liberal emolument in town from fortune-telling, and from her supposed
sagacity in knowing every thing respecting stolen goods. She also
pretended to have the faculty of discovering springs of water and
metallic ores, by means of the divining rod. Her speaking in the
German language led me to suppose that she is descended from that
part of Europe, where _Rhabdomancy_[73] {128} is prevalent. Almanack
predictions of the weather are works of reference. I have seen several
family registers of marriages, and the births of children, in which the
sign of the zodiac in which the sun was, at the time of the particular
events, is recorded. The positions are believed to have propitious
or baneful influence on the fate of the individual. In some parts
of the Union, what are called snake-stones are relied on as certain
cures for the bite of the reptile, and of mad dogs, in opposition
to the remonstrances of medical men. Such articles of belief having
gained ground, a suspicion arises that the culture of the mind is
much neglected, but unfortunately the position is established by more
direct evidence. During my very short stay in this place, I have seen
persons applying to others to read the addresses on packages of goods,
or letters, and the sign-boards of merchants. A newspaper, in bewailing
the want of schools, feelingly observed, that “the Ohian is in many
cases growing up to manhood, with scarcely any other intelligence than
that derived from the feeble light of nature.”[74] Books are scarce.
I have seen a biography of General Washington; some notices of the
military and naval characters of America; a history of the war; the
Pittsburg Navigator; and some small almanacks more frequently than
any others. The advertisements of booksellers indicate that they deal
in romance. Many of the people are not in possession of a copy of the
_Apocrypha_; of course such Jewish stories as the Idol Bel, or Susanna
and the elders, are not often made the topics of conversation.[75]
{129} _January 14._ To-day I met with one of the passengers who came
over with me in the ship Glenthorn. He has settled with his family
about twenty-five miles from this place, having bought an hundred and
seventy acres of land, fifty acres of which are cleared and fenced.
There is a house, two barns, and a young orchard on the property. For
the whole he paid seventeen hundred and twenty-five dollars, and can
rent it out at twelve and a half per cent. on the price. He said that
he meditates making another purchase, and that he does not regret
having left his native country.
Since my arrival, I have seen an old acquaintance, who emigrated
upwards of two years ago. He bought an excellent farm, which was well
cultivated, in the State of Ohio, and paid two-thirds of the price in
ready money. The money with which he ought to have paid the remaining
part of the price, he imprudently lent to some neighbours, who never
repaid him. The ultimate instalment was soon demanded, which, being
unable to pay, he was obliged to sell the land. At this stage of the
business, he found that he had originally agreed to pay for the farm
twice its value, and was forced to leave it, after having lost nearly
all his money.
Two large steam-boats from Pittsburg, put in here on their way for New
Orleans.[76] One of them had been forty-eight hours, and the other
forty-six hours and fifty minutes, in descending the river. The
distance, as formerly stated, is 513¹⁄₄ miles.
The launching of a large steam-boat attracted a great assemblage of
spectators. A careful observation of their countenances convinced
me, that the complexion is more pale here than at Lexington. The
difference is sufficiently striking to induce the belief, that there is
a considerable disparity in the climate of the two places.
{130} Last week the weather was partly wet, and partly clear, the
temperature was usually about 50°.
_Jan. 28._ This has been a warm day, the temperature 52°in the shade,
the thermometer, exposed to sunshine, stood at 88°. The sky was clear,
without a single cloud. I have never seen in this country figured
icicles on the insides of windows during frosty weather. This is a
clear proof of the dryness of the climate.
_31._ I have some pleasure in stating my conviction, that honesty,
benevolence, and some other Christian virtues, are not singularities
in this town. Several congregations that I have attended, behave with
the attention and gravity which becomes the worship. It was easy to
recognise many persons, who go to church three times on the same
day. A preacher here of the Cameronian sect, is a man of talent and
information. His diligence is no less conspicuous than his abilities.
In addition to preaching three times on Sundays, he gives sermons in
private houses on other evenings of the week.
_February 4._ This evening there were several heavy showers of rain,
accompanied with more thunder than the residents have ever heard at
the same season of the year. For a week past, we have had no bright
sunshine; but westerly winds, and a temperature of 60° has been almost
uniform.
With candour towards the American name, I must state, that much of the
credulity recently hinted at, appears to be chargeable on people from
Germany and Ireland, and their descendants. Methodists are also said to
be true believers. It is at least certain, that the journal of their
great apostle, Lorenzo Dow, is replete with paragraphs not dictated by
the strictest accuracy.[77]
{131} _February 7._ To-day I left Cincinnati, on my way for
Jeffersonville, at the falls of the Ohio. The boat in which I proceeded
is a flat ark, loaded with flour and pork, for New Orleans. There
are five such boats in company, all belonging to the same owner,
who accompanies them. The wind has been south-westerly, and the
thermometer, exposed to the sunshine, (which is but dim) stood at
60°. The warm weather, of late, has been uniformly attended by wind
blowing up the river, importing, as it were, the air of a more southern
latitude.
The flower buds of the water-maple, the elm, and the leaves of the
weeping willow, are burst out, and the grass has become green. Dr.
Drake, the describer of this western country, has stated the usual
time of the flowering of the water-maple at a month later. It is to
be feared that this early vegetation will be checked by subsequent
frosts. Fruit trees, in that event, may be rendered unproductive for
the ensuing season.
We put ashore, at night, twenty-three miles from Cincinnati. Gusts of
wind, and a dark, clouded atmosphere, dissuaded us against sailing
during the night. Much rain and loud thunder ensued.
_8._ The boatmen are not obliged to row in the present moderately high
stage of the water. It is sufficient to make a few pulls occasionally
to keep off the shore. Two boats are tied alongside of each other, and
put about with the broadside to the stream. They float at the rate of
nearly four miles per hour.
_9._ Last night at dusk, we passed the Swiss settlement Vevay, which
lies on the Indiana side of the river.[78] These people are said to
be industrious cultivators of the ground. Wine is their staple {132}
product. It is procured from a round black grape, nearly the size of a
musket ball. The liquor is often of an acid taste, and apt to undergo
the acetous fermentation in keeping. We continued our course all night.
The owner and I slept in the boat by a fire, where we had scarcely room
enough to stretch ourselves. In all other respects this is a pleasant
way of travelling. The river, in most parts which we have lately seen,
appears to be from five hundred to six hundred yards broad, environed
with rich bottoms, and beyond these high limestone ridges. From
the tops of these to the water’s edge, the surface is covered with
stupendous woods, with cleared farms at intervals. A few of the houses
seem to be externally neat, but the majority of them are log cabins.
The north side of the river is more thickly settled than the south
side, where a negro population is to be seen along the banks.
In the afternoon we heard a remarkable sound issuing from a swamp near
the river. I was told that it was the croaking of frogs. There must
have been myriads of them in the place, as the noise was incessant,
like that of wind amongst trees, or the fall of water over a distant
cascade.
A contrary wind forced us to run ashore at a part where the limestone
ridge is within thirty yards of the beach. The rock is of the siliceous
kind, and the narrow bottom is strewed with large blocks that have
tumbled from the steep. In the evening there was much rain and thunder,
the wind continuing contrary and violent.
_10._ Early in the morning we heard the howling of wolves in the woods.
Scarcely a single patch of cleared ground is to be seen for several
miles.
Louisville is situated at the south-western extremity {133} of a
stretch of the river that passes in a straight line for six miles, so
that the town terminates a beautiful water prospect.[79] The river is
here half a mile in breadth.
The towns passed on the Kentucky side of the river, are, Port-William,
and West-Port. Those on the Indiana side, are, Laurenceburg, the Rising
Sun, Vevay, and Madison, all places of recent erection and thriving.
The Pittsburg Navigator enumerates sixty islands in Ohio above the
falls. They are so uniform in their character, that a description of
one of them will give a general idea of all the rest. The upper end is
broad, and intercepts part of the gravel that is moved downward during
floods, forming a wide bar which acts as a partial dam that divides the
stream into two parts, deflecting each of them toward the shores of the
mainland, as represented by the figure.
The two currents are then deflected from the shores toward the island,
which is thereby curtailed in its lower parts, and at its extremity
contracted almost to a point. The two currents unite below, and form
a deep channel. At the head of the island the water is shallow. The
largest and oldest timber stands on the lower end, and {134} younger
plants of willow, sycamore, &c. on the upper end of the island. It is
farther to be noticed, that the trees on islands, although of rapid
growth, are by no means so large as those on the adjoining banks and
bottom lands. The alluvial process deposits gravel at the head. Over
this, sand is precipitated; and lastly, a superstratum of mud and
driftwood is deposited, forming a rich soil for the growth of timber.
These facts, taken in connection, show that additions are continually
making at the head, and that the converging streams are simultaneously
carrying off the lower end of the island.
[Illustration]
In most instances, these are not the islands discovered by the first
white men who explored the Ohio. Nor are they those that will be known
by the same names, thirty, forty, or fifty years hence. Their being
gradually exchanged for others farther upward, produces an effect
similar to what would be occasioned by the same islands moving against
the stream, in their progress forcing the current against the shores,
and thereby preserving a capacious bed for the river.
From Cincinnati downward, the ridges which bound the valley of the
river on both sides are more broken, and divided into distinct hills,
and are, of course, more diversified and pleasant than the unvaried
ledges farther up. The traveller, notwithstanding, is apt to feel tired
of the insipidity of the scenery. The same woods obstruct his view, or
the same rude style of improvement meets his eye everywhere.
I landed at Jeffersonville, a small town on the Indiana side of
the river.[80] It stands on a high bank, and has the most pleasant
situation of any town that I have seen on the banks of the river.
{135} _February 12._ Visited Louisville, the town, next to Lexington,
the largest in Kentucky. The population probably amounts to about 3000
persons. The falls immediately below the town being navigable for
large craft only during times of high water, Louisville derives great
advantage from the carrying trade.
_13._ Went over the rapids. The fall is said to be twenty-two feet and
a half in less than two miles. Nearly the whole of the declivity is
distributed into three shoots or rapids, where the stream is very
swift, occasioning breakers amongst the rocks. Except in times of
very high water, boats are conducted downward by pilots who are well
acquainted with the falls. The temperature of this morning was 26¹⁄₂°.
_17._ Last night a gentleman from Carolina lodged in the tavern here.
After a hired man had given him slippers, and asked him for his boots
to be blacked, he exclaimed, “As I wish to see my Maker, I would not
live in a free state, where one white man cleans the boots of another.”
A small degree of aversion to frivolous detail does not prevent me
from describing a back-woods tavern. Like its owner, it commonly makes
a conspicuous figure in its neighbourhood. It is a log, a frame, or a
brick house, frequently with a wooden piazza in front. From the top
of a tall post, the sign-board is suspended. On it, a Washington, a
Montgomery, a Wayne, a Pike, or a Jackson, is usually pourtrayed,
in a style that might not be easily deciphered except for the name
attached. On the top of the house is a small bell, which is twice
rung before meals. Immediately after the second peal, travellers
and boarders assemble around the table, where they commence eating
_without preface_. In such promiscuous {136} parties, the governor of a
state, or a general of the militia, may be seen side by side with the
waggoner. The larger towns having taverns of different qualities, and
different rates of charges, a distinction of company is the natural
consequence. We breakfast and sup on coffee or tea, accompanied with
plenty of beef, bacon, chickens, and eggs. The hostess (or host if he
is unmarried) takes her seat at the head of the table, and dispenses
the tea. One or two _hired people_ (or slaves, in slave-keeping parts
of the country) wait at table. At dinner, wheaten and Indian corn
breads, beef, pork, venison, wild turkey, geese, and poultry, are
staple articles; with a profusion of vegetables, such as cucumbers,
onions, cabbages, beans, and preserved fruits. Lodging in taverns has
not generally all the convenience that could be wished for. It is
common to see several beds in the same room, and these are simple
bedsteads without hangings. There are no bells in the bed-rooms, and
other apartments; nor are menials accustomed to move at the signal of
the stranger. Water is rarely to be met with in bed-rooms; washing is,
of course, performed under a shed behind the house, or at the pump. A
full house is always the apology for causing two strangers to sleep
in the same bed; the propriety of the custom will always be admitted
by the person who arrives latest. It has been my lot to sleep with a
diversity of personages; I do believe, from the driver of the stage
coach, to men of considerable name. The noted cutaneous disease is
certainly not prevalent; if it was, the beds of taverns, which, like
burying grounds, lay all on a level, would soon make the disease as
prevalent in this country, as in some others in the old world.
{137} If Europeans and others, who indulge in censorious remarks on
western taverns and tavern-keepers, would make reasonable allowances
for the thinly-settled state of the country, the high price of labour,
and the great numbers of travellers, their criticisms might be somewhat
softened. The man who cannot enjoy a placid temper under privation of a
part of the comforts of a more advanced state of society, is surely to
be pitied for having business in the back woods of America.
A very inferior breed of cows and horses are to be seen almost every
where by the river. This may be partly imputed to the want of proper
fodder, and of shelter in the winter. Cattle are not housed in the
season, when every plant is withered to whiteness. Grass is not sown to
succeed the crops. A growth of tall weeds takes immediate possession of
the soil. Hay, therefore, is a scarce article. Indian corn is resorted
to as a substitute, but it appears to be too hard for mastication.
Butter and cheese sell at 25 cents (13¹⁄₂d. sterling) per pound.
_February 17._ This morning was clear and frosty. Temperature 32° in
the morning. Snow fell to the thickness of an inch in the forenoon. In
the afternoon it disappeared.
_18._ The morning was clear; temperature 20°. In the afternoon the ice
melted.
_19._ Temperature 29° in the morning. In the forenoon, snow fell to the
thickness of an inch and a half. In the evening it became liquid.
There is much wet ground in the vicinity of the falls. Intermittent
fevers afflict the inhabitants toward the end of summer and in autumn.
Last season an unusual degree of sickness was experienced.
New settlers continue to descend the river. Family boats are almost
continually in sight. In a {138} boat lying ashore to-day, a man was
busy in making shingles. He has brought with him pine timber from
Allegany river. Shingles give a good price here, where pine trees do
not grow, and they furnish him with employment at intervals. This
is a good specimen of the provident habits and the industry of New
Englanders, a people admirably adapted for taking possession of the
woods.
_March 1._ To-day the people of Jeffersonville elected a Squire,
(Justice of the Peace.) Two young men disagreed, and fought a furious
battle. In justice to the election, it is admitted that the fight was
in consequence of an old quarrel.
I have met with no less than eight Scotsmen to-day. We are said to be
the most national of all Europeans in America, and the most loyal to
old monarchy.
The weather is mild and clear, with the aspect of spring. Birds
begin to chirp in the woods; their plumage is fine, but they are not
songsters.
Jeffersonville contains about sixty-five houses, thirteen stores
(shops,) and two taverns; the land office for a large district of
Indiana, and a printing office that publishes a weekly newspaper,
and where the American copy of the most celebrated of all reviews is
sold. A steam-boat is on the stocks, measuring 180 feet long, and
forty broad; estimated to carry 700 tons. There are now thirty-one
steam-boats on the Mississippi and Ohio. Twenty-nine more are building,
and in a forward state.
At present, a passage from New Orleans to the falls of Ohio costs 100
dollars, including provisions. Goods are carried at 6¹⁄₄ cents per
pound weight. This high rate, with the danger of passing through a most
unhealthy climate, in case of arriving after the beginning of July,
{139} or before the end of October, gives Baltimore, Philadelphia, or
New York, a decided preference to Europeans who would settle in the
lower parts of the Ohio country, or on the Missouri. It is, indeed,
conjectured, that the increase of steam-boats will soon occasion a
competition, and a great fall in the freight; but, it is only after a
great deduction taking place, that New Orleans need be compared with
Baltimore, as the port for landing emigrants.
_May 19._ The steam-boat, Western Engineer and a number of keel-boats,
descended the falls to-day, with a considerable body of troops,
accompanied by a mineralogist, a botanist, a geographer, and a
painter.[81] Their object is to explore the Missouri country, and to
form a garrison at the mouth of Yellow Stone river, about 1800 miles
up the Missouri river. Five other steam-boats, besides other craft,
are expected to join the expedition. The Western Engineer has on the
bow, a large sculpture of the head of a snake, through which the waste
steam escapes; a device, independently of the general aspect of the
equipment, that might be enough to strike terror amongst the savage
tribes.
I shall conclude this, with mentioning two singular occurrences. The
passage of a steam-boat from Pittsburg to Louisville, seven hundred
miles in fifty hours; and the marriage of a girl in this place, at the
age of eleven years and three months.
FOOTNOTES:
[71] For a biographical sketch of Andrew Ellicott, see Cuming’s _Tour_,
volume iv of our series, note 213.--ED.
[72] For the early history of Cincinnati, see Cuming’s _Tour_, volume
iv of our series, note 166.--ED.
[73] _i. e._ Divination by the wand. This science may be fashionable,
but unquestionably it must be a novelty, as the occult sciences,
particularly that of divination, can only exist with the vulgar.--FLINT.
[74] Portsmouth Gazetteer, No. 4.--FLINT.
[75] These stories are found in the apocryphal chapters of the book of
Daniel in the Old Testament; for Idol Bel, see chapter 14; for Susanna,
see chapter 13.--ED.
[76] The “New Orleans,” built for Fulton and Livingston at Pittsburg
in 1811, was the first steam-boat on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
Having made a triumphant journey down to New Orleans, an object of
wonder at every town on the way, she did not attempt to return, but
ran between that city and Natchez until her destruction in 1814. The
“Enterprise,” the fourth steam-boat on Western waters, after serving
Jackson in his defense of New Orleans, made the first attempt to
steam up the river, reaching Louisville in twenty-five days. But the
water was high and she frequently found an easy course over inundated
fields, so that it was reserved for the “Washington,” which made a like
journey in 1817, to demonstrate the value of the steam-boat for Western
commerce.--ED.
[77] Lorenzo Dow, a native of Coventry, Connecticut, began his work
as a Methodist preacher in New York in 1779. He spent some years
in Ireland, endeavoring to convert the Irish to Methodism; also in
England, where he introduced camp-meetings, not without opposition from
a large part of the English Methodists. Upon his return to America, he
travelled from place to place, holding revivals. During his later life
he was almost fanatical in his bitterness towards the Jesuits, and, as
Flint implies, his zeal led him to make extravagant statements.--ED.
[78] For the Swiss settlement at Vevay, see Bradbury’s _Travels_,
volume v of our series, note 164.--ED.
[79] For a brief account of Louisville, see Croghan’s _Journals_,
volume i of our series, note 106.--ED.
[80] Jeffersonville, on the site of old Fort Steuben at the falls of
the Ohio, was laid out in 1802 in accordance with a plan proposed by
President Jefferson. It soon superseded the older neighboring town of
Clarksville, upon the same tract of land.--ED.
[81] This was the expedition of Major Stephen H. Long. The object
stated by Flint was abandoned, due to bad management of the military
branch of the undertaking. While the party was wintering near the
mouth of the Platte River, Long, returning to Washington, received new
instructions from President Monroe, namely, to seek a pass through
the Rocky Mountains south of the route of Lewis and Clark, and on the
return journey to examine the source of Red River. Abandoning their
steamer, “Western Engineer,” the party mounted horses, followed the
south fork of the Platte to the base of the mountains, saw and named
Long’s Peak, crossed over to the Arkansas, and ascended it to the Royal
Gorge. There, despairing of success, they gave up the attempt and
started home. The Union Pacific Railway now follows, in large measure,
the route travelled by Long. In returning, he followed a stream which
he supposed was the Red, but which proved to be a tributary of the
Arkansas. For the journal of this expedition, see volumes xiv-xvii of
our series.--ED.
{140} LETTER XI
Morals and Manners of the People--Defects in
Education--Generosity--The President of the United States.
_Jeffersonville, (Indiana,)
June 28, 1819._
My residence at this place for some time past, prevents me from noting
down such occurrences as travellers usually meet with. This letter must
therefore be composed of other materials. Some remarks therefore on the
people will form the subject; premising that it is not the American
character in general that I treat of. My opinions and assertions are
founded on my own limited observation, and on what I conceive to be
authentic facts.
The European, on his first arrival in the United States, may perhaps
expect to find sound republican principles, and good morals, pervading
nearly the whole population. He has probably heard that capital
punishments are rare, and from that circumstance, may have inferred
that there are few crimes to punish. For some time this ideal
character may be entertained. Newspapers will naturally be looked to,
as the current records of delinquency; in these, multitudes of cases
regarding the proceedings against criminals are entirely omitted. After
some correspondence with the people, and after some observation of
incidents, a sojourner from the old world will be apt to modify his
original opinion.
{141} Last winter, a committee of inquiry into the state of the prison
at Baltimore, stated in strong terms the inadequacy of the present
modes of punishment, and the deplorable increase of offenders, who
by their numbers threaten to overwhelm every lenient corrective.
The confinement not being solitary, and the young being mixed with
older and more experienced desperadoes, the institution intended
for reformation is literally converted into a school of vice, where
plans for future depredations are regularly concerted. The speech
of Governor Clinton,[82] at the opening of the last session of the
legislature of New York State, is another authority on this subject.
That gentleman feelingly deplored the growth of depravity, and affirmed
that magistrates are unable to inflict deserved punishments on all, and
that, from the numbers committed, there is a necessity for extending
pardon to an undue extent, or of granting absolute impunity. He stated
farther, that the prisoner released is sometimes re-committed for a new
crime on the same day.