After tea, a clergyman and his wife called; and then a long succession

of the hospitable inhabitants of Gloucester came to bid us welcome: from

which it appeared that small articles of intelligence circulate as

rapidly here as in other country-places. In another respect, Gloucester

resembled all the villages and small towns I passed through: in the

pretty attention of presenting flowers. In some of the larger cities,

bouquets of rich and rare flowers were sent to me, however severe might

have been the frost, or however dreary the season. In the smallest

villages, I had offerings, quite as welcome, in bunches of flowers from

the woods and meadows. Many of these last were new to me, and as gladly

received as the luscious hyacinths which greeted me every morning at

Charleston. At Lenox, in Massachusetts, where I spent one night, my

table was covered with meadow-flowers, and with fine specimens of

Jack-in-the-pulpit, and the moccassin-flower, or lady's slipper: and at

Gloucester, when I returned from my early visit to the beach, where I

had been to see the fishermen go out, I found a gorgeous bouquet of

autumn flowers; dahlias more various and rich than could have been

supposed to grow in such a region.

On our return to Salem, we diverged a little from our road, near

Manchester, to see a farm, whose situation would make an envious person

miserable. The house lies under the shelter of a wooded hill, and enjoys

a glorious view of Massachusetts Bay. The property lies between two

bays, and has a fine fishing-station off the point. The fields look

fertile, and a wide range of pasturage skirts the bay. A woman and

children were busy in the orchard, with a cart and barrels, taking in a

fine crop of apples; and we could only hope that they were sensible of

their privilege in living in such a place. These are the region,

teeming with the virtues of the Pilgrims, and as yet uninfected by the

mercenary and political cowardice of the cities, where the most

gladdening aspects of human life are to be seen.

The newly-settled districts of the southern States are as unlike as

possible to all this. They are extreme opposite cases. If human life

presents its fairest aspects in the retired townships of New

England,--some of its very worst, perhaps, are seen in the raw

settlements of Alabama and Mississippi.

When we drew near to Columbus, Georgia, we were struck with amazement at

the stories that were told, and the anecdotes that were dropped, in the

stage, about recent attempts on human life in the neighbourhood; and at

the number of incidents of the same kind which were the news of the day

along the road. Our driver from Macon had been shot at, in attempting to

carry off a young lady. A gentleman, boarding in the hotel at Columbus,

was shot in the back, in the street, and laid by for months. No inquiry

was made, or nothing came of it. The then present governor of the State

of Mississippi had recently stood over two combatants, pistol in hand,

to see fair play. This _was_ stated as a remarkable fact. The landlord

of the house where we stopped to breakfast on the day we were to reach

Columbus, April 9th, 1835, was, besides keeping a house of

entertainment, a captain of militia, and a member of the legislature of

Georgia. He was talking over with his guests a late case of homicide in

a feud between the Myers and Macklimore families. He declared that he

would have laws like those of the Medes and Persians against homicide;

and, in the same breath, said that if he were a Myers, he would shoot

Mr. Macklimore and all his sons.

We arrived at Columbus before sunset, and determined to stay a day to

see how the place had got on since Captain Hall saw it cut out of the

woods, ten years before. During the evening, I could do nothing but

watch the Indians from my window. The place swarmed with them; a few

Choctaws, and the rest Creeks. A sad havoc has taken place among them

since; and this neighbourhood has been made the scene of a short but

fierce war. But all looked fair and friendly when we were there. Groups

of Indians were crouching about the entries of the stores, or looking in

at the windows. The squaws went by, walking one behind another, with

their hair, growing low on the forehead, loose, or tied at the back of

the head, forming a fine contrast with the young lady who had presided

at our breakfast-table at five that morning, with her long hair braided

and adorned with brilliant combs, while her fingers shone in pearl and

gold rings. These squaws carried large Indian baskets on their backs,

and shuffled along, bare-footed, while their lords paced before them,

well mounted; or, if walking, gay with blue and red clothing and

embroidered leggings, with tufts of hair at the knees, while pouches and

white fringes dangled about them. They looked like grave merry-andrews;

or, more still, like solemn fanatical harvest men going out for largess.

By eight o'clock they had all disappeared; but the streets were full of

them again the next morning.

Our hostess was civil, and made no difficulty about giving us a late

breakfast by ourselves, in consideration of our fatigues. Before one

o'clock we dined, in company with seventy-five persons, at one long

table. The provisions were good, but ill-cooked; and the knives so blunt

that it was a mystery to me how the rest of the company obtained so

quick a succession of mouthfuls as they did.

The Chattahoochee, on whose banks Columbus stands, is unlike any river

I saw in the United States, unless it be some parts of the Susquehanna.

Its rapids, overhung by beech and pine woods, keep up a perpetual

melody, grateful alike to the ear of the white and the red man. It is

broad and full, whirling over and around the rocks with which it is

studded, and under the frail wooden foot-bridge which spans a portion of

its width, between the shore and a pile of rocks in the middle of the

channel. On this foot-bridge I stood, and saw a fish caught in a net

laid among the eddies. A dark fisherman stood on each little promontory;

and a group was assembled about some canoes in a creek on the opposite

Alabama shore, where the steepness of the hills seemed scarcely to allow

a foothold between the rushing water and the ascent. The river is

spanned by a long covered bridge, which we crossed the same night on our

way into Alabama.

There are three principal streets in Columbus, with many smaller,

branching out into the forest. Some pretty bits of greensward are left,

here and there, with a church, or a detached house upon

each--village-like. There are some good houses, five hotels, and a

population of above 2,000,--as nearly as I could make out among the

different accounts of the accession of inhabitants since the census. The

stores looked creditably stocked; and a great many gentlemanly men were

to be seen in the streets. It bears the appearance of being a thriving,

spacious, handsome village, well worth stopping to see.

We left it, at seven in the evening, by the long bridge, at the other

end of which we stopped for the driver to hold a parley, about a parcel,

with a woman, who spoke almost altogether in oaths. A gentleman in the

stage remarked, that we must have got quite to the end of the world.

The roads were as bad as roads could be; and we rolled from side to side

so incessantly, as to obviate all chance of sleeping. The passengers

were very patient during the hours of darkness; but, after daylight,

they seemed to think they had been long enough employed in shifting

their weight to keep the coach on its four wheels. "I say, driver,"

cried one, "you won't upset us, now daylight is come?" "Driver," shouted

another, "keep this side up." "Gentlemen," replied the driver, "I shall

mind nothing you say till the ladies begin to complain." A reply equally

politic and gallant.

At half past five, we stopped to breakfast at a log dwelling, composed

of two rooms, with an open passage between. We asked for water and

towel. There was neither basin nor towel; but a shallow tin dish of

water was served up in the open passage where all our fellow-travellers

were standing. We asked leave to carry our dish into the right-hand

room. The family were not all dressed. Into the left-hand room. A lady

lodged there!

We travelled till sunset through the Creek Territory, the roads

continuing to be extremely bad. The woods were superb in their spring

beauty. The thickets were in full leaf; and the ground was gay with

violets, may-apple, buck-eye, blue lupin, iris, and crow-poison. The

last is like the white lily, growing close to the ground. Its root,

boiled, mixed with corn, and thrown out into the fields, poisons crows.

If eaten by cattle, it injures but does not destroy them. The sour-wood

is a beautiful shrub. To-day it looked like a splendid white fuchsia,

with tassels of black butterflies hanging from the extremities of the

twigs. But the grandest flower of all, perhaps the most exquisite I ever

beheld, is the honeysuckle of the southern woods. It bears little

resemblance to the ragged flower which has the same name elsewhere. It

is a globe of blossoms, larger than my hand, growing firmly at the end

of an upright stalk, with the richest and most harmonious colouring, the

most delicate long anthers, and the flowers exquisitely grouped among

the leaves. It is the queen of flowers. I generally contrived, in my

journeys through the southern States, to have a bunch of honeysuckles in

the stage before my eyes; and they seemed to be visible wherever I

turned, springing from the roots of the forest trees, or dangling from

their topmost boughs, or mixing in with the various greens of the

thickets.

We saw to-day, the common sight of companies of slaves travelling

westwards; and the very uncommon one of a party returning into South

Carolina. When we overtook such a company proceeding westwards, and

asked where they were going, the answer commonly given by the slaves

was, "Into Yellibama."--Sometimes these poor creatures were encamped

under the care of the slave-trader, on the banks of a clear stream, to

spend a day in washing their clothes. Sometimes they were loitering

along the road; the old folks and infants mounted on the top of a

wagon-load of luggage; the able-bodied, on foot, perhaps silent, perhaps

laughing; the prettier of the girls, perhaps with a flower in the hair,

and a lover's arm around her shoulder. There were wide differences in

the air and gait of these people. It is usual to call the most depressed

of them brutish in appearance. In some sense they are so; but I never

saw in any brute an expression of countenance so low, so lost, as in the

most degraded class of negroes. There is some life and intelligence in

the countenance of every animal; even in that of "the silly sheep,"

nothing so dead as the vacant, unheeding look of the depressed slave is

to be seen. To-day, there was a spectacle by the roadside which showed

that this has nothing to do with negro nature; though no such proof is

needed by those who have seen negroes in favourable circumstances, and

know how pleasant an aspect those grotesque features may wear. To-day we

passed, in the Creek Territory, an establishment of Indians who held

slaves. Negroes are anxious to be sold to Indians, who give them

moderate work, and accommodations as good as their own. Those seen

to-day among the Indians, were sleek, intelligent, and cheerful-looking,

like the most favoured house-slaves, or free servants of colour, where

the prejudice is least strong.

We were on the look-out for Indians, all the way through this Creek

Territory. Some on horseback gave us a grave glance as we passed. Some

individuals were to be seen in the shadow of the forest, leaning against

a tree or a fence. One lay asleep by the roadside, overcome with

"whiskey too much," as they style intoxication. They are so intent on

having their full bargain of whiskey, that they turn their bottle upside

down, when it has been filled to the cork, to have the hollow at the

bottom filled. The piazza at the post-office was full of solemn Indians.

Miserable-looking squaws were about the dwellings, with their naked

children, who were gobbling up their supper of hominy from a wooden

bowl.

We left the Creek Territory just as the full moon rose, and hoped to

reach Montgomery by two hours before midnight. We presently began to

ascend a long hill; and the gentlemen passengers got out, according to

custom, to walk up the rising ground. In two minutes, the driver

stopped, and came to tell us ladies that he was sorry to trouble us to

get out; but that an emigrant's wagon had blocked up the ford of a creek

which we had to cross; and he feared we might be wetted if we remained

in the stage while he took it through a deeper part. A gentleman was

waiting, he said, to hand us over the log which was to be our bridge.

This gentleman, I believe, was the emigrant himself. I made for what

seemed to me the end of the log; but was deceived by the treacherous

moonlight, which made wood, ground, and water, look all one colour. I

plunged up to the waist into the creek; and, when I was out again, could

hardly keep upon the log for laughing. There was time, before we

overtook the rest of the party, to provide against my taking cold; and

there remained only the ridiculous image of my deliberate walk into the

water.

It must not be supposed a common circumstance that an emigrant's wagon

was left in a creek. The "camping out" is usually done in a sheltered,

dry spot in the woods, not far from some little stream, where the kettle

may be filled, and where the dusty children may be washed. Sleepy as I

might be, in our night journeys, I was ever awake to this picture, and

never tired of contemplating it. A dun haze would first appear through

the darkness; and then gleams of light across the road. Then the whole

scene opened. If earlier than ten at night, the fire would be blazing,

the pot boiling, the shadowy horses behind, at rest, the groups fixed in

their attitudes to gaze at us, whether they were stretching their

sailcloth on poles to windward, or drawing up the carts in line, or

gathering sticks, or cooking. While watching us, they little thought

what a picture they themselves made. If after midnight, the huge fire

was flickering and smouldering; figures were seen crouching under the

sailcloth, or a head or two was lifted up in the wagon. A solitary

figure was seen in relief against the fire; the watch, standing to keep

himself awake; or, if greeted by our driver, thrusting a pine slip into

the fire, and approaching with his blazing torch to ask or to give

information. In the morning, the places where such encampments have

been cannot be mistaken. There is a clear, trodden space, strewed with

chips and refuse food, with the bare poles which had supported the

sailcloth, standing in the midst, and a scorched spot where the fire had

been kindled. Others, besides emigrants, camp out in the woods. Farmers,

on their way to a distant market, find it cheaper to bring food, and

trust otherwise to the hospitality of dame Nature, than to put up at

hotels. Between the one and the other, we were amply treated with the

untiring spectacle.

We had bespoken accommodations for the night at the hotel at Montgomery,

by a friend who had preceded us. On our arrival at past eleven o'clock,

we found we were expected; but no one would have guessed it. In my

chamber, there was neither water, nor sheets, nor anything that afforded

a prospect of my getting to rest, wet as my clothes were. We were

hungry, and tired, and cold; and there was no one to help us but a

slave, who set about her work as slaves do. We ate some biscuits that we

had with us, and gave orders, and made requests with so much success as

to have the room in tolerable order by an hour after midnight. When I

awoke in the morning, the first thing I saw was, that two mice were

running after one another round my trunk, and that the floor of the room

seemed to contain the dust of a twelvemonth. The breakfast was to atone

for all. The hostess and another lady, three children, and an array of

slaves, placed themselves so as to see us eat our breakfast; but it

seemed to me that the contents of the table were more wonderful to look

at than ourselves. Besides the tea and coffee, there were corn bread,

buns, buck-wheat cakes, broiled chicken, bacon, eggs, rice, hominy,

fish, fresh and pickled, and beef-steak. The hostess strove to make us

feel at home, and recommended her plentiful meal by her hearty welcome

to it. She was anxious to explain that her house was soon to be in

better order. Her husband was going to Mobile to buy furniture; and,

just now, all was in confusion, from her head slave having swallowed a

fish bone, and being unable to look after the affairs of the house. When

our friends came to carry us to their plantation, she sent in

refreshments, and made herself one of the party, in all heartiness.

It was Sunday, and we went to the Methodist church, hoping to hear the

regular pastor, who is a highly-esteemed preacher. But a stranger was in

the pulpit, who gave us an extraordinary piece of doctrine, propounded

with all possible vehemence. His text was the passage about the tower of

Siloam; and his doctrine was that great sinners would somehow die a

violent death. Perhaps this might be thought a useful proposition in a

town where life is held so cheap as in Montgomery; but we could not

exactly understand how it was derived from the text. The place was

intensely light and hot, there being no blinds to the windows, on each

side of the pulpit: and the quietness of the children was not to be

boasted of.

On the way to our friends' plantation, we passed a party of negroes,

enjoying their Sunday drive. They never appear better than on such

occasions, as they all ride and drive well, and are very gallant to

their ladies. We passed a small prairie, the first we had seen; and very

serene and pretty it looked, after the forest. It was green and

undulating, with a fringe of trees.

Our friends, now residing seven miles from Montgomery, were from South

Carolina; and the lady, at least, does not relish living in Alabama. It

was delightful to me to be a guest in such an abode as theirs. They were

about to build a good house: meantime, they were in one which I liked

exceedingly: a log-house, with the usual open passage in the middle.

Roses and honeysuckles, to which humming-birds resort, grew before the

door. Abundance of books, and handsome furniture and plate, were within

the house, while daylight was to be seen through its walls. In my well

furnished chamber, I could see the stars through the chinks between the

logs. During the summer, I should be sorry to change this primitive kind

of abode for a better.

It is not difficult to procure the necessaries and comforts of life.

Most articles of food are provided on the plantation. Wine and groceries

are obtained from Mobile or New Orleans; and clothing and furniture from

the north. Tea is twenty shillings English per lb.; brown sugar,

threepence-halfpenny; white sugar, sixpence-halfpenny. A gentleman's

family, where there are children to be educated, cannot live for less

than from seven hundred pounds to one thousand pounds per annum. The

sons take land and buy slaves very early; and the daughters marry almost

in childhood; so that education is less thought of, and sooner ended,

than in almost any part of the world. The pioneers of civilisation, as

the settlers in these new districts may be regarded, care for other

things more than for education; or they would not come. They are, from

whatever motive, money-getters; and few but money-getting qualifications

are to be looked for in them. It was partly amusing, and partly sad, to

observe the young people of these regions; some, fit for a better mode

of life, discontented; some youths pedantic, some maidens romantic, to a

degree which makes the stranger almost doubt the reality of the scenes

and personages before his eyes. The few better educated who come to get

money, see the absurdity, and feel the wearisomeness of this kind of

literary cultivation; but the being in such society is the tax they

must pay for making haste to be rich.

I heard in Montgomery of a wealthy old planter in the neighbourhood, who

has amassed millions of dollars, while his children can scarcely write

their names. Becoming aware of their deficiencies, as the place began to

be peopled from the eastward, he sent a son of sixteen to school, and a

younger one to college; but they proved "such gawks," that they were

unable to learn, or even to remain in the society of others who were

learning; and their old father has bought land in Missouri, whither he

was about to take his children, to remove them from the contempt of

their neighbours. They are doomed to the lowest office of social beings;

to be the mechanical, unintelligent pioneers of man in the wilderness.

Surely such a warning as this should strike awe into the whole region,

lest they should also perish to all the best purposes of life, by

getting to consider money, not as a means, but an end.

I suppose there must be such pioneers; but the result is a society which

it is a punishment to its best members to live in. There is pedantry in

those who read; prejudice in those who do not; coxcombry among the young

gentlemen; bad manners among the young ladies; and an absence of all

reference to the higher, the real objects of life. When to all this is

added that tremendous curse, the possession of irresponsible power,

(over slaves,) it is easy to see how character must become, in such

regions, what it was described to me on the spot, "composed of the

chivalric elements, badly combined:" and the wise will feel that, though

a man _may_ save his soul anywhere, it is better to live on bread and

water where existence is most idealized, than to grow suddenly rich in

the gorgeous regions where mind is corrupted or starved amidst the

luxuriance of nature. The hard-working settler of the north-west, who

hews his way into independence with his own hands, is, or may be, exempt

from the curse of this mental corruption or starvation; but it falls

inevitably and heavily upon those who fatten upon the bounty of Nature,

in the society of money-getters like themselves, and through the labours

of degraded fellow-men, whom they hold in their injurious power.

We saw several plantations while we were in this neighbourhood. Nothing

can be richer than the soil of one to which we went, to take a lesson in

cotton-growing. It will never want more than to have the cotton seed

returned to it. We saw the plough, which is very shallow. Two throw up a

ridge, which is wrought by hand into little mounds. After these are

drilled, the seed is put in by hand. This plantation consists of nine

hundred and fifty acres, and is flourishing in every way. The air is

healthy, as the situation is high prairie land. The water is generally

good; but, after rain, so impregnated with lime, as to be disagreeable

to the smell and taste. Another grievance is, a weed which grows on the

prairie, which the cows like in summer, but which makes the milk so

disagreeable, that cream, half-an-inch thick, is thrown to the pigs.

They only can estimate this evil who know what the refreshment of milk

is in hot climates. Another grievance is, that no trees can be allowed

to grow near the house, for fear of the mosquitoes. Everything else is

done for coolness; there are wide piazzas on both sides of the house;

the rooms are lofty, and amply provided with green blinds; but all this

does not compensate to the eye for the want of the shade of trees. The

bareness of the villages of the south is very striking to the eye of a

stranger, as he approaches them. They lie scorching and glaring on the

rising grounds, or on the plain, hazy with the heat, while the forest,

with its myriads of trees, its depth of shade, is on the horizon. But

the plague of mosquitoes is a sufficient warrant for any sacrifice of

the pleasures of the eye; for they allow but little enjoyment of

anything in their presence.

On this, and many other estates that we saw, the ladies make it their

business to cut out all the clothes for the negroes. Many a fair pair of

hands have I seen dyed with blue, and bearing the marks of the large

scissars. The slave women cannot be taught, it is said, to cut out even

their scanty and unshapely garments economically. Nothing can be more

hideous than their working costume. There would be nothing to lose on

the score of beauty, and probably much gained, if they could be

permitted to clothe themselves. But it is universally said that they

cannot learn. A few ladies keep a woman for this purpose, very naturally

disliking the coarse employment.

We visited the negro quarter; a part of the estate which filled me with

disgust, wherever I went. It is something between a haunt of monkeys and

a dwelling-place of human beings. The natural good taste, so remarkable

in free negroes, is here extinguished. Their small, dingy, untidy

houses, their cribs, the children crouching round the fire, the animal

deportment of the grown-up, the brutish chagrins and enjoyments of the

old, were all loathsome. There was some relief in seeing the children

playing in the sun, and sometimes fowls clucking and strutting round the

houses; but otherwise, a walk through a lunatic asylum is far less

painful than a visit to the slave quarter of an estate. The children are

left, during working hours, in the charge of a woman; and they are

bright, and brisk, and merry enough, for the season, however slow and

stupid they may be destined to become.

My next visit was to a school--the Franklin Institute, in Montgomery,

established by a gentleman who has bestowed unwearied pains on its

organization, and to whose care it does great credit. On our approach,

we saw five horses walking about the enclosure, and five saddles hung

over the fence: a true sign that some of the pupils came from a

distance. The school was hung with prints; there was a collection of

shells; many books and maps; and some philosophical apparatus. The boys,

and a few girls, were steadily employed over their books and mapping;

and nothing could exceed the order and neatness of the place. If the

event corresponds with the appearance, the proprietor must be one of the

most useful citizens the place has yet been honoured with.

I spent some days at a plantation a few miles from Montgomery, and heard

there of an old lady who treats her slaves in a way very unusual, but

quite safe, as far as appears. She gives them knowledge, which is

against the law; but the law leaves her in peace and quiet. She also

commits to them the entire management of the estate, requiring only that

they should make her comfortable, and letting them take the rest. There

is an obligation by law to keep an overseer; to obviate insurrection.

How she manages about this, I omitted to inquire: but all goes on well;

the cultivation of the estate is creditable, and all parties are

contented. This is only a temporary ease and contentment. The old lady

must die; and her slaves will either be sold to a new owner, whose

temper will be an accident; or, if freed, must leave the State: but the

story is satisfactory in as far as it gives evidence of the

trust-worthiness of the negroes.

Our drives about the plantation and neighbouring country were delicious.

The inundations from the rivers are remarkable; a perfect Eden appears

when they subside. At the landing place of this plantation, I saw a

board nailed near the top of a lofty tree, and asked what it could be

for. It was the high-water mark. The river, the Alabama, was now upwards

of twenty feet higher than usual; and logs, corn-stalks, and green

boughs were being carried down its rapid current, as often as we went to

the shore. There were evidences of its having laid even houses under

water; but, on its subsiding, it would be found to have left a deposit

of two inches and a half of fine new soil on the fields on either side

of its channel. I never stood on the banks of the southern rivers

without being reminded of Daniell's Views in India and Ceylon: the water

level, shadowy and still, and the thickets actually springing out of it,

with dark-green recesses, with the relief of a slender white stem, or

dangling creeper here and there. Some creepers rise like a ladder,

straight from the water to a bough one hundred and twenty feet high. As

for the softness of the evening light on the water, it is indescribable.

It is as if the atmosphere were purified from all mortal breathings, it

is so bright, and yet not dazzling; there is such a profusion of

verdure.

There were black women ploughing in the field, with their ugly, scanty,

dingy dresses, their walloping gait, and vacant countenance. There were

scarlet and blue birds flitting over the dark fallows. There was

persimon sprouting in the woods, and the young corn-plants in the field,

with a handful of cotton-seed laid round each sprout. There was a view

from a bluff which fully equalled all my expectations of what the

scenery of the southern States would be; yet, tropical as it was in many

respects, it reminded me strongly of the view from Richmond Hill. We

were standing on the verge of a precipice, of a height which I dare not

specify. A deep fissure to our right was spanned by a log which it made

one shudder to think of crossing. Behind us lay a cotton-field of 7,000

acres within one fence. All this, and the young aloes, and wild vines,

were little enough like Richmond; and so was the faint blue line of

hills on the horizon; but it was the intervening plain, through which

the river ran, and on which an infinite variety of noble trees grew, as

it appeared, to an interminable distance. Here their tops seemed woven

into compactness; there they were so sprinkled as to display the majesty

and grace of their forms. I looked upon this as a glorification of the

Richmond view.

It was now the middle of April. In the kitchen garden the peas were

ripening, and the strawberries turning red, though the spring of 1835

was very backward. We had salads, young asparagus, and radishes.

The following may be considered a pretty fair account of the provision

for a planter's table, at this season; and, except with regard to

vegetables, I believe it does not vary much throughout the year.

Breakfast at seven; hot wheat bread, generally sour; corn bread,

biscuits, waffles, hominy, dozens of eggs, broiled ham, beef-steak or

broiled fowl, tea and coffee. Lunch at eleven; cake and wine, or

liqueur. Dinner at two; now and then soup (not good,) always roast

turkey and ham; a boiled fowl here, a tongue there; a small piece of

nondescript meat, which generally turns out to be pork disguised;

hominy, rice, hot corn-bread, sweet potatoes; potatoes mashed with

spice, very hot; salad and radishes, and an extraordinary variety of

pickles. Of these, you are asked to eat everything with everything else.

If you have turkey and ham on your plate, you are requested to add

tongue, pork, hominy, and pickles. Then succeed pies of apple, squash,

and pumpkin; custard, and a variety of preserves as extraordinary as the

preceding pickles: pine-apple, peach, limes, ginger, guava jelly,

cocoa-nut, and every sort of plums. These are almost all from the

West-Indies. Dispersed about the table are shell almonds, raisins,

hickory, and other nuts; and, to crown the whole, large blocks of

ice-cream. Champagne is abundant, and cider frequent. Ale and porter may

now and then be seen; but claret is the most common drink. During dinner

a slave stands at a corner of the table, keeping off the flies by waving

a large bunch of peacock's feathers fastened into a handle,--an ampler

fan than those of our grandmothers.

Supper takes place at six, or seven. Sometimes the family sits round the

table; but more commonly the tray is handed round, with plates which

must be held in the lap. Then follow tea and coffee, waffles, biscuits,

sliced ham or hung-beef, and sweet cake. Last of all, is the offer of

cake and wine at nine or ten.

The profits of cotton-growing, when I was in Alabama, were thirty-five

per cent. One planter whom I knew had bought fifteen thousand dollars'

worth of land within two years, which he could then have sold for

sixty-five thousand dollars. He expected to make, that season, fifty or

sixty thousand dollars of his growing crop. It is certainly the place to

become rich in; but the state of society is fearful. One of my hosts, a

man of great good-nature, as he shows in the treatment of his slaves,

and in his family relations, had been stabbed in the back in the

reading-room of the town, two years before, and no prosecution was

instituted. Another of my hosts carried loaded pistols for a fortnight,

just before I arrived, knowing that he was lain in wait for by persons

against whose illegal practices he had given information to a

magistrate, whose carriage was therefore broken in pieces, and thrown

into the river. A lawyer with whom we were in company one afternoon, was

sent for to take the deposition of a dying man who had been sitting with

his family in the shade, when he received three balls in the back from

three men who took aim at him from behind trees. The tales of

jail-breaking and rescue were numberless; and a lady of Montgomery told

me that she had lived there four years, during which time no day, she

believed, had passed without some one's life having been attempted,

either by duelling or assassination. It will be understood that I

describe this region as presenting an extreme case of the material

advantages and moral evils of a new settlement, under the institution of

slavery. The most prominent relief is the hospitality,--that virtue of

young society. It is so remarkable, and to the stranger so grateful,

that there is danger of its blinding him to the real state of affairs.

In the drawing-room, the piazza, the barouche, all is so gay and

friendly, there is such a prevailing hilarity and kindness, that it

seems positively ungrateful and unjust to pronounce, even in one's own

heart, that all this way of life is full of wrong and peril. Yet it is

impossible to sit down to reflect, with every order of human beings

filling an equal space before one's mental eye, without being struck to

the soul with the conviction that the state of society, and no less of

individual families, is false and hollow, whether their members are

aware of it or not; that they forget that they must be just before they

can be generous. The severity of this truth is much softened to

sympathetic persons on the spot; but it returns with awful force when

they look back upon it from afar.

In the slave quarter of a plantation hereabouts I saw a poor wretch who

had run away three times, and been re-captured. The last time he was

found in the woods, with both legs frost-bitten above the knees, so as

to render amputation necessary. I passed by when he was sitting on the

door-step of his hut, and longed to see him breathe his last. But he is

a young man, likely to drag out his helpless and hopeless existence for

many a dreary year. I dread to tell the rest; but such things must be

told sometimes, to show to what a pass of fiendish cruelty the human

spirit may be brought by merely witnessing the exercise of irresponsible

power over the defenceless. I give the very words of the speaker,

premising that she is not American by birth or education, nor yet

English.

The master and mistress of this poor slave, with their children, had

always treated him and his fellow-slaves very kindly. He made no

complaint of them. It was not from their cruelty that he attempted to

escape. His running away was therefore a mystery to the person to whom I

have alluded. She recapitulated all the clothes that had been given to

him; and all the indulgences, and forgivenesses for his ingratitude in

running away from such a master, with which he had been blessed. She

told me that she had advised his master and mistress to refuse him

clothes, when he had torn his old ones with trying to make his way

through the woods; but his master had been too kind, and had again

covered his nakedness. She turned round upon me, and asked what could

make the ungrateful wretch run away a third time from such a master?

"He wanted to be free."

"Free! from such a master!"

"From any master."

"The villain! I went to him when he had had his legs cut off, and I said

to him, it serves you right...."

"What! when you knew he could not run away any more?"

"Yes, that I did; I said to him, you wretch! but for your master's sake

I am glad it has happened to you. You deserve it, that you do. If I were

your master I would let you die; I'd give you no help nor nursing. It

serves you right; it is just what you deserve. It's fit that it should

happen to you ...!"

"You did not--you dared not so insult the miserable creature!" I cried.

"Oh, who knows," replied she, "but that the Lord may bless a word of

grace in season!"

Some readers may conceive this to be a freak of idiotcy. It was not so.

This person is shrewd and sensible in matters where rights and duties

are not in question. Of these she is, as it appears, profoundly

ignorant; in a state of superinduced darkness; but her character is that

of a clever, and, with some, a profoundly religious woman. Happily, she

has no slaves of her own: at least, no black ones.

I saw this day, driving a wagon, a man who is a schoolmaster, lawyer,

almanack-maker, speculator in old iron, and dealer in eggs, in addition

to a few other occupations. His must be a very active existence.

This little history of a portion of my southern journey may give an idea

of what life is in the wilder districts of the south. I will offer but

one more sketch, and that will exemplify life in the wilder districts of

the north. The picture of my travels in and around Michigan will convey

the real state of things there, at present.

Our travelling party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. L., the before-mentioned

Charley, his father and mother, and myself. We were prepared to see

everything to advantage; for there was strong friendship among us all;

and a very unusual agreement of opinion on subjects which education,

temperament, or the circumstances of the time, made most interesting to

us. The great ornament of the party--our prince of Denmark--was Charley;

a boy of uncommon beauty and promise, and fully worthy of the character

given him by one of our drivers, with whom the boy had ingratiated

himself by his chatter on the box;--"An eternal smart boy, and the

greatest hand at talk I ever came across."

We landed at Detroit, from Lake Erie, at seven o'clock in the morning of

the 13th of June, 1836. We reached the American just in time for

breakfast. At that long table, I had the pleasure of seeing the

healthiest set of faces that I had beheld since I left England. The

breakfast was excellent, and we were served with much consideration; but

the place was so full, and the accommodations of Detroit are so

insufficient for the influx of people who are betaking themselves

thither, that strangers must patiently put up with much delay and

inconvenience till new houses of entertainment are opened. We had to

wait till near one o'clock before any of us could have a room in which

to dress; but I had many letters to write, and could wait; and before I

had done, Charley came with his shining face and clean collar, to show

me that accommodation had been provided. In the afternoon, we saw what

we could of the place, and walked by the side of the full and tranquil

river St. Clair. The streets of the town are wide and airy; but the

houses, churches, and stores, are poor for the capital city of a

Territory or State. This is a defect which is presently cured, in the

stirring northern regions of the United States. Wooden planks, laid on

the grass, form the pavement, in all the outskirts of the place. The

deficiency is of stone, not of labour. Thousands of settlers are

pouring in every year; and of these, many are Irish, Germans, or Dutch,

working their way into the back country, and glad to be employed for a

while at Detroit, to earn money to carry them further. Paving-stones

will be imported here, I suppose, as I saw them at New Orleans, to the

great improvement of the health and comfort of the place. The block-wood

pavement, of which trial has been made in a part of Broadway, New York,

is thought likely to answer better at Detroit than any other kind, and

is going to be tried.

The country round Detroit is as flat as can be imagined; and, indeed, it

is said that the highest mountain in the State boasts only sixty feet of

elevation. A lady of Detroit once declared, that if she were to build a

house in Michigan, she would build a hill first. The Canada side of the

river looks dull enough from the city; but I cannot speak from a near

view of it, having been disappointed in my attempts to get over to it.

On one occasion, we were too late for the ferry-boat; and we never had

time again for the excursion.

A cool wind from the northern lakes blows over the whole face of the

country, in the midst of the hottest days of summer; and in the depth of

winter, the snow never lies deep, nor long. These circumstances may

partly account for the healthiness of the row of faces at the table of

the American.

The society of Detroit is very choice; and, as it has continued so since

the old colonial days, through the territorial days, there is every

reason to think that it will become, under its new dignities, a more and

more desirable place of residence. Some of its interior society is still

very youthful; a gentleman, for instance, saying in the reading-room, in

the hearing of one of our party, that, though it did not sound well at

a distance, Lynching[10] was the only way to treat Abolitionists: but

the most enlightened society is, I believe, equal to any which is to be

found in the United States. Here we began to see some of the

half-breeds, of whom we afterwards met so many at the north. They are

the children of white men who have married squaws; and may be known at a

glance, not only by the dark complexion, but by the high cheekbones,

straight black hair, and an indescribable mischievous expression about

the eyes. I never saw such imps and Flibbertigibbets as the half-breed

boys that we used to see rowing or diving in the waters, or playing

pranks on the shores of Michigan.

We had two great pleasures this day; a drive along the quiet Lake St.

Clair, and a charming evening party at General Mason's. After a

pilgrimage through the State of New York, a few exciting days at

Niagara, and a disagreeable voyage along Lake Erie, we were prepared to

enjoy to the utmost the novelty of a good evening party; and we were as

merry as children at a ball. It was wholly unexpected to find ourselves

in accomplished society on the far side of Lake Erie; and there was

something stimulating in the contrast between the high civilisation of

the evening, and the primitive scenes that we were to plunge into the

next day. Though we had to pack up and write, and be off very early in

the morning, we were unable to persuade ourselves to go home till late;

and then we talked over Detroit as if we were wholly at leisure.

The scenery of Lake St. Clair was new to me. I had seen nothing in the

United States like its level green banks, with trees slanting over the

water, festooned with the wild vine; the groups of cattle beneath them;

the distant steam-boat, scarcely seeming to disturb the grey surface of

the still waters. This was the first of many scenes in Michigan which

made me think of Holland; though the day of canals has not yet arrived.

15th. An obliging girl at the American provided us with coffee and

biscuits at half-past five, by which time our "exclusive extra" was at

the door. Charley had lost his cap. It was impossible that he should go

bare-headed through the State; and it was lucky for us that a store was

already open where he was furnished in a trice with a willow-hat. The

brimming river was bright in the morning sun; and our road was, for a

mile or two, thronged with Indians. Some of the inhabitants of Detroit,

who knew the most about their dark neighbours, told me that they found

it impossible to be romantic about these poor creatures. We, however,

could not help feeling the excitement of the spectacle, when we saw them

standing in their singularly majestic attitudes by the road-side, or on

a rising ground: one, with a bunch of feathers tied at the back of the

head; another, with his arms folded in his blanket; and a third, with

her infant lashed to a board, and thus carried on her shoulders. Their

appearance was dreadfully squalid.

As soon as we had entered the woods, the roads became as bad as, I

suppose, roads ever are. Something snapped, and the driver cried out

that we were "broke to bits." The team-bolt had given way. Our

gentlemen, and those of the mail-stage, which happened to be at hand,

helped to mend the coach; and we ladies walked on, gathering abundance

of flowers, and picking our way along the swampy corduroy road. In less

than an hour, the stage took us up, and no more accidents happened

before breakfast. We were abundantly amused while our meal was preparing

at Danversville. One of the passengers of the mail-stage took up a

violin, and offered to play to us. Books with pictures were lying about.

The lady of the house sat by the window, fixing her candle-wicks into

the moulds. In the piazza, sat a party of emigrants, who interested us

much. The wife had her eight children with her; the youngest, puny

twins. She said she had brought them in a wagon four hundred miles; and

if they could only live through the one hundred that remained before

they reached her husband's lot of land, she hoped they might thrive; but

she had been robbed, the day before, of her bundle of baby things. Some

one had stolen it from the wagon. After a good meal, we saw the

stage-passengers stowed into a lumber wagon; and we presently followed

in our more comfortable vehicle.

Before long, something else snapped. The splinter-bar was broken. The

driver was mortified; but it was no fault of his. Juggernaut's car would

have been "broke to bits" on such a road. We went into a settler's

house, where we were welcomed to rest and refresh ourselves. Three years

before, the owner bought his eighty acres of land for a dollar an acre.

He could now sell it for twenty dollars an acre. He shot, last year, a

hundred deer, and sold them for three dollars a-piece. He and his family

need have no fears of poverty. We dined well, nine miles before reaching

Ypsilanti. The log-houses,--always comfortable when well made, being

easily kept clean, cool in summer, and warm in winter,--have here an air

of beauty about them. The hue always harmonizes well with the soil and

vegetation. Those in Michigan have the bark left on, and the corners

sawn off close; and are thus both picturesque and neat.

At Ypsilanti, I picked up an Ann Arbor newspaper. It was badly printed;

but its contents were pretty good; and it could happen nowhere out of

America, that so raw a settlement as that at Ann Arbor, where there is

difficulty in procuring decent accommodations, should have a newspaper.

It was past seven before we left the inn at Ypsilanti, to go thirteen

miles further. We departed on foot. There was a bridge building at

Ypsilanti; but, till it was ready, all vehicles had to go a mile down

the water-side to the ferry, while the passengers generally preferred

crossing the foot-bridge, and walking on through the wood. We found in

our path, lupins, wild geraniums, blue-eye grass, blue iris, wild

sunflower, and many others. The mild summer night was delicious, after

the fatigues of the day. I saw the youngest of golden moons, and two

bright stars set, before we reached Wallace's Tavern, where we were to

sleep. Of course, we were told that there was no room for us; but, by a

little coaxing and management, and one of the party consenting to sleep

on the parlour-floor, everything was made easy.

16th. We were off by half-past six; and, not having rested quite enough,

and having the prospect of fourteen miles before breakfast, we, with one

accord, finished our sleep in the stage. We reached Tecumseh by

half-past nine, and perceived that its characteristic was chair-making.

Every other house seemed to be a chair manufactory. One bore the

inscription, "Cousin George's Store:" the meaning of which I do not

pretend to furnish. Perhaps the idea is, that purchasers may feel free

and easy, as if dealing with cousin George. Everybody has a cousin

George. Elsewhere, we saw a little hotel inscribed, "Our House;" a

prettier sign than "Traveller's Rest," or any other such tempting

invitation that I am acquainted with. At Tecumseh, I saw the first

strawberries of the season. All that I tasted in Michigan, of prairie

growth, were superior to those of the west, grown in gardens.

Charley was delighted to-day by the sight of several spotted fawns,

tamed by children. If a fawn be carried a hundred yards from its bush,

it will follow the finder, and remain with him, if kindly treated. They

are prettiest when very young, as they afterwards lose their spots.

We fairly entered the "rolling country" to-day: and nothing could be

brighter and more flourishing than it looked. The young corn was coming

up well in the settlers' fields. The copses, called "oak-openings,"

looked fresh after the passing thunder-showers; and so did the rising

grounds, strewed with wild flowers and strawberries. "The little hills

rejoiced on every side." The ponds, gleaming between the hills and

copses, gave a park-like air to the scenery. The settlers leave trees in

their clearings; and from these came the song of the wood-thrush; and

from the dells the cry of the quail. There seemed to be a gay

wood-pecker to every tree.

Our only accident to-day was driving over a poor hog: we can only hope

it died soon. Wherever we stopped, we found that the crowds of emigrants

had eaten up all the eggs; and we happened to think eggs the best

article of diet of all on a journey. It occurred to me that we might get

some by the way, and carry them on to our resting-place. All agreed

that we might probably procure them: but how to carry them safely over

such roads was the question. This day we resolved to try. We made a

solemn stir for eggs in a small settlement; and procured a dozen. We

each carried one in each hand,--except Charley, who was too young to be

trusted. His two were wrapped up each in a bag. During eight miles of

jolting, not one was hurt; and we delivered them to our host at

Jonesville with much satisfaction. We wished that some of our

entertainers had been as rich as a Frenchman at Baltimore, who, talking

of his poultry-yard, informed a friend that he had "fifty head of hen."

At Jonesville, the ladies and Charley were favoured with a large and

comfortable chamber. The gentlemen had to sleep with the multitude

below; ranged like walking-sticks, or umbrellas, on a shop-counter.

17th. The road was more deplorable than ever to-day. The worst of it

was, that whenever it was dangerous for the carriage, so that we were

obliged to get out, it was, in proportion, difficult to be passed on

foot. It was amusing to see us in such passes as we had to go through

to-day. I generally acted as pioneer, the gentlemen having their ladies

to assist; and it was pleasant to stand on some dry perch, and watch my

companions through the holes and pools that I had passed. Such hopping

and jumping; such slipping and sliding; such looks of despair from the

middle of a pond; such shifting of logs, and carrying of planks, and

handing along the fallen trunks of trees! The driver, meantime, was

looking back provokingly from his box, having dragged the carriage

through; and far behind stood Charley, high and dry, singing or eating

his bit of bread, till his father could come back for him. Three times

this day was such a scene enacted; and, the third time, there was a

party of emigrant ladies to be assisted, too. When it was all over, and

I saw one with her entire feet cased in mud, I concluded we must all be

very wet, and looked at my own shoes: and lo! even the soles were as dry

as when they were made! How little the worst troubles of travelling

amount to, in proportion to the apprehension of them! What a world of

anxiety do travellers suffer lest they should get wet, or be without

food! How many really faint with hunger, or fall into an ague with damp

and cold? I was never in danger of either the one or the other, in any

of the twenty-three States which I visited.

At one part of our journey to-day, where the road was absolutely

impassable, we went above a mile through the wood, where there was no

track, but where the trees are blazed, to serve as guide-posts, summer

and winter. It was very wild. Our carriage twisted and wound about to

avoid blows against the noble beech-stems. The waters of the swamp

plashed under our wheels, and the boughs crunched overhead. An overturn

would have been a disaster in such a place. We travelled only forty-two

miles this long day; but the weariness of the way was much beguiled by

singing, by a mock oration, story-telling, and other such amusements.

The wit and humour of Americans, abundant under ordinary circumstances,

are never, I believe, known to fail in emergencies, serious or trifling.

Their humour helps themselves and their visitors through any Sloughs of

Despond, as charitably as their infinite abundance of logs through the

swamps of their bad roads.

We did not reach Sturgis's Prairie till night. We had heard so poor an

account of the stage-house, that we proceeded to another, whose owner

has the reputation of treating his guests magnificently, or not at all.

He treated us on _juste milieu_ principles. He did what he could for us;

and that could not be called magnificent. The house was crowded with

emigrants. When, after three hours waiting, we had supper, two

full-grown persons were asleep on some blankets in the corner of the

room, and as many as fifteen or sixteen children on chairs and on the

floor. Our hearts ached for one mother. Her little girl, two years old,

had either sprained or broken her arm, and the mother did not know what

to do with it. The child shrieked when the arm was touched, and wailed

mournfully at other times. We found in the morning, however, that she

had had some sleep. I have often wondered since how she bore the motion

of the wagon on the worst parts of the road. It was oppressively hot. I

had a little closet, whose door would not shut, and which was too small

to give me room to take off the soft feather-bed. The window would not

keep open without being propped by the tin water-jug; and though this

was done, I could not sleep for the heat. This reminds me of the

considerate kindness of an hotel-keeper in an earlier stage of our

journey. When he found that I wished to have my window open, there being

no fastening, he told me he would bring his own tooth-brush for a

prop,--which he accordingly did.

18th. Our drive of twelve miles to breakfast was very refreshing. The

roads were the best we had travelled since we left New York State. We

passed through a wilderness of flowers; trailing roses, enormous white

convolvulus, scarlet lilies, and ground-ivy, with many others, being

added to those we had before seen. Milton must have travelled in

Michigan before he wrote the garden parts of "Paradise Lost." Sturgis's

and White Pigeon Prairies are highly cultivated, and look just like any

other rich and perfectly level land. We breakfasted at White Pigeon

Prairie, and saw the rising ground where the Indian chief lies buried,

whose name has been given to the place.

The charms of the settlement, to us, were a kind landlady, an admirable

breakfast, at which eggs abounded, and a blooming garden. Thirty-seven

miles further brought us to Niles, where we arrived by five in the

afternoon. The roads were so much improved that we had not to walk at

all; which was well, as there was much pelting rain during the day.

Niles is a thriving town on the river St. Joseph, on the borders of the

Potowatomie territory. Three years ago, it consisted of three houses. We

could not learn the present number of inhabitants; probably because the

number is never the same two days together. A Potowatomie village stands

within a mile; and we saw two Indians on horseback, fording the rapid

river very majestically, and ascending the wooded hills on the other

side. Many Indian women were about the streets; one with a nose-ring;

some with plates of silver on the bosom, and other barbaric ornaments.

Such a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning came on, with a deluge

of rain, that we were prevented seeing anything of the place, except

from our windows. I had sent my boots to a cobbler, over the way. He had

to put on India rubbers, which reached above the knee, to bring his work

home; the street was so flooded. We little imagined for the hour the

real extent and violence of this storm, and the effect it would have on

our journeying.

The prairie strawberries, at breakfast this morning, were so large,

sweet, and ripe, that we were inclined for more in the course of the

day. Many of the children of the settlers were dispersed near the

road-side, with their baskets, gathering strawberries; they would not

sell any: they did not know what mother would say if they went home

without any berries for father. But they could get enough for father,

too, they were told, if they would sell us what they had already

gathered. No; they did not want to sell. Our driver observed, that money

was "no object to them." I began to think that we had, at last, got to

the end of the world; or rather, perhaps, to the beginning of another

and a better.

19th. No plan could be more cleverly and confidently laid than ours was

for this day's journey. We were to travel through the lands of the

Potowatomies, and reach the shores of the glorious Lake Michigan, at

Michigan City, in time for an early supper. We were to proceed on the

morrow round the southern extremity of the lake, so as, if possible, to

reach Chicago in one day. It was wisely and prettily planned: and the

plan was so far followed, as that we actually did leave Niles some time

before six in the morning. Within three minutes, it began to rain again,

and continued, with but few and short intervals, all day.

We crossed the St. Joseph by a rope ferry, the ingenious management of

which, when stage-coaches had to be carried over, was a perpetual study

to me. The effect of crossing a rapid river by a rope-ferry, by

torch-light, in a dark night, is very striking; and not the less so for

one's becoming familiarized with it, as the traveller does in the United

States. As we drove up the steep bank, we found ourselves in the Indian

territory. All was very wild; and the more so for the rain. There were

many lodges in the glades, with the red light of fires hanging around

them. The few log huts looked drenched; the tree-stems black in the wet;

and the very wild flowers were dripping. The soil was sandy; so that the

ugliest features of a rainy day, the mud and puddles, were obviated.

The sand sucked up the rain, so that we jumped out of the carriage as

often as a wild-flower of peculiar beauty tempted us. The bride-like,

white convolvulus, nearly as large as my hand, grew in trails all over

the ground.

The poor, helpless, squalid Potowatomies are sadly troubled by

squatters. It seems hard enough that they should be restricted within a

narrow territory, so surrounded by whites that the game is sure soon to

disappear, and leave them stripped of their only resource. It is too

hard that they should also be encroached upon by men who sit down,

without leave or title, upon lands which are not intended for sale. I

enjoyed hearing of an occasional alarm among the squatters, caused by

some threatening demonstrations by the Indians. I should like to see

every squatter frightened away from Indian lands, however advantageous

their squatting may be upon lands which are unclaimed, or whose owners

can defend their own property. I was glad to hear to-day that a

deputation of Potowatomies had been sent to visit a distant warlike

tribe, in consequence of the importunities of squatters, who wanted to

buy the land they had been living upon. The deputation returned,

painted, and under other hostile signals, and declared that the

Potowatomies did not intend to part with their lands. We stopped for

some milk, this morning, at the "location" of a squatter, whose wife was

milking as we passed. The gigantic personage, her husband, told us how

anxious he was to pay for the land which repaid his tillage so well; but

that his Indian neighbours would not sell. I hope that, by this time, he

has had to remove, and leave them the benefit of his house and fences.

Such an establishment in the wild woods is the destruction of the

game,--and of those who live upon it.

At breakfast, we saw a fine specimen of a settler's family. We had

observed the prosperity and cheerfulness of the settlers, all along the

road; but this family exceeded the best. I never saw such an

affectionate set of people. They, like many others, were from one of the

southern States: and I was not surprised to find all emigrants from

North and South Carolina well satisfied with the change they had made.

The old lady seemed to enjoy her pipe, and there was much mirth going on

between the beautiful daughter and all the other men and maidens. They

gave us an excellent breakfast in one of the two lower rooms; the table

being placed across the foot of the two beds. No pains were spared by

them to save us from the wet in the stage; but the rain was too pelting

and penetrating for any defence to avail long. It streamed in at all

corners, and we gave the matter up for the day. We were now entering

Indiana; and one of our intentions had been to see the celebrated Door

Prairie; so called from exquisite views into it being opened through

intervals in the growth of wood with which it is belted. I did obtain

something like an idea of it through the reeking rain, and thought that

it was the first prairie that I had seen that answered to my idea of

one. But I dare say we formed no conception of what it must be in

sunshine, and with the cloud shadows, which adorn a prairie as they do

still water.

We reached Laporte, on the edge of the Door Prairie, at three o'clock,

and were told that the weather did not promise an easy access to

Michigan City. We changed horses, however, and set forward again on a

very bad road, along the shore of a little lake, which must be pretty in

fine weather. Then we entered a wood, and jolted and rocked from side to

side, till, at last, the carriage leaned three parts over, and stuck. We

all jumped out into the rain, and the gentlemen literally put their

shoulders to the wheel, and lifted it out of its hole. The same little

incident was repeated in half an hour. At five or six miles from

Laporte, and seven from Michigan City, our driver stopped, and held a

long parley with somebody by the road side. The news was that a bridge

in the middle of a marsh had been carried away by a tremendous freshet;

and with how much log-road on either side, could not be ascertained till

the waters should subside. The mails, however, would have to be carried

over, by some means, the next day; and we must wait where we were till

we could profit by the post-office experiment. The next question was,

where were we to be harboured? There was no house of entertainment near.

We shrank from going back to Laporte over the perilous road which was

growing worse every minute. A family lived at hand, who hospitably

offered to receive us; and we were only too ready to accept their

kindness. The good man stopped our acknowledgments by saying, in the

most cheerful manner, "You know you would not have staid with me, if you

could have helped it; and I would not have had you, if I could have

helped it: so no more words about it; but let us make ourselves

comfortable."

We perceived by a glance at the beard and costume of our host, that

there was something remarkable about him. He was of the Tunker sect of

Baptists, (from _Tunken_, to dip,) a very peculiar sect of religionists.

He explained, without any reserve, his faith, and the reasons on which

it was founded.

It was all interesting, as showing how the true and the fanciful, the

principle and the emblem, the eternal truth and the supposed type, may

become all mixed together, so as to be received alike as articles of

faith. This man might almost compare with Origen in his mystical

divinations of scripture. The most profitable and delightful part of

his communication related to the operation upon his life and fortunes of

his peace principles. He had gone through life on the non-resistance

principle; and it was animating to learn how well it had served him; as

every high exercise of faith does serve every one who has strength and

simplicity of heart to commit himself to it. It was animating to learn,

not only his own consistency, but the force of his moral power over

others; how the careless had been won to thoughtfulness of his

interests, and the criminal to respect of his rights. He seemed to have

unconsciously secured the promise and the fruit of the life that now is,

more effectually than many who think less of that which is to come. It

was done, he said, by always supposing that the good was in men. His

wife won our hearts by the beauty of her countenance, set off by the

neat plain dress of her sect. She was ill; but they made us thoroughly

comfortable, without apparently discomposing themselves. Sixteen out of

seventeen children were living; of whom two sons and five daughters were

absent, and six sons and three daughters at home: the youngest was three

years old.

Their estate consists of eight hundred acres, a large portion of which

is not yet broken up. The owner says he walks over the ground once a

year, to see the huckleberries grow. He gave the upset price for the

land; a dollar and a-quarter an acre. He is now offered forty dollars an

acre, and says the land is worth fifty, its situation being very

advantageous; but he does not wish to sell. He has thus become worth

40,000 dollars in the three years which have elapsed since he came out

of Ohio. His sons, as they grow up, settle at a distance; and he does

not want money, and has no inducement to sell. I have no idea, however,

that the huckleberries will be long permitted to grow in peace and

quiet, in so busy a district as this is destined to become. The good man

will be constrained by the march and pressure of circumstances, either

to sell or cultivate.

The house, log-built, consisted of three rooms; two under one roof; and

another apparently added afterwards. There were also out-houses. In one

of these three rooms, the cooking and eating went on; another was given

up to us ladies, with a few of the little children; and in the other,

the rest of the family, the gentlemen of our party, and another

weather-bound traveller, slept. Huge fires of logs blazed in the

chimneys; two or three of the little ones were offered us as

hand-maidens; and the entire abode was as clean as could be conceived.

Here was comfort!

As we warmed and dried ourselves in the chimney corners, and looked upon

the clear windows, the bright tin water-pails, and the sheets and towels

as white as snow, we had only one anxiety. It was necessary for Mr. and

Mrs. L. to be at home, a thousand miles off, by a particular day. We had

already met with some delays; and there was no seeing the end of the

present adventure. There was some doubt whether we should not have done

better to cross the southern end of Lake Michigan, from Niles to

Chicago, by a little steam-boat, the Delaware, which was to leave Niles

a few hours after our stage. It had been thought of at Niles; but there

was some uncertainty about the departure of the boat; and we all

anxiously desired to skirt the extremity of this great inland sea, and

to see the new settlements on its shores. Had we done right in incurring

this risk of detention? Right or wrong, here we were; and here we must

wait upon events.

Our sleep, amidst the luxury of cleanliness and hospitality, was most

refreshing. The next morning it was still raining, but less vehemently.

After breakfast, we ladies employed ourselves in sweeping and dusting

our room, and making the beds; as we had given our kind hostess too much

trouble already. Then there was a Michigan City newspaper to be read;

and I sat down to write letters. Before long, a wagon and four drove up

to the door, the driver of which cried out that if there was any getting

to Michigan City, he was our man. We equipped ourselves in our warmest

and thickest clothing, put on our india rubber shoes, packed ourselves

and our luggage in the wagon, put up our umbrellas, and wondered what

was to be our fate. When it had come to saying farewell, our hostess put

her hands on my shoulders, kissed me on each cheek, and said she had

hoped for the pleasure of our company for another day. For my own part,

I would willingly take her at her word, if my destiny should ever carry

me near the great lakes again.

We jolted on for two miles and a half through the woods, admiring the

scarlet lilies, and the pink and white moccasin flower, which was

brilliant. Then we arrived at the place of the vanished bridge. Our

first prospect was of being paddled over, one by one, in the smallest of

boats. But, when the capabilities of the place were examined, it was

decided that we should wait in a house on the hill, while the

neighbours, the passengers of the mail-stage, and the drivers, built a

bridge. We waited patiently for nearly three hours, watching the busy

men going in and out, gathering tidings of the freshet, and its effects,

and being pleased to see how affectionate the woman of the house was to

her husband, while she was cross to everybody else. It must have been

vexatious to her to have her floor made wet and dirty, and all her

household operations disturbed by a dozen strangers whom she had never

invited. She let us have some dough nuts, and gave us a gracious glance

or two at parting.

We learned that a gentleman who followed us from Niles, the preceding

day, found the water nine feet deep, and was near drowning his horses,

in a place which we had crossed without difficulty. This very morning, a

bridge which we had proved and passed, gave way with the stage, and the

horses had to be dug and rolled out of the mud, when they were on the

point of suffocation. Such a freshet had never been known to the present

inhabitants.

Our driver was an original; and so were some of the other muddy

gentlemen who came in to dry themselves, after their bridge making. One

asked if such an one was not a "smart fellow." "He! he can't see through

a ladder." Our driver informed us, "when they send a man to jail here,

they put him abroad into the woods. Only, they set a man after him, that

they may knew where he is." A pretty expensive method of imprisonment,

though there be no bills for jail building. This man conversed with his

horses in much the same style as with us, averring that they understood

him as well. On one occasion, he boxed the ears of one of the leaders,

for not standing still when bidden, declaring, "If you go on doing so,

I'll give you something you can't buy at the grocer's shop." I was not

before aware that there was anything that was not to be bought at a

back-country grocer's shop.

At half-past two, the bridge was announced complete, and we re-entered

our wagon, to lead the cavalcade across it. Slowly, anxiously, with a

man at the head of each leader, we entered the water, and saw it rise to

the nave of the wheels. Instead of jolting, as usual, we mounted and

descended each log individually. The mail-wagon followed, with two or

three horsemen. There was also a singularly benevolent personage, who

jumped from the other wagon, and waded through all the doubtful places,

to prove them. He leaped and splashed through the water, which was

sometimes up to his waist, as if it was the most agreeable sport in the

world. In one of these gullies, the fore part of our wagon sank and

stuck, so as to throw us forward, and make it doubtful in what mode we

should emerge from the water. Then the rim of one of the wheels was

found to be loose; and the whole cavalcade stopped till it was mended. I

never could understand how wagons were made in the back-country; they

seemed to be elastic, from the shocks and twisting they would bear

without giving way. To form an accurate idea of what they have to bear,

a traveller should sit on a seat without springs, placed between the

hind wheels, and thus proceed on a corduroy road. The effect is less

fatiguing and more amusing, of riding in a wagon whose seats are on

springs, while the vehicle itself is not. In that case, the feet are

dancing an involuntary jig, all the way; while the rest of the body is

in a state of entire repose.

The drive was so exciting and pleasant, the rain having ceased, that I

was taken by surprise by our arrival at Michigan City. The driver

announced our approach by a series of flourishes on one note of his

common horn, which made the most ludicrous music I ever listened to. How

many minutes he went on, I dare not say; but we were so convulsed with

laughter that we could not alight with becoming gravity, amidst the

groups in the piazza of the hotel. The man must be first cousin to

Paganini.

Such a city as this was surely never before seen. It is three years

since it was begun; and it is said to have one thousand five hundred

inhabitants. It is cut out of the forest, and curiously interspersed

with little swamps, which we no doubt saw in their worst condition after

the heavy rains. New, good houses, some only half finished, stood in the

midst of the thick wood. A large area was half cleared. The finished

stores were scattered about; and the streets were littered with stumps.

The situation is beautiful. The undulations of the ground, within and

about it, and its being closed in by lake or forest on every side,

render it unique. An appropriation has been made by Government for a

harbour; and two piers are to be built out beyond the sand, as far as

the clay soil of the lake. Mr. L---- and I were anxious to see the

mighty fresh water sea. We made inquiry in the piazza; and a sandy hill,

close by, covered with the pea vine, was pointed out to us. We ran up

it, and there beheld what we had come so far to see. There it was, deep,

green, and swelling on the horizon, and whitening into a broad and heavy

surf as it rolled in towards the shore. Hence, too, we could make out

the geography of the city. The whole scene stands insulated in my

memory, as absolutely singular; and, at this distance of time, scarcely

credible. I was so well aware on the spot that it would be so, that I

made careful and copious notes of what I saw: but memoranda have nothing

to do with such emotions as were caused by the sight of that enormous

body of tumultuous waters, rolling in apparently upon the helpless

forest,--everywhere else so majestic.

The day was damp and chilly, as we were told every day is here. There is

scarcely ever a day of summer in which fire is not acceptable. The

windows were dim; the metals rusted, and the new wood about the house

red with damp. We could not have a fire. The storm had thrown down a

chimney; and the house was too full of workmen, providing accommodation

for future guests, to allow of the comfort of those present being much

attended to. We were permitted to sit round a flue in a chamber, where a

remarkably pretty and graceful girl was sewing. She has a widowed mother

to support, and she "gets considerable" by sewing here, where the women

lead a bustling life, which leaves no time for the needle. We had to

wait long for something to eat; that is, till supper time; for the

people are too busy to serve up anything between meals. Two little girls

brought a music book, and sang to us; and then we sang to them; and then

Dr. F. brought me two harebells.--one of the rarest flowers in the

country. I found some at Trenton Falls; and in one or two other rocky

and sandy places; but so seldom as to make a solitary one a great

treasure.

Our supper of young pork, good bread, potatoes, preserves, and tea, was

served at two tables, where the gentlemen were in proportion to the

ladies as ten to one. In such places, there is a large proportion of

young men who are to go back for wives when they have gathered a few

other comforts about them. The appearance of health was as striking as

at Detroit, and everywhere on this side of Lake Erie.

Immediately after supper we went for a walk, which, in peculiarity,

comes next to that in the Mammoth Cave; if, indeed, it be second to it.

The scene was like what I had always fancied the Norway coast, but for

the wild flowers, which grew among the pines on the slope, almost into

the tide. I longed to spend an entire day on this flowery and shadowy

margin of the inland sea. I plucked handfuls of pea-vine and other

trailing flowers, which seemed to run over all the ground. We found on

the sands an army, like Pharaoh's drowned host, of disabled butterflies,

beetles, and flies of the richest colours and lustre, driven over the

lake by the storm. Charley found a small turtle alive. An elegant little

schooner, "the Sea Serpent of Chicago," was stranded, and formed a

beautiful object as she lay dark between the sand and the surf. The sun

was going down. We watched the sunset, not remembering that the

refraction above the fresh waters would probably cause some remarkable

appearance. We looked at one another in amazement at what we saw. First,

there were three gay, inverted rainbows between the water and the sun,

then hidden behind a little streak of cloud. Then the sun emerged from

behind this only cloud, urn-shaped; a glistering golden urn. Then it

changed, rather suddenly, to an enormous golden acorn. Then to a precise

resemblance, except being prodigiously magnified, of Saturn with his

ring. This was the most beautiful apparition of all. Then it was quickly

narrowed and elongated till it was like the shaft of a golden pillar;

and thus it went down square. Long after its disappearance, a lustrous,

deep crimson dome, seemingly solid, rested steadily on the heaving

waters. An inexperienced navigator might be pardoned for making all sail

towards it; it looked so real. What do the Indians think of such

phenomena? Probably as the child does of the compass, the upas tree, and

all the marvels of Madame Genlis' story of Alphonso and Dalinda; that

such things are no more wonderful than all other things. The age of

wonder from natural appearances has not arrived in children and savages.

It is one of the privileges of advancing years. A grave Indian, who

could look with apathy upon the cataract and all the tremendous shows of

the wilderness, found himself in a glass-house at Pittsburg. He saw a

glassblower put a handle upon a pitcher. The savage was transported out

of his previous silence and reserve. He seized and grasped the hand of

the workman, crying out that it was now plain that he had had

intercourse with the Great Spirit. I remember in my childhood, being

more struck with seeing a square box made in three minutes out of a

piece of writing-paper, than with all that I read about the loadstone

and the lunar influence upon the tides. In those days I should have

looked upon this Indiana sunset with the same kind of feeling as upon a

cloud which might look "very like a whale."

We walked briskly home, beside the skiey sea, with the half-grown moon

above us, riding high. Then came the struggling for room to lie down,

for sheets and fresh water. The principal range of chambers could have

been of no manner of use to us, in their present state. There were, I

think, thirty, in one range along a passage. A small bed stood in the

middle of each, made up for use; but the walls were as yet only scantily

lathed, without any plaster; so that everything was visible along the

whole row. They must have been designed for persons who cannot see

through a ladder.

When I arose at daybreak, I found myself stiff with cold. No wonder: the

window, close to my head, had lost a pane. I think the business of a

perambulating glazier might be a very profitable one, in most parts of

the United States. When we seated ourselves in our wagon, we found that

the leathern cushions were soaked with wet; like so many sponges. They

were taken in to a hot fire, and soon brought out, each sending up a

cloud of steam. Blankets were furnished to lay over them; and we set

off. We were cruelly jolted through the bright dewy woods, for four

miles, and then arrived on the borders of a swamp where the bridge had

been carried away. A man waded in; declared the depth to be more than

six feet; how much more he could not tell. There was nothing to be done

but to go back. Back again we jolted, and arrived at the piazza of the

hotel just as the breakfast-bell was ringing. All the "force" that could

be collected on a hasty summons,--that is, almost every able-bodied man

in the city and neighbourhood, was sent out with axes to build us a

bridge. We breakfasted, gathered and dried flowers, and wandered about

till ten o'clock, when we were summoned to try our fortune again in the

wagon. We found a very pretty scene at the swamp. Part of the "force"

was engaged on our side of the swamp, and part on the other. As we sat

under the trees, making garlands and wreaths of flowers and oakleaves

for Charley, we could see one lofty tree-top after another, in the

opposite forest, tremble and fall; and the workmen cluster about it,

like bees, lop off its branches, and, in a trice, roll it, an ugly log,

into the water, and pin it down upon the sleepers. Charley was as busy

as anybody, making islands in the water at the edge of the marsh. The

moccasin flower grew here in great profusion and splendour. We sat thus

upwards of two hours; and the work done in that time appeared almost

incredible. But the Americans in the back country seem to like the

repairing of accidents--a social employment--better than their regular

labour; and even the drivers appeared to prefer adventurous travelling

to easy journeys. A gentleman in a light gig made the first trial of the

new bridge: our wagon followed, plunging and rocking, and we scrambled

in safety up the opposite bank.

There were other bad places in the road, but none which occasioned

further delay. The next singular scene was an expanse of sand, before

reaching the lake-shore,--sand, so extensive, hot, and dazzling, as to

realise very fairly one's conceptions of the middle of the Great Desert;

except for the trailing roses which skirted it. I walked on, a-head of

the whole party, till I had lost sight of them behind some low

sand-hills. Other such hills hid the lake from me; and, indeed, I did

not know how near it was. I had ploughed my way through the ankle-deep

sand till I was much heated, and turned in hope of meeting a breath of

wind. At the moment, the cavalcade came slowly into view from behind the

hills; the labouring horses, the listless walkers, and smoothly rolling

vehicles, all painted absolutely black against the dazzling sand. It was

as good as being in Arabia. For cavalcade, one might read caravan. Then

the horses were watered at a single house on the beach; and we proceeded

on the best part of our day's journey; a ride of seven miles on the hard

sand of the beach, actually in the lapsing waves. We saw another vessel

ashore, with her cargo piled upon the beach. The sight of the clear

waters suggested thoughts of bathing. Charley dearly loves bathing. He

follows the very natural practice of expressing himself in abstract

propositions when his emotions are the strongest. He heard the

speculations on the facilities for bathing which might offer at our

resting-place; and besought his mother to let him bathe. He was told

that it was doubtful whether we should reach our destination before

sunset, and whether any body would be able to try the water. Might he

ask his father?--Yes: but he would find his father no more certain than

the rest of us. "Mother," cried the boy, in an agony of earnestness,

"does not a father know when his child ought to bathe?"--There was no

bathing. The sun had set, and it was too cold.

The single house at which we were to stop for the night, while the

mail-wagon, with its passengers, proceeded, promised well, at first

sight. It was a log-house on a sand-bank, perfectly clean below stairs,

and prettily dressed with green boughs. We had a good supper, (except

that there was an absence of milk,) and we concluded ourselves fortunate

in our resting-place. Never was there a greater mistake. We walked out,

after supper, and when we returned, found that we could not have any

portion of the lower rooms. There was a loft, which I will not describe,

into which, having ascended a ladder, we were to be all stowed. I would

fain have slept on the soft sand, out of doors, beneath the wagon; but

rain came on. There was no place for us to put our heads into but the

loft. Enough. I will only say that this house was, as far as I remember,

the only place in the United States where I met with bad treatment.

Everywhere else, people gave me the best they had,--whether it was bad

or good.

On our road to Chicago, the next day,--a road winding in and out among

the sand-hills, we were called to alight, and run up a bank to see a

wreck. It was the wreck of the Delaware;--the steamer in which it had

been a question whether we should not proceed from Niles to Chicago. She

had a singular twist in her middle, where she was nearly broken in two.

Her passengers stood up to the neck in water, for twenty-four hours

before they were taken off; a worse inconvenience than any that we had

suffered by coming the other way. The first thing the passengers from

the Delaware did, when they had dried and warmed themselves on shore,

was to sign a letter to the captain, which appeared in all the

neighbouring newspapers, thanking him for the great comfort they had

enjoyed on board his vessel. It is to be presumed that they meant

previously to their having to stand up to their necks in water.

In the wood which borders the prairie on which Chicago stands, we saw an

encampment of United States' troops. Since the rising of the Creeks in

Georgia, some months before, there had been apprehensions of an Indian

war along the whole frontier. It was believed that a correspondence had

taken place among all the tribes, from the Cumanches, who were engaged

to fight for the Mexicans in Texas, up to the northern tribes among

whom we were going. It was believed that the war-belt was circulating

among the Winnebagoes, the warlike tribe who inhabit the western shores

of Lake Michigan; and the government had sent troops to Chicago, to keep

them in awe. It was of some consequence to us to ascertain the real

state of the case; and we were glad to find that alarm was subsiding so

fast, that the troops were soon allowed to go where they were more

wanted. As soon as they had recovered from the storm which seemed to

have incommoded everybody, they broke up their encampment, and departed.

Chicago looks raw and bare, standing on the high prairie above the

lake-shore. The houses appeared insignificant, and run up in various

directions, without any principle at all. A friend of mine who resides

there had told me that we should find the inns intolerable, at the

period of the great land sales, which bring a concourse of speculators

to the place. It was even so. The very sight of them was intolerable;

and there was not room for our party among them all. I do not know what

we should have done, (unless to betake ourselves to the vessels in the

harbour,) if our coming had not been foreknown, and most kindly provided

for. We were divided between three families, who had the art of removing

all our scruples about intruding on perfect strangers. None of us will

lose the lively and pleasant associations with the place, which were

caused by the hospitalities of its inhabitants.

I never saw a busier place than Chicago was at the time of our arrival.

The streets were crowded with land speculators, hurrying from one sale

to another. A negro, dressed up in scarlet, bearing a scarlet flag, and

riding a white horse with housings of scarlet, announced the times of

sale. At every street-corner where he stopped, the crowd flocked round

him; and it seemed as if some prevalent mania infected the whole people.

The rage for speculation might fairly be so regarded. As the gentlemen

of our party walked the streets, store-keepers hailed them from their

doors, with offers of farms, and all manner of land-lots, advising them

to speculate before the price of land rose higher. A young lawyer, of my

acquaintance there, had realised five hundred dollars per day, the five

preceding days, by merely making out titles to land. Another friend had

realised, in two years, ten times as much money as he had before fixed

upon as a competence for life. Of course, this rapid money-making is a

merely temporary evil. A bursting of the bubble must come soon. The

absurdity of the speculation is so striking, that the wonder is that the

fever should have attained such a height as I witnessed. The immediate

occasion of the bustle which prevailed, the week we were at Chicago, was

the sale of lots, to the value of two millions of dollars, along the

course of a projected canal; and of another set, immediately behind

these. Persons not intending to game, and not infected with mania, would

endeavour to form some reasonable conjecture as to the ultimate value of

the lots, by calculating the cost of the canal, the risks from accident,

from the possible competition from other places, &c., and, finally, the

possible profits, under the most favourable circumstances, within so

many years' purchase. Such a calculation would serve as some sort of

guide as to the amount of purchase-money to be risked. Whereas, wild

land on the banks of a canal, not yet even marked out, was selling at

Chicago for more than rich land, well improved, in the finest part of

the valley of the Mohawk, on the banks of a canal which is already the

medium of an almost inestimable amount of traffic. If sharpers and

gamblers were to be the sufferers by the impending crash at Chicago, no

one would feel much concerned: but they, unfortunately, are the people

who encourage the delusion, in order to profit by it. Many a

high-spirited, but inexperienced, young man; many a simple settler, will

be ruined for the advantage of knaves.

Others, besides lawyers and speculators by trade, make a fortune in such

extraordinary times. A poor man at Chicago had a pre-emption right to

some land, for which he paid in the morning one hundred and fifty

dollars. In the afternoon, he sold it to a friend of mine for five

thousand dollars. A poor Frenchman, married to a squaw, had a suit

pending, when I was there, which he was likely to gain, for the right of

purchasing some land by the lake for one hundred dollars, which would

immediately become worth one million dollars.

There was much gaiety going on at Chicago, as well as business. On the

evening of our arrival a fancy fair took place. As I was too much

fatigued to go, the ladies sent me a bouquet of prairie flowers. There

is some allowable pride in the place about its society. It is a

remarkable thing to meet such an assemblage of educated, refined, and

wealthy persons as may be found there, living in small, inconvenient

houses on the edge of a wild prairie. There is a mixture, of course. I

heard of a family of half-breeds setting up a carriage, and wearing fine

jewellery. When the present intoxication of prosperity passes away, some

of the inhabitants will go back to the eastward; there will be an

accession of settlers from the mechanic classes; good houses will have

been built for the richer families, and the singularity of the place

will subside. It will be like all the other new and thriving lake and

river ports of America. Meantime, I am glad to have seen it in its

strange early days.

We dined one day with a gentleman who had been Indian agent among the

Winnebagoes for some years. He and his lady seem to have had the art of

making themselves as absolutely Indian in their sympathies and manners

as the welfare of the savages among whom they lived required. They were

the only persons I met with who, really knowing the Indians, had any

regard for them. The testimony was universal to the good faith, and

other virtues of savage life of the unsophisticated Indians; but they

were spoken of in a tone of dislike, as well as pity, by all but this

family; and they certainly had studied their Indian neighbours very

thoroughly. The ladies of Indian agents ought to be women of nerve. Our

hostess had slept for weeks with a loaded pistol on each side her

pillow, and a dagger under it, when expecting an attack from a hostile

tribe. The foe did not, however, come nearer than within a few miles.

Her husband's sister was in the massacre when the fort was abandoned, in

1812. Her father and her husband were in the battle, and her mother and

young brothers and sisters sat in a boat on the lake near. Out of

seventy whites, only seventeen escaped, among whom were her family. She

was wounded in the ankle, as she sat on her horse. A painted Indian, in

warlike costume, came leaping up to her, and seized her horse, as she

supposed, to murder her. She fought him vigorously, and he bore it

without doing her any injury. He spoke, but she could not understand

him. Another frightful savage came up, and the two led her horse to the

lake, and into it, in spite of her resistance, till the water reached

their chins. She concluded that they meant to drown her; but they

contented themselves with holding her on her horse till the massacre

was over, when they led her out in safety. They were friendly Indians,

sent by her husband to guard her. She could not but admire their

patience when she found how she had been treating her protectors.

We had the fearful pleasure of seeing various savage dances performed by

the Indian agent and his brother, with the accompaniments of complete

costume, barbaric music, and whooping. The most intelligible to us was

the Discovery Dance, a highly descriptive pantomime. We saw the Indian

go out armed for war. We saw him reconnoitre, make signs to his

comrades, sleep, warm himself, load his rifle, sharpen his

scalping-knife, steal through the grass within rifle-shot of his foes,

fire, scalp one of them, and dance, whooping and triumphing. There was a

dreadful truth about the whole, and it made our blood run cold. It

realised hatred and horror as effectually as Taglioni does love and

grace.

We were unexpectedly detained over the Sunday at Chicago; and Dr. F. was

requested to preach. Though only two hours' notice was given, a

respectable congregation was assembled in the large room of the Lake

House; a new hotel then building. Our seats were a few chairs and

benches, and planks laid on trestles. The preacher stood behind a rough

pine-table, on which a large Bible was placed. I was never present at a

more interesting service; and I know that there were others who felt

with me.

From Chicago, we made an excursion into the prairies. Our young

lawyer-friend threw behind him the five hundred dollars per day which he

was making, and went with us. I thought him wise; for there is that to

be had in the wilderness which money cannot buy. We drove out of the

town at ten o'clock in the morning, too late by two hours; but it was

impossible to overcome the introductions to strangers, and the bustle of

our preparations, any sooner. Our party consisted of seven, besides the

driver. Our vehicle was a wagon with four horses.

We had first to cross the prairie, nine miles wide, on the lake edge of

which Chicago stands. This prairie is not usually wet so early in the

year; but at this time the water stood almost up to the nave of the

wheels: and we crossed it at a walking pace. I saw here, for the first

time in the United States, the American primrose. It grew in profusion

over the whole prairie, as far as I could see; not so large and fine as

in English greenhouses, but graceful and pretty. I now found the truth

of what I had read about the difficulty of distinguishing distances on a

prairie. The feeling is quite bewildering. A man walking near looks like

a Goliath a mile off. I mistook a covered wagon without horses, at a

distance of fifty yards, for a white house near the horizon: and so on.

We were not sorry to reach the belt of trees, which bounded the swamp we

had passed. At a house here, where we stopped to water the horses, and

eat dough nuts, we saw a crowd of emigrants; which showed that we had

not yet reached the bounds of civilisation. A little further on we came

to the river Aux Plaines, spelled on a sign board "Oplain." The ferry

here is a monopoly, and the public suffers accordingly. There is only

one small flat boat for the service of the concourse of people now

pouring into the prairies. Though we happened to arrive nearly first of

the crowd of to-day, we were detained on the bank above an hour; and

then our horses went over at two crossings, and the wagon and ourselves

at the third. It was a pretty scene, if we had not been in a hurry; the

country wagons and teams in the wood by the side of the quiet clear

river; and the oxen swimming over, yoked, with only their patient faces

visible above the surface. After crossing, we proceeded briskly till we

reached a single house, where, or nowhere, we were to dine. The kind

hostess bestirred herself to provide us a good dinner of tea, bread,

ham, potatoes, and strawberries, of which a whole pailful, ripe and

sweet, had been gathered by the children in the grass round the house,

within one hour. While dinner was preparing, we amused ourselves with

looking over an excellent small collection of books, belonging to Miss

Cynthia, the slaughter of the hostess.

I never saw insulation, (not desolation,) to compare with the situation

of a settler on a wide prairie. A single house in the middle of

Salisbury Plain would be desolate. A single house on a prairie has

clumps of trees near it, rich fields about it; and flowers,

strawberries, and running water at hand. But when I saw a settler's

child tripping out of home-bounds, I had a feeling that it would never

get back again. It looked like putting out into Lake Michigan in a

canoe. The soil round the dwellings is very rich. It makes no dust, it

is so entirely vegetable. It requires merely to be once turned over to

produce largely; and, at present, it appears to be inexhaustible. As we

proceeded, the scenery became more and more like what all travellers

compare it to,--a boundless English park. The grass was wilder, the

occasional footpath not so trim, and the single trees less majestic; but

no park ever displayed anything equal to the grouping of the trees

within the windings of the blue, brimming river Aux Plaines.

We had met with so many delays that we felt doubts about reaching the

place where we had intended to spend the night. At sunset, we found

ourselves still nine miles from Joliet;[11] but we were told that the

road was good, except a small "slew" or two; and there was half a moon

shining behind a thin veil of clouds; so we pushed on. We seemed

latterly to be travelling on a terrace overlooking a wide champaign,

where a dark, waving line might indicate the winding of the river,

between its clumpy banks. Our driver descended, and went forward, two or

three times, to make sure of our road; and at length, we rattled down a

steep descent, and found ourselves among houses. This was not our

resting-place, however. The Joliet hotel lay on the other side of the

river. We were directed to a foot-bridge by which we were to pass; and a

ford below for the wagon. We strained our eyes in vain for the

foot-bridge; and our gentlemen peeped and pryed about for some time. All

was still but the rippling river, and everybody asleep in the houses

that were scattered about. We ladies were presently summoned to put on

our water-proof shoes, and alight. A man showed himself who had risen

from his bed to help us in our need. The foot-bridge consisted, for some

way, of two planks, with a hand-rail on one side: but, when we were

about a third of the way over, one half of the planks, and the

hand-rail, had disappeared. We actually had to cross the rushing, deep

river on a line of single planks, by dim moonlight, at past eleven

o'clock at night. The great anxiety was about Charley; but between his

father and the guide, he managed very well. This guide would accept

nothing but thanks. He "did not calculate to take any pay." Then we

waited some time for the wagon to come up from the ford. I suspected it

had passed the spot where we stood, and had proceeded to the village,

where we saw a twinkling light, now disappearing, and now re-appearing.

It was so, and the driver came back to look for us, and tell us that the

light we saw was a signal from the hotel-keeper, whom we found, standing

on his door-step, and sheltering his candle with his hand. We sat down

and drank milk in the bar, while he went to consult with his wife what

was to be done with us, as every bed in the house was occupied. We,

meanwhile, agreed that the time was now come for us to enjoy an

adventure which we had often anticipated; sleeping in a barn. We had all

declared ourselves anxious to sleep in a barn, if we could meet with one

that was air-tight, and well-supplied with hay. Such a barn was actually

on these premises. We were prevented, however, from all practising the

freak by the prompt hospitality of our hostess. Before we knew what she

was about, she had risen and dressed herself, put clean sheets on her

own bed, and made up two others on the floor of the same room; so that

the ladies and Charley were luxuriously accommodated. Two sleepy

personages crawled down stairs to offer their beds to our gentlemen. Mr.

L. and our Chicago friend, however, persisted in sleeping in the barn.

Next morning, we all gave a very gratifying report of our lodgings. When

we made our acknowledgments to our hostess, she said she thought that

people who could go to bed quietly every night ought to be ready to give

up to tired travellers. Whenever she travels, I hope she will be treated

as she treated us. She let us have breakfast as early as half-past five,

the next morning, and gave Charley a bun at parting, lest he should be

too hungry before we could dine.

The great object of our expedition, Mount Joliet, was two miles distant

from this place. We had to visit it, and perform the journey back to

Chicago, forty miles, before night. The mount is only sixty feet high;

yet it commands a view which I shall not attempt to describe, either in

its vastness, or its soft beauty. The very spirit of tranquillity

resides in this paradisy scene. The next painter who would worthily

illustrate Milton's Morning Hymn, should come and paint what he sees

from Mount Joliet, on a dewy summer's morning, when a few light clouds

are gently sailing in the sky, and their shadows traversing the prairie.

I thought I had never seen green levels till now; and only among

mountains had I before known the beauty of wandering showers. Mount

Joliet has the appearance of being an artificial mound, its sides are so

uniformly steep, and its form so regular. Its declivity was bristling

with flowers; among which were conspicuous the scarlet lily, the white

convolvulus, and a tall, red flower of the scabia form. We disturbed a

night-hawk, sitting on her eggs, on the ground. She wheeled round and

round over our heads, and, I hope, returned to her eggs before they were

cold.

Not far from the mount was a log-house, where the rest of the party went

in to dry their feet, after having stood long in the wet grass. I

remained outside, watching the light showers, shifting in the partial

sunlight from clump to level, and from reach to reach of the brimming

and winding river. The nine miles of prairie, which we had traversed in

dim moonlight last night, were now exquisitely beautiful, as the sun

shone fitfully upon them.

We saw a prairie wolf, very like a yellow dog, trotting across our path,

this afternoon. Our hostess of the preceding day, expecting us, had an

excellent dinner ready for us. We were detained a shorter time at the

ferry, and reached the belt of trees at the edge of Nine-mile Prairie,

before sunset. Here, in common prudence, we ought to have stopped till

the next day, even if no other accommodation could be afforded us than a

roof over our heads. We deserved an ague for crossing the swamp after

dark, in an open wagon, at a foot pace. Nobody was aware of this in

time, and we set forward: the feet of our wearied horses plashing in

water at every step of the nine miles. There was no road; and we had to

trust to the instinct of driver and horses to keep us in the right

direction. I rather think the driver attempted to amuse himself by

exciting our fears. He hinted more than once at the difficulty of

finding the way; at the improbability that we should reach Chicago

before midnight; and at the danger of our wandering about the marsh all

night, and finding ourselves at the opposite edge of the prairie in the

morning. Charley was bruised and tired. All the rest were hungry and

cold. It was very dreary. The driver bade us look to our right hand. A

black bear was trotting alongside of us, at a little distance. After

keeping up his trot for some time, he turned off from our track. The

sight of him made up for all,--even if ague should follow, which I

verily believed it would. But we escaped all illness. It is remarkable

that I never saw ague but once. The single case that I met with was in

autumn, at the Falls of Niagara.

I had promised Dr. F. a long story about English politics, when a

convenient opportunity should occur. I thought the present an admirable

one; for nobody seemed to have anything to say, and it was highly

desirable that something should be said. I made my story long enough to

beguile four miles; by which time, some were too tired, and others too

much disheartened, for more conversation. Something white was soon after

visible. Our driver gave out that it was a house, half a mile from

Chicago. But no: it was an emigrant encampment, on a morsel of raised,

dry ground; and again we were uncertain whether we were in the right

road. Presently, however, the Chicago beacon was visible, shining a

welcome to us through the dim, misty air. The horses seemed to see it,

for they quickened their pace; and before half-past ten, we were on the

bridge.

The family, at my temporary home, were gone up to their chambers; but

the wood-fire was soon replenished, tea made, and the conversation

growing lively. My companions were received as readily at their several

resting-places. When we next met, we found ourselves all disposed to

place warm hospitality very high on the list of virtues.

While we were at Detroit, we were most strongly urged to return thither

by the Lakes, instead of by either of the Michigan roads. From place to

place, in my previous travelling, I had been told of the charms of the

Lakes, and especially of the Island of Mackinaw. Every officer's lady

who has been in garrison there, is eloquent upon the delights of

Mackinaw. As our whole party, however, could not spare time to make so

wide a circuit, we had not intended to indulge ourselves with a further

variation in our travels than to take the upper road back to Detroit;

having left it by the lower. On Sunday, June 27th, news arrived at

Chicago that this upper road had been rendered impassable by the rains.

A sailing vessel, the only one on the Lakes, and now on her first trip,

was to leave Chicago for Detroit and Buffalo, the next day. The case was

clear: the party must divide. Those who were obliged to hasten home must

return by the road we came: the rest must proceed by water. On Charley's

account, the change of plan was desirable; as the heats were beginning

to be so oppressive as to render travelling in open wagons unsafe for a

child. It was painful to break up our party at the extreme point of our

journey; but it was clearly right. So Mr. and Mrs. L. took their chance

by land; and the rest of us went on board the Milwaukee, at two o'clock

on the afternoon of the 28th.

Mrs. F. and I were the only ladies on board; and there was no

stewardess. The steward was obliging, and the ladies' cabin was clean

and capacious; and we took possession of it with a feeling of comfort.

Our pleasant impressions, however, were not of long duration. The vessel

was crowded with persons who had come to the land sales at Chicago, and

were taking their passage back to Milwaukee; a settlement on the western

shore of the lake, about eighty miles from Chicago. Till we should reach

Milwaukee, we could have the ladies' cabin only during a part of the

day. I say a part of the day, because some of the gentry did not leave

our cabin till near nine in the morning; and others chose to come down,

and go to bed, as early as seven in the evening, without troubling

themselves to give us five minutes' notice, or to wait till we could put

up our needles, or wipe our pens. This ship was the only place in

America where I saw a prevalence of bad manners. It was the place of all

others to select for the study of such; and no reasonable person would

look for anything better among land-speculators, and settlers in regions

so new as to be almost without women. None of us had ever before seen,

in America, a disregard of women. The swearing was incessant; and the

spitting such as to amaze my American companions as much as myself.

Supper was announced presently after we had sailed; and when we came to

the table, it was full, and no one offered to stir, to make room for

us. The captain, who was very careful of our comfort, arranged that we

should be better served henceforth; and no difficulty afterwards

occurred. At dinner, the next day, we had a specimen of how such

personages as we had on board are managed on an emergency. The captain

gave notice, from the head of the table, that he did not choose our

party to be intruded on in the cabin; and that any one who did not

behave with civility at table should be turned out. He spoke with

decision and good-humour; and the effect was remarkable. Everything on

the table was handed to us; and no more of the gentry came down into our

cabin to smoke, or throw themselves on the cushions to sleep, while we

sat at work.

Our fare was what might be expected on Lake Michigan. Salt beef and

pork, and sea-biscuit; tea without milk, bread, and potatoes. Charley

throve upon potatoes and bread: and we all had the best results of

food,--health and strength.

A little schooner which left Chicago at the same time with ourselves,

and reached Milwaukee first, was a pretty object. On the 29th, we were

only twenty-five miles from the settlement; but the wind was so

unfavourable that it was doubtful whether we should reach it that day.

Some of the passengers amused themselves by gaming, down in the hold;

others by parodying a methodist sermon, and singing a mock hymn. We did

not get rid of them till noon on the 30th, when we had the pleasure of

seeing our ship disgorge twenty-five into one boat, and two into

another. The atmosphere was so transparent as to make the whole scene

appear as if viewed through an opera-glass; the still, green waters, the

dark boats with their busy oars, the moving passengers, and the

struggles of one to recover his hat, which had fallen overboard. We

were yet five miles from Milwaukee; but we could see the bright, wooded

coast, with a few white dots of houses.

While Dr. F. went on shore, to see what was to be seen, we had the cabin

cleaned out, and took, once more, complete possession of it, for both

day and night. As soon as this was done, seven young women came down the

companion-way, seated themselves round the cabin, and began to question

us. They were the total female population of Milwaukee; which settlement

now contains four hundred souls. We were glad to see these ladies; for

it was natural enough that the seven women should wish to behold two

more, when such a chance offered. A gentleman of the place, who came on

board this afternoon, told me that a printing-press had arrived a few

hours before; and that a newspaper would speedily appear. He was kind

enough to forward the first number to me a few weeks afterwards; and I

was amused to see how pathetic an appeal to the ladies of more

thickly-settled districts it contained; imploring them to cast a

favourable eye on Milwaukee, and its hundreds of bachelors. Milwaukee

had been settled since the preceding November. It had good stores, (to

judge by the nature and quality of goods sent ashore from our ship;) it

had a printing-press and newspaper, before the settlers had had time to

get wives. I heard these new settlements sometimes called "patriarchal;"

but what would the patriarchs have said to such an order of affairs?