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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.