There is one great inconvenience in American travelling, arising from
the uncertainty of river navigation. Excepting the Lower Mississippi
and the Hudson, and not always the latter, the communication by water is
obstructed during a considerable portion of the year, by ice in the
winter, or a deficiency of water in the dry season. This has been a
remarkable season for heat and drought; and thousands of people remain
in the States of Ohio, Virginia, and Kentucky, who are most anxious to
return home. It must be understood, that during the unhealthy season in
the southern States on the Mississippi, the planters, cotton-growers,
slave holders, store-keepers, and indeed almost every class, excepting
the slaves and overseers, migrate to the northward, to escape the yellow
fever, and spend a portion of their gains in amusement.
They go to Cincinnati and the towns of Ohio, to the Lakes occasionally,
but principally to the cities and watering places of Virginia and
Kentucky, more especially Louisville, where I now am; and Louisville,
being also the sort of general rendezvous for departure south, is now
crammed with southern people. The steam boats cannot run, for the river
is almost dry; and I (as well as others) have been detained much longer
on the banks of the Ohio than was my intention. There is land-carriage
certainly, but the heat of the weather is so overpowering that even the
Southerns dread it; and in consequence of this extreme heat the sickness
in these western States has been much greater than usual. Even
Kentucky, especially that part which borders on the Mississippi, which,
generally speaking, is healthy, is now suffering under malignant fevers.
I may here remark, that the two States, Illinois and Indiana, and the
western portions of Kentucky and Tennessee, are very unhealthy; not a
year passes without a great mortality from the bilious congestive fever,
a variety of the yellow fever, and the ague; more especially Illinois
and Indiana, with the western portion of Ohio, which is equally flat
with the other two States. The two States of Indiana and Illinois lie,
as it were, at the bottom of the western basin; the soil is wonderfully
rich, but the drainage is insufficient, as may be seen from the
sluggishness with which these rivers flow. Many and many thousands of
poor Irish emigrants, and settlers also, have been struck down by
disease, never to rise again, in these rich but unhealthy States; to
which, stimulated by the works published by land-speculators, thousands
and thousands every year repair, and, notwithstanding the annual
expenditure of life, rapidly increase the population. I had made up my
mind to travel by land-carriage to St Louis, Missouri, through the
States of Indiana and Illinois, but two American gentlemen, who had just
arrived by that route, succeeded in dissuading me. They had come over
on horseback. They described the disease and mortality as dreadful.
That sometimes, when they wished to put up their horses at seven or
eight o'clock in the evening, they were compelled to travel on till
twelve or one o'clock before they could gain admittance, some portion in
every house suffering under the bilious fever, tertian ague, or flux.
They described the scene as quite appalling. At some houses there was
not one person able to rise and attend upon the others; all were dying
or dead and to increase the misery of their situations, the springs had
dried up, and in many places they could not procure water except by
sending many miles. A friend of mine, who had been on a mission through
the portion of Kentucky and Tennessee bordering on them Mississippi,
made a very similar statement. He was not refused to remain where he
stopped, but he could procure no assistance, and everywhere ran the risk
of contagion. He said that some of the people were obliged to send
their negroes with a waggon upwards of fifteen miles to wash their
clothes.
That this has been a very unhealthy season is certain, but still, from
all the information I could obtain, there is a great mortality every
year in the districts I have pointed out; and such indeed must be the
case, from the miasma created every fall of the year in these rich
alluvial soils, some portions of which have been worked for fifty years
without the assistance of manure, and still yield abundant crops. It
will be a long while before the drainage necessary to render them
healthy can be accomplished. The sickly appearance of the inhabitants
establishes but too well the facts related to me; and yet, strange to
say, it would appear to be a provision of Providence, that a remarkable
fecundity on the part of the women in the more healthy portions of their
Western States, should meet the annual expenditure of life. Three
children at a birth are more common here than twins are in England; and
they, generally speaking, are all reared up. There have been many
instances of even four.
The western valley of America, of which the Mississippi may be
considered as the common drain, must, from the surprising depth of the
alluvial soil, have been (ages back) wholly under water, and, perhaps,
by some convulsion raised up. What insects are we in our own estimation
when we meditate upon such stupendous changes.
Since I have been in these States, I have been surprised at the stream
of emigration which appears to flow from North Carolina to Indiana,
Illinois, and Missouri. Every hour you meet with a caravan of emigrants
from that sterile but healthy state. Every night the banks of the Ohio
are lighted up with their fires, where they have bivouacked previously
to crossing the river; but they are not like the poor German or Irish
settlers: they are well prepared, and have nothing to do, apparently,
but to sit down upon their land. These caravans consist of two or three
covered wagons, full of women and children, furniture, and other
necessaries, each drawn by a team of horses; brood mares, with foals by
their sides, following; half a dozen or more cows, flanked on each side
by the men, with their long rifles on their shoulders; sometimes a boy
or two, or a half-grown girl on horseback. Occasionally they wear an
appearance of more refinement and cultivation, as well as wealth, the
principals travelling in a sort of worn-out old carriage, the remains of
the competence of former days.
I often surmised, as they travelled cheerfully along, saluting me as
they passed by, whether they would not repent their decision, and sigh
for their pine barrens and heath, after they had discovered that with
fertility they had to encounter such disease and mortality.
I have often heard it asserted by Englishmen, that America has no coal.
There never was a greater mistake: she has an abundance, and of the very
finest that ever was seen. At Wheeling and Pittsburg, and on all the
borders of the Ohio river above Guyandotte, they have an inexhaustible
supply, equal to the very best offered to the London market. All the
spurs of the Alleghany range appear to be one mass of coal. In the
Eastern States the coal is of a different quality, although there is
some very tolerable. The anthracite is bad, throwing out a strong
sulphureous gas. The fact is that wood is at present cheaper than coal,
and therefore the latter is not in demand. An American told me one day,
that a company had been working a coal mine in an Eastern State, which
proved to be of a very bad quality; they had sent some to an influential
person as a present, requesting him to give his opinion of it, as that
would be important to them. After a certain time he forwarded to them a
certificate couched in such terms as these:--"I do hereby certify that I
have tried the coal sent me by the company at --, and it is my decided
opinion, that when the general conflagration of the world shall take
place, any man who will take his position on that _coal-mine_ will
certainly be the _last man_ who will be _burnt_."
I had to travel by coach for six days and nights, to arrive at
Baltimore. As it may be supposed, I was not a little tired before my
journey was half over; I therefore was glad when the coach stopped for a
few hours, to throw off my coat, and lie down on a bed. At one town,
where I had stopped, I had been reposing more than two hours when my
door was opened--but this was too common a circumstance for me to think
any thing of it; the people would come into my room whether I was in bed
or out of bed, dressed or not dressed, and if I expostulated, they would
reply, "Never mind, _we_ don't care, Captain." On this occasion I
called out, "Well, what do you want?"
"Are you Captain M---?" said the person walking up to the bed where I
was lying.
"Yes, I am," replied I.
"Well, I reckon I wouldn't allow you to go through our town without
seeing you any how. Of all the humans, you're the one I most wish to
see."