Two gentlemen have left their cards, and will be happy to see me on my
route; one lives at Batavia, the other at Pekin. I recollect going over
the ferry to Brooklyn to visit the Commodore at the Navy Yard; I walked
to where the omnibuses started from, to see if one was going my way.
There were but two on the stand: one was bound to _Babylon_, the other
to _Jericho_. Buffalo is one of the wonders of America. It is hardly
to be credited that such a beautiful city could have risen up in the
wilderness in so short a period. In the year 1814 it was burnt down,
being then only a village; only one house was left standing, and now it
is a city with twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The Americans are very
judicious in planning their new towns; the streets are laid out so wide
that there will never be any occasion to pull down to widen and improve,
as we do in England. The city of Buffalo is remarkably well built; all
the houses in the principal streets are lofty and substantial, and are
either of brick or granite. The main street is wider, and the stores
handsomer, than the majority of those in New York. It has five or six
very fine churches, a handsome theatre, town-hall, and market, and three
or four hotels, one of which is superior to most others in America; and
to these we must add a fine stone pier, with a lighthouse, and a harbour
full of shipping and magnificent steam-boats. It is almost
incomprehensible, that all this should have been accomplished since the
year 1814. And what has occasioned this springing up of a city in so
short a time as to remind you of Aladdin's magic palace?--the Erie
Canal, which here joins the Hudson River with the Lake, passing through
the centre of the most populous and fertile States.
At present, however, the business of Buffalo, as well as of every other
city, is nearly at a stand-still; the machinery of America is under
repair, and until that repair is completed, the country will remain
paralysed. America may just now be compared to one of her own
steamboats, which, under too high pressure, has burst her boiler. Some
of her passengers have (in a commercial point of view) been killed
outright, others severely injured, and her progress has for a time been
stopped: but she will soon be enabled to go a-head again as fast as
ever, and will then probably pay a little more attention to her
safety-valve.
I went out to the Indian reservation, granted to the remnant of the
Seneca tribe of Indians, once a portion of the Mohawks, and all that now
remains in the United States of the famed six nations. The chief of
them (Red Jacket), lately dead, might be considered as the last of the
Mohicans. I had some conversation with his daughter, who was very
busily employed in the ornamenting of a pair of mocassins, and then
visited the tomb, or rather the spot, where her father was buried,
without name or record. This omission has since been repaired, and a
tablet is now raised over his grave. It is creditable to the profession
that the "poor player," as Shakespeare hath it, should be the foremost
to pay tribute to worth. Cooke, the tragedian, was lying without a
stone to mark his resting-place, when Kean came to America, found out
the spot, and raised a handsome cenotaph to his memory; and it is to Mr
Placide, one of the very best of American actors, that Red Jacket is
indebted for the tablet which has been raised to rescue his narrow home
from oblivion.
Red Jacket was a great chief and a great man, but, like most of the
Indians, he could not resist the temptations of alcohol, and was during
the latter part of his life very intemperate. When Red Jacket was
sober, he was the proudest chief that ever walked, and never would
communicate even with the highest of the American authorities but
through his interpreter; but when intoxicated, he would speak English
and French fluently, and then the proud Indian warrior, the most
eloquent of his race, the last chief of the six nations, would demean
himself by begging for a sixpence to buy more rum.
I must now revert to the singular causes by which, independent of
others, such as locality, etcetera, Buffalo was so rapidly brought to a
state of perfection--not like many other towns which, commencing with
wooden houses, gradually supersede them by brick and stone. The person
who was the cause of this unusual rise was a Mr Rathbun, who now lies
incarcerated in a gaol of his own building. It was he who built all the
hotels, churches, and other public edifices; in fact, every structure
worthy of observation in the whole town was projected, contracted for,
and executed by Mr Rathbun. His history is singular. Of quiet,
unassuming manners, Quaker in his dress, moderate in all his expenses,
(except in charity, wherein, assisted by an amiable wife, he was very
liberal) he concealed under this apparent simplicity and goodness a mind
capable of the vastest conceptions, united with the greatest powers of
execution. He undertook contracts, and embarked in building
speculations, to an amount almost incredible. Rathbun undertook every
thing, and every thing undertaken by Rathbun was well done. Not only at
Buffalo, but at Niagara and other places, he was engaged in raising vast
buildings, when the great crash occurred, and Rathbun, with others, was
unable to meet his liabilities. Then, for the first time, it was
discovered that for more than five years he had been conniving at a
system of forgery, to the amount of two millions of dollars: the forgery
consisted in putting to his bills the names of responsible parties as
indorsers, that they might be more current. It does not appear that he
ever intended to defraud, for he took up all his notes as fast as they
became due; and it was this extreme regularity on his part which
prevented the discovery of his fraud for so unusually long a period. It
is surmised, that had not the general failure taken place, he would have
eventually withdrawn all these forged bills from the market, and have
paid all his creditors, reserving for himself a handsome fortune. It is
a singular event in the annals of forgery, that this should have been
carried on undiscovered for so unprecedented a time. Mr Rathbun is to
be tried as an accessory, as it was his brother who forged the names.
As soon as it was discovered, the latter made his escape, and he is said
to have died miserably in a hovel on the confines of Texas.
Embarked on board of the Sandusky, for Detroit. As we were steering
clear of the pier, a small brig of about two hundred tons burthen was
pointed out to me as having been the _flag-ship_ of Commodore Barclay,
in the action upon Lake Erie. The appearance of Buffalo from the Lake
is very imposing. Stopped at Dunkirk to put some emigrants on shore.
As they were landing, I watched them carefully counting over their
little property, from the iron tea-kettle to the heavy chest. It was
their whole fortune, and invaluable to them; the nest-egg by which, with
industry, their children were to rise to affluence. They remained on
the wharf as we shoved off, and no wonder that they seemed embarrassed
and at a loss. There was the baby in the cradle, the young children
holding fast to their mother's skirt, while the elder had seated
themselves on a log, and watched the departure of the steam-vessel;--the
bedding, cooking utensils, etcetera, all lying in confusion, and all to
be housed before night. Weary did they look, and weary indeed they
were, and most joyful would they be when they at last should gain their
resting-place. It appears from the reports sent in, that upwards of
100,000 emigrants pass to the west every year by the route of the Lakes,
of which it is estimated that about 30,000 are from Europe, the
remainder migrating from the eastern States of the Union.
I may keep a log now.--5 AM Light breezes and clear weather, land
trending from South to South South West. Five sail in the offing.
At 6 AM, ran into Grand River. Within these last two years, three towns
have sprung up here, containing between them about three thousand
inhabitants.
How little are they aware, in Europe, of the vastness and extent of
commerce carried on in these inland seas whose coasts are now lined with
flourishing towns and cities, and whose waters are ploughed by
magnificent steam-boats, and hundreds of vessels laden with merchandise.
Even the Americans themselves are not fully aware of the rising
importance of these Lakes as connected with the West. Since the
completion of the Ohio Canal, which enters the Lake Erie at Cleveland,
that town has risen almost as rapidly as Buffalo. It is beautifully
situated. It is about six years back that it may be said to have
commenced its start, and it now contains more than ten thousand
inhabitants. The buildings are upon the same scale as those of Buffalo,
and it is conjectured with good reason, that it will become even a
larger city than the other, as the ice breaks up here and the navigation
is open in the spring, six weeks sooner than it is at Buffalo; abreast
of which town the ice is driven down and collected, previous to its
forcing its passage over the falls.
Erie, which was the American naval depot during the war, has a fine bay,
but it is now falling into insignificance: it has a population of about
one thousand.
Sandusky is a fast-rising town, beautifully situated upon the verge of a
small prairie; it is between Sandusky and Huron that the prairie lands
commence. The bay of Sandusky is very picturesque, being studded with
small verdant islands. On one of these are buried in the same grave all
those who fell in the hard-fought battle of the Lakes, between Perry and
Barclay, both of whom have since followed their companions.
Toledo is the next town of consequence on the Lake. It is situated at
the mouth of the Miami River; and as a railroad has already been
commenced across the isthmus, so as to avoid going round the whole
peninsula of Michigan, it is fast rising into importance. Three years
ago the land was purchased at a dollar and a-half per acre; now, it is
selling for building lots at one hundred dollars per foot. They handed
me a paper printed in this town called "The Toledo Blade;" a not
inappropriate title, though rather a bold one for an editor to write up
to, as his writings ought to be very _sharp_, and, at the same time,
extremely _well-tempered_.
The American government have paid every attention to their inland
waters. The harbours, light-houses, piers, etcetera, have all been
built at the expense of government, and every precaution has been taken
to make the navigation of the Lakes as safe as possible.
In speaking of the new towns rising so fast in America, I wish the
reader to understand that, if he compares them with the country towns of
the same population in England, he will not do them. In the smaller
towns of England you can procure but little, and you have to send to
London for any thing good: in the larger towns, such as Norwich,
etcetera, you may procure most things; but, still, luxuries must usually
be obtained from the metropolis. But in such places as Buffalo and
Cleveland, every thing is to be had that you can procure at New York or
Boston. In those two towns on Lake Erie are stores better furnished,
and handsomer, than any shops at Norwich, in England; and you will find,
in either of them, articles for which, at Norwich, you would be obliged
to send to London. It is the same thing at almost every town in America
with which communication is easy. Would you furnish a house in one of
them, you will find every article of furniture--carpets, stoves, grates,
marble chimney-pieces, pier-glasses, pianos, lamps, candelabra, glass,
china, etcetera, in twice the quantity, and in greater variety, than at
any provincial town in England.
This arises from the system of credit extended through every vein and
artery of the country, and by which English goods are forced, as if with
a force-pump, into every available depot in the Union; and thus, in a
town so newly raised, that the stumps of the forest-trees are not only
still surrounding the houses, but remain standing in the cellars, you
will find every luxury that can be required. It may be asked what
becomes of all these goods. It must be recollected that hundreds of new
houses spring up every year in the towns, and that the surrounding
country is populous and wealthy. In the farmhouses--mean-looking and
often built of logs--is to be found not only comfort, but very often
luxury.