The present Volume of Professor Kalm’s Travels through North America,
is originally written in the Swedish language, but was immediately
after translated into the German by the two Murray’s, both of whom are
Swedes, and one a pupil of Dr. Linnæus, and therefore we may be sure
that this translation corresponds exactly with the original.
Baron Sten Charles Bielke, Vice president of the Court of Justice in
Finland, was the first who made a proposal to the Royal Academy of
Sciences at Stockholm, to send an able man to the northern parts of
Siberia and Iceland, as places which are partly under the same latitude
with Sweden, and to make there such observations and collections of
seeds and plants, as would improve the Swedish husbandry, gardening,
manufactures, arts and sciences. Dr. Linnæus found the proposal just,
but he thought that a journey through North America would be yet of a
more extensive utility, than that through the before-mentioned
countries; for the plants of America were then little known, and not
scientifically described, and by several trials, it seemed probable
that the greatest part of the North American plants, would bear very
well the Swedish winters; and what was more important, a great many
American plants promised to be very useful in husbandry and physic.
Thus far this journey was a mere scheme; but as Captain Triewald, a man
well known for his abilities in England, gave his Observations on the
Cultivation of Silk in a series of Memoirs to the Royal Academy of
Sciences, and mentioned therein a kind of mulberry tree, which was
discovered by Dr. Linnæus, and which bore the rigours of the Swedish
climate as well as a fir or pine tree; this circumstance revived the
proposal of such a journey in the year 1745. Count Tessin, a nobleman
of established merit both in the political and learned world, becoming
president of the Royal Academy, it was unanimously agreed upon to send
Professor Kalm to North America. The expences were at first a great
obstacle; but the Royal Academy wrote to the three universities to
assist them in this great and useful undertaking. Aobo sent first her
small contribution, Lund had nothing to spare, but Upsala made up this
deficiency by a liberal contribution.
Count Piper was intreated to give a family exhibition to Mr. Kalm,
which he readily promised, but as the Academy had obtained from the
convocation of the university of Upsala and the magistrates of
Stockholm, another exhibition of the family of Helmsfield for Mr. Kalm,
Count Piper refused to grant his exhibition, as being contrary to the
statutes of the university and without any precedent, that one person
should enjoy two exhibitions. The present king of Sweden being then
prince royal, successor to the throne, and chancellor of the
university, wrote to the convocation, and expressed his wishes to have
from the treasury of the university for so useful a purpose, about 1000
plates, or about 150l. sterling. The university complied generously
with the desire of her chancellor, and gave orders that the money
should be paid to the Royal Academy. The board for promoting
manufactures gave 300 plates, or about 45l. Mr. Kalm spent in this
journey his salary, and besides very near 130l. of his own fortune, so
that at his return he found himself obliged to live upon a very small
pittance. The rest of the expences the Academy made up from her own
fund.
We on purpose have given this detail from Mr. Kalm’s long preface, to
shew the reader with what public spirit this journey has been supported
in a country where money is so scarce, and what a patriotic and
laudable ardor for the promotion of sciences in general, and especially
of natural history and husbandry animates the universities, the public
boards, and even the private persons, in this cold climate, which goes
so far, that they chuse rather to spend their own private fortunes,
than to give up so beneficial and useful a scheme. We have the same
instance in Dr. Hasselquist, who with a sickly and consumptive
constitution, went to Asia Minor, Egypt and Palestine, and collected
such great riches in new plants and animals, that Dr. Linnæus’s system
would never have contained so many species, had he not made use of
these treasures, which the queen of Sweden generously bought by paying
the debts of Dr. Hasselquist, who died in his attempt to promote
natural history. The Reverend Mr. Osbeck in his voyage to China, made
an infinite number of useful and interesting observations at the
expence of his whole salary, and published them by the contributions of
his parish. The Reverend Mr. Toreen died by the fatigues of the same
voyage, and left his letters published along with Osbeck, as a monument
of his fine genius, and spirit for promoting natural history. We here
look upon the expences as trifling, but they are not so in Sweden, and
therefore are certainly the best monuments to the honour of the nation
and the great Linnæus, who in respect to natural history is the primum
mobile of that country.
Professor Kalm having obtained leave of his Majesty to be absent from
his post as professor, and having got a passport, and recommendations
to the several Swedish ministers at the courts of London, Paris,
Madrid, and at the Hague, in order to obtain passports for him in their
respective states, set out from Upsala, the 16th. of October 1747,
accompanied by Lars Yungstrœm, a gardener well skilled in the knowledge
of plants and mechanics, and who had at the same time a good hand for
drawing, whom he took into his service. He then set sail from
Gothenburgh, the 11th. of December but a violent hurricane obliged the
ship he was in to take shelter in the harbour of Grœmstad in Norway,
from which place he made excursions to Arendal and Christiansand. He
went again to sea February the 8th. 1748, and arrived at London the
17th. of the same month. He staid in England till August 15th. in which
interval of time he made excursions to Woodford in Essex, to little
Gaddesden in Hertfordshire, where William Ellis, a man celebrated for
his publications in husbandry lived, but whose practical husbandry Mr.
Kalm found not to be equal to the theory laid down in his writings; he
likewise saw Ivinghoe in Buckinghamshire, Eaton and several other
places, and all the curiosities and gardens in and about London: at
last he went on board a ship, and traversed the ocean to Philadelphia
in Pensylvania, which was formerly called New Sweden, where he arrived
September the 26th. The rest of that year he employed in collecting
seeds of trees and plants, and sending them up to Sweden; and in
several excursions in the environs of Philadelphia. The winter he
passed among his countrymen at Raccoon in New Jersey. The next year
1749, Mr. Kalm went through New Jersey and New York along the river
Hudson to Albany, and from thence, after having crossed the lakes of
St. George and Champlain, to Montreal and Quebec, he returned that very
year against winter to Philadelphia, and sent a new cargo of seeds,
plants and curiosities to Sweden. In the year 1750, Mr. Kalm saw the
western parts of Pensylvania and the coast of New Jersey; Yungstrœm
staid in the former province all the summer for the collection of
seeds, and Prof. Kalm in the mean time passed New York and the blue
mountains, went to Albany, then along the river Mohawk to the Iroquois
nations, where he got acquainted with the Mohawk’s, Oneida’s,
Tuskarora’s, Onandaga’s and Kayugaw’s. He then viewed and navigated the
great lake Ontario, and saw the celebrated fall at Niagara. In his
return from his summer expedition, he crossed the blue mountains in a
different place, and in October again reached Philadelphia.
In the year 1751, the 13th. of February, he went at Newcastle on board
a ship for England, and after a passage subject to many dangers in the
most dreadful hurricanes, he arrived March the 27th. in the Thames, and
two days after in London. He took passage for Gothenburgh May the 5th.
and was the 16th. of the same month at the place of his destination,
and the 13th. of June he again arrived at Stockholm, after having been
on this truly useful expedition three years and eight months. He
afterwards returned again to his place of professor at Aobo, where in a
small garden of his own, he cultivates many hundreds of American
plants, as there is not yet a public botanical garden for the use of
the university, and he with great expectation wishes to see what plants
will bear the climate, and bear good and ripe seeds so far north. He
published the account of his journey by intervals, for want of
encouragement, and fearing the expences of publishing at once in a
country where few booksellers are found, and where the author must very
often embrace the business of bookseller, in order to reimburse himself
for the expences of his publication. He published in his first volume
observations on England, and chiefly on its husbandry, where he with
the most minute scrupulousness and detail, entered into the very
minutiæ of this branch of his business for the benefit of his
countrymen, and this subject he continued at the beginning of the
second volume. A passage cross the Atlantic ocean is a new thing to
Swedes, who are little used to it, unless they go in the few East India
ships of their country. Every thing therefore was new to Mr. Kalm, and
he omitted no circumstance unobserved which are repeated in all the
navigators from the earlier times down to our own age. It would be a
kind of injustice to the public, to give all this at large to the
reader. All that part describing England and its curiosities and
husbandry we omitted. The particulars of the passage from England to
Pensylvania we abridged; no circumstance interesting to natural history
or to any other part of literature has been omitted. And from his
arrival at Philadelphia, we give the original at large, except where we
omitted some trifling circumstances, viz. the way of eating oysters,
the art of making apple dumplings, and some more of the same nature,
which struck that Swedish gentleman with their novelty.
Mr. Kalm makes use of the Swedish measure; its foot is to the English
foot, as 1134 to 1350. For his meteorological observations, he employed
the thermometer of Prof. Celsius generally made use of in Sweden, and
his was of Celsius’s own making; the interval from the point of
freezing to the point of boiling water, is equally divided in this
thermometer into 100 parts. In the names of plants, we have chiefly
employed after his directions the Linnæan names in the last edition of
his Spec. Plantarum, and Systema Naturæ, Vol. 2. But as his
descriptions of animals, plants, and minerals are very short, he
promises to give them at large some time hence in a Latin work. He
excuses the negligence of his stile, from the time in which he
methodised his observations, which was commonly at night, after being
fatigued with the business of the preceding day, when his spirits were
almost exhausted, and he, incapable of that sprightliness which
commends so many curious performances of that nature.
He gives you his observations as they occurred day after day, which
makes him a faithful relater, notwithstanding it takes away all
elegance of style, and often occasions him to make very sudden
transitions from subjects very foreign to one another. This defect we
will endeavour to supply by a very copious index at the end of the
whole work, rather than derange the author’s words, which are the more
to be relied on, as being instantly committed to paper warm from his
reflections.
At last he arms himself with a very noble indifference against the
criticism of several people, founded on the great aim he had in view by
his performance, which was no less than public utility. This he looks
upon as the true reward of his pains and expences.
These are the contents of his long preface. We have nothing to add, but
that we intend to go on in this work as soon as possible, hoping to be
supported and encouraged in this undertaking, by a nation which is the
possessor of that great continent, a great part of which is here
accurately and impartially described, especially at this time when
American affairs attract the attention of the public.
We intend to join for the better illustration of the work, a map and
drawings of American birds and animals which were not in the original.
They will be copied from original drawings and real birds and animals
from North America, which we have access to, and must therefore give to
this translation a superiority above the original and the German
translation.
An encourager of this work proposed it as an improvement to the
translation of Kalm’s travels, to add in the margin the paging of the
original, as by this means recourse would be had easily to the
quotations made by Dr. Linnæus. We would very readily have complied
with this desideratum, had we had the Swedish edition of this work at
hand, or had the work not been too far advanced at the time we got this
kind hint: however this will be remedied by a copious index, which will
certainly appear at the end of the whole work.
As we have not yet been able to procure a compleat list of the
subscribers and encouragers of this undertaking, we choose rather to
postpone it, than to give an imperfect one: at the same time we assure
the public, that it shall certainly appear in one of the subsequent
volumes.
We find it necessary here to mention, that as many articles in Mr.
Kalm’s travels required illustrations, the publisher has taken the
liberty to join here and there some notes, which are marked at the end
with F. The other notes not thus marked were kindly communicated by the
publisher’s friends.
Lastly, we take this opportunity to return our most sincere thanks in
this public manner to the ladies and gentlemen, who have generously in
various ways exerted themselves in promoting the publication of these
useful remarks of an impartial, accurate and judicious foreigner, on a
country which is at present so much the object of public deliberation
and private conversation.
PETER KALM’s TRAVELS.
August the 5th. 1748.
I with my servant Lars Yungstrœm (who joined to his abilities as
gardener, a tolerable skill in mechanics and drawing) went at Gravesend
on board the Mary Gally, Captain Lawson, bound for Philadelphia; and
though it was so late as six o’clock in the afternoon, we weighed
anchor and sailed a good way down the Thames before we again came to
anchor.
August the 6th. Very early in the morning we resumed our voyage, and
after a few hours sailing we came to the mouth of the Thames, where we
turned into the channel and sailed along the Kentish coast, which
consists of steep and almost perpendicular chalk hills, covered at the
top with some soil and a fine verdure, and including strata of flints,
as it frequently is found in this kind of chalk-hills in the rest of
England. And we were delighted in viewing on them excellent corn
fields, covered for the greatest part with wheat, then ripening.
At six o’clock at night, we arrived at Deal, a little well known town,
situate at the entrance of a bay exposed to the southern and easterly
winds. Here commonly the outward bound ships provide themselves with
greens, fresh victuals, brandy, and many more articles. This trade, a
fishery, and in the last war the equipping of privateers, has enriched
the inhabitants.
August the 7th. When the tide was out, I saw numbers of fishermen
resorting to the sandy shallow places, where they find round small
eminences caused by the excrements of the log worms, or sea worms,
(Lumbrici marini. Linn.) who live in the holes leading to these
hillocks, sometimes eighteen inches deep, and they are then dug out
with a small three tacked iron fork and used as baits.
August the 8th. At three o’clock we tided down the channel, passed
Dover, and saw plainly the opinion of the celebrated Camden in his
Britannia confirmed, that here England had been formerly joined to
France and Flanders by an isthmus. Both shores form here two opposite
points; and both are formed of the same chalk hills, which have the
same configuration, so that a person acquainted with the English coasts
and approaching those of Picardy afterwards, without knowing them to be
such, would certainly take them to be the English ones. [1]
August the 9th–12th. We tided and alternately sailed down the channel,
and passed Dungness, Fairlight, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, the
Peninsula of Portland and Bolthead, a point behind which Plymouth lies;
during all which time we had very little wind.
August the 13th. Towards night we got out of the English channel into
the Bay of Biscay.
August the 14th. We had contrary wind, and this increased the rolling
of the ship, for it is generally remarked that the Bay of Biscay has
the greatest and broadest waves, which are of equal size with those
between America and Europe; they are commonly half an English mile in
length, and have a height proportionable to it. The Baltic and the
German ocean has on the contrary short and broken waves.
Whenever an animal is killed on board the ship, the sailors commonly
hang some fresh pieces of meat for a while into the sea, and it is
said, it then keeps better.
August the 15th. The same swell of the sea still continued, but the
waves began to smooth, and a foam swimming on them was said to forebode
in calm weather, a continuance of the same for some days.
About noon a north easterly breeze sprung up, and in the afternoon it
blew more, and this gave us a fine spectacle; for the great waves
rolled the water in great sheets, in one direction, and the north
easterly wind curled the surface of these waves quite in another. By
the beating and dashing of the waves against one another, with a more
than ordinary violence, we could see that we passed a current, whose
direction the captain could not determine.
August the 16th–21st. The same favourable breeze continued to our great
comfort and amazement, for the captain observed that it was very
uncommon to meet with an easterly or north-easterly wind between Europe
and the Azores (which the sailors call the Western Islands) for more
than two days together; for the more common wind is here a westerly
one: but beyond the Azores they find a great variety of winds,
especially about this time of the year; nor do the westerly winds
continue long beyond these isles; and to this it is owing, that when
navigators have passed the Azores, they think they have performed one
half of the voyage, although in reality it be but one third part. These
isles come seldom in sight; for the navigators keep off them, on
account of the dangerous rocks under water surrounding them. Upon
observation and comparison of the journal, we found that we were in
forty-three deg. twenty-four min. north lat. and thirty and a half
degrees west long. from London.
August the 22d. About noon the captain assured us, that in twenty-four
hours we should have a south-west wind: and upon my enquiring into the
reasons of his foretelling this with certainty, he pointed at some
clouds in the south-west, whose points turned towards north-east, and
said they were occasioned by a wind from the opposite quarter. At this
time I was told we were about half way to Pensylvania.
August the 23d. About seven o’clock in the morning the expected
south-west wind sprung up, and soon accelerated our course so much,
that we went at the rate of eight knots an hour.
August the 24th. The wind shifted and was in our teeth. We were told by
some of the crew to expect a little storm, the higher clouds being very
thin and striped and scattered about the sky like parcels of combed
wool, or so many skains of yarn, which they said forebode a storm.
These striped clouds ran north-west and south-east, in the direction of
the wind we then had. Towards night the wind abated and we had a
perfect calm, which is a sign of a change of wind.
August the 25th. and 26th. A west wind sprung up and grew stronger and
stronger, so that at last the waves washed our deck.
August the 27th. In the morning we got a better wind, which went
through various points of the compass and brought on a storm from
north-east towards night.
Our captain told me an observation founded on long experience, viz.
that though the winds changed frequently in the Atlantic ocean,
especially in summer time, the most frequent however was the western,
and this accounts for the passage from America to Europe commonly being
shorter, than that from Europe to America. Besides this, the winds in
the Atlantic during summer are frequently partial, so that a storm may
rage on one part of it, and within a few miles of the place little or
no storm at all may be felt. In winter the winds are more constant,
extensive and violent; so that then the same wind reigns on the greater
part of the ocean for a good while, and causes greater waves than in
summer.
August the 30th. As I had observed the night before some strong flashes
of lightening without any subsequent clap of thunder, I enquired of our
captain, whether he could assign any reasons for it. He told me these
phœnomena were pretty common, and the consequence of a preceding heat
in the atmosphere; but that when lightenings were observed in winter,
prudent navigators were used to reef their sails, as they are by this
sign certain of an impendent storm; and so likewise in that season, a
cloud rising from the north-west, is an infallible forerunner of a
great tempest.
September the 7th. As we had the first day of the month contrary wind,
on the second it shifted to the north, was again contrary the third,
and fair the fourth and following days. The fifth we were in forty deg.
three min. north lat. and between fifty-three and fifty-four deg. west
long. from London.
Besides the common waves rolling with the wind, we met on the 4th. and
5th. inst. with waves coming from south-west, which the captain gave as
a mark of a former storm from that quarter in this neighbourhood.
September the 8th. We crossed by a moderate wind, a sea with the
highest waves we met on the whole passage, attributed by the captain to
the division between the great ocean and the inner American gulf; and
soon after we met with waves greatly inferior to those we observed
before.
September the 9th. In the afternoon we remarked that in some places the
colour of the sea (which had been hitherto of a deep blue) was changed
into a paler hue; some of these spots were narrow stripes of twelve or
fourteen fathoms breadth, of a pale green colour, which is supposed to
be caused by the sand, or as some say, by the weeds under water.
September the 12th. We were becalmed that day, and as we in this
situation observed a ship, which we suspected to be a Spanish
privateer, our fear was very great; but we saw some days after our
arrival at Philadelphia the same ship arrive, and heard that they
seeing us had been under the same apprehensions with ourselves.
September the 13th. Captain Lawson, who kept his bed for the greater
part of the voyage, on account of an indisposition, assured us
yesterday we were in all appearance very near America: but as the mate
was of a different opinion, and as the sailors could see no land from
the head of the mast, nor find ground by the lead, we steered on
directly towards the land. About three o’clock in the morning the
captain gave orders to heave the lead, and we found but ten fathom: the
second mate himself took the lead and called out ten and fourteen
fathoms, but a moment after the ship struck on the sand, and this shock
was followed by four other very violent ones. The consternation was
incredible; and very justly might it be so; for there were above eighty
persons on board, and the ship had but one boat: but happily our ship
got off again, after having been turned. At day break, which followed
soon after (for the accident happened half an hour past four) we saw
the continent of America within a Swedish mile before us: the coast was
whitish, low, and higher up covered with firs. We found out, that the
sand we struck on, lay opposite Arcadia in Maryland, in thirty-seven
deg. fifty min. North lat.
We coasted the shores of Maryland all the day, but not being able to
reach cape Hinlopen, where we intended to take a pilot on board, we
cruized all night before the bay of Delaware. The darkness of the night
made us expect a rain, but we found that only a copious fall of dew
ensued, which made our coats quite wet, and the pages of a book,
accidently left open on the deck, were in half an hours time after
sun-setting likewise wet, and we were told by the captain and the
sailors that both in England and in America a copious dew was commonly
followed by a hot and sultry day.
September the 14th. We saw land on our larboard in the west, which
appeared to be low, white, sandy, and higher up the country covered
with firs, cape Hinlopen is a head of land running into the sea from
the western shore, and has a village on it. The eastern shore belongs
here to New Jersey, and the western to Pensylvania. The bay of Delaware
has many sands, and from four to eleven fathom water.
The fine woods of oak, hiccory and firs covering both shores made a
fine appearance, and were partly employed in ship-building at
Philadelphia; for which purpose every year some English captains take a
passage in autumn to this town, and superintend the building of new
ships during winter, with which they go to sea next spring: and at this
time it was more usual than common, as the French and Spanish
privateers had taken many English merchant ships.
A little after noon we reached the mouth of Delaware river, which is
here about three English miles broad, but decreases gradually so much,
that it is scarcely a mile broad at Philadelphia.
Here we were delighted in seeing now and then between the woods some
farm houses surrounded with corn fields, pastures well-stocked with
cattle, and meadows covered with fine hay; and more than one sense was
agreeably affected, when the wind brought to us the finest effluvia of
odoriferous plants and flowers, or that of the fresh made hay: these
agreeable sensations and the fine scenery of nature on this continent,
so new to us, continued till it grew quite dark.
Here I will return to sea, and give the reader a short view of the
various occurrences belonging to Natural-History, during our crossing
the Ocean.
Of sea weeds (Fucus linn.) we saw August the 16th. and 17th. a kind
which had a similarity to a bunch of onions tied together, these
bunches were of the size of the fist, and of a white colour. Near the
coast of America within the American gulf, September the 11th. we met
likewise with several sea weeds, one species of which was called by the
sailors rock-weed; another kind looked like a string of pearls, and
another was white, about a foot long, narrow, every where equally wide
and quite strait. From August the 24th. to September the 11th. we saw
no other weeds, but those commonly going under the name of Gulf-weed,
because they are supposed to come from the gulf of Florida; others call
it Sargazo, and Dr. Linnæus, Fucus natans. Its stalk is very slender,
rotundato-angulated, and of a dark green, it has many branches and each
of them has numerous leaves disposed in a row, they are extremely thin,
are serrated, and are a line or a line and a half wide, so that they
bear a great resemblance to the leaves of Iceland-moss; their colour is
a yellowish green. Its fruit in a great measure resembles unripe
juniper berries, is round, greenish yellow, almost smooth on the
outside, and grows under the leaves on short footstalks, of two or
three lines length; under each leaf are from one to three berries, but
I never have seen them exceed that number. Some berries were small, and
when cut were quite hollow and consisted of a thin peel only, which is
calculated to communicate their buoyancy to the whole plant. The leaves
grow in proportion narrower, as they approach the extremities of the
branches: their upper sides are smooth, the ribs are on the under
sides, and there likewise appear small roots of two, three or four
lines length. I was told by our mate that gulf weed, dried and pounded,
was given in America to women in childbed, and besides this it is also
used there in fevers. The whole ocean is as if it were covered with
this weed, and it must also be in immense quantities in the gulf of
Florida, from whence all this driving on the ocean is said to come.
Several little shells pointed like horns, and Escharæ or Horn wracks
are frequently found on it: and seldom is there one bundle of this
plant to be met with, which does not contain either a minute shrimp, or
a small crab, the latter of which is the Cancer minutus of Dr. Linnæus.
Of these I collected eight, and of the former three, all which I put in
a glass with water: the little shrimp moved as swift as an arrow round
the glass, but sometimes its motion was slow, and sometimes it stood
still on one side, or at the bottom of the glass. If one of the little
crabs approached, it was seized by its forepaws, killed and sucked; for
which reason they were careful to avoid their fate. It was quite of the
shape of a shrimp; in swimming it moved always on one side, the sides
and the tail moving alternately. It was capable of putting its forepaws
entirely into its mouth: its antennæ were in continual motion. Having
left these little shrimps together with the crabs during night, I found
on the morning all the crabs killed and eaten by the shrimps. The
former moved when alive with incredible swiftness in the water.
Sometimes when they were quite at the bottom of the glass, with a
motion something like to that of a Puceron or Podura of Linnæus; they
came in a moment to the surface of the water. In swimming they moved
all their feet very close, sometimes they held them down as other crabs
do, sometimes they lay on their backs, but as soon as the motion of
their feet ceased, they always sunk to the bottom. The remaining
shrimps I preserved in spirits, and the loss of my little crabs was
soon repaired by other specimens which are so plentiful in each of the
floating bundles of gulf-weed. For a more minute description of which I
must refer the reader to another work, I intend to publish. In some
places we saw a crab of the size of the fist, swimming by the continual
motion of its feet, which being at rest, the animal began immediately
to sink. And one time I met with a great red crawfish, or lobster,
floating on the surface of the sea.
Blubbers, or Medusæ Linn., we found of three kinds: the first is the
Medusa aurita Linn.; it is round, purple coloured, opens like a bag,
and in it are as if it were four white rings, their size varies from
one inch diameter to six inches; they have not that nettling and
burning quality which other blubbers have, such for instance as are on
the coast of Norway, and in the ocean. These we met chiefly in the
channel and in the Bay of Biscay.
After having crossed more than half of the ocean between Europe and
America, we met with a kind of blubber, which is known to Sailors by
the name of the Spanish or Portugueze man of War, it looks like a great
bladder, or the lungs of a quadruped, compressed on both sides, about
six inches in diameter, of a fine purple-red colour, and when touched
by the naked skin of the human body, it causes a greater burning than
any other kind of blubber. They are often overturned by the rolling of
the waves, but they are again standing up in an instant, and keep the
sharp or narrow side uppermost.
Within the American gulf we saw not only these Spanish men of War, but
another kind too, for which the Sailors had no other name but that of a
blubber. It was of the size of a pewter plate, brown in the middle,
with a pale margin, which was in continual motion.
Of the Lepas anatifera Linn. I saw on the 30th. of August a log of
wood, which floated on the ocean, quite covered. Of insects I saw in
the channel, when we were in sight of the Isle of Wight several white
butterflies, very like to the Papilio Brassicæ Linn. They never
settled, and by their venturing at so great a distance from land they
caused us just astonishment.
Some common flies were in our cabbin alive during the whole voyage, and
it cannot therefore be determined whether they were originally in
America, or whether they came over with the Europeans.
Of Cetaceous fish we met with Porpesses, or as some sailors call them
Sea-hogs [2] (Delphinus Phocæna, Linn.) first in the channel and then
they continued every where on this side the Azores, where they are the
only fish navigators meet with; but beyond these isles they are seldom
seen, till again in the neighbourhood of America we saw them equally
frequent to the very mouth of Delaware river. They always appeared in
shoals, some of which consisted of upwards of an hundred individuals;
their swimming was very swift, and though they often swam along side of
our ship, being taken as it were with the noise caused by the ship
cutting the waves, they however soon outwent her, when they were tired
with staring at her. They are from four to eight feet long, have a bill
like in shape to that of a goose, a white belly, and leap up into the
air frequently four feet high, and from four to eight feet in length;
though their snoring indicates the effort which a leap of that nature
costs them. Our sailors made many vain attempts to strike one of them
with the harp iron from the forecastle, when they came within reach,
but their velocity always eluded their skill.
Another cetaceous fish, of the Dolphin kind, [3] with which we met, is
called by the sailors Bottle-nose, it swims in great shoals, has a head
like a bottle, and is killed by a harpoon, and is sometimes eaten.
These fish are very large, and some fully twelve feet long; their
shape, and manner of tumbling and swimming make them nearly related to
Porpesses. They are to be met with every where in the ocean from the
channel to the very neighbourhood of America.
One Whale we saw at a distance, and knew it by the water which it
spouted up.
A Dog-fish of a considerable size followed the ship for a little while,
but it was soon out of sight, without our being able to determine to
which species it belonged: this was the only cartilaginous fish we saw
on the whole passage.
Of the bony fish, we saw several beyond the Azores, but never one on
this side of those isles, one of them was of a large size, and we saw
it at a distance; the sailors called it an Albecor, and it is Dr.
Linnæus’s Scomber Thynnus.
The Dolphin of the English is the Dorado of the Portugueze, and Dr.
Linnæus calls it Coryphæna Hippuris; it is about two feet and a half
long, near the head six inches deep, and three inches broad; from the
head the Dolphin decreases on all sides towards the tail, where its
perpendicular depth is one inch and a half, and its breadth hardly one
inch. The colour of the back near the head is a fine green on a silver
ground, but near the tail of a deep blue; the belly is white, and
sometimes mixed with a deep yellow, on the sides it has some round pale
brown spots. It has six and not seven fins as was imagined; two of them
are on the breast, two on the belly, one at the tail extending to the
anus, and one along the whole back, which is of a fine blue: when the
fish is just taken the extremities of the most outward rays in the tail
were eight inches one from another. Their motion when they swam behind,
or along side of the ship was very slow, and gave a fair opportunity to
hit them with the harpoon, though some are taken with a hook and line,
and a bait of chicken bowels, small fish, or pieces of his own species,
or the flying fish, which latter are their chief food: and it is by
their chasing them, that the flying fish leave their element to find
shelter in one to which they are strangers. The Dolphins sometimes leap
a fathom out of the water, and love to swim about casks and logs of
wood, that sometimes drive in the sea. They are eaten with thick
butter, when boiled, and sometimes fried, and afford a palatable food,
but rather somewhat dry. In the bellies of the fish of this species
which we caught, several animals were found, viz. an Ostracion; a
little fish with blue eyes, which was yet alive, being just the moment
before swallowed, and measuring two inches in length; another little
fish; a curious marine insect, and a flying fish, all which not yet
being damaged by digestion, I preserved in spirits.
The Flying Fish (Exocoetus volitans, Linn.) are always seen in great
shoals, sometimes of an hundred or more getting at once out of the
water, being pursued by greater fish, and chiefly by Dolphins; they
rise about a yard, and even a fathom above the water in their flight,
but this latter height they only are at, when they take their flight
from the top of a wave; and sometimes it is said they fall on the deck
of ships. The greatest distance they fly, is a good musket-shot, and
this they perform in less than half a minute’s time; their motion is
somewhat like that of the yellow-hammer, (Emberiza Citrinella, Linn.).
It is very remarkable that I found the course they took always to be
against the wind, and though I was contradicted by the sailors, who
affirmed that they went at any direction, I nevertheless was confirmed
in my opinion by a careful observation during the whole voyage,
according to which they fly constantly either directly against the
wind, or somewhat in an oblique direction. [4]
We saw likewise the fish called Bonetos, (Scomber Pelamys, Linn.) they
were likewise in shoals, hunting some smaller fish, which chase caused
a noise like to that of a cascade, because they were all swimming close
in a body; but they always kept out of the reach of our harpoons.
Of amphibious animals, or reptiles; we met twice with a Turtle, one of
which was sleeping, the other swam without taking notice of our ship;
both were of two feet diameter.
Birds are pretty frequently seen on the ocean, though Aquatic Birds are
more common than Land Birds.
The Petrel (Procellaria Pelagica, Linn.) was our companion from the
channel to the shores of America. Flocks of this bird were always about
our ship, chiefly in that part of the sea, which being cut by the ship,
forms a smooth surface, where they frequently seem to settle, though
always on the wing. They pick up or examine every thing that falls
accidentally from the ship, or is thrown over board: little fish seem
to be their chief food; in day time they are silent, in the dark
clamorous; they are reputed to forebode a storm, for which reason the
sailors disliking their company, complimented them with the name of
witches; but they are as frequent in fair weather, without a storm
following their appearance. To me it appeared as if they stayed
sometimes half an hour and longer under the waves, and the sailors
assured me they did. They look like swallows, and like them they skim
sometimes on the water.
The Shearwater (Procellaria Puffinus, Linn.) is another sea-bird, which
we saw every where on our voyage, from the channel to the American
coasts; it has much the appearance and size of the dark-grey Sea-gull,
or of a Duck; it has a brown back, and commonly a white ring round its
neck, and a peculiar slow way of flying. We plainly saw some of these
birds feed on fish.
The Tropic bird (Phaëton æthereus, Linn.) has very much the shape of a
gull, but two very long feathers, which it has in its tail, distinguish
it enough from any other bird; its flight is often exceedingly high:
the first of this kind we met, was at about forty deg. north lat. and
forty-nine or fifty deg. west long. from London.
Common Gulls (Larus canus, Linn.) we saw, when we were opposite the
Land’s End, the most westerly cape of England, and when according to
our reckoning we were opposite Ireland.
Terns (Sterna hirundo, Linn.) though of a somewhat darker colour than
the common ones, we found after the forty-first deg. of north lat. and
forty-seventh deg. west long. from London, very plentifully, and
sometimes in flocks of some hundreds; sometimes they settled, as if
tired, on our ship.
Within the American gulph we discovered a sea-bird at a little distance
from the ship, which the sailors called a Sea-hen.
Land-birds are now and then seen at sea, and sometimes at a good
distance from any land, so that it is often difficult, to account for
their appearance in so uncommon a place. August the 18th. we saw a bird
which settled on our ship, and was perfectly like the great Titmouse,
(Parus major, Linn.) upon an attempt to catch it, it got behind the
sails, and could never be caught.
September the 1st. We observed some Land-birds flying about our ship,
which we took for Sand Martins (Hirundo riparia, Linn.) sometimes they
settled on our ship, or on the sails; they were of a greyish brown
colour on their back, their breast white, and the tail somewhat
furcated; a heavy shower of rain drove them afterwards away, September
the 2d. a Swallow fluttered about the ship, and sometimes it settled on
the mast; it seemed to be very tired; several times it approached our
cabin windows, as if it was willing to take shelter there. These cases
happened about forty deg. north lat. and between forty-seven and
forty-nine deg. west long. from London, and also about twenty deg.
long. or more than nine hundred and twenty sea miles from any land
whatsoever.
September the 10th. within the American gulph a large bird, which we
took for an Owl, and likewise a little bird settled on our sails.
September the 12th. a Wood-pecker settled on our rigging: its back was
of a speckled grey, and it seemed extremely fatigued. And another
land-bird of the passerine class, endeavoured to take shelter and rest
on our ship.
Before I entirely take leave of the sea, I will communicate my
observations on two curious phœnomena.
In the channel and in the ocean we saw at night time, sparks of fire,
as if flowing on the water, especially where it was agitated, sometimes
one single spark swam for the space of more than one minute on the
ocean before it vanished. The sailors observed them commonly to appear
during, and after a storm from the north, and that often the sea is as
if it were full of fire, and that some such shining sparks would
likewise stick to the masts and sails.
Sometimes this light had not the appearance of sparks, but looked
rather like the phosphorescence of putrid wood.
The Thames-water which made our provision of fresh water, is reputed to
be the best of any. It not only settled in the oak casks it is kept in,
but becomes in a little time stinking, when stopped up; however this
nauseous smell it soon looses, after being filled into large stone
juggs, and exposed to the open fresh air for two or three hours
together. Often the vapours arising from a cask which has been kept
close and stopped up for a great while take fire, if a candle is held
near them when the cask is opened, and the Thames water is thought to
have more of this quality than any other; though I was told that this
even happened with any other water in the same circumstances.
Now I can resume my narrative, and therefore observe that we afterwards
sailed on the river with a fair wind, pretty late at night. In the dawn
of the evening we passed by Newcastle, a little town on the western
shore of the river Delaware. It was already so dark, that we could
hardly know it, but by the light which appeared through some of the
windows. The Dutch are said to have been the first founders of this
place, which is therefore reckoned the most ancient in the country,
even more ancient than Philadelphia. But its trade can by no means be
compared with the Philadelphia trade, though its situation has more
advantages in several respects; one of which is, that the river seldom
freezes before it, and consequently ships can come in and go out at any
time. But near Philadelphia it is almost every winter covered with ice,
so that navigation is interrupted for some weeks together. But the
country about Philadelphia and farther up, being highly cultivated, and
the people bringing all their goods to that place, Newcastle must
always be inferior to it.
I mentioned, that the Dutch laid the foundations of this town. This
happened at the time, when this country was as yet subject to Sweden.
But the Dutch crept in, and intended by degrees to dispossess the
Swedes, as a people who had taken possession of their property. They
succeeded in their attempt; for the Swedes not being able to bear with
this encroachment, came to a war, in which the Dutch got the better.
But they did not enjoy the fruits of their victory long: for a few
years after, the English came and deprived them of their acquisition,
and have ever since continued in the undisturbed possession of the
country. Somewhat later at night we cast anchor, the pilot not
venturing to carry the ship up the river in the dark, several sands
being in the way.
September 15th. In the dawn of the morning we weighed anchor, and
continued our voyage up the river. The country was inhabited almost
every where on both sides. The farm-houses were however pretty far
asunder. About eight o’clock in the morning we sailed by the little
town of Chester, on the western side of the river. In this town, our
mate, who was born in Philadelphia, shewed me the places, which the
Swedes still inhabit.
At last we arrived in Philadelphia about ten o’Clock in the morning. We
had not been more than six weeks, or (to speak more accurately) not
quite forty one days on our voyage from Gravesend to this place,
including the time we spent at Deal, in supplying ourselves with the
necessary fresh provisions, &c. our voyage was therefore reckoned one
of the shortest. For it is common in winter time to be fourteen,
nineteen, or more weeks in coming from Gravesend to Philadelphia.
Hardly any body ever had a more pleasant voyage over this great ocean,
than we had. Captain Lawson affirmed this several times. Nay he assured
us he had never seen such calm weather in this ocean, though he had
crossed it very often. The wind was generally so favourable that a boat
of a middling size might have sailed in perfect safety. The sea never
went over our cabin, and but once over the deck, and that was only in a
swell. The weather indeed was so clear, that a great number of the
Germans on board slept on the deck. The cabin windows needed not the
shutters. All these are circumstances which show the uncommon goodness
of the weather.
Captain Lawson’s civility increased the pleasure of the voyage. For he
shewed me all the friendship, that he could have shewn to any of his
relations.
As soon as we were come to the town, and had cast anchor, many of the
inhabitants came on board, to enquire for Letters. They took all those
which they could carry, either for themselves or for their friends.
Those, which remained, the captain ordered to be carried on shore, and
to be brought into a coffee-house, where every body could make enquiry
for them, and by this means he was rid of the trouble of delivering
them himself. I afterwards went on shore with him. But before he went,
he strictly charged the second mate, to let no one of the German
refugees out of the ship, unless he paid for his passage, or some body
else paid for him, or bought him.
On my leaving London I received letters of recommendation from Mr.
Abraham Spalding, Mr. Peter Collinson, Dr. Mitchel, and others to their
friends here. It was easy for me therefore to get acquaintance. Mr.
Benjamin Franklin, to whom Pensylvania is indebted for its welfare, and
the learned world for many new discoveries in Electricity, was the
first, who took notice of me, and introduced me to many of his friends.
He gave me all necessary instructions, and shewed me his kindness on
many occasions.
I went to day accompanied by Mr. Jacob Bengtson, a member of the
Swedish consistory and the sculptor Gustavus Hesselius, to see the town
and the fields which lay before it. (The former is brother of the rev.
Messrs. Andrew and Samuel Hesselius, both ministers at Christiana in
new Sweden, and of the late Dr. John Hesselius in the provinces of
Nerik and Wermeland). My new friend had followed his brother Andrew in
1711 to this country, and had since lived in it. I found that I was now
come into a new world. Whenever I looked to the ground, I every where
found such plants as I had never seen before. When I saw a tree, I was
forced to stop, and ask those who accompanied me, how it was called.
The first plant which struck my eyes was an Andropogon, or a kind of
grass, and grass is a part of Botany I always delighted in. I was
seized with terror at the thought of ranging so many new and unknown
parts of natural history. At first I only considered the plants,
without venturing a more accurate examination.
At night I took up my lodging with a grocer who was a quaker, and I met
with very good honest people in this house, such as most people of this
profession appeared to me, I and my Yungstrœm, the companion of my
voyage, had a room, candles, beds, attendance, and three meals a day,
if we chose to have so many, for twenty shillings per week in
Pensylvania currency. But wood, washing and wine, if required, were to
be paid for besides.
September the 16th. Before I proceed I must give a short description of
Philadelphia, which I shall frequently mention in the sequel of my
travels. I here put down several particulars which I marked during my
stay at that place, as a help to memory.
Philadelphia, the capital of Pensylvania, a province which makes part
of what formerly was called New Sweden is one of the principal towns in
North-America; and next to Boston the greatest. It is situated almost
in the center of the English colonies, and its lat. is thirty nine deg.
and fifty min. but its west long. from London near seventy five deg.
This town was built in the year 1683, or as others say in 1682, by the
well known quaker William Pen, who got this whole province by a grant
from Charles the second, king of England; after Sweden had given up its
claims to it. According to Pen’s plan the town was to have been built
upon a piece of land which is formed by the union of the rivers
Delaware and Skulkill, in a quadrangular form, two English miles long
and one broad. The eastern side would therefore have been bounded by
the Delaware, and the western by the Skulkill. They had actually begun
to build houses on both these rivers; for eight capital streets, each
two English miles long, and sixteen lesser streets (or lanes) across
them, each one mile in length, were marked out, with a considerable
breadth, and in strait lines. The place was at that time almost an
entire wilderness covered with thick forests, and belonged to three
Swedish brothers called Sven’s-Sœner (Sons of Sven) who had settled in
it. They with difficulty left the place, the situation of which was
very advantageous, But at last they were persuaded to it by Pen, who
gave them a few English miles from that place twice the space of
country they inhabited. However Pen himself and his descendants after
him, have considerably lessened the ground belonging to them, by
repeated mensurations, under pretence that they had taken more than
they ought.
But the inhabitants could not be got in sufficient number to fill a
place of such extent. The plan therefore about the river Skulkill was
laid aside till more favourable circumstances should occur, and the
houses were only built along the Delaware. This river flows along the
eastern side of the town, is of great advantage to its trade, and gives
a fine prospect. The houses which had already been built upon the
Skulkill were transplanted hitherto by degrees. This town accordingly
lies in a very pleasant country, from north to south along the river.
It measures somewhat more than an English mile in length; and its
breadth in some places is half a mile or more. The ground is flat and
consists of sand mixed with a little clay. Experience has shewn that
the air of this place is very healthy.
The streets are regular, fine, and most of them are fifty foot, English
measure, broad; Arch-street measures sixty six feet in breadth, and
Market-street or the principal street, where the market is kept, near a
hundred. Those which run longitudinally, or from north to south are
seven, exclusive of a little one, which runs along the river, to the
south of the market, and is called Water-street. The lanes which go
across, and were intended to reach from the Delaware to the Skulkill,
are eight in number. They do not go quite from east to west, but
deviate a little from that direction. All the streets except two which
are nearest to the river, run in a straight line, and make right angles
at the intersections. Some are paved, others are not; and it seems less
necessary since the ground is sandy, and therefore soon absorbs the
wet. But in most of the streets is a pavement of flags, a fathom or
more broad, laid before the houses, and posts put on the outside three
or four fathom asunder. Under the roofs are gutters which are carefully
connected with pipes, and by this means, those who walk under them,
when it rains, or when the snow melts, need not fear being wetted by
the dropping from the roofs.
The houses make a good appearance, are frequency several stories high,
and built either of bricks or of stone; but the former are more
commonly used, since bricks are made before the town, and are well
burnt. The stone which has been employed in the building of other
houses, is a mixture of black or grey glimmer, running in undulated
veins, and of a loose, and quite small grained limestone, which run
scattered between the bendings of the other veins, and are of a grey
colour, excepting here and there some single grains of sand, of a paler
hue. The glimmer makes the greatest part of the stone; but the mixture
is sometimes of another kind, as I shall relate hereafter under the
article, eleventh of October. This stone is now got in great quantities
in the country, is easily cut, and has the good quality of not
attracting the moisture in a wet season. Very good lime is burnt every
where hereabouts, for masonry.
The houses are covered with shingles. The wood for this purpose is
taken from the Cupressus thyoides, Linn. or a tree which Swedes here
call the white juniper-tree, and the English, the white cedar. Swamps
and Morasses formerly were full of them, but at present these trees are
for the greatest part cut down, and no attempt has as yet been made to
plant new ones. The wood is very light, rots less than any other in
this country, and for that reason is exceeding good for roofs. For it
is not too heavy for the walls, and will serve for forty or fifty years
together. But many people already begin to fear, that these roofs will
in time be looked upon as having been very detrimental to the city. For
being so very light, most people who have built their houses of stone,
or bricks, have been led to make their walls extremely thin. But at
present this kind of wood is almost entirely destroyed. Whenever
therefore in process of time these roofs decay, the people will be
obliged to have recourse to the heavier materials of tiles, or the
like, which the walls will not be strong enough to bear. The roof will
therefore require supports, or the people be obliged to pull down the
walls and to build new ones, or to take other steps for securing them.
Several people have already in late years begun to make roofs of tiles.
Among the publick buildings I will first mention churches, of which
there are several, for God is served in various ways in this country.
1. The English established church stands in the northern part of the
town, at some distance from the market, and is the finest of all. It
has a little, inconsiderable steeple, in which is a bell to be rung
when it is time to go to church, and on burials. It has likewise a
clock which strikes the hours. This building which is called Christ
church, was founded towards the end of the last century, but has lately
been rebuilt and more adorned. It has two ministers who get the
greatest part of their salary from England. In the beginning of this
century, the Swedish minister the Rev. Mr. Rudmann, performed the
functions of a clergyman to the English congregation for near two
years, during the absence of their own clergyman.
2. The Swedish church, which is otherwise called the church of
Weekacko, is on the southern part of the town, and almost without it,
on the river’s side, and its situation is therefore more agreeable than
that of any other. I shall have an opportunity of describing it more
exactly, when I shall speak of the Swedes in particular, who live in
this place.
3. The German Lutheran church, is on the north-west side of the town.
On my arrival in America it had a little steeple, but that being but up
by an ignorant architect, before the walls of the church were quite
dry, they leaned forwards by its weight, and therefore they were forced
to pull it down again in the autumn of the year 1750. About that time
the congregation received a fine organ from Germany. They have only one
minister, who likewise preaches at another Lutheran church in
Germantown. He preaches alternately one sunday in that church, and
another in this. The first clergyman which the Lutherans had in this
town, was the Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg, who laid the foundations of this
church in 1743, and being called to another place afterwards, the rev.
Mr. Brunholz from Sleswick was his successor, and is yet here. Both
these gentlemen were sent to this place from Hall in Saxony, and have
been a great advantage to it by their peculiar talent of preaching in
an edifying manner. A little while before this church was built, the
Lutheran Germans had no clergyman for themselves, so that the
every-where beloved Swedish minister at Weekacko, Mr. Dylander,
preached likewise to them. He therefore preached three sermons every
sunday; the first early in the morning to the Germans; the second to
the Swedes, and the third in the afternoon to the English, and besides
this he went all the week into the country and instructed the Germans
who lived separately there. He therefore frequently preached sixteen
sermons a week. And after his death, which happened in November 1741,
the Germans first wrote to Germany for a clergyman for themselves. This
congregation is at present very numerous, so that every sunday the
church is very much crowded. It has two galleries, but no vestry. They
do not sing the collects, but read them before the altar.
4. The old Presbyterian church, is not far from the market, and on the
south-side of market-street. It is of a middling size, and built in the
year 1704, as the inscription on the northern pediment shews. The roof
is built almost hemispherical, or at least forms a hexagon. The whole
building stands from north to south, for the presbyterians do not
regard, as other people do, whether their churches look towards a
certain point of the heavens or not.
5. The new Presbyterian church was built in the year 1750, by the
New-lights in the north-western part of the town. By the name of
New-lights, are understood the people who have, from different
religions, become proselytes to the well known Whitefield, who in the
years 1739, 1740, and likewise in 1744 and 1745 travelled through
almost all the English colonies. His delivery, his extraordinary zeal,
and other talents so well adapted to the intelects of his hearers, made
him so popular that he frequently, especially in the two first years,
got from eight thousand to twenty thousand hearers in the fields. His
intention in these travels, was to collect money for an orphans
hospital which had been erected in Georgia. He here frequently
collected seventy pounds sterling at one sermon; nay, at two sermons
which he preached in the year 1740, both an one sunday, at
Philadelphia, he got an hundred and fifty pounds. The proselytes of
this man, or the above-mentioned new-lights, are at present merely a
sect of presbyterians. For though Whitefield was originally a clergyman
of the English church, yet he deviated by little and little from her
doctrines; and on arriving in the year 1744 at Boston in New England,
he disputed with the Presbyterians about their doctrines, so much that
he almost entirely embraced them. For Whitefield was no great
disputant, and could therefore easily be led by these cunning people,
whithersoever they would have him. This likewise during his latter stay
in America caused his audience to be less numerous than during the
first. The new-lights built first in the year 1741, a great house in
the western part of the town, to hold divine service in. But a division
arising amongst them after the departure of Whitefield, and besides on
other accounts, the building was sold to the town in the beginning of
the year 1750, and destined for a school. The new-lights then built a
church which I call the new Presbyterian one. On its eastern pediment
is the following inscription, in golden letters: Templum
Presbyterianum, annuente numine, erectum, Anno Dom. MDCCL.
6. The old German reformed church is built in the west north-west part
of the town, and looks like the church in the Ladugoordfield near
Stockholm. It is not yet finished, though for several years together,
the congregation has kept up divine service in it. These Germans
attended the German service at the Swedish church, whilst the Swedish
minister Mr. Dylander lived.—But as the Lutherans got a clergyman for
themselves on the death of the last, those of the reformed church made
likewise preparations to get one from Dordrecht; and the first who was
sent to them, was the Rev. Mr. Slaughter, whom I found on my arrival.
But in the year 1750, another clergyman of the reformed church arrived
from Holland, and by his artful behaviour, so insinuated himself into
the favour of the Rev. Mr. Slaughter’s congregation, that the latter
lost almost half his audience. The two clergymen then disputed for
several sundays together, about the pulpit, nay, people relate that the
new comer mounted the pulpit on a saturday, and stayed in it all night.
The other being thus excluded, the two parties in the audience, made
themselves the subject both of the laughter and of the scorn of the
whole town, by beating and bruising each other, and committing other
excesses. The affair was inquired into by the magistrates, and decided
in favour of the rev. Mr. Slaughter, the person who had been abused.
7. The new reformed church, was built at a little distance from the old
one by the party of the clergyman, who had lost his cause. This man
however had influence enough to bring over to his party almost the
whole audience of his antagonist, at the end of the year 1750, and
therefore this new church will soon be useless.
8. 9. The Quakers have two meetings, one in the market, and the other
in the northern part of the town. In them are according to the custom
of this people, neither altars, nor pulpits, nor any other ornaments
usual in churches; but only seats and some sconces. They meet thrice
every sunday in them, and besides that at certain times every week or
every month. I shall mention more about them hereafter.