which are spread over the whole
country. All these farm-houses are slightly built, boarded, and roofed
with shingles; often grey, of the natural colour of the wood; but many
of those belonging to the richer class are neatly painted, and
variously ornamented. The walls, even of large buildings of this kind,
are extremely thin, and one would think they [pg. 9] must be too slight
for the cold winters of this country. It seems quite inconceivable
that, throughout the United States, you find only open fireplaces; and
very rarely good stoves, against which the Americans are prejudiced,
because they are not aware of their great superiority. The business of
the occupant is painted on the house in large letters, as in England
and France.
The road by which we travelled was often bounded by hedges, or by
walls of blocks of granite, or other kinds of stone, on which
plantain, elder, stagshorn, sumach, &c., were growing. In the low
marshy meadows were willows, a kind of reed mace, cotton grass,
rushes, and, in the water, adder's tongue. Near the road, the hills,
which here and there gradually rise to a great elevation, are covered
with shrubs and trees, among which we noticed some firs, mixed with
the other trees.
Juniper trees, from fifteen to twenty feet high, grew in all these
woods, partly as underwood. In the low grounds, near the road, we
observed luxuriant tufts of various kinds of oak, walnut trees--some
with large shining leaves, chestnuts, now in blossom, and many other
kinds of trees cultivated in European gardens. Wild vines, with the
under side of the leaves whitish, twine round many of the bushes; but,
in these northern parts, they do not attain a great height. These
thickets alternate with open tracts of land, where the peasants,
tanned by the powerful American sun, wearing large straw hats, were
busily employed in making hay.
However small and poor the dwellings, we still saw at the windows, and
before the doors, the women, most elegantly and fashionably dressed,
engaged in their household employments. In this land of freedom,
nobody, of course, will allow his neighbour to have an advantage over
him; hence we often see silk gowns, and the newest fashions of all
kinds, in laughable contrast with the poor little habitations. Small
country carts pass the traveller, in which, beside the owner, who
drives, sits a country lady, handsomely attired, who looks like a copy
of some _journal des modes_. The dress of the countrymen is, in
general, not so fine, but is, in some degree, according to the man's
circumstances.
We were much pleased with some thick forests of oak, with beautiful
glossy (often deeply indented) leaves, of a great variety of forms.
Forests, consisting wholly of the Weymouth pine, alternated with the
oak. The trunks were large, but the height of the tree was not great
in proportion. Among them there was always a number of dead trees;
others had a quantity of bearded moss hanging on them; in a word,
though so near to the habitations of man, and in a cultivated country,
they had more of the wild character of unreclaimed nature than our
European forests. In many places there were openings into dark
forests, to a great distance; and, now and then, into lovely valleys,
with a lake or a river, where the white buildings had a very
picturesque appearance, contrasted with the dark woods and the green
meadows. Mr. Bodmer, however, was not satisfied with all these
landscapes: he had expected to find, at once, in America, forms
differing from those of Europe; but these must be looked for under
another zone; for, in [pg. 10] North America, the general character of
the vegetation resembles that of Europe. In some parts, we remarked in
the meadows large stones, something like those in Westphalia, or in
the Westerwald, in Germany.
We changed horses at three places, at one of which we had dinner,
which, as in England, was ready when the passengers arrived. The
regulations here have an advantage over those in most parts of Europe,
inasmuch as fees are nowhere given, so that you cannot be molested by
the importunity of the driver: on the other hand, the coachman dines
at the same table as the passengers. You are, however, pretty secure
against the conversation of unpolished people, because the Americans
are usually mute at table.
Towards evening we reached Pawtucket, a neat town on the river of the
same name, in the state of Massachusetts. The place has manufactures
of various kinds, and is animated by trade and industry. The river
empties itself into Narraganset bay, and is said to have falls of
fifty feet. We soon travelled the few miles from this place to
Providence. The evening being fine, the journey was very pleasant: the
road was full of stages, cabriolets, farmers' wagons, and smart
country ladies, whose veils on their large fashionable hats waved in
the wind; they were generally seated in little chaise carts, the seats
of which were covered with bear skins.
At Providence, which we reached before night, we put up at Franklin
House, a respectable inn. A crowd of idle gentlemen and other curious
persons stared at us, and laughed in our faces, when they found, by
our pronunciation, that we were foreigners. We had to pass some days
here, waiting for the return of a steam-boat from New York; we
therefore employed this interval in exploring the town and
neighbourhood.
Providence is a busy town, the capital of the state of Rhode Island,
and situated on an arm of the sea. It is built partly on sandy hills,
partly on the low ground next the sea, has some good new streets, and
a brisk trade, as appears from the many ships at anchor. There is no
want of handsome shops, and several public buildings deserve notice;
such as twelve churches, several colleges, and other public
institutions, which I forbear to enumerate. In the churches the
singular style of the architecture calls for censure:--they are of
brick, with steeples variously ornamented, but often painted with
glaring colours; for instance, the lower part reddish brown, with the
frames of the windows and of the doors white; the upper part bright
yellow with white. There is a considerable degree of luxury at
Providence. The women appear in the streets in the most expensive
dresses; and the country ladies (farmers' wives), whom I have so often
mentioned, dressed in silk, and wearing large straw bonnets and veils,
bring milk to market in little carts. This love of finery is quite a
characteristic trait in the American people; but it is, at the same
time, an indication of prosperity; for it is true that, in this
country, there are neither poor nor beggars; and if you see people
doing nothing, they are generally new comers from Europe. Negroes and
their coloured descendants are more numerous here than in Boston and
the northern parts.
[pg. 11] The next day was Sunday, in the observance of which the
Americans are very scrupulous. All the people, with their books under
their arms, proceeded to the churches, the bells of which were very
slowly tolled. The streets were quite still on this day, and all the
shops closed; but, then, numerous carriages and cabriolets, filled
with finely-dressed people, were in motion. We strolled about the
surrounding country, which, in general, has a dead and rather sterile
appearance. Here, too, we saw, almost exclusively, European trees and
flowers in the gardens; there were, however, some peculiar to the
country, among which the magnolia was now in blossom.
Intelligence had been received from New York that the cholera had
broken out there, and that numbers of the inhabitants were leaving the
city. On the arrival of the Boston steam-boat, the Captain confirmed
this unwelcome news, which, however, did not deter us from embarking
in this fine vessel for New York. On the 8th of July, in the
afternoon, we went on board the steam-boat, which had above 100
passengers. The Boston was a large, handsome vessel, about the size of
a frigate. It had three decks; in the lower part was the large dining
and sleeping room, where above 100 persons were very well provided
for. On the middle deck there was a cabin for the ladies, with
twenty-four beds. The numerous attendants were negroes and mulattoes
of both sexes, all free people. The vessel had two low-pressure
engines, which are thought to be less dangerous than the high-pressure
engines, though the Americans affirm the contrary. On the upper deck
was a pavilion, with glass windows, in which, when the weather was
unfavourable, the company could sit and enjoy the prospect.
When all the passengers were on board, one of the engines was set to
work, and when we got further from shore, the other also. The low,
sandy coast, partly covered with trees, where towns alternated with
forests, quickly disappeared. The sky was dark and cloudy, and a cool,
fresh breeze blew. We reached the strongly fortified town of Newport,
where many small vessels lay at anchor. The place is distinguished by
three forts, and other fortifications, and a lighthouse. When twilight
set in we were already in sight of the open sea, which, however,
remained visible for a short time only, because we steered to the
right, into the channel between the continent and Long Island.
On the morning of the 9th of July, the sky was gloomy, and the sea
much agitated. On our left we had the coast of Long Island, which, in
general, is not high, but has some more elevated parts, with an
alternation of sand, bushes, and brushwood. Some very picturesque and
diversified inlets run into the land. The channel becomes gradually
narrower, and the beauty of the landscape increases in the same
proportion. One narrow place is called Hellgate: there are here many
rocky islets covered with sumach bushes (_Rhus typhinum_). At length,
turning round a point of the continent, a new and most picturesque
scene presented itself. We were in what is called the East River, an
arm of the sea, open towards New York, which is connected with the
Hudson or North River, one of the most beautiful rivers in North
America. At the conflux [pg. 12] of both, lies the city. The banks of
the East River are like an English park, shaded by beautiful copses
and groups of lofty trees: the ground was clothed with the brightest
and most luxuriant verdure, with tall tulip trees, planes, Babylonian
willows, Lombardy poplars, and many others, alternating with green
meadows, where there are neat, and often elegant country-houses; and
the eye is charmed by many fine prospects and a great diversity of
scenery. Passing the Navy Yard, which is situated on a point of land,
the great city of New York, with its innumerable masts, lies before
you. As you approach and enter the broad and extensive piece of water
formed by the conflux of the East and North Rivers, you see the whole
mass of houses, with countless ships, which line both the banks to a
considerable distance, with a forest of masts, to which few other
cities can present a parallel. The steamer landed us at a spot where,
notwithstanding the heavy rain, there was a great crowd of people
collected. Porters, black workmen, and coachmen in abundance, with
loud cries, and much importunity, offered their services; and we
immediately proceeded to the American Hotel, a considerable inn, in
one of the handsomest squares in the city.
FOOTNOTES:
[17] Charles Lucien Bonaparte, prince of Canino and Musignano
(1803-1857), a noted ornithologist, was the eldest son of Lucien,
brother of the great Napoleon. In 1822 he married Joseph Bonaparte's
daughter, came to the United States, and until 1828 resided with his
father-in-law, near Philadelphia, making a careful study of the birds
of that locality. Returning to Italy, he headed the republican forces
at Rome in the Revolution of 1848, and from 1854 until his death,
three years later, was director of the Jardin des Plantes, at Paris.
In the United States, Bonaparte published a supplement to Wilson's
_Ornithology_, entitled _American Ornithology, or History of the Birds
of the United States_ (4 volumes, Philadelphia, 1825-33), containing
more than a hundred species which he had discovered. He wrote numerous
articles for scientific journals both in this country and Europe.--ED.
[18] See Plate 1, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[19] According to the census of 1830, Boston had 61,392 souls, and
with Charlestown, Roxbury, and Cambridge, about 80,000.--MAXIMILIAN.
[20] Vide Mrs. Trollope's "Domestic Manners of the Americans," page 106,
where the authoress is probably right in many points.--MAXIMILIAN.
_Comment by Ed._ See Wyeth's _Oregon_, in our volume xxi, p. 44, note
24.
[21] Captain Benjamin Morrell was born on Long Island (1795), entered
the service of a privateer during the War of 1812-15, was captured by
the British and held in prison until the declaration of peace. After
his release he was made captain of a whaling vessel, and in 1832
published a book of travels entitled, _A Narrative of Four Voyages to
the South Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic
and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Arctic Oceans, Comprising
Critical Surveys of Coasts and Islands with Sailing Directions_ (New
York). A critical analysis of the book is given in _American Quarterly
Review_, xiii, pp. 314 ff.--ED.
[22] The cattle in this part of the country are, in general, large and
handsome: there are oxen with immense horns, almost as in the
_Campagna di Roma_, in Italy; and they are also large and fat. Their
colour is generally brown, as in Germany, but for the most part, a
very shining yellowish, or reddish brown, often spotted with white.
The horns of many are turned rather forwards, and round balls are just
on their tips, that they may not gore with them.--MAXIMILIAN.
[23] See preface to Nuttall's _Journal_, in our volume xiii.--ED.
[24] E. A. Greenwood having (1825) purchased the Columbian Museum,
founded in Boston in 1795 by Daniel Bowen, erected a building on Court
Street between Brattle and Cornhill, and started the New England
Museum. The latter was purchased by Moses Kimball (1839), who seven
years later constructed the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts
building on Tremont Street, near Court, at a cost of a quarter of a
million dollars. The stock-company theatre operated in connection with
this institution was long regarded as the best in Boston.--ED.
[25] For the work of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, see Wyeth's _Oregon_, in
our volume xxi, p. 71, note 47.--ED.
CHAPTER II
STAY IN NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA, AND BORDENTOWN, FROM 9TH TO 16TH JULY
New York--Bloomingdale--Hoboken--New
Brunswick--Trenton--Bordentown--Philadelphia--Fair Mount, with
the water-works--Stay at Bordentown--Park of the Count de
Survilliers--Excursions in the forests--Return to Philadelphia.
New York is but little inferior to the capital cities of Europe, with
the exception of London and Paris. It has, at present, 220,000
inhabitants, and its commerce is so extensive, animated, and active,
that, in this respect, it is scarcely surpassed by any. There are so
many descriptions of this great city, that to say much on the subject
would be merely repetition. The first impression that it made on me
was very striking, on account of the beauty of its situation. In the
interior the style of building resembles that of many English cities.
It has one remarkably fine street, called the Broadway, which
traverses its whole length; other parts are old, and not so handsome.
In the Broadway, which is the favourite resort of the fashionable
world, is an uninterrupted line of shops, but little inferior to those
of London and Paris. The city is extremely animated, and people of all
nations carry on business here. We were assured that the population
had been diminished, in a few days, by the emigration of 20,000 of the
inhabitants, who had fled to other towns for fear of the cholera.[26]
It is well known that this lamentable disease had been very fatal in
Canada, and had now penetrated into the Northern States of the Union:
it was raging in Albany, on the Hudson, at Detroit, and on the great
lakes, so that it seemed as if it would defeat our project of
beginning our journey to the interior by that route. This had been my
plan, in which the recommendations of our worthy countryman, Mr.
Astor,[27] would have been of great service, as he is the founder and
head of the American Fur Company, which has spread its trading
stations over the whole of the interior of North America. I formed
numerous interesting acquaintances, in a short time, in New York.
Several estimable fellow-countrymen, Messrs. Gebhard and Schuchart,
and Mr. Iselin, did their utmost to afford us their counsel and
assistance. Mr. Schmidt, the Prussian consul, contributed not a little
to make our stay in this city agreeable; and so did Mr. Meier and
other of our German friends. Mr. Schmidt has a country-house at
Bloomingdale, [pg. 14] where we passed some very pleasant days in the
circle of his amiable family. Mrs. Schmidt, an American lady, had
visited Europe and travelled in Germany, and remembered, with
pleasure, the banks of the Rhine.
The house at which Mr. Schmidt resides in the summer, is charmingly
situated on the banks of that picturesque river, the Hudson, seven
miles from the town. The pretty dwelling-house, with a veranda all
round, covered with passion flowers, honeysuckles, the red trumpet
flower, and other beautiful climbing plants, stands on a verdant lawn,
shaded by lofty trees, among which we observed the finest kinds of
this country, the trunks of which were slender, and straight as
pillars. The park extends to the Hudson, where the tall sassafras,
tulip, oak, walnut, and other trees, protected us by their shade;
while the large steam-boats, rapidly passing on the bright surface of
the Hudson, had a very picturesque effect. Mr. Schmidt had the
kindness to afford us an admirable view of what is called the island
of New York. Near Bloomingdale is a large and very well conducted
lunatic asylum, from the lofty roof of which we enjoyed an
inexpressibly beautiful, extensive, and interesting prospect of the
whole country. From this spot we overlooked the East and North Rivers,
the broad bend of the latter, and its high banks towards Albany; to
the north, dark forests, with detached dwellings and country seats;
and, in all directions, luxuriant green thickets, towns, villages, and
handsome country-houses. At our feet, contrasting with that rich and
noble view, full of variety and life, we looked down on the buildings
and court-yards of the hospital, in which we could observe the
patients; while, in another enclosed space, Virginian deer were
sporting and playing. This asylum is a very excellent establishment,
and contains a great number of patients: the physician resides in the
house, and was so good as to show us over it. New York has many such
useful institutions,--hospitals, poorhouses, and houses of correction,
in which latter the young, who may still be reclaimed, are not mixed
with the old, hardened offenders, but are kept apart. There is an
asylum for the deaf and dumb, &c.
Our returning from Bloomingdale, in the evening, was extremely
agreeable, the weather being delightful. In the dark thickets and
woods were swarms of fire-flies; and from the marshes and pools came
the croakings of the frogs, with which we were not yet familiar; but
we did not hear that of the celebrated bull-frog.
The most beautiful spots and environs of New York are indebted for the
attraction of their views, to the variety of the waters surrounding
the city: thus, for instance, at the end of the Broadway, is the
Castle Garden, formerly a circular fort, the walls of which are
converted into a public walk. From the wall itself is a fine prospect
of the noble harbour, the neighbouring city, the banks, the opposite
coast, and the broad river, where ships of every kind and of all
nations are coming and going. Another favourite place of resort is the
garden at Hoboken, the name of which indicates its Dutch origin, for
it is well known that the Dutch founded the first considerable
settlement in this place, numerous traces of which still remain.
[pg. 15] The communication with Hoboken is by means of a steam-boat. The
garden extends along the banks of the Hudson, and the lofty trees and
thickets are pleasing and interesting to the stranger. The tall
hickory and other kinds of walnut trees had now their fruit half
grown. Storax trees (_Liquidambar styraciflua_), with their maple-like
leaves, grow very high and straight, _Gleditschia triacanthos_ and
_inermis_, with wild vines, climbing round them; and many other fine
forest trees afford protection against the heat of the summer. Many
European trees and shrubs, too, have been planted here. Thus we saw a
hedge of whitethorn, the growth of which, however, was stunted by
other wood. Many birds, whose notes were unknown to us, were heard in
these shades. On my first visit to New York, I was interested by some
collections of natural history; for instance, two museums, one of
which, belonging to Mr. Peale, is, however, much inferior to that of
his brother at Philadelphia. Being anxious to see Philadelphia, I
hastened to set out for that city, and left New York, where the
cholera was daily spreading more and more.
On the 16th, at six in the morning, I embarked on board the Swan
steam-boat, which was so crowded with passengers that there was
scarcely room to sit down. On our left we had Staten Land; but we soon
turned to the right, into the river Raritan, on which New Brunswick is
situated.
New Brunswick is a village, consisting of many straggling streets,
where all the passengers landed from the steam-boat, and took their
seats in stage-coaches, drawn by four horses, which were standing
ready to receive them. The heat was great, the company very mixed, and
I had the misfortune to have noisy and disagreeable companions. A long
hill, with steep sides, which appears to consist of a reddish clay,
extends along the water-side to New Brunswick. On the eminence above
the town it was naked and rather sterile; the road was bad, and we
were roughly jolted as we drove rapidly along. Meadows, fields of
clover, rye, oats, and maize succeeded each other in the vicinity of
the habitations, as well as plantations of European fruit trees, full
of large caterpillar's nests, but flourishing in the greatest
luxuriance. The beautiful red trumpet flower partly covered the sides
of the houses, about which Italian poplars and Babylonian willows were
frequently planted; the latter are often very high and spreading. The
cattle are partly without horns. Sheep and swine were numerous.
While we were changing horses at Kingston, negro and other children
offered milk, little cakes, and half-ripe fruit for sale, of which a
great deal was bought. Some German peasants, lately arrived from
Europe, who were welcomed by their relations, previously settled in
the country, completely filled a couple of stages, and were not a
little merry, in their low German language, at which Americans laughed
heartily. From this place the country was rather woody. Here and there
were fine forests, the shade of which was very refreshing in this hot
weather. The growth of timber was very fine. A pretty wild rose
blossomed among the bushes in the meadows. Oak, sassafras, walnut,
chestnut, plane, and tulip trees, displayed their luxuriant foliage of
various and often glossy green. The tulip trees, when young, are
distinguished by [pg. 16] their pyramidal shape and beautiful light
green leaves; they were at this time covered with their seed vessels,
which were full-grown, but not ripe. The branching phytolacea, and the
thorn-apple with its large white flowers, which were now open, as well
as several plants brought from Europe, grew in abundance by the
road-side, also species of sumach, partly entwined with wild vine; and
in the forest was underwood of _Rhododendron maximum_. We passed
rapidly through Prince Town, and arrived at Trenton, on the Delaware,
a straggling town, lying among thickets, on the low banks of the
river. A long, covered wooden bridge led to the opposite bank of this
broad river, which was animated by ships and boats. Such colossal,
covered wooden bridges are very common in the United States; and many
travellers have already described the construction of these useless
masses of timber. From Trenton, we hastened over a sandy tract to
another place on the river, opposite to which is Bordentown, and at a
short distance lay the steam-boat, Trenton, ready to convey us down
the river to Philadelphia. We descended the fine river Delaware, the
low, verdant banks of which are covered with many towns, settlements,
and country houses; here and there, too, with forests of oaks, &c.,
and of a kind of pine (_pinus rigida_).[28] After taking dinner, at
which we were waited on by negroes and mulattoes, we reached
Philadelphia about five or six o'clock.
This city extends a great way along the right bank of the Delaware,
but has by no means so beautiful and striking an effect as New York.
It is large and regularly built; the long, straight streets crossing
each other at right angles. The modern part of the city is handsome,
consisting of lofty brick buildings, ornamented in the English
fashion; but the older parts of Philadelphia consist of low, mean
houses. It is very judicious that, in hot weather, an agreeable shady
walk is formed by awnings spread before the houses, and that the
streets are well watered. The water-works are at Fairmount, where
there is a basin, from which pipes convey the water to every part of
the city.
The streets which run at right angles to the Delaware are called by
the names of different kinds of trees--Mulberry Street, Walnut Street,
Chestnut Street, &c.: the streets which cross them are numbered, First
Street, Second Street, Third Street, &c. Chestnut Street, without
doubt the finest, is full of life and traffic. A part of it has, in
the middle, a shady avenue of lime trees; and, besides, there are, in
many of the streets, rows of trees which do not yet afford much shade.
Splendid shops, in almost uninterrupted succession, line the streets,
and you find here all the manufactures and produce of the other
quarters of the globe. The ancient, injudicious practice of having the
churchyards in the towns is still retained in America. They are filled
with great numbers of whitish monuments, of various forms, often
planted with high trees, and lie quite exposed to view, being
separated from the street only by an iron railing. Philadelphia has a
considerable number of public buildings, especially many churches and
meeting-houses of [pg. 17] different religious denominations, most of
which are extremely plain brick buildings, without any external
ornaments whatever. This country has no history like the Old World,
and therefore we look in vain for the ancient Gothic cathedrals, and
those awe-inspiring monuments of past ages, from which the traveller
in Europe derives so much pleasure and instruction. Besides the
churches, the principal buildings are the State House, where the
independence of the country was proclaimed on the 4th of July, 1776,
the United States Bank, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the Exchange, the
University and the Medical College, the Mint, some hospitals, the
Deaf and Dumb Asylum, and many others, which it would lead us too far
to mention here.
Philadelphia would make a more striking impression if we could find a
spot commanding a view of the whole; but as it lies in the plain
between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, which unite five miles
below the city, no such spot is to be found.
It is well known that this city was founded, in 1682, by William Penn,
a Quaker, who concluded, under an elm tree, which recently fell down
from age, a convention with the Delaware Indians, the proprietors of
the soil, by which they ceded to him a tract of land. Philadelphia,
literally "the city of the brethren" (Quakers), contains people from
all the nations of Europe, especially Germans, French, and English. In
some parts of the city, German is almost exclusively spoken. In the
year 1834, the population consisted of 80,406 whites, and 59,482
people of colour. I arrived in Philadelphia at an unfavourable moment,
for the cholera had already manifested itself also in that city.
Letters of introduction from Europe procured me a kind reception in
some houses; but, on the other hand, I had not an opportunity of
becoming acquainted with several scientific gentlemen, because, being
physicians, they were now particularly engaged. Professor Harlan, M. D.,
well known to the learned world as an author, was of the number.[29]
Mr. Krumbhaar, a German, to whom I had letters, received me with much
kindness, and introduced me to many agreeable acquaintances. He took
me to the water-works at Fair Mount, one of the most interesting spots
near the city, which are indeed worth seeing. The road led past the
House of Correction, where young offenders, who are still capable of
being reclaimed, are confined. On the bank of the river, there are
buildings in which large wheels set in motion the machinery by which
the water is raised to the reservoirs, on an eminence about eighty
feet high, whence the pipes are carried to all parts of the city. The
rocky eminence, from which a fine, clear spring rises, is provided
with stairs and balustrades, and adorned with elegant pavilions, which
command a view of the water-works, and of the beautiful valley of the
Schuylkill. It is a favourite promenade, and daily resorted to by
numbers of persons, as they can have all kinds of refreshments there.
Beautiful plants, the catalpa, plantain, &c., grow among the rocks
with great luxuriance, being watered by the springs. We crossed the
great bridge over the Schuylkill, to return to the city, where I made
but a short stay, because my fellow-travellers were still detained at
New York, waiting for our baggage from Boston. As [pg. 18] all the
roads were crowded with fugitives from New York, it was not a
favourable moment for travelling; I therefore resolved on an excursion
to Bordentown, in order to obtain some little knowledge of the forests
of New Jersey.
I left Philadelphia, on board the Burlington steam-boat, about noon,
and arrived at Bordentown between four and five o'clock. At this place
are the estates of the Count de Survilliers (Joseph Buonaparte), who
had but lately sailed for Europe.[30] The pleasant country house, in
the fine park, is about 300 paces from the village, near to the high
road, and near, also, to the iron railway from Amboy to Camden,
opposite to Philadelphia.[31] Workmen were employed in making this
road, in doing which, advantage was taken of the hollow of the valley,
so that the railway was much below the common road, or the street of
the town. I found some interesting plants in the woods opposite the
Count's park. There were three or four kinds of oak, among which are
the _Quercus ferruginea_, with its large, peculiarly shaped leaves;
the white oak, the leaves of which are the most like the European;
also, varieties of walnut trees, chestnuts, and the sassafras, a fine,
tall tree, which was just then in blossom, the leaves of which often
vary in shape. The undergrowth of this forest, in which pines were
mixed with other trees, consisted of _Rhododendron maximum_
(Pennsylvania mountain laurel) and kalmia, the latter of which, in the
deep shade, was already out of flower; but the former still had its
large bunches of beautiful white or pale red blossoms, and was from
ten to fifteen feet high. The stiff, laurel-like, dried leaves of this
fine plant covered the ground, and crackled as we passed along, which
reminded me of the Brazilian forests, where this occurs in a much
greater degree. On open, uncultivated spots, the great mullein
(_Verbascum thapsus_), with its yellow flowers, and large, woolly
leaves, grew in great abundance, and likewise the phytolacea. Among
the thick blackberry bushes, entwined with vines, by the road-side, I
observed the little striped squirrel, which doubtless climbs to get at
the fruit.
At ten o'clock, the heat was already so intense that I returned to the
inn, where I arrived very much fatigued. This house is very pleasantly
situated on an eminence above the Delaware, at the place where the
steam-boats arrive, and from which there is a fine view of the arm of
the river, and the adjacent lowland, covered with woods and thickets.
A great ornament of this landscape is the white garden-pavilion of
Count Survilliers, which rises above the thick groves on the left bank
of the Delaware, above Bordentown. In the cool of the evening I
usually went to this park. The house itself is a pretty building, on a
lawn near the water-side, where oleander and orange plants are placed.
The park is very shady, and extends along the Croswick Creek, towards
which the bank forms a steep, wildly wooded declivity. In this wood
there was likewise a thick undergrowth of _Rhododendron maximum_, now
in full blossom. On an eminence immediately above the river, stands a
kind of tower, several stories high, upon a terrace, from the gallery
of which is a fine and extensive view over the low, wooded country,
and the arms of the river. From this place winding paths lead through
the gloomy forest of [pg. 19] pine trees, of different varieties, where
many birds, of kinds unknown to me, were flying about. The cat bird
(_Turdus felivox_, Vieill.), whose voice has a slight resemblance to
that of a cat, was very numerous in this place. From the top of the
wooded bank a sort of bridge has been carried out, a great height
above the river, and a square place furnished with seats, from which
you overlook the whole country. An old Canadian pine stands at the
edge of the bank, some branches of which we carried off, by way of
memorial. The view from this place is remarkably beautiful; to the
right and left extends the river, or rather broad brook, which, at
the feet of the spectator, is covered with water plants. The
yellow-blossomed _Nymphaea adversus_, and the beautiful _Pontederia
cordata_ grow here in great abundance. There was plenty of occupation
for the botanist and the ornithologist, and the sportsman would have
reason to be satisfied, for in the neighbouring thickets there were
deer (_Cervus virginianus_), and hares (_Lepus Americanus_), which
frequently crossed our path.[32]
On my return to Bordentown, I found before the door of the inn a
number of gentlemen lying in more than easy positions on the benches;
the chief subject of conversation was the cholera, which filled the
whole country with terror.
It was precisely the hottest part of summer, and it was scarcely
possible to protect one's self against the swarms of European flies,
which are very numerous. On this account there are, in the inns,
negroes and mulattoes, who attend at table, and give the company rest
from those troublesome insects, and, at the same time, cool air, by
fanning them with fans, made of feathers, often those of the peacock.
Fans are, in fact, an article of luxury, and are purchased in the
towns; they are made of the tail feathers of the wild turkey, the
crane, or the swan, of palm leaves, &c. It was so hot in the daytime,
that it was hardly possible to leave the house; and the cholera,
therefore, spread rapidly in New York. In this sultry season, the
evenings were really refreshing, and gave new life both to men and
animals. When it became dusk, luminous insects flew about, and the
crickets chirped in notes like those in Europe, but in more rapid
succession.
On the following day I visited other places and woods in the vicinity
of Bordentown. The town itself is built in the country fashion, with
regular, broad, unpaved streets or roads, and the houses lie detached
from each other, shaded by rows of trees: this is very necessary, for
now, at 10 o'clock in the morning, Fahrenheit's thermometer, in the
cool passage of the inn, was at 73 deg. The avenues of trees in the
town consisted of robinia, paper-mulberry, large-leaved poplars, which
exude an aromatic gum, weeping willows, and Syrian mallow, which
latter grow to the height of ten and even fifteen feet. These plants,
with their beautiful flowers, flourish here in much greater perfection
than in Germany. In the gardens we observed monarda (Oswego tea),
[pg. 20] the Indian cress (_tropaeolum_), purple convolvulus, buckthorn
(_Lycum Europeum_), the climbing trumpet flower, vine, catalpa,
larkspur, &c.
From Bordentown I sometimes passed beyond the iron railroad, and
penetrated into the neighbouring forest. Five or six species of oak,
several kinds of walnut trees, beeches, chestnuts, and dogwood, formed
the thick wood, the undergrowth of which consisted of _Rhododendron
maximum_, kalmia, rhus, and tall juniper.
On the 23rd of July I left Bordentown, and returned to Philadelphia,
as our baggage had not yet arrived from Boston. I made use of this
interval to examine the museum of Mr. Titian Peale, which contains the
best collection of natural history in the United States. There is the
fine large skeleton of the Ohio elephant (_Mastodon, Cuv._), and
likewise most of the animals of North America, pretty well stuffed.
Among them I noticed, especially, the bison, the bighorn or wild sheep
of the rocky mountains, the prairie antelope (_Antilocapra Americana
Ord._), the elk (_Cervus major_, or _Canadensis_) the grisly bear
(_Ursus ferox_), and others. Mr. Peale, the owner, accompanied the
expedition under Major Long to the Rocky Mountains, where he procured
part of these specimens himself.[33] There are likewise many
specimens of foreign animals; for instance, a rhinoceros; and the
collection of Indian dresses, utensils, and arms, is, I think, the
most important that I have yet seen. I was particularly interested by
some oil paintings of Indian villages and scenery by Seymour. This
artist also accompanied Major Long's expedition. Mr. Peale's
collection deserves precedence above all the public museums in the
United States, for its more scientific arrangement, and because fewer
trifling nicknacks have been admitted into it. Mr. Peale has also
travelled in South America, and his health was still suffering from
his visit to that country.
As the study of the aboriginal nations of America had peculiar
attractions for me, I searched the shops of all the booksellers and
printsellers, for good representations of that interesting race; but
how much was I astonished, that I could not find, in all the towns of
this country, one good, that is, characteristic representation of
them, but only some bad or very indifferent copper-plates, which are
in books of travels! It is incredible how much the original American
race is hated and neglected by the foreign usurpers. Only a few
eminent men, who have felt this reproach and defect, are now exerting
themselves to rescue from oblivion the neglected materials, scarce as
they now are, after it has become next to impossible to collect
anything complete respecting the history of many exterminated Indian
tribes. Messrs. Morse, Smith Barton, Edwin James, Say, Duponceau,
Schoolcraft, Cass, McKenney, and some others, are an honourable
exception in this respect. A fine work, with coloured lithographic
plates, was contemplated at Philadelphia, which deserves
encouragement; it was to give the history of the several Indian
tribes, with portraits of their chiefs, for which the Government was
ready to furnish all the materials in its possession. It seems that
this important publication has at length been carried into execution.
FOOTNOTES:
[26] The first recorded death by cholera, in North America, occurred
on June 8, 1832, at Quebec. The epidemic began raging in northwest
India in 1827-28. It reached the shores of the Caspian Sea (1829),
spread throughout Russia (1829-30), reached England (1831), and spread
to the United States by way of Detroit the following year. Rapidly
extending throughout the union, it counted its victims in nearly every
state and territory.--ED.
[27] For a brief sketch of Astor, see Franchere's _Narrative_, in our
volume vi, p. 186, note 8.--ED.
[28] The Americans report of this pine that, if it is cut down, oaks
and other trees immediately grow up in its place; and if these are cut
down, the pines grow up again, and so continually alternating in the
same manner!--MAXIMILIAN.
[29] Richard Harlan (1796-1843) graduated from the medical department
of the University of Pennsylvania (1818), practiced medicine in
Philadelphia, and later occupied the chair of comparative anatomy in
the Philadelphia Museum. He was a member of the Cholera Commission of
1832, and of many learned societies both in this country and abroad.
His chief publications were: _Observations on the Genus Salamandra_
(Philadelphia, 1824), _Fauna Americana_ (1825), _American Herpitology_
(1827), _Medical and Physical Researches_ (1835), and a translation of
Gaunal, _History Of Embalming_, with additions (1840).--ED.
[30] Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844) held many positions of trust under
his brother Napoleon. He negotiated the treaty of peace between this
country and France in 1800, and the treaty of Amiens in 1802. He was
made king of Naples (1806), and king of Spain two years later. In an
interview with his brother after the battle of Waterloo, arrangements
were made for a meeting in New York. In the summer of 1815 Joseph
Bonaparte, under the assumed title of Comte de Survilliers, came to
the United States and purchased a mansion in Philadelphia, a country
seat of about a thousand acres, near Bordentown, New Jersey, six miles
below Trenton, and later a summer home on the edge of the Adirondack
Mountains. His favorite residence was "Point Breeze," near Bordentown,
where in 1820 he built what was accounted the finest mansion in the
state. In 1850, Henry Beckett, the British consul at Philadelphia,
purchased "Point Breeze," and demolished its mansion. Joseph Bonaparte
was in Europe from 1832 to 1837; the next two years in this country;
and in 1841 went to Florence, Italy, where he died. His benevolence
and hospitality won for him much admiration in the United States. See
our volumes xi, p. 159, and xii, p. 79.--ED.
[31] On February 4, 1830, the state legislature of New Jersey granted
a charter for the Camden and Amboy Railroad.--ED.
[32] We were told that the Virginian deer were formerly very numerous
here, but that it had been found necessary to shoot them, because, in
the rutting season, they roamed about and did great damage to the
crops.--MAXIMILIAN.
[33] For Major Long's _Expedition_, see our volumes xiv-xvii. Short
notes on the Peale family, Seymour, and Say may be found in our volume
xiv, pp. 39-41, note 2.--ED.
CHAPTER III
RESIDENCE AT FREIBURG AND BETHLEHEM IN PENNSYLVANIA, FROM JULY 30TH TO
AUGUST 23RD
View of the Country--Population of German
Origin--Freiburg--Residence there--The Rocky
Valley--Excursions--The Colony of the Moravian Brethren at
Bethlehem--Residence there--Excursions.
All the members of our party had now joined, and, though our baggage
was not yet arrived from Boston, I resolved, in order to make myself
acquainted with the interior of Pennsylvania, to take up my abode in
the settlement of the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem. I had previously
paid a visit to the place, and found it very favourably situated for
our object. On the 30th of June [July], before daybreak, in the finest
weather and bright moonlight, we drove through the long streets of
Philadelphia, and passed the churchyards, with their white, ghost-like
monuments and tombstones. The day broke when we got out of the city.
On both sides of the road were country houses, alternating with
fields, enclosures, gardens, and parks; and high trees of various
kinds were everywhere planted by the road-side. We passed through
Germantown, a scattered village, and, by eight o'clock, arrived at
Chestnut Hill, where the passengers usually breakfast. The inn was
rather uncleanly, and the coffee so bad, that a portly Quaker in our
company would not take this beverage, of which he was otherwise very
fond. At table we were molested by innumerable European flies, though
a servant girl took great pains to drive them away, by waving a large
green bough over our heads.
The whole country, as far as Bethlehem, and much farther, is chiefly
inhabited by the descendants of German emigrants, who all speak an
indifferent low German, and say that they rather converse in German
than in English. The appearance of the country in this part is not
particularly pleasing. Fields of potatoes, clover, oats, and maize as
high as a man, alternate with meadows and little thickets, and all the
fields are surrounded with hedges or wooden fences. At Montgomeryville,
the horses are changed a second time, and the road becomes more
diversified. [pg. 22] The habitations of the country people are
generally small, often rather poor, frequently composed of boards,
covered with shingles; sometimes they are merely great block-houses,
like the cowkeeper's cottage in Switzerland. These cottages are
surrounded with little gardens, in which there are various kinds of
European plants, such as the hollyhock, hibiscus, larkspur, balsam,
&c. The _Hibiscus Syriacus_ was everywhere in blossom, in the greatest
beauty. I have never seen this fine plant so high and vigorous, or its
flowers so large and splendid, in Europe, as here. They are of three
varieties of colour--white, purple, and bright pink, the latter by far
the most beautiful. In general, the trees and shrubs in this country
are very vigorous. The vegetative power increases the more you advance
towards the south, and the prodigious fertility of the soil remains
long unimpaired, even after it has been stripped of its primeval
forests.
The country, as we advanced, was gradually more and more wooded. We
drove through fine young woods of slender oaks, walnuts and chestnuts,
ash, sassafras, beech, tupelo (_Nyssa sylvatica_), and other tall
trees, all, with the exception of a single spot, without any underwood
or young trees, which is a proof that there is no intention of
perpetuating these woods for future use. In many parts they are on the
way to total destruction, for they contain neither timber fit for
felling, nor young plants; and if it is thought fit in future to raise
timber in these ruined forests, the country people must be checked in
their love of destruction, and forest laws and regulations introduced.
It is fortunate for Pennsylvania that the rich coal mines have been
discovered. There was a very agreeable succession of woods and
meadows, and we saw great numbers of the beautiful red-headed
woodpecker, which, when it spreads its wings, displays a large surface
as white as snow. It is often seen sitting on the fences where the
ground squirrel and the reddish squirrel, with dark lateral stripes
(_Sciurus Hudsonius_), frequently resort. The first, in particular, is
seen in great numbers about all these fences, running backwards and
forwards on them. The birds which we particularly remarked were the
robin, the blue bird, the fox-coloured thrush, the goldfinch, the
turtle-dove, &c. The _Caprimulgus Virginianus_, which the Americans
call the night hawk, was flying about in a meadow in bright sunshine.
I have seen these birds everywhere, flying about in numbers, in the
daytime, like _Azaras Nacunda_ in Brazil. This species, too, shows,
when on the wing, the white transverse stripes which are observed in
many species in that country. Crows and blackbirds are common, but
there are very few birds of prey, which are far more numerous in
Brazil. The forests in this part of the country become more lofty; the
crowns of the trees spread wider, and afford a thicker shade.
Travelling by a road which runs alternately through corn-fields,
meadows, and agreeable eminences, we arrived at Freiburg, a straggling
village, almost wholly inhabited by descendants of German emigrants.
We stopped here a couple of days, to make excursions in the forests,
and took up our quarters in a tolerably good country miller's house,
close to which a Jew had set up his store.
On the 1st of August, conducted by my obliging neighbour, the German
Jew, and some [pg. 23] others of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
we made an excursion to the Rocky Valley, which was represented to us
as very well worth seeing. We proceeded through meadows and between
fences for about half a league, and often saw the large prairie lark
(_Alauda magna_, Linn.; _Sturnella_, Vieill.), which usually sits on
the ground, on the grass, or on the branch of a shrub, and, when
scared, often lights on the pines. Its song is short, and not
disagreeable. This handsome bird is shy of the sportsman, and flies
away betimes, when it may immediately be recognized by its short,
outspread tail, the side feathers of which are white. Our path lay
past isolated farm-houses, most of the inhabitants of which spoke
German, and we then reached the forest, where we shot many fine birds.
We next passed by several lonely log or block-houses, before the doors
of which the children, many of them very poorly and dirtily dressed,
were at play, and seemed to be the only possession of the inhabitants.
The sky was overcast, and it rained, while the weather was very warm,
which obliged us to visit the cool draw-wells of the peasants. From
this place the forest was more and more filled with blocks of
primitive rocks, mixed with hornblende and quartz, and these blocks
lay about irregularly, some of them very large, and covered with
various kinds of lichens. In this wild wooded spot, our guides could
not tell where they were, till a German peasant showed us the rather
hidden path, which could hardly be distinguished among the many blocks
of stone. The _Actaea Racemosa_, with its long spikes of white flowers,
was growing everywhere, four or five feet high, like the _Digitalis
purpurea_, in the mountain forests on the Rhine.
The wood now became thicker, and fuller of brushwood. We reached the
bed of a stream, now dry, likewise quite filled with blocks of stone,
which we followed, leaping from block to block, till we came in sight
of the place called the Rocky Valley. Here, on a gentle hill, is a
free prospect through the forest up the stream, where prodigious
masses of great blocks of stone were so piled up, one over another,
that a tract, from 150 to 200 paces in breadth, appears quite covered
with them, exactly like similar heaps of stone, especially basalt, in
Germany, some of which are found in the countries on the Rhine, where
they are called _beilsteine_. No shrub or blade of grass can grow
among these boulders, and the rain, which continued to fall, made them
so slippery that it was dangerous to climb over them. No living
creature was to be seen in this wilderness, nor, as I said before, was
there any vegetation. These blocks seem to have been accumulated and
piled up by some impetuous torrent, and it is said that, at the season
of the year which is less hot and dry, the sound of water running
under the stones is heard.
From this place we returned to the habitation of the German peasant
who had showed us the way, where we refreshed ourselves with
brandy-and-water. The inmates of the house were, in part, engaged,
sitting under the shade of the trees, in cutting shingles, which they
sold. They were much astonished at our double-barrelled guns, with
percussion locks and safety caps. There are now scarcely any wild
animals in these forests; hardly any but the grey fox, the [pg. 24]
Pennsylvania marmot (ground hog, or _wood chuck_), the grey and the
red squirrel, have escaped the love of destruction of the invaders.
On our return to Freiburg, I found our countryman, Dr. Saynisch, of
Bethlehem, whom I had previously met with. He is a naturalist, and,
being well acquainted with this part of the country, was able to give
me much interesting information concerning it. He stopped a couple of
days with us, and we set out on a shooting excursion the same
afternoon.
On the 2nd of August, early in the morning, we left Freiburg, in the
most beautiful weather, and our host drove us in his dearborn (such is
the name given to a small covered vehicle), and two spirited horses,
to Bethlehem, the road to which afforded us much pleasure. The country
is very agreeable: meadows, corn-fields, habitations, and copses
succeeded each other on the side of low hills; and the fine valley,
called, by the inhabitants, Upper Sakena, is remarkably fertile. The
road was here and there shaded by large trees, and a small pond was
extremely interesting to us; for, besides many curious birds, we saw
tortoises everywhere on the banks, and on old stumps in the water,
which, however, were very shy, and plunged below the surface as soon
as we approached them. In the sultry heat of noon, we reached the
Moravian settlement, Bethlehem, where we put up at a German inn.[34]
This settlement is built on the top and the side of a hill, at the
foot of which the Monocasa brook joins the Lecha (Lehigh). The Lecha
is celebrated for its picturesque valley, which is at first wild and
wooded, and lower down, fruitful and well cultivated. At present,
Bethlehem is no more than a village, but it is rapidly increasing, and
has already some pretty considerable streets, which, however, are
still unpaved. The church is a large, neat, light building, quite in
the plain style of the German churches of this sect, and gives the
place a pretty appearance, being situated nearly at the top of the
hill. Another large building is the girls' school, which has a shady
garden, planted with timber trees, the lower part of which is on the
Monocasa, where flowers of many kinds attract the little
humming-birds. The lower part of the village, consisting of but a few
houses, one of which is the inn where we lodged, and where there is a
long wooden bridge over the Lecha, is situated in Lehigh county; and
the large upper part, in the county of Northampton, the boundary line
of the two counties passing through the place. Like all the
settlements of the industrious brethren, Bethlehem has a number of
different trades, mechanics and field-labourers. New settlers are
continually arriving, and it will, in time, become a place of
importance. The inhabitants are, for the most part, Germans; but there
are likewise many English, and divine service is performed in the
church in German and English alternately, and most of the inhabitants
speak both languages. The country about Bethlehem is agreeable and
diversified; the climate very healthy. Large woods alternate in the
vicinity with the fields of the inhabitants, and a canal, from the
coal district of Mauch Chunk to the Delaware, gives animation and
support to the country by the numerous boats that navigate it. All
kinds of [pg. 25] European field and garden plants are cultivated here,
and likewise maize; they have even begun to plant vines; but what is
called the Alexander grape, yields a rather acid beverage, which they
usually sweeten with sugar. We were told that much better wine is
produced in the country about Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, near York.
Fruit does not seem to thrive so well in the United States as in
Europe: the peach, however, may, perhaps, be excepted.
I became acquainted with the directors of this colony: Mr. V.
Schweinitz, well known in the literary world as a distinguished
botanist, Mr. Anders the bishop,[35] and the Rev. Mr. Seidel. All
these gentlemen received me in a very friendly manner, and Mr. Seidel,
in particular, showed me much kindness. Dr. Saynisch lived in the same
house with me, and I derived great benefit from his knowledge of the
country. Our whole time at Bethlehem was devoted to excursions in the
neighbouring country. Opposite the place, on the other side of the
Lecha, is a range of mountains, or moderate hills, beautifully wooded,
which afforded a great variety of pleasant walks. The mountains are
covered with picturesque forests of oak, walnut, and other timber
trees, under which there is, generally, a thick covert of tall
_Rhododendron maximum_, which was still adorned with its magnificent
large tufts of flowers. In these dark shades we soon learned to
distinguish the notes of the different birds, among which was the
flame-coloured Baltimore bird, which we recognized, at a distance, by
its splendid plumage, when it was flying to its remarkable pendent
nest, of which we saw several. The Lecha, the bottom of which was
covered with naked blocks and masses of stone, is adorned by
picturesque islands, some of them of considerable extent, to which we
made many interesting excursions. Numerous kinds of aquatic plants
grow in the water; and among these plants we saw numbers of tortoises.
Mr. Bodmer made a very characteristic drawing of this wood and water
scenery.[36] When we had crossed the river, we landed on the island in
a dark, lofty, airy grove, where all the kinds of trees common in
this country grow vigorously, and entirely exclude the sun's rays. The
ground is clothed with many fine plants: the beautiful _Lobelia
cardinalis_, which is common in all this part of the country, was in
blossom on the banks, as well as many other plants.
This beautiful forest was peopled by a great variety of birds; besides
those above-mentioned, we saw, in the crowns of the highest trees, the
bright red Tanagra, the black and red Baltimore bird, the
humming-bird, with reddish-brown eyes; the greenish heron, and the
ash-coloured kingfisher, flew up from the stones on the bank. Whenever
we were overtaken by a shower of rain on these lovely islands, we took
shelter in the hollow trunks of old plane trees, of which there is one
capable of holding ten persons. In these cool shades we did not much
feel the heat of the summer, but it was very oppressive in the town;
at nine o'clock in the evening the temperature of our apartment was 18
deg. Reaumur (72-1/2 deg. Fahrenheit), and there were frequent
thunder-storms. At noon the temperature in the cool passages of our
house was at 23 deg. or 24 deg. Reaumur (86 deg. Fahrenheit).
[pg. 26] We made frequent excursions to these charming islands; and Mr.
Bodmer, who went thither every day to complete his sketch of the
forests, generally came back laden with tortoises (_Emys odorata_ and
_picta_) and other amphibia, or fresh water shells. This _Emys picta_
is one of the most beautiful kinds of this family in Pennsylvania:
there is certainly no country in which tortoises are so numerous, and
of such a variety of species, as North America.
The banks of the Lehigh, chiefly covered with high woods, differ from
the more open banks of the Monocasa, where extensive thickets of reed
and reed mace (_Typha_) are the abode of the beautiful red-shouldered
Oriole. The little shrub-like oak (_Quercus chincapin_) grows in
abundance on the hills that border this stream. We made other
interesting visits to the wooded Lecha mountains, on the north or
north-east bank of that river, below Bethlehem. They are thickly
covered with high timber and much underwood, and from their summits
there is a fine prospect over the whole of the surrounding hilly
country. The chestnut trees have been very much thinned in these
forests, as the wood is highly valued, not for fuel, as it is light
and porous, but for fences, because it is said to remain uninjured in
the ground for sixty years.
The splendid bright red Tanagra was not uncommon in these forests; but
we now met with none that were quite red, because the old males put
on, towards autumn, the plain olive-coloured plumage of the females.
Many of these fine birds had still bright red spots, which showed that
they were undergoing a change in their plumage. Only a couple of
species of the genus Tanagra, which are so numerous in the Brazilian
forests, are found in all North America; but the manner and mode of
living of these animals are everywhere the same. They are quiet birds,
not remarkable for their song, but make up for this deficiency by the
splendour of their plumage. The small hare (_Lepus Americanus_) and
the grey squirrel were almost the only quadrupeds we saw in these
woods; but of the class of amphibia there were many kinds. The larger
wild animals have almost wholly disappeared. All North America was
formerly one interminable forest, only there were what are called
prairies in the western parts beyond the Alleghany mountains; but all
Pennsylvania, a state comprising 44,500 square miles, was a primeval
forest, which was thinned in a short time by the numerous settlers who
flocked to this country. The larger species of game disappeared in the
same ratio; and in the immediate vicinity of Bethlehem there are now
not even any deer. It was mentioned to me as a very rare occurrence,
that a bear had been seen here two years before, and was immediately
pursued, but in vain, by the hunters. Some small animals still live in
these forests, which, however, are not to be found except at night;
among these are the opossum (_Didelphys Virginiana_) and the skunk
(_Mephitis Americana_). The first is not frequently met with in these
parts; the latter, on the contrary, is not uncommon.
In order to catch the skunk, our hunters went by night to the Lecha
mountains, and searched the forest with hounds, and almost always
attained their object. The dogs killed the animal by biting it, and
were sometimes a little perfumed. It has been reported that they
[pg. 27] avoid the smell; but I can testify that we did not meet with
any confirmation whatever of this statement. In fact, the stories told
of the offensive smell of this animal are rather exaggerated, for an
European polecat is often nothing behind the skunk in this
disagreeable quality. The hunters brought home a half-grown skunk
alive, and we kept it in a box in the garden, where it was very tame
and quiet, and never emitted the slightest smell. We opened the box,
and let it run about at liberty. It is only when alarmed that the
skunk is offensive to the olfactory nerves. The hollow trees in these
forests were the abode of the pretty flying squirrel, which, however,
is not to be seen in the daytime. The banks of the river are inhabited
by the musk-rat, which is often seen swimming, and is sometimes taken
in the fishing nets.
One of our usual walks, during our stay at Bethlehem, was up or down
the banks of the Mauch Chunk canal. This canal is divided from the
Lecha by a dam, on which grow many fine plants, about which numbers of
humming-birds were fluttering. In my whole journey through North
America, I nowhere found these pretty birds so numerous as here. They
hummed about the yellow flowers of the broad-leaved tree primrose
(_Oenothera_), of the violet _Asclepias incarnata_ (swallow wort), of
the _Impatiens fulva_, with its deep orange-coloured flowers, &c.,
and we shot many of these little creatures, among ten of which we
found, at the most, one male, with deep red throat. The dam was
bordered with stones at the sides; and among them were numbers of the
striped ground squirrel. Tall thistles are the constant resort of the
goldfinches, which picked the woolly seeds from the flower heads. At
some mills, on an island near the road, there was a grove of tall
trees, the dark shades of which were animated by many interesting
birds, especially the beautiful Baltimore bird and the flycatcher
(_Muscicapa ruticilla_), which is distinguished by the same colours,
and is frequent here. Under the old stems, and from the roots of the
trees on the bank, the great bull-frogs leaped into the water, however
softly and cautiously we approached. Their deep, hollow note was not
heard so much in this season, as in the spring and the beginning of
the summer. I nowhere saw these frogs so numerous as here in
Pennsylvania.
Opposite to these hills, on the other bank of the Lecha, was a wood of
very tall, old trees, the airy, shady crowns of which were inhabited
by birds of more different kinds than any other place in this
neighbourhood. From that wood we always returned loaded with booty.
There, too, we observed interesting butterflies, such as _Papileo
turnus_, the beautiful black and blue philenor, and other species. The
thick hedges near the houses were the resort of numerous cat-birds.
The fishing-hawk hovered over the river, watching for prey, and we
often saw the three-striped viper (_Coluber sirtalis_) glide among the
grass.
To the north and north-west of Bethlehem the woods consist of oaks
without any underwood, the cattle having their pasture there. All
these interesting excursions greatly increased our collections; and
the Rev. Mr. Seidel, who had a good library, and a taste for the study
of Nature, had the kindness to provide us with the necessary literary
assistance. We lived here [pg. 28] very agreeably in the society of
well-informed men and fellow-countrymen, and our residence at the
extremity of the place, close to the woods and fields, afforded us the
most favourable opportunity for our researches and labours; and our
landlord, Mr. Woehler, from Westphalia, did everything in his power to
assist us in our occupations. This, in some degree, indemnified me for
the deplorable loss of time occasioned by the delay in the arrival of
our baggage. I should have reached the Western States long before, if
I had not been obliged to wait for those indispensable articles.
During our stay here, we often saw German emigrants arrive, almost all
of whom were from Wuertemberg, Baden, or Rhenish Bavaria. In the most
lamentable condition, without money, without the slightest knowledge
of the country or the language, they were going to meet their
precarious fate. They were generally refused admittance at the English
inns, and then Woehler, not without considerable expense, took on him
to forward them on their journey.
We received news from Philadelphia that the cholera had rather abated;
it had entirely spared Bethlehem and its vicinity. The canal colliers
gave me an opportunity of sending my collections to New York, which I
did in the beginning of September. The Flora of the country had then
produced its white, yellow, or purple autumnal flowers; the golden
rod, sunflower, Eupatorium, and some kinds of Aster were in blossom,
and the white flowers of the _Clematis Virginiana_.
The weather now remained very uniformly hot during the whole of July
and August, with occasional thunder-storms; and if the summers in the
United States are usually of this temperature, as we were assured,
they are more equally hot, and for a longer time, than that season is
in Germany. In order to make myself acquainted with Nazareth, the
other settlement of the Moravian brethren, I drove there in company
of the Rev. Mr. Seidel. It is ten miles from Bethlehem. On the road to
it lies Altoona, consisting of some scattered habitations, and
afterwards, on approaching the Monocasa, Hecktown. Nazareth is a
pleasant place, with some unpaved streets, and has a gymnasium for the
education of young clergymen. All the masters are Germans, but their
instructions are given in the English language. The building seems to
be old, and not very spacious. From the roof there is a fine,
extensive prospect to the blue hills on the banks of the Delaware, and
to the verdant, wooded banks of the Lecha. The gymnasium has a small
cabinet of natural history. The church is not so large as that at
Bethlehem, but can be easily warmed in the winter. A little beyond the
garden, which has many shady walks, is the churchyard, where the flat,
square tombstones, with short inscriptions, lie in regular rows, near
to each other. The names of the brethren interred here show that most
of them were Germans. There is a very fine prospect from the higher
part of this churchyard. The greensward is here thickly covered with
European thyme. Nazareth has about 350 inhabitants, and sixty youths
in the gymnasium. There are in the place a good inn, shops of various
kinds, &c. Mr. Herrman,[37] the present director of the establishment,
had the kindness to show us everything worthy of notice, and we had
only to regret that we could not enjoy longer the pleasure of his
company, as we were [pg. 29] obliged to return to Bethlehem in the
afternoon. Mr. Gebhard, from New York, who had surprised us by an
unexpected visit, returned direct from Nazareth to his own residence.
The view of these Pennsylvanian landscapes would be much more
agreeable if the numerous wooden fences did not give them a stiff,
unnatural character. Some idea may be formed of the number of these
fences from the fact that, in the short distance of ten miles, persons
going on foot, direct from Bethlehem to Nazareth, have to climb over
twenty-five of these fences.
FOOTNOTES:
[34] Bethlehem is today a post borough and summer resort in
Southampton County, Pennsylvania, fifty-six miles north of
Philadelphia. At times during the Revolutionary War, it was the
general hospital headquarters for the Continental army and about five
hundred soldiers were buried there. In 1740, under the leadership of
Whitefield, a small body of Moravians who had recently migrated to
Georgia settled on the Forks of the Delaware. Within a few weeks,
however, doctrinal differences influenced Whitefield to expel the
Moravians from his estate. Through the labors of Bishop Nitschmann,
the latter purchased from William Allen five hundred acres on the
banks of the Lehigh River. Count Zinzendorf, visiting the hamlet at
Christmas in the same year, named it Bethlehem. It has since remained
the centre of the northern division of the Moravian church in the
United States.--ED.
[35] Lewis David von Schweinitz was born at Bethlehem (1780), and died
there in 1834. Educated in Germany, he returned to the United States
and won a large reputation as a botanist being made a member of
various scientific societies in this country and Europe. He added
fourteen hundred new species to the catalogue of American flora, wrote
numerous books on botany, and at his death bequeathed to the Academy
of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia his herbarium, at that time the
largest in North America.
Before coming to Pennsylvania, John D. Anders (1771-1847) had charge
of the Moravian church at Berlin, where his great ability attracted
much attention among the students of the university. In 1827 he was
appointed to preside over the northern district of the American
Moravian church. This position he held until 1836, when he was elected
to the supreme executive board of the _Unitas Fratrum_.--ED.
[36] See Plate 34, in the accompanying atlas, our volume xxv.--ED.
[37] Born and educated in Prussia, John Gottlieb Herman came to the
United States in 1817, and taught and preached in Pennsylvania until
1844, when he was elected to the supreme executive board of the
Moravian church. During a part of his stay in America, he was
principal of Brown's boarding school for boys. After a brief mission
to the West Indies, he was elected president of the synod of the
entire Moravian church, held in Herrnhut, Saxony. Returning to the
United States in 1849, he died (1854) in the wilds of southwest
Missouri while returning from a mission to the Cherokee Indians.--ED.
CHAPTER IV
JOURNEY TO THE POKONO, AND THROUGH THE BLUE MOUNTAINS TO MAUCH CHUNK,
IN THE COAL DISTRICT, FROM THE 23RD TO THE 30TH OF AUGUST
Easton on the Delaware--Morris Canal--View of the Blue
Mountains--Delaware Gap--Dutotsburg--Chestnut Hill--Sach's
Public house on the Pokono--Height of the Pokono--Long
Pond--Tonkhanna Creek--Tobihanna Creek--Inn of the Widow
Sachs--Saw-mill on the Tobihanna, with the Bear-trap--Stoddart's
Ville on the Lehigh--Shade Creek--Bear Creek--Extensive View of
the Mountains--Wilkesbarre in the Valley of Wyoming, or
Susquehannah Valley--Falls of Solomon Creek--Hanover
Township--Neskopeck Valley--German Settlers--Lausanne--Neskihone
or Neskihoning Valley--Picturesque Scenery on the Lehigh--Mauch
Chunk.
In order to make ourselves acquainted with the interior of
Pennsylvania, and the Alleghany mountains, which are the most
interesting part of that state, we left Bethlehem early in the
morning, on the 23rd of August, in a light, covered carriage, driven
by our landlord, Woehler, who was well known in all this country. Dr.
Saynisch and Mr. Bodmer accompanied me. I left my huntsman behind to
look after our affairs at home. The country was enveloped in fog, as
had been generally the case for some time past, till the sun dispelled
it. We took the road to Easton, where the fields were partly cleared,
and covered with stubble, partly planted with clover, maize, potatoes,
and buckwheat, which was just in flower. The ground was gently
undulating, with an alternation of fields, and woods of walnut and
oak. This country belongs to the secondary limestone formation;
where-ever the ground was broken up, limestone was seen, and in the
woods were several limekilns, the produce of which was lying on the
fields in large heaps, to be spread over them for manure. Isolated
farm-houses are scattered along the road. They are slightly built of
wood, many of them very small; but there are a great number of wealthy
planters in this State. The little gardens of these houses were
generally planted with European flowers, and on the road-side in the
hedges, the kermes-oak and juniper abounded, and their berries
attracted numbers of thrushes. Horses and horned cattle are very
numerous, and the first, which are often of a very good breed, are
left, day and night, at liberty in the meadow, and little trouble is
taken about them. [pg. 31] The peasants are very bold in riding and
driving, never use drags to their wheels, but drive down the hills
full trot. In the hot and dry season, this country is often in want of
water, and even the cisterns made by the farmers then become dry, so
that the cattle must frequently be driven five or six miles to water.
This arid tract is called by the inhabitants, in their German
language, "das Trockene land," the dry land.
We now saw, on our right hand, the heights on the banks of the Lehigh,
covered with verdant forests, which we were again approaching. The
double call of the _Perdix Virginiana et Marylandica_, called, by the
Americans, quail or partridge, sounded in the clover fields; the
ground squirrel ran along the fences; the red-headed woodpecker flew
from tree to tree; and plants of various kinds, _Verbascum thapsus_
(great mullein), _Antirrhinum linaria_ (the common toadflax),
_Phytolacea_, _Rhus typhinum_ (Virginian sumach), _Eupatorium
purpureum_, golden rod, &c., grew by the road-side; the dwelling
houses were surrounded with large orchards, and the apple trees were
loaded with small yellow apples of an indifferent kind, and immense
caterpillars' nests covered many of the branches. A great deal of
cider is made, but the culture of fruit seems to be, in general, in
rather a backward state. The cherry trees, too, were covered at this
time with their small, bad fruit, which, as in Europe, was eagerly
sought after by numbers of birds. After travelling twelve miles, we
arrived at Easton, a small town with a population of 2,000
inhabitants, the capital of Northampton county, situated at the
conflux of the Delaware and the Lehigh. We alighted at the inn with
many country people, and immediately set out to take a walk in the
town, while breakfast was preparing. The streets of Easton cross each
other at right angles; they are not paved, excepting a footway on the
sides, paved with bricks; the largest of them runs with a gentle
declivity to the Delaware. In a square in the highest part stands the
Court-house. The buildings in the place are, in general, only two
stories high; and the most interesting spot is the terrace, near the
bridge over the Delaware. This bridge is 600 English feet long, has
three arches, is quite closed, covered with a strong roof, and has
fifteen glass windows on each side; it is painted yellow, and the
building of it, like all similar undertakings in the United States,
was a private speculation, and brings in thirty per cent., a toll
being paid.
We crossed this bridge, and walked down the river, till we came
opposite to the spot, immediately below the town, where the Lehigh,
issuing from its picturesque valley, between the rocky hills covered
with pines and other trees, falls into the Delaware. Near to the
former, on the same side, is the mouth of the Mauch Chunk canal; and
on the other side of the Delaware begins the Morris canal, leading to
New York.[38] A great number of men were busily employed at this spot.
On the banks of the Delaware grew _Datura Tatula_, with its purple
flowers, tall Virginian junipers, a verbena, and other plants; and the
three-striped viper darted through the low bushes.
[pg. 32] Returning to the inn, we loaded our guns and proceeded on our
journey. As soon as we were out of the town, we went up the Delaware
on the right bank, and crossed a bridge to Bushkill, a picturesque
stream, flowing between lofty shady trees, on banks richly covered
with a variety of plants. From this spot the way becomes extremely
romantic and agreeable. It leads close by the bright mirror of the
river, which may be full 200 paces broad, in the shade of the dark
forest of plane, oak, tulip, walnut, chestnut, and other trees; and on
the left hand rises the steep rocky wall, covered with many
interesting plants, which are protected by the shade of the trees. The
river soon becomes broader, and we came to isolated habitations
situated in shady groves. We stopped at one of them to send a
messenger, on horseback, back to Bethlehem, where the drawing
materials, of which we had so much need, had been forgotten.
The rocks often came so close to the bank of the river, that there was
scarcely room for two carriages to pass each other: lofty forest trees
afforded a welcome shade. In many places the rock stood out. Dr.
Saynisch struck off with his hammer some fine pieces of saussurite
(_Hornstone_), and talc, with mica; but a slate formation soon
succeeded, and we were glad that we had taken good specimens of the
preceding. Continuing our way, in the shade, by the banks of the
river, we frequently came to other steep rocks, till the wilderness
again gave way to human habitations, where we stopped at the White
House to water our horses and take some refreshment. From this place
the country was more diversified. The road still runs by the side of
the river, which was animated by boats, and by numbers of ducks and
geese. The Mudrun creek here issues in a very picturesque manner,
between high trees, from a small side valley. A little farther on, we
left the Delaware to ascend some pretty high hills. We proceeded along
the side valley of Martin's creek, in which there are some spots of
marshy meadow, where the splendid _Lobelia cardinalis_, which is
usually found on the banks of all these rivers, attracted the eye by
its deep red flowers. We then passed a naked lateral defile, where
stubble, and clover fields, and woods, which we saw at a distance,
reminded us of some parts of our own country. The road led over the
heights, alternately gently ascending and descending till we came to
the little village of Richmont, where we watered our horses, which
suffered from the great heat, and ascended a considerable eminence, on
which there is a mean looking church, called Upper Mount Bethel. We
then proceeded through a more elevated plain, where, on the left hand,
in a north-west direction, is a near prospect of the Blue Mountains,
which form the first chain of the Alleghany.
This first chain is said to be only 2,000 feet above the level of the
sea; but it extends here further than the eye can reach, and is
uniformly covered with verdant, primeval forests. It runs in the
direction from north to south, and has no characteristically shaped
peaks, or remarkable forms, so that there is nothing picturesque in
the total effect. With the exception of some parts, especially the
beautiful Catskill mountains, most of the landscapes of North America
are characterized by this want of striking outlines, and this
constitutes the great difference between them and [pg. 33] the views in
Brazil, where the mountains and the outlines of the horizon are
almost always marked by the most striking forms, as is usual in
primitive mountains.
In the chain before us, we remarked an opening in a northerly
direction, where the Delaware breaks through; this is called the
Delaware Water Gap, or the Delaware Gap. It is twenty-three miles from
Bethlehem, and was the place of our destination to-day. We were now
two miles from it. After passing the little town of Williamsburg, we
saw before us, almost in all directions, luxuriant verdant woods, and
eminences rising behind each other. As our horses hastened to the
valley, the height of the mountains seemed to increase. At length the
bright Delaware appeared before us, and we soon reached its banks. The
river here forms the boundary of Warren County in New Jersey. On the
opposite side we perceived a large glasshouse, managed by Germans,
called Columbia Glasshouse, where many who have possessed it have
already become bankrupts.
As we approached this defile, we observed a water-snake swimming in
the river, which suffered itself to be carried down with the stream,
but disappeared as soon as we approached. We procured one on the
following day, as they are not uncommon here.
We had now reached the mountain chain, which rose bold and steep on
both sides, and at every step became more and more contracted. Just
before the defile, or gap, is an inn, behind which, at the distance of
hardly a couple of hundred paces, runs the steep rocky wall of
grauwacke and clay slate, here the predominant kind of rock. This high
wall is crowned on the summit with pines, and covered at the base with
various other trees, while the middle part is naked and rugged. At the
foot of the mountains are luxuriant fields and meadows, in which the
fine cattle were grazing. From this spot the rocky wall approaches
nearer and nearer to the river, the banks of which, rude and desolate,
are covered with many broken trunks of trees confusedly thrown
together, many of which were still lying in the water. This is the
effect of the rising of the river, and the breaking-up of the ice in
spring, which had caused more extensive damages in the spring of 1832
than on any former occasion within the memory of man. Where the banks
of the river are flat and sandy, thickets of young planes often supply
the place of the willows on the banks of our European rivers. The
plane--called by the German inhabitants water maple, or water beech;
by the Anglo-Americans, buttonwood, or sycamore--flourishes
particularly near the water, or in low, moist situations, where it
attains its colossal growth in perfection. These young planes, on the
bank, were almost entirely stripped of their bark by the action of the
water.
The inn, Delaware Gap, is supposed to be 600 feet higher than
Philadelphia, and the steep wall of rock behind it is elevated 600 or
700 feet above it. We might have stopped here for the night, but, as
it was early, we preferred passing the Gap. The road now led
immediately along the bank of the river, and then obliquely upwards on
the steep wooded western rocky wall. The savage grandeur of the
scenery is very striking. The forest has underwood of [pg. 34] various
kinds, where numbers of interesting plants attracted our attention.
Picturesque rocks, over which water trickles, covered with various
coloured mosses, lichens, and beautiful ferns, stand between the
trunks of the trees, and form shady nooks, caverns, seats; while all
the forest trees of this country, mixed with pines, particularly the
hemlock spruce fir, and the Weymouth pine, make a dark wilderness that
inspires a feeling of awe.
The valley of the Gap leaves the river just room enough to force its
way between the steep walls of rock; and, if you turn and look back in
this interesting ravine, you see against a steep-wooded height what is
called the Indian ladder. There are several islands in this part of
the river, which are partially stripped of their wood by the action of
the current, but some of them have pretty lofty trees on them. At the
distance of about a mile from the narrowest part of the Gap, we
reached a lonely house, where a man, six feet high, and very
corpulent, came to meet us; he was of German descent, and his name was
Dietrich. He would willingly have received us for the night in his
small public-house, but there was no accommodation for our horses, and
we therefore proceeded on our journey. In a short time we reached an
eminence, at the turn of the rocky wall, where the solitary dwelling
of a Frenchman, named Dutot, is built on a steep rock, high above the
river. From this place the valley becomes more open, and the mountains
less steep as you recede from the Delaware. A bad road leads over some
eminences to a large open place in the woods, forming a hollow, where
the poor little village, Dutotsburg, consisting of twelve or thirteen
scattered dwellings, is situated. Here we took up our night's lodging
in a tolerable public-house, which is also the post-office for the
stages, and is kept by a farmer named Broadhead.
We had scarcely taken a little rest, when a poor old man entered, who
was the first person that had settled in this part of the country; his
name was Dutot, and the village was called after him. He was formerly
a wealthy planter in St. Domingo, and possessed 150 slaves; but, being
obliged to fly during the revolution, had purchased a considerable
piece of land here on the Delaware, and commenced building Dutotsburg.
He had previously lost part of his property by the capture of ships,
and his speculations here too seem to have failed. The property melted
away, and the last remnant of his possessions was sold. He had built
houses and sold them, so that he might be called the founder of the
whole of Dutotsburg; yet, after all this, he is reduced to a state of
great poverty, and his situation excites the compassion of travellers
who pass that way.
As the country about Delaware Gap was highly interesting to me, we
remained here on the following day, the 24th of August. We were early
in motion, when the rising sun beautifully illumined the mountains.
Our guide, Woehler, had accompanied young Broadhead on a shooting
excursion in the woods; the rest of us went different ways, each with
his gun, till breakfast time. Near the village, a small stream, the
Cherry Creek, meandered through the thickets and meadows, where
numbers of birds came to drink, while the report of the fowling-pieces
of our sportsmen [pg. 35] echoed from the neighbouring wood. After our
return, I accompanied old Dutot to see his house and his family. He
himself had nearly forgotten his native language, and his family knew
nothing of it. We found in this house a delightful view into the
ravine of the Delaware below, and afterwards took the way to the
romantic wild tract which we passed through on the preceding evening.
Several plants were here pointed out to me, to the roots of which the
inhabitants of the country ascribe great medicinal virtues; for
instance, the snake root, perhaps _Aristolochia serpentaria_, which is
said immediately to stanch the most violent bleeding of any wound;
and, above all, the lion's heart (_Prenanthes rubicunda_), which is
commended as a sovereign remedy against the bite of serpents. Old
Dutot related a number of successful cures which he had performed with
this root. This plant has a tall flower stem with many flowers, and
large arrow-shaped leaves; its root is partly tuberous, partly long,
pretty large, and branching, of a reddish yellow colour, and contains
a milky juice. It is boiled with milk, and two table-spoonfuls are
taken as a dose. The swelling, caused by the bite of the reptile, is
said speedily to disappear, after chewing the root. The Delaware
Indians,[39] who formerly inhabited all Pennsylvania, made this remedy
known to an old man, from whom it was inherited by the family of
Dutot. The latter had himself been among the Indians, and gave me some
information respecting them. They, as well as the river, were called
after an English nobleman, but they named themselves _Leni Lenape_,
that is, the aboriginal, or chief race of mankind, and they called the
river _Lenapewi-hittuck_ (river of the Lenape). They are the _Loups_,
or _Abenaquis_ of the French, inhabited Pennsylvania, New Jersey, &c.,
and were formerly a powerful tribe. A great part of them dwelt,
subsequently, on the White River, in Indiana, after they had been much
reduced by the whites; but, in 1818, they were compelled to sell the
whole of this tract of country also, to the Government of the United
States, and lands have been allotted to them beyond the Mississippi,
where some half-degenerate remnants of them still live. They are said
to have previously dwelt between fifty and sixty years in the
territory of the present state of Ohio. They buried their dead in the
islands of the Delaware, which are now partly in possession of old
Dutot, but wholly uncultivated, and of little importance. It is said
that human bones are still constantly met with on turning up the
ground, and that, formerly, Indian corpses were found buried in an
upright position, which, however, seems to be uncertain, and with them
a quantity of arrow-heads and axes of flint; but all these things
were disregarded and thrown away, nor had Dutot anything remaining but
a thin, smoothly polished stone cylinder, with which those Indians
used to pound their maize. I was filled with melancholy by the
reflection that, in the whole of the extensive state of Pennsylvania,
there is not a trace remaining of the aboriginal population. O! land
of liberty!
Our excursion was extended to the public-house situated on the other
side of the Delaware Gap, where we found a live specimen of the red
fox of this country (_Canis fulvus_, Desm.), which we had not before
met with. Loaded with plants, and other interesting objects, we
returned to [pg. 36] Broadhead's house, where all the persons of our
party successively arrived, each with something interesting. Some boys
brought me the beautiful water-snake which we had seen on the
preceding day. Mr. Bodmer had taken a faithful view of the Gap, near
Dietrich's public-house.
We left Broadhead's on the 25th of August, early in the morning. The
place which we wished to reach on this day is called the Pokono, and
is the most elevated point of the first chain of the Alleghanys or
Blue Mountains. Our road led in a south-westerly direction, along
Cherry Creek, through a pleasant valley diversified with meadows,
thickets, and woods, and gradually ascending.
As we rose higher and higher over gentle hills, we met a disagreeable,
raw, cold wind, and reached, on the elevated plain, an isolated
church, with a few habitations round it. On our asking the name of the
place, a person, pretty well dressed, said, "he did not himself know
the name of the place; the clergyman, a German, came, about once in a
month, from Mount Bethel, to preach here."
On reaching the top, we saw before us the highest ridge of the Blue
Mountains, the summit of which, as I have said, is called Pokono,
where an unbroken tract of dark forests covers the whole wilderness.
We gradually advanced towards a more bleak and elevated region, where
pines and firs more and more predominated. On an elevated plain we
were surrounded, as far as the eye could reach, with woods or thickets
of low oaks, from which numbers of slender, half-dried, short-branched
pines (_Pinus rigida_) shot up. These pines originally formed the
forest--the oaks, only the underwood; but the former have, for the
most part, perished in the fires, with which the settlers have, in the
most unwarrantable manner, without any necessity whatever, destroyed
these primeval forests. On a part of the highland, cleared of wood,
through which the road passes, we saw a row of new wooden houses, and
at once perceived that timber is the source of the subsistence of the
inhabitants. Boards, planks, shingles, everywhere lay about, and large
quantities are exported. Shops, where most of the common necessaries
of life were sold, had already been established in this new
settlement.
From this place, called Chestnut Hill, from the abundance of chestnut
trees in the forests, the road declines a little, and you see, on all
sides, numerous saw mills, which prepare for use the chief product of
the country. The outside cuts of the pine and firs were piled up in
large stacks; scarcely any use is made of them, and they may be bought
for a trifle. We had to pass five or six times the windings of
Pokonbochko Creek, the banks of which are agreeably bordered with
thickets of alder, birch, willow-leaved spiraea, and the _Lobelia
cardinalis_. A great number of skins of different animals were hung up
at the house of a tanner, such as grey and red foxes, racoons, lynxes,
&c., which led us to ask what beasts of the chase were to be met with,
and we learned that deer and other large animals are still numerous.
Rattlesnakes abound in these parts; they showed us many of their skins
stuffed, and one very large one was hung up on the [pg. 37] gable end
of a house. Some persons eat these dangerous serpents from a notion
that, when dressed in a certain manner, they are an effectual remedy
against many diseases.
We had here a foretaste of the wild scenery of North America, which we
might expect to find in perfection, in uninterrupted primeval forests
on the Pokono; we, therefore, did not stop here, but hastened to the
less inhabited, more elevated, and wilder region, where the mixture of
firs in the forest already began to preponderate. We halted, and took
our dinner at an isolated public-house, kept by a man of German
origin, whose name is Meerwein. Forests surrounded the verdant meadows
about the house, in which woodcocks were numerous. In a little
excursion in the forest I saw splendid bushes of _Rhododendron
maximum_, kalmia, Andromeda, _Rhodora canadensis_, _Ceanothus
vaccinum_; and in the shade of the first, _Orchis ciliata_, with its
beautiful orange-coloured flowers, which is found also nearer to
Bethlehem.
The entertainment in this solitary house was pretty good and
reasonable; all the inmates, except one man, were Germans. If we had
stopped for the night, they would have gone out for us with their
guns, as deer and pheasants abound in the forests. Having taken the
opportunity of forwarding our collections to Bethlehem by the stage
which passed the house, we proceeded on our journey. From this place
the road continues to ascend, traversing a fine thick wood, frequently
crossing the stream. An undergrowth of scrub oak and chestnut is
spread uniformly, and without interruption, over the whole country,
the pines, as already mentioned, rising above it, most of which have
suffered by fire; for in the dry season these woods have often been
destroyed by extensive conflagrations, which have generally been
caused by the negligence of the wood-cutters and hunters. Even now,
clouds of smoke rose at a distance, and announced a fire in this
great lonely wilderness. The high road is here carried directly
through the forest; it is, for the most part, laid with wood, covered
with earth, which requires carriages with good springs.
When you have nearly reached the most elevated part of this
wilderness, and look back, you have a grand prospect. Lofty ridges
rise one above another in a narrow valley, all covered with dark
forests, and, on the right and left, high walls of rock close the
valley. We soon reached the highest summit of the Pokono, or second
chain of the Blue Mountains, which, as I have said, forms the most
easterly of the Alleghanys.
Mr. Moser, a young botanist, had accompanied us from Bethlehem, and I
undertook with him an excursion to a neighbouring lake on the top of
the Pokono, while Dr. Saynisch prepared the birds that had been
killed, and our other hunters went out to look for stags and woodhens.
We proceeded about half an hour along the high road, when we perceived
the summit of the Pokono, and then turned to the right towards an old
decayed cottage, where oxen were grazing among the thick bushes, and
followed a scarcely perceptible path through the wilderness. We
crossed a valley, with thickets and scorched pines rising above them,
where the ground was covered with various kinds of plants. An old path
led us half a league over an eminence; after which we [pg. 38] found a
valley, where the lake, called Long Pond, is situated, surrounded by
low reeds and rushes, among pine woods and various interesting shrubs.
On the narrow lake we found a small boat, in which Mr. Moser pushed
about to botanize. He procured in this manner the pretty blue
flowering _Pontederia lanceolata_, a red flowering _utricularia_,
_nymphaea_, &c. Though this wilderness was perfectly lonely, we did not
see any water-fowl, and, in fact, very little animal life, so that the
botanist finds much more employment than the zoologist. The lake is
about a mile long, has but little open or clear water, and receives
its supply from the Tonkhanna Brook. When Mr. Moser reached the bank
again, he called to me that he was very near a rattlesnake, the rattle
of which he had distinctly heard; but, though we looked diligently, we
could not find the animal which we had long wished to possess, because
the ground was so thickly overgrown with plants. One of the sons of
Mr. Sachs, our landlord, had been lately bitten by a rattlesnake while
fishing, and they affirmed that he was soon cured by tea made of the
bark of the white ash, which is said to be an infallible antidote to
the bite of serpents.
At noon, while we were all taking some repose, we were suddenly
alarmed. A mink, or minx (_Mustela vison_), a small beast of prey,
resembling the European lesser otter, had had the boldness to attack,
in broad daylight, the poultry that were about the house, and was
shot. Our hunters had had no success, a single pheasant being all they
had procured.
In the afternoon Mr. Bodmer joined us, having been driven hither by
Broadhead. We immediately went out to look in the neighbourhood of the
Sand springs[40] for a bear-trap, with an iron plate fastened to a
chain, which was carefully covered up and concealed. Mr. Moser, who
thought he could find the place, led us astray, but we amused
ourselves with the interesting vegetation.
We made but little addition to our ornithological collections,
scarcely anything having been killed but the whip-poor-will
(_Caprimulgus Virginianus_), which is very numerous in all these
forests. Day had scarcely dawned on the 17th of August, when our whole
company was in motion to go seven miles to the house of another Sachs
(a near relation of our host), whose widow lived there. For about a
mile the wood retains the same character, the firs then attain a
greater height, and are closer together. The wood had been cleared
around some houses, and _Phytolacea_, _Verbascum_, and _Rhus
typhinum_, which occupy all the uncultivated spots in Pennsylvania,
immediately sprang up. The small habitations were built entirely of
wood, and generally painted a reddish brown. In some places we
observed traces of fire: the low scrub oaks were scorched and black,
and were putting forth shoots from the stumps and roots. At times we
had an extensive view of the mountains, uniformly clothed with dark
pine forests, everywhere high tops and ridges, and all around black
woods. The Canadian and the Virginian pine were high and close
together, especially in the valleys. The soil in this part is not very
fertile, and requires to be well manured. All is forest and
wilderness, and bears, deer, and other wild animals abound. [pg. 39] The
Tonkhanna meanders picturesquely between thickets, and the _Lobelia
cardinalis_ was in blossom on its banks. Bull-frogs appeared here, as
on the banks of the Lehigh at Bethlehem, and the same species of
butterflies as are found there. Not far from this place we came to a
second very romantic brook, the Tobihanna, over which a short, covered
bridge is thrown, and about 300 paces further, reached the lonely
habitation of the Widow Sachs, in a desert spot without wood, where we
were to pass the night.
Mrs. Sachs gave us tolerable quarters, and I immediately sent for the
most expert hunters of the neighbourhood, in order, if possible, to
procure a bear or a stag. Three or four men came who were ready to go
for a remuneration. One of them had but a few days before, met with
two bears and their young, among the bilberry bushes, and shot two of
them. I obtained from him a fine large skin of one of them, and
several interesting stags' horns.
The part of the country in which we now were was so lonely, wild, and
grand, that we immediately took our fowling-pieces to ramble about.
The Tobihanna,[41] over which is the above-mentioned bridge, thirty or
forty paces in length,[42] is a pretty considerable stream, and the
surrounding scenery is extremely picturesque. It is enclosed in rather
high banks, overhung with fine, dark, primeval forests of Canadian
pine trees, here called spruce fir, mixed with isolated trees of
various kinds, and with a very close underwood of colossal
_Rhododendron maximum_, thicker than a man's arm,[43] whose dense
masses of foliage, with their dark green, laurel-like leaves hang down
over the water, and are often mixed with the beautiful _Kalmia
latifolia_. Even now, the appearance of this dark thicket on the bank
was magnificent; how much more beautiful must it be when in blossom!
The black forest of gigantic firs, crowded together, rises in awful
gloom, here and there relieved by the light green foliage of other
trees. These majestic pine forests have hitherto been visited by only
a few settlers, and have escaped the great conflagrations which have
deprived the skirts of these wooded mountains of part of their lofty
stems. We were charmed with this North American wilderness, where
Nature is, indeed, less vigorous, and poorer than in the hot climates,
but still has a striking, though very different character of solemn
and sublime grandeur. Mr. Bodmer immediately chose a place to sketch
the above-mentioned beautiful brook, while the rest of our party
strolled through the forest. Old decayed trees, often singularly
hollowed, and roots of firs covered with moss, spreading over the
surface in all directions, hindered us from penetrating far into this
wilderness. A dark, damp shade received us here in the heat of the
day, and the three-striped viper, of which there are [pg. 40] numbers
under the old, decayed trunks, frequently fled as we advanced.
Rattlesnakes are said to be less common than in the parts which we had
before visited. Birds were not numerous in the deep recesses of these
forests; only the hammering of the woodpeckers resounded in the awful
wilderness. In places where there was much underwood, very thick stems
of _rhododendron_, often from ten to twenty feet high, formed an
intricate, impenetrable thicket. It was now perfectly dark, and we
found the most beautiful natural arbours. The _Kalmia latifolia_, too,
grew to the height of eight or ten feet. This country was so wild and
attractive that I resolved to stop another day. To the north-east of
the solitary dwelling of the Widow Sachs, was a fine beech forest,
among the underwood of which pheasants were pretty numerous. We
procured some of them, but I could not yet succeed in obtaining a stag
or a bear.
On the 28th of August we undertook an excursion to see the bear-trap,
in which one of those animals had been caught two or three days
before. The man who owned this trap lived on the road between
Tonkhanna and the Tobihanna, both of which flow into the Lehigh. He
had appointed his house for our rendezvous, where we saw the skin of
the bear, lately taken, nailed up against the gable end to dry. The
saw-mill of our bear-catcher lay in a rude valley, to the south-west
of the road. We came to this saw-mill, in a solitary valley, on the
Tonkhanna, which rushes, roaring and foaming over rocks covered with
black moss, between old broken pines, in a true primeval wilderness.
In this retreat for bears, prickly smilax, brambles, and other thorny
plants, tear the strongest hunting dress, and leather alone resists
these enemies. At every step we had to clamber over fallen trunks of
trees, to the injury of our shins, which were almost always bleeding.
We found our guide, who, though it poured of rain, took his rifle, and
went before, to lead us to the bear-trap.
The trap was in a place rather bare of thick stems, between young
pines, and made of large logs, in such a manner that a young bear
might be taken alive in it. It consisted of two round stems lying flat
on the ground, between which two others, which are supported by a
prop, are made to fit, and fall down when the prop is touched.[44] _a_
is the base on which the two logs, _b_, rest; _c_, the two suspended
logs, which fall as soon as the bear touches the bait, fixed in _e_,
at the lower end of the rack _f_. The pole A, A, which is set in the
rack _f_, rests in front on the prop _g_, and supports in _h_, by
means of a withe, the logs _c_, _c_, _c_, _c_. When the bear touches
the bait, the rack _f_ moves, the pole A, A, becomes free, and lets
the logs _c_, _c_, _c_, _c_, fall, which catch or kill the animal. The
whole is covered with green fir boughs when the trap is set, and all
the parts must have their bark on. The bear caught here, some days
before, was about a year old, so that there was room for him between
the logs; and as he was not large, and had entered the trap in front
and not from the side, his life was prolonged a little. He was shot in
the trap, and his head used as a bait; we took the head away with us,
and the owner of the trap substituted a piece of the animal's lungs in
its stead.
[Illustration: Bear-trap]
After a hasty sketch had been made of the bear-trap, we set out on our
return; I very much regretted leaving the magnificent wilderness. On
the way we found a fine viburnum, with large reddish leaves, and the
_Oxalis acetosella_, which grew in abundance among the moss and
decaying trunks of trees. The loud hammering of the woodpeckers
resounded in this forest, and we shot the great spotted woodpecker of
this country, which very much resembles our _Picus major_; for dinner
we had bear's flesh, which we thought resembled mutton.
When I returned to the house of Sachs, I found the hunters, whom I had
hired, in no little confusion. One of them, in particular, after
receiving his wages for the first day, had remained in the
public-house the whole night and the following morning. Stretched at
length on a table, he had slept off the effects of his drunken fit,
talked big, and found here a willing audience, a number of drinkers of
whisky being collected in this place. Brandy drinking is far more
common among the lower classes in America than with us; and here, on
the Pokono, this bad habit was peculiarly prevalent among the country
people. Not far from Tobihanna Creek there was a small wooden house,
ten or twelve feet square, with a little iron stove (see the view of
the Tobihanna Bridge), in which a school was kept. The stalls for
cattle, swine, and sheep, are, for the most part, cages, the bars of
which being pretty wide apart, the cold winter wind blows freely
through them; nay, many of them had half fallen to pieces. The swine,
which ran about in great numbers, had a triangular yoke round their
necks to hinder them from getting through the fences. In all this part
of the country, garden vegetables are raised in beds, or rather boxes,
filled with mould, elevated on four posts. The seeds are sown in these
boxes, and the young plants not transplanted till they have acquired a
certain growth, otherwise they would be destroyed by the insects.
Maple sugar is not made here, because the tree does not grow in
sufficient abundance. The [pg. 42] chief occupation of the settlers, in
this part, is the making of shingles, which are manufactured from the
Weymouth pine. We were assured, that these peasants steal the greater
part of the wood for their shingles, in the forests belonging to
greater landowners, who live at a distance, and have no keepers to
protect their property. One workman can make in a day 300 or 400
shingles, which are sold on the spot for half-a-dollar per 100. They
are sent to all the neighbouring country, in large wagons drawn by
four horses. At Bethlehem, forty-two miles from Pokono, the best
shingles were sold, at that time, for eleven dollars per 1,000. These
shingles are of two kinds; the German, made by Germans, who first
manufactured them in this way, which are considered to be the best,
and the English; the former are equally thick at both edges, the
latter thicker at one side than the other. Many persons, whose horses
are not otherwise employed, come here and fetch shingles.
On the 29th of August we continued our journey through forests that
extended, without interruption, on all sides. After crossing a bridge
over the little brook called Two-miles-run, we came to an open spot in
the forest, where the great village of Stoddartsville is built on the
Lehigh, which at this place is still an inconsiderable stream. The
environs of the place are still wild. Stumps of trees, cut or sawed
off two or three feet from the ground, were everywhere seen, and this
newly-cleared spot was still covered with wild plants. As you come
down the hill, you look directly into the street of the place, to
which some neat and pretty houses give a very striking effect in this
wilderness. We continued our journey over wooded eminences, where
bears and stags are said to be still numerous. Having passed Bear
Creek and Ten-miles-run Creek, we soon reached the Pokono, or highest
summit of the Blue Mountains, and began gradually to descend. In the
forests through which we now passed, the firs began to give way to
other timber trees, and the woods are again more burnt and ruined,
frequently consisting only of shoots from the stumps of oaks,
chestnuts, maples, and sassafras trees, with single pines everywhere
rising above them, as the palms in Brazil do, above the lower
_Dicotyledones_.
On one of the next eminences, we came to another lofty point, whence
we had the most extensive view, backwards and forwards, that we had
yet enjoyed in these mountains. Towards the north-west lies the
beautiful valley of Wyoming, through which the Susquehannah flows; and
backwards, in the opposite direction, a rude prospect of wood and
mountain, where peak rises above peak, and the eye ranges over an
uninterrupted extent of immense forests. It is said to have been
ascertained, by actual measurement, that this spot is 1,050 feet above
the level of the Atlantic. Unfortunately, our time would not allow us
to take a drawing of this grand prospect. From this place we began to
descend into the valley of the Susquehannah, where the woods assume a
more cheerful character, the firs being soon entirely succeeded by the
oak, chestnut, and other timber trees. The road resembles an avenue,
overshadowed by lofty oaks, tulip, chestnut, walnut, beech, hornbeam,
birch, maple, elm, nyssa, and other trees, growing very close [pg. 43]
together. Here we already see the formation of the conglomerate--the
precursor of the coal district, which we now enter. When we had
descended rather more than half way down the declivity of the
mountain, we were taken about 200 paces to the right of the road, to
be surprised by the beautiful prospect of the valley of Wyoming, or
the Susquehannah. A group of rocks of conglomerate rises, isolated in
the forest, and, on ascending it, you have a magnificent view. The
broad and extensive valley, covered with towns and detached houses,
alternates agreeably with forests and fields; the river flows through
its whole length, and at our feet lay the pretty town of Wilkesbarre,
the streets of which we could overlook. It is manifest, at a glance,
that the whole of the valley was formerly covered with a thick
primeval forest, for strips of wood everywhere traverse the fields.
Proceeding on our journey we came to a solitary public-house, where we
met with a rattlesnake. I bought it, and it was put into brandy, as a
live creature of this kind is not the most agreeable travelling
companion. This snake had been kept three weeks in a box, and had not
taken any nourishment whatever, so that it moved its rattle but
faintly when it was irritated. As it was a very large and handsome
specimen, I paid two dollars and a half for it. The landlady, a very
corpulent personage, was in a very light morning dress when she
concluded the bargain with me, and not being able to give me change,
she immediately threw on her Sunday clothes, to follow our carriage on
foot, and settle the account at Wilkesbarre. Her head was adorned with
a large fashionable straw hat; she had a silk gown, and a silk
parasol, which she might very well have spared, protected her tanned
face from the sun. It was remarkable that, heavy as she was, she
reached the town as soon as we did, though we had half a league to go.
Wilkesbarre, in Lucerne county, is a place with about 1,200
inhabitants, with three churches, a court-house, a bank, &c.[45] The
streets are pretty regular, and the buildings separated by gardens and
intermediate spaces. The place has its singular name from the first
settlers, who were called Wilkes and Barre. The population consists of
handicraftsmen, field labourers, storekeepers, and merchants; and
several of the inhabitants are interested in the important coal mines,
situated to the west of the road which we had taken. This bed of coals
is said to extend fourteen miles along the slope of the valley of the
Susquehannah, and then to continue over other eminences, of which
there will be occasion to speak in the sequel. For the purpose of
conveying the coals by water, a canal has been dug, which was not
quite completed, and which is to form a communication between the coal
mines and the Susquehannah. On the other side of the river the great
Pennsylvania canal is already finished, which connects Pennsylvania
with Maryland by means of the Susquehannah.[46] This last canal, which
is divided into several parts, will be continued to Baltimore, the
chief seaport, but it is not yet quite completed. Pennsylvania is
already intersected by numerous canals, which connect the rivers, and
are of the highest importance by the facilities they afford to inland
trade.
[pg. 44] The inn at which we put up at Wilkesbarre was kept by a German,
named Christ, who recommended to our notice some interesting points in
the environs; and we, therefore, did not take the usual road at the
bottom of the valley, but soon turned aside from the Susquehannah,
into a wild, lateral valley, in which there are fine waterfalls. At
less than a league from Wilkesbarre, we reached, at the foot of the
mountain, a wild, thickly-wooded ravine, where we soon heard the
roaring of Solomon Creek. Near a mill, the owner of which is General
Ross,[47] this stream forms some highly picturesque cascades over
smooth, perpendicular black rocks, covered with moss, forming a basin
below, in a thick forest of pine and other timber. There are two
cascades, one above the other, of which the second is the largest;
then comes the last and highest, where the water, conducted from the
mill directly across the ravine, falls perpendicularly, about the
height of a house, over a steep rock. It was, unfortunately, too late,
when we arrived, to make a drawing of this interesting scene. We asked
for accommodation for the night in the mill, which is a roomy house;
but our countryman (this man's mother was born in Germany) could not,
or would not, receive us. They gave us some of the water of the stream
to drink, which had a strong taste of iron and sulphur. As it was not
possible to find a lodging in the neighbourhood, we were advised to
proceed three miles to the top of the mountain, which we, indeed,
accomplished, but had nearly had reason to repent of our resolution.
The road ascends on the left rocky bank of Solomon Creek, in a thick
forest, over rough ground, so that we constantly had the steep
pr
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/38784