i) 
 
 ,.^... 
 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 U£|2^ |2.5 
 
 Its 
 
 I4£ M 
 
 1.25 i 1.4 
 
 1.6 
 
 V] 
 
 /2 
 
 '<^^, 
 
 
 Y 
 
 
 /: 
 
 
 '/ 
 
 /^ 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 
 73 WEST fr^MlN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716)872-4503 
 
 •^^ 
 
\^^ 
 
 ^A^ 
 
 Kw 
 
 o 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 © 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographically unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the @ 
 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usual method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 □ Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 □ Covers damaged/ 
 Couverture endommagde 
 
 □ Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur6e et/ou pelliculde 
 
 □ Cover title missing/ 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 □ Coloured maps/ 
 Cartes giographiques en couleur 
 
 □ Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 
 D 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Reli6 avec d'autres document!^ 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intirieuro 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es 
 lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 filmies. 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6X6 possible de se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtra uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage 
 sont indiquds ci-dessous. 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommagdes 
 
 Pages restored and/o 
 
 Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicui6es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxe< 
 Pages d6color6es, tachet^es ou piqu6es 
 
 I — I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I — I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 r~pir Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 □Pages detached/ 
 Pages d6tach6es 
 
 I ^Showthrough/ 
 I lr\ Transparence 
 
 I I Quality of print varies/ 
 
 Quality in^gale de I'impression 
 
 Includes supplementary material/ 
 Comprend du materiel supplementaire 
 
 D 
 D 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition dispor.ihle 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 filmdes d nouveau de fapon A 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 D 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires: 
 
 Pages 313 -315 are misting. 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmd au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 
 
 
 16X 
 
 
 
 
 20X 
 
 
 
 
 24X 
 
 
 
 
 28X 
 
 
 
 
 32X 
 
 
ails 
 
 du 
 
 difier 
 
 jne 
 
 lage 
 
 Th« copy filmMl h«r« hm b««n r«produc«d thank* 
 to tho gonoroalty o : 
 
 Library Division 
 
 Provincial Archival of British Columbia 
 
 Tho imagot appaaring hara ara tha baat quality 
 poaaibia conaidaring tha condition and iaglbility 
 of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha 
 filming contract apacifications. 
 
 L'axampiaira film* fut raproduit grica i la 
 gAnAroaitA da: 
 
 Library Division 
 
 Provincial Archives of British Columbia 
 
 Laa imagaa auivantaa ont M4 raprodultaa avac la 
 plua grand aoin, compta tanu da la condition at 
 da la nattatA da l'axampiaira film*, at •$% 
 conformiti avac Im conditions du contrat da 
 filmaga. 
 
 Original copiaa in printad papar covars ara filmad 
 baginning with tha front covar and anding on 
 tha laat paga with a printad or illustratad impraa- 
 sion. or tha back covar whan appropriata. All 
 othar original copiaa ara filmad b iginning on tha 
 firat paga with a printad or illustratad impras- 
 sion. and anding on tha last paga with a printad 
 or illustratad Imprassion. 
 
 Tha last racordad frame on aach mtcroflcha 
 shall contain tha symbol >-i»' (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or tha symbol y (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Lea exemplairaa originaux dont la couvarture en 
 papier eat imprimia sont filmte en commen9ant 
 par la premier plat at en terminant aoit par la 
 darniire page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'iilustration, soit par la second 
 plat, salon la cas. Tous lee autres exemplairas 
 originaux sont filmis en commen^ant par la 
 pramiAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'iilustration at en terminant par 
 la darniire page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la 
 darniire image do cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbole -^ signifie "A SUIVRE ", le 
 symbols ▼ signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 filmte A des taux de reduction diffArents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul ciichi, il est film* A partir 
 de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche k droite. 
 et de haut en bas, an prenant le nombre 
 d'images nAcessaire. i.as diagrammes suivants 
 iiiustrant la mAthode. 
 
 rrata 
 :o 
 
 pelure. 
 
 D 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 

 SKETCHES, 
 
 BY A TRAVELLER. 
 
 % 
 
 i^>4,v ^ .*/■/!•>' £K-*-tr<: 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 ■ V • 1 T ; i< i 
 
 *' His eyo muRt boc, ]iia foot eacii spot roust troad 
 Where sloepii the dust uf earth's recorded dead, 
 Wliero rise the nionumcnts of ancient time. 
 Pillar and pyramid, in ago Huhlime, 
 The pagan' ' ' '""ile and the Christian's tower. 
 War's bloo in and wisdom's srcenest bo^r ; 
 
 All that his >.v waked in school-boy themM, 
 
 All that his fancy fired, in youthful diearos." 
 
 BOSTON, 
 
 PURIJSHRD BY CARTER ANT) IIENDEF!. 
 
 .>■ 
 
 V »# 
 
 nil iifiltBitl* 
 

 
 I 
 
 DISTRICT OF MASSACHUIETTI, TO WIT ; 
 
 Be it roinombored, that on the 
 
 Diatriet ClerVa Office. 
 eleventh day of January^ A. D. 1830, in 
 
 the fiflyfourth year of the Independence of the United Statei of America, Carter 
 and Hondeo, of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of & book, 
 the right^whereof they claim as proprietors in the words following, to wit : 
 
 ' Sketches, by a Traveller. , 
 
 " His eye must sec, his foot each spot must tread 
 Wlieie sleeps the dust of earth's recorded dead, 
 Where rise the monuments of ancient time, 
 , ?illar and pyramid, in age sublime. 
 
 The pagan's temple and the Christian's tower. 
 
 War's bloodiest plain and wisdom's greenest bower ; ■ 
 
 All that his wonder waked in school-boy themes, ^ 
 
 All that his fancy fired, in youthful dreams." > 
 
 In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, 'An 
 act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, 
 and l>ook8, to the authors and pi' .prietors of such copies, during the times therein 
 mentioned ; ' and also to an act., entitled * An act supplementary to an act, enti< 
 tied '* An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of map*, 
 charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the 
 times therein mentioned i " and extendms the benefits thereof to the arts of 
 designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.' 
 
 J WO. \Vm DAVIS, 
 Clerk of the District of Massaehutettt, 
 
 pers 
 
 Gah 
 
 evei 
 
 reqi 
 
 part 
 
 ble 
 
 clair 
 
 The 
 
 with 
 
 were 
 
•f.' 
 
 ^pt. 5»Ap-D. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following Letters, etc. were written by the same 
 person, and originally appeared in the New England 
 Galaxy, and Boston Courier ; sorne amendments, how- 
 ever, have been made, and many, it may be, are 
 required. But as the writer was indebted for some 
 parts, to the journal of a friend, he cannot be responsi- 
 ble for any errors but his own ; and therefore he cannot 
 claim for all his sketches the authority of a guide-book. 
 The articles were written merely for a newspaper, 
 without thought of other publication — would tliat they 
 were better. 
 
 f~^ ,.> ,.. /. 
 
 Pacific N.W.Hlntcrv' 
 
 PROVIN' 1 Aw- LJBRA. . ; 
 
 ■ih 
 
 27490 
 
 I t«ii'iriMiA(ifii J ' II I «iViiiil;ii|l)lijfflf'#"i' 
 
i 
 
s. 
 
 ' 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 . * . * 
 
 Sir — In complying with your request, I shall need 
 all your indulgence. The duty of a sailor is too hard, 
 and his deficiency in general knowledge too great, to 
 enable him to describe well, even his own wanderings. 
 
 My journal is but a log-book, filled with the courses 
 of the w^inds and the aspect of the skies. It was com- 
 menced in my sixteenth year, when, impelled by a thirst 
 for adventure which amounted to a passion, I shipped 
 myself as a green hand, for a long voyage. 
 
 On the 22d day of April, we sailed from Boston in 
 a good ship, bound for the Northwest coast of America. 
 On the first day of May, a sail was discovered bearing 
 down upon us from the v/estern quarter, and in three 
 hours she passed under our stern, hailing under English 
 colors, as from New Providence. She was well armed 
 and manned, yet, making ourselves a warlike show, we 
 feigned courage, and parted company with a decided 
 dislike to her countenance. 
 
 The first land made was the island of St Anthony, 
 one of the Capes de Verde. Here we took the N. E. 
 
3 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 'V 
 
 Trades, and were accompanied for ten days by shoals 
 of albicore, dolphin, and honito. Our next land was 
 the little island Trinidad, uninhabited and l)arren. 
 
 In the parallel of IJuciios Ayros, wo had one of the 
 gales that in winter are so violent in these latitudes ; 
 and though our ship was stronj;, it seemed as if the arm 
 of Providence must interpose to save us. A heavy sea 
 swept our neat whale boat from the larboard quarter, 
 stove in the binnacle, and carried away the goat house 
 with its unlucky tenant. Our fears were great, but 
 they could not extinguish our sympathies for poor Cap- 
 ricornus, who was a favorite with us all. We saw her 
 heading towards the ship and stru<fgling hard to regain 
 it, when a sea broke over, and fcihe was seen no more. 
 
 Between the latitudes fiftyseven and sixty south, in win- 
 ter, when there is scarcely six hours' sun, the weather is 
 bad at the best; and we had storms of t^lect and snow, our 
 ship was buried in the water, and in these long and dis- 
 mal nights our births were seldom dry. Yet no one 
 was sick, though all were much exhausted. Wo were 
 deliberating on a return to port to recruit ourselves 
 and refit the ship, when a gale assisted our councils, 
 and carried us, though in a rough way, so much west, 
 that we could steer north in the Pacific Ocean with 
 good offing from the coast. 
 
 Being in want of wood and water, we steered to 
 Massa Fuero for supplies. The boats were sent on 
 shore and returned with a report that there was much 
 drift wood, but too high a surf to land at the watering 
 place. A great many fish were taken with the line, and 
 a goat was killed with a harpoon, which, with a few 
 greens, gave us a princely repast. We lay three days 
 for the surf to subside; but we waited in vain. This 
 was an unwelcome state of things, for we had few anti- 
 scorbutics; and we feared that the scurvy would board 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 US this side the Snndwich Islands ; yet the disease is 
 delayed by a free use of water. 
 
 The island of JMusia Fueio is distant from Chili one 
 hundred and twenty Jeoifnos; and from Jiian Fernandez, 
 twentyfive. It is lofty, and may he seen twenty leagues. 
 On the hills there is a little stunted wood, and the val- 
 lies are covered with tall spear grass. Tliere are some 
 fertile spots planted with vegetables, by people who 
 came to hunt the seal ; but the poor fur seal has become 
 almost extinct since it niade the acquaintance of man. 
 Goats there are in large (locks, and tame enough to bo 
 killed with muskets. VV^e saw, too, a few cats, some 
 of them so gentle that they came up to us. The wa- 
 ters around the island abound in fish, that take the 
 naked hook with an avidity that would have astonished 
 Tzaac Walton. We left this island, which the captain 
 called the Paradise of the Goats, to its own solitude, 
 and on the 26th November, beheld the blue summit of 
 Owyhee peeping over tho clouds. 
 
 The sight of land diflused a general joy, that was 
 heightened when we discovered the rich cultivation of 
 the eastern slope ; we saw fields of tarro, sugar cane, 
 sweet potatoes, and watermelons. In the evening we 
 hauled off for Toeigli Bay, and lay under short sail 
 during the night. A friend of the king came on board 
 with supplies of hogs and vegetables, when we sailed 
 for Woahoo, the only harbor where a ship can be safe- 
 ly overhauled, and the residence of the Lord of the 
 Isles. 
 
 The Sandwich Islands are so well known, that you 
 will not thank me for extracts concerning them, and 1 
 am impatient to take you to the Northwest Coast, which 
 is less travelled ground, and more like what is called in 
 charts, ten'a incognila. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 1 
 
 But that I mny say all that I would of any of the 
 Pacific Islands, I will in this letter extract from my 
 journals of several voyages; without having before my 
 eyes the fear of anachronism, which is a hard word, 
 Hignifying, os I always believed, the confusion of dates. 
 
 At Woahoo, wo were visited early by a person who 
 seemed to be of distinction, and he had written testimo- 
 nials of character, from various mariners; though in a 
 country where forgery is easy, such documents would 
 raise more suspicion than confidence. 
 
 We produced n bottle of old stingo and a tumbler of 
 the capacity of a pint. To his comrades he served a 
 moderate allowance, but inclined more ' liberal princi- 
 ples when he poured out for himself. His potation was 
 any thing but thin, yet it was swallowed in a moment of 
 time, and followed by a smack of the lips, and the ejac- 
 ulation of the English word * strong.' Ho then took 
 to his canoe and paddled off with the strength and 
 somewhat after the manner of an alligator. 
 
 We had next to do the honors to Reo Reo, the sove- 
 reign. We saluted him with seven guns, for majesty is 
 venerable even to a republican, though like Brutus, he 
 dislike in his own country, the very name of a king. " 
 Reo Reo was by no means a fool, though if a good 
 life be the fruit of wisdom, he cannot be ranked with 
 the wise. His besetting vice was that of a savage, 
 perhaps of a monarch, intemperance. He had some 
 correct notions of ^rade, for he glanced at goods that 
 we knew he coveted in his heart, with an affectation of 
 utter indiflerence, which manoeuvre we met by a cor- 
 responding expression of sang froid. It was a trial of 
 cunning, but the savage was vanquished. However, 
 whde somewhat in our debt he slipped away in a whale 
 ship to visit his Royal Brother in the British Islands, 
 where he died; and I fear without imitating Theodore 
 
LETTERS FROM K MARINER. 9 
 
 of Cornica, who, whilo in prison at London, made over 
 his kingdom for tho uhc of his credilors. 
 
 William Pitt, who was regent in tho king's absence, 
 was a man of much shrewdness, and some honesty. 
 Boki has less of either; I dare not call him thief, but 
 I believe that he would partake of what he knew to be 
 stolen. In fact, the first law of nature, with these 
 people, seems to be to acquire, And thefl is adopted 
 readily, as the means. Yet they have certainly im- 
 proved in their moral qualities since tho residence of 
 the missionaries. 
 
 I was little on shore, though once I dined with a 
 chief, on what he called a roasted pig; yot it the animal 
 had recovered voice it would have bccn not to ?qncak 
 but tc /ark. 
 
 I like the Sandwich people less than the Otaheitans, 
 who are, or to me they seemed, more affable and kind. 
 A Frenchman, as he names the Persians, the Parisians 
 of the East, might call the Otaheitans the French of 
 the South Sea. 
 
 But the people of the Marquesas are the most beau- 
 tiful of all savages. They are quite too handsome for 
 my preconceptions of a cannibal. They have a Gre- 
 cian precision of outlnie, but lack the beauty of senti- 
 ment; and you would look in vain for an intellectual 
 face. I remember that a whale's tooth suspended from 
 the neck, is a title to distinction, and that ho who has 
 the largest tooth has the most honor, and feels the 
 greatest pride. This is all that I can tell you of the 
 Marquesas. 
 
 1* 
 
 n^^ ■ 
 
 **■ 
 
6 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 JsO. II. 
 
 I 
 
 Sir — I was once (1017) bound from the islands last 
 mentioned to Coquinibo, when we hove to under the 
 southeast side of Pitcairn's Island, the retreat of the 
 mutineers ol'the Bounty. VVediscovered avillage under a 
 noble grove of banyaa and palm; and the inhabitants were 
 seen hastening down the declivity by a circuitous path* 
 to the beacli. I was one of five who went in a boat near 
 to the shore, where the islanders stood on a projecting 
 rock, making courteous signs for us to approach. But 
 the surf was too high, and several of their young men 
 swam oft'. I'hey gave us from the water the English 
 salutation, ' How do you do ? ' and one of them said in a 
 very pleasing manner ' I will come into your boat, Sir, 
 if you will permit,' but not one of the whole attempted 
 to get in till he hud obtained permission. Ten came in, 
 and as soon as seated, asked with the utmost eagerness 
 our nation, and reason lor coming to their island. The 
 cause of our coming wc stated to be, partly to obtain 
 provisions, but inincij)ally to see with our own eyes the 
 innocence and happiness of their little society. 
 
 All were desirous to go on board, but as the sea was 
 high, and,the w eatber in their own phrase ' looked naugh- 
 ty,' I limited their number to three. They decided by 
 lot who should go, and the unsuccessful swam off under 
 the promise of being permitted in their turn to visit the 
 ship. It was dark when we dropped anchor, and we dis- 
 covered immediately after, a single man in a canoe that 
 could hold but one, and which, though little better than 
 a cockle shell, he managed dexterously. He came un- 
 der our lee quarter, and called in a bold manner for a 
 rope, by wliich we hauled him and his canoe on deck to- 
 gether, lie was not encumbered with dress, wearing 
 nothing but a free mason's apron without the emblems. 
 
r 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 In tlie morning a galo drove us off* many leagues. Yet 
 although the sea was high, our visitors showed no symp- 
 toms of alarm ; but all were uneasy fur the pain their 
 situation, or ignorance of it, would give their friends on 
 shore. Their agreeable manners and amiablo disposi- 
 tions made them favorites with us all : and if ever there 
 was a golden age it must have produced people like 
 these. I have never seen in others such natural ease of 
 deportment or unhesitating boldness in speaking their 
 sentiments. 
 
 * Mr Adams ' seemed to be held by all in great ven- 
 eration. Since their infancy, the good man has been 
 anxiously engaged in turning their minds to good, or, in 
 their own words, he has ' learnt them to love all good 
 things ar^ to hate everything that is naugldy. ' This 
 last is a phrase in high fuvor with this Solon of the sea, 
 and if the manner in which it is used shows a lack of ele- 
 gance, it indicates a simplicity that belongs to innocence. 
 
 The women, notwithstanding the assurance of Ad- 
 ams, had bewailed the young men as lost when the vessel 
 disappeared, and when they arrived on shore, uU parties 
 seemed frfintic with joy. 
 
 Our boats lay beyond the surf, and the patriarch 
 brought off for the crews, a roasted pig. He requested 
 our ' attention,' and said grace in a solemn manner and 
 these words, ' For what we are to receive, the Lord 
 make us thankful.' In the crowd stauu.ng on the cliff, 
 [ pointed to a couple of females who the old man said 
 were hi .1 daughters, and on my expressing a desire to 
 see the>a he waved his hand in a manner that shewed he 
 had a system of signals ; for the youngest ran down the 
 the slope and without waiting for the returning wave, 
 plunged into the surf. She needed little aid to get on 
 board, and in the same moment when she put her hand 
 upon the gunwale she was seated at her father's side. 
 
8 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 Her countenance was decidedly English, and constantly 
 animated with smiles. Having received many presents, 
 Hannah returned on shore, and Mr Adams consented 
 to pass the night on board. 
 
 But he could not compose himself to sleep; at every 
 movement on deck, and we tacked frequently, he ran up. 
 and seized a rope where his aid was little wanted, and 
 cheered the sailors with the exclamations usual in haul- 
 ing. Then he would return to his cabin, where ho 
 was often heard in prayer. As ours was the first ship 
 he had entered since the Bounty (for I think he did not 
 visit Capt. Folger's), perhaps the revival of old recollec- 
 tions was too strong for his philosophy, or perhaps he 
 feared that we might detain him as a prisoner. My own 
 private belief was that his intellect was a little disordered. 
 
 I went on shore to see the village, and was received 
 on the beach with a general * welcome.' We passed 
 through a grove of cocoa palms planted with regularity, 
 and the broad leaves were so interlocked as to exclude 
 the light of the sun, and produce a twilight at noonday. 
 Had there been no birds to sing, it would have been al- 
 most dismal. The trunks were large, strait, and tall, 
 and the whole grove looked like a magnificent temple of 
 pillars. ' - ' ' 
 
 Near this is the village, divided by a swift rivulet of 
 the clearest waters. The houses are of plank hewn 
 from the tree, and the windows are sliding pannels. In 
 the village are some noble banyan trees, which make a 
 canopy that will almost exclude the rain. Some of them 
 look like a pavilion, and in all it seems to a stranger 
 that nature has borrowed the aid of art. The branches, 
 like those of the live oak in America, extend themselves 
 parallel to the earth; and when they require, from their 
 distance to the trunk, a new support, a shoot like a prop 
 falls to the ground, where it takes root like a new tree. 
 The banyan therefore covers a great surface. 
 
 V 
 
 y 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 9 
 
 The Otaheitau women followed me wherever I went, 
 with inquiries of their long lost country; for they per- 
 sisted in believing that I had come last from Otaheite. 
 
 To Adams we gave a good boat, many tools, and 
 some useful books. To the young people we promised 
 a supply of * spelling books,' for which they made early 
 and anxious inquiries. Their desire to learn seemed 
 very great. 
 
 We received the spy-glass of the Bounty, and a few 
 blank books that had been on board. We also saw the 
 guns, which are visible at low water, though half de- 
 voured by rust. 
 
 I had the pleasure to receive many pressing invita- 
 tions to live upon the island. I was a waif on the 
 world's wide sea, and perhaps it had been better for me 
 had I been here cast ashore: for even Hannah promised 
 that if I would remain and teach her to read, I should have 
 a house of my own, and never be called to labor in the 
 *yam fields.' Other destinies led me away, but not 
 without more regret than I can express, as I took leave 
 of these innocent, kind, and happy islanders. 
 
 This was more than t^velve years ago, and I have 
 never had a conveyance for the spelling books. I con- 
 fess with sorrow that I have not sought one: if you can 
 inform me of such, I will recover a little self esteem by 
 sending those and better books, though they cannot re- 
 store to the Islanders their lost simplicity. 
 
 NO. III. 
 
 On our voyage from Pitcairn's Island, we had an alarm, 
 and the consternation was extreme. I had one night 
 
10 
 
 "TTERS p„OM A „A„,^^, 
 
 ,/ 
 
 / 
 
 <hrown myself on a chesi in ,i. r 
 
 ««' <o tl,o skin, wa, ftlrl «'«'='>««e, and (hough 
 
 . trembling „r,he ship T " , """"^ ''^ " "»'«»« 
 
 ""•■"ier, and anotl^; slf^o^r """"""'«= <«^"'« 
 '"»l.ed on deck, and .he heliof " ° """'■ ^" '""«'» 
 "-"^ oground. The lead ,vl « ^°""''' "■"' "'« '■'■ip 
 fo"".!. The shoeks, however h '""'"' """ "» '"""'■» 
 --•„ and .he, o'eeurd I ^Z:,T''-''^ "Ka- 
 The pleasing emo.ions „f ., ':"'''^ <'""ng .„„ days, 
 'he Sandwieh Islands:;';""™': """' *« ''"' -^s 
 cip««iens when he dis ovtl^ " "■•"" '"' ''»^'' «"«- 
 'he Korthwes. Coas. ,; "-^-'o-elad moun.ains of 
 fi% and fiftyfive, north I of" ;'""°" "■« la.i.ude of 
 
 covered comple.elywi.hdlnJlf'"" ''^™'''»>. -"d 
 «»<i fir. No e„l.iva, d fi:,d;':7^°''''«'"'"'=''.»P™ce. 
 
 J«ges enhven ,he prospee.t a ;""' "™''=''> " '<"' 
 '"nd after a long voyage .h° f ^ "' ''^ "■=-« 'ho 
 '«"««<=ope. I. i! o7eTa's '2" ''" '""'^ '■™»'i 'he 
 soli.ude. ™" mWeraess and unbroken 
 
 ;ngt TsXar^e^wrrr' '' T" "'•'»■■■'«' '-0- 
 
 Wed for ,w„ leaguesld . '" ""'"'' '"""h "e fol- 
 Nowe,.ee. HereTe found TT' '"" ^""^ ""hor of 
 ?he Indians had made I:a,.aekt'""r " ""="""" ""-h 
 -g a. close ,-iuarters w^h 1^^^" ''T hefore-fight- 
 par. of ,he crew in close! ■ ""'' "" "=P"'=ed by 
 
 M»y of.he indi:n:ti; ':::r''"'•'''-sp*- 
 <'nd„f,he crew,, wo were hT", '""■'"'''>' "'<""«'ed, 
 
 i,„rt """"""'"'='»<) five dangerously 
 
 The mas.cr resolved to 1 ave ,ati,f,w 
 
 vonge; and aOerwards, wl," s " ? "' '""" '"'"• ''" 
 «'<lo, and .he fore deck rovlr"''!. ''""'^ '''"''■' '«'''''«- 
 '"Oo if they migh., a d TelfifT ""' '""" """«'^» 
 
 --"'.o.egi;cn.osr;L'X!^;-;;i«^1 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 11 
 
 a ransom of furs. But the accidental discharge of a 
 swivel disconcerted this just and liberal scheme of reta- 
 liating the wrongs of the guilty, upon people who might 
 be innocent. 
 
 On the first alarm, those who were sitting on the rail 
 dropped into the water like turtles, and others farther on 
 board, leaped into the water with the haste of a startled 
 frog. 
 
 One chief was taken, and his ransom fixed at twenty 
 skins of sea otter. Afler he had paid it, he paddled ashore 
 v/ith the air of a madman, plotting mischief, or rather 
 planning justice and revenge. One of the crew of ano- 
 ther brig, seeing a canoe passing that held some men 
 who were present at the attack on the other vessel, 
 edged round a swivel loaded with spikes and musket 
 balls, and discharged it with so true an aim, that few 
 survived in the boat to tell tlic death of their comrades. 
 
 Our captain l)cg£^ed of another master a little girl 
 seven years old, that he might restore her to her rela- 
 tions, who lived northward. The child had been but a 
 week on board, when we reiiicukcd a woman in a canoe 
 under tho stern, making signals to her, for neither knew 
 the otiier's language. At night, being on the watch, 1 
 heard a splash in the wator, and then the sound of a ' 
 paddle. I skulled after in the jolly boat, as fast as I 
 could, but failed to overtake the canoe, which carried 
 away our little ca|)tive. ' . 
 
 This, with the loss of a whale boat, irritated the cap- 
 tain, who resolved to be indemnified for at least his ex- 
 penses, Therefore, when accident rather than justice 
 favored, he began to execute his plan, little dreaming to 
 what it would lead. 
 
 A canoe from an inland tribe came alongside, manned 
 with ten men, each armed with a musket, bow and ar- 
 row, and dagger. The chief came boldly onboard, and 
 

 r/i!f*\ 
 
 12 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 ii 
 
 1 ! 
 
 ,! 
 
 was secured in the cabin. It was offered to his com- 
 rades to ransom him at twenty sea otter skins, and it 
 was threatened, if the price did not forthcome, to take 
 him to the north and sell him for u slave. At this trea- 
 chery the Indians stared wildly, as well they might, and 
 after a muttered consultation, dropped under the stern. 
 The captive in the mean time was in the cabin under 
 the guard of the steward, who was a strong man, and of 
 the ship's tailor, who was bolder than a tailor commonly 
 is. Each of these was sitting on the transom opposite 
 a cabin window. The chief untied the cotsack from 
 his shoulder, and with a flying leap went through the 
 cabin window, which he broke with his head, and which 
 was barely wide enough for his body. In the next mo- 
 ment he was seated in his boat, examining the priming 
 of his musket. The crew ran to the stern with their 
 arms pointed at the natives, who on this demonstration 
 rose and* presented theirs to us. Our captain ordered 
 us not to fire, well knowing that the Indians deserved 
 less punishment than praise, and in fact the brave bear- 
 ing and presence of mind, in our captive, won our admi- 
 ration. But unfortunately the transaction was seen on 
 board another vessel, the master of which having lost a 
 brother by the Indians, held them in utter hatred. He 
 discharged, as the canoe passed him, a volley with such 
 fatal eflect, that one Indian only remained standing, 
 who paddled the canoe beyond the reach of shot. Still 
 there was another vessel to be passed, and the ferocious 
 man who had occasioned all this carnage called ou&and 
 requested that the canoe should be sunk. The master, 
 though he knew nothing of the quarrel, com^ -ed with 
 the nefarious request. A swivel loaded with grape was 
 discharged, the boat was riddled, and the last brave, un- 
 offending, and devoted man, fell over the side. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 IS 
 
 We learned from a vessel lately arrived, that provi- 
 sions commanded a good price with the Russians at 
 Norfolk Sound, and thither we went. Governor Bare- 
 nofT purchased all our supplies for twelve thousand seal 
 skins, worth at Canton twenty thousand dollars. Here 
 we hauled up for several months, and contracted with 
 the governor for a party of Kodiack Indians, expert 
 with the bow, to hunt sea otters on the coast of Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 The governor had the national hospitality, and hav- 
 ing cellars well stored again, after a scarcity, held fre- 
 quent assemblies, where each guest was expected to 
 drink fairly; that is, cup for cup with the man in office. 
 This point was never waved, as an idle ceremony, but 
 entered so much into the governor's hospitable feel- 
 ings, that none had independence to refuse compliance. 
 Hot punch was the liquor to which we sacrificed con- 
 science on the altar of complaisance, and I know men 
 who there contracted habits of intemperance that have 
 destroyed them. 
 
 This settlement is called Sitka, and is placed at the 
 bottom of a deep bay, with anchorage for any number of 
 ships. The country is in barren ridges, covered two- 
 thirds of the year with snow. 
 
 NO. IV. 
 
 Sir — Our hunters amounted to two hundred and four 
 Kodiack and Onafaschan Indians, and we had, beside, 
 four Russian families. Their food perfumed the ship. 
 It was herring and whale's blubber, though for luxuries 
 they served out whortleberries saturated with train oil j 
 2 
 
rj^ 
 
 SS 
 
 14 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ MARINER. 
 
 ,! 
 
 and I have known the Russians reject a dinner of ship's 
 provis on for these dainties. 
 
 In fourteen days we anchored off the island Gatalina 
 five leagues from the coast of California. The hunt, 
 erstook to the canoes, and crossed over to the main, and 
 we followed with the ship. The Mission o Saint Ga- 
 briel is fidecn leagues from t e coast, but a corporal's 
 guard is stationed on shore to give notice of arrivals 
 The missions are twenty or thirty miles asunder, and 
 are little else than stations for trade. The Padres are 
 very kind and honest men. There are about twenty 
 or thirty Spaniards at each station, and perhaps five 
 hundred Indians. These are converted in a summary 
 way, for when other argument fails, the bastinado pro- 
 duces instant conviction. 
 
 Hunters are sent out and the natives are brought in 
 at the horse's tail. They are caught like other wild 
 cattle, by the Imo, or a noose dexterously thrown over 
 them from a distance. They soon become attached to 
 the Padres and acquire habits of industry. Thse In- 
 dians are a gentle race very unlike the tribes of the 
 north, which are warlike and cruel. In the north the 
 natives are cunning, deceitful, and vindictive, never for- 
 getting offence, but in the blood of the offender. They 
 are active in the chase, and with a musket, the best of 
 marksmen. They have small eyes, high cheek bones 
 and the general aspect of a Tartar. Their appearance 
 supports, the belief that all animals constitute a chain, 
 and that there is no link between the least intellectual 
 savage, and the most intelligent monkey. 
 
 Unlike most savages they care little for ornament, 
 though beads and shells arc oflen worn. The females, 
 in aid of their natural charms, practice the arts of the 
 toilet. They paint their faces in bright fanciful colors, 
 and the under lip is rolled over a piece of wood which 
 
 f 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 16 
 
 rests upon the chin. About Columbia River many of 
 the females arc handsome as far as shape and feature 
 const itu e beauty. ^ 
 
 The dress, along the whole coast, is a blanket thrown 
 over the shoulders, and secured by a string in front. 
 Sometimes I have seen shoes, stockings, and a hat, but 
 never on the same person. I have seen also a chief in 
 a marine's cout, but then he had no other garment. 
 
 I much desire to see a colony* at Columbia River. 
 The colonists, if from New England, would find a better 
 climate than they would leave, and a soil easy and fer- 
 tile to a great degree. They would find large meadows 
 fit for immediate grazing, and fish enough for an army. 
 I have bought at Columbia River for five leaves ofiobac- 
 co a salmon large enough to feast the whole corporation 
 when the most hungry. The navigation is difficult, as 
 the channel of the river changes ; but two pilots would 
 be able to take up all ships in safety. 
 
 At this time the penalties against trade with foreign- 
 ers, were so high as to defeat their object. In fact 
 every man was a smuggler, and the law a dead letter. 
 The military commandant himself brought down his cat- 
 tle for sale, and from these we chose thirty that would 
 have been called good even at Brighton. But the salt 
 (to use a mild term) was execrable and we had fears 
 that it would not preserve the beef. 
 
 The Spaniards now, for the first time, discovered our 
 hunters darting about in the bay, and the discovery gave 
 them no pleasure, for which we cared littJe, as we did 
 not go there to please the Spaniards. The commandant 
 recommended a departure, and as no water was to be 
 had, we gratified him, and went to Catnlina for supplies 
 Here we found a few huts occupied by people so shy 
 and genteel that they ran away fr m us. The men 
 were naked as truth, but the women had aprons of mat- 
 
 ■■< 
 
f 
 
 16 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 i'» 
 
 ting. Their hair was worn ailer the fashion of a pitch 
 mop, and had some resemblance also to n crow's nest. 
 Their bodies were glazed with filtti and their ugliness 
 such, that they would have been thought plain in an 
 assembly of Hottentots. In fact they were the lowest 
 and most rusty link I had ever seen, in the chain of 
 mankind. 
 
 Having filled our casks at a fountain of the purest 
 waters that ran swiftly across the beach (and that I 
 dream of to this day when athiist and nsleep), we sailed 
 for the Bay of Saint Qucntin. This was our head quar- 
 ters for hunting ; and our first duty, and you may be sure 
 it was also our pleasure, was to discharge the Russians 
 and Indians from the ship; which by washing, scraping, 
 liming and fumigation, we rendered habitable. Wo 
 next examined the good Californian beef, which had not 
 taken the salt, and was spoiled. To be thus deprived <^ 
 prog disturltcd our equanimity; such is Uie dependence 
 of mind upon matter. 
 
 Southcasi from the anchorage fourteen leagues, and 
 from the continent two and an half, is Rock Redondo; 
 and as the hunters found many otter in the vicinity, this 
 was the place of deposit for skins. The rock produced 
 no water, and we had to send weekly supplies for two 
 hundred and fifty men. 
 
 Six leagues northward from our anchorage, and not 
 far inland, are saline ponds which aftbrd large quanti- 
 ties of salt, and I was one of the crew that went up to 
 them for supplies. At nigljt we arrived at the ponds and 
 slept under a tent made of oars and sails. In the morn- 
 ing, as I was removing the tent, I saw something stirring 
 in the folds, which was a rattle snake five feet long and 
 large enough to swallow a cat. He was the largest I 
 had seen, furnished with excellent teeth, and a rattle fit 
 for a watchman. We killed about twenty more upon 
 
 u 1 1 ftfii'jhwi' II 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 n 
 
 the coast. We never found them inclined to attack, but 
 alw.nyg ready to defend, and like a good soldier to die 
 upon the spot they occupied; in this we willingly indulg- 
 ed their humor, and praised wliile we pounded them. 
 Having gathered our salt, which we found in hard cakes, 
 we made an excursion up the country. The vallies 
 were covered with flowers of a thousand hues, hut the 
 hills were hare. It was like walking in a flower garden, 
 and wo strode along with an elevation of spirits hard to 
 be conceived by one who has not escaped from a cargo 
 of blubber, and two hundred Kodiack passengers. We 
 remarked that the country was stocked with game, for 
 
 we saw geese, 
 
 ducks, curlews, hares, foxes, and deer. 
 
 Our next excursion was to Rock Redondo. Our boat 
 was decked over, and rather too large for oars. When 
 the wind was northeast, we could run down in seven 
 hours, but were sometimes seventy in making a return. 
 On the course back we had a quarter of beef fresh, a 
 few small hsh, eight pounds of bread, a little tea and su- 
 gar and twelve gallons of water, for a crew of five. In 
 the morning our beef had become so much tainted, 
 that we gave it to the sharks. We had worked to 
 windward ten miles when there came a dead calm, and 
 though we had but four fish and the bread, we made a 
 good breakfast in the hope of a breeze. Noon came 
 and night succeeded, and like Don Juan, we were still 
 becalmed. On the next day came the breeze after we had 
 so long whistled for it, and scratched upon the mast; and 
 at sunset we saw the high lands back of the bay. In the 
 evening it was calm again, but there was a heavy swell 
 of the sea, and a strong current setting to the south. In 
 the morning a thick fog enveloped us, and when it rose 
 we could see nothing but sea and sky. Our hunger was 
 appeased by the stronger force of anxiety. Our boat 
 
 was too high to be managed by oars in so great a swell, 
 
 2* 
 
mF^ 
 
 m^mi^ 
 
 'mm^mmm'm 
 
 ..ti^' 
 
 18 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 and wo watched for a breezo as the convict waits for 
 a reprieve. It carried us in night of land, only to leave 
 us again in the current. We wore exhausted with hun- 
 ger and fatigue, and hope died nway within us. 
 
 There came nt last a slight breo/,e and wo started 
 over our ballast, and a tub and stones, that made the fire 
 phice, till the otiice of cook became a sinecure. The 
 wind then came freshly from the southwest, and as we 
 never after or before knew it to come from that quarter^ 
 it seemed sent to preserve us. 
 
 NO. V. 
 
 i 
 
 Sir — I crave your indulgence to a few more extracts 
 from my journal in California, and firstly of the island 
 Ceros. It is ten leagues from the continent, mountain- 
 ous and barren, though the hunters reported some val- 
 lies of great beauty and perpetual verdure. It abounds 
 in deer, of which we took many, and venison ' finer or 
 fatter ' was never lifted on a fork. 
 
 The English ships once used to come here to take 
 the sea elephant for his oil. We found the animals 
 wherever we landed, and murdered two of the weight of 
 iiAeen hundred pounds. The bodies were ten feet in 
 length, and as large in girth as the ox ColuinbuiS. They 
 resemble the sea lion in all things 1 ut the proboscis that 
 supplies their name. On land they are clumsy, but few 
 animals move faster through the water. When attacked 
 on shore, they raised themselves on the hinder legs, 
 throwing their bodies forward to meet the assailant; and 
 as the mouth is open and well garnished with ivory, 
 close quarters a''e not the safest. 
 
 ^., 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 19 
 
 At Ccros wo throw out our wood thnt was old and 
 dry. It was filled with worms, nnd wc feared that for 
 change of fare they would take to u fresh hcam, for 
 they u£>od tlicir ^itnblets dexterously, boring the timber 
 as much, ulniost, ns — I am boring you. 
 
 On the night helore wo were to sail, five of the crew 
 deserted in the jolly bout, and it was believed that they had 
 gone to the main, but they were loss wise. An Indian 
 afterwards informed us that there was a boat sunk with 
 stones, on the northern part of the island. We had great 
 need of their service, but they kept out of the reach of pro- 
 cess. In fact at this time the whole crow was dissatis- 
 fied. The captain had sold iiis bread at Norfolk Sound, 
 and had neglected on the hunting vojage to get a sup- 
 ply. Boiled wheat was our substitute for the staff of 
 life; and the sailors thought it was 'not fit for hogs,' 
 though in my own opinion, it was. We had no vegeta- 
 bles, and our beef would have amazed a Cossack. Bet- 
 ter fare however was on board, and this justly exaspeiat- 
 ed the crew. Good beef was sliced in the cabin, and 
 delicious venison hung under the awning on the quarter 
 deck. This was too much for human nature, when hun- 
 gry, to bear ; and the five hands who deserted, had 
 adroitly passed into the boat a prime saddle of venison, 
 upon which they feasted on hhore. 
 
 They might have denied their Saviour, and the cap- 
 tain would have forgiven it ; but in taking his venison, 
 they pricked him where he was more sensitive, and he 
 threatened all hands with the rope unless the offender 
 stood forth, in which case he promised amnesty and obli- 
 vion. Everything was reconciled, for the culprits con- 
 fessed the fact, and pleaded hunger in mitigation. Yet 
 the captain was overheard to threaten punishment when 
 he got into ' blue water,' and this idle menace, never meant 
 to bo executed, was the cause of their flight. Thej 
 
 \i 
 
so 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 I I 
 
 gave up three hundred dollars each, which was due to 
 them as wages, encountered a thousand hardships, and 
 perhaps died of famine, rather thaa be degraded by 
 corporal punishment. .. ^ 
 
 In summer there are few rains in California, but for 
 a while the plants are moistened by copious dews; 
 then comes ' the sear, the yellow leaf,' drought, faggot, 
 and fire. From August to December, the earth is 
 parched and cracked, the sfVeams are evaporated, and 
 the cattle dead or mad, with drought. After the first of 
 March, vegetation is so rapid, that it seemb like the 
 shifting of a scene at the theatre. 
 
 The manner in which our hunters took the sea otter, 
 was various. The animals are shy, and must, therefore, 
 be struck from a distance. They were sometimes hit 
 with a barbed spear attached to a line and bladder : and 
 an Indian seldom misses his otter at eight rods. Ho 
 kills it also with muskets and catches it in traps. In 
 this sport the Indians are very zealous, and the chase 
 in a canoe is not without its attractions. 
 
 Now, Sir, imagine me at Mazatlan, in Mexico, near 
 the entrance to the gulf of California. The town is 
 small, and about thirty miles from the port. From this 
 I went on the top of a mule to Rosario, filly miles ; 
 through a country covered with bushes, in a path just 
 wide enough for the mule, but too narrow for the rider, 
 among the sharp thorns oy the way-side. There were 
 but five huts on the way, and at all I obtained milk. 
 Yet the soil is rich, and the vegetation so vigorous that 
 the vines and bushes are almost impenetrable. 
 
 Rosario has about eight thousand people and sil- 
 ver mmes that are rich, and have been extensively 
 worked; but the first veins have been exhausted, and 
 the miners having little science, have not discovered 
 others. Two or three hundred mules, however, were 
 
 "TT* 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 21 
 
 and 
 by 
 
 engaged in the miriss. Excavations have been made 
 under the town, which, like Paris and Rome, has it cata- 
 combs; but in a country where earthquakes are com- 
 mon, it is not prudent thus to dig the grave of a city, 
 lest the first shock might complete the burial. These 
 mines were discovered by a shepherd, who found in the 
 morning under the ashes of his evening fire, many drops 
 of pure silver, for he had made his camp upon a rich 
 bed of ore, and like Martin VValdeck, converted his 
 brands to precious metals. 
 
 On my return to Mazatlan, a Chinese, (whom sailors 
 call a Chinaman), gave me such language that I tapped 
 him with a crabstick, and he walked away making vows 
 to the Furies. On I he same day I went out alter game, 
 and was warned that Achong, with pistols and knife, was 
 hunting me. I came back by the house of the com- 
 mandant who gave me a file of soldiers to seize the 
 Chinese, and cun-y him aboard. We took him from a 
 crowd of Spaniards. He had two double barreled pis- 
 tols loaded and bearing the mprk of Don Ludovico Tira- 
 do, my very good Spanish friend who wished me out of 
 his way. The pistols I determined to keep ; but going 
 ashore I was captured myself, and forced to surrender 
 them for ransnm. The Don's brother, hov/ever, recon- 
 ciled us, whereupon we shook bands, and (as Le Sage 
 says,) have hated each other ever since. 
 
 At febout this 'imf, as the w^^atlier, in seaman's phrase, 
 looked ng///, the ship nut out to sea, to have room 
 enough to ride. I, however, was on shore and happened 
 to be at a house where there were five or six ladies, with 
 the commandant. At noon coir.nunen.'cd a fresh gale, 
 which in two hours was a hurricane; and at three o'clock, 
 a brig and a schooner were driven upon the rocks. Our 
 house was near the beach, shaded by a large tree of 
 iron wood, but in other respects exposed to the gale. In 
 
iu 
 
 I- 
 
 n LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 a few minutes the tree was stripped of every branch, 
 and nothing but the trunk remained. A large house 
 was unroofed in our rear, and the walls left standing at 
 an unstable angle. — Half of our own roof was carried 
 away by an invisible agent, and the house itself reeled 
 as if about to fall, or share the fate of the holy one of 
 Loretto. ^ 
 
 There were pale faces in our garrison. The ladies 
 invoked the saints, principally Saint Anthony, and when 
 the sea broke its bounds and came roaring towards the 
 house, the coolest of us thought, with the vanquished 
 monarch, that all was lost but honor. We took advan- 
 tage of a momentary respite of the tempest to evacuate 
 the post and shelter ourselves under a wall. A sailor 
 soon came from the stranded schooner, dripping like a 
 river god, and bearing a bag of dollars. 
 
 Three days passed without tidings of our vessel, but 
 on the fourth she encored the harbour. The crew had 
 taken in their sail in time, but in the hr-dest puff of the 
 gale, fearing that she could not survive upon her broad- 
 B^do, attempted to set the foretopmast staysail to get her 
 belore the v/ind; yet the sail was instantly torn from the 
 rope. They next endeavoured to pay her off with tar- 
 paulins in the fore rigging, but in vain, for she lay two 
 hours with her gunwale under water. The jolly boat 
 was swept from the stern, and the whale boat forced 
 up against the davits, and by the power of the wind 
 alone, broken into fifty pieces. In ploughing the seas 
 for twenty years from the time when J write, I have had 
 rough weather, but have never known a tempest half as 
 violent as this. 
 
 This is all that is noted in my journal atMazatlan, ex- 
 cept the nature nf the circulating medium received by 
 us in payment; that is ten bars of silver, each weighing 
 seventy pounds, at eighteen dollars the pound. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 23 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 Sir — Tmngine us now sailing from INTazatlan, south- 
 east, along the shore. The country is covered with 
 forests, and we saw many cocoa pahns. There is little 
 anchorage, and so high is the surf that there is no safety 
 in landing with a boat. The coast is flat^ but six miles 
 inland is a high ridge of mountains, and we saw the vol- 
 cano Apanaca, shooting up to a great height its pyra- 
 mid of flame. We saw huts, and villages of huts. We 
 discovered but one man, and he was running abreast 
 with us, as a dog chases a bird, or the shadow of a bird. 
 At last he gave it over, and sat down under a palm 
 tree, having fatigued himself before he could tire the 
 ship. 
 
 The first port v/e arrived at was Sonsonate ; the 
 town, however, is six miles from the port. It is a place 
 of little trade, for all the commerce centres at Guati- 
 mala, distant fiAy leagues. ' ' 
 
 The surface of society was not calm : the people 
 had too much of a good thing; they had so much liberty 
 that they were free from some useful restraints. Their 
 prayer to Saint Anthony for a breeze had been answer- 
 ed by a hurricane. 
 
 The town has about twelve thousand souls, that is, 
 people. It is near a river, and as near to a volcano as 
 Naples is to Vesuvius. The mountain throws out ashes 
 and cinders, and at some shocks I felt the ground trem- 
 ble under my feet; but the people live in the same fan- 
 cied security that men feel in the plague. On our re- 
 turn to the ship, the boat was overset in the surf, and all 
 of us ducked, but no one damaged. 
 
 Our next anchorage, after a sail of twentyfour days, 
 was Guayaquil. It is on the river of that name, fifty 
 
■»"•■■«■ 
 
 24 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ MAUINER. 
 
 V-i 
 
 ri 
 
 i 'a, ' 
 
 I 
 
 <^' 
 
 miles from the sea. The streets are at right angles, 
 the houses built on piers, and the city itself is about two 
 miles long on the river. The lower rooms arc ware 
 houses, and the people (a mixed race) live in the upper 
 stories. CLiayaquil has many advantages, and might 
 easily be made beautiful; there are noble houses, and 
 there is a wharf the whde extent of the city. Yet in 
 the rainy season the stretts are filled with water, and 
 peopled with innumerable hoiLts of frogs, of which (as is 
 said in Alabama) there are seventy bushels to the acre, 
 with alligators enough to fence them in. Under a good 
 police, however, this city might be an agreeable resi- 
 dence, for though nearly under the line, the thermome- 
 ter seldom rises above eighty degrees, and notwith- 
 standing the filth and stagnant water, it is not unhealthy. 
 
 We made a short excursion into the country, with 
 guns in hand; partly it was made in u canoe, which in 
 several narrow creeks roused the alligators from their 
 lethargy on land, and many of them fifteen feet in length, 
 took their ' sullen plunge ' into the water. 
 
 We saw deer on the bank, but they were too shy for 
 a shot; and we saw also, on our return, the summit of 
 Chimborazo. 
 
 Our next movement was to Paita, a town of four thou- 
 sand people, chiefly Indians. The houses are of 
 bamboo, plastered with mud: the port is the best on 
 the coast, and there is some trade, though the merchants 
 live at Pura, distant fourteen leagues. I lived ashore, 
 shooting pigeons and grey squirrels, and when we de- 
 parted for Callao, I had gained in weight and comeli- 
 ness. I should have told you, however, before, that the 
 master was my relation, and made my duty light. 
 
 The coast to Callao is sterile enough for an Arab; 
 for hundreds of miles there is scarcely a tree or shrub. 
 The air we breathed was a thick fog, though we could 
 
 \.. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 25 
 
 angles, 
 out two 
 •0 ware 
 e upper 
 i might 
 ses, and 
 Yet in 
 t(^r, and 
 ;h (as is 
 tie acre, 
 r a good 
 >le resi- 
 srmome- 
 notwith- 
 healthy. 
 
 ••y> 
 
 with 
 
 irhich in 
 )m their 
 I length, 
 
 » shy for 
 nimit of 
 
 ur thou- 
 are of 
 
 best on 
 
 erchants 
 
 i ashore, 
 
 I we de- 
 comeli- 
 
 that the 
 
 It. 
 
 m Arab; 
 
 ir shrub. 
 
 ve could 
 
 take the sun at noon. In the port of Callao nothing 
 was visible, and but for the ship bells we should hardly 
 have known ourselves to be in harbor. 
 
 I went up to Lima for a day, and made a lodgment in 
 the Freuch Coffee House. At Lima my journal is a 
 blank, and I can only tell you from recolloc.ion, that the 
 city is kept remarkably clean by streams of water, con- 
 ducted through the streets; and that the buildings are 
 generally but of one story, for the earthquakes are too 
 formidable f )r elevated houses. , . 
 
 The complexion of the ladies inclines to the olive, and 
 in walking they hide with their mantle all their face but 
 one eye, though this is so brilliant that it may be felt. 
 The dress fits close to the body, and jvould not be tol- 
 erated in the United States; and perhaps it is to hide 
 their blushes, or the want of them, that the ladies cover 
 their faces. 
 
 From Callao I returned to Guayaquil, and there took 
 passage for Panama. This is a walled city, and was 
 once of great strength. The walls, in the most exposed 
 points, arc twenty five feet high, and of equal thickness. 
 On the bomb proof battery are many huge |>ieces of 
 brass ordnance, weighing from four to six tons. One 
 only is mounted, and that in so bad a plight, that I 
 should not like to apply tlie match. The streets are 
 neater than at Guayaquil, but the number of deserted 
 and crumbling houses give to Panama a character of 
 desolation. 
 
 From this we made dispositions to cross the Isthmus, 
 and on the seventh of September despatched six mules 
 before us, with baggage. In four hours we followed, 
 and found the mules and baggage waiting at a farm 
 house. The muleteers were making merry, and cared 
 less for our remonstrance than for the braying of their 
 •wn mules. At last we set off, and one of the fellows, 
 3 
 
m 
 
 :amimmm 
 
 m 
 
 
 26 
 
 LETTERS FROA A MARINER. 
 
 I 
 
 whom I had pre-judged a scoundrel, felt an inclination 
 to bathe in a fresh rivulet; and this delayed us another 
 hour. I pretendftd to much equanimity, taking, in the 
 saddle, a lunch of bread and cheese. 
 
 The mule is obstinate, in the proverb, but this is in- 
 justice to the muleteer, who has a stronger claim to the 
 same kind of distinction. 
 
 Having crossed a mountain torrent, the road became 
 so bad that we advanced but a mile and a half an hour. 
 Here we gave the muleteers a glass of brandy, and it 
 was a great stride towards their friendship. At two 
 o'clock we came to a farm house, where the muleteers 
 began to unload for the night, and we took it quietly, as 
 remonstrance w%s a vain thing. On the next day we 
 travelled in the worst of roads: in comparison, the dry 
 bed of a mountain torrent was a Macadamized street. 
 At first, we dismounted at a perilous pass, but soon 
 learned to commit ourselves with confidence to the dis- 
 cretion of the mules. 
 
 At last, (for all things may be done by toil,) we arriv- 
 ed at Cruzes, on the river Chagres, a little town where 
 travellers and topers arc so few, that there is no inn for 
 the pleasure of the one, or the accommodation of the 
 other. The town has a population of two thousand ne- 
 groes and mulattoes. It is seven leagues from Panama, 
 in a charming situation, and with as rich a soil as was 
 ever tilled or neglected. 
 
 To the muleteers we gave fortythree dollars, and for 
 a canoe with four hands, to descend the river, twenty 
 dollars more. Our bill at the house where we lodged 
 was only sixteen dollars, for the lady expressed a reluc- 
 tance to be hard with strangers. The river, in descend- 
 ing, affords the finest views: the high banks were 
 covered with various tropical plants, and there was a 
 frequent succession of Indian villages. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 27 
 
 Chngres, which is an Indian town, is the most filthy 
 place I ever beheld; yet I had seen Lisbon, and lately 
 been at Guayaquil. The castle is on a high point, and 
 completely defends the town. 
 
 There arc about fifteen hundred people, and (I love 
 a sweeping clause) all idle, ignorant, bigoted, inhospi- 
 table, and dishonest. Their situation, if not to their 
 taste, accords well with their merits. The streets, 
 which are gutters, are replenished by eternal rains, and 
 endless are the armies of rats, mice, lizards, and stinging 
 and buzzing insects. At night, the rats devoured for us, 
 one hat, half a fiddle, one shoe, a cravnt, an umbrella, a 
 bundle of letters, and a peck of oranges. Human life 
 is hardly safe from such vermin — human comforts van- 
 ish before them. 
 
 Here, Sir, ends the first voyage of Sindbad the Sailor; 
 will you have the other five ? 
 
 NO. VII. 
 
 Sir — My second voyage was in a good ship laden 
 with dollars, from Boston to Calcutta, and in this voy- 
 age, and in those that grew out of it, I shall describe 
 larger cities, and more interesting modes of life and 
 death. 
 
 Paulo majora canamus, as our old schoolmaster used 
 to say when he struck up ' Old Hundred.' 
 
 On the 4th day of November, in the year 18 — , we 
 took wing, (our good ship vindicates the figure,) and 
 passed swiftly out of the harbor. The first night I 
 have recorded as the darkest I ever knew, for with such 
 things must one fill a sea bo^jk. Few are the adven- 
 
 ***"-.«rV' 
 
mmi 
 
 28 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ; i 
 
 tures of a voyager that can interest a landsman, though 
 a small thing may create nn excitement on board. 
 Every thing is relative, even glory iJself, as you may 
 see from the following extract from the log hook; and 
 the mate had not even a Ihint conce[)tion of what edi- 
 tors call irony. 
 
 * Our sail-maker, Fotcr Ulson, a native of Copenha- 
 gen, this day, at four hours tiiirty minutes, P. M., com- 
 pleted a new foresail, which ho has performed to the 
 satisfaction of all parties concerned, and in a manner 
 that reflects on himself the gieatest credit.' Such is 
 the *bubl)le, reputation,' yet I hope to share the sail- 
 maker's fame by recording it, as Quititius Curtius is, to 
 this day, remeinhered in connexion with Alexander. 
 
 Our commander had a face as grave as Garrick's 
 between tragedy and comedy, or a more humble actor's 
 on a slender benefit; yet he had an invincible propensi- 
 ty to waggery, and was very inventive of practical jokes, 
 some of wliich fell heavily up^n nic. He was a good 
 man, faithful to his friend, and fond of his bottle; though 
 his fondness predominated over his fidelity. As it was 
 his custom to throw over his flasks as fast as they were 
 emptied, which happened at short intervals, he was 
 reported by the captain of another ship, who knew ours 
 and the master, by the chain of bottles. This is some- 
 what after the mode of the Kennebunkers in the West 
 India trade, who drop shingles as they go out, that they 
 may find the way home by tracing tliem back. 
 
 Our captain watclied as narrowly as the youngest on 
 board, for means and incidents to give an impulse to 
 time, and to vary our monotonous life. Some deadly 
 feud had arisen between the cook, a JVIadagascar negro, 
 and the steward, a Lascar; though 'it was as if this 
 mouth should tear this hand, ior lifting food to't.' They 
 desired a combat; and the captain gave his permission, 
 
 '^-jfe' 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 29 
 
 and pis?tol9. Anger was n little mollified by fear, but 
 shame opposed a pacification. 'Jhe crew were railed, 
 the mate loaded the pistols, and the captain, after re- 
 commending their souls to mercy, gave the signal. Both 
 parties, at the report, leaped a yard from the deck, and 
 the Lascar, being spattered with red ink, was made to 
 believe himself wounded, and was afterwards humbled 
 when reminded of it; though he protested against fight- 
 ing with cranberries. I'hus, with a stiff breeze, and 
 relaxed discipline, we went on our way rejoicing. 
 
 One night I was roused from sleep by the voice of 
 the oaptain calling down curses upon something un- 
 known and dreaded; when I entered the cabin, he had 
 struck a light, and was dressing a large flying fish. It 
 had entered the quarter port hole, while he was asleep, 
 and by its coldness to the touch, perplexed and alarmed 
 the worthy man, who, to this day, dislikes to be remind- 
 ed of his consternation. 
 
 In the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope, we took, 
 with the hook and line, several web footed cape pi- 
 geons, and in the same way an albatross, of twenty 
 pounds, with wings of eleven feet. He straggled like 
 a haddock, but we landed him on deck. It was as good 
 as trout fishing, though the flesh was tough, tasteless, 
 and dry. 
 
 Sometimes we gave a furlough to the geese, who take 
 to the water with alacrity, every one the moment he 
 was loose, diving to a great depth; with the intent, as I 
 suppose, of finding gravel, whereupon I pounded shells 
 as a substitute, which they devoured eagerly. In every 
 vessel there should be carried gravel for the poultry. 
 
 One night, as the mate was chasing the cook with a 
 
 rope's end, to give him what Ben in the play calls ' a salt 
 
 eel for his supper,' the man of the fryingpan jumped 
 
 •verboard, while the ship was walking five knots. He 
 
 3# 
 
30 
 
 LETTkns FROM A MARlfTER. 
 
 I VI 
 
 grasped, however, the fore sheet, and after he had re- 
 ceived several diicking$>, we boused him in, fur he did 
 not relinquish his hold upon hfe,or the rope; not ahvayt 
 synonymous terms. 
 
 At the miiuth of the Iloogly, we took an EngHsh 
 pilot for Calcutta. The stream is mtiddy, and runs 
 about four knots an hour; it has a few islands, and I re- 
 member only that of Saugre, at the mouth. Here it was 
 that poor Monroe was carried off by a tiger, as he sat 
 eating with his companions; the beast wati immedi- 
 ately shot, but too late to save his prey. 
 
 At Calcutta, 1 had been about five minutes ashore, 
 when I was nabbed by a police offiror, who gave me 
 in charge to an armed Stpoy; who carried me three 
 miles into the country, as a juror on a poor GentoO) 
 wl\o had killed himself feloniously. lie had been much 
 involved in debt, owing three rupees, (about a dollar 
 and a half) which he could r.ever hope to amass. It 
 sunk into his spirits, and he did what Cato, 
 had never heard of, bad done before him. 
 
 The variety of people seen in the streets is amusing; 
 there are Turks, Persians, Chinese, Africans, JMalays, 
 Englishmen, and others. As many operations are car- 
 ried on in the open air as at Naples, and jugglers are 
 as busy as Punch at the Carnival. The barber goes 
 round looking in faces for a beard, though he made no 
 discoveries in mine; the sufferer sits down upon his 
 hams, and he that shaves performs his duty well. 
 
 The jugglers frequently have a long snake, and 
 . sometimes a Cobra di Capello, with an eye ♦hat, as 
 Hamlet says', means micking mnllecho. Others have 
 goats well trained to balance themselves on a small 
 round of wood, and Capricorn is elevated by additional 
 rounds, till he is several feet from tho ground; where 
 he stands like a republican in office, at the mercy of the 
 
 whom he 
 
 *'• 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 91 
 
 ic had re- 
 fur he did 
 ot always 
 
 English 
 and runa 
 and I re- 
 ire it was 
 as he sat 
 immcdi- 
 
 ashore, 
 jiive me 
 »e three 
 Gentoo, 
 ■n much 
 a dollar 
 ass. It 
 hom he 
 
 fn using*; 
 ^falays, 
 ire car- 
 ers are 
 !r goes 
 ade no 
 on his 
 
 't and 
 at, as 
 
 have 
 
 small 
 itional 
 ivhere 
 of the 
 
 first man who will give his supporters a kick. Some- 
 times the jugglers have tall ladders, which they will so 
 balance as to go up on one side, and down on the other; 
 and the captain saw one, who drew up the 'iddcr a(\er 
 him, but this. Sir, I never saw. 
 
 There ic a large commonwealth of kites, among 
 which, as with the Spartans, it is not dishonorable to 
 steal. They will plunder a basket of provisions, car- 
 ried on the head, though I know not that they will lif\ 
 a turban, as related in the Arabian jNights; yet they are 
 so unjust and bold, that they will pounce upon a fish 
 when hauled by a line from the water. 
 
 But the queerest of birds is the adjutant, five feet 
 high, and of a melancholy, genllcmanjike aspect. He 
 has blue wings faced with white, a white vest, bufif 
 breeches, and a tuft of black upon his cap. You may 
 see a regiment in line, on the long roofs, where they 
 make a show as formidable as the Ancient and Honor- 
 able Artillery Company. However, like that grave 
 body, they understand not all the stratagem of war. 
 They are voracious as ostriches, and I have seen the 
 mischievous soldiers throw them a bone to pick, filled 
 with powder and furnished with a slow match; and the 
 poor adjutant is blown up while taking his comfort; 
 even like our Madagascar cook, into whose pipe I in- 
 troduced, at times, a little nitre. 
 
 In my next, I will tell you of the sacrifice of a young 
 widow to the manes of her lord; whereas the females 
 in your own christian city, are often iinmolated while 
 the husband lives. 
 
S3 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ MARINER. 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 Sir — JVni nu'ria cnrUivpif adirc Cafrvffom — thnt is, as 
 you have never had the good fortune to see Calcutta, 
 permit mc to say something of it. 
 
 The chinato, at the time of onr nrrivnl, realized my 
 anticipations of the fine air of the tropics, though a few 
 days were warm enough to be called hot. On these 
 days, ot noon, it was no time for a race, hut the morn- 
 ing and evening were delicious. The mechanical art of 
 breathing, which in New England is hut a negative sort 
 of satisfaction, and in a fog, oppressive, seemed in Cal- 
 cutta to be a positive pleasure. I remember that we 
 had, in our long train of retainers, an Ethiopian who 
 had passed his lile under the line, and who was there- 
 fore tanned as dark as Ercibua. I one day beheld him 
 sleeping on a sand bank under a sun that would have 
 roasted an egg. When the shade of a building fell upon 
 his leg, he seemed uneasy; but when the shadow cover- 
 ed his body, he v/as roused by the chill, and rolled him- 
 self into the sun. At this time I was peeled to the skin, 
 and barely kept myself from melting, like a tallow can- 
 dle, by sipping iced water. There is a very comforta- 
 ble machine, above the dinner table, called a punkah, 
 by which several huge fans are kept in motion by an at- 
 tendant, who pulls the strliig This creates a breeze, 
 and scatters the flies. 
 
 The servant to whom the administration of the pun- 
 kah is committed, has no other duty to do or suffer; for 
 with the native, exertion is suilering. The distinction 
 of castes, which is as exclusive as in your aristocratic 
 city, seems to have been devised as a division of toil, 
 where all are indolent. This distinction of classes, how- 
 ever, is hard to be broken; and so severely does a na- 
 
 ^).. 
 
 \^ 
 
~ 
 
 LETTEHS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 33 
 
 tivo feci tho * loss of cnste,' that ho will retrieve it by 
 somo bodily siinering, thoii;^li I aver not that I have 
 seen the ceremony 1 am al)out to describe. A tall pole 
 is erected, with a line h.in^inf^ from tho top, and to this 
 is attached nn enornums hook, lar<jo enough for a shark. 
 Tiiis is forced under some of the muscles in the back of 
 him who has lost, and would retrieve!, his caste; and he 
 is whirled round in a circle till his rruilt is expiated, and 
 he stands ' redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled.' 
 This inchides more than the definition of angling — ' a 
 rod and line, with a worm at one end und a fool at the 
 other;' for here is a fool at each end. 
 
 But it would be an endless task to describe the Hin- 
 doo superstitions, and the tenacity of their hold upon the 
 mind. One of their customs is, to throw the dead into 
 the river, and the bodies are oaten by fishes and can'on 
 crows. Life is sometimes left when the body is commit- 
 ted to the stream. Our captain once picked up an old 
 man, who \vn« fhrnc^hf Kv his iplrtions, to ' have lived 
 long enough/ though his life was prolonged a week on 
 board tlie ship. 
 
 One wretched man, suffering under the hydrophobia, 
 was carried to the bank to die. The convulsions occa- 
 sioned by the vicinity of the water, were horril)le to see. 
 He died, and the widow resolved to burn. According- 
 ly, time and place were appointed, and the place was 
 Barnagore, three miles from the city. Thither I went, 
 under the operation of the feeling that led a Roman ma- 
 tron to the amphitheatre, and that leads a Spanish lady 
 to the circus. Tlie crowd was not so large as a similar 
 sacrifice would collect in Boston, where I fear it would 
 be difficult to find a widow who would hear reason in 
 the way of burning. It is true, that she might blaze 
 before the public, but then she would burn only for a 
 second husband, E.\cuse a pun, sir, for I am told that 
 
 :>... 'f 
 
iSBBSaWS-ffl 
 
 wm 
 
 34 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 I I 
 
 you sometimes make one yourself. This Hindoo cus- 
 tom, however, has its advantages; making wives tender, 
 who would otherwise be termagant, and upholding affec- 
 tion with the strong arm of self-preservation; for the fu- 
 neral pile in the perspective of the conjugal picture, is 
 apt to remind the wife, to take a reverend care of the 
 health and comforts of the husband. 
 .. At five o'clock arrived the official permission for the 
 rites of Moloch. It was announced by an infernal yell 
 from the natives, and I shuddered to hear it, ad when I 
 lately heard the roar of the pit and gallery, and of the 
 blackguards in the boxes, at an indecent allusion on the 
 stage. When you next hear the same roar, let the o^ 
 fenders feel the insulted majesty of ihe press. 
 
 The widow, who was pretty and young, descended, 
 when the shout subsided, from her palankeen, led by an 
 accursed priest. She was dressed, as a victim should 
 be, in white. She walked into the river, and, whdn she 
 came oul, put on a more splendid dress. When her 
 child l.ad put a bit of cake into her mouth, she walked 
 three times round the pile, scattering boiled rice, which 
 was picked up by those ill omened cr^ws, the priests, 
 and her relations. Then she tl.rew into the air a nose- 
 gay, or a bough, and mounted the pile with alacrity, and 
 a smile upon her face. She laid herself by the side of 
 her husband, throwing hei arms about his neck. Two 
 poles were passed over the bodies, after the manner of 
 a lever, and a hound of a priest sat upon one .nd of each 
 pole. Then her unnatural relations covered the body 
 with dried reeds, and her son, aged six years, applied 
 the torch. 
 
 In a moment, the pile was in a blaze. T was very 
 near to it, but saw no struggling in the v/oman, except 
 the contraction of her arms aiound the neck of husband. 
 Her features, while ! could see them, were not distort- 
 ed, but the froth gathered at l^er mouth. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 d5 
 
 I returned to the city in a palankeen, which is a very 
 pleasant vehicle, though at first apt to remind the stran- 
 ger of his coffin. You have seen it caricatured on the 
 stage in Boston, but the veritable Bengal palankeen you 
 will find Only in S.\' ?in. The bearers go off briskly ia 
 a dog trot, at about four miles and a half an hour. They 
 are beasts of burden only; for, from the distinction of 
 caste, or some other reason, they will not draw. We 
 had in our employment eighteen, and they were ordered 
 to take a chaise to another part of the city. They 
 would not draw it, but contrived a way to carry it on 
 poles. 
 
 If you would see all the dresses, and many of the pro- 
 ductions, of the East, visit at Salem the Museum of the 
 East India Marine Society. It is a noble collection, 
 and is one among many of the advantages of the India 
 trade to Salem. This trade from the United States was 
 commenced by INIr Derby — 
 
 • Clarum et venerabile nomen,' 
 a man who led the way to the wealth of the Indies, and 
 laid a noble foundation for the honor and fortunes of hia 
 descendants. The Marine Society is composed of 
 weather-beaten and storm-proof captains or supercar- 
 goes, who have doubled the southern cape of Africa or 
 America. For several years- iliere was a procession 
 and dinner, but the ridicule of the press has ended the 
 processions, while the dinner is wisely retained. The 
 procession was as good as Abolition itself, which it 
 resembled, as much as Asia is like unto Africa. The 
 officers hau mandarin cloaks, and other oriental garbs, 
 and the man that attends in the museum was robed like 
 a Chinese, and carried a tail like a streamer, sweeping 
 the ground. Ihe palankeen was borne by four blacks, 
 introwsers and turbans. A boy sat within, dressed like 
 a nabob, and another, like a slave, carried the hooka by 
 
"^^rr^K^. 
 
 •rrr-!»rr?v;* 
 
 ^WBPflP 
 
 36 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 ■\: 
 
 •. i 
 
 his side. The hooka, is an enormous pipe, with a long 
 flexible tube, that resembles a snake. These good old 
 times are ever, the exhibition discontinued, and a Salem 
 mariner is apt to look grave when the procession is men- 
 tioned, and to watch an opportunity to change the con- 
 versation. 
 
 The English in India have, as at home, a passion for 
 thtf chase, and magniticent are the field sports of the 
 East. The daring of the hunters is almost beyond be- 
 lief. Putnam, with the wolf, was engaged in children's 
 play; for in Bengal more than one similar pursuit of a 
 tiger is recorded. I once saw an officer with a limp in 
 his gait, who had been wounded in hunting the royal 
 tiger. The elephant on which he rode had given the 
 game so rude a reception with his tusk, that the hunter 
 supposed him dead, and leaped down without fear. But 
 the death was a feline artifice, and the tiger seized the 
 poor hunter by the thigh, slung him over his shoulder, 
 and carried him off" as a fox takes away a goose. The 
 officer had two pistols in his belt; with the first he broke 
 a rib of the beast, who signified his gratitude by taking 
 a new bite upon the thigh: but at the second discharge 
 he was lucky enough to pierce the heart, and escaped 
 to tell the story. 
 
 ,;>'^' 
 
 I 
 
 NO. IX. 
 
 i 
 
 S:n — I can tell yon no more of Calcutta, except that 
 the Tank covers twentyfive acres, t!.at there is, and 
 ought to be, a monument to i^ord Clive, that the En- 
 glish cake the dew and the dust on the Cheringa road, 
 and that two sides of the Black Hole are extant, re- 
 sembling the Galaxy office, but mure commodious. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 37 
 
 I 
 
 r'P' 
 
 Now fancy us in the grand straits of Sunda, with 
 high, bold shores covered with the richest tropical veg- 
 etation. Boats came off for traffic, and we bought, for 
 twelve dollars, eig^^teen large turtle, and were offered 
 monkeys, parrots, and birds of paradise. 
 
 Batavia, is called the Queen of the East, though it 
 is but a Dutch (jueen. We anchored four miles from 
 the town in nine fathom water, the dome of the church 
 bearing south, half east. We found about forty sail of 
 European and American ships, and a great many Chi- 
 nese junks. 
 
 The season had been so sickly that six hundred peo- 
 ple had died in a day, and fliat we might not be exposed 
 to the sun, Malays were hired to do the work of the 
 ship. I went on shore and I'ound the city in a low and 
 obscure situation, intersected with canals, (for when 
 did Dutchmen build a city without them.') and shaded 
 with tamarind, and other beautiful trees. Some of i.he 
 main streets make a good show, but nothing in Timbuc- 
 too can be meaner than the Chinese quarter. The Chi- 
 nese, however, are brisk, cheerful, and industrious, living 
 in a strange land, and on the fat thereof, like a Scotch- 
 man in England, or a Yankee in the Southern States; 
 '»flii'.2 the Javanese seemed torpid, indolent, and sullen. 
 
 ii/'ck Bill, a shrewd negro, who has been rich, is 
 c !' c the American Consul; and he furnishes boats and 
 supplies for the ships. Limpo Ghann, an old China- 
 man, has the credit of keeping tlie best grog sho, 5 
 where, I -i ieve to say, is the rendezvous of my coun- 
 trymen, who soon fall into the Dutch custom of taking 
 schnaps. 
 
 The Chinese held a festival, on some occasion to me 
 
 unknown, and brought out Josh, their hideous idol. A 
 
 pIitfLrm was erected on the top of several tall and 
 
 smooth poles, and covered with provisions. At a signal, 
 
 4 
 
Wip» 
 
 mm 
 
 
 I 
 
 V h 
 
 38 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 there was a scramble for the provisions, many Chinese 
 climbling up the poles at once; and their zeal and the 
 diiFiculty of the ascent, were very ludicrous. Those 
 below might have hauled down those above, by the 
 queue, but that it is a deadly injury to take a Chinese 
 by the tail. He may forgive the inadvertence of a 
 stranger, and intreat him to let alone his hair, but in a 
 countryman, the insult would be grievous. It is some- 
 times indicted as a ponalty on a Chinese, to be deprived 
 t)f his s , -imer, but lest it should fall into the hands of 
 a strangtr original proprietor will buy it at a great 
 
 price, I, nr If, am the owner of a queue like a pump 
 handle, and should be glad to find a purchaser. There 
 was a great commander at Goa, who filled the military 
 chest by the mortgage of his whiskers; pray ask your 
 broker, if in these times, he will advance a small sum 
 on the security of mine. •> . 
 
 In the vicinity of the city, are splendid mansions, 
 amid ".jcautiful gardens, and groves of tall cocoa palm. 
 This, Sir, is a country to live in, though it is proper 
 that u stranger should be ready also to die; for pestilence 
 walks abroad like love, breathing spices and scattering 
 destruction. 
 
 I went a short distance in a machine carrying two 
 passengers within, a postillion forward, and three iackies 
 without; the whole drawn by two horses, so small, that 
 they reminded me of a rat dragging away his trap. All 
 strangers, who have dignity and would preserve it, or 
 health, and would not lose it, must keep one of these 
 coachcH, for the sun strikes with so much force that no 
 common head can resist it. When I relumed, ten hands 
 were down with fever, and I myself felt the symptoms, 
 which I put to flight with medicines. 
 
 While we lay in port, there were heavy rains, and 
 such thunder and lighting as you .have never heiird or 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 39 
 
 seen. A ship alongside, received a flash on the fore- 
 royahii^^st head, which went oft' through the lower hends 
 leaving fearful vestiges of its power. The foretopmast 
 was splintered, and flew in all directions; the royal top- 
 gallantmast fell, and the foremast took fire. These 
 tempests brought the advantages of a purer atmosphere, 
 for before they came the air was like that of a heated 
 oven, yet at noon the sea breeze generally gave a 
 little relief. 
 
 The slaves are principally Malays, and are prover- 
 bially stupid. It is said that when the master suspects 
 the slave of theft, he gives him a piece of wood, keep- 
 ing one of the same length himself, and telling liis man 
 that if he has stolen, his stick will grow at night, an 
 inch longer than the other, whereupon the Malay, if 
 guilty, cuts ofl^ an inch, and convicts himself. 
 
 From Batavia, we coasted to Tagal, the very capital 
 of pestilence, and court of death. Then we went to 
 Samarang, a neater city, but neither are noted in my 
 journal. I can only tell you, therefore, that dry docks 
 are cut in the bank of the river, ships floated in, the 
 entrance dammed up with mud, and the water bailed 
 out with buckets. Here a crazy Dutch oliieer, luflfer- 
 ing under a stroke of the sun, which had baked his 
 brains, carried me to prison, but I was soon released. 
 
 There I saw the instruments that are used to arrest 
 those, who, under the excitement of opium, passion, 
 and the sun, sally out, attacking with the creese every 
 one they meet. This is called running a muck. The 
 instruments are a sort of forceps, with long handles 
 large enough to grasp a man, strong enough to hold 
 him, and rough enough with spikes, to restrain his 
 struggles. 
 
 Surabaya is a pleasant town, and more healthy than 
 the last. Here we saw a man hung, for passing his 
 
2^ 
 
 ^pipp 
 
 40 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 creese through his master's body, and he died with 
 com oaure. We saw, ton, an Englishman with u cou- 
 ple of black swans, from Van Dieman's land, and each 
 vara avis comtnanded a hundred dollars. 
 
 I have other notes in my journal concerning Java, 
 but as I discover in a Providence paper, that a ' broth- 
 er sailor ' is cruising in the same seas, I would not run 
 across his bows. He has chosen an unjust motto, for 
 his ' Mariner's Sketches ' are not 
 
 * As dry, as the remainder biscuit, after a voyage.' 
 Now, Sir, brush up your imagination, and fancy us 
 approaching the coast of China. We found the sea 
 thnmged with boats, among which we sailtd a hundred 
 and fifty miles, keeping away for some, and for others 
 luffing to. These frail barks are the only home of 
 thousands of families. Hundreds and thousands are 
 yearly lost, but what is such a deduction from the count- 
 less population of China. 
 
 We anchored in vhe Macao Roads, and the captain 
 landed to got a chop and pilot for Whampoa. Macao 
 is still held by iiie Portu<»uese, that is, as Chappequid- 
 dick is held by the Indians. The houses are white, 
 and at a distance the city looks well; but the delusion 
 vanishes with the di^^tance, like the respect rendered to 
 rank, or the devotion paid to beaut;' Whampoa is 
 seventy five miles above this, and thirteen below Canton; 
 yet we were five days in ascending, for when there was 
 no calm the wind was contrary as a queen. We went 
 up principally in one night. It was dark, and we were 
 running eight knots; two pilots and the watch were 
 looking out, yet we ran down a boat with a family. A 
 fearful shriek from many voices, was our first intimation 
 that a boat was near, for had there been a light it might 
 have been saved. The pilot ran aft with terror in his 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 41 
 
 looks, saying, * Hi-yah no can talkee, suppose Manda- 
 rin Sabc, he chop, chop, — cut off head.' On our arri- 
 val at Whampoa, two of the Company's vessels saluted 
 us with Yankee Doodle, and Von Weber himself never 
 made such a tune. 
 
 NO. X. 
 
 Sir — Before we received our cargo, news arrived by 
 a fast sailing cutter from the United States, of war with 
 Great Britian. I'he ships ready for sea, slipped away, 
 but before our preparations were made, the Doris frigate 
 (soon joined by the Phoenix) kept a vigilant eye upon the 
 river. Escape, therefore was impossible, and our situ- 
 ation dismal; for no solitude is so hard as that of a 
 populous city, and no confinement so irksome as that»in 
 the midst of bustle and activity. Had we been on a 
 desolate coast, with the freedom of the shore we should 
 have been better pleased. Having therefore dismantled 
 the ship, we erected on the deck a house of bamboo, so 
 thickly covered with mats, that the rain cou'd not enter. 
 
 Though I was many months at Canton my opportunities 
 for remark were few, for I was generally confined with 
 fever, on board, or at lodgings ; and owe life and end- 
 less gratitude to the captain for his paternal care. 
 While I was on board there was an inundation greater 
 than had ever been known ; the river overflowed its 
 banks ; and it was estimated that ten thousand boats 
 were swept away, and that thirty thousand people per- 
 ished in the flood. 
 
 Notwithstanding the war between the nations there 
 was no hostility between the English and Americans at 
 4* 
 
1 
 
 w 
 
 * ! 
 
 43 
 
 LETTERS PROM A MARINER. 
 
 la n 
 
 Canton. They lived together as brothers ; the English 
 physicians daily visited our deck, without fee or other 
 reward than the satisfaction of doing a good action* 
 On board the Marquis of Ely, which was moored near 
 to us, there was an excellent band of music, and we 
 often visited at the Marquis. Our cliiof oflicer was not 
 the least welcome there, for he had wit, an irresistible 
 laugii, and sung a good song ; that is, he sung it well. 
 His voice however was too .strong for the cabin, and 
 when his songs were ended the gun deck rang with re- 
 peated huzzas from two hundred men. 
 
 We had been several months at Whampoaand peace 
 we well knew was distant. Fever and confinement had 
 shattered my frame, but as I felt that any state is better 
 than inactivity, I entered an English ship, to work my 
 passage to London, hoping to get from thence a con- 
 veyance home. I had little money, but carried a draft 
 on Boston, for the amount of my wages. However, 
 li^e the vagabond in Goldsmith, I had an * excellent 
 knack at hoping, ' for the future always looked delight- 
 ful, in spite of the experience of the past. 1 felt like 
 Raleigh, that there was life for me 'while the sea has 
 pathless waves.' 
 
 Before I describe the voyage to England, let me 
 commit another anachronism, in speaking of what I saw 
 at Canton, at a different period. A seaman of the ship 
 Emily, of Baltimore, was charged with the murder of a 
 Chinese woman. It was alleged that as she was stand- 
 ing in a boat along side, he threw at her an earthen jar, 
 which hit her on the temple, that she fell into the water 
 and was taken out dead. A great many people collect- 
 ed around the body, on shore, and the excitement was 
 very high. After much palaver it was agreed that the 
 sailor should be tried jairhf by an equal number of 
 American shipmasters, and Chinese ofRcers, and if found 
 
LETTERS FR03I A MARiriER. 
 
 43 
 
 guilty, given up for pnnialiment. The viceroy, there- 
 fore, issued orders for the trial to be held on board. The 
 Rev. ]Mr jMorrison was not allowed to interpret, because 
 he was attached to the legation of a foreign power. The 
 ship was prepared for the solemnity, the prisoner coi- 
 fined in the cabin, the arms removed, and the crew rang- 
 ed on the forecastle. Eight Hong merchants were pre- 
 sent. Houqua, Moq»ia, Gowqua, Chonqua, Puanqua, 
 Kingqua, Pacqiui, and'Conscqua. The Ponue, (mag- 
 istrate) then came on board, and Pac(jua and Tom (Cou- 
 qua) who secures the ships, fell on their knees to hear 
 his commands ; of whicii the American Committee could 
 get no explanation. It was required that the prisoner 
 should look the Ponue in the face. The jar was placed 
 on the tiib'.t, and also the hat worn by the deceased. 
 When asked if he recognised the jar the prisoner re- 
 plied tliat it was the same which he had handed to the 
 deceased, that it might be filled with fruit. The Po- 
 nue was irritated at this explanation and the interpre- 
 ter, though repeatedly urged, did not translate half 
 that was said, in defence, being interrupted by the Po- 
 nue, who culled the Chinese witnesses, saying that all 
 he wanted of the prisoner, was a confession that he was 
 trading witii the deceased, and that this was his jar. It 
 was evident that he had prejudged his victim. Hew- 
 ever, the Americans yielded not, but insisted on the ex- 
 amination of their own witnesses. They consented, 
 howevev, Lhat the Chinese testimony might be heard, in 
 the full faith that their own would follow. The first 
 witnesses were the husband of the deceased, two chil- 
 dren, and a woman. They crawled towards the magis- 
 trate on their hands and knees, not daring to raise their 
 eyes from the deck. The woman could not point out 
 the prisoner, though no other sailor was near, until the 
 interpreter laid his hand upon him. She then gave a 
 
VP 
 
 44 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 
 
 I; 
 
 long account of the affair, in which she was prompted 
 by the eldest child. This was stated to the interpreter, 
 but he V ould not explain it, nor was t!ie woman who 
 spoke English, allowed to use that language. 
 
 The committee them conjured Houqua to give a faith- 
 ful accomit of what they should say, and it was shown 
 from what the woman admitted of the position of the 
 boats, that the ship was between them, and that there- 
 fore, she could not have seen the occurrence. More- 
 over, it was proved that the same woman had said to 
 four Americans, that she did not see the affair. The in- 
 struments of torture were produced, but she persisted in 
 her story, saying that then she told the truth, though 
 before she had uttered a lie. We called witnesses to 
 testify that the hat of the deceased was broken not by 
 the prisoner, but by the husband, when the ' upright 
 judge,' rose in anger, saying that he could see for him- 
 self that the jar fitted the hole in the hat, and that the 
 jar belonged to the man, who must be given up. 
 
 The reply was, that other things may have caused 
 the woman's death. She may have slipped, or the hus- 
 band may have killed her ; and, moreover, we have a 
 witness to prove that the piisoner handed the jar Id' the 
 deceased, who took it. For this mockery of a trial, we 
 will not give up the man, and if you take him, we will 
 consider it violence and strike our flag. 
 
 The Ponue replied that it was Heaven's business, 
 and that if he judged wrong, the Lord would avenge it, 
 but that he felt that the prisoner was guilty. He dared 
 not, however, take him away, but retired to consult 
 the Viceroy. 
 
 After several days, the seaman was taken by the Chi- 
 nese authorities; another day was appointed for a fur- 
 ther trial at the Cansoo House, and permission given 
 for friends to appear in defence. The poor sailor, con- 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 46 
 
 scions of innocence, and little drennriing of danger, was 
 as calm us ever, but not a friend appeared. Peihaps 
 no defence would have availed, but this cannot justify 
 the neglect of his contrymen. A few noble Englishmen 
 who endeavoured to gain admittance, were driven back. 
 Questions were put to the prisoner, and his answers 
 misinterpreted into a confession of guilt; and he was 
 withdrawn amid the fury of the populace, to a death of 
 torture, rendered doubly bitte** by the desertion of his 
 countrymen. Shame ! shame ! shame! 
 
 I have extracted this account that you may see the 
 state of the judiciary in China. No life is safe, and I 
 suppose that this Ponue is in as much peril from a high- 
 er officer, as the prisoner before himself. The stream 
 of justice is poisoned at the source. The terror of the 
 interpreter, and the prostration ofthe bodies, as well as 
 the consciences ofthe witnesses, show the tremendous 
 power ofthe judge. 
 
 NO. XI. 
 
 Sir — As I lived chiefly on Canton River, that only 
 can I describe. A thousand islands are sprinkled at 
 the entrance, which made the navigation difficult, till the 
 Company ordered an excellent chart. Yet it is neces- 
 sary to take a pilot at Lintin island, eighteen miles above 
 Macao, where, though the river is ten miles wide, the 
 channel is narrow. At the Tiger's Mouth, thirty five 
 miles above, the river narrows to three quarters of a 
 mile, and might be commanded by suitable forts. The 
 Chinese forts are low, and have perhaps an hundred 
 guns, but could hardly arrest the progress of a frigate 
 
71 
 
 46 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 Wlinmpoa which is on a low inlan*!, iM ahnost in- 
 unrhitod in heavy rains. The houses^ are huddle*! togeth- 
 er, andtlie streets filhd with mud and filth. 
 
 The approach to Canton is indicated hy ten thou- 
 sand boats, for hero ' there are land thieves and water 
 thieves.' Some boats that bring down the tea, ate two 
 hundred feet long. They are kept very neat, and re- 
 semble the canal boats of Europe. I3ut of all the craft 
 that floats on the river or elsewhere the stranj;est is the 
 junk. It is sometimes of a thousand tons, and carries 
 five hundred men, There is one principal mast stand- 
 ing between two smaller oncs^and on this is hoisted a 
 huge sail of malting and twisted bamboo. The smaller 
 masts are used principally to disjjlay the broad and gaudy 
 flags. A pair ol\;yes is painted on the bows of all ves- 
 sels, and in a junk the ^lim is as large as a hogshead. 
 The sterns are adorned with figures of beasts, birds, and 
 serpents. 
 
 A mile below the Factories, is a ruin called the Dutch 
 Folly, though if the legend be true, IMynheer was more 
 knave than fool. The Dutch, it is said, obtame<l permission 
 to build a hospital, but erected a fort, and were carrying 
 ashore in hogsheads, their guns, calling them provisions, 
 when one cannon broke through and tumbled into the 
 river. ' Hi-yah, how can sick man eat gun,' said the 
 Chinese and the Dutch were detected too soon to profit 
 by their trick. 
 
 Foreigners are limited to the suburbs, and it is not 
 safe to go far from the Factories. That part near to 
 the Factories is very neat : the shops are convenient, 
 and make a great display. It was a few years ago de- 
 stroyed by fire, yet the damage was as soon repaired as 
 the breach of an ant-hill, and sUch is the horror of a 
 Chinese at innovation, it was rebuilt exactly as it stood 
 before. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 47 
 
 ovisioris. 
 
 It was my fortimo to be nt Canton when about forty 
 captuitis and otlicr^, English (ind Anicricaii, made a 
 res|)ectrul remonstrance to the viceroy, on various points 
 ofgricvaiicct and exaction. The ()rincipal comphiint was 
 of the j)rice of a boat to JVIacao, which often cost from 
 cigiit hundred to a thousand dollars, and the remon- 
 strants determined to deliver their address themselves. 
 I also thrust myself among them, and having fortified 
 our resolution by a collation, wc marched out in pairs, 
 headed by a Parsee, who knew the avenues, and lan- 
 guage. We walked swiftly and silently, and having 
 passed through many streets, to me unknown, came sud- 
 denly to the city gate. This was open, but forty paces 
 inward, was a small wicker gate where two soldiers 
 kept guard. We rushed on, but they closed the do(>rs, 
 and without violence we could advance no fart'ier. They 
 gave the alarm, calling out Fun^y qui ! and we were 
 soon surrounded by an immense concourse, whose long 
 tails and smooth shaven crowns, were exceedingly gro- 
 tesque. A mandarin came to ask our wants, but we 
 made no other parley than thfit we must see his master. 
 Another came, but the Parsee who knew his grade 
 from his cap, refused to comnumicate; and next came 
 he whom we desired to see. He sent for Houqua, and 
 the poor old soul came more dead than alive; his teeth 
 chattering like castanets. He entreated us to return 
 from the gate;, hut we refused to go without a promise 
 that our address should be delivered. The promise 
 was given, but the next day the address was returned 
 to us without reply. This was all that I had to do in 
 this strange embassy, but the party made a second at- 
 tempt to eater the city, and succeeded. They were 
 lucky enough to rush in before the gates could be clos- 
 ed. The Parsee who led, remarked that one sentinel 
 ran away,, and as he supposed, to the viceroy's palace. 
 
wm 
 
 4» 
 
 LETTERS PROM A MARIN RR. 
 
 Him they followed, though he ran so fast that his stream- 
 er was horizontal as a weathercock. They entered the 
 court-yard of the palace, and were surrounded hy sol- 
 diers. They listened to a long lecture seasoned with 
 threats, and were then conducted back. Many of the 
 wrongs, however, were ^-edressed, and a boat may now 
 be had to Macao for forty dollars. 
 
 Before I quit the Chinese seas, let me extract from the 
 journal of another voyage, an account of our perilous sit- 
 uation at Manilla. We were riding in the bay in fifleen 
 fathom water, with a small bower and chain anchor out, 
 when the weather changed in an instant, and all hands 
 were called to get down the royal )^ards and masts. At 5 
 o'clock, A. M. she went adrift, and we gave her a 
 scope of sixty fathom cable, which did not bring her up, 
 and the gale was freshening every moment. The ship 
 drifted a n>ile an hour, lying in the trough of a danger- 
 ous sea. We could not, with safety, drop our best bow- 
 er anchor, unless we could bring head to the wind; for, 
 as she then lay, had we let go the starboard anchor, 
 the vessel on swinging round, would have brought 
 a cross in the cables, with the chain above the hemp; 
 and the hitter would have been at once worn off. We 
 cut away the spars in the fore part of the ship, but it did 
 not bring her head to the wind. There was now a hur- 
 ricane forcing the ship nearly on her beam ends^ and 
 the weat'ier so thick that we could not see ten yards. 
 The barometer fell to twentynine inches, and every 
 thing wore an appalling look. Yet though it was a 
 time of terror, we omitted to do notliing tiiat might save 
 us. 
 
 We cleared the shoal of Saint Nicholas, and were 
 driving to the southeast shore of the bay, when sound- 
 ings, within a few minutes, changed f-om fifteen to ten 
 fathoms, and to muddy water. As the last resource. 
 
 i I 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 49 
 
 we let go the sheet anchor, which, with the advantage 
 of a long scope, and good holding ground, brought her 
 up; but with a cross in the cables that we feared would 
 cause our destruction. Our ship was of the strongest, 
 for not one in five could have sustained so long the fury 
 of such winds and waves. To ease the cables we cut 
 away two of the masts, and the axe was about to fall up- 
 on the third, when the wind shifled in a moment, blowing 
 offshore, and producing a smoother sea. ' 
 
 But before this, the ship in plunging bow to the sea, 
 brought up, on the chain cable, with such violence, as 
 to capsize the >vindlass, part the deck stoppers, and ter: 
 the nipper up from abaft; though it was secured to the 
 deck by bolts passing through the beams. It was car- 
 ried forward, wedged under the windlass, forcing up the 
 bitts, and the c.ibles would have been lost had they not 
 been cienclied to the mainmast. 
 
 NO. XII. 
 
 Sir — Now suppose me (in spite of the last anachron- 
 ism) on board a Company's ship, working passage to 
 London. There was a large fleet, under convoy of the 
 Doris and Phoenix frigates. We loft the river in gallant 
 styiej and on the next day the Doris returned, having 
 sailed in the fleet merely to decoy the Am-^ricans to 
 sea. Our ship, being u fast sailer, was ordered by the 
 Commodore to look out, and it was a iabori' us duty for 
 the crew; for by day we had to press all sail aheid of 
 the fleet, and return to it at night. . 
 
 On the sixteenth day we entered the Straits of Banca, 
 between the island of that name and Sumatra. In Ban- 
 ca there are tin mines, that belong to the Dutch, and 
 
WP^W 
 
 mt 
 
 £0 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 ) 
 
 l* i-i 
 
 immense quantities of the metal are exported to China, 
 and other countries. The coast of Sumatra is here so 
 low, that the first indication you have of land is the 
 sight of trees. 
 
 We anchored off Auger, and when we were again 
 under sail, the commander charged the crew at large 
 with having stolen six dozen fowls j and as no one would 
 peach, or confess, the grog of the whole was stopped 
 till we should reach Saint Helena. But there was not 
 half that number of fowls taken in at Auger, and the 
 charge of the captain was but a trick to withhold the 
 alcohol. I had been told before we sailed, that he was 
 not distinguished for gentleness to inferiors, and at sea 
 I had daily evidence of the fact. I did not feel quiet, 
 for I might do wrong or he might believe that I did, 
 and with him punishment did not always delay for con- 
 viction. But I had the good fortune to please. One 
 day, when the captain was looking at the sail-maker's 
 gang, I saw his eye resting upon me, and plied the nee- 
 dle fast; he condescended to ask after my health, and to 
 direct the purser to receive my name to the articles; by 
 which I hfi'' full seaman's wages, two pounds five shil- 
 lings a month. 
 
 Our ship was very large, as all ships of the Honora- 
 ble Company are. None are of less than twelve hun- 
 dred tons, and some are of more than fifteen hundred 
 tons measurement. Wo carried twentyfour thousand 
 chests of tea, besides other goods, mounted thirt}^^two 
 eighteen pounders, and mustered one hundred and six- 
 tyfive men, for so were they called, as we rank with 
 dogs, 
 
 ' Mongrel, puppy, whelp, and houurl, 
 And curs of low degree.' 
 
 We had Frenchmen, Spaniards, Dutchmen, Russians, 
 Danes, Swedes, Greeks, Prussians, Yankees, Portu- 
 guese, Italians, Creoles, and Chinese. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 51 
 
 This formidable band were exercised daily at the guns; 
 but I little doubted that a Baltimore privateer of sixteen 
 guns, could give me a passage home in a prize ship. 
 
 On Sundays, all hands were assembled early, by the 
 tolling of the bell, and gathered to hear the service, un- 
 der an awning on the quarter deck; and wo betided him 
 who came late, unshaven, or without a clean shirt. 
 
 One of the crew, a poor young Portuguese, was draw- 
 ing near his end, and as his memory wandered back to 
 the vineyards of Oporto, he longed for a taste of their 
 wines; a little of which the surgeon requested for him 
 of the captain. * Port wine! Doctor, (said the Bashaw,) 
 when you know there is hardly enough for my own 
 table ?' 
 
 Wo rounded the Cape of Good Hope with a good 
 breeze, and here the crew were again assembled to re- 
 ceive threats for general neglect of duty: but no promi- 
 ses were made in case of our doing well, whence I sup- 
 posed ii i be more agreeable to our commander to pun- 
 ish than to reward. 
 
 At Saint Helena, the- fleet anchored Jamestown, 
 but we could get no water foi four days, as 'he Bombay 
 and Bengal fleets were to be first served. 
 
 The confinement of that wonderful man, Napolcci' 
 has made Saint Helena too well known for me to de- 
 scribe it. When the signal fdr sailing was made, our 
 anchor, of sixtyfive hundred weight, came up to the 
 bows like a collier's, and ours was the first, among fifty 
 ships, that had head to the northwest. This elicited 
 from the second oflicer the only civil speech he was ever 
 known to make — * Hurrah, my boys, for Old England.' 
 This, however, was his last offence against dignity and 
 suUenness, and he seemed to be ashamed of having been 
 betrayed into a momentary good humour. He was, 
 however, a man of his word, for he never threatened ft 
 
52 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 sailor with a drubbing, without a faithful, that is, a full 
 performance. 
 
 We Had a good run across the equator, though the 
 voyage was much retarded by the dull sailers in the 
 fleet. Near to Corvo, the man at the mast head gav > 
 notice of two strange sail, bearing down upoi: us, froiii 
 the island. We wore sailing in three columns, each 
 headed by a frigate, and the Commodore was slow to be- 
 lieve that an American privateer would look in the face 
 of such a force. The two sails obtained a position 
 ahead of us, and lingered till wc were within four 
 miles, when they ran up the American flag, and filled 
 away, one going sea-ward, and the other tacking for 
 the islands. Two frigates were instantly under a press 
 of sail in pursuit of one of the fugitives, and the first 
 was soon so near as to open a running fire from the bow 
 guns. I was congratulated on the prospect of having 
 my countrymen to sup with me, for all pretended to 
 think it over with Jonathan. But I knew the gentleman 
 better; for he shot across his enemy's bow, bringing 
 her close in a wind, and the frigates returned without a 
 prize. 
 
 On the 5th of August we saw the Lizard Point. We 
 steered up channel with every sail spread; and it was a 
 brave sight to see the fleet sweeping along, so deeply 
 laden with the riches of the East. A richer^ it was said, 
 never came round the Cape 
 
 On the latter part of the voyage, I tumbled twenty 
 feet, struck upon the muzzle of a gun, and was carried 
 away like Hotspur on the stage. I soon recovered 
 and was satisfied, for once, to have so hard a head. 
 
 In the Dover Roads the convoy left us, and every 
 ship went to London as her commander preferred. The 
 jack tars were in lofty spirits, for the ages of a long 
 voyage were due, and there was at that time no danger 
 of impressment. 
 
 i / 
 
 1 l\ 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 58 
 
 The confusion that followed the mooring of the ship 
 is not to be described. AH discipline was ended, and 
 hammocks, chests, and bags, obstructed every passage. 
 The Jews, who had successfully studied the nature of a 
 sailor, came on board with liquors, fruits, and other re- 
 freshments. These they dispensed with a liberal hand, 
 but with no charitable intent. They knew that the road 
 to a sailor's heart lay directly over his palate. Now ut 
 sea I had often heard the sailors speak evil of the Jews, 
 and resolve to have no further dealing with the tribes: 
 yet when a bottle of gin was decanted, the Israelites 
 were viewed through a more favorable medium, and in 
 three days the current coin of the sailors was in He- 
 brew hands. 
 
 I went up in one of the Gravesend boats, which land- 
 ed me at Billingsgate, where the English language is 
 spoken in great purity. 
 
 What some traveller says of Lisbon, is tiue also of 
 London at Billingsgate — that it has a double advantage 
 over cities that attract only the eye of a traveller: for it 
 takes his attention also by the nose. 
 
 I put my goods on the back of a porter, who could 
 carry as much as a camel, and trot ofll* with it as fast. 
 I ran .after him, for a prudent general has always an eye 
 to the baggage. In my haste,-! stepped upon the fish 
 that a young lady was assorting into heaps. She seiz- 
 ed an eel that v,as yet alive, which she applied to my 
 shoulder as I retreated, calling me at the same time the 
 son of a dog's wife. I overtook the dromedary as he 
 entered the Pig and Gridiron. He demanded a crown, 
 and I was foolish enough to give him half; but the fe- 
 rocious water nymph had bewildered my intellect. 
 
 I then took to the streets, and as I was staring at a 
 caricature of a Yankee, at a print-shop, was tapped on 
 the back by a midshipman of the Indiaman, who asked 
 6* 
 
54 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 me to dine at his sister's, in Shoreditch. I could never 
 refuse a friend so reasonable a request, and went with 
 him where I found a good dinner, partook, and was 
 thankful. He then carried me to Leadenhall street, 
 where I found several friends whom I had known ia 
 Canton, and where I engaged pasturage at a guinea a 
 week. 
 
 ■ ) 
 
 \ NO. XIII 
 
 Sir — At our boarding house I found a young Ameri- 
 can named White, an excellent fellow, seated at table, 
 with a segar and pot of beer; an emblem of content- 
 ment, though money was low in his pocket. We agreed 
 to blend our present means and to unite our future for- 
 tunes. At first, we were to spend our money in ex- 
 ploring London, and in examining what was curious and 
 rare, supposing that we could, at any time, find employ- 
 ment in another ship. Herein we took of the future lit- 
 tle heed; like that idle animal which hangs upon a tree 
 till it has eaten every green leaf, when it tumbles down, 
 hardly able, under its exhaustion, to ascend again. 
 
 In one of our early rambles, coming to the Serpentine 
 River, we saw a fleet of small ships, that had been rig- 
 ged for the amusement of Royalty. . They were of about 
 fourteen tons each, and completely manned and armed. 
 On some gala days they represented two squadrons, un- 
 der the British and American ensign. Mock battles 
 were fought, in which, I suppose, the British flag was 
 never struck. 
 
 By the last of August we had seen something of Lon- 
 don, and such a reduction had been made in our funds, 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 55 
 
 that we began to jjjtimk of ways and means. Wc there- 
 fore went to Mr Bcaseley's office, but the Consul was 
 absent. The clerks advised a voyage to the West In- 
 dies, as only prisoners of war could be sent home at the 
 public expense. 
 
 On the fourth day of our search after employment, 
 we found a ship for Bermuda, and agreed to work on 
 board at the river price, 2s. 6d. and a dinner, per diem. 
 We had given so much ^o watermen, in searching for a 
 vessel, that we were reduced to that doubtful friend, the 
 last shilling; and something formidable was due to our 
 landlord. Our first financial operation, therefore, was 
 to leave articles with a pawn broker, worth twenty dol- 
 lars, on which we raised 16s. 6d. Being in funds again, 
 we boldly resolved to begin the day with breakfast, and 
 visited the stall of an old woman who sold coffee, bread, 
 and butter; but before taking the dainties, we were con- 
 siderate enough to ask the damage, and learned with plea- 
 sure that we could make a good breakfast for two pence. 
 We labored for the day on board, and returned to sleep 
 on shore, but with an appetite like a crocodile's. To 
 sup at an eating house would have been death; but we 
 feasted magnificently in the street, upon a loaf, and two 
 .smoked herrings. Af\er this independent meal, we 
 marched into a beer house, and called for a pint, with 
 as much confidence as if we had been * dipped in Pac- 
 tolus.' ^ 
 
 This course we followed for ten days, but were not 
 elated to learn that we were not to bo paid till the ship 
 arrived at Gravesend. Now, being able, we were anx- 
 ious to redeem our chattels, and had the mate's permis- 
 sion to go. We called at the Captain's house, for which 
 civility he expressed less pleasure than surprise, and 
 asked whence we came, and what wo wanted .' Wc re- 
 vealed as much of our history as related to the paivn- 
 
56 
 
 LETTERS FROM K MARINER. 
 
 broker, vhen he launched out forty shillings, the amount 
 due for wages. 
 
 He advised ns to make haste, lest we should be too 
 late to intercept the ship at Gravesend, We ivcre too 
 late, and the vessel sailed without us; but we had forty 
 shillings in bank, and began to feel the insolence of 
 wealth. But it was too good to last, though wc were as 
 economical as the State Legislature. On the seventh day 
 after the sailing of the ship, we had Is, 6d. in the funds, 
 and we supped for sixpence each, with a poetical indif- 
 ference to the future. In the morning, there seemed no 
 resource; when, in the nick of time, we found a ship, 
 and gave notice to our countrymen, one of whom, an old 
 Triton, wa« appointed boatswain. But the old luck was 
 near, and we had to shog, i s the vessel could not be 
 cleared with any American sailors. Our resentment 
 kept up our spirits, and in good time. White recollected 
 that, at his former lodging, he hud a Kodiac cloak, and 
 a few shells, from the Sandwich islands. These we car- 
 ried to Exeter 'Change, where there was a cabi- 
 net of curiosities. A lady named Phipps, and her 
 daughter, were tlie attendants. The kind lady seemed 
 to feel an interest in our adventures, calling us her chil- 
 dren, and giving ten shillings for our merchandize; 
 though, as she had belter specimens, we knew that the 
 money was given in charity. Those excellent people 
 conducted us through the muscurrtf and when we were 
 about to go, asked us to drink their health in a glass of 
 wine, and we were not rude enough to refuse. 
 
 We were now in affluent circumstances — thanks to 
 those who bought our goods, and whose sex I would 
 eulogize, if I could, after the manner of Lcdyard. For- 
 tune now began to favor us, and sent us to an honest 
 collier, who carried a good heart under a soiled jerkin. 
 He was bound fjr Ostend, and permitted us to r/ork th« 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARK" ER. 
 
 57 
 
 passage. We went af^er our chests with light hearts; 
 but that we might pay a poiter for their carriage, we 
 had such dealings with a pawn-broker as diminished 
 their weight; they grew lighter under the operation, like 
 Falstaff walking up Gadshill. At night, I could find no 
 shelter but a small scuttle in the forecastle, where the 
 coals had settled down. 
 
 At Ostend we thought our cares were over, when we 
 saw a cutter about to sail with despatches; but the mas- 
 ter was absent, and the people would not receive us on 
 board. This looked like old times, and we went to 
 a Scotchman who had acted as American Consul. He 
 told us, in his peculiarly agreeable way, that he could 
 do nothing for us, but advised us to make tracks towards 
 Ghent; we expressed no gratitude for the counsel, but 
 discharged, in a few words, some misanthropy that had 
 begun to gather about our hearts, and left Sir Mungo 
 Malagrowther, in better spirits than we had lately felt. 
 
 My comrade sold his chest, and we lashed on our 
 packs, and set off, looking like peddling Jews, for Bru- 
 ges. Having walked four hotirs, we stopped at a neat 
 farm house, to get a drink of beer; but having no know- 
 ledge of a sign to denote beer, we received milk, and 
 money was refused in payment, I never before saw 
 neatness carried to such extremes as in this cottage; 
 every metallic utensil shone like gold, and the floors 
 were white as scrubbing could make them. 
 
 The streets of Bruges we found narrow and ill paved; 
 and where in Boston there is a side walk, there is in 
 Bruges a gutter. In the centre of the town was a 
 square, where there was a drill of raw troops. On one 
 side the square is a grand cathedral, which we entered, 
 and ascended a flight of steps; hereupon a man ap- 
 proached, and intimated that our further advance de- 
 pended upon our liberality. Wi had no money for such 
 
!»!?! 
 
 w 
 
 v 
 
 . 58 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 f 
 
 vanities, but offered the smallest copper coin, which tho 
 man took, adcr ho had made a mouth at it, and admit- 
 ted us to see a large organ and clock. We then ascend- 
 ed to the dome of the church, where there was abound- 
 less prospect of the level country. Here there were 
 fortynine bells, and, thank Fortune! none of them were 
 struck during our visit. 
 
 The charge for supper was so light, that we took pas- 
 sage in a trecJcschwjl for Ghent. This conveyance ia 
 safer than by steam, but it is miserably slow, though 
 well adapted to the genius of a Dutchman, who is sel- 
 dom in a hurry and never in a passion. He is as im- 
 passive as Outalissa — a stoic of the canals. 
 
 We arrived by sunset at Ghent, when fifty bold and 
 ragged boys made a plunge at the baggage. Two of 
 them made a simultaneous seizure of mine, struggling 
 for it like two dogs for a bone, or like the Arabs for the 
 absolute possession of Captain Riley, I did not know 
 enough Dutch to express myself in words, but I rapped 
 them over the knuckles, and they took my meaning. 
 
 Arrived at the ministei^'s house, we entered as if we 
 had come to our own home. We expressed to the ser- 
 vant our desire to have an immediate interview with the 
 plenipotentiaries. He, seeing that we were Americans, 
 and perhaps taking us for diplomatists in disguise, led ua 
 to Mr Adams, who took us by the hand, as if we had 
 been old friends, long parted. It was the republican 
 grip, that we had not felt for many a day. 
 
 He then asked us what we wanted, and having satis- 
 fied this natural curinoity, wc were told that we should 
 be sent home; for, said he, civilly, the country has occa- 
 sion for service from lads like you. We had high life 
 in the kitchen, till the other ministers returned from an 
 excursion, when we were sent with a letter to Captain 
 Jones, at Antwerp, a hundred miles. 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 50 
 
 NO. XIV. 
 
 Sjr — On our departure, the gentlemen of the kitch«n 
 gave us dinner at a tavern, and at four o'clock, having 
 stuffed our pack with cold provisions, they accompanied 
 us to the gates. Here we went 'nto an alehouse and 
 charitably drank ' misfortune tc our cnenjies.' The 
 Bun was near setting and the sky threatened rain. It 
 soon fell and we passed on wet and weary, in the belief 
 that we had lost our way. At length wc saw a light 
 ahead, and it encouraged us as much as the sight of 
 land cheered Columbus. The first house had the sign 
 of an inn, and we entered with little ceremony. A 
 pretty young woman who was knitting at a side table, 
 started with astonishment, for we were covered with 
 white rnud; and an old boor, who was sitting over a 
 turf fire, smoking his eternal pipe, raised his spectacles 
 to his nose, and surveyed us with attention. 
 
 The young woman could speak French, and asked 
 my comrade what tongue it was in which we conversed j 
 and being told that we were Americans, expressed her 
 surprise that our skins were so white, and our hair so 
 little curled. 
 
 When wi arrived at Antwerp, we saw the American 
 ensign on a ship in the river, and we hailed and request- 
 ed a boat. The steward furnished a good breakfast, 
 after which the captain sent a message forward, re- 
 questing the pleasure of our company in the cabin. 
 This civility boded no good, and the commander in- 
 formed us that we must go to Amsterdam, where a ves- 
 sel was fitting out, and he gave us money enough for 
 the journey, with a letter to the Consul. It was. the 
 fortune of war, as a great man says when he is van- 
 quished, and we set off to try one port after another, 
 
sssamKfTwm 
 
 «0 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 I 
 
 for a pasfiage home, as Vanderdockcn boards the ships 
 about the Cape, to send his letters. 
 
 My comrade was nil life and spirits, and I believe 
 would have been glad to bo sent in this manner to eve- 
 ry port in Europe. Wo went off lighter than before, 
 ibr we sent our baggage by the Dilij^cncef addressed to 
 the Consul. • ' . 
 
 It was about nine o'clock, when we passed the east- 
 em gate; the roads were good and the air was clear. 
 At eleven we stopped under a shade and commenced 
 an intimacy with the steward's beef, and thought that 
 if the state of the world permitted, we should like to 
 wander about in it, like Sancho and his master, in 
 search of adventures; especially of such as occurred 
 at Camacho's wedding. A pleasing young woman now 
 passed us; she was about twenty years of age, having a 
 handkerchief only on her head, and a small bundle in 
 her hand, and with such an air of dejection as excited 
 our curiosity. 
 
 The roads here were singularly pleasant, being shad- 
 ed with venerable elms, whose branches are so inter- 
 Jocked as to form a perfect shelter, and the road so 
 level and straight, that nothing intercepted the sight till 
 they seemed to terminate in a point. 
 
 On this walk, my companion entertained nie with 
 ■omc of the adventures of his life, and they were so 
 numerous and strange, that my own, in comparison, 
 ■eem to have little incident. V 
 
 We approached a woman and child, covered with 
 tatters; to them we poured out the whole contents of 
 the wallet, and lefl them eating after the manner of 
 those who eat seldom. 
 
 Wo next overtook the young woman who had passed 
 us while v/e were resting; and my companion, by means 
 of his French and some German, entered into conver- 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARIN F.R. 
 
 61 
 
 sation. She belonged to a town in Germany, distant 
 four hundred miles. Her husband was a conscript in 
 the army of Russia, and as she !i)<d heard that his regi- 
 ment had been disbanded in Antwerp, thither she trav- 
 elled to get some tidings of him, but in vain. Her 
 story aflected us so much that we offered half the 
 money we had to help her homewards, but she would 
 not take it. But though the pilgrim of fidelity refused 
 our coin, she offered us many thanks. We gave her 
 little encouragement that she could find her husband; 
 he was probably slain ' at that great battle under the 
 walls of Moscow,' or hunger, cold, or the Cossacks, 
 destroyed him in the retreat. 
 
 In the morning we walked to Breda, rapidly, for the 
 weather was cold, as the season was the middle of Oc- 
 tober. On our entrance to the city, we were assailed 
 'oy half a dozen Sergeant Kites, who desired to enlist us 
 in the army of the Prmce of Orange, offering present 
 pay and future glory. We refused the terms, but one 
 of the recruiting officers had the goodness to *'ko us 
 to the canal boats, engage for us a passage to Dort, 
 and settle the price with the skipper. We laid in a 
 provision of bread and cheese, and went off with a 
 breeze at the rate of five miles an hour; when the 
 breeze failed, a horse carried us off at that snail-like 
 pace so congenial with the operations of a Dutchman's 
 intellect. 
 
 We passed directly through Dort, and had a breeze 
 again for Rotterdam. But we quitted the boat for a 
 good road and arrived by night at the .outskirts of Delft, 
 a considerable town. We took the liberty to ask an 
 idle soldier, if there were in Delft, any houses where 
 travellers were fed and lodged for money, and he re- 
 plied that there was one which he would have the honor 
 to show us. He left us at the dtor, upon which we 
 6 
 
62 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 : 
 
 I r 
 
 knocked long and loud, and at the seventh peal, a weazle- 
 faced man came and asked what we wanted, and on 
 being informed, requested us to quit his premises. I 
 admit that our appearance was not at all in our favor, 
 but lodgings were necessary and supper desirable. We 
 next went into a butcher's shop, and asked to be direcled 
 to lodgings, when a young man, who was buying a beef- 
 steak for his supper, said he would take us to a house 
 where we sh juld lodge like the Prince of Orange, 
 which was all that we could reasonably require. After 
 passing many alleys too narrow for a jackass with pan- 
 niers, we arrived at the princely lodgings. An old 
 woman, who looked much like a witch, requested that 
 we ^^ ould be seated, and in complying with her request, 
 I wedged myself into a bottomless chair, in the posture 
 of a chicken trussed for. the spit. The witch apologised 
 for the state of her furniture, and gave me the joint 
 stool. She further told us that she had nothing better 
 to drink than buttermilk, of which we took a hearty 
 swig, and gave her money to get something of more 
 substance for supper. 
 
 In a dark corner, we discovered an old Frenchman, 
 rendered blind and deaf by age, smokinj, with much 
 satisfaction a pipe two inches long. He was ninetyfive 
 years old^ had been absent forty years from France, 
 whiuii liC 3tni hoped to see again, and we pleased him 
 by saying that his hopes were reasonable. 
 
 Wo had a sumptuous meal of beefsteaks and hot po- 
 tatoes, and requested leave to take possession of our 
 lodgings. The old woman b 'ought a ladder, which she 
 placed against tho ceiling overhead, and ascended 
 through a scuttle, desiring us to follow. Our supper 
 had made us bold and we did follow, into such a lofl as 
 Sancho never occupied in his hardest fortunes. Our 
 (ippcarance and poverty we thought a sufHcient protec- 
 
 h 
 
LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 es 
 
 tion, though we had some misgivings when we heard 
 the trap door bolted afler us; but fatigue and sleep 
 overpowered us, and late in the morning, the sun shin- 
 ing in our faces interrupted our slumbers. 
 
 We started with new vigor for Amsterdam, distant 
 twenty five miles, and before we had gone half the dis- 
 tance, discovered the elevated spires of the city. The 
 ccimtry through which we passed was exceedingly fer- 
 tile, and cultivated like a garden. Six miles from the 
 city, we passed a large open field with immense herds 
 of c^ttle, the largest I had ever seen; every one of 
 them covered with a white linen garment, and this was 
 the first time I ever saw an ox with a shirt on. 
 
 The Consul at Amsterdam did not receive us with 
 smiles, nor did he bestow any thanks upon Captain 
 Jones, or the ministers at Ghent, for the honor of our 
 acquaintance. However, he bade us find board and 
 lodging at five guilders, (two dollars) for that he would 
 not give a stiver more. We were received at a decent 
 house for ?cven guilders; and as I was standing at the 
 door I beheld the young German woman of whom I 
 made mention as having sought her husband at Antwerp, 
 and whom we saw last near Breda. 
 
 On seeing us she stopped and began to weep bitterly. 
 We comforted her as well as we could, and she told us 
 that she had been robbed of all the money she had in 
 the world, and that she had nothing to rely upon but 
 the cold charity of the inhabitants on the road, which 
 would never carry her home. The good woman of the 
 house called her in, to offer a supply of bread and 
 cheese, and my comrade who carried the nurse, gave 
 her full half the contents, and the whole would not have 
 igiade her rich. She departed in better spirits, and with 
 renewed hopes of reaching her home. 
 
 '** 
 
ii 
 
 64 
 
 LETTERS FROM A MARINER. 
 
 I 
 
 At the end of the week, our landlady, in her best 
 attire, and it would have made you laugh to behold it, 
 went to the Consul for payment. She >vas dismissed 
 without money or ceremony, but on reflection, she sent 
 her son and daughter to carry the bill again, when it 
 \/as paid, for the son was pertinacious and the daughter 
 pretty. But the Consul directed us to find lodging 4 
 elsewhere, at five guilders, and we were obliged to live 
 in a cellar, where we fed principally on cabbage. At 
 this time wo were employed in making ready for sea a 
 small schooner, which we rigged completely, and bal- 
 lasted with pigs of cast iron. 
 
 At Christmas, the ice was so thick that the whole 
 
 population was out in sledges and with skates. The 
 
 ladies were excellent skaters, passing along as a scholar 
 
 might say, with the swiftness of Camilla — 
 
 ' When like a passing thought she fled 
 In light away.' 
 
 There was at this time a Dutch ship in the harbor, 
 whose master was of Philadelphia, living on board with 
 his wife and family. He had sometimes employed me 
 in his vessel, and to him I applied to raise a small sum 
 by pledging the draft I had received for wages in Can- 
 ton. The draft he would not take from me, and I re- 
 quired of him but fifteen guilders. ' Give him twenty,' 
 said his kind hearted wife, which he immediately offered, 
 and in so friendly a way, that he made me doubly oblig- 
 ed to him. 
 
 The news of peace between the United States and 
 Great Britain, was received with joyful acclamations at 
 Amsterdam; and the old Dutchmen grinned with de- 
 light at the prospect of good tobacco, for lately, 
 they had smoked inferior qualities, and at enormous 
 prices. ' 
 
 "w^'-.^t-v^y.'^a ^Wtf 
 
LETTERS FROM ▲ MARINER. 
 
 65 
 
 As I was about to sail, I received a message from 
 the friend that had lent mo the guilders, who had found 
 me a situation as chief officer, on board a brig under 
 the Norway flag, bound for Philadelphia. We had a 
 prosperous passage home, and it was a joyful sight to 
 me to behold the sandy shore of Cape Henlopen. 
 
 And now. Sir, take out your wipe, which the vulgar 
 call handkerchief, and get an onion, for this is the last 
 Letter of the Mariner. 
 
 i- 
 
 ■ ' . > 
 
 '"tli 
 
 ■ill 
 
 '■ ' 
 
 6* 
 
mm 
 
 •T" 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR, 
 
 It I 
 
 
 NO. I. / • - • • 
 
 Mr Editor — It is a good thing for New England 
 that all her .-.ons can read, and it is a better thing for 
 the Galaxy, that some of them can also write. Thanks 
 to my genius, and to an old lady in horn rimmed specta- 
 cles, I can do something in either way. This, however, 
 I say from no wish to mortify you or others, who are 
 less indebted to nature and fortune. JVbn omnia oppos- 
 um us omnes, as my old schoolmaster said upon all oc- 
 casions; whence I conclude that it has a general appli- 
 cation, and is proper to be quoted now. 
 
 I, my son, (excuse familiarity, for I am a kind scul), 
 am as well acquainted with every nook in New Eng- 
 land, as you are learned in the avenues of Boston. 
 There is not a village where I am not known, or a se- 
 cluded farm house where I am a stranger; and few are 
 the dogs that growl at Jonathan Farbink. From mj 
 manner of life, I have formed, like Wordsworth, a social 
 attachment to inanimate objects : I honor Mount Hol- 
 yoke, and reverence the White Mountains. There are 
 streams that I love more than the old heathens loved 
 
TRAVELS QF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 67 
 
 Arethuse, and many unnamed and unknown springs, 
 that gush from the rocks, I rank above the fountains of 
 Bandusia, and Vaucluse. Green River, though I have 
 not seen it, I love, inasmuch as I admire and honor Mr 
 Bryant. But in my circumgyrations, which is a tough 
 word for wanderings, I take an especial delight in pass- 
 ing a school house ; counting ' that day lost,' when I do 
 not see one. I always stop a moment to question fhe 
 white headed boys upon their studies, and to offer a bit 
 of candy, (for in that also I deal,) to the damsels. It 
 shakes from my round shoulders, twenty hard years to 
 be thus employed in front of a red school house ; for I 
 seem at the moment, to be a chubby urchin, laden with 
 bread and cheese, toiling for the head of the class, and 
 blushing at my own honors, and the praises of the 
 master. 
 
 The place where I first opened to light and literature 
 a pair of small grey eyes, was a small village near the 
 Cape. In early youth, before I had dropped the Ro- 
 man costume that children wear, and assumed the bar- 
 bai'um legmen, of Tacitus, I had displayed a marvellous 
 taste for letters: and to this day I remember the intellec- 
 tual pleasure with which I acquired the alphabet; which 
 course of study, like Scriberus, I ate through in gin- 
 gerbread. I am told that the law furnishes a similar 
 train of education at Lincoln's Inn. From my instruc- 
 tress, however, I concealed my facility in acquiring, 
 well knowing that the alphabet once over, there was to 
 spelling no royal road, any more than to geometry. 
 
 The time passed at school, was from my tenth to my 
 eighteenth year. If you ask if I loved the school house, 
 I must task my candor, to say that I had a preference 
 for thf, .v^.dsand fields, and formed a thousand truant 
 like •. .i ' uses ; the most successful of which was the pre- 
 tence f colic, then called by another name. Often was 
 
 n 
 
 
■^ffn»^^ii"»5Sii|»F'PiPKW"'»«W*!W^^Wi*"«f»"W"^^ 
 
 mm 
 
 68 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 I i 
 
 l''S 
 
 i \ 
 
 \ -l 
 
 i / 
 
 I found loitering by the thickets, paddhng in the stream, 
 building dams like a beaver, or fashioning in the high- 
 way, cakes and loaves of mud. But in eight years, 
 hope and fear, ambition and the birch, gave me the 
 character of a scholar, who knew little less than the 
 master, and he was famed for knowledge round the 
 country side. As I have preserved every * reward of 
 merit,' I can show my character as a scholar, by many 
 documents higher in authority than this that I am pen- 
 ning. In the latter part of my pupilage, I was as is 
 said of a bishop, translated to an academy, where I read 
 JEsop, Corderius, and other classic authors, in the ori- 
 ginal Latin. But in reading the Roman poets, my pre- 
 cious religion, (like the profane soldier's) was in danger. 
 I was ready to admit the truth of what I heard at church, 
 but I could not feel it; yet there was not a gorgeous 
 cloud, where I could not see some trace of the majesty 
 of Juno, and in every wood, I expected to be met by 
 Venus, ntida genu, or Diana more closely robed. But 
 all scholars are heathen, and need conversion as much 
 as the natives of distant islands. 
 
 At tliis venerable academy, love soon came to the 
 confusion of Latin: Aurora Hemlock had a name, that 
 would have charmed me, heathen as I was, had I been 
 blind; but her eyes carried me away into a long captiv- 
 ity. Her desk was opposite to mine, and we had soon 
 a correspondence other than that of the eyes. Letters 
 and replies passed between us, couched in language as 
 elevated, as we thought our sentiments required. But 
 that Argus, old Dusty wig, who knew nothing of love, 
 and tolerated no romance, laid upon our letters his 
 huge unhallowed paw. These, he compelled us to read 
 to the whole school ; and never before, did I read with 
 so ill a grace. But to see how a writer may err in the 
 estimate of his powers ! What I had written seriously, 
 
 Mt 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 69 
 
 ! to the 
 
 seemed to have a mine of comic humor; producing peals 
 of laughter in all, and in some, such convulsions of mer- 
 riment, that they rolled upon the fl .or. 
 
 You express your surprise and regret as to the hum- 
 ble vocation that I have long and gainfully followed; but 
 the ' choice of life,' was with Rasselas, long debated 
 and never concluded; and who was Rasselas but John- 
 son. In this choice, it is better to decide erroneously, 
 than to make no decision. My youthful limits were 
 wider than the unJiappy valley of Rasselas, but my de- 
 sire amounted to a passion, to see men and things be- 
 yond: and the gratification of this passionate desire de- 
 pended upon some re spectable and locomotive employ- 
 ment. It is hard to decide, ' when doctors disagree; ' 
 but my decision war/ prompt, as none such were admitted 
 to the consultation. The old schoolmaster affirmed 
 that I had talent, ani hoped to see me a lawyer; but I . 
 preferred to be a pedl.ir of tin, rather than a vender of 
 brass. 
 
 One of the earliest books that I had loved to read, 
 was Memoirs, purporting to be of Edward Montague, 
 son to ' Lady Mary,' who at an early age, ran away 
 from school, entered himself an apprentice to a chimney 
 sweeper, and afterwards broke his indentures, to wander 
 in the south of Europe reaping a rich harvest of novel 
 impressions, and acquiring, like Fielding, a profound 
 knowledge of the two kinds of life. 
 
 My travels, you ask; but though they have been 
 pleasant to me in the performance, to you they will in 
 the recital be dull. The last excursion was to Ver- 
 mont, and I set off' with a wagon covered with roasters. 
 The first night arrested me at Concord, that venerable 
 town that you must have heard of, and may have seen. 
 It was in the canicular, or dog days, and the weather 
 was w£i|pi; a few faint sounds had broken the enerva- 
 
 ^^1 
 
 II 
 
 > rl 
 
 
,1 
 
 '■■' ! 
 
 » 
 
 !|1 
 
 70 
 
 TRAVELS OP A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 ting stillness of the day; such as the chirp of a locust, 
 or the melancholy croak of some exhausted frog. I 
 slept with three other sinners, and the publican thought 
 that the bed would accommodate a fiflh. If his own 
 conscience reproach him not, neither do I, though in a 
 case like this, forgiveness rises to the dignity of a sub- 
 lime action. " - 
 
 Let us skip to Windsor : It has no castle or park 
 that I know of, yet it is a charming place. From this I 
 plunged into a shady road that wound around one of the 
 highest of the green mountains ; and, like Sancho, 
 turned my beast loose to crop the herbage, while I my- 
 self mused and meditated, after the manner of the Don. 
 A rivulet was near of pellucid waters, a little ruffled 
 by the wind: casting my eyes into a bend of the stream, 
 in search of a trout, (many have I tickled), I beheld an 
 object l!hat struck me aghast ; the bodyof an infant ly- 
 ing on its back, with its legs drawn up in an easy attitude, 
 and it little arms folded on its breast. The water was 
 slightly agitated, and communicated its own 'motion to 
 the body. Near it lay a huge eel, that had perhaps fed 
 upon the child. I will never taste an eel again. In 
 breathless haste I returned to the hotel, and called for a 
 cogue and a coroner. My dismay communicated itself 
 to the officer; but with a long pole he put the eel to 
 flight, and raised to the bank the body of a — bull-frog, 
 of eigteen inches ! I forswear, soup forever. Were I 
 to live in France a thousand years, and the last remnant 
 of a city besieged, I would as soon turn Cannibal as 
 taste a frog. 
 
 What is the truth of history, when things before my 
 own eyes, are thus perverted by the imagination ? Fro- 
 issart, I shall never again open with pleasure; his his- 
 tory may be true, but what can I trust, after having call- 
 ed the coroner to an inquest upon a frog. pJ . F. 
 
 if 
 
 ■1 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 71 
 
 NO. II. 
 
 * crowner's 
 
 Sir — At the dinner which followed the 
 quest,' there was a beautiful girl waiting on the pedlar. 
 I informed her, that in the Bay State, it is the privilege 
 and practice of a traveller to kiss the cook, when the 
 dinner is good, and attempted to introduce the rite into 
 Vermont; but she repulsed me, and retired with the dis- 
 dain of a beauty, and the majesty of a queen. In a mo- 
 ment, entered a strapping negro, fat and ferocious, giv- 
 ing me to know that she herself was the cook; and I 
 bought her immediate absence with a pistareen. I re- 
 tired, and hauled up in front of a cotton factory, having 
 * no admittance ' chalked in a cn-ooked line upon the 
 door. On the question that agitates the surface of so- 
 ciety, I have nothing to say: in manufactories I have 
 no interest, and of them, little knowledge. I am frank, 
 and confess poverty and ignorance in a breath. Igno- 
 rance is a misfortune, but poverty is (at least in cities) 
 a crime: yet to diminish the misfortune, I boldly entered 
 the door with the prohibitory motto, and endeavoured to 
 wear so easy an air, that no one would doubt my right 
 of ingress. An impudent fellow may counterfeit mo- 
 desty, but it is harder, as poor Marlow found, for modes- 
 ty to assume the guise of impudence. 
 
 At the entrance I was stunned with horrid and inex- 
 plicable sounds; yet the confusion was not like that of 
 Babel, for in it the human voice had no part. Placing 
 myself in an obscure corner, I looked down "upon ma- 
 chinery of a beautiful simplicity, attended by females of 
 a similar description. At this stage of my reflections, 
 an ill-looking agent espied me, and after desiring to be 
 informed what I would please to have, (confound his 
 civility,) intimated the propriety of my walking down 
 
 frl 
 
1 1 
 
 72 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 stairs; when I retreated, like a lion from the hunters, or 
 like Ney from Russia. 
 
 These Green Mountain boys are generally sharpers, 
 but uivided into many classes: horse thieves are the 
 most respected, and hold the highest offices, being com- 
 monly sent to the legislature: counterfeiters are more 
 esteemed near the Canadas, though rogues of humbler 
 kind, and of all descriptions, find everywhere a welcome 
 and a home. Where such are exalted, honesty must be 
 a reproach, and few men I found that deserved it. Na- 
 ture, however, with her usual benevolence, has provid- 
 ed for the safety of the honest traveller — who is gene- 
 rally a tin pedlar — by having stamped upon these Ver- 
 montese, an outward stamp of the inward man; for their 
 faces show a mixture \)f the fox n'd wolf. Their moral 
 courage exceeds their physical, ibr though they dare 
 not face an enemy, they are yet bold enough to tell a 
 lie. I have never loved them, since I was ejected from 
 the cotton factory. 
 
 I recrossedthe river at a ferry, and travelled leisurely 
 to Hanover, the seat of the college, and perhaps, of 
 the Muses; though Parnassus has no representative 
 nearer than Monadnock. At the college, I sold three 
 tinder boxes, and a dozen lamps. Among the students, 
 I found five punsters, and one Penobscot Indian — 
 ' His blanket tied with yellow strings.' 
 
 Then I went over to Norwich, and sold to the cadets 
 three dozen of Knapp's blacking ; but no one asked for 
 a lamp. Handsome fellows, are the cadets: the stu- 
 dents at Hanover have, in comparison, but a sneaking 
 gait, like that of a person coming late into church, or 
 like my own manner of walking away from the Mos- 
 quito factory. The students are thought to be good at 
 an argument, but the cadets are better at a knock; the 
 former prefer the * smell of the lamp ' to that of nitre, 
 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 73 
 
 aiid would sooner stake themselves oa the horns of a 
 dilemma, than on the spikes of an abatis. The ultima 
 ralioy (as my old schoolmaster said when he flogged, 
 and that not tenderly) would turn in favor of the cadets. 
 
 Among the military youths I saw not one deformed 
 leg; but among the students there were many cripples. 
 The sagacious farmer keeps at home his strong and well 
 formed ofl'spring, to walk between the handles of the 
 plough, and whistle in the furrow; but his children less 
 indebted to nature he sends to Dartmouth; yet the lord 
 of his library has a less fruitful domain, than the lord of 
 the soil. ,'>•-'«• ^ '' ' . " ' 
 
 From Norwich I went to Newbury, over roads so 
 dusty, that I arrived in the guise of a miller. On the 
 way, (in Fairlee,) I passed under overhanging clifl^s 
 that threatened extinguishment; and here I put the colt 
 (for so I have calldd my beast for fifteen years) to the 
 top of his speed. The cliiFs reminded me of what I luid 
 rea'd at the end of Johnson's dictionary, of the Tarpeian, 
 and the rock of Leucate: traitors were thrown from the 
 one, and lovers leaped from the other; but for him who 
 was a traitor in love, there seems to have been no ade- 
 quate punishment. • . > 
 
 At Newbury, the hotel is large, and may accommo- 
 date three hundred guests, allowing but three to a bed: 
 any accommodations were thought good enough (or a 
 tin pedlar, and I was lodged in the garret, where the 
 bed vermin charged upon me in battalions. I soon ab- 
 dicated the sheets, for the softest plank in the floor, so 
 that bed and board were convertible terms. But I be- 
 came nervous; for, though I am not an instrument, or 
 thing to be played upon, yet am I sometimes out of tune. 
 But at last, sleep descended upon my eyelids, and, in 
 my dreams, I was on an island, shaded with palms, in a 
 sea abounding with turtle and clams. Fruits were above, 
 7 
 
 M 
 
74 
 
 TRAVKLS or A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 
 i| 
 
 t 
 
 
 ^! 
 
 and flowers beneath ; on ono side was a babbling stream 
 let, and a murmuring cherub on the other. But a yell, 
 sharper than a wnr-whoop, broke upon my slumbers; 
 first c» me a long and wailing note, as of a trumpet on a 
 deserted battle field; then blended sounds of rage and 
 pain, such as only two fighting cats, or demons, could 
 produce, and such as Rossini could not survive. I dis- 
 charged my ire upon them in a billet of wood, which 
 * peppered ' some of them. '* - 
 
 Then I slept, and was again upon my tropical island, 
 but everything there was changed; thistles occupied 
 the place of flowers, and the fruits were chokeberries 
 and crabs. I saw a track in the sand, and, like Crusoe, 
 started with horror, for it was the track of a cat. My 
 cherub companion seemed furred to the eyes, when I 
 would have taken her hand, she scratched me, and when 
 I would have snatched a salute, I was repulsed by an 
 abatis of whiskers. Then I was all at once a mouse, 
 and what is worse, I had no hole to creep into, for near 
 me was an enormous cat, whose eye was fascination to 
 mine. • , 
 
 I was roused by a loud and confused sound, compos- 
 ed of many discords; it was a simultaneous opening of 
 every sharp key in the human bagpipe. It was a long 
 anthem, set upon a single note, and the words were 
 'fire! fire! fire!' I smc/Ht, or what wa« worse, thought 
 I smelt it, and hurrying on my clothes, that is, thrusting 
 my leg into my coat, my arm into my trowsers, I has- 
 tened to the house top. But it was a false alarm, and 
 my indignation glowed like Lehigh coal; it should be a 
 felony, to raise a false alarm. 
 
 I was again in the land of shadows, and upon my * isle 
 of palms;' in the centre was a furnace, like a glass-house, 
 and I was admitted without question or ticket. It was 
 populous with idlers and operatives, and seemed to be 
 
 h ^ 
 
TRAlVELH or A TIN PEDLAH. 
 
 76 
 
 under the command of an old fellow in a flame colored 
 suit of asbestos; ho was horned like Capricornus, and 
 tailed like Taurus, in the Almanack. I kept open an eye 
 for a retreat, but could see no chance for an exit. 
 Things began to look suspicious; it was no place fcr 
 mirth; but I soon heard music. It was a sound that 
 expressed Uig extremity of sorrow, nungled with a ten- 
 der melancholy; it was the music of an amateur dog; 
 and I humbly request the owner to kill the performer. 
 Ho was seated at the gate, looking the chaste moon im- 
 pudently in the face, and howling like an opera-singer. 
 I addressed him gently by his christian name, but h*^ 
 regarded me not; I said ' get outj^ in a voice of thunder, 
 
 • But still, the tlog howled on.' 
 I sou-ht for missiles, but all except the fire shovel were 
 exhausted on the cats. I took it, and suspended it as 
 the sword over Damocles, above this disturber of the 
 public peace and slumbers; it dropped like the guillo- 
 tine, but not upon the criminal's head; for in the morn- 
 ing the ostler brought the tail of a dog, a yard in length, 
 and at noon I saw poor Ponto ruefully licking the stump. 
 Having been unjustly used in respect to my lodging, 
 I received amends in the sale of a tin oven, that would 
 not stand fire. If you. Sir, desire cf me a better fabric, 
 I will warrant it of the best; and if it be your further 
 pleasure, that I dine with you at Thanksgiving, we can 
 together form an opinion of its merits, and I will not, 
 like Mr Pry, do you the scandal to ' drop in ' upon your 
 cook, J. F. 
 
 
 (1 
 
mm 
 
 1' 
 
 1 
 
 111 
 
 
 76 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 NO. III. 
 
 Sir — After travelling vvestwavd many miles, I entered 
 a pretty village in the mountains; the people were lib- 
 eral and discriminating for I sold many miscellaneous 
 notions at a comfortable price. I was taken aside, by 
 a good gentleman with a long nine in his teeth, and a 
 white hat over his left ear; he was the village lawyer, 
 and told me that I was trading against the statute, and 
 that the constable (' he looked like a mastiff,') was 
 about to complain. Therefore, said he, as Cicero said 
 to Cataline, vanish — emerge — evaporate. I hooked on 
 the black padlock, and in ten minutes was on the moun- 
 tain looking back \ .on the village. 
 
 At the next inn, which was of unhewn logs, plaster- 
 ed with mud, I was challenged to a swap; but. Sir, 
 money could not buy my old and faithful horse. Many 
 a cold winter morn has beheld Jonathan Farbink, shiv- 
 ering himself, while his cloak was on the back of his 
 old servant and friend. But when a race was proposed, 
 I underwrote upon the risk, turning out certain presi- 
 dents and directors, as collateral security. Well I 
 knew the mettle of old Dobbin, even in the tin wagon, 
 where, in fact, he exhibits the greatest speed; even as 
 a dcg scours away the fastest with a cannister at his 
 tail. I touched the wager, and won, also, the admira- 
 tion of my antagonist, who admitted that I drove a 
 ' camfire ' team; for that, in Vermont, is the commen- 
 datory phrase. " 
 
 At dinner, I held a colloquy with 'a discreet maiden 
 lady, equal in charms to the prettiest Asturian in Don 
 Quixotte. Her complexion had something of the vio- 
 let, but little of the lily or rose; and she had an eye 
 like a boiled egg. Upon my statement that I was sin- 
 
 m 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIM PEDLAR. 
 
 77 
 
 gle and discontented, she intimated her approbation o 
 the class of travelHng merchants, and her partiaHty forf 
 an individual; but I tore myself away, and passed 
 through the heart of the Green Mountains, to Burling- 
 ton. 
 
 The Onion River has some pretty scenes, for the 
 river is more attractive than the name; still, the word 
 is better than the thing. Our rivers were first explored 
 and named by rude and uniniagii.;iiivc hunters, and 
 not, as in other countries, by intelligent travellers. 
 Here is the Onion River, and the Otter Creek; we 
 have also the Big Ilockhocking, and the Little Hock- 
 hocking, the Little Muskingum, and the Big JMuskingoim, 
 and the Big Sandy, (which is muddy) and the Big 
 Muddy, (which is sandy). The Indian appellations 
 are always descriptive, and often musical; the Castilian 
 language has nothing more majestic than Monongahela, 
 and Alatamaha; and the Italian, nothing softer, than 
 Ohio and JMiami. In the Green Mountains, the for- 
 ests are dense and dark, though they occasionally dis- 
 play a log hut, and a sunny spot of cultivation. Tall 
 trunks '■ shorn of their beams ' (that is, of their branch- 
 es) and blackened by fire, stand like the remaining pil- 
 lars of a desolated city, and seemingly frown upon 
 those foes of the forest, the woodman and his white 
 halted sons. 
 
 Having toiled up a rugged hill, I saw the sky indent- 
 ed with distant mountains, which I knew were on the 
 western side of the lake, a noble expanse that I «toon 
 beheld, calm as a sleeping beauty, and reflecting in its 
 bosom the flattered imai;e of the hills. At the wharf 
 our attention was attracted by a small dark oltyM far 
 up the lake; as it approached, a clanking was lizard, 
 and the steamboat came rushing on, pawing over the 
 waters like a behemoth. - 
 
 7* 
 
 i 
 
78 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 I went in it to Plattsburgh, where 1 walked out with 
 mine host of the Cross Keys, who was intelligent, and 
 willing to communicate knowledge. With the forefin- 
 ger of his left hand, he pointed to the place where tl e 
 fustian-clad militia routed fourteen thousand veterans, 
 who at Waterloo, had stood ' firm for the honor of the 
 household troops.' This conflict raged at the same 
 time with the battle on the lake, and both, Sir, made 
 martial music. Haydn's Creation has some good 
 thoughts, at least suunds; yet it is but little to the taste 
 of the old warrior who loves the roaring of a twenty four 
 pounder, a clap of thunder, and now and then an earth- 
 quake. To say the just thing of these Vermontese 
 and their neighbours, nothing less than an earthquake 
 can move them from their post, more especially when 
 it is behind a log, a bush, or a stone. Sir George Pro- 
 vost, held them in unmerited contempt, for although 
 they are too sturdy to submit at once to the discipline 
 of firing in platoons, yet their long guns were pointed 
 with such judgment, that every bullet did execution. 
 
 The river, which is broken by rocks into frequent 
 cascades, divides the village. There is a bridge, and 
 above it, and below, are islands covered with bushes. 
 On the margin of the stream, are several mills of gran- 
 ite, and on the north is a forest, through which runs the 
 Canada road. On that road (said my garrulous land- 
 lord) came the crimson ranks of the enemy, keeping 
 excellent time to solemn music. At the same moment 
 their fleet doubled the point, bearing down on the Amer- 
 ican line, at the harbor's mouth. 
 
 The invading army was in three columns, one of 
 which advanced upon the bridge, a second went up the 
 rivdr, and the third remained to bombard the town. 
 Thi) column that went up the river, attempted to ford 
 wht;re the opposite bank was lined with riflemen, lying 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 79 
 
 (said my informant) ' flat upon their bellies.' Shelter- 
 ed themselves, they discharged a murderous fire. ] 
 myself, Sir, am not particularly clumsy, yet these banks 
 are so steep that were the enemy in my rear, and he a 
 mad dog, I could not quickly ascend. 
 
 Yet the British soldiers, with their characteristic ob- 
 stinacy, persisted long in the hopeless attempt. A few, 
 however, reached the summit, but it was only to be 
 thrown back into the stream, from which they rose not 
 again. I doubt if any people will mount a breach bet- 
 ter than the English, or stand longer in the open field 
 to be knockt 1 on the head. A Frenchman will make 
 you a better charge, but his hardihood soon evaporates 
 like the foam of his own champagne; an Irishman, who 
 trails the puissant pike, scorns ' upon compulsion ' to 
 budge a foot, and a Welchman is sufficiently pugnaciov.s; 
 but they all lack the bull-dog [)ortiMacity of an English- 
 man. A Yankee, indeed, has his good points, for he 
 will be tomahawked, killed, and scalped, before he will 
 quit his breastwork, be it log or wall. Think not that 
 I underrate my countrymen, but we shall win more 
 honor in fort, than in field. This is but right, as our 
 wars must be defensive; and as this preference to 
 breastworks has no connexion with cowardice. Our 
 first great battle was at Bunker Hill, and the next, in 
 point of important effect, at New Orleans; and at these 
 the fowling piece and rifle did such service, that they 
 are ' hung up for monuments,' anrl inspire a confidence 
 in their own way of mowing down a multitude. 
 
 The second column advanced to the bridge, and halt- 
 ed; for the planks were up, and four six pounders doing 
 grim duty on the other side, Yet the attempt was made 
 to cro.ss upon the timbers. The first men that tried to 
 pass, were swept away by grape shot, though a few- 
 clung to the beams till weakness relaxed their hold, 
 
WXJt 
 
 ! 
 
 ! 
 
 V 'I 
 
 II 
 
 *' 
 
 ^.J$l . 
 
 80 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 '.vhen they dropped into the stream. I'hree times the 
 troops advanced, and thrice were they thus swept away. 
 
 Another detachment was sent to ford the stream at 
 an island below the bridge. At the moment when they 
 arrived within unsafe distance, the little island seemed 
 a volcano: every bush discharged a flash, and every 
 flash carried death. Yet a small party did pass below 
 the island, and halted opposite to a mill, whicl^ was oc- 
 cupied by boys like Galium Beg, and who recei ed the 
 enemy with a shout of welcome, and a discharge of 
 muskets. At this moment, the contest ceased upon the 
 lake, and every eye was t,urnc<^ with intense anxiety to 
 discern in the smoke the victorious flag. It was the 
 striped banner, and retreat was the word with the ene- 
 my; inextricable confusion followed, the dead and 
 wounded were left svhere they fell, and plunder, as well 
 as victory attended the defenders. Thus, Sir, have I 
 described to you tlic battle of Plattsburgh, at which I 
 was not, and where I had little desire to be. 
 
 From the Saranac I returned, over a route too little 
 interesting to be des "ribed; but though I date this letter 
 from Boston, my travels are not over unless you desire 
 that they close; for I have been west of the Alleghanies, 
 and south so far, that 1 have seen oranges and palms. 
 
 J. F. 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 Sir — So great is the hiatus m my manuscript, that I 
 now write in December; thougli the last excursion was 
 in summer. In Washington street I found subjects for 
 regret, for I shudder to see, in winter, a pretty face un- 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 81 
 
 der a leghorn hat; which was invented merely to inter- 
 cept the rays of the sun. ^ 
 
 • He that would build in Greenland a house with the 
 open verandahs of Italy, would have a fair title to the 
 fame that is conferred by ridicule. Beiiuty and grace are 
 nothing without case; no face can be beautiful, when 
 the body is sufl'eriiig with cold, and no motion graceful, 
 when the muscles are rigid. This is learned and true. 
 Rob Roy plaids satisfy both taste and judgment; but I 
 prefer heavy charges against parents, brothers, friends, 
 and lovers, who bestow faint praise upon India rubber 
 shoes; which I honor more than the slippers of Cinde- 
 rilia. . • .. 
 
 I form my opinion of a lady when I see her first, from 
 her dress; (though I protest against being judged from 
 my own.) If she wear a shawl, she undoubtedly has 
 common sense; and good sense I expect, if her bonnet 
 be of fur; slic that wears a plaid cloak lined, I honor, and 
 if I can, admire; but when she walks in gum clastic 
 shoes, homage is added to admiration. 
 
 • This is the perilous season of sleigh rides, and will 
 destroy its thousands. A party formed for a sleigh ride, 
 is the worst of all parties; and the philosopher was nev- 
 er less in the wrong than when he compared the pleas- 
 ure of sleighing, to the enjoyment of sitting at home with 
 the feet in cold water, and listening, at a proper distance, 
 to the bells. This is all the pleasure, with but half the 
 danger. 1 carry to this day the mark of my last and 
 first sleigh ride. We were six men in dufhls, posting 
 away with the speed of a comet. Our horses threw back 
 the missiles, like proficients in the noble game of snow 
 ball; and I was struck in the lip by a fragment of ice as 
 large but neither as soft nor as round as an apple. The 
 scar of the wound remains, and throws a hue of ferocity 
 into a countenance not otherwise hard. 
 
re: 
 
 82 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 Having offered good advice to ladies, permit me to 
 throw away the same upon gentlemen. It is very proper 
 for such ofyou, my friends, as are predisposed to pul- 
 monary complaints, to set at home over a close stove 
 when the weather is warm and dry; and to walk forth in 
 pumps when the air and earth arc damp, If you can 
 thus wet your feet, endeavour, also to keep them damp. 
 Always walk in the teeth of the wind, with the coat and 
 waistcoat thrown open; it is cool and airy, and the linen 
 is, in December, a sufficient covering to the breast. 1 
 have remarked that some who wear the waistcoat open 
 on Monday, button coat and all, by Thursday. This is 
 a phenomenon that cannot be explained by the state of 
 the weather; perhaps in linen, the sufferer, (for such he 
 is, or will be,) is as deficient as the Irish barrister, who 
 required eleven additional shirts, to make up his dozen. 
 
 If you have the dyspepsia or if you wish to have it, 
 coupled with incubus, eat late suppers: or if pickles lie 
 upon your stomach like pigs of lead, eat freely of them, 
 for it looks slavish to refrain from what will injure. If 
 your employment is sedentary, that is, if you have noth- 
 ing to do, do nothing. Take no exercise, especially up- 
 on compulsion; and when you find vertigo coming upon 
 you, understand no hint to go forth and walk awhile. 
 
 Cigars have my entire approbation, and he that will 
 smoke ten in a day, will moreover confer an obligation 
 on the doctor; yet brandy is better for him than tobac- 
 co, and I recommend it to all. Any excuse will do; 
 you arc thirsty, or you may be; but anticipate thirst, 
 and you will create it. 
 
 If your laundress wishes well also to tho taculty, she 
 Avill give you damp shirts, and the chambermaid can lay 
 them under obligations, by wet sheets. It was but late- 
 ly, that I slept in such, and at midnight, my own shiver- 
 ing awoke me. Indescribable pains afflicted me, and I 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 83 
 
 roared like a lion; raising the house, and perhaps the 
 dead. The remedies were as hard as the malady; a 
 red hot trencher was applied, and it succeeded, in re- 
 moving the pain to the outside. In the morning I was 
 so much relieved that I could walk with moderation, and 
 my first employment was to purchase a warming pan, 
 which shall go with me till I die. I will never again 
 tempt unknown sheets till I have sounded them with the 
 pan; I would sooner trust the bed of Procrustes or Gua- 
 tamozin, than commit myself to unaired sheets, in win- 
 ter. 
 
 When you feel a general depression, and a growing 
 ill humour, which you deem the attendants of incipient 
 disease; if you are unskilled in medical practice, apply 
 at once to a medical book. Then try the patent medi- 
 cines; they are all of them warranted to destroy many 
 diseases of a contrary description; and when they fail 
 with the diseases, may succeed upon the patient. In 
 selecting them, choose those whose labels promise the 
 most, for faith operates better than a charm. 
 
 I suppose that you ride often, and drive well, that is, 
 fast; I hesitate not to believe that you can turn a corner, 
 at the speed of twelve miles an hour, with a conven- 
 ient disregard for your own neck and utter indifference 
 for the lives of passengers. This shows spirit, and what 
 is better, a desire to patronise the learned professions. 
 When you see aa old woman, crossing the street before 
 you, endeavour to cut off hor retreat; and when she 
 stands, (like a statue of wonder,) with raised eyes and 
 uplifted hands, not knowing which way to run, give the 
 rein to your horse. If this should break no bones, some- 
 thing may ensue in the way of hysterics. 
 
 If you are of the heroic, or hasty temperament, be 
 pugnacious in action; never settle a dispute without a 
 battle; for peace is never more firm than after war. It 
 
 \' 
 
 
 f^: i 
 
ffl^ 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 W 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 
 84 
 
 TIIAVELS OK A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 is majestic to tisfht it out; and if the gods look down witli 
 favor on one brave man struggling with adversity, it must 
 give them pleasure to see two men struggling together. 
 If you love the doctor, I would advise to a ' rough and 
 tumble, ' rather than a systematic set to; for I have 
 known very pretty sprains come from a back hug, and a 
 beautiful fracture from a kick in the .shin. The rib.«j 
 however afford the finest practice both to the pugilist 
 and the surgeon, as the fi^rmer may dance round them 
 ^as the phrase is) like a cooper round a barrel. But 
 never pull your adversary's nose; though you may 'tip 
 him the lion, ' that is, flatten it upon his face, like Mi- 
 chael Angelo's. 
 
 But gratitude never follows good advice; therefore no 
 more"of it. In Milk street I came upon a crowd of idlers. 
 Every eye was upon an old elm, and in the branches I 
 discovered one of the birds, sacred to Minerva, whose 
 reception in our Thracian city intimated little honor for 
 the goddess; yet the countenance of the bird was rather 
 in sorrow than in anger. He had chosen his station for 
 defence and was victualled for a siege; for he grasped 
 in his left claw a rat, 
 
 ' By a mousing owl hawk'd at and killed.' 
 many a missile of ice was aimed at him; and when they 
 ruffled a feather, he would look down upon his assail- 
 ants, with a stare of wonder and of solemn indignation: 
 yet ever and anon he tasted his venison with an air of 
 grave and unutterable satisfaction. I left him to finish 
 his meal, and went away under the fear that he would 
 soon be finished himself; for a sportsman come up with 
 a gun and bag, but I desired not to see the murder. I 
 myself was born in a wood and have for the sylvan peo- 
 ple a fellov/ feeling. 
 
 «•. •^ - / 
 
 . t i 
 
 l> ». 
 
THAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 85 
 
 I am wiser than Ctesar who might have lived had he 
 believed in omens: yet the arrival of this owl I cannot 
 expound. Did he come in reference to the assembled 
 wisdom of the commonwealth, then why did he not perch 
 upon the capitol, or the back of the codfish itself. Per- 
 haps he came like me to see the people, and to moral- 
 ize; yet if he made man his study, his subject would 
 sometimes sour his temper, and dissolve the pearl of 
 his benevolence, in the vinegar of misanthropy. 
 
 ' I too have seen 
 
 <, Much of the vanities of men, 
 
 And sicif of liavin^ seen thcni, 
 W'oulil cheerfully these arms resign, 
 ; • For such a pair of wings as thine, - , 
 
 And such a head, between ihoni.' 
 
 Perhaps sir, you suppose that I should have the ad- 
 vantage in the exchange, or that I need not transmigrate 
 to obtain my wish as to the head. If this be your be- 
 lief, I will furnish no more proof for it, under my own 
 hand. 
 
 . - - J. F. 
 
 : J 
 
 NO. V. 
 
 Sir — At the close of my last letter, I had returned 
 to Boston, (from whence you had eloped) having sold 
 my merchandise to advantage, and I deposited a cool ten 
 in the Savings, I invested another in a lottery ticket, 
 whicii was perhaps investing in the shavhig. The 
 scrip was bought of a Greek, which was but right, as I 
 have a Roman reliance upon fortune. Thus was I ten 
 deep, in the Union Canal, but hope was before me and 
 that was worth half the money. 
 
 8 . 
 
0^'.m 
 
 % 
 
 ■RT' 
 
 86 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 Having taken in goods for nnother excursion, I gave 
 old Dobbin the rein, which was in other words, permis- 
 sion to retire at the rate of nine to the hour ; and when 
 the stars began to twinkle, we were at Pawtucket. The 
 falls constituted in their natural state, a very pretty cas- 
 cade; but the encroachment of wheel and spindle, has 
 been at variance with tho picturesque. 
 
 Even now the fall is in itself well enough; but it lacks 
 accompaniments, trimmings, binding. The frame is 
 wanting, though the [)icture is good. In the golden age 
 of bow and arrow, moccasin and blanket, the banks were 
 shaded with pine; but now the river runs between two 
 rnis-shapen cotton factories. Yet when the waters are 
 high, it is a jjleasant sight to see them foaming over the 
 rocks. 
 
 There is something in a water fall, as in a fire, that 
 attracts the eye of man and beast. Gentle reader, — 
 or reader is a better phrase, for I know you not, and 
 have my doubts ; raise your eye to the pleasant family- 
 circle to which you are reading this narrative, and you 
 will find every eye upon the fire, and no exception lies 
 to cat or terrier. A waterfall has the same attraction 
 to the eye, even where we have seen it a thousand times; 
 and two men upon the bridge, driving a bargain in cotton, 
 will look< steadily at the torrent. Below the falls is 
 an abyss, where the watev boils up as in a cauldron; by 
 the side of it is a building of six stories, from the roof of 
 which I have seen young__tritons plunge into the gulf, in 
 a way that would astonish a Sicilian diver. 
 
 I went over the very best of roads, to Providence; 
 where I was shaved by a barber so learned, that he posed 
 me on the Greek articles; and he shaved as well as 
 bespoke. I emerged with a smooth chin, or as Milton 
 says, shorn of my beams; and ran against a la^ly of a 
 thousand attractions; she received with indulgence my 
 
TRAVELS OP A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 87 
 
 confused apology, and desired that I would not distress 
 myself. But I did distress myself, for sweetness was in 
 her voice, and soul in her eyes. It is said that the la- 
 dies of Providence, are the most heautiful in the Repub- 
 lic, and I doubt if the rule have the proof of a single ex- 
 ception. For the assertion, there is bot!i ocular proof, 
 and circumstantial evidence. 
 
 The bridge is the exchange, the riaito, where the 
 idle and the busy ' most do congregate,' to tlie annoy- 
 ance of the females, who must pass through their dense 
 and admiring ranks. 
 
 At the colh'-f! I sold a few lamps, of the true Hercu- 
 lanean modi I ; for the new president imposes such de- 
 lightful tasks, that the ' young idea ' of the freshmen, 
 requires aid from the taper. Good ! I 'm glad of it — 
 one of them bantered me on my queue, and quizzed the 
 skirts of my coat ; but I proffered him a lantern, that he 
 might after my departure search for an honest man. 
 
 Mr M. the ex-president, was ever to me a good 
 friend, and never did I leave his hospitable house with- 
 out a tip at his currant wine. The right hand of fellow- 
 ship to the old gentleman, and the same Sir to you. 
 Something also I know of the great Trismegistus, for he 
 was my father's friend; once on a hot and sultry dog- 
 day, when I had toiled up the hill on which he lived, he 
 purchased a few of my manufactures, and invited me to the 
 meridional refreshment. I was always afraid ofthe great, 
 and on this occasion, i went in, resolute not to forget 
 the wisdom ofthe Proverbs, — ' when thou sittest to eat 
 with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and 
 put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to ap- 
 petite.' I can at all times do something with a knife and 
 fork, but on t'lis u.v.asion my appetite was good; and 
 such was the nri or nature of the honest man whose 
 guest I was, thu! iu lore rising from table we were as fa- 
 miliar as if I had been a judge, or he a tin pedlar. 
 

 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 // 
 
 ^ .#. 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.1 
 
 I^|2j8 |2.5 
 
 IL25 i 1.4 
 
 m 
 
 
 Hiotogi^aphic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 23 west MAIN STRKT 
 
 WnSTER.N.Y. MSSO 
 
 (716) 873-4503 
 
 w 
 
 \ 
 
 .^ 
 
 N> 
 
 «> 
 
 
 
 ^<^' 
 ^ 
 
A^ 
 
 
 %° 
 
89 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN FEDLAR. 
 
 j!. 
 
 
 i 
 
 '■> 
 
 At Providence, I was miserably cheated by a man 
 with a hooked nose ; ever while you live, Sir, distrust 
 one who carries ' the aquiline.' I have known many 
 such, and but one amongst the whole was honest, (my 
 own nose has a little of the curve;) what a people the 
 B^mans must have been! 
 
 From Providence, I passed to Connecticut, favoura- 
 bly known from its habits. The school houses were as 
 regular as mile stones; and therefore the people are not 
 gnorant, though they are not very learned. Their me- 
 diocrity is, however, not in talent, but in attainment; 
 they have no large capital where intellect can have ex- 
 citement, exercise and reward. .,, 
 
 At New York, I remarked that the men pursue noth- 
 ing with moderation; it is not possible for them to be luke- 
 warm in politics, tardy in business, or slow to anger, 
 and redress. The young pursue pleasure with a con- 
 stancy, unknown, and not tolerated, in other cities; and 
 many a noble fellow is destroyed in the chase. 
 
 The ladies have more of the princess in their ga it 
 than the retiring dames of Boston. They demand, rath- 
 er than permit admiration; but the humble man who is 
 writing of them, readily complied with all demands, for 
 he admired them from his soul. 
 
 Broadway is, I suppose, named from scriptural allu- 
 sions; and you cannot walk over the half of it, without 
 a conviction that it leads to death, and worse. On 
 each side the Park, is a line of hackney coaches, as long 
 as the funeral procession of a judge; and the coachmen 
 are the most impudent of Irishmen; they are a nuisance, 
 and I recommend them to the notice of the grand jurors- 
 Upon one, who jeered Dobbin, I would have taken per- 
 sonal vengeance, had his shoulders been a little less 
 broad ; but I hope I shall yet catch him alone, asleep, 
 
TRWELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 89 
 
 and with his hands tied behind him ; for under favoura- 
 ble circumstances, I will surely break my mind to him. 
 
 The commercial streets are like the avenues to an ant 
 hill, when the emmets are abroad; (though the best of 
 the Emmets is no more;) here is industry and gain, la- 
 bour, and its reward. 
 
 In New Jersey, the roads are good, the taverns/air, 
 and the publican's daughters very fair; a pretty girl is 
 so regular nn appendage to an inn, that I doubt if 
 licenses are to be had without one, and refreshing it is, 
 in a dusty day, to receive a bowl of nectar from the 
 hand of such a cup-bearer ; or to descend to terrestrials 
 to have the mint broken in the julep by the fingers of 
 beauty. Yet this same beauty is always too hard for 
 me in driving a bargain. With age and ugliness I can 
 be as hard as their own faces, but to youth and beauty, 
 I am weak and kind ; many a discount have I made, 
 when under the spell of black eyes; and upon my inter- 
 est I have closed my own, when a flattering tongue has 
 called me dear Mr F. 
 
 The city of Philadelphia is neat, regular, and com- 
 modious ; the people to each other are so kind, and to 
 strangers so hospitable, that I always take my departure 
 with regret. It is an error to suppose that the Phila- 
 delphians love not ornament ; but it is in so chaste and 
 plain a style, that it can hardly please the multitude. 
 The very signs in the streets, are neat enough to be 
 framed for the parlour ; and of these Woodside has 
 painted the best. I lodged for a while at the Dove, but 
 left.it as a quarrehome house, and found a very peace- 
 able society at th« Bear. The Wolf is a good house, 
 frequented by brokers; and when a lawyer is not at 
 court, or his office, he may commonly be found at 
 the Fox. In New England, the sign post attempts 
 to blend the arts with the conveniences of life, arc often 
 8* 
 
vmm 
 
 HIWMI 
 
 «P 
 
 mmm 
 
 9U 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 
 f 
 
 f 
 
 rude sketches, intended, I suppose, for Horses; though 
 they would remind one of that precise period in the life 
 of CinderiJla, when her steeds resumed their whiskers 
 The Golden Bell, representing a pumpkin, is an attrac- 
 tive sign, as indicating the nature of the pies ; but 
 Washington looks down from a thousand posts in a \ery 
 grim and unmviting manner. The Eagle, also, in the 
 guise of a buzzard, makes a wing at the traveller; and 
 the Peacock spreads a tail for his delight or conve- 
 nience. 
 
 Where steeples are scarce, it is vain to look for a 
 weathercock; and there is but one steeple in Philadel- 
 phia, and no vanes, like the aerial watchmen of Boston; 
 of which ' thus presented to my mind, let me indulge the 
 remembrance.' The Narraganset Cupid on the Prov- 
 ince-house, I honor as a relic of times remote ; a token 
 of the sylvan men who moored their barks in the creeks 
 of Shawmut; and the Cock upon the church, I rever- 
 ence as a religious bird, not given too much to crowing. 
 His oflnce is high; he sits there reminding men to be vig- 
 ilant in their duties, to die for their country, and to avoid 
 the crime and contrition of Peter. 
 
 ^^JSext in my estimation is the Grasshopper, as big as a 
 sheep on Faneuil Hall ; he is no emblem of industry, 
 and why is he there ? Sir Thomas Gresham a prince- 
 ly merchant, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, was once 
 but a poor foundling, left in the field to perish; the note 
 of a grasshopper attracted a person to his aid; and in 
 after life, when he that was the deserted boy, had become 
 the friend of his sovereign and the companion of princes, 
 he erected the Royal Exchange, and surmounted it, from 
 gratitude and a noble humility with a gilded grasshopper. 
 
 J. F. 
 
 P. S. Have I fallen into imitation in describing the 
 signs? it has just occurred to me that I have. 
 
TRAVELS OP A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 91 
 
 NO. VI. 
 
 Sir — I ascended a shot-tower near the navy-yard; 
 th ) stair-case had no balustrade, and the steps like 
 those of the pyramids, were a yard in depth. I got up, 
 however, very well, and looked down through the barrel, 
 and upon the city; in the descent my nerves became 
 disordered, and I was like a sufferer under the incu- 
 bus. Shutting however my eyes, (as I do when I dis- 
 charge a musket at training,) and keeping my right 
 shoulder* in* continual contact with the wall, I accom- 
 plished thC descent. 
 
 I ascended also the steeple in Second Street, and list- 
 ened to a horrid tale of the churchyard, from the sexton 
 and which, if I believed, I would not repeat. Shrieks 
 had been heard from a range of tombs, and when one 
 of these was afterwards opened it was found that a cof- 
 fin which had held the body of a young lady, was empty, 
 and th"* ♦he body was at a distance from it, This ac- 
 countb^ the cries; the poor girl when buried was not 
 dead, but revived from her trance, only to perish more 
 miserably. 
 
 At this church on the Sabbath, I was struck with the 
 perfect silence of the house and the deep attention of 
 the congregation. In some other chuichcs I have seen 
 infants carried that were not taken for baj tism; and I 
 cannot commend the practice; the first joiumn note of 
 the organ, generally brii.gs out a counter from the won- 
 dering baby and the effect is not good. All natural 
 sounds, even the roaring of a lion, are said to contain 
 melody; yet I have known some infants and toui-cats, 
 with execrable voices, either for a concert or a solo. I 
 have sometimes heard the note of the infant, accompa- 
 nied by a sonorous bass from a huge nose that is blown 
 
mm 
 
 mmmmm 
 
 92 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 through like a trumpet. I could willingly see the in- 
 strument between the forceps of a blacksmith; in which 
 situation the musician of the proboscis might exalt his 
 own voice, especially if the pincers were in a nervous 
 hand. 
 
 I have been annoyed also, by the falling of a walking 
 stick, as large as a studding-sail boom; five times did it 
 fall, and as oflen did the owner set it up for anothe r 
 prostration. Why, when it was fairly down, did he not 
 let it lie } it was no twig, but I could with pleasure se« 
 it forming an intimacy with his shoulders, even if I had 
 to introduce the parties myself * % 
 
 There are some other practices at church tlTat require 
 the interference of the legislature, one of which is the 
 assuming of such vinegar aspects as startle children. 
 Gravity is not wisdom, nor is a sour visage the expres- 
 sion of a devout heart; of the two, it is the better to ex- 
 pand the face with a smile, than to contract it in a 
 frown. 
 
 From Philadelphia I travelled westward, crossing the 
 Schuylkill on a bridge of one entire arch, of the length 
 of some hundred feet. Casting my eyes beneath, I saw 
 a little nymph in a skiff, >\hich she managed w.Uh great 
 dexterity. The skiff was of a beautiful model and the 
 same may be said of the mariner. The toll gatherer had 
 a little cur dog (as the man says, in the play ' I shall 
 never forget that dog •') which for my gratification and 
 the consideration of a fip he held for a moment over the 
 water, and dropped him into the stream, the dog shewing 
 no fear before the souse, and no resentment afler, but 
 coming out as much pleased as though he had received a 
 favour. 
 
 From Philadelphia to the mountains, Pennsylvania 
 looks like one well cultivated farm. The forests are 
 trimmed, so that the cattle feed among the trees, mills 
 
mm 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 93 
 
 arc busy on every stream, and the barns are of i nagni- 
 tude and durability that surprise a man from New Eng- 
 and. The Germans have selected the best of the land, 
 and it has thriven under them. Lancaster is as large as 
 Providence, and situated on a plain, though within a few 
 miles the land begins to swell and the hills increase, till 
 they end in the long ridges of the Alleghany mountains. 
 
 There were emigrants enough to form colonies, and 
 they travelled in various ways ; some chartered Dutch 
 wagons with six horses for the aged and the children, 
 while the stronger followed on foot. At night they en- 
 camped, and I sometimes united with them ; supper was 
 cooked in the open air, ' Stranger, will you join with 
 >us? ' was the word, and the night passed away as well as 
 in pictured halls, and curtained beds. In fact, the 
 sleeping accommodations on the road are not upon an 
 exclusive plan ; thirty beds are arranged in the hall, 
 and if the most fastidious traveller gets one to himself 
 he 'thinks it luxury.' 
 
 Some of the emigrants had neither money nor friends; 
 to them my advice was never to beg of a Dutchman ; 
 though they might sometimes succeed in asking charity 
 of a German damsel, before a boor had entered her heart 
 to eject humanity by the collar. The distressed objects 
 that a traveller sees, are many, and some I saw that I 
 should like to forget. Yet let me record my own mu- 
 nificence ; in the mountains I met a poor young woman 
 with three children sitting by the way side. Her dress 
 and manner betokened better days, and her story has 
 many parallels, in the west. Her husband, after a long 
 illness that exhausted their slender funds had died at 
 Pittsburgh, and she and her children were crawling at the 
 rate of five miles a day, to Philadelphia. I gave them 
 
 a bank note of Dollars, and took that occasion, (as 
 
 my grandmother was v/ont in regard to myself) to ad- 
 
«H 
 
 ■P 
 
 94 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 minist3r good advice. 1 advised the poor woman to 
 take passage in a return wagon (for which the fund^ 
 were sufficient) to Harrisburgh, where she would be in 
 a christian land again, and might find some kind person 
 who had no German blood percolating through his heart, 
 to lend assistance to Philadelphia. 
 
 If you charge me with vanity, the next adventure 
 will acquit me, and I will tell it with the fidelity of 
 Rousseau, hoping that the confession will be a little 
 expiation for the guilt. One evening as I was riding 
 down the slope of the Laurel Hill, I beheld an old man 
 lying by the road side, apparently dead ; it would be a 
 pleasure for me to think that he was dead in reality, for 
 I passed him as though he had been a dog ; I am troub- 
 led at the recollection. I arrived at the foot of the 
 hill before I thought of my duty, and then, I neglected 
 it; though, perhaps, I thought that some other traveller 
 would have more feeling than I had ; yet I would give 
 the best cargo that I ever carried over the mountains, 
 to know that some kinder soul took the old gaffer to the 
 village, gave him supper and a lodging and dismissed 
 him with with a little coin. The Image that he was 
 created in, should have been his defence from death by 
 hunger, or any gradual cause, in the highway ; and if 
 my aid could have saved his life, I have no better hope 
 than to die as he did, deserted by men. 
 
 The woods in the mountains are venerable, and fre- 
 quent cascades arc tumbling from the rocks, while the 
 noise of birds and waterfalls makes an agreeable and 
 melancholy music. He that has a taste for killing rat- 
 tle snakes may gratify it, unless the reptile should begin 
 first upon the man. I discovered in the hot sand of the 
 road, one of the largest, with 'an eye like Mars, ' and 
 retired to the bushes to cut a stick; but returned nimbly 
 on hearing a rattle in the vicinity of my heels. It came 
 
TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 06 
 
 from the mate of the gentleman I had left v.i the road ; 
 [ killed them both, and in cold blood. 
 
 The trees are generally oak, chestnut, hickory, lau- 
 rel, and beach ; and on the smooth bark of the latter, 
 you will see in capitals, J. F. I often leave my name 
 upon a smooth surface ; my graver is a large knife that 
 was given me at school for my personal beauty and the 
 motto Ojformose piier, was furnished by thc_master, who 
 was himself a handsome man. 
 
 I wish that all travellers would thus leave by the road- 
 side, some memorial of themselves ; for these traces of 
 a friend, give nearly as much pleasure as the meeting 
 with the friend himself. On the covered bridge ove 
 the Susquehanna I passed a pleasant hour, reading in- 
 scriptions in chalk and coal, of those who had gone be- 
 fore me ; and I left my own initials, with a figure in 
 crayons, to stand as a representative of myself My 
 life might be written from the materials that are extant 
 on trees, bridges, and wainscots ; and I have often pro- 
 fited by my own memoirs ; that is, when at a Dutch 
 inn I have been tormented with fleas, and recorded the 
 incident and my own indignation over the bed, I have 
 avoided that couch, on my return, as I would fly from 
 evil. Yet, that such records may escape the brush of 
 the chamber maid I invest them like Gibbon, in the ob- 
 scurity of a learned language. 
 
 Ten miles from Pittsburgh 1 turned to the left to ex- 
 amine the place where Braddock fell ; and an old man 
 in the vicSity gave me a flattened bullet that he had 
 found in a tree ; a relic, perhaps, of that disastrous bat- 
 tle, and of the first field of Washington. 
 
 The Monongahela is a deep and slow river, and the 
 Alleghany swift and shallow, which I take to be the ex- 
 act difference between you and me ; yet. Sir, boast not 
 your depth, for the Alleghany runs through the better 
 
■■ 
 
 96 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 country, though it reflect not, like the deeper stream, 
 the beauty of the banks. 
 
 1 passed a week at Pittsburgh, turning Dobbin into 
 a field of clover, and living in a corresponding manner 
 myself; that is, I pastured at Darlington's, for three 
 shillhigs a day. The town is an immense forge, though 
 I saw no statue of Vulcan. Manufactures flourish at 
 Pitt ; 1 write this on occidental paper ; near me stands 
 a bottle of domestic porter, which I am about to drink 
 from a western tumbler, and in the morning I was shaved 
 well, with a Pittsburgh razor. - J. F. 
 
 iVO. VII. 
 
 If' • • I , ^ : . . * " '-. ' 
 
 Sir — The city of Pittsburgh is surrounded, at some 
 distance, by hills, one of which I ascended, and employ- 
 ed an hour in rolling down fragments of rocks, to see 
 them fall, like thunderbolts, into the Monongahela. 
 There is a neat bridge over this river, and a better over 
 the Alleghany. The Ohio has not, in its whole course, a 
 bridge, though there are places where they might be 
 built; yet the sudden swell of the river would be dan- 
 gerous — for I have known the waters rise, in two hours, 
 higher than I dare tell. . 
 
 The market I remember well; for in it, a puflfof wind 
 carried my summer hat within reach of a bear, chained 
 to a post; and bruin left not one straw upon another. 
 In the market I saw wild ducks, turkies, and pigeons, 
 opossums, racoons, grey and black squirrels, and veni- 
 son. The fish were — cat-fish, snapping-turtle, and eel. 
 If you know the fish called potUy in New England, you 
 
wmmm 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIK PEDLAR. 
 
 97 
 
 can imagine the shape of a cat-fish; and I have seen 
 one of the weight of seventy pounds. The terrapins are 
 good, but the eels and cat-fish are half mud: I prefer 
 an alligator, towards the tail. 
 
 I purchased a skiff with aii«awning, armed it with a 
 musket, victualled it with a peck of potatoes, a quarter 
 of racoon, and jug of whiskey, and committed myself to 
 the current of the Ohio. The river was high, and the 
 current carried me forty miles in a day; and on the 
 third evening I was at Wheeling, in Virginia; a 
 town as large as Worcester, and more lively. Oppo- 
 site the town is an island, producing delicious melons; 
 over this island there was, on my arrival, a splendid 
 rainbow, apparently resting on each bank of the river. 
 I came to an anchor, that is, I tied my cable of the bark 
 of an elm, around a rock in front of Symmes^ hotel. 
 At Wheeling, I took passage in a little steam boat, 
 which held my skiff in tow, as far as Grave Creek; 
 where I lodged, like a muleteer in Spain, at the well 
 known and less esteemed house of Mrs Cockayne; in 
 which, while the forest has a tree, I will never lodge 
 again. 
 
 In the vicinity are several of those mounds, that are 
 so comr on in the great western valley; the largest, 
 which if. called the Big Grave, I could encircle at 
 one hurdred and ten strides, so that the circumference 
 is about four hundred and forty feet. On the summit is 
 a little hollow, like an old crater, and large trees are 
 growing on the sides. 
 
 On the next night, I was pulling the leg from a chick- 
 en at McFarland's, in Marietta. Here the Muskingum 
 comes into the Ohio, at a rapid rate; the waters are 
 very clear, and run over a bed of pebbles. 
 
 I knew the two fathers of Marietta: Rufus Putnam, 
 and Return Jonathan Meigs, both scio'^fl of New £ng- 
 9 
 
 *#■ 
 
■■^Hf" 
 
 MM 
 
 98 
 
 TRAVELS OF A TIN riDLAR. 
 
 il ' 
 
 land. The old General wan delighted with a listener, 
 and as I am a little deaf, it cost me nothing to please 
 him; but he was every way a venerable man. Return 
 Jonathan had a Hock of merinos grazing about the plain, 
 and I tasted lii.s mutton. • 
 
 The Indian remains in the rear of the town, are walls 
 of earth, enclosing a space as large as the Common in 
 l3oston, in the centre of which is a raised plat, of seve- 
 ral acres. They are the kind of works that savages 
 would erect, made by labor without art. 
 
 Why do you censure, in the last Galaxy, my puns? 
 Some men like a good pun; though if a pun be a bad 
 thing, the worse it is, the ! .tor; and he that will sneeze 
 at one, need trike no snuff. I picked up a few Indian 
 relics; I have a noble columet, v.'ith a tube of stone a 
 yard in lengtli, and it is wonderful to me how it could 
 have been bored, though I bore very well myself; but 
 put up your handkerchief, for I have done. 
 
 To a traveller from New England, it is pleasing to 
 see, in Ohio, such customs, faces, and names, as he has 
 left at home. A primitive manner of travelling prevails, 
 and that relic of the golden age, the pillion, is in use; 
 though times have changed in England, since members 
 of Parliament, going to London, carried their wives be- 
 hind them, on the pillion. 
 
 At Belpre is Blennerhasset's Island, that looks better 
 in ('ascription than in reality. There are some willows, 
 and a few peach trees; though the boatmen had left lit- 
 tle fruit for the lord of the soil, that is, of the sand. 
 Peaches, however, are so abundant, that one may al- 
 ways have them by asking in a civil way. 
 
 I drifted down, with little variety of incident, to the 
 Big Sandy, which is the boundary of Kentucky. Here 
 I arrived in a night of darkness, and went ashore to- 
 wards a light, that disappeared, after involving me in an 
 
 EM* 
 
TRAV£LS or A TIN I'LD'.AR. 
 
 99 
 
 inextricable maze. Having vainl)' endeavoured to find 
 the boat, I gathered a bed of leaves, slept like a soldier, 
 and awaked in as pretty an ague as a doctor would wish 
 to see. 
 
 In this part of my route, I killed with the paddle a 
 great many grey and black squirrels. Far north, there 
 had been a scarcity of mast, and the squirrels came 
 down, like locusts, on the more fruitful regions: I have 
 seen nine upon a tree at one time, and perhaps I saw 
 not all. rhey swam the river boldly, but when the wa- 
 ter was rough, arrived at the bank too much exhausted 
 to crawl. 1 did not sec them naviguii ig a piece of bark, 
 with their uils for canvas; though I cua believe that a 
 squirrel ha.i as much science as n nuutilus, 
 
 At a pretty French town, wh:jro the people seemed 
 very happy, I found a poor Swiss, who was going down 
 the river, and to him I committed the management of 
 the skiff, till we sold it, at Maysville, for half its cost. 
 At this quarter, the first glimpse of Kentucky is not very 
 attractive, but towards the centre it becomes charming, 
 and requires nothing but the olive, the orange, and vine, 
 (great wants, however,) to make it the best portion of 
 the earth. The soil is so rich, that it is of the depth of 
 three feet, and the freshness and vigor ci vegetation is 
 unequalled. The forests have little underbrush, but 
 tall grass well supplies its place; and the very weeds by 
 the road side, grow t ) tiie height often feet. 
 
 Lexington is in a i luiwthat is almost a valley; and 
 it would be deemed a neat town, in any country. There 
 is a courtesy amoi)g the people, that makes a favorable 
 impression upon a visitor; and they are more social than 
 the inhabitants of any town in New England, of similar 
 size. It is a pleasure to a stranger to see the free and 
 easy terms upon which some hundred people, from all 
 parts of the State, live at Kean's hotel. The hotel is 
 
 M 
 
 - pji i i i ii < 
 
:^mmmmm 
 
 wn^ 
 
 100 
 
 TRAVELS OP A. TIN PEDLAR. 
 
 Il\ 
 
 ■ i 
 
 h 
 
 indeed a Phoenix, and I went away, with the reluctance 
 of Major Dalgetty, when the rations were acceptable to 
 himself and Gustavus. 
 
 Then I walked to Frankfort, on the Kentucky River. 
 This is a muddy stream, running between beautiful 
 banks, that sometimes rise to cliffs of three hundred feet. 
 It winds through forests, in which I tasted the hospital- 
 ity of the back-woods. 
 
 From Frankfort, my road was but a horse path among 
 the trees, though I sometimes diverged to visit a village. 
 There are no people so glad to find opportunities to 
 please themselves, by serving others, as the Kentuck- 
 ians; though, shame on me! 1 went among them with a 
 predisposition to censure. I never stopped at a log 
 house, where I was not offered ) refreshments, and the 
 sons of Kentucky had too much politeness to be inquisi- 
 tive; though had I travelled in a similar manner and 
 dress, in as secluded a part of New England, I should 
 have been thought rude not to relate my history. 
 
 From Port William, on the Ohio, I went to the Big- 
 Bone-Lick, a watering place of some repute : and on the 
 way thither I crossed over to Vevay, in Indiana. 
 
 Cincinnati is, in appearance, one of our own towns, 
 having Yankees, as raw as ever strapped box to shoul- 
 der, and put foot to the ground for the 'new countries.' 
 When I was there, I thought it the most desirable resi- 
 dence in the Republic, and I think so still. 
 
 I was wronged, however, by a boatman, to the amount 
 of five dollars, in a bill of the Owl Creek Bank; I should 
 have rejected it, from its very name, had not the rogue 
 affirmed it to be genuine, and upon his honor. Let me 
 tell you something of the currency of the West, espe- 
 cially of Kentucky, and I will stop; for I am as much 
 tired of writing as you can possibly be of reading. Spe- 
 
TRAVELS OV A TIN TEDLAS. 
 
 101 
 
 Gie 19 scarce, and what there is, can hardly be denomi- 
 nated coin. A common way of making change for a 
 dollar, is to cut it into parts. There are however, private 
 bankers, who emit bills, from one cent to half a dollar, 
 and I have had in my hand a roll that would excite envy, 
 if not suspicion, on 'change, that would buy little more 
 than a dinner. J. F. 
 
 > I 
 
 \- ■■ I. 
 
 9* 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FRDM A BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 Sm — I do not resist the reasons you offer for the 
 continuance of our correspondence, interrupted Novem- 
 ber 1826; and it is my intention, moreover, to oblige 
 you by a sketch of my early life, for we were unknown 
 to each other when both were young; you were setting 
 types in Boston, while I was planting the potato in Ver- 
 mont. It is inseparable from the narrative form, to 
 write more of myself than is agreeable either to the 
 reader or the writer; then do not call it egotism when 
 it is only necessity. 
 
 I had an early tendency to commercial pursuits, and 
 its first development, like that of all character, was at 
 school. The circulating medium was limited to pins, 
 ahd I recall with pleasure the first lottery in which I 
 was manager and proprietor. I saved in this fortunate 
 speculation, enough to be converted into a dime, in 
 better currency, and it was the foundation of more ex- 
 tensive operations in gingerbread. Here too, my fore- 
 sight found its reward, and success has grown on what 
 it fed on, till I have hopos to be a Director of a Bank. 
 
LETTERS FROM A BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 103 
 
 This is an office of profit as well as of honor, and re- 
 lieves the incumbent of many ve:^atious scruples, for the 
 Directors of such institutions are privileged to do with- 
 out reproach, in their corporate capacity, what would 
 shame them to commit as individuals; though I would 
 not have you believe that I shall claim for myself any 
 such immunily, when a Director jf the Potatovillc 
 Bank. 
 
 This, my early propensity to double a penny in the 
 shortest given time, was connected with a strojig dispo- 
 sition to ramble. I became tired of looking at the same 
 blue hills, and of seeing the same hard faces among 
 them. But how to gratify (like a Jew eating ham) two 
 tastes at once, was a puzzling question; I solved it by 
 purchasing a stock in trade of essences, to sell to the 
 people of distant States; and as I had read that Vir- 
 ginia was the most distinguished for juleps and cock- 
 tails, there I hoped to find a good maikct for tansy and 
 mint, and my hopes were much fortified when I heard a 
 pilot at the Capes, speak of a thirteen-julep-fog in a 
 morning not particularly damp. 
 
 On a bright cold morning in October, in the com- 
 mencement of this century, I hurried like a hero who 
 distrusts his own resolution, on board the schooner 
 Charming Molly, which is, in the softer language of 
 Petrarch, La Bella Maria. The bold commander was 
 one of those polished navigators that hold up a quadrant 
 at noon, and a bottle an hour before. So justly impres- 
 sed was he with the necessity of preserving dignity, 
 that he never spoke to his mate and three men without 
 an oath, and an epithet to mark the distance between 
 them. His oaths were of the plain swearing that a 
 sailor practices, for he was not so picturesque or figura- 
 tive, that 
 
 * He could not ope 
 His mouth but out there flew a trope,' 
 
104 
 
 LETTERS rROM ▲ 
 
 
 yet) when Captain Bacon's lips parted, you seldom 
 failed to hear a d — n, for curses fell from them as the 
 pearls and rubies dropped from those of the good child 
 in the fairy tale. 
 
 The cook was not educated in a French kitchen, nor 
 had he ever heard of Monsieur Ude, though his life, 
 like Very*s, had been devoted to the useful arts. He 
 made chowder to a charm, though he was not so neat 
 as Doctor Mott in his person. Would I were a painter 
 that T might draw him, in a red cap and black whiskers — 
 with a gold ring in one ear, and an eagle and motto im- 
 printed with blue ink upon his arm. His brow he 
 would wipe on the sleeve of his jacket, which had be- 
 come glazed and varnished, and he would brush away 
 the slush from his fingers on that part of his trowsers 
 that enclosed the thigh, so that his dress was saturated 
 like a fisherman's boots, and turned water like the 
 breast of a duck. 
 
 The wind came (in the captain's phrase) from the 
 norrardy when we spread a canvass whose patches in- 
 dicated long service. You have never sailed beyond 
 Nantasket, and know nothing of the sea; therefore I 
 will describe the voyage as carelessly as I can. 
 
 Time, that gallops with a rogue to the gallows, crawls 
 with an honest man at sea. It hung like a millstone 
 about our necks, and he that could devise a way to 
 hasten it along was a public benefactor. We had a 
 dreadful calm of three days near Plymouth, when we 
 went ashore for lobsters and clams. I strolled like a 
 hyena among the graves, for I am goule enough to en- 
 joy an old epitaph; and strange are the names one finds 
 recorded on slate in the churchyard at Plymouth. 
 There is Truth, Hope, Charity, Love, Temperance, 
 Mercy, (written Marcy) Wait-still, Experience, Rejoice, 
 Lamentation, Welcome, et cetera. It put me back to 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 105 
 
 the time of the Roundheads to see such names; you 
 will find a jury of them in Hume, and another in the 
 Pilgrim's Progress, and this is the panel, though I like 
 their names so little, that if they were arrayed against 
 me, like the Irishman I wpuld challer^e every man of 
 them— Mr Blindman, Mr No Good, Mr Malice, Mr 
 Lovelust, Mr Liveloose, Mr Heady, Mr Highmind, Mr 
 Enmity, Mr Liar, Mr Cruelty, Mr Hatelight, and Mr 
 Implacable. 
 
 The commander went with me on shore, and I attach- 
 ed to his collar a rope's end of the exact shape and ap- 
 pearance of a queue; and it hung down his shoulders a 
 distinguished ornament of the whole man. Even now 
 I smile as I recall the figure he made as he paced the 
 street with a gravity that was deepened to offended 
 dignity, by the unaccountable merriment of the passen- 
 gers. 
 
 When we had rounded Cape Cod, and fairly entered 
 the * Mare Magnum^^ we were dying of nothing to do — 
 sometimes, however, we would murder a poor porpoise 
 as he glanced around the bows, and * incarnadine ' the 
 sea with his innocent blood. At other times we would 
 catch with a baited hook, astoi^ petrel, or Mother Ca- 
 rey's Chicken, though I should not be justified in prais- 
 ing the taste of Mrs Carey's poultry. 
 
 A shark gave us his company till our good under- 
 standing was interrupted. The cook had so fed him 
 with bone and gristle, that he would snap like a spaniel 
 at what fell overboard, and he bolted instantly a red hot 
 potato that I dropped upon his shovel nose. It was in 
 his belly but a moment, before he discovered that it 
 would burn, when he cut an indescribable caper that 
 delighted us exceedingly, and went to sea in a manner 
 that denoted inquietude. 
 
■ « M H H i " l^l— «ip»*i-i^i!S.— ^.wwJ 
 
 i >nWi;.,Vi.,a,TS,T..'J.'.,:^ 
 
 '^mnwmmr'^ff^rmmfnmmmn 
 
 106 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 Sailors and Highlanders, from sheer idleness, are 
 great prognosticators of the weather, and from imitation 
 I soon acquired the habit of watching the clouds. 
 Sometimes at sunset might be seen a low line of 
 indentations near the horizon, which I could hardly be- 
 lieve was not the land, and at other hours i would watch 
 the gorgeous pinnacles that looked like Andes covered 
 with snow — where I could seem to discover ravines 
 formed by the torrents and the deep shades made by 
 projecting rocks — but all this you may see from your 
 own smoky city. 
 
 We spoke several vessels — that is, we held a talk 
 with the commanders of five. The manner of marine 
 salutation is this. The sails were so disposed as to keep 
 the ships at rest; then Captain Bacon, elevated on a 
 water cask, emitted through a tin trumpet a sound like 
 the growl of a tiger, which was returned like a hoarse 
 echo from the other ship — ' Pray, Sir, report the Charm- 
 ing Molly, Captain Bacon, &c. &c.' 
 
 It is enough to cure a dyspeptic of his * thick com- 
 ing fancies,' to see a sailor eating raw pork with an 
 onion. But at sea the appetite is not dependent on 
 dainty fare. 
 
 Having entered the Capes of the Chesapeake, we 
 soon afler anchored at Point Comfort. It is a snug 
 harbor and has a good name — for sailors, when they 
 give names, are as descriptive as Homer himself — and 
 it is but a short sail to Cape Fear, Cape Lookout, and 
 Cape Frying Pan. But lest like other philosophers in 
 pursuing names, I may lose sight of things, let me tell 
 you something of Norfolk, the commercial capital of 
 Virginia. It is in a corner of the State, an4 composed 
 of people of all countries, and of three colors, therefore 
 you will here find little of the true Virginia character. 
 To describe it from memory, it is a city rather neatly 
 
 ««t>j:r»Hifc> .; ■■ 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 107 
 
 an 
 on 
 
 built of brick. But this State is so ^ interlaced' (as the 
 Federalist has it) with noble rivers, that it will ncyer 
 have any city of magnitude while the planter can ship 
 his tobacco from his own door. The Virginians, while 
 they escape the moral contamination of a large city, 
 have from their vicinity to Washingtpn, all the impulse 
 to intellect that such a Capital can give. 
 
 At Norfolk I had the honor to see Mr Tazewell. He 
 was talking to twelve men sitting together upon a bench, 
 endeavouring to make them beHeve what was impossible, 
 and their credulity was catholic. He had a strange 
 manner of casting his eyes. He did not look at the 
 dozen wise men to whom he spoke, but his eyes seemed 
 to rest upon some object far beyond them, and more 
 than once I sought to discover it. The poet's eye has 
 high prescription for ' rolling,' but here is great authority 
 that the orator's should remain at rest, I myself think 
 that they should not be cast down, as if shaded with 
 poppies, when they seem to have been made, ccelum tueri, 
 or, to look up. 
 
 The Chesapeake Bay is a noble inland sea, and a lit- 
 tle north of it you will find, or did find, the city of Bal- 
 timore. I suppose that it satisfied you, if you antici- 
 pated much. It has grown with the rapidity of a wil- 
 low, but it has the strength and durability of an oak. 
 The merchant, are said to act upon the adage, ' nothing 
 venture, nothing have.' Their commercial speculations 
 are thought, in cities of slower growth, to be desperate; 
 and I myself make bold to believe, if not to say, that 
 they act as Rashleigh Osbaldistone played, and he 
 staked more upon fortunate risks than the well balanced 
 chances of the game. This is, in other words, an ad- 
 venturous spirit ; and it has made Baltimore what it is. 
 
 I counsel no man to trust to his first impressions, if 
 they are unfavorable, and he has the tooth-ache. Like 
 
^imammmfmmmmmm 
 
 lil 
 
 108 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ 
 
 M 
 
 ; \ 
 
 lago, I was ^ troubled with a raging tooth/ and had I 
 described Baltimore under its influence, I should have 
 imposed upon you the belief that I was in a gloomy 
 city, peopled by a very plain-looking race — but when 
 the genius of misanthropy had ceased boring into my 
 hollow tooth, I looked at the city and people through a 
 fairer medium. 
 
 I went to Washington in a coach, with Ave travellers, 
 as unsocial as Englishmen, and more silent than bears, 
 for bears will growl at each other. You know more of 
 Washington than I can tell you. It has the seminal 
 principle of a grand city — the punctum salient is there; 
 but the chicken is not completely formed; mud and 
 magnificence share it equally; and as in Constantinople 
 and Moscow, splendour is strangely mixed with mean- 
 ness. 
 
 The arts have no very splendid monuments at the 
 Capital, and a coat of white-wash would improve some 
 public ceilings at Washington — in other words, the 
 broom would mend what was done by the brush; and 
 this would but follow the old rule — ars estj celare artenif 
 for this would hide it altogether. But if you admire 
 the paintings you have my permission, only let me have 
 yours to differ. 
 
 I sat myself down in an orator's seat, holding out 
 my tongue to catch the inspiration of eloquence, as an 
 alligator catches flies, but with less success, for I was 
 in Sheridan's figure, like a rusty conductor waiting for 
 a flash of lightning. 
 
 I went in a steam boat down the Potomac, and had 
 a glimpse of Alexandria, whence you get your flour, 
 and of Mount Vernon, venerated for higher reasons. I 
 saw under the trees, in my mind's eye, and by the mem- 
 ory of Stuart's picture, a grave and placid old gentle- 
 man, that like Caesar, was esteemed by his enemies, 
 * the foremost man of all this world.' 
 
 T^ytt.".-, 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 109 
 
 Fredericksburgh is somewhat below, and contains, as 
 the epitaphs say, the mortal body of John Lowe, the 
 author of ' Mary's Dream.' He was tutor in some 
 family, and like most poets took to hard drinking, of 
 which he died. To Richmond the country is dreary 
 and barren, having nc neat villages like Potatoville, 
 and no hotels with red hot pokers in the fire, or with 
 even a coulter, as at the clachan of Aberfoil. 
 
 It must be known to you, that I write in a clerkly 
 hand, for I give you the ' ocular proof.' My pen 
 brought mc to preferment, and procured me the head 
 clerkship in a store, (for like Sampson Rawbold I had 
 a boy under me). There, in imitation of Patrick Hen- 
 ry, (whom I resemble in my mar^.tcr of wearing spec- 
 tacles) I studied men and women, as they came to pur- 
 chase whiskey and tea. 
 
 As I write this from memory, (for that journal was a 
 fabrication of your own) I have little method in sketch- 
 ing, and as I grow old ' ray visions flit less palpably be- 
 fore me.' 
 
 The county where I dwelt was named after King 
 William, {of glorious memory) and in twentyfour hours 
 I felt myself at home, for I possess, in a great degree, 
 that principle of accommodation that assimilates with 
 things about me. A Frenchman, however, has this 
 principle of accommodation in its greatest extent; put 
 the most polished of his nation among a tribe of Indians, 
 and he will be more savage than they, and among Hot- 
 tentots he would be the filthiest of the kraal but here- 
 in I trust that my own compliance would be more lim- 
 ited. 
 
 At the time of my arrival, the Virginians were shiv- 
 ering with cold, for it was the sSason of gathering and 
 shocking (husking) the corn, which is penned up in vast 
 
 quantities. The corn is covered with a roof, but the 
 10 
 
mmi 
 
 ^l^mmt 
 
 m^m 
 
 \i 
 
 14 
 
 no 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 ill 
 
 sides of the pens are of rails laid in an open manner. 
 Our nearest neighbour (at a short walk of three miles) 
 had on hand, of the last year's crop, fifteen hundred bar- 
 rels, with five bushels to the barrel, for corn is too 
 abundant to be meted by your puny measures. This 
 was the product of his smaller plantation, and was worth 
 two dollars the barrel, though in Kentucky, I have 
 known it to be sold for forty cents; in Virginia, from 
 three to five barrels to the acre is a good crop. Excuse 
 the details of trade. 
 
 There is not much tobacco raised, and it is (except as 
 an article of export) a vile and worthless weed. Notwith- 
 standing that ' old Virginia never tires,' the cultivation 
 of tobacco has impoverished her soil, which it reduces as 
 much as it does a man ; ^ think of this when you smoke 
 tobacco.' 
 
 In your republican State there are but two classes, the 
 rich and the poor. There, (I speak as a merchant,) it 
 is infamous to be poor, though it is the defect of the 
 laws to take no cognizance of poverty as a crime. But 
 along the Blue Ridge, there are more castes. The low- 
 est of them, like some of the Hindoos, eat no meat. Yet 
 if they who compose it refrain on principle from animal 
 food, they sometimes profane their own creed, especially 
 when an ox dies suddenly, or a sheep is found rambling 
 in the woods. This class of people uphold the tariff, in- 
 asmuch as they raise their own wool. The allowance 
 of food for a negro man, is a peck and a half of corn 
 weekly, and two thirds of that quantity for a woman. 
 
 To be a slave, is to lie, to steal, to be everything base 
 and unworthy. If the body could be enslaved without 
 degrading and demoralizing the mind, I would not 
 much care for wearing a fetter myself. I have tried to 
 get a direct answer from a negro, (or, as here called, a 
 nigger,) but I might as well have sought a diamond on 
 
 -<*. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 a Quaker's fingor. He will make you repeat the ques- 
 tion, that he may have more time to frame or invent a 
 politic answer. From the slaves there are many inter- 
 mediate classes, before you come to the lords of the soil. 
 
 Remember that I speak of a narrow district, and make 
 no wider application. The higher classes have not many 
 intellectual resources, unless such as lead them to fox 
 hunting, horse racing, gaming, and moderate drinking; 
 though there are among them men of great refinement 
 and literary taste, and all are generous and hosnitable. 
 
 Dinner is late, and it is the principal meal; the foun- 
 dation of it i J bacon. Desserts are rare, except on holi- 
 days; ader dinner, come cigars and politics. Every 
 man is a politician, and talks well, though vehemently. 
 Horses make the subject next in interest, for a Virgi- 
 nian, like an Arab, loves his horse. 
 
 There is something wrong in their system of educa- 
 tion, or rather there is no system. There is an utter 
 neglect of the advice of Solomon. When a boy is too 
 old to be dandled, slaves call him Massa, and he consid- 
 ers himself a man. In many families, however, the 
 children are taught to address the older servant as uncle 
 or aunteCj and this is sometimes more than a form of 
 speech. 
 
 A. fish-fry is a sylvan mode of festivity; a company, 
 having caught their fish, eat them by the side of a foun- 
 tain, and laugh and t^ing, and joke if they can. But 
 perhaps nothing is so characteristic as an election. 
 The candidate makes a flourish on his own trumpet, 
 by giving a modest recital of his own merits. He 
 must visit his constituents at their houses, and make 
 himself agreeable to them at public places. This of 
 course diminishes the distance between the high and 
 low, and generates a familiarity of phrase not known 
 where you live. You would, start to hear of Ned Ever- 
 
 :4-:-r 
 
^■^ 
 
 HV^P 
 
 112 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 
 ett, or Jim Lloyd, but in Virginia, it is Jim Madison, 
 and Jack Randolph. Rival candidates of\en meet, 
 when in their canvass, and, to do them justice, are very 
 courteous and jocular with each other. On election 
 days they furnish whiskey, and are expected to drink 
 with the people. They are then all seated together, 
 look imploringly down upon the voters, and each ac- 
 knowledges by a low bow a favorable vote. In elec- 
 tions hardly contested, the polls are open several days, 
 and riders scour the country to bring in and feast the 
 freemen. In such times modest merit is not always 
 successful, and I have known a gambler of the sable- 
 leg kind, a drinking, bellowing, obstreperous fellow, 
 elected by a large majority. 
 
 ,,;,:■■ /•• '; NO. II 
 
 Si& — A pedagogue passes here at a great discount ; 
 and his is not, as in New England, a situation from 
 which he may step into the commission of the peace ; 
 it is the lowest round in fortune's ladder. In rich fam- 
 ilies there are private tutors, but there are ' old field 
 schools,' where the master does well if he can collect 
 fifteen scholars. I grieve to speak ill of a class — but a 
 Virginia school-master is ill paid and worse taught ; 
 though where there <s so much room for amendment, it 
 were want of charity not to hope all things. 
 
 At church the people convene about noon, and afler 
 service, have much to say to each other, and the Sabbath 
 brings many invitations to dine. In preaching, the Vir- 
 ginians are as ear^Jy satisfied, as the Philadelphians are 
 in acting — and who ever heard a hiss in the Chesnut 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 113 
 
 street Theatre. The Reverend Clergy do not * think 
 ■corn' to taste wine when it is good — and many o^ 
 them take pleasure in tickling a trout, or knocking over 
 a fat buck. 
 
 The ladies may be ranked with the dames of Spain. 
 Elevated, high-minded, domestic, and passionately at- 
 tached to their husbands, they unite in their character 
 the best traits of the females of the other States. In 
 the veins of New England there may be too much ice, 
 in veins much south of Virginia there may be too much 
 fire. The right medium is about King William. It is 
 not strange that such wives and mothers should have 
 given lour Presidents to the Kcpublic, and to the world 
 the greatest name in its history. Do you think a Vir- 
 ginian matron indolent ? mend your manners and your 
 opinion — you will not sec her spin, but Penelopo had 
 not more constant employment. To every door, crypt 
 and closet, trunk and drawer there is a key, and it is 
 never turned but under the eye of the mistress — for to 
 a black-face every chamber is a Blue Chamber. All 
 things are secured by lock, and the mistress carries on 
 her arm a basket, with keys enough to set up a smith. 
 The largest would answer for a Bastile, and the smallest 
 for the collar of a dog. This is a glorious system to 
 make a servant dishonest — 
 
 ' He who still expects deceit, 
 Only teaches how to cheat.' 
 
 The food for the servants is measured out by the lady, 
 and the medicines, clothes, and all supplies pass through 
 the same little hands ; and where therc^'are three hun- 
 dred servants, this employment is above idleness. The 
 kitchen is not a place where an intelligent traveller 
 would look for neatness ; but the parlour is the perfec- 
 tion of it ; the very floors are waxed and rubbed, till 
 they reflectthe face of the rubber. 
 10* 
 
pp^i"- 
 
 ^mm 
 
 wmmmmm 
 
 114 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 ( 
 
 ; 
 
 IV 
 
 I / 
 
 So much for the ladies ! what for the lords ? I know 
 not what to say, they net from impulse rather than prin- 
 ciple, but then the impulse is generally good. 
 
 • The coachman was tipsy, tlie chariot drove home.' 
 They are generous to an extreme, and have more plea- 
 sure in doing a generous act, than they always feel in 
 performing common duties. Perhaps they would com- 
 mit a bad act with less reluctance than be told of it ; so 
 that their famed high principle of honor, if analyzed, 
 would leave three-fourths pride. , 
 
 They will peril limb and life in a private quarrel ; but 
 they would not fight for principle longer than people 
 farther north. What a pity it is that you cannot treat 
 a man as a gardener manages his plants. If you could 
 trim a Yankee, that is, cut off his ill qualities, and en- 
 graft upon him the good traits of a Virginian, you would 
 have a man, great and good, 
 
 • I was acquainted with one such, a cheerful old gen- 
 tleman, who lived upon a high and wooded hill, that you 
 might call a mountain. He dwelt in a circular house, 
 that at a distance, resembled a bee-hive. To the south- 
 east he had an illimitable prospect, but higher hills than 
 Monticello intercepted his view to the westward. To 
 Charlottsvillo it was so open that he could see through 
 a telescope his workmen at their tasks in the Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 He had, more than I have seen in other men, the art 
 of drawing out all that was known by those with whom 
 he talked. It did not, indeed, take him long to get 
 through this business with me — but I went away with a 
 better estimation of myself, and, (of couise) a higher 
 reverence for the philosopher of the crimson small- 
 clothes. 
 
 Jefferson is buried on Monticello, and his only monu- 
 ment is the hill itself — ' Si monumerUum quaris circum- 
 
 k 
 
■i 
 
 m 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 115 
 
 apiceJ* His grave is of that plain kind that a republic 
 awards to its benefactors. It is in nothing better than that 
 of the humblest slave, who has escaped the lash of an 
 overseer. It is enclosed with a miserable fence, and a 
 shingle only is placed to mark the head. 
 
 Having said a true word of the clergy, something in 
 the same veracious way is due to the other learned 
 bodies. There are few physicians of the lobelia class, 
 if there are not many like Doctor Rush. 
 
 The Virginia courts have made many good and em- 
 inent lawyers; but there is a large and formidable body 
 that may be otherwise described. The facilities of ad- 
 mission are such that any man may in two months qual- 
 ify himself for the bar, and in half that time for the 
 bench. Of the Common Pleas I speak, where the 
 judges are of the intellectual grade of our justices of 
 the peace — I speak not of the bench or bar about the 
 Blue Ridge, for I never saw them assembled but at 
 Parkersburgh, on the Ohio river ; and this is in the 
 northwestern extremity of the commonwealth — There 
 were five Judges, and, as the season was hot, they 
 peeled to the cotton, for every one of them took off 
 his coat; though in the Jtme session I have seen this 
 done by your brother legislators when they sat down 
 to dinner. 
 
 Now, sir, indulge your surprise at my abruptness and 
 follovk' me to F.'ince. Fancy me leaving Paris in Sep- 
 tember, by the Fauxbourg St Antoine. Like the lady 
 Christabelie, I was accompanied by a little cut-tailed 
 cur, which I mention, that, like editors and kings, I 
 may speak in the plural, for I have become tired to 
 death of the first person singular. The notes that 
 I made in my tours were of an unsatisfactory lean- 
 ness ; I only put down, as a traveller should, com- 
 mon matters, such as expenses, fares, and distan- 
 ces, and at this interval of time, memory will not 
 
 il 
 
 > 
 
mmmm 
 
 116 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 I- 
 
 come to my assistance to pluck up drowned impressions 
 by the locks. But what I have is yours, and were I 
 twice as tedious, I could, like honest Dogberry, find it 
 in my head to bestow it all upon you. 
 
 We travelled (no matter how) on the great road to 
 Lyons. On the left was Alfort, which has a lunatic 
 asylum in good repute, and a veterinary college. 
 Take good advice — if you have six. boys, send one of 
 them to be educated as a veterinary surgeon, and he 
 will return to America with * the potentiality of growing 
 rich beyond the dreams of avarice' No physician of 
 the ' humans' (as they say in Kentuck) will take half 
 as much in fees. Besides, a horse is a noble animal, 
 and deserves a better surgeon than a cow doctor. 
 
 The next place that attracted much of our notice, was 
 the castle of Vincennes, a dark and dismal place, where 
 fell the last descendant of the Great Conde. 
 
 The Duke D'Enghein died as became one so de- 
 scended — and stood by the side of his grave, refusing to 
 kneel," while Savary gave the word to fire. The result 
 seems to have been anticip ed by those who were sent 
 after him, for they permitted him to take but two changes 
 of linen, as if he wo}ild have occasion for no more, 
 though ' you and I have heard our fathers say' this 
 supply was more than always pertained to a brigadier 
 in the war of our revolution. 
 
 M irabeau also died in the castle of Vincennes. Ho 
 had escaped from Pa»is, and wandered about the fields 
 till he was half starved with hunger, and (as the English 
 say) with cold, when he sought the dangerous hospitality 
 of a cabaret, or hedge ale-house. He was seized by 
 half a dozen blackguards, who found in his pocket a 
 small edition of Horace, and they thought, like Jack 
 Cade, that no good man could tamper with Latin, and 
 that Mir&beau must know too much for a plain republi- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 117 
 
 can. He was cast into prison, and tliR officers thereof 
 who had probably been promoted from the shamble ), 
 neglected for several days to supply the prisoner with 
 food, so that when he was to be brought forth for further 
 examination, he had gone to a more tremendous trial. 
 
 Vincennes is strongly garrisoned. It has a school for 
 artillery in which firing is practised once in a week. We 
 broke fast with an officer who shewed us the guns, 
 which, though heavy, are cirried by eight horses a mile 
 in ten minutes. 
 
 Our route now diverged from the river Seine over a 
 rich and highly cultivated country. We passed several 
 villages of little interest before we arrived at Melun, 
 which Caesar describes as having been situated on an 
 island in the Seine ; and here his lieutenant prepared a 
 fleet to act against the enemy. This you must take 
 upon credit, for I will not endorse the assertion. 
 
 We went over the same charming country to Sens, a 
 city surrounded by its ancient walls, which are still 
 nearly entire. The town is^easantly enough placed, 
 or, as Yankee editors say, located, and has an old cathe- 
 dral that you would call magnificent — nevertheless we 
 Timde no delay but travelled along the bank of the Yonne 
 t i Auxerre, of which, as we arrived at night, we saw 
 nothing but lighted windows. In the morning we were 
 at Autun, where among other vestiges of the Romans 
 are ruins of a temple of Janus, who was a Roman poli- 
 tician with a couple of faces; but had he lived in these 
 times, I.think he would have been no prodigy. 
 
 From Autun our route became more mountainous, till 
 we came to the chain of mountains that commences jn 
 Burgundy, and which it took us more than two hours to 
 ascend. They are of whin stone and granite, the first 
 I saw in France, where till then I had only been in dis- 
 tricts of limestone (do nH print that brimstone) and coal. 
 
 Il' 
 

 118 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 
 L I 
 
 Here we found a change also in vegetation, for we saw 
 the plants common to cold and elevated spots, especially 
 a hardy kind of heath. On descending the mountains 
 we came to the celebrated vineyards that produce the 
 Burgundy wines. It will cost you too much money to 
 ma^ie their acquaintance in America, but in Paris it is 
 at good houses a common wine. It is carefully carried 
 on a canal that unites the Saone and the Loire. The 
 valley extends from the mountains to the river, and it is 
 cultivated well. But in general beauty of appearance 
 we cannot compare France with England. In 
 the United Kingdom the hedges make a charming 
 feature in the landscape, and the cottages, villas, villa- 
 ges, and castles, are in a better taste than in France. 
 A Frenchman cannot live alone, and I doubt if you . 
 will find a hermit in all France. Hence you see so 
 many mean villages and so few pretty and comfortable 
 cottages. The chateaux rre nearly all alike. They 
 are the most cold, comfortless, stiff and dismal rubbish, 
 that ever cumbered the ground, and have the most right 
 angled rows of cut box and trimmed yew that ever de- 
 formed the sweet face of creation. 
 
 Then the roads in France are in straight lines like 
 the Providence turnpike, and seem to double the dis- 
 tance to man and dog ; for the point of perspective re- 
 cedes as they advance. Though they are overshadow- 
 ed with trees, I prefer the open winding roads of 
 England. 
 
 When you are in the chair of a committee of roads, 
 ever keep an eye open to the picturesque, and your 
 constituents will have easier ways. The engineers (if 
 such they were) of some of our roads, seem never to 
 have gone over the route, but to have drawn on the map 
 straight lines uniting two points; a wavering horizontal 
 line has no greater distance than an undulatory course 
 
 1 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 119 
 
 that rises hills, yet it gives a coach horse some chance for 
 his Hfe; and it becomes us to have some fellosv feeling 
 for a poor beast. 
 
 The great number of villages in France make the in- 
 termediate country thinly peopled. The people all 
 collect in villages, and a labourer would sooner walk five 
 miles to his daily task than live in no better society than 
 a man furnishes to himself Volney said that the 
 French who were settled 600 leagues from New Or- 
 leans, could not exist without an annual visit to the city, 
 ^ pour causer.^ 
 
 In England, the population is more spread by reason 
 of the small freeholds, as in our own pleasant land. 
 But in France, before the revolution, the landholders 
 w^ere princes and nobles, with extensive domains, and 
 some of them cared less for the comfort of the peasantry 
 than I care for the accommodation of my dog. 
 
 The revolution, if it did not bring better manners, 
 (which Madame de Stael doubted,) created in the di- 
 vision of property a better state of things. The divis- 
 ion, however, is of so late a date, that it has not changed 
 the face of the country, though according to the Edin- 
 burgh Review, there are in France three landholders to 
 one in England. 
 
 The implements of agriculture are truly Arcadian, 
 and carry one back to the infancy of the arts. The 
 plough and carts are but rudely made, and much power 
 is certainly lost in yoking oxen three abreast. It would 
 be better to arrange them ' tandem^ as I have seen in the 
 Vale of Gloucester, or to attach them in pairs, by the 
 tail, as I have not seen in Tipperary. 
 
 Chalons is a pleasant town as large as Salem, situated 
 in a rich and wide valley of the Saone, and it is a con- 
 siderable market for wines and grain. It has also large 
 manufactories of false pearls, equal in splendour and 
 
n' 
 
 120 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 value to the Attleborough jewelry. The pearls are 
 made of the scales of a species of carp — the Vablette 
 of the French. At the table d'hote, for the first time 
 in my life, I had the honor to dine with a negro — a gen- 
 tleman of colour, who was not without dignity of deport- 
 ment. 
 
 From Chalons we took passage in a coche deau for 
 Lyons. Tho boat was along ark drawn by four horses, 
 that are relieved once in ten miles. 
 
 NO. III. 
 
 Dear sir — As fellow travellers should be free, I take 
 the liberty to address you with the customary adjective 
 of favor, before telling you that in going down the Saone 
 from Chalons to Ma^on, we found it but a muddy river. 
 
 Ma^on is on the right bank, and has the most superb 
 quay, I have seen in France ; and town and country 
 from the bank are very beautiful. As wc descended, 
 the attractions of the scenery increased, and the river 
 reflected better chateaux than were the subjects of our 
 censure in a late letter. The land seemed abundantly 
 ffertile, and the hills cultivated even to their tops; though 
 too distant for us to discover the nature of the crops. 
 The boat was now stopped, that two pretty demoi- 
 selles might step on board. They were attractive en- 
 voys from two hotels, despatched to invite and persuade 
 the passengers to their respective houses. The pretti- 
 est ambassador carried us away. This reminds me that 
 I was once beset on Chesnut street wharf in Philadelphia, 
 by the agents of two steam boats. I stood like Garrick, 
 between tragedy and comedy; or, like a man in tempta- 
 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 121 
 
 tion equally balanced between duty and will ; or, (in fine) 
 I was like the metaphysician's ass between two bundles 
 of hay, for I knew not which to choose. I went, how- 
 ever, in the Union line, though a button out of pocket to 
 its antagonist, whose agent had a pluck at the upper 
 benjamin. 
 
 These ambassadors extraordinary, that were sent out 
 to draw in the passengers, were not more attractive than 
 most of the young women of this district. Generally speak- 
 ing, all are pretty, and the exceptions are rare. They wear 
 a little straw hat, but the effect of it is not graceful. It 
 was at Belville that we dined. 
 
 At Lyons our baggage was tumbled according to 
 usage ; the baggage and the passport are great annoy- 
 ances to travellers; the passport you must have, but 
 generally, too much baggage is carried. I had grown 
 wise from suffering, and took on this route, only the 
 contents of a bag, that I could carry under the arm ; 
 saving thereby the delays at the custom house, the 
 struggle and uproar of porters, a great many pennies 
 from carriers, and consequently much equanimity to my- 
 self \, . , 
 
 You must travel far to find a city so pleasantly plac- 
 ed as Lyons; it is, like Philadelphia, just above the 
 junction of two rivers; but surrounded by blue waters, 
 green fields, dark hills, and hanging crags; though all 
 these give a double gloom to narrow and dim alleys, with 
 old and prison-like houses. The Rhone is as large as 
 the Ohio, at Marietta, but it has loftier hills. There 
 are more than one hundred thousand people, of which 
 half seem to be smokers. 
 
 The quay is the best that I have seen, not excepting 
 that at Dublin. It has a noble row of houses and Hues of 
 trees. The best bridge over the Saone, like all the best 
 modern monuments in France, was made by Napoleon. 
 11 
 
 t 
 
122 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 i 
 
 • 
 
 P 
 
 There are more than fifty churches, and on the summit of 
 a hill, overlooking river, town, and valley, is a cemetery 
 like that of Pere La Chaise. The French do not use 
 their departed friends so ill, as to hide their remains in an 
 obscure corner, or ' neglected spot ' so seldom seen, that 
 when visited it creates antipathy. But they keep alive 
 the memory of the departed, by a thousand affecting ob- 
 servances- -the graves are planted with flowers and 
 shaded with trees. The epitaphs are in better taste 
 than those collected by Aldcn, and the monuments 
 are not surmounted by the hideous death's heads 
 and crossed bones that you \Vill find at home with- 
 out going far; nor is good marble defaced by images 
 purporting to represent cherubs in the likeness of owls, 
 all head and wings. It is almost impiety to make such 
 images, and if they are intended, to be descriptive of any 
 thing hereafter, they may in young minds, create a 
 distaste for invisible things. The situation of the bless- 
 ed has been described (and in France) in such bad 
 taste as to disgust the dying listener. 
 
 Our burying grounds, especially in cities, are good 
 subjects for reformation, and it is my preference to 
 be laid alone under a tree in the country. The 
 ground upon the Neck is the commencement of better 
 taste, and I hope that you may live to see public prom- 
 enades, planted with trees, in all the church yards in 
 Boston. 
 
 The silk in Lyons is made in small quantities, in 
 families, like the linen in Ireland, and straw hats in Leg- 
 horn, so that the merchant who buys and exports it, 
 makes more profit than the manufacturer, whom he con- 
 trives to keep poor. 
 
 Now, Sir, let your imagination supply a gap in my 
 notes, and fancy us at Geneva, a town nearly twice as 
 large as Providence, built on a gentle eminence at the 
 narrowest part of the lake, whence the Rhone rushes in 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 123 
 
 p^m 
 
 two streams, soon to be united in one grand river. This 
 is the largest town in Switzerland, but the architecture 
 deserves only mode. ate praise. Many houses have ar- 
 cades, which are more convenient than becoming. 
 
 The manufactures are of watches, and all kinds of 
 ornaments of gold, and I have a watch of that material, 
 which would almost discover the longitude, that (as king 
 Harry said of his queen) I have Avorn like a jewel hung 
 about my neck for thirteen years, though I gave for it 
 in Gen' va, but thirty dollars. A little very fine gold is 
 found in the sands of the Rhone. 
 
 The population of Geneva is mixed — and in summer 
 there are many English. The language is French, 
 though generally German is understood, and many peo- 
 ple know something of English. 
 
 The ladies are very attractive, and they are fond 
 of parties; that is, of assemblies; in which, it is said, 
 as many ladies are invited as there may be chairs at 
 hand, and as many gentlemen as can be found. 
 
 We went to Ferney, a neat village of eighty houses, 
 though before Voltaire came, it had but two or three huts. 
 The chamber of the philosopher of the human race re- 
 mains as when he left it on his last visit to Paris, except 
 that his admirers have cut away the curtains for relics ; and 
 the same you know happened in America to Lafayette's 
 wig. The chamber lias engravings of Washington, Frank- 
 lin, Frederick, Newton, and others. There is a little urn 
 that contains, or was meant to contain, the ashes of that 
 restless heart, inscribed nion caur est ici, maia mon cspri^ 
 est partout. The attendant produced his old night cap, 
 and put it on my head; and while I wore it, I felt that I 
 could think in paradoxes, speak in sarcasms, and write in 
 epigrams. 
 
 On the return we ascended a little hill, and for the 
 first memorable time beheld Mont Blanc, with its summit 
 so clear in the setting] sun, that it seemed we might 
 
 1 ■(? 
 
 . "Tji 
 
■i^ifl^ 
 
 124 
 
 LETTERS PROM A. 
 
 t 
 
 see, at this distance, a man upon it. It was a splen- 
 did scene, surpassing all description but the painter's. 
 But some of this scenery is represented, by Fisher, 
 with the fidelity of a mirror ; and you can admire 
 the beauty of the picture, but it is only for those 
 who have been in Switzerland to estimate its truth and 
 fidelity. 
 
 .Before us was the whole canton of Vaud, sloping 
 from the Jura Mountains, enlivened by villages and 
 towns, Geneva at the foot of a mountain; and, beyond 
 all, the monarch of mountains himself, surrounded by his 
 majestic court. 
 
 It is speaking safely, to call the Lake of Geneva the 
 most beautiful in southern Europe. It is fed by the 
 Rhone and four hundred smaller streams. The waters 
 of the Rhone are muddy, but become clear as air before 
 they have run far into the lake. The waters are fifteen 
 hundred feet above those of the Mediterranean — what 
 a cataract they would make ! There are a great vari- 
 ety of fish, including the delicate species of trout pecu- 
 liar to such elevated waters; but I found no evidence of 
 the trout with one eye, said by Giraldus to live in Wales. 
 The Lake of Geneva is smaller than many of the 
 American lakes, but for that reason it is more beautiful. 
 It unites all the features of good scenery, lake, river, 
 mountain, tower, and town. 
 
 But you will know nothing of mountains, till you go 
 beyond the limits of the States. You have, I think, 
 seen the White Hills. Mount Washington would hang 
 upon the side of Mont Blanc like that small wart on the 
 left of my own huge nose. Then among these high 
 mountains, you have a strange union of the seasons, 
 * Winter in the lap of May,' and 
 
 « On old Hyems chin and icy crown 
 
 An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds ^ 
 
 Is, as in mockery set.* 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 125 
 
 We next went to Chamouni, of which you can knovf 
 nothing from my description. This wonderful valley, 
 like my own wit, was for a long time undiscovered; and 
 in either case, when the discovery was made, every one 
 praised it. it is said that Cuamouni was not known to 
 the Swiss themselves, till it was explored and described 
 seventyfour years ago, by Mr Windhara and the trav- 
 eller Pocoke. 
 
 So small is the Genevese territory, that in two miles 
 we entered Savoy. We passed along a fertile valley, 
 through which runs the river Arve, and the vale be- 
 comes narrow at Bonville and Cluse, villages of little 
 note. Next, we entered a rude cleft in the mountain 
 just wide enough for a road on the bank of the river. 
 Then we remarked a very charming water-fall, called 
 as I think, Nant d'Arpenas, only eight hundred feet 
 high. At Saint Martins we rested for the night, and dis- 
 charged in the morning the voiture to take a char-d- 
 bane, a queer machine upon low wheels; the driver sits 
 with his side toward the horse, as in the jaunting car of 
 Dublin, where ten Irishmen are drawn by one horse, to 
 visit the Dargle on Sundays. 
 
 Herefrom, the Arve is a torrent, at some seasons 
 sweeping over the valley. Looking up among the 
 mountains, you may see human habitations, in spots that 
 seem inaccessible but to the eagle, for these moun- 
 taineers build on every level spot that would offer 'coign of 
 vantage ' to a swallow. At this season they were gather- 
 ing, as fodder, the leaves of the ash and the elm. Yet 
 these Swiss are so contented in poverty, that it is sel- 
 dom they leave their own beautiful country; but all 
 highlanders are strongly attached to their barren hills. 
 
 < And as a babe whom scaring sounds molest, 
 Clings close and closer to its mother's breast. 
 So the loud whirlwind and the tempest's roar. 
 But bind them to their native mountains more.' 
 11* 
 
mmm 
 
 126 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 We crossed the Arve on a bod of pebbles a mile over, 
 in a place that seems to have been once a lake. Near to 
 this is a monument erected to perpetuate the fame of a 
 Russian, who ventured too near an avalanche, and was 
 crushed. 
 
 Next, came the narrow dell that was to lead us to 
 Chamouni. It was but a small fissure in a mighty moun- 
 tain wrought by that geological demon, a great convul- 
 sion of nature. Halfway up the sides are a few slen- 
 der pines, a covert for the chamois and vulture. On 
 mounting to a great height (for the pass is too narrow 
 for a road on the bank) we beheld the famed and inde- 
 scribable Chamouni. In length it is fifteen miles, and 
 its breadth, is about three. There is no green so rich 
 as that of the valley, and it is well contrasted with the 
 almost black colour of the fir and pine on the moimtains. 
 
 The valley is the abode of plenty, as well as of peace. 
 Some of the many villages are at the very foot of the 
 glaciers, that like enormous icicles hang down to the 
 valley. Chamouni is four thousand feet above the sea. 
 In such altitudes the summers are not long, and the 
 nights are always cold, yet here wheat is seldom hurt. 
 
 You must come here to find good milk; it js better 
 than strawberries and cream. A very white and deli- 
 cate honey, also, much esteemed in Paris, is produced 
 in this valley. But of late, the bees do not much toil for 
 ungrateful masters, for the gains of the inhabitants are 
 derived from trnvfllers. \ , 
 
 There are th'-oe large hotels, one as large as the 3Ial- 
 brook, called the London Hotel, so that, of course, 
 Mr Bull is quite oi home, in the rich pasturage at Cha- 
 mouni. 
 
 There are five glaciers descending into the valley, 
 A glacier is a huge body of ice, a frozen cataract; and one 
 is twelve miles in length. Fears have been felt that tTiey 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 127 
 
 illey. 
 
 will in time so increase as to till the valley, inasmuch as 
 more sleet and snow fall iiniiuully, (for this is no place 
 for rain) than is incited in a year; but some philosophers 
 differ from Saussurc, and believe that the snow jxlono, 
 falling in avalanches from the congealed to the melting 
 regions, is enough to save the valley. Your chamois 
 hunter will say too, that, taking one year with another, 
 the ice remains in about the same quantity, and, that 
 while two glaciers are growing, the others are shrinking. 
 At the Priory, (which is the i)rincipal village,) we pro- 
 cured guides to ascend Montanvert, and visit the icy 
 sea. The ascent on a mule took me a couple of hours, 
 and my companion [)referred to walk. The winding road 
 was through noble forests of fir trees, such as you have 
 seen in Franconia; and shattered trunks, and displaced 
 masses of granite, shewed the vestige of many an ava- 
 lanche. 
 
 Emerging from the forest, I was obliged to walk. 
 Having ascended another mile, we met two English la- 
 dies, carried between two poles, as father and I have 
 carried hay in New England. Sometimes we would stop 
 to rest ourselves, and look down upon that happy valley. 
 Having reached the summit, we came to a hut, that is 
 called a temple, and dedicated after the manner of the 
 French of the Republic, a la jyature. Here a book is kept, 
 in which travellers write their names, and as much of them- 
 selves as they are willing should be known . On this 
 occasion 1 spoke respectfully of my companion, and gave 
 a good character of myself. This is but seven thousand 
 feet above the Mediterranean, and is as high Jis I have 
 ever ascended. But here the scene is circumscribed by 
 mountains still higher; not even Chamouni is visible, 
 and our sole reward for all this ' toil and trouble ' wai a 
 view of the Mer de Glace, or sea of ice. It is as if a 
 torrent, fifteen miles long, and one third as broad, weio 
 
128 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 frozen in a state of impetuous motion; or youraay fancy 
 the waves of the sea frozen, when running high, and you 
 will have something like the Mer de Glace. It comes 
 from Mont Blanc, and is but an icicle on the hoary chin 
 of that venerable monarch. 
 
 The waves are of a light pea green. There are cracks 
 in the ice three thousand feet in depth, and few men that 
 fall in, return to describe the bottom; for these 
 
 ' Are matters deep and dangerous.' 
 Around the Mer de Glace are several perpendicular 
 rocks, culled needles, which have a resemblance to the 
 forms of Gothic architecture, as the pinnacles of the 
 Duomo, at Milan. > •' . -* 
 
 We went down the mountain near the outlet of the 
 icy sea, which forms the Glacier des Bois, down which 
 the avalanches were falling with tremendous uproar. 
 Having descended half way, we were surrouvided by 
 children bearing fruits and other refreshments. At. the 
 bottom ofthis glacier there is an arch one hundred feet 
 high, that reminded me of Fingal's cave in Staffa; and 
 from this rushes the river Arveiron, like a prisoner es- 
 caped. , V 
 
 The scenery in these parts is admirably well describ- 
 ed in the novel called Continental Adventures. I know 
 not the author, but to one who has been in Switzerland, 
 it is a most attractive book. Manfred, also, will be read 
 by such with u double interest. It is a magnificent 
 drama, the splendid scenery is before you, and the ima- 
 gination of the poet has created tht -est. 
 
 The summit of Mont Blanc is fifteen thousand feet 
 the sea. The first persons who reached it 
 
 aoove 
 
 were, as I think, several guides, in 1786, one of 
 whom strayed from the rest, and piosed the night at an 
 elevation of twelve thousand fee'.. Thus he acquired a 
 fever, of which he was cured by a physician, Dr Pac- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 129 
 
 card, whom, from gratitude, he conducl?-! to the sum- 
 mit. Saussure forthwith came from Gcnevii, to ascend 
 the mountain, but was prevented by a fail of snow and 
 hail. On the next year, with an army of eighteen guides, 
 he reached the summit, described his journey in a very 
 interesting manner, and connected his name like Han- 
 nibal's, Napoleon's, Byron's, yours, and mine, with the 
 everlasting Alps. 
 
 We returned to our inn with so many newly acquired 
 impressions and images, that the day seemed to have 
 been as long as a week; yet it was one of those fine days 
 in autumn, so rare here, and so common in a certain 
 country, where they have huskings and Indian summers. 
 At the hotel we dined, with a mountain traveller's ap- 
 petite, on a shoulder of chamois. This is a timid ani- 
 mal, of the size of a large Iamb, inhabiting the most rug- 
 ged and least accessible parts of the Alps. Linne has 
 unjustly ranked it with goats; though like them it leaps 
 from rocl^to rock with wonderftil confidence and agility* 
 It will stand upon a very pinnacle, as I have seen a goat 
 taught to do in Calcutta, where the bearded gentleman 
 is placed upon a single small round of wood, and others 
 are gradually inserted under him, till he is as high, and 
 as unsafe, as a rogue in office on a change of adminisr> 
 tration. v : , 
 
 il' 
 
 '*■/!, 
 
 NO. IV. 
 
 -*«<-■ 
 
 There is another animal, called the ibex, ri».ked 
 also among goats, and considered the original of the 
 whole tribe. He frequents the most rugged part of the 
 mountains, and his mutton is not to be had without toi'. 
 
 •■.■^>i.,« 
 
 

 130 
 
 LETTERS FAOM A 
 
 I '■■ 
 
 if 
 
 I } 
 
 I 
 
 Xr 
 
 v« 
 
 and danger; for to the most wary there is danger in the 
 
 upper regions of the Alps. The expert hunters are from 
 
 the upper Valais. Read their character as described 
 
 by Manfred. I should like to have some such lapidary 
 
 lines upon my own grave — 
 
 Thy humble virtues, hospitable home. 
 And spirit patient, pious, proud and free, 
 Thy self respect grafted on innocent thoughts. 
 Thy days of health and nights of sleep, thy toils 
 By danger dignified, yet guiltless — hopes 
 Of cheerful old age, and a quiet grave 
 -.^, ' With cross and garland over its green turf, , ' 
 
 And thy grand-childrens' love for epitaph. 
 
 In this route we remarked a good many ?»oi'' oi^s 
 necks — some httnging hideously down, like the '■■:.^ 
 pelican, and others just beginning to swell, like an. al- 
 derman's doubiP chin — I never beheld one without rais- 
 ing a hand to my own neck, to see if all waa right — and 
 a pretty woman in these regions, runs to a glass in the 
 morning, (though our ladies do this) to see if that foe 
 to beauty has not assailed her during the night. In 
 some parts, (though we found none such) it is said that 
 goitres are so common that it is an unfortunate singu- 
 larity to be without one, and a young woman who is so 
 unlucky, of course, can havf^^but few admirers. I myself 
 remember a town in New England, where every man has 
 a humpcd-back, and I lived so long among these drom- 
 edaries^ that I was ashamed of my own shapes 
 
 We returned from this excursion Geneva, laden 
 with specimens of minerals and plants, and we had frag- 
 ments of rock enough to macadamize Flag AUe} h\ 
 a day or two, we left Geneva and passed round tne 
 northern side of the lake, which is studded with a great 
 many picturesque villages cii the bays and inlets. 
 
 Nion i$ one of the principal towns of this canton, sit- 
 uated at the foot of a hill, with a fine view of the 
 
ons 
 
 aden 
 
 fras;- 
 
 Ir, 
 
 id tne 
 
 great 
 
 n, sit 
 )f the 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 131 
 
 lake, Geneva at one end, Vevay at the other, and the 
 magnificent Alps in front. When you come to this 
 country, you can only look on and wonder — there is 
 nothing like it on earth — and in America you have nev- 
 er seen anything that even remotely resembles the cul- 
 tivated hills and valleys of the canton de Vaud. But 
 you can find it painted in the Nouvelle Heloise. 
 
 From this we passed through several villages to Lau- 
 sanne, a very old town, and like Boston, built upon 
 three hills. The climate is mild and healthy, but the 
 town has not many attractions, except the urbanity and 
 hospitality of the citizens. A stranger needs no other 
 letter of recommendation than a good countenance, and 
 n tolerable ooat. Let me say I was Well received. I 
 boarded in a private family, for a small sum, and was 
 forthwith made known to all whom I wished to knc .v. 
 Many English reside here to learn French and economy. 
 
 The prospect from the terrace of the cathedral is one 
 of the most charming in Switzerland The country is 
 rich in vines, and the grapes were better than I had ev- 
 er seen before. The vineyards are at the foot of the 
 mountains near the lake. The mountains rise like the 
 walls of an amphitheatre, and spread above the vine- 
 yards a dark circle of pines — on the other side, are the 
 rocks ofMellierie, and in the distance, the shining gla- 
 ciers of the Haut Valais. There is a peculiar adapta- 
 tion to the country around Clarens; of the persons and 
 events, that Rousseau has connected with it. Clarens is 
 a league beyond Vevay, but I saw no house good 
 enough for the husband of Julia, nor any pleasure ground 
 worthy of much praise. Here the lake is narrow, and 
 the character of its scenery, and of the mountains, was 
 that of the Highlands of Scotland, but it is not easy to 
 rove about here without having the mind filled with the 
 creations of Rousseau, wretch as he was, by his own 
 confessions. 
 
 > 
 
 .iM^»,.* 
 
132 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 ( i 
 
 ! 
 
 From MoudoD in the Pays de Vaud we pursued our 
 route over fine pastures filled with herds of cattle, and 
 through forests, richer in autumnal hues than I had seen 
 except in America. We passed some villages that had 
 Roman remains, as walls, and a column that seemed to 
 have formed part of the portico of a temple. This I 
 think was Avanche, called by the Romans Aventicum. 
 From this we went to Murten, pleasantly situated on a 
 lake of the same name, and ascended a hill from which 
 we saw the lake Neufchatel, and from this we went to 
 Berne, where we arrived late at night. Berne is sit- 
 ed on an eminence, remarkably well built, paved, 
 ti.-d surrounded by water. There ■'re about ten thou- 
 sand people, and the climate is so healthy that one in 
 four attains to the age of seventy. The things at Berne 
 most worthy of notice, are the cathedral, the luseum, 
 and the walk on the ramparts which are sixty feet high. 
 A student once was carried over the ramparts by a frac- 
 tious horse; the horse was killed but the rider escaped 
 with a broken leg. There is a monument to mark the 
 spot of this adventure. Berne is the best cultivated of 
 all the cantons; from this walk there is one of the best 
 views in Switzerland. The lofty mountain Grindelwald 
 is distinctly seen, and in this canton are some of the 
 highest of the mountains. 
 
 At Berne there is an annual meeting of the sharp 
 shooters, and of the wrestlers. You and I can remem- 
 ber when a tight lad in New England was not afraid of 
 a fall upon the turf, on town meeting days — but there is 
 scarce a relic of these good old times, unless in a few 
 towns towards the Cape, where two parishes sometimes 
 send their champions to wrestle. Here they sputter 
 in an execrable lingo, though they write good German. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 133 
 
 led our 
 le, and 
 id seen 
 lat had 
 jmed to 
 This I 
 nticum. 
 ed on a 
 1 which 
 went to 
 is sit- 
 paved, 
 in thou- 
 t one in 
 t Berne 
 luseum, 
 et high. 
 ^ a frac- 
 escaped 
 tiark the 
 vated of 
 le best 
 delwald 
 e of the 
 
 le sharp 
 remem- 
 afraid of 
 there is 
 in a few 
 metimes 
 r sputter 
 jerraan. 
 
 Two leagues from Berne is the celebrated institution 
 visited by all travellers, where young men are instructed 
 in the principles of agriculture. 
 
 From Berne, w« journied delightfully, roving about 
 somewhat at random, admiring the picturesque scenery 
 and costume, for some of the dresses of the peasants are 
 so arranged as to resemble the wings of a butterfly. 
 
 Lucerne is at the head of its lake, where the river 
 issues from it. It is on the great route from Germany 
 to Milan, by St Goihard. The walls are pretty, and 
 they are carving a large lion in the rock to commemo- 
 rate the Swiss guard, who were so faithful to Louis XVI, 
 and who were massacred for their fidelity. We went 
 up a terrace planted with trees, to get a view of the lake, 
 and its shores. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by 
 magnificent mountains. 
 
 There is an eminence near, from which, it is said, 
 there is a most striking scene; but my muscles were 
 too rigid from the ascent of the Montanvert, to climb 
 other mountains. I went to the lake of Zoug, and al- 
 so to the chapel of Tell, the hero whom you have seen 
 fretting ' his little hour upon the stage;' the people here 
 speak of him revererently, and it is not safe to express 
 doubts of the story of the apple. I crossed the lake sit- 
 ting bolt upright in the middle of a hollowed log, rowed 
 by my guide, and his sister, who broke the stillness of n 
 beautiful evening and the charm of the splendid shores, 
 by their" intolerable jargon; and as they knew no French, 
 I could not well inquire the way to an inn but by signs. 
 Zoug is the capital of the smallest and most republican 
 of the cantons. There is no nobility; all vote at nine- 
 teen, and when married, have a portion of land near the 
 town. This, as well as Lucerne, is a Catholic canton. 
 In the Catholic cantonsj^you will find the most churches, 
 
 12 
 
ii, 
 
 134 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 
 in the Protestant the better crops; from which I suppose 
 that the Catholics have too many holidays. 
 
 We reached the lake of Zurich late at night. The 
 borders have a great many neat villages and churches 
 but the lake, taking it as Hamlet considered his father, 
 ^ for all in all, ' is less picturesque than that of Lucerne. 
 It is thirty miles long and three broad; elevated twelve 
 hundred feet above the sea. It has excellent fish. In 
 summer, from the melting of the snows, the waters some- 
 times overflow the banks. We followed the shore to 
 Zurich, and could see at a glance that this was one 
 of the richest and most populous of the cantons. The 
 language is German, the religi on Protestant. The town 
 is at the lower end of the lake on both sides of the riv- 
 er. It is ancient, and in he museum are remains that 
 are referred to the time of Vespasian. It was much ex- 
 posed in the wars of the French revolution, and was 
 occupied by French, Austrians, and Russians, but I 
 think little damage was done, except in the death of 
 Lavater, who was killed by a French soldier while of- 
 fering money for the ransom of a friend. 
 
 There is a good library, and the herbarium of Ges- 
 ner and his monument. 
 
 My journals are nothing in this part of the route. 
 They only enable me to state that from Zurich we went 
 to Constance, through the centre of the canton, and 
 through Winterthur, where we passed a night and day. 
 The lake of Constance is one of the most celebrated in 
 Switzerland. It is certainly the largest, and may truly 
 be called a grand expanse of water. But the borders, 
 though cultivated, are too flat for the picturesque. 
 
 At Constance there are not many sights. There is 
 the town house where the Councils were held. The 
 old house where John Huss was taken, is designated by 
 a grotesque human head carved over the door. Con- 
 
 4- ■ ■ i - 
 
«■ 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 135 
 
 stance like all towns, men, and things, has had its good 
 and ill fortune. It is now somewhat decayed, having 
 neither manufactures nor commerce. It pertains to the 
 Duke of Baden. 
 
 From it we pursued the lesser lake of Constance, or 
 Zeller See, to the banks of the Rhine, which we follow- 
 ed to SchafThausen. These banks are beautiful in the 
 extreme, fertile, bordered by mountains with here and 
 there the ruin of a Gothic or feudal castle. But with 
 the exception of the castles you may see as good river 
 scenery in the United States. 
 
 SchafThausen is the capital of the canton of that name. 
 It is a meaa looking town with a population of about 
 seven thousand, who are supported by the manufacture 
 of silk) and by travellers who come to see the falls of the 
 Rhine. The river even just below the town is a little 
 drawn into eddies by the cataract, which is perhaps the 
 finest in Europe. It is variously described. In gene- 
 ral the fall seems to be about fifty feet, though afler the 
 melting of the snows it is thought to be eighty. On the 
 lefl bank is an old castle, from whence there is a plat- 
 form built in the very spray of the falls, and from it is 
 a descent by a flight of steps. The colour of the water 
 is a sea green, and this seems to be communicated to 
 the foam. The fall is divided by a rock into two sheets. 
 
 We crossed over and returned to Schaflliausen on the 
 other bank, through vineyards where we had grapes for 
 nothing; when we Irfl the Rhine on the left to go to 
 Basle. We went, however, in the valley of the river, 
 and at length rejoined it, before we came to SaufTem- 
 berg, where we rested, and the next morning entered 
 Basle the largest town in Switzerland, capable of hold- 
 ing one hundred thousand people, though its population 
 is but twelve thousand. It is built on both sides of the 
 river, partly in Baden, but principally it belongs to the 
 
li . ( 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 r ( \ 
 
 'J 
 
 Swiss. The Cathedral is the principal building, and con- 
 tains the remains of Erasmus, whose festina lente has 
 made so many idle school boys. 
 
 From Basle yor may imagine me at Coir or Chur, 
 the capital of the Grisons. 
 
 It is in a rich plain about two miles wide. The moun- 
 tains that surround Coir, are not so high as some of the 
 other Alps, and they have not perpetual snow, but they 
 are lofly and grand. The town is on a rock, and the 
 fortifications were made before the invention of gun- 
 powder. The inhabitants are republican in habits and 
 feeling, and only one or two officers have salaries. I saw 
 some of the military that had served in America, France, 
 and England. There is little commerce; some wine 
 and silks come from Italy, grain from Tyrol and Sua- 
 bia, and cloth from England, France, and Germany. 
 
 The language is generally German, though in some 
 villages they speak the language founded on the Latin, 
 that was spread in the twelfth century over the south of 
 Europe, and sung by minstrels and troubadours. 
 
 The Grisons are not included in the Swiss cantons, 
 but there is a league of interest and amity betweeh them? 
 and, as may be said of you and me, one would not, with- 
 out at least a remonstrance, see the other pounded. 
 We were sorry to leave Coir. The people are a sim- 
 ple and kind race; their country is richly diversified, 
 with corn fields, vineyards, forests and pastures. Their 
 wine is excellent and abundant; and if a traveller comes 
 to see grand and romantic scenery, he may be sat- 
 isfied in the Grisons. 
 
 But as all friends must part, we went along the 
 beautiful Rhine towards the lake of Constance, turning 
 a little out of the route to visit Feldkirch, an Austrian 
 town of eight thousand people. They also are kind and 
 simple. The women wear a queer fur cap, and red 
 
 te 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 137 
 
 Stockings, which are exhibited above the clocks. From 
 this, our route was in a wide plain on the bank of the 
 Rhine, where the scenery was but tame; it was like 
 claret after sparkling champaign. 
 
 We arrived without strange adventure, for the second 
 time, at the lake of Constance ; and embarked the next 
 day for Lindau, in Bavaria. It is a city of some mag- 
 nitude, on an island in the lake, and joined to the shore 
 by a bridge. It is strongly fortified. From Lindau, we 
 took coach over a charming country, in appearance 
 somewhat English, to Ulm, on the Danube. 
 
 I begin to grow impatient of these cramped Swiss 
 journals, as well as you — and am about to taper off, as 
 old G. said when he drank but a pint of whiskey at a 
 time. Give your fancy the rein and spur and imagine 
 me at Como, situated at the foot of a considerable 
 mountain, (on which is the ruins of a castle) and sur- 
 rounded by lesser hills. It is on the Lake of Como, 
 for in most parts wherein we journied lake and town 
 are associated like man and wife ; though lake and 
 lady are sometimes ruffled. The dialect is barbarous, 
 even to cruelty. The environs very interesting, — and 
 were much praised by Pliny the younger, who was a 
 native of Como. Many Milanese have country houses 
 on the borders of the Lake, where I saw also the house 
 of the persecuted Queen of England. 
 
 We embarked in a courier's boat for an excursion up 
 the lake and mountains, and the shores became more cul- 
 tivated, and had more villas and mansions. After some 
 hours we came where the waters of the lake were agitat- 
 ed without any very obvious cause, though it is thought 
 to be by the current of the river Adda. We went in 
 this course a day and night, stopping occasionally to 
 get provision from the shore. Near the head the shores 
 are low and sedgy, and the inhabitants as sallow as the 
 
 12* 
 
 
138 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 S ! 
 
 people about the Pontine marshes. The villages at 
 night are deserted — and no person who cares much 
 about waking again, would sleep in the low lando. Yet 
 there are inns, where the people come to feed travellers 
 by day, and retire at night to higher and safer places in 
 the mountains. 
 
 From the top of the lake we chartered a cart with 
 two horses for the village of Chiavenna in the Grisons, 
 where there is little remarkable but a rock of asbestos 
 with fibres long enough for a small web. 
 
 From this we crossed the Alps, which is more diffi- 
 cult to do here than at Mont Cenis. The mighty and 
 liberal Emperor of Austria was here making a new road 
 to rival that of the Simplon. The road of the Simplon 
 will in a few years be utterly impassable — a small annual 
 sum would keep it in repair, but the policy seems to 
 be, to let it go to ruin, that there may be few roads to 
 Italy except those held by its master. 
 
 We stopped to breakfast after travelling fifteen miles. 
 It was in a small valley 4000 feet above the sea, where 
 there was better grazing than we had lately seen. It 
 was now very cold, about the base of Mount Spleugen, 
 whose top was covered with snow. It snowed oome- 
 what during the day, which was early in September. 
 Seven or eight hours of patient labor brought us to 
 Spleugen, a garrison upon the mountain. Herefrom we 
 began to descend and went down at a swift trot, render- 
 ed safe by a railing at the side of an excellent road which 
 however, was not quite finished ; some thousand work- 
 men were then employed upon it. We dined at a small 
 village in the Alps where the Saint Gothard road inter- 
 sects the Spleugen. Several hundred mules and horses 
 pass the village daily ; or to come round numbers, 300 
 in a day. 
 
 ^^' 
 
 ..^■. ,^: -^^. /iftt,-.-. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 139 
 
 The road from hence is impassable for carriages, be- 
 ing only a foot path dug in the side of the mountains, or 
 made by the hoofs of the pack horses ; with many pass- 
 es so wild that we dismounted to walk through them. 
 The route was along a torrent ; one of the principal 
 branches of the Rhine. The Rhone and Danube also 
 rise in this Canton. 
 
 Towards evening we came to a village where they 
 speak the Roman language, and from this we entered 
 a wild pass, which we could not go through, without 
 a man at each horse's head to prevent the animal from 
 stumbling or taking fright. But I have nearly done with 
 mountains. Had I "tver dreamed that my notes would 
 have given you pleasure, they should have been more 
 worthy — they were but loosely made, to serve only as 
 remembrances to myself My succeeding letters will be 
 more from plains and cities. 
 
 NO. V. 
 
 Sir — At the close of my last letter I had gone from 
 Como, over the Alps ; and I returned, I have forgotten 
 how. You may have been surprised in former letters 
 that I wrote so little of men and so much of things. 
 But consider, inquisitive sir, that while the men of all 
 countries are much alike, the Alps are sui generis. 
 
 In justification of my strange silenc concerning 
 men, be pleased to remember, that my observations on 
 men and manners were seldom put down in writing; and 
 now, when I would recall them from the mass of strange 
 things in my memory, they serve me aller the manner 
 of Glendower's spirits, and will not come, for the jour- 
 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 •4* 
 
 t. 
 
 
I i 
 
 140 
 
 LETTBRS FROM ▲ 
 
 nal you well know has little but landscape painting and 
 a melancholy daub it is. As my notes were penned in dif- 
 ferent tours, it is not easy for me always to connect them 
 in what Tony Lumpkin calls a * concatenation accord- 
 ingly.' Be pleased to supply a few links in the chain, 
 and to imagine me again leaving Lyons, at five o'clock 
 in the afternoon, and afler crossing the Rhone entering 
 that plain I have mentioned before. The first town that 
 I remember to have entered was Bourgoin, almost en- 
 closed by a circle of snow-clad Alps. 
 
 We travelled in darkness to Pontebeau-voisin, where 
 we remained three hours under the inspection of the 
 ofRcers of the customs. We then gradually left the 
 plains of Dauphine for the mountains of Savoy, which, 
 having ascended for some distance, we came to a grand 
 work of Napoleon and of Emmanuel I. of Sardinia. It 
 is a passage through a rock 1000 feet long. The moun- 
 tain under which it passes seems designed b' nature to 
 separate kingdoms, but by means of this <ge the 
 
 road runs near to the base. 
 
 Emerging from this we came to a wild glen with the 
 road winding along by a dashing torrent. Here is the 
 waterfall that had high praise from Rousseau. The 
 gradual extension of the glen, and the shady trees set on 
 the banks of the torrent mark the approachto Chamberry. 
 This city is in the midst of the Alps, in a small and fertile 
 valley. It has about twelve thousand inhabitants, and 
 is a pleasant city to behold. Here Rousseau passed, as 
 he says, lea plus belles ajinees de sa vie, and a low life 
 it was. 
 
 On leaving the city, we passed the fine caserne for 
 three thousand men, built by iVapoleon, and then the 
 house of Deboigne, who commanded the troops of Tip- 
 poo Saib. We then came to a valley hardly a mile in 
 width, but covered with vines, for in this neighborhood, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 {m 
 
 
 «. 
 
 V 
 
 1 
 
 ■r 
 
 4 
 
 ' 
 
 1 -"^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 'ii K 
 
 
 • 
 
 ■•■,?^. 
 
 ti-U 
 
 
 
 
BOSTON MKRCHANT. 
 
 141 
 
 viz. at Montmelian, are made the best wines of Savoy. 
 In the same valley, ailcr having crossed the Isero, we 
 continued to travel until it seemed that we had reached 
 the end, at the foot of a conical, well wooded hill, where 
 we found tho village of Aiguebelle. 
 
 From this we plunged still deeper in the Alps, with a 
 mountain on each side seven thousand feet high, some- 
 times naked and rough, and at others partially cultivat- 
 ed. The valley became narrower, and we crossed many 
 times the little stream. 
 
 The villages that we saw, were mean, and their inhab- 
 itants filthy, small, and poor; one third of them had 
 goitres. From St Michel, where we slept, we went on 
 in the same glen, but tired of following it for two days. 
 We were gradually rising, though it scarcely appeared 
 so from the increased height of the upper mountains. 
 Fruit trees disappeafed altog< iier, and the cold and the 
 nature of the soil seem to permit nothing to grow, but 
 what the French call Foin. At Lans-le-bourg, we pre- 
 pared to ascend Mont Cenis, at whose base it stands. 
 The mountains here, arc far less picturesque than in the 
 vicinity of Mont Blanc, and it seems strange that peo- 
 ple can be so much attached to barren hills — but the 
 inhabitants under the soflest climate in France are not 
 more cheerful than these mountaineers, which shews 
 that happiness depends more upon the mind, than upon 
 mountains. The village has about two thousand people, 
 and the effective men are occupied seven months in 
 twelve in clearing the road from rocks, ice, and snow. 
 
 Before the splendid route of Napoleon, all coaches 
 were taken in pieces, and carried on mules over the 
 mountains, while the passengers went in chairs — but 
 now you may ride in a coach, or on a ^ bay trotting 
 horse,' above the common elevation of the clouds. The 
 fame of this road is better than that of battles. 
 
 
 r 
 
 f I 
 
 «#(:. 
 
T 
 
 142 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 •I 
 
 I ■ ^ 
 
 %' i 
 
 Did you ever see that antiquated, but honourable en- 
 gine the * great plough' in successful operation? Large 
 bodies move slowly, and with many cattle; and our 
 ascent was like the progress of the plough, for to our 
 six horses were added nine mules — not a mule of them 
 was needed, but the post horses are in the hands of the 
 governmen;, which is willing to make an honest penny 
 by the hire of a mule. There are frequent hospices, 
 where mountaineers rest to give succour to travellers 
 overtaken by storm. 
 
 After five hours of continual ascent we reached the 
 top of Mont Cenis, a clear lake of water, and a con- 
 vent built by Charlemagne, and re-estabhshed by Na- 
 poleon. The convent is now occupied as a barrack, 
 where our passports were examined. The top of Mont 
 Cenis is flat. The fishermen find burnt wood at the 
 bottom of the lake, and hence its •name Mom cinereus. 
 The borders of the lake are but beginning to be green, 
 though the summer is past in the plains below; here it 
 is not long enough to produce a harvest. This plain on 
 the mountain is about one league over. 
 
 From this summit the valleys open, and the streams 
 run eastward ; the descent of two hours is like the en- 
 trance to another and a more beautiful world. The 
 charming valley six miles below; the olives, the vines 
 and the clear skies, marked our entrance to Italy, and 
 gave me an indescribable sensation, an elevation of 
 mind such as one feels in listening to a glorious strain 
 of music. 
 
 The road wound around a snow-clad mountain, whose 
 dreary summit and sides added a double charm to the 
 boundless and sunny plain below. From this part Han- 
 nibal may have pointed to hi'' army the rich reward of 
 all their labours, and here it is easy to conceive the 
 ardor of the northern tribes, from snows and forests, to 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 143 
 
 break over the barriers, into the garden ol the world. 
 On the descent we were shewn on the pinnacle of a 
 rock a Chapel — JSotre Dame de la JS'eige, with an image 
 in some repute in the way of miracles. 
 
 After two hours of rapid travelling, we arrived at 
 Susa, the first city in Piedmont, which seemed so near 
 from the top of Cenis. It is at the base of the Alps, 
 and at the commencement of a plain that extends to the 
 Adriatic. We were here on the Dora, that unites at 
 Turin with the Po. We were struck with the softness 
 of the air, like the breeze of a cool summer evening. 
 We beheld many of the inhabitants sitt ng in front of 
 thoir houses, at work, or singing and conversing. One 
 of the first things that marked a change of country, was 
 th? bread, about as large as the little finger, and two feet 
 in length. We left Susa at day-break, and passed on the 
 left bank of the river through villages of little note, and 
 vineyards with the vine in festoons from tree to tree. 
 The only house or place worthy of note except a few 
 picturesque monasteries in the mountains, is Rivoli, the 
 Royal House of Pleasure for Victor Amadous 11. who, 
 having reigned many years, abdicated his little king- 
 dom in favour of his son, and afterwards had leisure to re- 
 pent his folly, in close confinement. 
 
 The traveller is reminded that he is in Italy by the 
 number of little chapels and the reverent manner in 
 which the postillion in passing them raises his hat. 
 There is also a marked difference ox^ language, which, 
 though but half Italian, is much more mellifluous, (do 
 you like honey?) than the Fr;.nch. The people also, 
 are, as I think, distinguished for good looks, high fore- 
 heads, black eyes, and eyebrows arched. Some travel- 
 lers pretend to discover mischief in their countenance, 
 but I was less sagacious. 
 
 r 
 
f 
 
 ■ t 
 
 '4 
 
 iMi LBTTBRS FROM A 
 
 We approached Turin by a broad and level road, 
 shaded by trees, and entered by the splendid street Dora 
 Grossa. It is on the Po, and one of the prettiest cities 
 in the world. The city is full of palaces. It is in a 
 rich plain, and surrounded by Boulevards, which make 
 a fine promenade. On the north are those snowy Alps, 
 that were once some barrier, but cannot now keep the 
 Goth fiom Italy. The city has about sixty thousand 
 people. At their head is Carlo Felice, who is hand- 
 some enough for a king, but as plain a man as was ever 
 carved in marble. He is surrounded by a good many 
 men with muskets and fur caps; his mental resources 
 are not so great in themselves, that he ever misses an 
 opera, and sometimes he has been known to applaud in 
 the right place, but in general those parts of the per- 
 formance that give most delight to the children, give 
 also the greatest pleasure to the king. He has some 
 other tastes in unison, and is seldom to be seen without 
 a bit of candy-^but how much better is that than to 
 chew tobacco ! To tell you all that I know personally 
 of kings, which according to the proverb quoted by 
 Montrose to Jenny Deans, are 'kittle cattle to deal ' — 
 I once beheld the Majesty of England, and I shall car- 
 ry till I die, the remembrance of a portly, graceful, and 
 placid old gentleman. I have seen Ferdinand VII, 
 who looks even worse in reality than he is represented 
 on a dollar. The King of the Sicilies is a weak man, 
 and looks like many others of that large class. But the 
 most sagacity that I ever beheld in a royal eje, twink- 
 led under the deep brows of the King of Sweden. 
 These are all the kings that I remember to have seen, 
 except Rufus, and Rio Rio, at the Sandwich Island. 
 
 The Piedmontese are in dress and manner almost 
 French ; they are larger than the Savoyards, and have, 
 as I think, higher foreheads, and better faces. 
 
 j-a^iirr i,„i 
 
 ^.,:::.:s&:gteir::. ..-,-, ..tri^r 
 
lOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 145 
 
 Tliere are about Turin few sights, except general pros- 
 pects, which are full of variety. The Superga is what all 
 travellers are bound to see and describe. It is a church 
 and mausoleum, erected by Victor Amadee, more than 
 an hundred years ago, in consequence of a vow to the 
 Madonna to be performed on the stipulated condition 
 that she would raise the seige of Turin, for a good 
 Catholic always exacts from his saint a quid pro quo. 
 The Madonna in consequence inspired the besieging 
 general with the spirit of committing blunders, and sent 
 Prince Eugene to relieve the city. This monument of 
 piety is on a mountain of the ordinary elevation of the 
 clouds, and is therefore, if not a castle in the air, a tem- 
 ple in the skies. 
 
 The climate at Tjrin, is like a pretty lady — ^varium 
 et mntabile semper ' — that is, it is subject to agreeable 
 changes of temperature ; and blows, like the traveller 
 in the fable, hot and cold in a breath. The Alpine 
 wind pierces to the very marrow, but the ' sweet south' 
 makes the traveller throw off his roat, as you will find 
 recorded in fable, for I hope vou read vEsop. 
 
 I was six days at Turin, L -o ill from exposure and 
 fatigue, that I wore a blister up«'iim\ breast as large and 
 twice as warm as flannel vest. Wlicn uc left the city, 
 we crossed the Po on a new bridge erecteti by Buona- 
 parte, (for in Italy he never omitted in his name the u.) 
 Our route was through a country of vineyards, with the 
 Superga always in view till we came to Asti, fan d for 
 wines and for the birth of Victor Alfieri. He is, in 
 Italy the great name of the age, but hia tragedies are 
 but seldom represented at Vienna and oth«r IIIh ., 
 courts, for they have a lofty spirit of freedom that in- 
 spires fear to the master and hope to the slave. 
 
 From Asti we went over the same, beautiful plain, 
 bounded only by the Alps, and Appenines, to Alexan- 
 13 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
mmm 
 
 ■Hi 
 
 HPiP 
 
 146 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 li: . 
 
 i; 
 
 dria. And the same plain continues, but with no trees 
 and fewer vines, to Marengo, a place that has had some 
 influence on the affairs of Europe. 
 
 Next we came to the Appenines, which are without 
 the forests, snows, and deep ravines of the Alps. Yet 
 they are picturesque and wild. The village of Gavi 
 is in the very heart of these mountains, and has a 
 citadel that commands the pass. From this we began 
 to climb the Bochetta, the highest mountain between 
 Turin and Genoa, and which, to go up and down, makes 
 a distance of twentyfour miles. We entered a defile 
 noted as a lurking place for robbers, and I never in my 
 life saw a better ground to say stand to a true man. 
 We passed safely through, though we sometimes look- 
 ed back in the expectation of seeing a brigand, and I 
 think that 1 was a little disappointed in meeting no ad- 
 venture. A robber, thought I, would not want my life, 
 and as to my purse, ' what can he do to that ?' fon I had 
 in hand my last Napoleon, and was going to Webb's to 
 raise supplies. Your robber is in Italy a man of con- 
 sideration, the theme of minstrels, the favorite of the 
 fair ; and if half what I have heard sung of him be true, 
 I could turn Robin Hood myself. 
 
 This road is paved the whole distance, and the pave- 
 ments arc like some that I remember in Boston before 
 the time of our Pericles, who is about to assume the 
 post of Plato. A man of moderate waist may get ov> v, 
 the mountain pavement alive, if he will tie his handker- 
 chief about his middle and grasp with both hands the 
 pillar of the coach ; — but for a man half as fat as an 
 aldermao, there is no hope^ — he may at once lie down 
 and die. 
 
 But on the summit of the Bochetta is a sight worth 
 all danger from robbers and dislocations. As far as the 
 vi&ible horizon extends the sea is studded with sails. 
 
 IIIMM MHW l l I 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 147 
 
 The shores of the sea, and the base of the mountains 
 are coloured with the pale green of the olive, which 
 makes a fine appearance in contrast to the^ dark pine 
 and chestnut above. Between the mountain and the 
 sea, is the valley of Polcevera spotted with white vil- 
 lages and little churches that peep out from the forests 
 of olives. 
 
 Descending rapidly we came to Campo Marone, and 
 entered the olive trees that continue to Genoa. A point 
 of land, that seemed to run some distance into the sea 
 was rounded and we saw Genoa, all at once, as a scene 
 when the curtain is raised at the theatre. It is on a small 
 bay, at the very base and on the sides of mountains 
 that confine it in a narrow space. It seems to be a city 
 of palaces, built upon alleys, too narrow for carriages. 
 The mountains are barren, but more than half way up 
 are churches, castles, and monasteries. There are 
 many fountains which in these narrow and shaded streets, 
 give a refreshing coolness to a summer noon. The port 
 is made by two moles and is safe from the sea, though I 
 have seen ships driven from their anchorage by winds. 
 We lodged at the Jamaica Hotel, kept by a man who 
 had lived in New York, and I think we had a room aid 
 din ner at five francs a day. ^ ' 
 
 V 
 
 NO. VI. 
 
 Sir — Many of the palaces had historical or allegori- 
 cal figures painted on the outside, and more had orange 
 trees in marble vases, growing on the terraces and 
 roofs. 
 
us 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 Our first walk was to the postoffice, situated ou the 
 square of the Amorous Fountains, where I found a slip 
 of paper intimating that I had five letters at Naples, 
 which would be sent on reception of the postage; for 
 the king of the Sicilies never goes upon tick with the 
 king of Sardinia. 
 
 We thence descended towards the port in a little 
 lane having several pretty fountains, to the custom 
 house, which was thronged with Jews, Englishmen, 
 Spaniards, Frenchmen, Turks, and Genoese. 
 
 Near this is the Bank of St George, and the Porto 
 Franco^ where there is more noise than commerce — yet 
 in and about it is the great mart, exchange, or rialto, of 
 Genoa the proud, whose merchants were princes. Here 
 are no drays, but what in other cities is drawn by horses, 
 is here carried by men» The largest hogsheads are 
 suspended from several poles which rest on the 
 shoulders of the porters, whose ofiice is no sinecure. 
 
 Commerce is manacled with a thousand petty restric- 
 tions. The smallest package cannot be landed without 
 strict scrutiny — and much plucking awaits the wight 
 who is caught with a bunch of cigars in his hat. I had 
 occasion to carry from an American brig a ^mall bag of 
 dollars, which the rough Piedmontese guard looked 
 into with all his optics, like a parrot into a hazle nut or 
 a philosopher into a mystery, till he saw the nature of 
 the contents, when he uttered huono. 
 
 At this same Porto Franco I ascended the parapet 
 which runs round the harbor in a circuit of several 
 miles. In some parts it is sixty feet above the water, 
 which, in a high sea, breaks over it. It is a beautiful 
 walk, walled in, about two feet on each side, and it is 
 four feet wide. From this is a good view of the ship- 
 ping in the harbor, which is generally as black as tar 
 can make it, for few vessels are neatly painted. There 
 
 V' 
 
 Mtimmm 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 149 
 
 for 
 
 estric- 
 itbout 
 wight 
 I had 
 )ag of 
 ooked 
 nut or 
 ture of 
 
 were two ordinarj^ American brigs, which, on holidays, 
 excited much attention. It is very easy to see the su- 
 periority of our marine^ in a foreign port. I remember 
 that one of our larger ships of war was riding here in a 
 gale, and dragged the anchors if she did not part a ca- 
 ble. A thousand people collected to the leeward to 
 see her go ashore, but in half a minute the topsails 
 were filled, and the ship was passing out of the harbor 
 like a bird. 
 
 The shipping in the harbor was composed of Dutch 
 galliots, English barks, Baltic vessels, laden with 
 stock-fish, Genoese vessels of all kinds, half a dozen 
 Turks from the Black Sea, and felucca boats from Mar- 
 seilles, Leghorn, and even more distant ports. The 
 Italians are religious as well as gallant. Their ships 
 are named from St Michael, St Anthony, St Charles, 
 St Peter, and others, more than are to be found in the 
 calendar; and also from La Bella Maria, Catarina, 
 Isabella, Maddalena, et ccteras. 
 
 J>om the custom house (how easy it is to forget! what 
 seems to my memory the custom house, may be the 
 guard or police house) we turned abruptly to the Icfl in 
 a narrow street with small shops of silks, jewelry, cut- 
 lery, &c. Fixed prices, in English, drew me in to buy 
 a silk cravat, where I paid a tax upon my ignorance, 
 twice the value of the goods, and lost thirty per centum 
 in making change. 
 
 This street brought us to a square, where the foun- 
 dations of a large opera house are laid, and which was 
 the haunt of fiflty obstreperous coachmen. They open- 
 ed upon us like a pack of hounds — * A coach! a coach! 
 gentlemen, goes tomorrow for Florence, Rome, Milan, 
 Vienna, anywhere.' Having stopped a moment at 
 Gravier's, the only Bookstore we could find — not half 
 13* ' 
 
 v^ 
 
150 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 r/i 
 
 as large as Hilliard and Gray's, we Walked down the 
 noble Strada Baibi, the widest in Genoa, and one of 
 the richest in the world; near the end of it we came to 
 a ravine of the mountain, at which, is the wall of the 
 city, but beyond it are large suburbs. The first house 
 beyond, is the magnificent D'oria Palace. It is a good 
 embloni of Genoa — dilapidated, though splendid. It is 
 deserted — knock at the gate and an old servant will tell 
 you that the prince is at Rome, and that there is noth- 
 ing in the house to see. It is built on the shore, and 
 from the mole is one of the most imposing of edifices. 
 Passing round the harbor (in the segment of a circle, 
 as the schoolmaster says) we went under a beautiful 
 gate, near to which rises the light house, a stately square 
 pillar built upon a rock. Here, (on this road) the Ma- 
 jesty of Sardinia takes a daily ride, to get an appetite 
 for dinner. A great many times did I meet him 
 riding by the light house, drawn in an English coach 
 by si.\ horses, guided by a postillion in red. Twice 
 did I dofl' my beaver, not to the man, but the magistrate, 
 and witho'it return of civility, though once the monarch 
 slept. At the third meeting I cut him to the bone, 
 whistled, and looked neither to the right nor left. 
 
 On some holiday an hundred or two bells were ring- 
 ing — the air was filled with a din of which I had never 
 heard the like. On this day the people were out in 
 their gayest dresses, and we beheld some that would 
 have been pretty in rags. The women wear a white 
 veil over the head and shoulders, and it is worn with a 
 very good effect, for there are not many beautiful wo- 
 men. But at mass, and the opera, are to be seen a few 
 beings of another order — with faces that a painter might 
 study till he grew mad, before he could imitate, and 
 much less could he flatter them. 
 
 •kMMMMMn 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 15 1 
 
 At the opera the singing was good, and the dancing 
 admirable. People talk very well upon the dignity of 
 the drama, but I am not ashamed to confess that I like 
 a good ballet. You can hardly conceive without see- 
 ing a large company, how interesting it is — and how 
 well they can dance the story of Blue Beard, and other 
 classic legends. 
 
 There is a little book of travels in Italy, the Diary of 
 an Ennuyee, that is excellent. A sort of mystery is 
 kept over the writer, whom we are left to suppose is 
 trying to get away, in travelling, from an uneasy mind, 
 but is exhauster? in the race, and dies at Autun on her 
 return. - • 
 
 Now, surely, I could wish the lady no ill; but I felt 
 an emotion of disappointment in seeing in a late paper, 
 that she is still alive and making another book to gull 
 simples like me out of their compassion for a female 
 dying of a broken heart, who is as well and cheerful 
 as good health and spirits can make her. I have no 
 wish that she had died to support the credit of her diary, 
 though such a consummation would have much upheld 
 the interest of the book. In these days all are travel- 
 lers; and whoever travels must make a book, or at least 
 prose, like me, in a newspaper. The interest of the 
 book is much increased, if to the descriptions can be 
 added a little incident and character. The Continental 
 Adventures, is in effect, nothing but a book of travels, 
 in which the descriptions are" surpassingly excellent, 
 and Anastatius the Greek, is a book of travels, that all 
 who go to the east should read as a guide; and those who 
 stay at home should read for knowledge and pleasure. 
 
 Why did not I keep a journal for a fat folio? — I might 
 have got fame and money, or if I could get money I 
 could have fame by bribing the critics. But the mass 
 of observation that might have fallen on the head of 
 
.Ill • inmmi^mm 
 
 152 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 fi,^ 
 
 |! H' 
 
 / 
 
 u 
 
 the public in one cataract of a folio, is now dripping 
 iiway in weekly letters. I could have had, with proper 
 encouragement, that is, with any encouragement, a col- 
 lection of my own voyages; anu if I were a printer, like 
 you, I would collect them even now, print them in 
 foolscap, and bind them in sheep. 
 
 Genoa was founded by Janus, at least so it is said — 
 and it is true as history in general. It has some 
 manufactures of silk, paper, coral, filagree work in gold, 
 &c. There is a university with a library, and the usual 
 apparatus, and academies of De8ign,Painting, Sculpture, 
 Engraving, and Architecture. There is also a school 
 for the Deaf and Dumb, where about fifty are instruct- 
 ed in some useful art, and a few of them even in the 
 sciences. > 
 
 I somewhere saw a complete collection of the insects 
 of Liguria — * flies and butterflies — a pin-stuck race,' 
 and beetles and bugs without name or number. 
 
 There is a most splendid * House of the Poor,' where 
 twentytwo hundred persons can be comfortably lodged. 
 In the interior of this vast pile, is a church that has a 
 little gem of Michael Angelo's sculpture — a has relief 
 representing the Blessed Virgin and the dead body of 
 our Saviour. It is delicate enough for a seal. Not far 
 from this palace of the poor, is (on a continuation of 
 the Strada Balbi) a delicious promenade — called, I think, 
 Aquaverda — on a hill with fountains, surrounded with 
 hedges of roses. " ^ ' • 
 
 The aqueducts are called in the guide book, chefs d'- 
 muvres dc patience, and deserve the appellation. They 
 were above fifty years in building, and carry wafer six 
 leagues over mountain and valley. 
 
 In writing of the Port Franc, I forgot to mention 
 that neither soldiers, priests, nor women, are allowed 
 to enter it. Why? the laws of Genoa have a great ab- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 153 
 
 horrence for smuggling, and a brave Piedmonlesc sol- 
 dier would die rather than be searched; the church has 
 as little humility, and a lady's veil should be as much 
 respected as the red cloth or the black. 
 
 Genoa has about ninety thousand people, without in- 
 cluding a numerous military or marine. 
 
 Before we could go, it was needful to have the Amer- 
 ican Consul's nanr.e upon our passports. Two dollars 
 is the established fee of office. But as I had a passport 
 in English, from the secretary of the commonwealth, 
 and had been called upon to translate till I was tired of 
 describing my person and points, I got a new one in 
 French. Then we went to the Tuscan Consul, who 
 gave permission for us to sail for Leghorn, — note well, 
 when you travel, that before you visit another state you 
 must have the signature of its representative. How 
 would it puzzle a Yankee pedlar to have his cart stop- 
 ped at the frontiers of Connecticut for the want of a 
 passport; in Europe he could not go ten miles without 
 one. • , 
 
 On an evening soon after the first of the year, we 
 went on board a felucca boat (much less than a chebac- 
 co) for Leghorn. Midships (as sailors say) was a fire- 
 place where the sailors boiled their macaroni — and 
 ' chock aft ' a cabin in which two men might lie at length. 
 We laid in for the voyage two flasks of wine, two chick- 
 ens, and a piece of what sailors call salt junk; and 
 having of this more than we could eat, acquired the 
 favor of the crew by giving away What we could not 
 use. 
 
 The wind was in the shoulder of our sail wafting us 
 swiftly out of the port and bay, though we put in at a 
 little inlet until morning. We beheld in the sky what 
 you philosophers call a phenomenon, and such as was 
 
154 
 
 LETTfillS FROM A 
 
 I' 
 
 '., 
 
 seen by Constantine. The firmament was of a deep 
 blue, except in one bright place in the west, where there 
 was, for half an hour, a luminous and distinct cross, like 
 a catholic crucifix. It was a cloud gilded by the sun 
 aftor he had set to us on the surface. 
 
 We had heard such praise bestowed on the scenery 
 between Genoa and Pisa, that we had some wish to see 
 it — but having been tossed so much, rest was desirable; 
 and rest we could have in the felucca, which crept along 
 the shore, and would have sought some little harbor on 
 the slightest commotion of the sea. In point of inter- 
 est I cannot think we lost much, for we coasted along 
 the base of mountains abruptly rising from the sea, 
 covered with olives, and enlivened with villages and 
 churches. Spezia is, if I rightly remember, about half 
 way, and here the vessels for Genoa that come from 
 unsafe ports, are subjected to a dismal quarantine. 
 The town is at the head of a gulf, sheltered towards the 
 south by a pretty island. We ran down to Leghorn in 
 about thirty hours, entering the port at night. The 
 port is made by a mole, but the anchorage is an open 
 road. There is an inner port for boats, where there are 
 a great many from cities as distant even as INaples. 
 Several turns among ship yards brought us to a space 
 where there were four or five good statues in bronze, in 
 an obscure place, and soon after we entered the main 
 avenue of the city. We were not vexed with delay at 
 the custom house, but barely opened our trunks and 
 shut them. We lived for two days at the Royal Oak 
 Hotel, at a moderate price. Leghorn is a great com- 
 mercial mart, and trade is not shackled with many vex- 
 atious restrictions. The streets are well filled with a 
 busy population, and the stores are some of them 
 splendid. There are many Jews and Turks. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 156 
 
 There are few soldiers in sight — not more thn i enough 
 for a moderate town guard, and there are not half so 
 many cripples, vagabonds, and priests, as at Genoa. 
 The race of men ai.d the herds of cattle are also better. 
 We did not in Genoa see a woman of the middling 
 classes that was very pretty, but in Leghorn we saw 
 few that were otherwise. There are many country 
 seats in the vicinity. The hats that wc call Leghorns 
 are made all over the country, from this to Florence. 
 They are manufactured in families, and pressed and 
 exported by the merchant. It seemed like New Eng- 
 land, to see children sitting at the door with a roll of 
 straw before them. ^ 
 
 The English burying ground is very neat — having a 
 great many monuments in excellent taste. The monu- 
 ments are generally of white marble, pyramids, cones, 
 urns, columns, and plain slabs. Smollct is buried here. 
 Having passed two days, we put our money except five 
 dollars ior expenses, into a bill of exchange for Flor- 
 ence, and early in the morning entered the coach; we 
 gave for the passage (about sixty miles) two dollars and 
 a half, but were struck with grief and consternation to 
 learn that we had paid a dollar too mucii. There are 
 three stages to Florence, and at eery one the new 
 coachman is to have a paulo, about a dime. 
 
 NO. vn. 
 
 Sir — On the eve of our departure from Leghorn, we 
 took of the coachman a dollar, as a pledge, to be forfeit- 
 ed if he should not call for us in the morning, for few 
 
iwwrauiHiiPviiMpn 
 
 ■— !^'"^^»^Tr' 
 
 166 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 f 
 
 f 
 
 Italians think of keeping their word, when it is at vari- 
 ance with their interest; and the charioteer would have 
 leA us without compunction, if he had got a better bite 
 from flatter fishes. Verbutn sat is an unsafe proverb 
 here, where men are changed from the like of Regulus, 
 who kept his word at the price of his ears; though in 
 some countries I have known the reverse, and seen a 
 rogue cropped for telling a lie. 
 
 Before Apollo had harnessed his team, (how classic 
 •we become,) ours was at the door. Our companions 
 were a Spanl^ih ofiicer, wife, and little Hidalgo, all 
 lately wrecked in a felucca, and bound on a pilgrimage 
 to Rome. In the led corner, in front, was a young man 
 wrapped in reverie, and a camlet cloak. Being very 
 polite in the society of ladies, I began to whistle some 
 tune common in N*^w York, when he of the camlet ask- 
 ed me how long since I had lefl America, for he had 
 himself lived in Pearl Street. Thus there was a bond 
 of amity between us, as he could whistle the same tune, 
 though he would not eat with me of the same viands, 
 for he had religious scruples touching bacon. This good 
 Rabbi gave me the pleasing intelligence, that I had paid 
 for the passage a dollar too much, but shewed me how 
 to recover my money and equanimity at Florence, for 
 which I thank him, for I am getting stingy, and hope in 
 time to become avaricious. - 
 
 For a dozen miles beyond the gate of Leghorn, Tus- 
 cany did not appear very fertile, but as we advanced, it 
 became a garden. I think that our first stage was Ponte- 
 dero, though I have forgotten the other large towns on 
 the route. It \. ls Sunday, and the whole population 
 was out on the shady side of the street, in holiday suits. 
 Some of the females wore a man's hat, of fur, and a 
 pretty face looks very well under it; but it is hazardous 
 for plain features. I thought it a pleasant state of soci- 
 
 I 
 
 ■MmMmMi 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 167 
 
 at vari- 
 ild have 
 itter bite 
 
 proverb 
 tlegulus, 
 tough in 
 [ seen a 
 
 1^ classic 
 npanions 
 algO) all 
 Igrimage 
 >ung man 
 jing very 
 itle some 
 mlet ask- 
 r he had 
 IS a bond 
 me tune, 
 e viands, 
 'his good 
 
 had paid 
 me how 
 
 ince, for 
 hope in 
 
 Tus- 
 
 mced, it 
 Ponte- 
 )wns on 
 [pulation 
 ly suits, 
 and a 
 Izardous 
 of soci- 
 
 
 ety, where the promiscuous assemblage of towns as large 
 as Salem, had not a dismal visage to show off, but where 
 all seemed to be under some joyous excitement. 
 
 We passed Pisa on the right, for which I was sorry, 
 as otherwise I should have seen the Hanging Tower. 
 No man knows what he may come to, and the tower has 
 a bad name; I suppose it to be the place where poor 
 rogues are hung, for the pleasure of rich ones; at least, 
 I have known such places in other countries. Some 
 travellers call it the Leaning Tower, and think that it 
 will stand an earthquake, although its line of direction is 
 without the base. But these things I cannot answer for, 
 as I have not seen them; I know them only from de- 
 scription, and all travellers are not to be trusted. 
 
 On our route were vineyards, olive groves, churches, 
 towns, towers, and monasteries. The agriculture is in 
 ridges, and the fields are divided by ditches. Some- 
 times a poor old man would run along by the side of the 
 coach, holding his hat at the window for coin. 1 am 
 generous to a fault, and when he had kept up this hob- 
 bling gait, like the people on the broken arches in Mir- 
 za's vision of the bridge, I would bestow upon him a 
 piece, of which eight hundred make a dollar. These 
 old gaffers, though they limped exceedingly while be- 
 seeching, Would walk back very well, when they had 
 touched the copper. ' * 
 
 Night closed upon us ten miles from Florence, and 
 deprived me of the satisfaction I always feel in watching 
 the approach to a new city; for though I am an old 
 traveller, my thirst for novelty is not aPnuaged, and when 
 I approach a city that I have desiicd to see, it is with a 
 strong inclinacion to dance and clap my hands. The 
 first opportunity that we had to dance, was at the Hotel 
 of the Four Nations, where wo slept, dreaming of what 
 we were to see on the morrow, though I dreamt also 
 14 ^ ^ 
 
 H 
 
iiu^uiiisiMA3iwim!:r'...,..,ir^^ti^\,MjM,j.^vw^ijHM^WKamffmaw'wiiwmmmKmBm 
 
 158 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 r 5 
 
 )} 
 
 
 i 
 
 'tV-i^^ 
 
 "^"*i»teM.Si«!i^;i:, 
 
 that a Tuscan surgeon was amputating my arm, and 
 awoke with pain, to find it extended across an iron bed- 
 stead. 
 
 We sallied out early, to see in what sort of a loch we 
 had been landed. We came to the beautiful promenade 
 along the river ' Lung Arno,' and paused to admire a 
 bridge of beautiful curves and proportions. There are 
 several other bridges, and one or more covered with 
 shops. The river is a shallow and muddy stream, but I 
 believe that there have been found people to praise it. 
 
 Near the centre of the city rises an immense edifice, 
 surmounted by a dome, to which that of the State House 
 is but an egg-shell. This is a land-mark all over the 
 Val d'Arno. It is the Cathedral, and the dome is, I 
 think, second only to St Peter's, and is the father of that. 
 The edifice is so vast, that it seems like a mountain, 
 carved in the shape of a church. " 
 
 The architecture generally, in Florence, has more 
 strength than elegance, and the streets are neither wide 
 nor straight. In returning from this early ramble, we 
 beheld, at an open market house, the best statue of a hog 
 that was ever chiselled. It is the image, in bronze, of a 
 lean porker, somewhat advanced in years, rearing itself 
 on the fore legs, with an expression of wonder and re- 
 sentment. It is marvellous, that such a brute should 
 have found so admirable a sculptor. There was Mengs, 
 the Raphael of the cats, but this sculptor was the Mi- 
 chael Angelo of the swine. The original figure, of 
 which this is a copy, we afterwards saw in the Gallery, 
 but among so many other wonders, that we hardly gave 
 it a glance. ; <« 
 
 After breakfast, we went to our banker's, took fifty 
 dollars for expenses at Florence, and on the road to 
 Rome, and put the rest in a draft on Schultais, or Tor- 
 Ionia. 
 
 \ .. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 159 
 
 We passed but ten days with the Grand Duke, but 
 these were^very pleasant, and I could write a volume 
 of reminiscences. 
 
 Travellers need much a book of directionb, routes, 
 distances, prices, public houses, and places. There are 
 many such books, but none upon the right plan. Madam 
 Starke's is the most generally used; but it is rather in- 
 tended for famiHes than single gentlemen. A good book 
 of the kind, in English, would sell like biscuit in a be- 
 seiged city, for a dollar a piece, and I know a man who 
 is ready to compile it for a thousand dollars, for authors 
 now-a-days must be moderate in their demands. 
 
 There are a great many books of travels in Ital- . 
 The best, perhaps, is Corinna; but the Diary of an £!n- 
 nuyee, and the books of Forsyth, Lyman, Carter, and 
 Lady Morgan, are good. Miladi's Sketches are lively, 
 and often correct, though sometimes caricatured, from 
 her solicitude to say smart things, in an antithetical way. 
 Her reluctance to write what others have written, and 
 perhaps, an ignorance of the classics, led her to deride 
 the enthusiasm of scholars in Italy. 
 
 We passed the first day in walking about at random, 
 looking on the outside of things in general. We went 
 to the garden Boboli, on the declivity of a hill, rather a 
 trim place, but not in the best taste of gardening. We 
 went to the gate San Gallo, a good monument, and we 
 walked through the Ca^-^^irso, a sort of park, several miles 
 along the Arno. It aboumis in old trees, gravelled walks, 
 and secluded spots, which, however, are seldom solitary, 
 for in a pleasant evening, all Florence, ' talking age and 
 whispering lovers,' are in the Cascino. 
 
 We saw on the heads of some of the military, the old 
 brass helmet, glancing in the sun, with great effect. It 
 was shaped like that on the head of Achilles, at the Vati- 
 can. We had also the pleasure of heariig a large band 
 
160 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 of musicians, with only instruments like horns and trum- 
 pets, though these were much varied. 
 
 No man who values his reputation for liberal curiosity, 
 would visit London and not see th« lions, or leave Flo- 
 rence without giving some attention to the Gallery. I 
 hope you uuspect us of no such crime, for on the second 
 day we went up the wide marble steps, to the grand re- 
 pository of ancient and modern art. 
 
 Now, as many parts of my journal were committed to 
 loose leaves, and as I have lost the leaf relating to the 
 Gallery, what I describe will be from memory, but I do 
 not expect that you will have half the pleasure in read- 
 ing that I feel in recollecting. 
 
 At the top of the marble steps is a vestibule, where we 
 paused to look at a most spirited antique horse, the ori- 
 ginal of the bronze hog described before, and some 
 buats of the Medici family. 
 
 At the door of the Gallery is a soldier, in half uniform, 
 who gives to visiters the salute military, as he ushers 
 them in. He is not permitted to receive any gratuity, 
 for it is intended that the Gallery shall be free to all. 
 The first view is imposing; you look down an avenue as 
 long as Winter Street, upon a line of Roman Emperors, 
 arrayed like the kings in Banquo s posterity. Parallel 
 to this avenue is another, connected with it by a corridor. 
 
 The series of the Emperors is nearl; complete, though 
 I do not recollect them in detail. Some had been de- 
 prived of the most prominent feature, the nose, which, 
 however, was always restored from the outline left in pro- 
 file on medals and coins. On the outer side of the halls 
 are separate apartments, containing the more precious 
 monuments of the arts — and we had proceeded but a few 
 steps, before, turnine in at an half open doer, we saw at 
 a glance that we stood before ' the statue that enchants 
 the world.' The Venus is surrounded by other statues 
 
 5 
 
 "S-WlteHIW. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 161 
 
 itrum- 
 
 iriosity, 
 ve Flo- 
 ery. I 
 second 
 and re- 
 
 litted to 
 t to the 
 l)ut I do 
 in rcad- 
 
 'here we 
 the Gri- 
 nd some 
 
 uniform, 
 3 ushers 
 wratuity, 
 3 to all. 
 /enue as 
 iiperors, 
 Parallel 
 corridor. 
 , though 
 een de- 
 , which, 
 \ in pro- 
 ;he halls 
 irecious 
 |ut a few 
 |e saw at 
 nchants 
 statues 
 
 of surpassing excellence, and the walls of the Tribune 
 are hung with paintings, the perft ~tion of art and beauty; 
 but from the best of them, the visiter turns to take ano- 
 ther and another look at the immortal statue of a modest 
 and love ly woman. 
 
 * You cannot love marble, but joy and delight 
 Will run through your veins and your heart at the sight, 
 And no lady that lives — not the loveliest one, . • 
 
 In your fancy, will rival that lady in stone. . 
 
 It will cause you to muse upon beauty in smiles — '^ 
 
 It will give you a glimpse of the fabulous isles, ••' ,, 
 
 Where only delicious emotions are felt. 
 Where Love will presume, and where Beauty will melt.' 
 
 Do not put the saddle upon the wron^ ass, and attribute 
 these lines to me. "^ . 
 
 Is it strange that the Florentines should be a beauti- 
 ful race.'* The first objects that meet their infant eyes 
 are forms of matchless beauty and grace. I little doubt, 
 that if the Grand Duke should substitute for his present 
 marbles, an hundred faithful statues of the Venus, 
 Apollo, and Graces, of the Hottentots, that his succes- 
 sors would have a very plain race of subjects. 
 
 In turning away from the Venus de Medicis, I fell 
 over a couple of Wrestlers, striving after the occidental 
 method of a Kentuckian rough and tumble. It is an 
 admirable group, and should have attracted my attention 
 otherwise than by my falling over it. Near it is a 
 statue of a man stooping to whet a knife, which, if it 
 were modern, might be called Shylock. There is 
 also a little statue of Apollo, excellent. 
 
 I should convey no idea of the paintings of Raphael, 
 Titian, and Carlo Dolce, by writing of them, nor would 
 it be possible to describe the statues and other objects in 
 the Gallery, where, while we lay at Florence, we passed 
 at least three hours daily 
 
 14* 
 
mmm 
 
 ■M'mnH 
 
 163 
 
 LETTERS PROM A 
 
 il 
 
 ( 
 
 tJ 
 
 < 
 
 / 
 
 The Pitti palace has a great many wonders. The 
 first, in our estimntion, was the Venus by Canova, who 
 has brought from marble the most beautiful forms, since 
 the best age of sculpture. It is strange that, with such 
 models before him, he did not throw by his chisel in 
 despair. A sight ofthe Venus deMedicit, the Apollo Bel- 
 videre, or the Dying Gladiator, is enough to discourage 
 Imitation. I am convinced that I am wrong, for i differ 
 from artists and connoiseurs, but I rank the Venus of 
 Canova second only to one statue of antiquity. He 
 succeeded better in forms of beauty, than of any other 
 kind. His boxers, which I saw at Rome, seem to have 
 more muscular exertion than is consistent v/ith their 
 attitude, for they are not striving in actual contact with 
 each other, like the wrestlers. . • • ' ^ 
 
 Near the Pitti Palace is the Museum of Natural 
 History, abounding with excellent specimens. There 
 are plants fin<ily executed in wax, and a vast and won- 
 derful collection of anatomical figures of the fame ma- 
 terial. First comes the figure of a man and woman, and 
 these a'"c next so diversified in separate specimens, as 
 to show in detail the most minute vessels in the system. 
 Some Neapolitan of a most gloomy genius, who had a 
 taste for horrors and a talent for wax, has left a repre- 
 sentation of the plague in all its stages, even those of 
 putrefaction, that is enough to make one shudder and 
 forswear readini; the talcs of Boccacio. 
 
 There are many theatres, probably twenty of them. 
 Connected with some of them arc suites of rooms for 
 billiards, dancing and refreshments. Billiards are play- 
 ed in the greatest perfection, and we did not wait long 
 to see some astonishing hits. 
 
 At the gate towards Leghorn there is kept a strict 
 watch for smugglers. Panniers of the market people 
 are narrowly searched, and in a spirit not at all accom- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 163 
 
 modating. The country people are not very richly 
 clothed, for the farmers are not much encumbered 
 with wealth, but their life seems to be comfortable ; and 
 though they do no* own the soil, a farm is held for many 
 generations by the same family. 
 
 We found the Tuscans a kind and cheerful race, 
 not of a very strong texture of character, but willing to 
 do a friendly act when it did not cause much trouble 
 nor lead into danger. They are not the people from 
 whom a man would choose a second for a perilous en- 
 terprise, and I doubt if they love with half as much 
 ardor as they hate, if this can be said of any men ; 
 but the arts that embellish life, and the disposition 
 to enjoy it, are successfully cultivated at Florence. 
 
 Even in these days, there is much of that spirit that 
 once broke out in bloodshed, and its ramifications are 
 very minute. Hence hereditary antipathy not only in 
 states, but in towns, streets, and families. The very 
 houses in Tuscany are built as if to sustain riots and 
 sieges. There is in Italy a common language; almost 
 a common character, but a thousand local divisions. 
 With any moderately strong bond of union or communi- 
 ty of feeling, between the north and middle and south 
 of Italy, the whole peninsula might htive a higher des- 
 tmy than to be a crushed province of Austria. 
 
 Rome is distant from Florence about 200 miles, and 
 the mail goes in thirty hours. A traveller may take 
 passage with the courier at an expense of about thirty 
 dollars. We preferred for comfort, economy, and the 
 gratification of curiosity, to go with a vetturino, who 
 travels thirtyfive miles a day, and furnishes his passen- 
 gers with a supper and single bedroom at ni^ht, for nine 
 dollars. He takes four within and two oil the outside, 
 in front. This is the best method for one not rich, or 
 in haste, and we were neither. 
 
 Cl 
 
 lA 
 
 fi:IV 
 
164 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 ^ 
 
 At ten o'clock on a fine morning in January, we put 
 ourselves in charge of the coachman for Rome, in com- 
 pany with a Russian family, that went in another car- 
 riage. For twenty miles, we went off at a good rate; 
 when the route became so mountainous that we could 
 walk in advance of the coach. At noon, the horses 
 rested for three hours, when we strolled on before, and 
 arrived at the inn for the night before the baggage. 
 Sometimes we loitered behind, with the Russians, who 
 were wrapped in furs. There were four or five servants 
 that followed on foot, who, when I walked with them, 
 would pat me on the back from pure good will, for there 
 was no language which we could mutually understand. 
 They were a very friendly and good humoured people. 
 The master was a most respectful man when he under- 
 stood that we were Americans, — why I know not, but 
 he took off his cap to us in the Appenines, where ft was 
 cold enough to freeze his ears. At night we rested at 
 some large town, of which I have forgotten the 
 name, and at the hotel we held a carouse with the 
 Russian who drank Tuscan wine, as if there were no 
 grapes on the Dvina. In carving a tough old rooster, 
 he expressed doubts if it had, like the Emperor Paul, 
 come unfairly to its end. 
 
 In the first day or two, and till we had passed Sienna, 
 the country was not particularly interesting. Sienna is 
 like other large towns in Tuscany, on a hill, to secure 
 the citizens from the greater degree of malaria preva- 
 lent in low places. 
 
 While Signore Marcantonip, the coachman, made his 
 noontide rest of three hours, we strolled about the city. 
 The Cathedral is Gothic, and, within, richly ornament- 
 ed. Some of the pavement is inlaid with lines of black 
 marble on white ground, representing with good effect, 
 Scripture histories. It has a mutilated group of the 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 165 
 
 Three Graces, and a few illuminated books. In the 
 midst of the city is a square, sloping downwards, like 
 the side of an amphitheatre. There is in the square a 
 fountain of tolerably clear water. In the streets were 
 suspended the advertisements for two theatres, so that 
 Sienna may not, after all, be a place so dull as at first 
 it seems. 
 
 -■.'•\ ' ■ ■ ■ ' . . : -'' 
 
 NO. Vtll. 
 
 Sir — Travellers have in appearance, more egotism 
 than others, but in reality, less. The appearance arises 
 from the convenient manner of describing in the first 
 person; which makes every man the hero of his own 
 tale, and, therefore only, am I the Hercules of mine; 
 but this has been a great check in writing my personal 
 adventures, some of which were passing strange. 
 
 Having left Sienna, the next place of much interest 
 that I remember is Radifocani on the peak of a moun- 
 t.'iiii wild enough for mysteries of Udolpho or any other 
 mysteries. The ascent is five miles, which we made 
 on foot. There is a fortress nearly dismantled, for this 
 is the Tuscan frop.tier, and there is a small village with 
 a good hotel, in which we passed the night. 
 
 On the next day we came to the northern borders of the 
 Roman state, which has shrunk to the size of an Amer- 
 ican county, though it once held all that was worth hold- 
 ing in the earth. We were stopped for an hour at the 
 guard house, where I escaped without opening my trunk, 
 by asking the young officer if he were not at Waterloo, 
 though I as little believe that he was at Arbela. The 
 Russian, however, had a double portion of vinegar 
 
 
n.^i. 
 
 166 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 squeezed out upon liim and he cursed his stars in pro- 
 portion. 
 
 Tiio next town of much interest, waa Aquapendente, 
 so named from a very pretty cascade. The town is on 
 a mountain, and tlic ascent is among chfTp that offer 
 some of the finest views. Here we dined much to the 
 Russian's taste, upon a black cat which the cook called 
 a rabbit; though it made a tolerable ragout. The town 
 is old, dark and filthy; a blemish on such scenery, like 
 a patch upon a lady's face. 
 
 ' God made tlio country, but man maJe the town.' 
 
 The harpies of the police fleeced us (to use a pasto- 
 ral figure and a broken metaphor,) in the sum of half a 
 crown, because we had no smaller coin to give; for it 
 is the custom in these walled towns to leave the pass- 
 port at the gales, jn it is restored at the inn by a cor- 
 poral, who expects a penny, and who, when he felt the 
 half crown French, insulted me by thanks to Milor In- 
 glese. ■ ■ . •'' ;■'•■' ^ ■''■'•• '"'■.'i ,. ■■ ' . , ^ , 
 
 Lorenzo Nuovo is the next town, and it is more cred- 
 itable to the architects than Aquapendente. Here we 
 refreshed at the Caffe d' Italia; for coffee rooms are to 
 be found at the meanest villages in Italy; and in the 
 cities they abound more than soda shops in your own 
 temperate city. The coffee is taken in small cups, and 
 though it is strong enough to be called a tincture, with 
 no cream, (or even lime and water as in Boston,) to 
 qualify it. Opposite, or near to the Caffe, in a village, 
 is a house with a bush over the door, indicating that wine 
 is sold within. - 
 
 It was the remark of a man who knows more than ev- 
 er I shall know, that temperance societies would do well 
 to establish coffee rooms in cities, for, said he, a man 
 with notes to pay in the dog days requires something 
 
BOSTON MEUCHANT, 
 
 167 
 
 m pro- 
 
 tdcntc, 
 1 is on 
 it offer 
 ; to tho 
 t called 
 le town 
 •y, like 
 
 1 pasto- 
 >f half a 
 e ; for it 
 he pass- 
 »y a cor- 
 ; felt the 
 (lilor In- 
 
 re cred- 
 Hcre we 
 IS are to 
 id in the 
 our own 
 ps, and 
 re, with 
 ton,) to 
 village, 
 at wine 
 
 khan ev- 
 do well 
 a man 
 Imething 
 
 better than water to restore the radical moisture and 
 compose the troubled nerves. Perhaps he will bolt a 
 dram of liquid fire, for brandy is at hand, or he may be 
 poisoned in what is given liim for win6, a vile mixture 
 of cider, brandy, honey and logwood; or he may hug 
 himself on his abstemiousness in taking off a glass of 
 beer; till a tremendous colic gives the poor sufferer to 
 know that it has been too long in a leaden pipe. 
 
 Now, (said the wise man whose words I quote) if a 
 cup of right Mocha may be had at the same price and 
 distance with the alcohol and malt, what a saving would 
 be made to the purse, the mind, the character and the 
 nervous system. 
 
 From the town with the collee room, we descended 
 a long hill, with caverns by the way side, towards a lake 
 with a town upon the bank. This is Bolsenna. The views 
 about the lake are beautiful in the extreme, but the poet 
 that in summer should stroll upon the shores would hard- 
 ly live to tell his emotions in verse. I advise no man to 
 look much upon water prospects in Italy, though they are 
 extremely attractive, for what is most beautiful is somo- 
 times the least safe, and the fiend Malaria may make it 
 a fatal curiosity, for though he sometimes has the breath 
 of flowers he has always the tooth of a viper. 
 
 The next town that lives in i>ur memory is C^vieto, 
 which has such excellent wines that none but honest 
 men should taste them, and I dream of them yet. In 
 the vicinity are many scattered columns of basalt. 
 
 At Montefiascone, which is a town upon a command- 
 ing hill, is even better wine than tiiat of Orvieto; for 
 vineyards adjoming may produce wines of very different 
 flavors We took in our carriage six flasks of each wine, 
 and having drank one a-piece, decided in favor of the 
 Montefiascone; and we read in the road-book of a Ger- 
 
 ' -11 
 
168 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 1 ! 
 
 ' f 
 
 man churchman who died a mart^^r to Ihc game pref- 
 erence. 
 
 Having crossed a barren plain, abounding in small 
 birds, we came to a walled town at the toot of a moun- 
 tain. This is Viterbo, and for Italy it is rather a neat 
 and cheerful town, or such was its holiday aspect. There 
 were neat stores, fountains and squares. But the peo- 
 ple are all beggars, and the whole ragged regiment 
 was drawn out, to receive us with the customary hon- 
 ors. First came a fat friar, * all shaven and shorn, ' with 
 a tin machine, like a missionary box. I put in a button 
 and received a benediction of the same value. At the 
 inn a servant dressed in silks, with golden rings in her 
 ears, begged behind our chair; and in the public square 
 a young man of good aspect was kneeling and holding 
 out his hat and said in English as we passed, ' charity 
 gentlemen, for heaven's sake.' We gave, and after- 
 wards saw at Naples many similar suppHcants, and some 
 in masks that shame might hide its blushes while neces- 
 sity solicited charity from strangers. 
 
 At these inns upon our route the third course at din- 
 ner is generally of roasted birds, of the size oi a fat wren, 
 three of which would make a bite for major Stevens. 
 They are spitted by dozens upon a wire like a knitting 
 needle. I have known a keen sportsman at Naples kill 
 six brace in a morning, and seen him steal upon them 
 with as much caution as I have used with ducks. But 
 I blush to say that I have killed robins myself. 
 
 Having passed Viterbo, we entered on a dreary route 
 where frequent crosses, somewhat like our guide boards 
 give the traveller the pleasure of knowing that many of 
 his number have been murdered, and the interest was 
 heightened in our case, when Marcantonio, the coach- 
 man, pointed out the dangerous defiles, and sung his fa- 
 vourite ballad in praise of brigands, for in Italy a robber 
 is not without honor. 
 
I^KP 
 
 ■ l"#«Pill 
 
 BOSTON MEnClIANT. 
 
 169 
 
 route 
 boards 
 
 lany of 
 ^st was 
 
 Icoach- 
 his fa- 
 robber 
 
 Once I slipped away my purse into a rent in the cush- 
 ion, as a wild looking fellow, dressed in a black sheep- 
 skin with the wool, |>ut his black paw into the carriage, 
 for I knew not but that he was the vanguard of a great- 
 er force, yet he was but a harmless shepherd, asking for 
 tobacco, and we gave him snuff. 
 
 Descending the last hill we came to a broad and well 
 paved road. In the distance over a wide waste of plain, 
 we beheld many spires and a dome rising above th«^m 
 like a mountain; this was Rome. As we approached, 
 we passed broken pillars, mounds of brick, and musses 
 of marble, scattered over the plain. Then we came to 
 a stream of muddy waters, a bow shot over; this was 
 the Tiber. We crossed it on a bridge (the Ponte Mol- 
 le) and under the arch of a gate entered the noble square 
 del' Popolo; for in these countries the magistracy are 
 willing to gratify the people in names. 
 
 In the middle is an obelisk, and at the two corners a 
 couple of twin like churches. The central street is the 
 Corso; we took the left, which led to what our coach- 
 man called in his English, Spain's Place or the Piazza 
 di Spagna. Here at the house of Clement Ciuli, near 
 to a fountain and opposite a noble flight of marble steps, 
 we lodged for the night, and slept like a feloij before 
 execution, somewhat disturbed by the thought of what 
 we should behold in the morning. 
 
 To what shall I liken Rome? It is like a man that 
 has survived his honesty, living upon his reputation. It 
 is like a lady past the prime of life, and making up in 
 finery what she has lost in youth and bloom. It is like 
 an old dog that has served a great many masters, and 
 been beaten and starved by all; or it is like a lemon that 
 has been squeezed by various hands, and as the juice is 
 exhausted, they who hold it last, apply the greatcot 
 pressure. 
 
 15 ' / 
 
 } 
 
 rr! 
 
170 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 Rome IS a wilderness of houses, rising in the midst of 
 a desert plain. To the north, east, and a little in the 
 south, are at a distance of a dozen miles or more, the 
 Appenines, but towards the west, the plain stretches to 
 the sea. It was founded, I take the liberty to tell you, 
 by Romulus, who had that gentle foster-mother, and 
 gave the city his name. It was the centre, the focus, 
 of the world. Roads branched out from this central 
 point, like the warp of a spider's web, towards the cir- 
 cumference. I presume that you are so well informed 
 of the changes, for the last two thousand years, that you 
 would not look in Rome for the gentem togatam (not 
 lawyers,) that is, a race of men wearing hooked noses 
 and gowns. You may see them in busts and statues, 
 but "iey walk no more on earth. No men are left in 
 Italy, resembling even the ancient Romans. Cassius 
 was the last of them^ but as there came out ' more last 
 words of Mr Baxter, ' so the title that pertained to Cas- 
 sius, has been divided with Rienzi, who owed some of 
 his fame to chance, and more of it to Gibbon. The men 
 who most resemble Regulus and Cato, and Cincinnatus, 
 are in a country that was unknown to the civilized world, 
 when Rome was mistress of it. • . ' 
 
 The very hills, whereon the mighty Rome reposed, 
 have been changed by time; years have done, in this 
 respect, what Gothic taste has done in Boston, where, 
 when boys, we used to slide down Beacon hill. The 
 Tiber I suppose to be the least changed of all natural 
 things at Rome. In size and situation it remains as it 
 was, and it still rolls its current of yellow sand. The 
 sky is the same too, ' trailing clouds of glory,' like a 
 good man's prospects of the future. 
 
 On the morning after our arrival, we called upon 
 Torlonia, our banker, who is also a Duke, for titles of 
 this kind are to be bought at Rome, and at a fair rate. 
 
 v-w^miSifc-, 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 171 
 
 midst of 
 le in the 
 lore, the 
 itches to 
 tell you, 
 ler, and 
 le focus, 
 central 
 I the cir- 
 informed 
 that you 
 am (not 
 ;d noses 
 1 statues, 
 re left in 
 Cassius 
 nore last 
 1 to C as- 
 some of 
 rhe men 
 innatus, 
 d world, 
 
 reposed, 
 in this 
 , where, 
 . The 
 natural 
 ins as it 
 d. The 
 like a 
 
 ed upon 
 titles of 
 air rate. 
 
 I think that an ass may be made a duke for twenty thou- 
 sand dollars, and less ridiculous in proportion. On this 
 walk to the banker's, we turned from our lodgings into 
 the Via Frattina, a street occupied by foreigners; 
 and this brought us to the grand Corso, the great street 
 of the city. There are nere some splendid palaces, and 
 a few rich shops. In the middle of the day the street is 
 filled with carriages, for it is vulgjir for a lady and gen- 
 tleman to walk in Rone, and the populace are too in- 
 significant to deserve side walks, but must dodge about 
 among the little horses at full speed. I myself was pros- 
 trated by an equestrian, but before I was up, the cava- 
 lier was off. I was mightily sho'cked, and if I had 
 heeded unens should have kept in that day. But Cje- 
 sjir w> uld goto the Senate house. I had a dream the 
 night Lefore, that I was groping in the Tiber for a stat- 
 ue, and grasped a gymnotus that gave me such a shock, 
 that I leaped from the bed, and a dragoon fulfilled the 
 augury. 
 
 We walked down the Corso till we came to a sort of 
 spiral column, surmounted by Saint Peter with his keys 
 in the form of a cross; whence, I suppose, our tavern 
 signs of the cnss keys, so common in the middle States. 
 This was the column of Antonine; and, as it was the first 
 we had seen, we paused awhile to admire it. Then we 
 went down, without a guide, to the end of the same wide 
 street where, in a space at the left, we found anotli*^ 
 column of a more graceful form and tar better sojlpture. 
 In front, (if to a circle there be any Iront) thfre were 
 rows of broken [< lars, part of the Forum of Trajan; a 
 prince, whose name the column bean, whose ashes it 
 once held, aid whose virtues made »r /lattery to say of 
 the best of his successors, ^ mclior Troyno.'' 
 
 Then we kept on in the same direction, till we came 
 to a circular wall, large enough to cncio.sn a city. It 
 was the Coliseum, now consecrated as a Catholic 
 
 il 
 
172 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 I' 
 
 
 if 
 
 
 church, by a shrewd rite that has preserved it from 
 pillage. Time had lightly touched it, the earthquake 
 could not shake it, fire harmed it not, and war passed it 
 by and spared it, for the sake of ' the grrat of old;' but 
 three hundred years ago, the Roman nobles assailed it, 
 making a quarry of its walls, to build their palaces. But 
 for these bold bad men, the traveller would not feel, in 
 the area of the Coliseum, that he stands amid ruins. 
 But it is a magnificent ruin; and, as it was predicted 
 that some crumbling abbey would fall upon the posterity 
 of Knox, it may as safely be believed, that the Coli- 
 seum will crush the descendants of the Barberini. Byron 
 has well described fhis mighty mass in Chil^e Harold, 
 and in the admirable lines near the close of Manfred. 
 
 The space in front of the Coli(>cum constitutes the 
 Forum Romanum, where every broken pillar has a voice , 
 and every crumbling arch atters a parable. The wl.-^le 
 space is now called the Cow Pasture, ' a heavy declen- 
 sion!' and we saw cowherds, little fit to alternate in 
 eclogues, in a spot which some hold to be the most hon- 
 ored on the earth. 
 
 From this we passed out at a gate, for a stroll in the 
 country. An inscription on the left, ' Sepolcro di Sci- 
 pione,' led us into the tomb of the grandfather of Afri- 
 canus. Then we came to the little church of St Sebas- 
 tian, where there is an entrance to the catacombs. We 
 pursued these cavernous passages but a little distancc_ 
 At the entrance is a good figure, by Bernini, of the 
 saint, transfixed with an arrow; the monks shew it 
 with satisfaction. 
 
 Next, we looked mto the immense ruins ot the palace 
 of Caracalla, where the earth has been much turned 
 over for statues, and where some of the best have been 
 found. We brought away a small portion of Mosaic, 
 with the figure of an animal. Beyond this, we visited 
 
Mi 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 173 
 
 an eternal monument to Cecilia 'Metella; it rises with 
 a graceful effect on a little hill, and the interest, per- 
 haps, is increased by the solitude. On the return, we 
 went into a cool grotto, in the side of a hill, where a 
 little stream trickles into a marble basin; this was the 
 grot of the pretty nymph Egoria. 
 
 This was the excursion of our first day. We were in 
 search of antiquities, and scorned to look at anything 
 as young as fifteen centuries; considering a temple of a 
 thousand years but an infant. We learnt, in this route, 
 a little how the old Ronans lived; and afterwards, in 
 their statues, how they looked. 
 
 At our rooms we found the American Consul, who is 
 intelligent and pleasing, and who speaks better English 
 than I do. In the afternoon we hired a valet de place, 
 to act as a guide to the sights, and lead us to them the 
 shortest way; for, in the morning, we walked twelve 
 miles to what migiit have been seen in six. In the eve- 
 ning, he took us to the theatre, which happened to be 
 well attended, and we saw many very beautiful Roman 
 ladies. 
 
 NO. IX. 
 
 Sin — In a late paper, yuu ask for a ' place in the 
 country, where a boy is wanted to turn up the sod;' and 
 as I hope your actions will not contradict your princi- 
 ples, I look to receive one of the youngsters by return 
 of wagon. I have a small freehold, where, if ' neither 
 money is turned up with every furrow, nor health spar- 
 kles on every blade of grass,' yet a boy can find em 
 
 ployment in picking up stones and whacking bushes. 
 13* 
 
rr 
 
 174 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 It is very easy to praise a farmer's life, but it is all from 
 affectation, as the poets used to praise Arcadia. Cin- 
 cinnatus has a name in history for little else than because 
 he could endure to cultivate turnips; and the very praise 
 that has been lavished on him, shews that it required 
 self-denial to retire to his farm. 
 
 I myself have pounded the earth at Potatoville, and if 
 I had fifty sons, I would send them all to cities. They 
 should live among men, and not browse with cattle; 
 they should thrive by their wits, and not depend upon 
 their hands. Whatever leads a man to adapt intel- 
 lectual means to ends, raises him in the scale of intel- 
 lect; while the i ore he labors, the less he will reflect; 
 ' Those who think must govern those who toil.' 
 
 Nay, never shake your gory pitchforks at me, ye huge 
 Titans, because I esteem matter less than mind. But 
 send that pretty boy, sir, that we may make a lout of him 
 at once, to which end he shall have all the advantage of 
 my own example. 
 
 What made the Romans great? their ', reed of cattle, 
 or their race of men? planting corn, or rearing temples 
 and advancing in the arts? 
 
 Excuse me for giving the auger a few more twists 
 
 upon Home, while I open my book of engravings at the 
 
 Coliseum. We returned to it by moonlight, which much 
 
 increases the interest. . '^ 
 
 ' For the gay beams of gladsome day 
 
 Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.' . ^ 
 
 As there used to be now and then a murder here, (for 
 it is a charming place for an assassin to stab and vanish 
 in,) the ruins arc guarded by a couple of brave soldiers. 
 I had fresh i.i "'^ory the incantations made by mad 
 Benvenuto, that filled this vast amphitiieatre with devils, 
 
 *• )■' 
 
 .-■' ■ 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 173 
 
 II from 
 Cin- 
 ; cause 
 praise 
 quired 
 
 , and if 
 They 
 cattle; 
 id upon 
 t intel- 
 if intel- 
 iflect; 
 
 ye huge 
 d. But 
 it of him 
 itage of 
 
 cattle, 
 temples 
 
 twists 
 at the 
 i\\ much 
 
 ;re, (for 
 1 vanish 
 loldiers. 
 by mad 
 devils, 
 
 four of which were of the height of giants, ' proudly pre- 
 eminent.' 
 
 To tell the truth, at the risk of ridicule, (which is 
 harder than it seems to be,) I saw a shadow that I could 
 not account for, cast beside my own. 
 
 ' The place 
 ► Became religious, and the heart ran o'er 
 
 With silent worship of the great of old, 
 The dead hut sceptorcd sovereign?, who still rule 
 Our spirits from their urns." 
 
 In recalling the mass of what we saw at Rome, the 
 very profusion is a barrier to description; for where 
 should we begin, or rather, where should we end, with 
 so many temples, arches, churches, columns, obelisks, 
 aqueducts, fountains, bridges, statues, and paintings. 
 
 It would be better not to have seen Rome, (like iVa- 
 poleon,) than pretend to describe what was seen of it in 
 eighteen days. I think that the mighty Emperor was 
 never at the ancient capital it was his wish to emulate 
 in Paris; and this is passing strange; for no man de- 
 lighted more in the charlatanry of power, and he would 
 have played a very classic pageant among the ruins. 
 Madame de Statl thinks she foresaw his imperial de- 
 signs in the consulate, when he affected to stand upon 
 one foot, behind a lady's chair, after the manner of the 
 Bourbon princes. At Rome he would have displayed, 
 with good effect, his likeness to Augustus, whose bust 
 he much resembled. * 
 
 We could not decide, to our own satisfaction, what 
 was the most interesting object at Rome — sometimes we 
 thought it St Peter's, and at others the Pantheon, the 
 Coliseum, and the Pillar of Trajan. But there are a 
 hundred things worth a voyage over the Atlantic to see, 
 to say nothing of the overpowering interest of the whole; 
 for at or near sunset, if a man will put himself on the 
 
 I 
 
 it 
 
 \.i i 
 
 I Ul 
 
 ' < '1*1 
 
176 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 • i 
 
 summit of St Peter's Church, he will see a prospect of 
 city, plain, and mountains, that he will remember as long 
 as he shall live. There is a noble engraved view of the 
 city, of the price of four dollars, but I did not bring one 
 for you as a present. Then there are books of engrav- 
 ings of the objects in detail, of all sizes, and every price; 
 and these, to be frank, made all the journal that I kept 
 at Rome. 
 
 It would be a shame to say nothing of St Peter's, 
 and a failure to try to describe it. Of all ' solemn tem- 
 ples,' it is the most impressive; but not at first. The 
 Coliseum and the Pantheon strike at once, for within 
 or without, the eye can compass the whole. But St 
 Peter's is so vast, that at once the mind itself cannot 
 comprehend it; but awe and admiration would grow upon 
 you at every successive stage of the examination, and I 
 believe would never subside. 
 
 The Pantheon is a wonder, but in the dome of St Pe- 
 ter's is the Pantheon, raised three hundred feet in the 
 air. Though the front of St Peter's is of a broken de- 
 sign, you have an admirable perspective of the whole: 
 first you enter a round court of several acres, surround- 
 ed by a stupendous colonnade of three hundred pillars, 
 surmounted by statues of martyrs. In the middle of the 
 area is an obelisk, with hieroglyphics; it is of one 
 shaft, eighty feet, and with the base, one hundred and 
 twentyfour, and ^n each side are fountains, that play 
 continually. 
 
 You pass the vestibule of the church, and enter the 
 most splendid hall that was ever constructed by man; 
 and whea your acfmiration of its extent begins to sub- 
 side, you will find enough to admire in the exquisite 
 finish of the whole. The pillars are encrusted with pre- 
 cious stones, and beautiful pictures in mosaic. But 
 enough of it, except that we made up to the bronze statue 
 
 i. I 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 177 
 
 of St Peter, the toe of which is kissed by all; it is half 
 kissed away. / 
 
 The world is full of changes, and this was once a statue 
 of Jupiter; but this is notliing, a thousand rites of the 
 Catholic church are but classic observances, for one 
 superstition rose out of the ruins of the other, and St 
 Peter is strangely represented by the image of one 
 whose dominion he assisted to destroy. 
 
 The Vatican, that adjoins, is like a large town: mainly 
 it is twelve hundred feet long, and one thousand broad, 
 but there arc many branches. It has twcntytwo courts, 
 and many thousand apartments. The library is in shape 
 like a T, nearly half a mile long, but in walking through 
 you see no books, for they are all shut up in elegant 
 cabinets. 
 
 Our remembrance of many of the best paintings and 
 statues is fresh, and I would say something of them, but 
 that they cannot be described. A description of a pic- 
 ture, or statue, may recall the images to one who has 
 seen them, but can convey little to one who has not. 
 
 It is a hard struggle, when a traveller arrives at Rome, 
 to reconcile the pictures that his imagination has formed, 
 with what is actually before him; though this I have 
 found in lesser degree in all cities. 
 
 Long processions, churches with lights blazing all 
 night before the altars, priests in black robes, and car- 
 dinals in red, engravings of the Pope, and images of St 
 Peter, filth, poverty, beauty, and magnificence, arc some 
 of the marks that distinguish modern Rome. 
 
 But on''e out of the Corso, you cannot look up with- 
 out seeing mutilated remnants of its ancient splendor, 
 broken statues, prostrated pillars, crumbling arches, 
 walls, and inscriptions. What we have written has no 
 pretence fo be even an outline; there is little encour- 
 agement to write recollections of Rome; there are too 
 
 V: ; 
 
 I i 
 
■T^-""PI 
 
 178 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 i .r, 
 
 many books descriptive of it, to leave anything new to 
 bo said, and some of them too well written to make it 
 easy to say an old thing half as well. 
 
 The country around the city is as barren as neglect 
 and drought can make it; but time and labor might re- 
 store its fertility, though everything in the Roman state 
 is ruinous, and a broken arch is an emblem of the state 
 itself ■ ■ / 
 
 We felt nothing of the malaria, for it was in winter; 
 but we saw enough of its vestiges, as the asp was traced 
 by its slime, in Cleopatra's basket of figs. The marks 
 of this pest of the low lands were sallow faces, which 
 would have been death-like, but for two wild and lustrous 
 eyes, emitting a lambent light, like a will-o'-wisp about 
 a charnel house. Streets and towns are depopulated. 
 Ostia, a large town, is as desolate as Pompeii, and has 
 less than a dozen people. It was a schoolboy doubt of 
 mine, that birds were killed by the vapour of Avernus; 
 but I can believe it here. Bishop Heber describes some 
 wild region in India, blooming in summer in all the vege- 
 table magnificence of the East, that is then deserted by 
 everything that has animal life. It is like a boundless 
 forest of upas treqs — no bird alights upon its branches, 
 no serpent ejects his venom; for there is here one more 
 poisonous than himself. Other animals are guided by 
 instinct, man by reason; which is the safest conductor? 
 The good Bishop (never was there a better man) be- 
 lieved that animals had some sagacity of impulse, that 
 led them to avoid «'ertain destruction in the air of these 
 forests. This is the place, sir, where we should colo- 
 nize the blacks; it would give them, at once, the relief 
 that is a year or two in coming at Liberia, and here also 
 would be a better residence than St Helena, for de- 
 throned emperors. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 179 
 
 You may wish to know something of the personal ap- 
 pearance of the Romans. They arc slender, stooping a 
 little forward, and not standing bolt upright like an 
 Englishman. Their countenances are very animated, 
 and one expression chases another over them, as in a 
 child; but they arc children, and I have seen a coachman 
 weep, when his wheel was fast in the mud, and laugh 
 with extravagant joy when his passengers had lifted it 
 out. In their language, they have preserved more traces 
 of their ancestors, than in their features or minds. 
 
 The sons of the church are dressed in black, though 
 in processions there are many white robes. The clergy, 
 including monks, are without number; you meet them 
 at every turn, as in Boston you fall upon a black coat in 
 election week, where there are so many societies, with 
 each a sermon and a contribution. 
 
 The Jews are about twenty thousand, and have all the 
 indulgence that can be expected, from the clemency of 
 the mildest Pope, to such a stubborn generation. They 
 are shut up at night, like cattle, in their own pen, which 
 is a very filthy part of the city; and the dispersed race 
 are nowhere in Europe distinguished for neatness; 
 though, as far as I can estimate the degrees offilthiness, 
 in Poland they are the highest. 
 
 The countenance of a Jew betrays his lineage; it is 
 not easy to describe wherein he differs so much from 
 other men, yet the difference is such as is never to be mis- 
 taken. Their countenances are somewhat between those 
 of the goat and the fox. 
 
 They look forward to the rebuilding of the temple, 
 and are shy of the monument of the prince who destroy- 
 ed it; therefore they will take a circuit, rather than pass 
 the arch of Titus. , .. .*} 
 
 The horses at Rome are small, but very spirited, and 
 swift in the race, which is run without riders; the car- 
 
 m 
 
 t: )■ 
 
w 
 
 180 
 
 ^ LETTERS FROM ▲ 
 
 riagcs are those old lumbering machines, that you may 
 remember thirty years ago, if you can look back so far. 
 No Roman gentleman, who values his character, will be 
 seen walking; riding is the great barrier that separates 
 him from the vulgar, and though the vulgar are, as else- 
 where, the largest class, they are of too little account to 
 have side-walks. A Roman lady walks as little as a 
 Chinese, but dances infinitely better. 
 
 The countrymen that come to market are vagabonds, 
 dressed iu tatters, \vhich are the more shabby, because 
 the remnant of finery. The artists are better paid than 
 other classes, except priests. They are supported prin- 
 cipally by travellers, and some of them make very pretty 
 imitations of antique gems, and models of temples, &c., 
 from fragments of the same, and I have a little image of 
 the Coliseum, from a piece that 1 broke, like a barba- 
 rian, from a cornice. • -> ;' ^ , 
 
 At some seasons, there are a thousand or more Eng- 
 lish, who are also dispersed all over Italy, where they 
 come, from restlessness, or for health, study, curiosity, 
 pleasure, or economy. An American from the United 
 States has so much resemblance to the stock f::om whence 
 he sprung, that he is taken for an Englishman, though 
 you and I know Mr Bull at a glance. From us he can- 
 not hide his horns, though he may not gore with them. 
 His lordly stride, and the curl of his lip, when he sees 
 abroad a better country and institutions than he left at 
 home, are not to be repressed. 
 
 There are French, also, the friends and adherents of 
 Napoleon; and Spaniards, who came on devout pilgrim- 
 ages. Germans you will find all over Italy; for what 
 is the whole of it, but a province of Austria; and Russians 
 make it a constant residence, having once seen a coun- 
 try so different from the frozen North. It is easy to 
 understand the haste of the Northern hive to quit their 
 forests for sunny vineyards and plains. , 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 181 
 
 u may 
 so far. 
 will be 
 ^urates ' 
 IS else- 
 ount to 
 tic as a 
 
 ibonds, 
 >ecau3e 
 id than 
 sd prin- 
 ^ pretty 
 
 SS, &.C., 
 
 mage of 
 L barba- 
 
 re Eng- 
 
 re they 
 
 iriosity, 
 
 United 
 
 whence 
 
 though 
 
 he can- 
 
 h them. 
 
 le sees 
 
 lefl at 
 
 rents of 
 ilgrim- 
 )r what 
 ussians 
 a coun- 
 easy to 
 lit their 
 
 Turk.s there arc none, thoiigli, in the maritime cities, 
 no sight is more common than the turban, yet here it 
 would probably be stoned; Mahomet would not he per- 
 mitted so near the shrine of St Peter. 
 
 Having borrowed half a day from Election, to tell you 
 these things, I will say no more of Jiome. We left the 
 temples, statues, and paintings, with regret; but they 
 are all so stamped upon our memory, that, were we art- 
 ists, we could draw them. 
 
 We took passage for Naples with a new coachman, a 
 choleric fellow, in company with seven dignitaries of the 
 church. Wc were delayed at the gate an hour, to ex- 
 hibit passports, and answer idle questions about our 
 ages and business. When permitted to go, we entered 
 at once upon the barren plains, that for twenty miles 
 surround the city. Wo passed a few flocks of sheep 
 and goats, under the inspection of Corydon and Alexis, 
 whose appearance did not say much for a shepherd's 
 life. We passed nameless ruins of columns, arches, and 
 shapeless mounds, overgrown with weeds. On both 
 sides, in the fields, were long lines of broken arches, 
 which once were aqueducts, rolling rivers from the 
 mountains to the city; they were carried twenty miles, 
 and a single arch is a monument, like the <>.olumn on 
 Bunker's Hill. After riding a dozen or more miles, we 
 began to ascend the long hill, on the top of which is Al- 
 bano. On the left, were Frescati, Tivoli, and (I think) 
 Citta Castellana, all making a beautiful show among 
 the mountains. On ascending the hill, we passed seve- 
 ral columns, overgrown and covered with ivy; and as 1 
 walked up, I paused to admire one of the best voices 
 ever heard. It came from a wild looking fellow, who 
 v.. ringing in the top of an olive tree, which he was 
 i'imn^jiig. , 
 
 16 
 
 '1 
 
 I im 
 
 ■hi 
 
^, 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 // 
 
 
 q(^ 
 
 1.0 
 
 K» l&i 12.2 
 
 U iKi 
 
 1.1 l*^^ 
 
 U 
 
 
 1 
 
 L25 H 1.4 1.6 
 
 1111== ^5 
 
 
 < 
 
 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 V 
 
 
 V 
 
 Hiotographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 2 ^ y.'XSf MAIN STRUT 
 
 WEUTH.N.Y. MSSO 
 
 (716)t73-4S03 
 
 4^ 
 

 t^ 
 
mm 
 
 182 
 
 f 
 
 A] 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 NO. X. 
 
 [^ 
 
 Sir — In travelling so»ithward from Rome, every mile 
 leads to a better country, for there can l>e none worso 
 than that of the Campagna. At Albano, we found 
 olives, grapes, a variety of fruits, and grain; the town 
 is on a hill, and is in summer the residence of a great 
 many strangers and others, who fly from malaria; and there 
 is a daily coach to Rome. In the middle of the town 
 is an antique edifice with three towers, placed by anti- 
 quaries to the credit of an early event in the Roman 
 annals. The lake of Albano is attractive, but we had 
 no time to see it; we however strolled in advance of 
 the caravan around some beautiful slopes and fountains, 
 till we came to Aricia, also wisely built upon a hill 
 
 ' Pinguis ul'i 01 placabiliH ara Diante.' 
 The scenery in this vicinity is as beautiful as can be 
 made by the combination of towns, towers, lakes, clifls, 
 woods, plains, and a distant ocean, called in Virgil, the 
 Tuscan sea. > 
 
 We had scarcely left the gates of Aricia before 
 our coachman gave a specimen of his temper; one 
 of his fraternity who had left him but half the road to 
 pass in, he chased round the coaches and threatened 
 extermination with an iron-bound stick. Clergy and 
 laity interfered to preserve life, and when I wrested 
 the club from the fellow's hand, I thought I never be- 
 held a face tilled with so much of the evil principle ; 
 there was murder in every line of it. 
 
 Our coaches advanced so slowly that we walked over 
 a great part of this route to Naples, which was very 
 wild in the mountains, and fertile in the plains. We 
 saw nothing in Italy like the gently swelling hills that 
 are so pretty in an English landscape. It was all moun- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 183 
 
 ry mile 
 ! worse 
 I found 
 le town 
 a great 
 nd there 
 le town 
 by anti- 
 Roman 
 we had 
 ance of 
 untains, 
 nil) 
 
 \ can be 
 3, cliffs, 
 rgil, the 
 
 before 
 er; one 
 
 road to 
 reatened 
 rgy and 
 wrested 
 ever be- 
 rinciple; 
 
 ced over 
 iras very 
 ns. We 
 lills that 
 ,11 moun- 
 
 tain or plain. The plain is covced with olives, vines, 
 and grain, which are also found on terraces in the side 
 of the mountain, while the upper regions are covered 
 with trees, and the bare summits browsed by goats and 
 sheep. There are many chestnut trees, and a coarse 
 kind of bread is made of the nut, which is at least six 
 times as large as the largest of ours. In the cities you 
 will find them roasting on furnaces in the streets, and 
 may fill your pockets for the smallest coin. 
 
 On the second day, I think, we passed the Pontine 
 Mar.shes, over a road that it wp.s a pleasure to walk 
 upon. These are the confines of that gloomy monarch 
 to whose dominions we 'must come at last.' The 
 meadows are dressed in the richest green, and scented 
 with a thousand flowers; the trees almost conceal the 
 road, expanding their huge arms that have waved for 
 ages; but man withers in a day by the very causes that 
 give such etrongth and heauty to vegetable life. At 
 that seasen the air was good, and even in summer the 
 traveller, if he have good horses, may have a race with 
 Deatli, and escape him (as Tarn O'Shanter avoided his 
 pursuers) for a time. 
 
 The wide meadows are filled with numberless flocks 
 of wild geese and other aquatic birds; the woodcocks 
 ar^ as large as ; Nirliidges, and are much sought for at 
 Rome and Naples. 
 
 At the end of the Marshes we came upon Tcrracina, 
 on a lovely sweep of bay under a tall cliff that projects 
 almost into the sea. Here \ 'a found a good inn and 
 passed the night to our liking. Near this we rema^'ked 
 some hedges of aloe growing to the height of eight feet. 
 In the morning we arose so early as to be at the frontiers 
 of the kingdom of Naples before the light of day, and 
 there we found a police so strict that our passports were 
 copied verbatim, and as mine was so worn as to be al- 
 
 i-wr'-'— ■ 
 
m^ 
 
 
 'wiuiii»iin^i^i(j n« '.wi'mJ<!«npiBiiiippp|ira|gH|Kfp 
 
 184 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 i' 
 
 ^ A 
 
 IV! 
 
 ['i, !• 
 
 Diost illegible, I had to go into a history of my life, 
 opinions, and designs, in travelling. 
 
 On this day we came to a mountain pass so complete- 
 ly commanded by a fortress that it seemed wonderful 
 that ten thousand Neapolitans should retreat from it 
 without a fight, on the approach of an Austrian army. 
 
 Beyond this, are Fondi and Itri, gloomy towns among 
 the mountains, inhabited by people whose trade it wa» 
 to plunder, and whose pleasure it was to kill. They 
 were the homes of the banditti, that used to adventure 
 so largely in the way of rapine and ransom, and the 
 robbers relinquished their depredations only with the 
 loss of half their number, and on some violent measures 
 with their towns. 
 
 I have seen wreckers and pirates in the West Indies, 
 and Malays in the East, heads by Salvator Rosa, and 
 rogues without number in our own country, but never 
 beheld such sinister, blood-thirsty looking wretches b» 
 at these towns. They are men that you would shrink 
 from anywhere, and I did not walk among them without 
 keeping an eye over my shoulder, and a hand upon the 
 jugular. 
 
 But it is better for his kind that a man should be all 
 ruffian; for it is a caution for the dullest to beware, 
 when such hearts are stamped upon the face, and gleam 
 from the eyes. It is the gorgeous snake that may do 
 the greatest mischief; it is the wretch who lives in good 
 society among his superiors, as if they were his peers, 
 and hides his mental obliquity under the polished shield 
 of good manners, that he may add treachery to his other 
 vices, and stab a man to the heart, whose arms are ex- 
 panding to embrace him as a friend. Such men are 
 found in cities, and as fast as you find them out, I re- 
 commend that you cut their acquaintance. 
 
 r ■ 
 
mmm 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 185 
 
 my life, 
 
 )inplete- 
 onderful 
 from it 
 I army, 
 s among 
 c it wa» 
 . They 
 Iventure 
 and the 
 with the 
 aeasures 
 
 t Indies, 
 osa, and 
 ut never 
 itches as 
 d shrink 
 without 
 ipon the 
 
 Id be all 
 beware, 
 id gleam 
 
 may do 
 
 in good 
 s peers, 
 
 d shield 
 lis other 
 
 are ex- 
 nen are 
 at, 1 re- 
 
 in the vicinity of the last of these towns are the 
 richest groves of lemon and orange that we had ever 
 seen; the trees were nothing less in magnitude than 
 those of our vyrchurds, and were bending with golden 
 fruit. 
 
 We next came to Mola di Gncta, and I dare say 
 all travellers have a pleasing remembrance of the hotel. 
 It is in sight of the castellated city of Gael a, the siege 
 of which cost the French so much powder, and stands 
 upon the ruins of Cicero's villa, with a noble garclen of 
 oranges between it and the sea. There is an old mon- 
 ument near, supposed to mark the spot where Cicero 
 was killed; and if you lack the disposition to reverence 
 his name, read his life by Middlcton, or put it in the 
 hands of the youngster whom you refuse to send ' to 
 turq^p the sod.' At the hotel was a large register for 
 travellers, though such is kept at every inn for the in- 
 spection of the police; we found in it the highest 
 names in the litera' md aristocracy of England. 
 
 The next town thai . remember, was Capua, magnifi- 
 cent of old, though anything but splendid now. We 
 went Into a church that had a few pillars of the ancient 
 city, and while the clergy smoked their accustomed 
 pipe, walked slowly along the road to Naples. 
 
 Capua is of about the size of Salem, and between it 
 and Naples, arc two other towns as large. This level 
 country around Naples is well name'' the * Campagna 
 Felice; ' it is the most fertile part of tne earth, and its 
 vicinity to large cities insures the most perfect cultiva- 
 tion. I should not describe it, to call it a garden, for 
 you never saw a garden cultivated so well; there is 
 not only a constant succession of crops, but there are 
 many crops at the same time; fruits on the trees, vines 
 running in festoons from tree to tree, and under them 
 esculents and grain. 
 16* 
 
 °. li 
 
 f; 1^' 
 
mm 
 
 m 
 
 186 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 I 
 
 The rains do not supply moisture enough, and thero 
 are frequent wells where water is raised with a wheel, 
 and carried into a reservoir, whence it is di:.tributed 
 over the fields. 
 
 The hills back of Naples hid all view of the city, 
 which we did not see till we had fairly entered a wide 
 street of it, and then we saw only the street itself — it 
 was as wide as our avenue on the neck, and paved with 
 flat slabs of stone. On the right our eyes were attract- 
 ted to a magnilicent edifice, where the poor are lodged 
 like nobles; it was an almshouse, as large as Central 
 wharf. Then came a Botanic Garden, commenced by 
 Murat; then the quadrangular palace containing the 
 Bourbon Museum, in sculptures scarcely inferior to that 
 of the Vatican. 
 
 Next we passed through an open square, the Largo 
 de' Mercatello, with a building much like our Quincy 
 market, except that it is surmounted with a hundred 
 statues in marble. The statues are personifications of 
 the virtues of some former king, who left them for the 
 irony of posterity. There stands his Justice in marble, 
 with a sword, his Mercy with a gridiron to broil heretics 
 into a better creed, his Faith wit'i a crois, and his 
 Charity with a purse of stone. He has all the virtues 
 though some are at variance with the others. 
 
 At sunset we alighted at a French hotel in the Largo 
 del Castello, an open a|)acn near the quay and the opera 
 San Carlo, and in sight of Vesuvius. Twenty ragged 
 fellows made a plunge at our baggage; I rescued mine 
 and carried it myself to a chamber, and on similar oc- 
 casions I advise alb travellers to become their own por- 
 ters. 
 
 In the moonlight evening we strolled out and walked 
 till a late hour about the city. The main avenue is the 
 Toledo, and it is worthy of so fine a city; it was 
 
«^^»-» 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 187 
 
 thronged with people till ten o'clock, as our streets are 
 thronged only on hulida}'s; but at Naples, where 
 every one is idle, every day is a holiday, and all trades 
 are followed in the open streets. Here the cobler has 
 his bench, the tailor his seat, the barber his chair, and the 
 money changer his table. Where all are indolent, many 
 must beg and steal, and in this our first walk in Naples, 
 our charity was tried a hundred times. Near a theatre, 
 a man in a mask said that he must beg or starve, and 
 we supposed it the lot of many in this great city; we 
 gave him a silver coin and he ran ofT with it like a deer, 
 making protestations of eternal remembrance. 
 
 The nocturnal police seemed to be well managed; 
 there was a military guard and frequent lights in the 
 wider streets, but into the alleys we had been cautioned 
 not to enter. ^ - 
 
 At Naples, our first pleasure was to taste the Lagry- 
 ma wine. A pistareen, produced from Signore Georges 
 a couple of the best, and he charged us but double 
 price, which was reasonable, as he is a Neapolitan, and 
 speaks English. This is an excellent wine, without 
 lead, brandy, or logwood; it produces a gentle eleva- 
 tion of the mind, such as we feel in beholding a (ine 
 picture, listening to music, or the recital of a noble 
 action. 
 
 How animated I become when I write of wine, and 
 how eloquent you were, lately, on the subject of roast 
 beef. But here it is hardly possible to drink good 
 wine to excess; it is, like wit, so light and inoflensive. 
 
 Your German is not altogether temperate, for his 
 Rhenish wines arc potent; but France, Spain, and Italy, 
 are temperate countries, and ii is as rare to see a native 
 drunk, as to behold, at a country muster, a militia man 
 sober. 
 
 i 
 
fTTT^""^ 
 
 ".k. ^-«"*JIU;-^^' 
 
 
 M<>i«i> 4|u,,.. .,*• 
 
 ^^^1 
 
 dW 
 
 188 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 li 
 
 We are a nation of drunkards, (I like to speak plain- 
 ly) and shall be, till we cultivate the grape; let every 
 Temperance Society plant a vineyard, and they will de- 
 stroy the monster they make war upon. You have read 
 the encouraging letter of the Chief Justice; I should 
 like to be tried by him, for he looks at the favorable aide; 
 yet I fear ihat much of his information came from pub- 
 licans, who do not willingly throw discredit upon their 
 own taps. When they have among their honored guests 
 a man of respect, ' gravem pietate ac mert/u,' and he 
 inquires, ' Landlord, how many tiplers have you ? * — if 
 I know Boniface, he will reply, * none your Honor/ 
 Still, the evil is shrinking into narrower limits. Let 
 the foul demon be confined to his own jug, and miserable 
 be the man who would draw the cork, as the fisherman 
 in the Arabian tale released the horrid genius that 
 swelled to a monstrous size and threatened to destroy 
 his liberator. But wit and humor, poetry, music, sculp- 
 ture, and painting, have conspired to throw flowers over 
 the road that leads to intemperance and ruin. 
 
 Th«re are at Naples, wine vaults of a great many 
 chambers in the side of the mountain. Wine of a year 
 old is the best, and may be had as cheap as cider in 
 New England; and it is much better than that 'table ci- 
 der ' over which, at ray board, you made wry faces. At 
 many of these vaults the lower people make little parties 
 and drink by the hour, for which the vintner sets his 
 price according to the supposed capacity of his custom- 
 ers, and practice has rendered hitn so shrewd that he 
 can guage to a pint, by uie eye. 
 
 He has a variety of artifices to interrupt their atten- 
 tion to the cask; the most common is to make them 
 laugh, and a moderate jest suffices when it is fortified 
 by good wine. Considerable Cyprus wine is used at 
 Naples, and Malaga is a favorite, but there is little spirit, 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 189 
 
 k plain- 
 it every 
 will de- 
 lve read 
 I should 
 )le side; 
 om pub- 
 on their 
 d guests 
 and he 
 t)u?'— if 
 Honor.* 
 ts. Let 
 liserable 
 sherman 
 tius that 
 » destroy 
 c, sculp- 
 ers over 
 
 at many 
 
 >f a year 
 
 cider in 
 
 table ci- 
 
 3es. At 
 
 Q parties 
 
 sets bis 
 
 custom- 
 
 that he 
 
 ir atten- 
 ce them 
 fortified 
 used at 
 le spirit) 
 
 and though I was ten weeks at Naples, in all public 
 places, and living like the Neapolitans, in the streets, I 
 saw but one man intoxicated, and he could walk. 
 
 Permit me to lament that things should not be called 
 by their right names; we say that a mun is corned, is 
 illustrious, elevated, boozy, when we should say plainly 
 that he is drunk. Vice loses half its deformity when 
 you give it a new name, and the rogues and pickpockets 
 in London shroud their practices under such queer 
 words, called slang, that to steal, to lie, and to murder, 
 seems half a jest. 
 
 ' NO. XL 
 
 Sir — Our first walk was to the postoflice, where, 
 around the entrance, (as Cares beset the infernal gates) 
 the scribes have placed their chairs and tables ; for it 
 often happens that men receive letters who cannot read 
 or write. 
 
 The secretaries sit like a priest in the confessional, 
 the hired confidants of hopes, fears and reproaches, and 
 cast into their own culd formula the warm dictates Nea- 
 politan love and afiection. Yet the postofiice at 
 Naples was the bcs^ ndministered among all that I saw 
 in Europe. 
 
 Having visited the postofiice, the traveller is advised 
 to turn through the square of the castle, by the Opera 
 of San Carlo, which has a front from the Parthenon, to 
 the Toledo, the main avenue of the city, which is full of 
 people to an overflow. The beggar jostles the prince, 
 and the whiskered soldier the shorn friar ; all walk fast 
 and with animated faces, as if in pursuit of pleasure or 
 gain; yet not one in twenty has anything to do. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
190 
 
 LfeTTERS FROM A 
 
 Turning to the IcA you vrill seo a troop of horse in 
 front of a grand house, as we say at home, or of a pal- 
 ace, in the languages of Europe, and it is dignified bjr 
 the residence of the King of the Two Sicilies. It is 
 well placed, being directly on the Bay — in sight of the 
 whole line o. shore, and Vesuvius, and under the Castle 
 of Saint Elmo. 
 
 Having passsd the Palace you turn to the right for a 
 stroll along a wide street, parallel with the shore, where 
 you see those who sell FruUa di Marcj sea fruit, that is, 
 oysters and other shell fish. The oysters arc excellent, 
 but dear. 
 
 This walk leads to the Villa Realc, one of the finest 
 promenades in Italy. It has next the sea a parapet, 
 never washed by the sea, for there are no tides in the 
 Mediterranean ; yet it is near to the waters which 
 have always a swell, and break upon the sandy beach. 
 There are fountains, statues, trees, flowers, pavilions, 
 and people in the costumes of all nations, (and some 
 of them are glorious) walking, sitting and reclining 
 among them. 
 
 Beyond this pretty place we came near to a high 
 hill, and the road led us to a long and straight cavern 
 directly under it. This was the grotto of Pausilippo, 
 cut in remote' antiquity through the rock, wide enough 
 for two carriages abreast, and fif)y feet in height. 
 
 At the entrance was a fat monk, who called himself 
 a hermit, sitting in a basket attached to ropes to draw 
 himself up to his hermitage one hundred feet above ; 
 he solicited charity, and we buttoned our pockets. The 
 grotto seems to my recollection to be a quarter of a mile 
 in length, and is dimly lighted by two orifices from the 
 top and a few glow worm lamps. It is cool and would 
 be agreeable, but for the dust which has been ground 
 for three thousand years, and is so fine, that it is easily 
 
ROSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 191 
 
 lorse in 
 
 let in motion. The dust is a great evil in all the roads ; 
 there is little rain, and you return from a walk powder- 
 ed like a miller. This, with the bright sun, we si:[>- 
 posed to be the reason why so many arc blind. We 
 also saw a good number of deformed, but the people 
 who were not deformed might furnish models for an 
 Apollo, and you may see plenty of them with but a blue 
 cloth about the middle, or in a pair of trowacrs ending 
 midway between the hip and the knee. Of course they 
 arc well bronzed, and when lying still under the arches 
 look like statues. 
 
 We emerged from the grotto into a little village, and 
 the effect was beautiful, to come at once from such a 
 cavern to a plain, of trees and vines, shut in by hills, 
 with every leaf and blade of grUss glittering in heavy 
 dews under such a morning sun as you can never see 
 in the latitude of forty-tvt^o. 
 
 On our return, a stripling accosted us to request the 
 honour of shewing the tomb of Virgil, who he said was 
 a great poet, but a greater magician, for such is his 
 local fame. As it was the very place wc had come to 
 see, we walked up the side of the mountain, and knock- 
 ed for five minutes with a brick upon a garden gate, 
 which v.'as at last opened, and we passed by the graves 
 of several Frenchmen and Englisiimen, to the sepulchre 
 of Virgil, It is on the side of the mountain, almost 
 directly over the grotto, in shape a dome, and in size 
 sufficient to hold five or six persons ; there are one or 
 two apertures for light, and niches in the wall for urns. 
 We went upon the top and broke a branch from a small 
 myrt.lfi that is there growing, which I have since pre- 
 sented to a Reverend President. If Maro had sought 
 over Italy for a more charming spot he could not havo 
 found it ; and there is the authority of tradition, (v^nich 
 in locality is strong) and of tolerably accurate descrip- 
 
 ') 
 
 
 > 111 
 
193 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 I 
 
 if 
 
 Hon, by old authors, that this is indeed tho tomb of 
 Virgil. 
 
 At the toot of the hill wo entered a church, where 
 there in a monument to Snnnazaro, whose epitaph cx- 
 preoscH the vicinity of his tomb to thut of Virgil, and 
 the reKcniblancc of their strains. 
 
 The extent of tho Pny of Naples, from one cope to 
 the other, is, I suppose, twentyfivc miles, and there is a 
 smooth beach of dark sand round the whole circuit. 
 There is almost always, even in calms, a heavy surf, 
 and it is very pleasant in a still day. to walk ahmg the 
 beach and see it break over. Pui ^lel with the beach 
 is a street of many miles in extent. 
 
 In the middle of the bay is Capri, an island of a few 
 hills, and on the summits are ancient towers. At sun- 
 set, when the waters aro smooth and reflect as in a mir- 
 ror the gorgeous skies, Capri seems like a cloud of pur- 
 ple floating in the air, for the element below seems as 
 pure as that above. 
 
 This is the spot where the third Csesar passed his 
 cheerful old age in philosophic retirement, and from 
 whence he issued those beneficent edicts thut constitute 
 an enviable part of his fame. The science of govern- 
 ment was then in its infancy, and '\i' ex post facto penalties 
 were sometimes inflicted, it cannot be denied that tho 
 Romans had lo degenerated us to need wholesome se- 
 verity; and who was a fitter person to administer it than 
 Tiberius? 
 
 Solitude never made a good man; it may suspend 
 the operation of evil passions, but cannot eradicate them. 
 Where there is no temptation there is no resistance, 
 and can be no virtue — for it is virtue to choose wisely 
 between good and evil, when the will inclines to the 
 latter. 
 
BOSTON MKRfllANT. 
 
 193 
 
 omb of 
 
 , where 
 nph cx- 
 gil, and 
 
 cape to 
 icro is a 
 
 circuit, 
 ivy surf, 
 long the 
 e beach 
 
 of a few 
 At sun- 
 in a mir- 
 d of pur- 
 }cenis as 
 
 issed his 
 
 ind from 
 
 onstitute 
 
 govern- 
 
 )enaUies 
 
 that tho 
 
 30ine se- 
 
 r it than 
 
 suspend 
 te them, 
 distance, 
 wisely 
 s to the 
 
 Yet, whon a poor and just uinn sees iniquity riding 
 in n coach and bespattering hiiii, perchance, with thq 
 mud, or when he himself becomes un object of undeserv- 
 ed reproach, he may feel a wisii to retire from his fel- 
 lows beyond tho contagion of vice, and train himself in 
 a better principle. 
 
 But solitary animals are the most savage. The tiger 
 prowls alone; the adder has no venomous mate, and 
 tho vulture no comrade iti rapiiio. Jlermity are mud or 
 misanthropic, or both; and for cool systematic cc-^lty 
 that studies tortures with the ardor of a rulinfr pas- 
 sion, there is none like amoiik, or a monarch ivao ti-^es 
 one to be his prime minister. Men are not too good, 
 (so far T ,\i i willing to admit that I speak f<<r myself) 
 and in solitude they study their own amiable hearts, 
 which are tiie mirrctrs that reflect or distort (but never 
 flatter) the dispositions of others. To gain knowledge 
 of what is obscure, men compare tho known with the 
 unknown, and as all men have knowledge of their own 
 evil passions, they infer the existence of somctiiing 
 worse in their neighbours. ,f,-_ 
 
 Tiberius looked into his own tender heart, and some- 
 times saw in it suspicion, cruelty, and treachery; this 
 generated a rancor to all mankind, for how could he 
 love those who seemed worse than liiinself. Therefore 
 he spoke of his kind in sarcasms, and his benefits to 
 men were in the ratio of his praise. lie inflicted upon 
 them such little inquietudes, as his limited means allow- 
 ed, and, (as we hate in the proportion that we injure) it 
 became a matter of course, that the Emperor's hatred 
 of his species should amount to fury. Uo not marvel 
 that I am sour, lor I have been sucking a lemon. 
 
 You will sometimes hear the situation of lioston com- 
 pared with that of Naples, but there is only that sort of 
 parallel between them that Fluellen found between 
 17 
 
 .' il 
 
 i ■) 
 
 It 
 
 U 
 
pp 
 
 194 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 y i 
 
 Monmouth and Maccdon. There is no city upon earth 
 like Naples; though Lisbon is beautiful from the river, 
 and Genoa also from the Gulf; but they are not under 
 the Sicilian skies, nor are they surrounded by much of 
 the beautiful or the sublime. 
 
 At Naples there is a mountain forever rolling it» vol- 
 ume of sinokc and flame, standing as u magniflcent 
 natural pharos; and how mean in c:»ni;>ari3 3n was even 
 the great Colossus at Rhodes, holding a burning tar- 
 barrel in his hand, to light the fleets in sailing between 
 his legs. 
 
 Naples is built chiefly upon a slight eminence, though 
 in the midst of it there is a mountain, surrounded by a 
 castle large enougli to swallow Bunker's Hill, and pick 
 its teeth with the monument. 
 
 In front of the city is that noble Bay, and on other 
 sides a plain of such fertility and beauty, ni)wiiig with 
 milk and honey, corn, wine, and oil, that it is well named 
 the * Fortunate Country.' 'J'he city cannot soon be- 
 come tedious, even to a restless traveller, there are so 
 many objects of natural grandeur, historical and fabu- 
 lous interest, and such monuments of a race of men, 
 that are now known only by a lew magnificent relics. 
 There is Herculaneum and Pompeii, with their gems, 
 manuscripts, statues, pictures, tombs, temples, amphi- 
 theatres, and streets; there is Misenus, Avernus, Cumie, 
 Baia, and Capua, with recollections that a scholar cher- 
 ishes as a miser counts his gold. 
 
 Then it is the cheapest country to live in, not except- 
 ing even Kentucky, where a dollar buys ten biishels of 
 corn. A good house may be rented in the suburbs for 
 six dollars a year, and corn, wine, etc. are so clieap, 
 that it is marvellous to see so many wretches starving. 
 At Castel-a-mare, a large town under a mountain on 
 the opposite side of the bay, I am convinced a man 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 195 
 
 n earth 
 c river, 
 t under 
 nuch of 
 
 it-^ vol- 
 nificent 
 iis even 
 ng tar- 
 jctweea 
 
 , though 
 led by a 
 ind pick 
 
 on other 
 iiig with 
 I! named 
 joon be- 
 e arc so 
 nd fabu- 
 of men, 
 t relics, 
 ir gems, 
 , arnphi- 
 ;, Curn^, 
 iar cher- 
 
 except- 
 ishcls of 
 urbs for 
 () cheap, 
 starving, 
 ntain on 
 d a man 
 
 may live we'd on fifty dollars a year. But then ho must 
 carry the money with him, for in cheap countries, though 
 many 'flullars may be saved, a penny is very hard to be 
 had. But it is nrtt in human nature to be contented 
 with whft we have, and at this town we raised the envy 
 of an old lady, by telling her that the fowls in Aniciica 
 laid two eggs in a day, whereas her own afforded but 
 one. ^ ♦ 
 
 In Naples there are no Jews, and we saw but few 
 Turks. The foreign ships are chiefly English and Aus- 
 trian. The monks are numerous, especially a huge 
 race of br'.ofooted friars, that leave a track in the sand 
 like an ei phant's. Their hair is close shaven as low 
 as the ears, tliey wear a brown cloak to the knees, and 
 have a compitxion that partakes more of the violet than 
 the pale rose. 
 
 The churches arc less splendid thnn at Romej^ut all 
 places of amusemont are more clepant here. A, stran- 
 ger is surprised to see all mechanical trades followed in 
 the street. Basket weavers, shoemakers, barbers, Uj^ 
 even workers in inetalu, pay little rent for shops, MKt^ 
 the climfite is so dry that a rain seldom comes to inter- 
 rupt tlieir industry. But if in the streets there are so 
 many at work there are countless throngs of the idle; 
 and all the avenues are filled with people, as our streets 
 are on some great holiday. 
 
 All kinds of jugplin;!^' feats arc practised at the cor- 
 ners, and Punch and i tc puppets have the same open 
 theatre; ytt before the hocus pocus man begins, he 
 sends round his cap after the manner of a contribution 
 box, and I have known it returned as dry. 
 
 You would think yourself at a beggar's opera; there 
 are so many to solicit, that it is almost a hopeless task 
 to give. In self-defence we hardened our hearts by 
 rubbing a brickbat over them, and were soon known 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ')^ 
 
wm 
 
 196 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 for denials. The beggars seem to have a system of 
 telegraph, and the information ' here is a gentleman 
 that gives,' travels faster than the wight who would fain 
 run away from his character because it is too good; 
 though in your city I have known people try to escape 
 their reputation for a contrary reason. 
 
 Pi 
 
 NO. XII. 
 
 Sir — We went on a beautiful day, when the sky 
 
 was as blue as Miss 's stockings, to Pompeii, and 
 
 what we there saw will be what I shall last forget, ex- 
 cept a flogging at school. 
 
 ^F<m^an ct hcoc oUm meminisse juvabit.^ Indulge me with 
 the relation. My schoolmaster had our Yankee habit 
 of poking the fire : when it was burning well, he could 
 
 ,ke it burn better. This is a good principle to act 
 n in philosophy, though in medicine it brought the 
 poor hypochondriac to his grave. . 
 **^ Well, Sir, just before Magister Pokeweed came in 
 (for he it was) and on a bitter cold day, I heated the 
 tongs to a changeable blue heat and laid a smoking 
 brand upon the hearth. The pedagogue's eyes glis- 
 tened with pleasure. He seized the heated forceps 
 with both his hands, but threw them down as if they 
 had been vipers, and uttered, in his rage and pain, such 
 imprecations as should have blistered his tongue. 
 
 It is hard to keep a good secret ; it is hoarding trea- 
 sure that belongs to the public. It soon transpired that 
 I was the urchin that had taken retaliatory measures on 
 Pokeweed's fingers ; for many times had he warmed 
 my own. I had the heroic satisfaction that is the foun- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 197 
 
 dati'^!* of all wars, of annoying my enemy as much as he 
 could injure me, and dealing to him a larger measure of 
 mortification and ungratified fury. 
 
 But he is now a judge, and it is but a week since our 
 hands met in amity, for who but a savage would carry 
 into the world the little enmities of the school. 
 
 We rode to Pompeii in a calash, drawn by one 
 small, spirited horse. It is a sort of hug^nj, holding two 
 gentlemen within and half dozen vagabonds clinging 
 without. The charioteer stands on aboard behind, and 
 drives like Jehu, who drove furiously. He hires his 
 horse by the day, and is willing to drive faster than is 
 needful, to get the worth of his money; as I have 
 known countrymen continue to cat when hunger 
 was sated, (and that was not done in a minute) lest the 
 host should gain too much from their moderation. This 
 you will call a calumny, and I suppose it is. 
 
 We gave our coachman a dollar a day, and the prom- 
 ise of a carline, if he would be on his best behaviour, 
 which he promised and perhaps performed, though he 
 conducted very ill. We took a fair start from the quay, 
 and descended the hill as if life depended upon speed. 
 Wc crossed the bridge Madalina, a»id passed by the 
 granary belonging to the king, who monopolizes grain, 
 wool, lottery tickets, and tobacco ; but it would cost 
 him his throne to lay a paw upon macaroni. The 
 granary is as wide as Faneuil Hall (more or less) and 
 I suppose half a mile in length. At the other end we 
 paused to look at a few miserable galley slaves digging 
 in the road. Slavery in its best disguise is ' bitter ;' but 
 here it is in its naked, horrid deformity. T know not 
 how many slaves there are, but there must be many, 
 for the sound of chains as wc passed the grated win- 
 dows was as if hundreds were shaken at once. I have 
 never seen them in large bodies, but they are sometimes 
 17* 
 
 ■♦ J 
 
 *» 
 
 111 
 
 i 
 
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 
 
 198 
 
 LETTERS RFOM A 
 
 sweeping the streets in companies of half a dozen, 
 chained to each other, and under the muzzle of a 
 blunderbuss. They are fed so ill that they are fain to 
 eat the offal of the streets. I have not known them 
 beg, but mute solicitation is the strongest, and we seldom 
 passed one without giving him a trifle, which was re- 
 ceived with a start of surprise that any one should caro 
 for his necessities. Body and mind have such con- 
 nexion that if the limbs are shackled the intellect is re- 
 pressed and the whole man degraded. The Italian 
 word to express everything base and vile is cattivo, 
 though at first designating only a captive. 
 
 Portici, about four miles from Naples, is a city as large 
 as Portsmouth, and there the monarch has a palace and 
 gardens. The palace is a quadrangle with an area 
 within, through which the street passes under opposite 
 arches in the wall. This town is directly over Hercu- 
 laneum, which is covered eighty feet with a hard shell 
 of lava, so that here is one town upon another, and the 
 living are walking about over the dead, as cool as un- 
 dertakers, or as if they themselves were never to die, 
 and be trampled on. Herculancum was discovered less 
 than a century ago, by men who were digging for water. 
 It hp*? been largely excavated, and we went into its 
 theatre, though as our torch burnt dimly it seemed to us 
 a cavern, as in truth it was. The statues have been re- 
 moved to the museum at Naples. Beyond Portici are 
 many towns. 
 
 At two miles further we encountered the van of a 
 most ferocious army, every soldier booted to the knee, 
 and whiskered to the chin. ' Cedant arma togce^^ is not 
 the fashion of Naples. The military leaves the civil at 
 an awful distance in the rear. In consequence of this 
 happy state of things, a bloody-minded corporal took 
 our horse a prisoner of war, and led him aside from the 
 
» dozen, 
 zle of a 
 re fain to 
 wn them 
 re seldom 
 J was re- 
 fold care 
 uch con- 
 ect is re- 
 e Italian 
 is cattivo, 
 
 7 as large 
 
 alace and 
 
 an area 
 
 opposite 
 
 r Hercu- 
 
 lard shell 
 
 , and the 
 
 )ol as un- 
 
 ;r to die, 
 
 ^ered less 
 
 or water. 
 
 into its 
 
 Tied to us 
 
 been re- 
 
 ortici are 
 
 van of a 
 the knee, 
 CB,' is not 
 le civil at 
 ce of this 
 oral took 
 I from the 
 
 BOSTON MERCITANT. 
 
 199 
 
 road, while the army deployed before us. T.iere were 
 ten thousand of these heroes, dressed in blue, and it 
 was two liours before our steed could obtain his dis- 
 charge. 
 
 This ride of ours was parallel with the shore, and but 
 a short distance from it ; but near to Pompeii, we turn- 
 ed abruptly to the led, by a wide turnip field, and came 
 at once upon the little town that looks as fresh as ever 
 after the lapse of eighteen hundred years. It is in a 
 spot the most beautiful under the sun ; it is worth the 
 danger of an earthquake and Inva to live in such a par- 
 adise. The earth that still covers two thirds of the 
 city is but light dust and ashes that fell so deep at a 
 tremendous blast from Mount Vesuvius. 
 
 This is six miles from the crater. The ashes reached 
 but little above the highest houses, though none of them 
 were high. These ashes in coming this distance had 
 been somewhat cooled, and so well, in this dry climate, 
 have preserved what was under them, that the paintings 
 and stucco of the walls are to this hour as fresh as the 
 pictures in your "?wn house. The roofs only (having 
 been of wood) have decayed, so that at first sight you 
 might be reminded of Asmodous, who unroofed the 
 houses at Madrid, for the instruction of Don Cleofas, 
 as I shall describe for yours, those of Pompeii. 
 
 We gave the cicerone, who derives his title from 
 Tully himself, half a dollar for e.xplanations, and he 
 i..urned the worth of our money. Yet as we had a 
 plan of the streets, we could have conducted ourselves 
 but for that culpable compliance with evil customs that 
 has often led us into greater expenses. 
 
 Let us begin at the gate that led to Naples. It is in 
 a charming spot, and near it are tombs with inscrip- 
 tions, where humble people (such is the lottery of fame) 
 have had the fortune to leave their names to posterity, 
 
wm 
 
 200 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 while in these timeH, even a great man sometime sur- 
 vives his rcputotion. 
 
 In this quarter arc the ruins of Cicero's villa, the 
 third we had seen, though the other two were named 
 on better authority. Some of his villas were presents 
 fioiu his rich clients, as like our Wirt, the Roman ora- 
 tor drew causes from the most distant parts of the coun- 
 try; for eloquence is like the fairy gift, that turns 
 word?, as t!icy tall from the lips, into rubies, diamonds^ 
 and pearls. 
 
 In passing down the streets we looked into many of the 
 houses. One of them was a baker's, and had the very 
 stone mills in which he uiude his flour ; for in those 
 days the baker ground the wheat, whereas he grinds 
 now only his customers. 
 
 Another shop appeared to have been for wine. There 
 was a marble counter as bright as when new, with a 
 stain from the liquors, and a place worn by a frequent 
 Betting down of the cup. The signs were over the 
 doors, painted on the bricks of the walls. The letters 
 are like those we call italics, though in the most of the 
 monuments elsewhere, they are like the best of our 
 capitals. 
 
 Next we vi;'?ited a few baths lately excavated. They 
 are in excellent taste, with figures painted en the plaster 
 of the waills. The baths seem to have been in Italy 
 almost a necessary of life, and those of the emperors, 
 are so magnificent that after a lapse of so many centu- 
 ries tlieir very ruins are grand. 
 
 We came soon to a forum that would hold as many 
 people as Faneuil Hall, and at one end was the little 
 rostrum, which for want of a stump, the orator as- 
 cended to harangue Mie multitude in good Latin. 
 
 There was a temple to I sis, with the altar and a!) 
 things entire. The Romans seemed to give easy ad- 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 301 
 
 inittance from other countries of the knowledge of every 
 God but the True. Here it was, as I think, that the 
 statue of Jupiter in terra colla was found. It is in the 
 Museum at Naples. The material is a coarse earthen 
 ware, thought to lo more lasting than marble itself, so 
 that the better way to preserve the features of a great 
 man, may be to fashion them in the clay whereof he is 
 compounded, as the brown jug was moulded in the de- 
 composition of Fat Toby. As the grave digger builds 
 stronger than the carpenter, so may the potter's ware 
 outlast the labors of the sculptor. 
 
 We visited the two theatres, with stone seats rising 
 in the form of a semicircle. There was no division into 
 boxes, but each seat had a number, and the tickets had 
 numbers to match. The stages were not deep, and had 
 little room for the actors, or the perspective of the 
 scenes. Our Forty Thieves, and armies of three pla- 
 toons, would have had no space to manoeuvre in. 
 
 The Amphitheatre would be admired at Rome itself. 
 Whenever the humane Romans had wild beasts to be 
 worried, or gladiators to be butchered, they accorded 
 to them a splendid arena, lor few men grudge expense 
 upon their pleasures. ' . 
 
 The private houses arc generally sjnall and built after 
 the manner of the modern ores in Italy. In the middle 
 there is a court, and from this is the entrance to the 
 rooms which were none of them large; few of them 
 fifteen feet square and many were less. The most 
 commodious was the house of Diomed, unless I have 
 forgotten names, though I have, in Parson Evans's 
 phrase, a ' good sprag memory.' The house occupies 
 a long front on the street, and back is a quadrangle, 
 (which might have been lawn or garden,) enclosed by a 
 half-subterranean suite of apartments. Here Diomed 
 kept his good wines, and the large ten gallon earthen 
 
 I 
 
 I. 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
202 
 
 LETTERS PnOM A 
 
 jars are there to this day. It was in this cellar that 
 about twenty skeletons were found. 
 
 In such a retreat the people could not have been 
 immediately killed. One of them was found resting 
 against the wall in an upright posture, and another 
 seems to have made a hole in the partition with an axe 
 that was found near. 
 
 The most of the inhabitants must have escaped with 
 their valuable effects, f*r not many bodies were found, 
 or much gold and silver. The bodies were discovered 
 mostly in the better houses, whence I infer that the 
 higher class was the last to run, having had more to lose, 
 and having been less subject to panic than the lower 
 
 Though when the burst came it was like that of ten 
 thousand mortars, yet there was reasonable warning 
 that it was about to come, for before an eruption the 
 wells are troubled, the earth trembles, and noise and 
 iiame come out of the mountain. 
 
 We returned to Naples in the belief that the ancients 
 had many household comforts, and more elegance than 
 is found at present in the world. All the utensils and 
 furniture found at Pompeii, and they are various and 
 many, are in the Museum. The paintings were remov- 
 ed to Portici, where they occupy an apartment in the 
 palace, and are worth the examination of a modern ar- 
 tist. 
 
 On another day we hired a horse and man for an ex- 
 cursion, to the places that lie adjacent to Miseno, a 
 point that acquired its name from the trumpeter of 
 iEneas. We galloped through the grotto of Pausillippo, 
 with very little care for the bones of foot passengers, 
 who when two carriages meet, stand upright against the 
 walls and must contract themselves to their smallest di- 
 mensions. There are a few days in the year when the 
 sun near his setting shines through the whole cavern 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 203 
 
 ellar that 
 
 ave been 
 i resting 
 I another 
 th an axe 
 
 aped with 
 jrc found, 
 liscovered 
 - that the 
 re to lose, 
 ! lower, 
 lat of ten 
 ; warning 
 iption the 
 noise and 
 
 e ancients 
 ance than 
 ensits and 
 irious and 
 re remov- 
 cnt in the 
 lodern ar- 
 
 for an ex- 
 Miseno, a 
 npeter of 
 lusillippo, 
 issengers, 
 gainst the 
 nallest di- 
 when the 
 le cavern 
 
 upon the village beyond. A rapid movement brought 
 us, af^er several turns, to the quiet little Lake Agnano, 
 surrounded by steep hills, and on the top of one is the . 
 high and airy convent of the Camalduli, for your monk, 
 like a raven, knows how to choose a lofty place for his 
 nest. This little lake used to have a wonder of its 
 own; that is, the Grotta del Cane, or the Dog-hole. 
 But knowledge has stripped it of all attractions, since 
 any chemist can make the gas that issues frorr. the bot- 
 tom of this cave. It is like Lampedo's medicines, hu- 
 manely tried upon a dog; and that emblem of fidelity 
 has oiten been the victim of experimental philosophy 
 The hole has rather an ill look, and the dog seemed 
 aware of the nature of our business, for he howled pite- 
 ously, and struggled like a salmon to break his line 
 His blood-thirvSty master, for the lucre of a piatareen, 
 held his nose to the ground, when poor Tray gave us an 
 involuntary specimen of suspended animation. When 
 thrown upon the grass, he recovered in five minutes, 
 and came and fawned upon his truculent master. We 
 tried one breath at the gas, which took us by the noses 
 after the manner of good mustard. 
 
 This lake, like every other near Naples, fills the 
 crater of an old volcano, and we went (o another dell 
 of the same origin, so steep that a slight wall on the 
 edge is enough to confine the deer and other game that 
 is kept there for the recreation of the King. This is 
 called Astroni, and there is a hunting lodge in the 
 woods, which is filled with bucks that have no fear of 
 man, and wild boars as gentle as kittens. 
 
 This whole dell reminded us of the A^ernus of Vir- 
 gil, though Avernus at present is more bare of trees 
 than the Boston Common, for there is not even a huge 
 . ^elm for dreams to flutter upon. Next we went back a 
 mile, to get into the road along the shore that leads to 
 
 1 
 
 11 ■■ 
 
■PIP 
 
 mpinp 
 
 MPRHPPMMIV 
 
 504 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 m 
 
 Puzzuoli, opposite to Baia and Miseno, with a fine 
 sweep of bay between. These points were formerly 
 united by a bridge, and many of the arches now rise 
 above the waters, having btood time, water, tempest, 
 and caithquako, since the days of Caligula. 
 
 This is something of a town, with a hotel and a few 
 coffee-houses, a temple to Augustus converted into a 
 church, and the foot of a gigantic statue to that best of 
 princes, the placable Tiberius. Just without the town 
 is the temple of Jupiter Serapis, that has now a few^ 
 grand l)iit {)i..str:i(( d columns of variegated marble. 
 What a monument one of them would be on the Ex- 
 change, surmounted by a figure of Sir Thomas Gresham, 
 or some equally distinguished merchant of our timcH ! 
 We need not go far, to find some who have given pal- 
 aces to knowledge,who have made the East their tributa- 
 ry, and whom it would be unjust to compare as men, with 
 the best prince or merchant of the house of Medici. 
 
 Next we turned to the right, up hill, by the ruins of 
 Cicero's villa to a convent where they reverently shew 
 the block on which Saint January was beheaded, and I 
 seem to remember that there is a picture by that paint- 
 er of tortures and martyrdoms, commonly called Spag- 
 nuolctto. The friars were bowling on the green award: 
 we joined in the sport and beat them easily. 
 
 We then walked about the pleasant fields, and came 
 to excavations in the rock on the hill side, so extensive 
 and regular with arches and pillars, that it is easy to be 
 lost among them. I can form no conjecture for what 
 they were intended. We visited an amphitheatre with 
 the inside overgrown with bushes, though the circuit of 
 the walls is complete, and underneath are the dens 
 where the beasts were kept for the amusement oi^ that 
 more rational animal, man. 
 
raiiwiBw^fWHmPwrTs?^ 
 
 h a fine 
 Ibrrnerly 
 now rise 
 tempest, 
 
 nd a few 
 d into a 
 at best of 
 the town 
 ,w a few, 
 1 marble, 
 the Ex- 
 Gresham, 
 ir timotJ ! 
 >ivcn pal- 
 ir tributa- 
 men, with 
 ^dici. 
 c ruins of 
 ntly shew 
 cd, and I 
 lut paint- 
 ed Spag- 
 jn swavd: 
 
 and came 
 extensive 
 iasy to be 
 for what 
 sat re with 
 circuit of 
 the dens 
 nt o[^ that 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 NO. XIII. 
 
 206 
 
 Sir — We came to a close in the last letter, at an old 
 amphitheatre. Next we went to a smoking and sound- 
 ing vallej, that was a type of Tartarus. The hills that 
 overhang it are encrusted with copperas, or something 
 similar in appearance, and there is a smell of brimstone 
 that is rather suspicious. Moreover, in the valley, we 
 evidently walked on a crust, or shell, which sounded 
 under our feet; I should not like to fall through. 
 
 Mr Carter thinks, that in Yankee land, such a place 
 would have been bored into; so I think too, if the peo- 
 ple should bore half as much as I do. All extremes are 
 near to each other; underneath is fire and brimstone, 
 but on the surface, in some parts, is the most beautiful 
 heath we ever beheld. Smoke ascends from a great 
 many spots, and from one place there is a constant 
 blast, over which it is not safe to hold the hand at two 
 yards. This is a miniature of a volcano, and the whole 
 valley, which is called the Solfaterra, was once a crater. 
 When Milton was in Italy, (where he was known and 
 admired by the great, before a tardy fame was accorded 
 him at home,) he visited the Solfaterra, and probably 
 there acquired his conception of Satan walking over the 
 ' burning marie,' and leaning upon hi^ cane as he hap- 
 pened to scorch his foof. 
 
 The order of memory leads us to Monte-Nuovo, or a 
 mountain that was new, a century and a half ago, when 
 it was thrown up by an eruption of a volcano, in a place 
 that i/as always quiet, as a placid man like me may 
 once in his life work himself up to an explosion of rage. 
 
 We went down into the old crater, which is now 
 covered with bushes, it is about a quarter of a mile 
 deep, and in shape as regular as a tea-cup. Hav- 
 18 
 
 \ f M 
 
"MP 
 
 mmmimmmmmmmmmmm 
 
 306 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 ing descended thu hill, we came to a secluded valley, 
 with a small rccdy lake, having a temple on its bank, 
 and frogs in its stagnant waters. The sides of the val- 
 ley were barren and bare of trees, and on the north was 
 an arch, through which a road seemed to haVe led. 
 This valley was Avcrnus, which I was sorry to have 
 seen, for I prefer the description of Virgil to my own 
 ocular impicssions. We lelt it by the subterranean pas- 
 sage under a hill, and came out on the other side, near 
 to the shore, which we followed to Baia, passing some 
 hot baths, in which we inm)ersed our legs. At Baia, 
 there is but a narrow strip of level land, which is shut 
 in by hills, through which the road passed to Cuma. 
 There are two or three temples on the shore, one to 
 Diana, whom, at school, I used to like better than Ve- 
 nus, though she has a temple also. The soil is filled 
 with fragments of marble; everywhere we trod upon 
 ancient grandeur, but of the tens of thousands of polished 
 and luxurious Romans, who lived in this vicinity, there 
 is not one stone of the houses left upon another — all is 
 desolation and decay; neglect and drought are destroy- 
 ing the finest portion of Italy. 
 
 We toiled up the hill, on which stands the castle, and 
 found a Dutcii frigate at anchor beneath it. Then we 
 walked down a lane, between vines and trees, to the 
 Elysian Fields, (for the classic topogra[>hy is affected,) 
 where is a pool or two of water, with a few plover on the 
 sand, but no majestic shades of heroes, poets, orators, 
 or those who had invented useful arts. 
 
 We left Elysium with little regret, and returned to 
 Cuma, where there are many indistinct ruins. Lake 
 Fusarois near it, called by the ' knowing ones,' Acheron; 
 this lake is an arm of the f :a, and is a piscary of the 
 king, having good oysters, and a fish like smelt. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 207 
 
 I valley, 
 [s bank, 
 the val- 
 orth was 
 aVc led. 
 to have 
 my own 
 icnn pas- 
 idc, near 
 ng some 
 \.t Baia, 
 h is shut 
 Cuma. 
 3, one to 
 than Ve- 
 
 is filled 
 
 rod upon 
 
 r polished 
 
 ty, there 
 
 -all is 
 
 destroy- 
 
 istlc, and 
 lien we 
 
 s, to the 
 fleeted,) 
 
 er on the 
 orators, 
 
 urned to 
 
 Lake 
 
 Vcheron; 
 
 y of the 
 
 We returned to Naples laden with antiques— a small 
 head of Augustus, in has relief, an old coin, too 
 much bruised to discover the inscription, and therefore 
 more valuable, as we can call it anything, three seals 
 from a petrifying fountain, a slal) froxi the temple of 
 Diana, a cane from a myrtle at Avernu.-;, and a counter- 
 feit crown, received in change from our honest coach- 
 man. 
 
 It would be strange, in writing of Naples, to say 
 nothing of Vesuvius. 1 might as well, in describing the 
 features of a man, omit the nose on his* face, though at 
 Naples, su( i omissions might sometimes very naturally 
 happen. V/e took a calash for Resina, a suburb of 
 Portici, distant abotit four miles, whence we were to 
 ascend, after the manner of the actors, * when Roscius 
 was an actor at Rome.' 
 
 The man who keeps the gates of* our Mountain,' is 
 Salvatore Madonna, whose name is almost blasphemous, 
 But he is a good soul, and the first honest man, or rogue 
 with honest intervals, that we found about Naples; 
 for we made no bargain, and he charged, on our return, 
 but a dollar a-piece for jackasses, (not including the 
 guide,) two bottles of Lagrima wine, two loaves, and 
 six eggs to roast in the embers of tlje mountain. 
 
 We set off at a round trot equal to three miles an hour, 
 but my dapple stumbled over one piece of lava, and 
 threw my cheek on lll^ rough surface of another. I 
 tied him to a vine, and made the rest of the way on surer 
 feet. Some way above the village, we passed the Gen- 
 eral's house, which, I believe, was for a time the quar- 
 ters of Championnet. Speaking of generals — as we 
 came through Portici, we saw a regiment drawn out to 
 receive some one with military honors; and who was the 
 visiter but our old friend the Russian, who was dressed 
 like a field marshal, and his ribs were covered with 
 
pn 
 
 208 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 crosses and stars. There is much in a good dress; it is 
 a good character, till a rogue is known, and it trans- 
 formed our Russian from the mildest and most humble 
 cap-in-hand man, to a soldier of dignified presence, and 
 noble bearing. 
 
 Above the General's house, and on the brink of black 
 fields of lava, is the Hermitage, where a monk sells 
 good mountain wine, to which the general impiety has 
 given the name of LMchryma Christi. This is a plea- 
 sant spot for a hermitage, removed above even the hum 
 of men, but in front of the city, the bay, and countless 
 towns and villages. Of the hermit I know nothing; but 
 he has a good stand for such anchorites as Ambrose de 
 Lamela. His prospects before are sufliciently attractive, 
 but he has little temptation to cast his eyes behind. In 
 front is a glittering scene, perhaps unequalled on the 
 earth, but in the rear is th? blackness of desolation. 
 There is no green thing, ncr anything but a wide ex- 
 panse of lava and cinders. Having crossed this, we 
 came to the ascent of the crater, which is, I should 
 judge, nearly a mile. It is in shape, smoke, color, and 
 steepness, like one of our coal pits, and covered with 
 dark ashes, in which the foot sinks deeply. My guide 
 chose the easiest route to the lower gap of the crater, 
 and walked before, giving me a hold on his sash to help 
 me upwards, to the summit. Here we rested awhile, 
 with smoke around and fire beneath us; but, unlike the 
 Jews in the wilderness, we had a view of the happy 
 country before us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 
 We stood like conquerors, with glory before us, and 
 desolation in the rear. 
 
 The crater within is more steep than on the outside; 
 yet it could be descended by ropes; but it has swallowed 
 one philosopher already, and why should I feed it with 
 the body of another? The smoke ascends steadily, but 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 209 
 
 3ss; It IS 
 it trans- 
 t humble 
 nee, and 
 
 : of black 
 }nk sells 
 )iety has 
 s a plea- 
 the hum 
 countless 
 hing; but 
 ibrose de 
 ttractive, 
 lind. In 
 d on the 
 esolation. 
 wide ex- 
 this, we 
 I should 
 olor, and 
 red with 
 Vly guide 
 le crater, 
 h to help 
 d awhile, 
 nlike the 
 le happy 
 honey, 
 us, and 
 
 outside; 
 kvallowed 
 it with 
 dily, but 
 
 when your eyes become accustomed to the obscurity of 
 the den, you can discover its bottom. It is apparently 
 an arch of hardened lava, fallen in at places where there 
 are gaps and cracks, for the passage of smoke and flame. 
 The crater is, I should conjecture, more than half a mile 
 across. On putting our ear to the crevices in the ascent, 
 we could hear the roaring of flame as in an oven, but 
 could see nothing but smoke. At these crevices, the 
 ashes are hot enough to burn a boot or roast an egg, 
 and we tested both by actual experiments. 
 
 At a higher point of the cratur, (I use the Irish or- 
 thography,) was a lady and two gentlemen, who had 
 come up without a guide, over a diflicult route. We 
 scrambled up to them, and gave the lady, who was 
 French, the best of our refreshments. 
 
 The air at this altitude had somewhat of a chill, afler 
 the perspiration of the ascent. We descended on a plane 
 so much inclined, that the principle of gravitation almost 
 made us slide, and as our footing in the ashes was secure, 
 we ventured upon steps that might well be called strides. 
 If measured, there would have been a result of five 
 yards at a jump. Before we left the summit, ws had 
 given an impulse to several large stones, which rolled 
 down the mountain, raising tracks of dust, and plough- 
 ing into it like cannon balls. Now was the time when 
 the lady shewed her aptitude to learn a mischievous les- 
 son, and her gratiJud«> for our g'»od wine, for she set two 
 or three rocks rolling at once, and as they came in our 
 track, it «?eenied to give her pleasure to see us skipping 
 about to avoid them. It was of small use to call to her, 
 and when we made signals of distress, she pretended to 
 be very intent upon the crater. Having stood several 
 discharges, the war became too hot, and we tied a white 
 cravat to the guide's staflf, and begi\n to reascend for a 
 parley. The enemy, upon this, retreated higher up the 
 18* 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
■DM 
 
 310 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 mountain, to her allieM, and by the soul of Suwarrow, had 
 she fallen into my hands, 1 would have omitted none of 
 the usages of war. 
 
 Having repelled this Amazonian attack on the rear 
 guard, wc retreated in more safety than honor. Two 
 days afterwards, I met the same lady in the Chaija, 
 when she began a grave apology, and laughed in the 
 laidst of it. 
 
 The monk came out to congratulate us on our safe 
 return, informing us that ' our mountain ' had of late 
 shewn evil symptoms, but he relied for insurance upon 
 St January, more than his own merits, though neither 
 would reduce the premium with underwriters. We 
 asked him to give us a sketch of his life and opinions, 
 but he said his life was a blank, and it was iiis opinion 
 that the amount of piety was in proportion to the number 
 of pater nosters. We looked into a few of his books of 
 sacred literature, consisting of the lives of the saints, 
 and the deaths of martyrs. He asked our country, 
 which we to!d, when he requested tha we would send 
 him a couple of birds that could talk, and the same re- 
 quest had been made to us before. 
 
 At Salvatore's house we had a cold cut, and made a 
 small collection of his lavas and minerals. We told him 
 that we had found him more honest than his countrymen, 
 but he assured us he was no better than the rest. 
 
 The people of Naples seem to be more cheerful than 
 those of Rome. The reason must be^ that good wine 
 and macaroni are cheaper here, that there is less restric- 
 tion in public amusement, and more of the dolce far 
 nienie. 
 
 The Neapolitans are a handsome race of men, and I 
 
 ound a great resemblance between the ladies and those 
 
 of South Wp'.es. In both places they have large and 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 211 
 
 'a 
 
 row, had 
 none of 
 
 the rear 
 r. Two 
 I Chaija, 
 d in the 
 
 our safe 
 d of late 
 ice upon 
 1 neither 
 rs. We 
 opinions, 
 3 opinion 
 e nurpber 
 booi(s of 
 e saints, 
 country, 
 uld send 
 same re- 
 made a 
 told him 
 ntrymen, 
 
 St. 
 
 rful than 
 )od wine 
 s rcstric- 
 dolce far 
 
 n, and I 
 
 md those 
 irge and 
 
 brilHant eyes, a^d an air of languor that may be 
 instantly succeeded by the greatest animation. Here 
 they may be said to act less from reflection than feeling; 
 when the impulse is good, all is well; but when bad — 
 alas! alas! 
 
 Perhaps they do not prize too high the honor of their 
 lords, or instill the lessons of Lucretia into their chil- 
 dren. But custom defends a great many evils, and it 
 requires a mind of no common mould to do right, where 
 it is the universal custom to do wronjj;; and therefore we 
 deem it a sufficient excuse for the coarseness even of 
 Shakspearc, to lay the fault upon the age in which the poet 
 lived. Whence it follows, in my catenation of deduction, 
 that a lady who is sometimes frail in Italy, may not be half 
 so lost and degraded as one who once forgets her duty 
 here. Here, though ' all be lost but honor,' it may be 
 retrieved; but there is no hope of amendment in those 
 who fall, in spite of the barriers tliat our state of society 
 raises for their support. They cannot fall, but when 
 the mind is tainted with a moral leprosy, beyond all hope 
 cf cure. 
 
 The Lazzaroni, as I told you before, are a philosophic 
 race of vagabonds, or sturdy beggars, somewhat like the 
 Gipseys in England. Their employment is begging and 
 fishing; and their pleasure, like that of Diogenes, is to 
 ' lie in the sun.' Like the rest of their countrytren, they 
 have no indifferent subject for conversation; everything 
 is a subject for excitement. They cannot speak in an 
 under tone, and if they try to whisper, it is as an actor 
 speaks aside on the stage, that all the house may hear 
 him. Their voices on a high key are harsh and disso- 
 nant, but when they speak very low, it is like the mur- 
 mur of music. The shades of emotion pass over their 
 faces, as in a child. In our cold region ot sarcasm and 
 
 .a 
 
 in 
 
 m 
 
 if 
 
 ' k ii 
 
 1 1. 
 
 1 ; 
 
wmm 
 
 «Pip 
 
 212 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 selfishness, a man must conceal his emotions betimes; 
 therefore a wise one, with us, assumes some hard and 
 uniform expression of face, to hide his thoughts, as three 
 foot ice conceals the wimples of the stream. 
 
 But where the sun burns a darker crimson in the 
 cheek, and sheds tenfold lustre on the eye, neither eye 
 nor cheek are taught, or can practice, this lesson of de- 
 ception. The passion of 'he moment is pictured on the 
 face, and in the street you ^ ass men smiling, frowning 
 and weeping, agitated with oope, fear, hatred, disap- 
 pointment, and revenge. 
 
 The men, many of them, wear mustaches, and have 
 rings in the ears. They look very much like black- 
 guards, and have a vile custom of kissing each other on 
 both sides of the mouth, for I once had to run the 
 gauntlet between fitleen pair of mustaches. 
 
 > 
 
 NO. XIV. 
 
 Sir — The Neapolitans are a cheerful race, extracting 
 from a carline more hilarity than I could ever squeeze 
 from a ducat; for some fear of the future, or experience 
 of the past, would arise to annoy me. But the present 
 only enters into their thoughts, or rather feelings, and 
 under a sky so soft, in a land so teeming with abun- 
 dance, and so stamped with beauty, even the wise might 
 place too much of their enjoyment on the present and 
 passing day. 
 
 But how shall I describe the ladies of Naples? They 
 are graceful brunettes, with faces of great expression, 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 213 
 
 iression. 
 
 and ^hair long and dark, like a tempestuous winter 
 
 night.' Without doubt, they are as exemplary in their 
 
 lives as the matrons of Rome and Florence, patterns for 
 
 conjugal fidelity, aid all the domestic virtues, though 
 
 not very industrious or literary; they toil not, neither do 
 
 they read. 
 
 There is at Naples a small race of horses, but they 
 
 are hardy and strong. The cows are as large as our 
 
 oxen, and their horns are a yard long. The milk is not 
 
 sold as here, front tin canisters and yellow wagons, for 
 
 the cow is led round, and milked before the purchaser, 
 
 who must even then have his eyes about hino, lest he 
 
 buy lime and water. 
 
 * The milk of the country is white. 
 But the milk of the city is blue.' 
 
 The butter is not good; it is sold in little rolls, wrapped 
 in green leaves. Bread is excellent and cheap; a loaf 
 large enough for breakfast may be had for a cent, and 
 the whole meal may be completed for three cents more. 
 The coffee houses are many, but you may v/alk far with- 
 out seeing a dram shop; I saw not one. It was my 
 custom to dine at a cook-shop, where a bill of fare, with 
 prices, is given, and one may dine for a dime or a dol- 
 lar; but I got ten dinners out of a dollar. At the iral- 
 toria, a monk sought my acquaintance, asking my name, 
 and saying that his own was Father Felippo. He was 
 a barefooted friar, of such bulk as is seldom acquired by 
 abstmence; and it was a cheap pleasure for me to feast 
 him upon parmesan and macaroni. He ate it afler the 
 manner of all true Neapolitans, and of the king himself 
 He threw back his head, as if to examine a fresco over 
 it, and holding the long vermiform strings of his favor- 
 ite ((>od above his open mouth, would gain much in time 
 and quantity over him who fed with a spoon. I never 
 
 
 Irl 
 
 > -^~*..)m^.\f 
 
214 
 
 LETTERS FROM A 
 
 saw, in human face, more satisfaction than illuminated 
 the monk's broad features, at the sight of macaroni. 
 
 The mountain of fat piled upon Father Felippo's ribs, 
 could not suppress the liberal curiosity of an inquisitive 
 mind. He asked me, concerning America, a great 
 many judicious questions — if it were an island, if all our 
 birds could talk, if we had a large fish that gave us oil, 
 and if there were among us any Christians, monks, or 
 nuns. I answered for the credit of the country as well 
 as I could; but I fear that the Republic suffered in the 
 estimation of the Church, for I could but say that we had 
 the fish and the birds, though we were too little enlighten- 
 ed to have monks or nuns. I expressed a belief that we 
 had many vestals, at which he displayed a row of ivory fit 
 for Othello, and said, * that 's quite a diflerent affair.' 
 
 I visited the monk at his quarters, on a hill; I have 
 seen many convents, and not one that was not in a well 
 chosen place. The monks have equal judgment in the 
 interior of their hives, and make (as has been said) a 
 straight passage from (he refectory to the kitchen, while 
 the route to the chapel is often circuitous. From Fe- 
 lippo's nest I saw the whole campagna felice, its vines, 
 and its gardens, enclosed by the Appenines. The coun- 
 try is an Eden; but it is a paradise of felons. It is 
 Lord Say's Kent, bona terra mala gens. 
 
 I went to hear a preacher, who was, I believe, a Fran- 
 ciscan, for he had a rope as a girdle, that would have 
 made a better collar. He was much followed. His 
 harangues that I heard were upon the sufferings of the 
 martyrs. He described, and not without force, the suf- 
 ferings that so many painters were well pleased to repre- 
 sent — torture for the sake of faith; and he hoped, he 
 said, to live to see his hearers suffer with constancy. I 
 seemed to have gotten into a Melhodist conventicle, for 
 the people would groan at a solemn denunciation, and 
 
mtf^^mm i m ii »»ii |i 
 
 SSSSShw 
 
 iminated 
 roni. 
 po's ribs, 
 quisitive 
 a great 
 if all our 
 i^e us oil, 
 lonks, or 
 Y as well 
 ed in the 
 it we had 
 nlighten- 
 f that we 
 r ivory fit 
 affair.' 
 ; I have 
 in a well 
 nt in the 
 said) a 
 en, while 
 rom Fc- 
 ts vines, 
 he coun- 
 It is 
 
 id 
 
 a Fran- 
 ild have 
 His 
 } of the 
 the suf- 
 to repre- 
 )ped, he 
 ancy. I 
 ticle, for 
 ion, and 
 
 BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 215 
 
 applaud the encouragement and promises. His action 
 was too violent for our stage, but gentle enough for a 
 mountebank. He praised also the sanctity of hermits, 
 and referred to Ambrose de Lamela, upon the mountain, 
 living like a saint, in a black and desolate waste, without 
 animal or vegetable life, where the sun illuminates the 
 broken points of lava, only to throw the cavities into a 
 deeper and more awful shade; as a good impulse some- 
 times falls upon the heart of a bad man, that he may dis- 
 cover, from the contrast, his own dark depravity. 
 
 There is a vast palace of red stone, called the Bour- 
 bon Museum, very rich in sculptures and other antiqui- 
 ties. On entering one of the halls of statues, you find 
 yourself among objects like the inhabitants of the eastern 
 tale, who were turhed, by enchantment, into stone, in 
 the midst of their employments — dancing, wrestling, 
 fighting, or declaiming. ' Is it petrified nature, or ani- 
 mate marble!' 
 
 Before I saw busts and statues, I knew not how ne- 
 cessary they were to the study of history; but when I 
 now read of a very good or a very bad man of antiquity, 
 my imagination has his very features to fix upon. 
 
 In this Museum is, what is rare, a statue of Caligula. 
 There were many statues of him while he lived, but at 
 his lamented death, almost all were destroyed. The 
 Roman people held him in such singular reverence, that 
 it renewed their grief for his loss, to see so many of his 
 images in marble; and therefore a swift destruction over- 
 took them all. 
 
 Caracalla, too, was so vain of his own soft features, that 
 he caused so many busts to be made, that many remain 
 for the reverence of posterity. The expression in all is 
 lowering and sulky, for the sculptors flattered him as 
 little as the historians; but, like Napoleon, I do not be- 
 lieve that these Roman Emperors were half so bad as 
 
 If 
 
 ' * 
 
 I 
 
 f f 
 
 .v'i^ ' iJtiu^j^^a^SiAik 
 
216 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ 
 
 represented. What is the evidence of history, and how 
 remote is the chance of coming at the truth (even in our 
 own times) of what we do not sec, and if seen, of warp- 
 ins the evidence of our senses to the dictate of our wills. 
 Yet to judge of Caracalla from the features he has left in 
 marble, would not hr to esteem him a very placatHe 
 prince. In fact, if I should see a. man so scowl at me 
 from behind a rock in the Pyrenees, I should have little 
 hope of safety in appealing to his mercy. 
 
 ' There was a laughing Devil in his sneer. 
 That rniscd emotions both of rage and fear. 
 And where his frown of hatred darkly fell, 
 Hope, withering fled, and mercy bid farewell.' 
 
 Perhaps you can fancy the high relish with which the 
 populace smashed such busts upon the pavements. 
 
 There is a bust or two, and a statue, of Julius Ceesar, 
 who left the empire to so many amiable princes of his lino. 
 Augustus was the first, and he had a heart of adamant. 
 He was the very man to consolidate the despotism, and 
 to cover his power under names of liberty, leaving little 
 for his successors to do, but to administer the supremo 
 power, which Tiberius did so well. 
 
 Tiberius, when age had softened a few asperities in a 
 temper not naturally rough, issued those just and equi- 
 table decrees, that have given him so distinguished a 
 place in history, and so flattering a picture for the pen- 
 cil of Tacitus. But he was a better man than his adop- 
 tive father, and had in his proscriptions and murders, at 
 least the wolf-like and man-like motive of revenge; while 
 Augustus was a cool, calculating wretch, doing nothing 
 from passion, but all from policy. Having, like Jaffier, 
 * deceived the senate,' he probably deluded himself, and 
 died in the belief that he was no worse than other men, 
 but even a prince distinguished for rnercy and clemency. 
 But I would rather have the heart of Nero, and act from 
 his wild, mad impulses, than from the crafl of Augustus. 
 
BOSTON MERCHANT. 
 
 217 
 
 and how 
 en in our 
 of warp- 
 tur wills, 
 as left in 
 placable 
 f\ at me 
 ave little 
 
 trhich the 
 nts. 
 
 s Caesar, 
 f his lino, 
 idamant. 
 ism, and 
 ing little 
 supremo 
 
 ities m a 
 
 ind equi- 
 
 uished a 
 
 the pen- 
 
 lis adop- 
 
 rders, at 
 
 s; while 
 
 nothing 
 
 Jaffier, 
 
 self, and 
 
 ler men, 
 
 emency. 
 
 act from 
 
 ugustus. 
 
 Nero has claims upon our rcmeri.'.)rance. His face 
 was round, and expressed imbecility rather than violent 
 passion. He had the same kind of (ace that you will 
 often see enlivened by a small, leaden^ P'g's eye. 
 
 But do you think that the old Romans really had those 
 enormous hooked noses? I thought so too; for I read 
 Virgil, in a Dutcii edition, with plates, in which ^neas 
 was represented in the likeness of the King William, 
 whose nose was anything but a pug. 
 
 Cicero, indeed, had a magnificent aquiline, Julius 
 Caesar was a little hooked in the beak, and Augustus 
 and Titus had something large in the way of nose, but 
 in general, the busts have as great a variety as you 
 would find in the same number of faces in any other 
 country. 
 
 I could go on, sir, in this desultory manner, stringing 
 together my recollections like artificial pearls, till 
 the winter session comes to editorial relief But if a 
 merciful man should be kind to his beast, he cannot 
 surely be hard with his friend. When you reflect that this 
 is my second crop of reminiscences of Italy, and that I 
 knew not in one week what I was to write the next, it 
 will not much stretch your charity to overlook a thou- 
 sand faults. In the letters from the Alps, I claim a 
 greater immunity; for I was never there, and had no 
 leisure to examine books and correct the careless journal 
 of a friend. But ' forever and forever farewell,' Italy, 
 garden of the world, land of song, of solemn temples, 
 crumbling arches, glorious recollections, beauty and 
 banditti, masses and macaroni. 
 
 From Naples I went to Sardinia, where I passed a 
 week, with little pleaoure. It was in a brig from Palermo, 
 that we anchored in a little harbor oft* the Straits of 
 Bonifacio. The crew v/ent ashore and raised supplies 
 of mutton, 'after the manner of the tribe of Benjamin.' 
 
 19 
 
 / 
 
 'I 
 
r 
 
 
 318 
 
 LETTERS FROM ▲ 
 
 Near Corsica wo passed, at some distance, an Eng- 
 lish bark, and happening to have an American flag, 
 we ran it up, but without return of civility. Perhaps 
 the Sicilian flag would have attracted more favor, for 
 an Englishman is not over much delighted to meet a 
 republican navy in these seas. 
 
 ' Gen8 iniratca mihi Tyrlicnnum nivigat apquor.' 
 I met in Italy a great many Englishmen — but what do 
 you know of Mr Bull. It is an impostor that goes by 
 that name in America, a runaway servant, wearing his 
 master's dress, and trying to ape his manner. But in 
 Italy there are no trading cocknies, and the English 
 there are the rich, the titled, and the learned. But they 
 were seemingly so unsocial and cold, that they remind- 
 ed me of a good chestnut in the burr, for they proved, 
 upon acquaintance, better than they seemed. In seve- 
 ral solitary walks, I met a Briton; we passed, but not 
 like dogs, for they will look at each other; yet we were 
 among broken columns, that had for centuries declared 
 the folly of human pride. Again we met at Miseno, ' by 
 the upbraiding shore,' but the ocean upbraided in vain. 
 Our next meeting was at the rooms of a friend, who 
 brought the two extremes together. 
 
 On the voyage to Gibraltar we had a gale, and it gave 
 us no pleasure, while it lasted, to see the sea fowl forsak- 
 ing their element, and making for the shore. I had little 
 confidence in the sailors, and they had none in them- 
 selves. Capt. Grammatico wrung his hands, and cursed 
 himself for a fool, that he did not enter Carthagena, and 
 I agreed with him in sentiment. But w^ had now no- 
 thing to do but to scud along the shore. The coast of 
 Spain seemed to us beautiful beyond comparison; the 
 hills were green, in the valleys were towns, and on the 
 hills castles and monasteries. We were driving rapidly 
 
mmmmmm 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 tl» 
 
 into a part between Barbary and Spain, where the sea 
 was narrow, and our ill managed vessel was already 
 shattered. My furebodings were dismal, and I defy you 
 to feel less at case than I felt, till the sccono morning, 
 when the wiad abated. While it raged, the master did 
 little but cross himself and the coming waves. I kept 
 myself as cool as was convenient, but none of us felt at 
 ease, till wc doubled the point of Europa. 
 
 Now, sir, like great men in politics, I quit the ground 
 whereon I have stood so long, and request your favor 
 to my Recollections of Japan; for twentysevon misspent 
 jsars ago I was at Nangasaki. I might indeed change 
 my signature, and cheat the public, but I could not de- 
 ceive you, who would at once know the old dog, though 
 in a new doublet. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 Siii — Early in iho present century, I sailed from Ba- 
 tavia for Nangasala, in Japan; I have a f(!w loose mem- 
 oranda, like the Sybil's responses, on separate leaves, 
 and from these Instate that in July we arrived at our 
 port. On passing the South Cavallos, an island at the 
 mouth of the harbor, we saluted with nine guns; then 
 
 .•^'.•..^i*--*'-.'!**^'.-*"" • - 
 
 •':.l^iKlt-U,■■■'^Ji!'^JP-ff. 
 
no 
 
 TECOLLECTIONS OF JAPATf. 
 
 at Pnpcnborjr, which made the larboard point of the 
 bay, we gave the Japanese nine more, when we wero 
 boarded by the ujipcr Banjo. We were surrounded 
 by an incredible number ol' boats, that came to tow 
 us up should there happen to be a cahn, but wo 
 had breeze enough. Two miles higher, we passed tho 
 Emperor's watch, two small forts on each side of tho 
 bay, and there we burnt powder for eighteen guns, nine 
 from each quarter. Two miles farther is the place of 
 anchorage, where we let go anchor, and having roared 
 with our mortar thirteen times more, the stately cere- 
 monial was over. 
 
 The ship was dressed according to the custom here, 
 in all the ensigns she could muster. The powder was 
 then taken from us to be carried on shore, and wo wero 
 deprived also of our boats; the roll was called, and an 
 account taken of us all: when, having undergone tho 
 strictest search, I was permitted to go on shore, where 
 I v/as searched again, and a third time at the entrance 
 of the VVaterport, on the island Dccima, where I was 
 led to the Dutch governor^ who gave me his welcome 
 and the port regulations in Dutch. 
 
 A large corps of Tallars came also to the governor to 
 ask the news <>f Euro|)e; the questions were asked with 
 shrewdness and the answers written down for the Em 
 peror at Jeddo. The city is (iistant fourteen days' travel, 
 at the rate of the mail, which goes fast. When the 
 strange looking interpreters iiad gone, I walked round 
 the island, which is but small; it is artificially raised 
 upon the flats that surround Nangasuki, and in ordinary 
 tides it is but ten feet above water. The island is sur- 
 rounded with a wall ten lect high, with spikes on the 
 top; through the wall are two gates-^the water port and 
 the gate that leads to the city. The island is joined to 
 the city by a bridge about forty rods in length, and over 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAFT. 
 
 221 
 
 this space tho water is convoytMl in l)nml)oos to the isl- 
 and. After rains it is troubled, but, having settled, it 
 is good water. 
 
 Decirna was built by tlic Portuguese, and when they 
 were ordered, iu consequence of their christian zeal, to 
 retire from Japan, the Duteh were removed from Ve- 
 randa here; and they do not seem to have enough of 
 that kind of zeal to lead them into peril oC banishment. 
 
 Tho fire once swept the whole island, though it is 
 now built over, and has several large and commodious 
 stores. The Dutch factory has a garden, with vegeta- 
 bles, good peaches, and sour grapes. Tht^re is an up- 
 perhoft, or director, who has a private secretary — a 
 pack-house master and three writ(!rs — a doctor, a car- 
 penter, and a steward, which make in all nine v.'hites, 
 but they have a great many Japanese servants, soir.^ of 
 whom speak and write Dutch witli precision. The pay 
 of the Company's ofhcers is not so greut that the cfficea 
 are much sought; the governor himself longed to 
 return to Batavia, (hough he had been here but a year. 
 
 They have but five per cent, on sales in Japan, and 
 as much on the return cargo; of this the director takes 
 sixty per cent.,tbe pack-house master twenty, the secre- 
 tary ten, and tbe three writers and the doctor, divide 
 the other ten; the steward and carpenter have low wages 
 and nothing more. - ■ 
 
 A few years before we came, when three or four 
 large ships arrived, the commissii+ii was respectable, 
 and the director had little desire to go to Batavia; 
 though like all ambitious [leoplc, he looked for better 
 times. 
 
 However, a good table and low monthly wages are 
 
 furnished at the expense of tho Company. The rent 
 
 paid to the Japanese government yearly for the island, 
 
 is ten thousand rix dollars. The houses are built low 
 
 19* 
 
 ; 't^n''^- -j^^ftkiv 
 

 '] 
 
 223 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 and strong from fear of earthquakes; the doctor told us 
 that in 1799, there were thirty shocks in one day, and 
 that a large town on a mountain ten miles off, was swal- 
 lowed with about three thousand people. But what is 
 that in such an ant-hill as Japan ? 
 
 The first officer of the customs is called the upper 
 Banjo, and no store can be opened or business transact' 
 ed without him. The ship is guarded night and day by 
 two armed boats, and nothing is landed noi is any one al- 
 lowed to go on shore, but on the strictest examination. 
 When the cargo is discharged, it is an important day 
 for the customnouse officers; the first secretary of the 
 Japanese governor comes on board in pomp and parade 
 with many attendants, while the ship is decked in all 
 her flags to honor the representative. 
 
 The Japanese are a very polite people, and they 
 have polished the Dutchmen, who salute the Banjos 
 according to the forms in the code of propriety. The 
 first manoeuvre is to place the hands upon the kneos, to 
 bow the head almost to the ground, and lift it only when 
 directed, though an interval of ten minutes precedes 
 the direction. I have seen two reporters thus crouched 
 for an hour and a half, till the upper Banjo told them to 
 rise, and they dared not till then raise even their eyes. 
 When the representative of the governor comes on 
 board, the rules of civility (which are more strictly en- 
 forced than in our own country) require that the Dutch- 
 men, governor and all, lie upon the deck; but the Dutch 
 are an accommodating people, and would -arry their 
 complaisance as far as Japanese punctilio could possibly 
 require. 
 
 Once in four years, the governor, secretary, and doc- 
 tor, make a visit to Jcddo, to carry the Comp'^ny's pre- 
 sents to the Emperor. The journey is completed in 
 about four months, and the presents go in a cavalcade. 
 
SEC0LLCCTI0N9 OF JAFAN. 
 
 S2S 
 
 which ia closed by an army of tallars; in the interme- 
 diate years, four tailars are sent with a few presents to 
 report affairs to the Emperor. 
 
 The last governor died in his pilgrimage, and is buri- 
 ed near Meaco; permission was not readily granted 
 for his interment, and the condition on which he was 
 buried was to shave his head and receive a Japanese 
 name. The doctor who accompanied this governor, Ava» 
 at Nangasaki, where he lived eight years, and must 
 have seen much of the customs of the country, though 
 he was rather shy in his communications; I was suffi- 
 ciently inquisitive, but all the company's servants seem- 
 ed jealous of us, and were unwilling to speak of Japan, 
 or else had nothing to say. 
 
 In this journey to Jeddo, the mode of travelling is in 
 palankeens, till the company comes to a place where it 
 takes boats to thread among the countless islands around 
 Niphon; and the voyage in the barks is of about four- 
 teen days. 
 
 The Emperor lives at Jeddo, and the Diari, a sort of 
 Pontifex Maximus, at IVIeaco; he is an object of the 
 most profound veneration, and is held to be a type of 
 the Divinity. 
 
 Charlevoix calls the Japanese the English of Asiaj 
 but which Islanders did he wish to compliment? At 
 first, I thought these people a sort of Dog-Chinese; but 
 more known, I rated them h.gher; they are more affa- 
 ble, polite, brave, and kind, than the Chinese, though 
 it is hard to settle their relative honesty. 
 
 There is among the islanders a feeling that leads them 
 to act to the extent of their wild code of honcr: of 
 course, duelling is alVequcnt practice, especially among 
 the military, and those in hi^h employments at court. 
 Their manner of fighting is what ours sometimes is not, 
 a test of the courage and fortitude of the parties;; in 
 
234 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 i^ 
 
 
 m 
 
 Hi 
 
 ■If 
 
 
 m 
 
 { 
 
 N 
 
 our rencontres, both parties often escape a wound, but 
 in Japan a gash is the very preliminary of the combat, 
 for the partv who desires satisfaction or revenge, meets 
 his enemy, whisks out his hanger, rips up his own belly, 
 and infamy is the portion of the other, if he fail to do 
 the same. Generally, they fear death as little as you 
 fear eating an egg when it is good. It is a lesson in- 
 stilled into youth (as it was tried to get Latin into me) 
 that death is a lighter evil than dishonor, and their after 
 life has opportunities enough to practice on these early 
 principles. 
 
 To offend the Emperor is, of course, to deserve death, 
 and to die; commonly, the culprit executes himself, for 
 by this anticipation, no dishonor falls upon his lineage, 
 nor is there a confiscation of estate; but his children 
 inherit with his good name, their father's wealth. Some- 
 times, however, the man with many titles conceives oi- 
 fencc, like Tiberius, in the secret recesses of his own 
 inscrutable heart, and the offender, with regard to this 
 life, is like a tenant at sufferance, who has little notice 
 to quit. At other times, the man with the diadem sends 
 forth the mandate that the venerated Roman sent to 
 Seneca — to die, and the message is as cooly received, 
 and executed. When the Emperor would center honor, 
 he sends also a sword, wherewith to do the business 
 with despatch, though you hate a pun; the person thus 
 honored with the imperial orders, invites his friends 
 to 1 last banquet, talks of the immortality of the yuul, 
 and liberates his own, by a sudden jerk, from its mortal 
 incumbrances. When we shall have an Emperor in 
 North America, I hope to sec the same custom among 
 the people, and I should like even now to see Japanese 
 duelling substituted for ours, inasmuch as it is more ra- 
 tional, and has greater certainty of satisfaction. Some- 
 times, (o be a good shot, argues a consciousness of 
 
 it 
 
'■».i»l» 
 
 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 225 
 
 timidity, and were all our duellists compelled to hit 
 therriselves in the s; ot where they wish to strike their 
 enemy, there would be less praCice in small gunnery. 
 But after all that has been said and preached, is it worse 
 to hew the limbs in combat than to hack the character 
 in calumny? Is open hostility though violent, as de- 
 moralizing as secret enmity, covered with hypocrisy as 
 a leprosy, and plotting vengeance while it seems to ofTer 
 peace? I am a peaceful citizen, witliout talent or taste 
 for war, but my system shall be storm and sally, not 
 mine and countermine. 
 
 We deceive others, but first wc delude ourselves; we 
 think that we are just, and we are praised for justice, 
 when wo pay for what wo buy: we should censure our- 
 selves a little, and others more, to refuse, when able to 
 pay our debts. What are our debts? do we owe noth- 
 ing to men more valuable than gold ? Would any man 
 part with his good name for money, and do we not refuse 
 to render justice where it is fairly due, by speaking well 
 of those we honor and dislike? 
 
 There arc in Japan a counties?} number of priests, 
 devotees and pilgrims; the religion is in some points like 
 the Roman Catholic, Tor the temple? abound with ima- 
 g 's that may be called idols. One temple at xtleaco has 
 . 3^'^.'ji.3, and it is called from that number — Sanmcn-San- 
 ';■}, yidnbiak-Sansieu-Sanfai. 
 
 A,, die Japanese know nothing of the spirit of Chris- 
 tianity, but misjudge it, from the mtholic zeal of the 
 Portugii' <^n, who tried to extend their faith with little 
 choice of means; it is hardly strange that the cross 
 should not be held in reverent':,. '1 herefore one day is 
 set apart in the calendar, when they offer indignity to 
 that sign of our salvation, and even small children are 
 I'^d v<p that they may 'ramplo upon it. The calendar 
 has besides this, a reasonable allowance of festivals} 
 
 I 
 
 V 
 
 lii 
 
w 
 
 •**•*» V 
 
 ,/ 
 
 226 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 ' 
 
 some at the full, and others at the change of the mooti: 
 and there was a star-feast celebrated once while I was at 
 Japan, which was honored by a profusion of lamps hung 
 on the outside of the houses. 
 
 But the most poetical, and the most popular is the 
 feast of souls, held in memory of friends who are dead. 
 It continues four days, and is worthy the imitation of a 
 more refined people. On the first duy of the feast there 
 is prepared in each family a profusion of viands, that 
 would n * disgrace our own feast of thanks: the feast how- 
 ever is oi. f jcceeding night, and like Hamlet's wed- 
 ding banque^ . is cold. At this all the friends of the fam- 
 ily are invited and a place and plate assigned to the de- 
 ceased; whether they actually rise and occupy it, like 
 Banquo, I know not, but the dead are welcomed with 
 grave ceremonial; for questions are put to them, which 
 are peimitted to be answered by deputy, and some one of 
 the living replies to what is said in behalf of his constit- 
 uents, the dead. The next day (like our days succeed- 
 ing midnight feasts) is devoted to sleep, and at night the 
 numberless thousands of the city and surrounding coun- 
 try pour out to the semi-circle of hills, which is the 
 place of the tombs As the tombs are on the sides of 
 the mountains, and as there are probably a hundred 
 lamps to one person, the sight is a brilliant one, as the 
 lights seem to be dancing about in a maze of splendor 
 as you will see in June, on the meadows, at our festival of 
 the lightning-bugs. On the next day comes a long siesta, 
 and on the evening of this day the lights are seen advanc- 
 ing from the mountains, and converging to the water side 
 in front of the city. At the same time there is a numer- 
 ous fleet direct from Lilliput, made of straw and fur- 
 nished with paper sails; the lamps are put on board and 
 the ships, three feet long, are set adrift, amid the shoutf 
 of some hundred thousand people. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 237 
 
 e moou: 
 I was at 
 ips hung 
 
 ar is the 
 re dead, 
 lion of a 
 ist there 
 ids, that 
 sast how- 
 jt's wed- 
 the fam- 
 » the de- 
 ' it, like 
 ned with 
 n, which 
 le one of 
 p constit- 
 succeed- 
 light the 
 » coun- 
 is the 
 sides of 
 lundred 
 e, as the 
 splendor 
 stival of 
 V siesta, 
 advanc- 
 ater side 
 numer- 
 and fur- 
 vard and 
 e shouti 
 
 I think there may have been five thousand barks thus 
 fitted with lights, and as the wind drove them out in 
 various directions, and the flames communicated to the 
 straw, paper, and oil, it was a glorious sight to see, bet- 
 ter in my estimation than the battle of the Nile. 
 
 The Japanese funerals are only by night, and the 
 body is buried in a kneeling posture in a tub; at the 
 grave the hair of the deceased which has been previ- 
 ously cut, is burnt, together with a great many paper 
 lamps. The priest then stamps the character of the 
 deceased upon the forehead, arad the clerical estimate of 
 merit is dependant on the price given for a certificate ; 
 however, a little money will buy a good name, and the 
 priest, like our epitaphs, is seldom known to speak ill of 
 the dead — a forbearance that I recommend to you and 
 others concerning the living. 
 
 NO. II. 
 
 Sir, — A Japanese claims a higher origin than a Vir- 
 ginian, or even a New England man; it is recorded as 
 the commencement of the annals that a few hundred 
 centuries ago an Emperor of China, who, like some other 
 great men, had lived so ill that he felt a reluctance to 
 die, asked his physician for medicines that would ena- 
 ble him to live forever. 
 
 The doctor looked grave, said the request was rea- 
 sonable, and might be obtained; there is, said he, an 
 island far to the east, covered with flowers and odorif- 
 erous trees, where I must gather the simples that are 
 to make your majesty live as long as the latest of your 
 posterity. But they must be plucked under the plane- 
 
 ■•? s^ 
 
 } 
 
 i 
 
 .\ •;, 
 
 .. L,.::.^.!^-)ki,Sf±^ 
 
MP 
 
 228 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 tary influences, and to propitiate the skies, there must 
 bo a company of three hundred youths and virgins, 
 which I would select froni the best of the celestial em- 
 pire. This wise prince sent his physician at the head 
 of the train, with wliich it was the doctor's secret policy 
 to found a colony in Japan, and from this spotless stock 
 <' jscended the present people of the islands. 
 
 The priests seem to borrow some profitable maxims 
 from the Catholics, and a gainful trade is carried on in 
 the sale of indulgencics; an indulgenc)* is supposed to 
 be a better thing than an absolution, though for the latter 
 the priest demands the higher price. The dress of these 
 sacerdotal brokers is like that of a capuchin friar; the 
 head, too, is shaven, and there is a string of beads. 
 
 There is a general diversity in points of religious be- 
 lief; the Japanese believe in a Supreme Being, and a 
 future state of punishments and rewards; but these 
 pjeneral truths are obscured by a thousand wild errors. 
 There are no quarrels for religion, and every creed is 
 tolerated but the tr ue. They have such a paynim ha- 
 tred of Chrisiiaus that it is surprising they do not favor 
 Jews; they have more ceremonies and mummery than 
 can be described; they have pilgrimages to the tombs of 
 saints, and other places considered holy. They are 
 given to repetitions in their prayers, and there arc cer- 
 tain shrines of saints by the road side, where it is 
 thought advantageous to repeat them a great many 
 times. 
 
 That travellers in haste may have the full benefit 
 without delay, there is an ingenious way to pray by 
 machinery; this is a small engine with a crank, where 
 the needful prayers are written on a barrel wheel, and 
 every twist of the crank turns one out. Were the Yan- 
 kee people Catholic, to pray to Saint George, and Saint 
 January, this would be the very device for that labor- 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 229 
 
 ire must 
 viri;in3, 
 stial em- 
 he head 
 et policy 
 ;ss stock 
 
 I maxims 
 ed on in 
 tposed to 
 the latter 
 I of these 
 riar; the 
 'ads. 
 
 gious be- 
 
 ig, and a 
 
 ut these 
 
 d errors. 
 
 creed is 
 
 ynim ha- 
 
 not favor 
 
 lery than 
 
 tombs of 
 
 'hey are 
 
 are ccr- 
 
 lere it is 
 
 at many 
 
 1 benefit 
 pray by 
 ik, where 
 heel, and 
 the Yan- 
 :ind Saint 
 at labor- 
 
 saving race, though in these times there is a little too 
 much friction to their wheels. 
 
 There were at Nangasaki seven Chinese junks from 
 Amoy, a large town in the province of Fokein, on the 
 Straits of Formosa. Fourteen commonly arrive in 
 the year, and each junk takes away thirteen hundred 
 chests of copper, for there is a restriction that no more 
 ehall be taken; their other lading consists in a few 
 eharks's fins, and in lacquered ware. The junks are 
 not of the largest class, and, considering the model, it is 
 amazing that they should ever reach Japan; they would 
 be but queer tubs in the Bay of Biscay. They seem 
 capacious, like a Dutch galliot, but it is only because 
 they are so high forward and aft, for they are shallow 
 in the water. The sails are of mats and the anchors 
 are of wood, for the Chinese are too proud and too bigot- 
 ed to old usages to copy the light model of European 
 chips. On the largest junk mast is a square sail of 
 about half an acre (more or less;) there is no reefing 
 this kind of canvass — but there are small apertures, 
 like doors, in the middle of the sail, which arc opened 
 and shut. , 
 
 The Japanese bestow certain hospitable attentions up- 
 on their friends, the Chinese; that is, they pen them up 
 like sheep, and haul the junks high and dry ashore. 
 The Chinese have a national aptitude for smuggling, 
 which gift has been cultivated by art, and with all the 
 Japanese caution, there is a brisk trade that is not on 
 the books of the customs. 
 
 There was an affray between the officers of the rev- 
 enue and the crew of a junk; contraband goods were 
 on board, and th'e officers were received with the cere- 
 mony of a volley of missiles. It is strange that the of^ 
 fenders escaped so easily; they had but a hundred 
 lashes apiece, except the officers who had double, 
 20 
 
^ 
 
 230 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 though as the crew was large, I pitied the floggers, for 
 on a melting hot day they had to lay on about forty 
 thousand lashes. The Chinese made horrid grimaces; 
 but had the Dutch committed a crime like this, a hard 
 death would have followed it, for the Japanese would as 
 soon suffer their own dogs to turn upon them. 
 
 The upper Banjo, or chief officer of the customs was a 
 man of such natural shrewdness and untiring persever- 
 ance, that it was thought he would have a higher place 
 at Jeddo; he permitted me to read the invoices of the 
 articles brought from China, which were sugar candy, 
 silks, clothes, porcelains, hard-ware, cardamum seed, 
 betel-nut, gold in bars, liquorice root, and sandal wood. 
 
 All the metals of Japan are of the best quality; the 
 copper is excellent, and as to steel, the best tools I ever 
 had were brought from Japan. There are mines of gold, 
 which it is the wise policy of the Emperor to close; there 
 is one in sight of Nangasaki, guarded day and night, as if 
 access to it would depopulate or demoralize the country. 
 
 While at Nangasaki, I was permitted several times 
 to go freely and unattended into the town, where I was 
 treated with the utmost kindness. There was an alac- 
 rity to show me what I desired to see, and to minister 
 to my convenience, that showed a good heart in the 
 Japanese. I do not remember to have seen a town with 
 BO many happy faces, and, during my whole stay, I did 
 not see anything like a wrangle. The ladies that I was 
 permitted to behold, had delicate features, and small, but 
 expressive, eyes; many of them would have been thought 
 beautiful in your own fastidious city, and the manner 
 of arranging the hair seemed to have been studied from 
 a Grecian statue, though the locks were a little swelled 
 out from the temples as in the Sphinx. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 
 
 231 
 
 They are not so dark even as the Italians; for they 
 seldom encounter the direct gaze of the sun, and all 
 flowers that bloom in the shade, are pale; yet they 
 take some exercise, chiefly in a small cart with low 
 wheels, that a servant pushes before him after the man- 
 ner of a wheelbarrow. There are many coaches also 
 of the antique European construction, which are drawn 
 by horses, or oxen. 
 
 Another device of the ladies to walk forth in the shade 
 is a sort of umbrella, in the shape of a bell or an ex- 
 tinguisher to r lamp. It has a window in front, and a 
 servant wall, i ten feet in the rear of his mistress and 
 holds it over her head and shoulders from the end of a 
 pole; it has a picturesque appearance and the lady 
 looks like a butterfly under the petals of a lily. 
 
 A spanking pair of oxen makes a very good team, 
 and they show better abreast, than as I have seen them 
 in Gloucestershire in a tandem aliquando. In Europe 
 the prejudice is in favor of horses, but in Asia the ass 
 is as honorable a beast, and at Japan and the Cape of 
 Good Hope the ox is not without estimation. In that 
 part of Africa an ox is broke to the saddle, and made 
 to curvet like a nog; I have myself seen the King of the 
 Hottentots, (and a handsome man he was) riding through 
 Cape Town full speed upon a brown ox. 
 
 In describing the festival of the lanterns, I omitted 
 one peculiarity, for, ac ;rding to the strictness of an- 
 cient custom, it is not lawful to demand payment, except 
 at this feast. It is too good a custom to be confined to 
 an island, for once in a year is enough to be dunned 
 anywhere. Of all lugubrious days (and just now they 
 are doubly dismal,) of all first days of winter or last of 
 autumn, of all solemn anniversaries of unfortunate events 
 not one is as sorrowful as the last day of grace. The 
 
 ^«'aw*»«";. 
 
 hai!'l!'«2fe3 
 
Kom 
 
 232 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 
 
 dew drops may glitter on the rose in the morning, 
 the breath of summer may come over banks of violets, 
 the sun may rise like an orb of glory, but it will seem 
 cheerless as it did to the sick Lefevrc and his son, when 
 it ushers in the last day of grace. 
 
 There is another feast that smacks a little of chival- 
 ry, religion, (as in some of our feuds) is the pretext j 
 hoc prcelexit nomine culpam, but private animosity ia 
 the cause. This festival, which is held in honor of the 
 god of war, brings into the lists a great many combat- 
 ants, who take this method to settle their private quar- 
 rels, and, in a country where revenge is virtue, many 
 dead bodies must be left upon the field. Ignorant sav- 
 ages! that know no better way to get satisfaction for 
 injuries received, or inflicted; for we hate those more 
 whom we injure, than those who injure us. With us 
 Christians, revenge is as sweet, and is safer to be had than 
 in Japan; the general custom here, is not to attack life it- 
 self, but that whereon life depends, and which is more 
 to our enemies than money was to Shylock. We airn 
 our archery at the character and reputation of our foes, 
 and as we shoot from an ambush, the victim writhes, 
 while the archer is unknown; he is invisible as the pesti- 
 lence that walks at noon day, and, having inflicted the 
 wound, is commonly the first to ofller his insulting con- 
 dolence to the sufferer. This is often done under the 
 white robe of public duty; and a man that has the ran- 
 cor of hell in his soul, will immolate one whom he en- 
 vies, under the pretence that he is serving the common- 
 wealth. 
 
 The salutations of the Japanese are more graceful than 
 those of Europe. These people however incline too 
 much to ceremony; enough to remind one of Noodle 
 and Doodle, on the stage; it is nevertheless, the gen- 
 uine politeness, like that we call of the old school, un- 
 
 m 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OP JAPAN. 
 
 299 
 
 morning, 
 of violets, 
 wiW seem 
 3on, when 
 
 of chival- 
 pretcxtj 
 nosify is 
 nor of the 
 Y combat- 
 k^ate quar- 
 ue, many 
 )rant sav- 
 action fop 
 lose more 
 With us 
 e had than 
 ack hfe it- 
 :;h is more 
 We aim 
 four foes, 
 n writhes, 
 the pesti* 
 licted the 
 hing con- 
 under the 
 i the ran- 
 om he en- 
 coramon- 
 
 ceful than 
 icline too 
 ►f Noodle 
 the gen- 
 ihool, un- 
 
 like the total apathy and suppression of all feeling that 
 constitutes hi<;h breeding in England. At London, it 
 is vulgar to be moved or surprised at anything, and a 
 man of fashion would lose caste to show temper while he 
 is bitterly insulting another or to wink at the explosion 
 of a powder magazine. 
 
 Cross the channel and you find a different state of 
 things, to which it is not possible for an Englishman 
 to accommodate himself. For to be a favorite with the 
 dames of France, one must have enthusiasm in all things. 
 This will cover all defects and without it there is no fa- 
 vor in Paris. Americans are more caressed there than 
 the English, because they have never trained them- 
 selves to suppress the marks of all emotion as a duty of 
 politeness, and because they have also more ardor of 
 character than the English. 
 
 That the Japanese are no wranglers miy be seen in 
 their dictionary. They have no terms of abuse in the 
 language and one cannot in words abuse another, un- 
 less by a figure of speech. 
 
 In English, we have in controversy the advantage of 
 about four thousand words of abuse that were created 
 for the system of private warfare that I mentioned 
 above; they express every variety of reproach from that 
 which is but slightly ridiculous, to that which includes 
 an utter destitution of intellect, morals or manners. Au- 
 thors stand at the head of our literature, only from their 
 skill in the application of these terms, and the invention 
 of figures to express the same meaning more circuitous- 
 ly, and therefore with more elegance; it follows that 
 Junius and Swif>, and newspaper writers generally, will 
 be the last to be translated into Japanese. 
 
 20* 
 
f 
 
 m 
 
 234 
 
 RECOLGCTIONS OF JAPArf. 
 
 NO. III. 
 
 lid 
 
 f. 
 
 Dear Sir — Japan is ns populous as an old chcoge, 
 and it is cultivated like a garden. Botanists complain 
 of the scarcity of all but the useful and cultivated plants; 
 all others are considered weeds, and eradicated as our 
 farmers grub up a shrub oak. It would fatten Mr 
 Coko of Norfolk (supposing him to be lean) to ride a 
 hundred miles in this country ; there is nothing like it 
 even about Holkhani. Therp is such a population in 
 Jopan that little land can lie fallow ; what think you of 
 6000 people to the square mile r It is equal to the 
 number in Washington City. 
 
 The inhabitants, however, have various ways of re- 
 ducing the census, one of which is to strangle their in- 
 fants, when earthquakes have grown so unfrcquent that 
 there are more mouths than penny loaves, for there arc 
 no wars, as in Europe, wherein the surplus vagabonds 
 may be expended. How would their wise men marvel 
 at our policy and power of multiplying the population, 
 es;iecially in Ohio, and States westward ! It would aston- 
 ish the political economists of Japan to be told that in 
 1787 Ohio had no white people; that in three years 
 more it had three thousand whites ; in ten years there- 
 fom fortytwo thousand, ; in ten years more two hun- 
 dred and thirty thousand, and in fiye years later four 
 hundred thousand. This is wonderful, even here, but 
 in other countries it is scarely credible. The scavans 
 of Japan say that they have no accurate data for a 
 correct census ; and that they might as well try to 
 count the birds on the trees as a people with so many 
 thousands, without house or home, settlement or parish. 
 Jeddo, they say, has ten mil ijns, and I think it can 
 have little less ; if this be an invention, it is a lie with 
 
nECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 S35 
 
 d clicoee, 
 complain 
 ;d plants; 
 cd as our 
 ittcn Mr 
 to ride a 
 ng like it 
 Illation in 
 Ilk you of 
 ul to the 
 
 lys ofre- 
 their in- 
 [uent that 
 there arc 
 ag abend 9 
 ;n marvel 
 >pulation, 
 jid aston- 
 d that in 
 ee years 
 irs there- 
 two hun- 
 ater four 
 lere, but 
 ; scavans 
 at a for a 
 11 try to 
 so many 
 )r parish. 
 ik it can 
 1 lie with 
 
 a circumstance, for they say that the official returns 
 give in the main streets two hundred and eighty thou- 
 sand houses, with an average of more than thirty peo- 
 ple to a house, and that the very blind amount to thirtysix 
 thousand. This gives a town about one hundred and 
 forty times as large as Boston. Meaco which is a small 
 town in comparison, has, according to Krcmpfer, two 
 millions six hundred thousand people ; he was a day in 
 riding through it, though not a direct line and probably 
 not at the top of his speed. 
 
 The Japanese ships are inferior even to the Chinese. 
 To diminish the probability of the dreaded foreign inter- 
 course, the ships arc obliged by law to have such low 
 Bterns that they could not live in any sea ; they are un- 
 safe even in creeping along the shore. The .ivigation 
 about Japan is so difTicult, that it is good training for 
 seamen ; and the Japanese are excellent sailors, con- 
 ducting their miserable craft with great skill among 
 rocks, shoals, sandbanks, whirlpools, reefs of rocks, 
 coral and waterspouts. These watcr«poutd are called, in 
 Japanese philosophy, sea dragons; and they are really 
 thought to be animals with long tails. Were not tho 
 sailors adventurous, there would be no navigation, for 
 a voyage often leagues is as perilous as the first voy- 
 age of Columbus. 
 
 These people make no use of the flesh of animals that 
 are employed in labor, so that good beef is not in repute, 
 and in fact, little animal food is eaten; the chief and fa- 
 vorite food is rice and vegetables, though the priests eat 
 animal food. As there are few cjittle, there is neilher 
 milk, nor butter, nor cheese; and sheep, goats, and hogs, 
 are seldom kept. But if the Japanese care little for beef 
 and mutton, they have the true insular taste for fish; they 
 eat all that the sea produces, which are the more esteem- 
 ed, if they have lain for a week dead upon the shore. 
 
 I: 
 
236 
 
 RECOLLECTION} OF JAPAN. 
 
 P 
 
 i 
 
 
 ii. 
 
 The dress of the people is uniform, and has been so 
 for ages, so that a good garment for state occasions ma/ 
 serve a great many generations. It is not so here, 
 where the fashion of a coat changes before the tailor is 
 paid, supposing, that he gives a moderate credit. 
 The neck and part of the breast are bare, the robe is 
 loose, the sleeves wide, and, in a cold day, ♦he hands 
 thru£:t into them, as in a muff. They seldom wear 
 hats, but what are worn are generally of straw, wide 
 and tied under the chin, though I have seen a grandee 
 in a leather hat, richly gilded like a dome in Moscow. 
 When the sun is too hot for the brain, the fan is raised 
 for a shade, for a fan is an essential part of the equip- 
 ment, and there is a long code of ceremonies for its 
 regulation. Soldiers wear it in the girdle by the side 
 of their sabres. 
 
 A common soldier is a sort of prince over all but his 
 comrades. The sabre is his chief wo. ipon,^ and it is of 
 80 excellent a temper that it will cut off a board nail 
 without injury to the edge. The guns are clumsy 
 matchlocks, but the bow and arrow is a better weapon. 
 The soldier wears armor, visor and hemlet ; a dresa 
 admirably adapted to encumber him, but it has one ad- 
 vantage, preventing the possibility of a retreat. The 
 soldier is paid, as all are paid, by those who cultivate 
 the soil, and he is ungrateful enough to oppress his pay- 
 master. The payment is in rice, which is a sortof cir- 
 culating medium. The soldier is as much above the 
 proper grade as the husbandman is below it; for the latter 
 must share the produce about equally with the lords of 
 the country. 
 
 ' Sic vos noil vobisfertis aratra boves.' 
 
 There are a great many monks and religious recluses 
 who live in celibacy, perhaps in chastity, and endure 
 penance from choice. They seem, (like wis^ men) to 
 
 ■J 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 237 
 
 ) been so 
 ions may 
 
 so here, 
 !! tailor ia 
 credit, 
 e robe is 
 le hands 
 om wear 
 iw, wide 
 
 grandee 
 Moscow. 
 
 is raised 
 le equip- 
 s for its 
 
 the side 
 
 11 but his 
 
 d it is of 
 
 )ard nail 
 
 clumsy 
 
 weapon. 
 
 a dress 
 ! one ad- 
 at. The 
 cultivate 
 
 his pay- 
 irtof cir- 
 )ove the 
 
 he latter 
 
 lords of 
 
 recluses 
 
 endure 
 
 men) to 
 
 distrust their own power of resistance, and therefore 
 perm'i no females to approach their dwellings. I saw 
 female devotes, dressed like nuns, affecting an air o' 
 modesty that sat gracefully upon them, — but if they 
 were indeed modest common fame owes them reparation. 
 There is a religous order of the blind, (we have some, 
 but of the ' mind'si eye, Horatio') which is governed by 
 a principal, who has great powers. The religion of Fo 
 is gaining followers ; it includes a belief that all men 
 and beasts have souls that are immortal — that there ia 
 a distinction between good and evil, and that Lad men 
 after death will animate the bodies of some brute, whoir 
 living they most resembled, be it dog, fox, wolf, or 
 hyena. Men, who look into their own hearts and find 
 that all is good, put a period to a well spent life tho 
 sooner to enjov the reward, but with us I have seldom 
 known o good man become his own hangman. 
 
 In n country, whose laws are the will of one man, 
 and whose will it must be that his favorites live in splen- 
 dor, there are many poor ; and the beggars are a body 
 80 large that it seems strange they do not rob. Tho 
 dogs too, as in some villages in New England, are more 
 ntKuerous than tho people, and they arc no less attcn- 
 tivo to strangers than our own curs. I was not long 
 since at a town in Middlesex, where, at the confines, I 
 was waited upon by a deputation <tf six dogs, who turn- 
 ed me over to seven other bands before all the honors 
 were done, and I fairly out of the village, 'n Japan 
 these faithful animals arc held in honor ; you 'vill never 
 see one kicked by an ungrateful master, jV scouring 
 away with a tin canister at his tail, for the pleasure of 
 a malicious schoolboy. Here, as in Turkey, these aro 
 dog-hospitals, where an old hound is fed upon soups, 
 and in his age he sleeps in the sun, sleek and well fed, 
 urging the chase in his (keams and yelping as the prej 
 seems within his reach. 
 
 
 
MMi 
 
 238 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 
 ii 
 
 ■ 
 
 -) 
 
 / 
 
 In our country, a dog is less to be envied ; the pup 
 no sooner opens his eyes (which is not done in a day) 
 upon this unfeeling world, than his tail is abbreviated, 
 and his ears are cut off. If he have a master, of an easy 
 and placable temper he is starved, and punished when 
 he steals, though what can poor Tray know of mtxvm 
 and <«y»i, when the latter is the form of a piece of meat. 
 If the master is severe and stern to view, the dog has 
 little to solace him but the old saw, that every one must 
 have his day. He must suffer for the ill-humor of his 
 master, who, when he is aggrieved by an equal, that he 
 dare not oppose, gives vent to his indignation upon his 
 dog ; who is, like the safety valve of an engine, an out- 
 let for the superabundant ebullition. The poor brute 
 feels no anger, but perhaps loves the more, and, with 
 such humility and fidelity, that had he but reason, he 
 would be a better christian than his master. 
 
 Japan is the paradise of dogs, which is more than can 
 be said of New England; the dogs, however, like some 
 rich men, are better fed than taught. As they are more 
 in number than the men, they could bring an immense 
 body into the f ^.Id; their number, too, is constantly full, 
 or increasing, for they are liable to few of the accidents 
 that take off their masters. Pestilence passes by and 
 touches them not; the earthquake can overtake few so 
 light of foot; and, unlike their owners, they have too 
 much natural feeling to destroy their own offspring. 
 That fabulous malady, hydrophobia, is not known among 
 them; but at home, I have known all the curs in a vil- 
 lage knocked on the head, because one of their lineage 
 retreated with his tail under his l«gs, from the pitchforks 
 of the bumpkins. I myself once gave chace to a spotted 
 dog, from morning to a summer noon. Three of us went 
 to hunt the mad dog, and in going eight miles, our num- 
 burs increased to si.xtyfive, rank and file, animated with 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF JAFaN. 
 
 239 
 
 one soul, but armed with various weapons. The dog 
 charged three times, and thrice he dispersed the column; 
 when he made the last charge, I was myself in front, and 
 seeing no foam at his mouth, and little ferocity in his 
 eye, I called to him, he wagged hjs tail, and surrendered. 
 I named him Rescue, and kept him five y^ars, when he 
 was hung, on a charge of worrying sheep; for the proof, 
 on the court martial, established the fact, that the sheep 
 had been worried, and probably by a dog. I have known 
 a man hung upon slighter grounds, and what is the hope 
 for a cur? . ' • ^ • 
 
 These dog-hospitals, that I told you of, remind me of 
 a sect of philosophers in India, so humane that they not 
 only brush away with feathers all insects from their path, 
 but so pious and charitable as to leave funds for their 
 support. There is, at Benares, a Refuge for Destitute 
 Mosquitoes, where the funds are bestowed on certain 
 beef-eating fellows, who offer their bare legs and arms, 
 three times a day, for bills as large as a small giinblet. 
 
 On the Dorchester flats, the mosquitoes are as largo 
 and as hungry as in India, but I never knc >ut one fool 
 to feed them with his own bloud; a few fislnrmen had 
 kindled a fire to smoke them pway, when one made a bet 
 with another, that he would for five minutes suffer, with- 
 out wincing, every insect that would bite, come cut or 
 long tail. Strip, was the word, and the sufferer laid 
 down as quietly as if he were to die for his creed or 
 country. Four minutes and a half had gone, and he lay 
 as motionless as the Dying Gladiator; but his comrade 
 came behind, like Glenalvon, and touched him on the 
 back with a burning coal, when the poor fellow clapped 
 his hand on the part, saying, ' I should have won, though, 
 but for that d d gannmippcr.^ 
 
 There are a great many unlucky days in the Japanese 
 calendar, on which they begin no enterprise, and the 
 
 
 I J 
 
240 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 w 
 
 nl 
 
 ;H' 
 
 priests have something to do in consequence of this be- 
 lief. They jxlso have possession of a great many warm 
 springs, which are always found in volcanic districts, 
 and each fountain has the power to wash away a partic- 
 ular sin; and who would not like to wash away his sins 
 without the trouble of amending his heart and hi« life? 
 The consequence is, that there are a great many bathers 
 at high pric-es. There is on a mountain a countless 
 number of these priests or bonzes, and they exercise un- 
 limited power, and attract half Japan in pilgrimages. 
 They have a large scale, of which one end is over a^ 
 abyss, and in this the pilgrim is placed for confession; if 
 he does not tell all his faults, or if he is supposed not 
 to tell all, the balance is shaken, and he falls to destruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The Japanese have universally such a taste for gar- 
 dening, that you would think them a nation of garden- 
 ers. These gardens are, many of them, scooped out like 
 an amphitheatre, descended by steps, and have arti- 
 ficial rocks, hilk; ponds, and islands. Like the English, 
 they follow nature, or rather embellish it, and you will 
 see no rectangular walks, or yew trees cut in fanciful 
 shapes. Even the poor people, whose possessions are 
 but ten rods square, have miniature gardens like those 
 described. 
 
 Where the houses are built of wood, and. sometimes 
 covered with flags, there must be a most orthodox dread 
 of fire, and therefore no man in Japan is more honored 
 than he that ca.i extinguish one. Of course, arson is 
 not a light crime, and the criminal has a touch of the 
 lexialionis; he is tied to a stake, and roasted alive. 
 
 In the districts, there is a sort of mutual insurance, 
 that is, all the community are responsible for any disor- 
 der, as was the case in Saxon times in England. But 
 every man has a way to insure himself; and though it 
 
RECOLLECTIONS Of JAPAN. 
 
 241 
 
 always fails him, a failure never shakes his confidence. 
 That is, every one has a charm or amulet; generally, a 
 distorted human figure is placed over the door, when no 
 misfortune or disease can be supposed to enter — ^yetthe 
 inmates die. 
 
 Short courtships are in fashion at Japan, though chil- 
 dren, however, who are plighted by their parents, are 
 married when of age. The husband has the power of 
 putting away his wife, and without assigning a better 
 reason than his own will. This is hardly a practice to 
 make tender husbands. 
 
 The grandees allow little freedom to their wives, who 
 have but the range of their own apartments. Father 
 Charlevoix says that the fidelity and modesty of the la- 
 dies are equal to the suspicion of their lords, and thinks 
 that the Japanese have the happy art of restraining the 
 liberty and retaining the affection of their wives — in 
 which the good Father displays as much charity as 
 sagacity. 
 
 NO. IV. 
 
 HiR — Jugglers are so common in Japan, that it seems 
 that one in fifly of the people practice the black art, 
 though this estimate makes a formidable corps of wizards. 
 They have a thousand ways to cheat the eyes, and are 
 80 dexterous that I could not account for their tricks, 
 but by supposing assistance from the powers of evil. 
 There are a great many young women, proficients in 
 these dark studies; and it is a more horrid sight than you 
 can imagine, to see them covered, neck, arms, and body, 
 21 
 
34S 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPIN. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 HB ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 |Hi:; 
 
 ■ 
 
 |. 
 
 Ifl L 
 
 ji 
 
 u 
 
 with hissing snakes, whose h^^ads are protruded as if to 
 bite. 
 
 In all useful domestic machinery, the Japanese are 
 centuries in our rear, though, according to some econo- 
 mists, it might be doing them a mischief to instruct them 
 in the mystery of a mill. Their mill is the primitive 
 pestle and mortar; the rice is pounded with a sort of 
 mallet, and I saw no machinery whatever, though some 
 there may have been. But I suppose the fur would rise 
 upon your back, were I to speak slightly of all machinery 
 to save labor, though, to be frank, I like best the old 
 buzzing household wheel. "" ' ' 
 
 Having commended the beauty of the Japanese wo- 
 Hien, though their eyes are somewhat small, you may 
 ask if I can praise thf^m for higher qualifications. Of 
 countries where travellers are few, many errors must 
 exist in the description; and from the accounts of some, 
 the ladies of Japan are not distinguished for reserve, or 
 even for pretensions of modesty. I have better thoughts 
 of them, and would, thirty years ago, have tak^n a wife 
 among them, rather than espouse a young woman of 
 Sicily. To tell you the truth, which must go no farther, 
 I had inducements in both countries, but did not (intend- 
 ing no pun) embrace the opportunity. The women of 
 Japan are neat in their persons and dress, and they can- 
 not be weak mothers, to instill into their children such 
 lessons of courage and fortitude; they never heard of 
 Cornelia, but their sons prefer death to shame. 
 
 In no country are baths so universal as in Japan, where 
 they are in every private and public house. An inn 
 would as much lose its reputation there, to be without a 
 bath, as in New England it would suffer in credit with- 
 out a bar. There is a moderate drinking, too, in Japan; 
 I saw no wine, but there are distilled spirits, and it is not 
 
 m^mm^-j^^ 
 

 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 243 
 
 led aa if to 
 
 panese are 
 )me econo- 
 struct them 
 le primitive 
 h a sort of 
 tough some 
 r would rise 
 I machinery 
 est the old 
 
 panese wo- 
 1, you may 
 ations. Of 
 errors must 
 tits of some, 
 reserve, or 
 ter thoughts 
 ak ^n a wife 
 J woman of 
 no farther, 
 not (intend- 
 3 women of 
 [id they can- 
 tildren such 
 or heard of 
 e. 
 
 apan, where 
 le. An inn 
 )e without a 
 credit with- 
 10, in Japan; 
 , and it is not 
 
 considered very infamous to be intoxicated in the eve- 
 ning, though a Christian community should have no par- 
 don for the offender. 
 
 There is but one power in the constitution of Japan, 
 the executive; for this includes the legislative and the 
 judiciary. The Emperor's power is easily defined, his 
 will is the only law of Japan, though it is sometimes but 
 a doubtful standard of right and wrong; there are grades 
 of crime, but no degrees of punishment, the slightest 
 offence against the laws, that is, the will of a good prince, 
 deserves no less than death, and offences of a lighter 
 kind, as arson, parricide, or simple murder, are punished 
 with the same severity. A great many offences are 
 capital, pn.ljably about a hundred and fifty, or about 
 half as many as in the code of Britain, for the Emperor 
 must have blood! blood! blood! 
 
 The empire is divided into sixtyeight provinces, and 
 there is a governor to each, who adopts the mild politi- 
 cal maxims of the Emperor. Some of the governorg 
 come up to Jeddo with a train of fifty thousand people; 
 they inspect the construction of roads and canals, and 
 the roads, therefore, are excellent. It seems that the 
 people, being restricted in their roving tastes from quit- 
 ting Japan, gratify themselves by constant motion at 
 home; for there is no country where the ways are so 
 thronged with travellers. There is much trade from one 
 province to another, and more pilgrimages than were in 
 England at the time of the Canterbury Tales. A gov- 
 ernor goes on hor?ehack, with two couriers before, cry- 
 ing, 'make way! ma^.oway!' even if no one be in sight; 
 two other footmen are attached to the bridle, to restrain 
 the horse, and two more to the stirrup, to switch him 
 into a curvet. The governor, in the mean while, sits 
 like a statue of dignity, looking as intently on the mane 
 of his horse, as if it were the fortyseventh proposition in 
 
* 
 
 244 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAFAIT. 
 
 Euclid. They are required to cotne often to court, to 
 give an account of their stewardship; and they go thither, 
 like a Bashaw to Constantinople, prepared to share the 
 plunder, and purchase immunity for its extortion. If they 
 demur to the salvage, or otherwise offend, they are sent 
 to the island of Falsisio, on the southern point of the 
 empire, from which they never return to describe it. It 
 is said to be more barren than St Helena, affording no 
 sustenance for a rat; it is surrounded by beetling cliff's, 
 and all visiters must be drawn up by ropes. It was the 
 very place for Napoleon; a thousand petty insults might 
 have been heaped upon the General, and all reproaches 
 would have died away before they could reach the ears 
 of Europe; but then Sir Hudson Lowe would not have 
 occupied in history his enviable place. 
 
 The governor of Nangasaki, who happened to know 
 more than his countrymen, sent to Batavia for an hun- 
 dred ship-carpenters; not one was to be had, and the 
 .Dutchmen advised him to send as many of his country- 
 men to Holland, to learn its useful arts, but the gov- 
 ernor died before he could mature his plans. 
 
 At Meaco, the holy city, resides the Diari, whose 
 empire is that of public opinion, which has power even 
 in Japan. His possessions have been lopped away, like 
 those of St. Peter's successors, but such is his influence 
 over the minds of the people, that half Japan is his tri- 
 butary; and the city of Meaco is his own in fee tail male 
 general. 
 
 The Emperor finds it needful to pay homage to the 
 Diari, as Napoleon condescended to cultivate the good 
 will of the Pope. The religion of the Diari, however, 
 is not universal in Japan; it acknowledges one Su- 
 preme Being, and a future life. The devotees have 
 no images in their temples, but pray in front of a 
 
• 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JiPiN. 
 
 245 
 
 court, to 
 ro thither, 
 share the 
 n. Ifthey 
 Y are sent 
 tint of the 
 ibe it. It 
 >rding no 
 ing cliffs, 
 t was the 
 lilts might 
 iproaches 
 I the ears 
 not have 
 
 to know 
 r an hun- 
 
 and the 
 country- 
 the gov- 
 
 ri, whose 
 I'cr even 
 way J like 
 nfluence 
 s his tri- 
 tail male 
 
 e to the 
 he good 
 owever, 
 >ne Su- 
 es have 
 >nt of a 
 
 mirror, to 
 
 remind them that 
 as their faces 
 
 their hearts are open 
 to the Deity, as their faces are reflected to them- 
 selves. One order of the religious of this creed, is that 
 of the Soldiers of the Mountain; they live in caves, and 
 subsist upon charity, which, in superstitious countries, 
 aflTords to such a splendid revenue. As they think bodily 
 sufl'ering an atonement for sin, penance is their pleasure, 
 and they 
 
 • Think to merit heaven, by making earth a hell.' 
 
 It is these, or some other monks, that are describee' as 
 putting to sea in crazy barks, making holes in the bot- 
 tom, and singing hymns as they sink to felicity. They 
 also bury themselves alive, with space enough to pro- 
 long their torments, and suffer from choice the penalty 
 of a defiled vestal in the Roman commonwealth. In 
 their pilgrimages, they choose the roughest roads, and 
 are the best pleased where they can find the most flints 
 and thoi'ns to lacerate their naked feet, for they have not 
 discovered the happy expedient of putting peas in their 
 shoes. Having no fear, they are in no danger, for dan- 
 ger is the child of fear; and like Macbeth and Ladurlad, 
 they bear a charmed life, for they run swiflly along the 
 verge of precipices that would turn a common bruin. 
 
 From their superior austerity, they assume great 
 powers over the pilgrims, for a slight offence suspending 
 them over a chasm by the hands, and when the strength 
 fails, and the grasp relaxes, the body ir, dashed to a shape- 
 less mass. The pilgrims are required to pray with cer- 
 tain formalities; they must rest their mouths upon their 
 knees for twentyfour hours, which is the length of a 
 moderate prayer, and their least motion is punished by a 
 blow. 
 
 In some of the temples are huge idols, and one is as 
 large as the man of mount Athos; the Colossus of Rhodes 
 21* 
 
 
246 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 was but a baby in comparison; his shoulders are five 
 fathoms broad, and six men can sit in the puhn of his 
 hand. 
 
 My recollections of Japan are so desultory, that I have 
 already forgotten, in my want of method, what I have 
 written before. But I think I have not mentioned the 
 Ainos, a simple and primitive race of people, on some of 
 the islands. They call themselves men, and as the king 
 says, * in the catalogue,' they may pass for such. These 
 Islanders have such beards as would raise envy in a 
 Persian prince; and they have hair also upon their backs, 
 but I tried in vain to get one of the pelts. The females 
 are said to be modest, but modesty is thrown away upon 
 them; they have other defences, and it is a beautiful 
 woman that has the greatest need for modesty. ^ 
 
 The Ainos form an early and instinctive alliance with 
 the bears; the cubs are taken young from the mother, 
 and suckled by the women. Hence strong attachments 
 subsist between the foster brethren with two, and with 
 four legs; for the number of legs seems to mark the dif- 
 ference between the animals, though sometimes the bear 
 walks upright, and the man upon all fours. 
 
 Hunger, however, is stronger than affection, or Com- 
 modore Byron would never have eaten his dog; and 
 when these household cubs are fattened, they are killed 
 and eaten. The family mourns over the death of a fa- 
 vourite, but Rnd some consolation in picking his bones; 
 yet they never read in RochefoucauU, that there is some- 
 thing that does not displease us, in the misfortunes of 
 our best friends; though perhaps he meant, when the 
 loss of them is followed by an inheritance; 
 
 They live at Yesso, a sort of Japanese Arcadia, and 
 are not as neat as the Japanese, nor yet as filthy as 
 the pastoral people I have elsewhere seen, though they 
 are never known to wash themselves. 
 
AECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 247 
 
 The men have several wives, commonly one in the 
 different places to which their business calls them; they 
 have a just law, that inflicts a severe punishment on adul- 
 tery, yet it makes a discrimination to favor tlie tempted. 
 If a woman is as shameless as the wife of Potiphar, and 
 gives her rings to a man, this pledge secures him from 
 the justice of the law, and the venr,eancc of the husband. 
 
 The Ainos have some traflic v/ith the Kurilc Islands, 
 the same that were discovered and described, with some 
 exaggerations, by Benyoski. You may road his adven- 
 tures, which have a touch of romance, in two volumes; 
 he was exiled to Siberia, from whence, with others, he 
 escaped by seizing a ship; h'^ had won the affections of 
 the governor's daughter, who, if I remember well, went 
 away with him, though he had a wife at home. All these 
 things are embellished in a drama of Kotzebue, ai^er his 
 manner, in the Stranger, 
 
 « With his sentimentalibus, lachrymse.roar'em.' 
 
 The moral of each play is equally good, covering 
 crime with passionate thought and seductive language. 
 Benyoski was a man of a restless mind and afterwards 
 planted a colony in the isle of France, where he was 
 killed; saving my liability to forget. 
 
 There are few streams in Japan that can be called 
 rivers, in the American phrase, for here a course of a 
 thousand miles is required to constitute a river, yet the 
 streams of Japan, though small, are rapid and clear. 
 The lakes are in th<^ same proportion, though there is 
 one sheet of water more than forty leagues in length; 
 the shores are lined with three thousand temples, which 
 make about one temple to every superstition. 
 
 The trees of Europe that I saw were the pine, and a 
 great many noble willows; the fruits were oranges, figa, 
 plums, and pears. The beach is fringed with cocoa 
 
 
 a 
 
mm 
 
 348 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS Of JAPJL'S. 
 
 f-i 
 
 trees and fan palms; and hero you may see meadows 
 of nf)imo»a»«, in which the plant will shrink from your 
 touch, and leave a clear space to walk in, 
 
 There are few wild animals in any of the Japanese 
 islands; the largest are wolves, and these not very fc- 
 rocious, yet the inhabitants think that they are the em- 
 bodied spirits of evil, and so call them. 
 
 Kojmpfer praises the justice of the Japanese laws, 
 or magistrates, far above that of Europe, where it is to 
 bo feared he had tasted a suit at law. But the infre- 
 quency of crime is produced by tremendous penalties 
 uponihe culpiit, his family and his neighbourhood. In 
 disputes, the parties appear personally before the judge 
 and tell their own story without the intervention of a law- 
 yer, or the aid of special pleading. The Japanese laws 
 like all others, act more upon the fears than the hopes 
 of the people, denouncing penalties to evil doers, rather 
 than promising rewards to those that do well. But in free 
 countries there is a counterbalance, and though the 
 laws do not offer premiums to virtue, yet the greatest 
 reward is sure to follow good conduct in wealth, repu- 
 tation and office; this is universally true in our own 
 pleasant land, where there is not a single rogue in of^ 
 fice, nor do 1 take it on myself to say t!mt any has been 
 turned out. 
 
 NO. V. 
 
 Dear Sir — This prosing has been so long continued, 
 that it has become to me a pleasure whatever it may be 
 to the gentle readers. 
 
RE00LLBCTION8 or JAPAN. 
 
 249 
 
 It is very eaay to write reminiscences, if you require 
 no other arrangement than the ecu hc in which the facts 
 occur to memory; though this is not a very philosophi- 
 cal connection, or the order followed in the exact scien- 
 ces. The epistolary style is also very i'avorablo to in- 
 dolent writers, and for all writers; for it includes all 
 styles, from bald disjointed chat to the most polished 
 and sonorous period^'. 
 
 Did I tell you how they sleep in Japan? Even as 
 you and I bivouacked near the White Mountains; on 
 the floor. A coverlid, (or as I heard a senator call it, a 
 kiverlid) stuffed like one of our comforters, is spread 
 upon the plank, and a billet of wood, with a place cut 
 for the head, stands substitute for a pillow; so that in 
 Japan it would not do to throw pillows as girls do at a 
 Loarding school. The luxurious have a small cushion, 
 <;n the timber, but thi'^ is rare. These people would 
 'nake as good soldiers as the Highlanders; you remem- 
 ber the old chiei\ain sleeping with his clan on t^^ hill 
 side, one of which rolled up a ball of snow whereon to 
 lay his head. ' Out upon it!' said Lochiel, giving it a 
 kick, ' are you so effeminate as to need a pillow?' 
 
 The Japanese are equally hardy in bearing the cold, 
 though the severe weather is but of brief duration. But 
 they have no such snug quorters as a chimney corner, 
 imd, though they might do battle for their altars, very 
 few of them could die for their hearths. In some houses, 
 however, there is a mound raised in the middle of 
 an apartment, like a blacksmith's forge, whereon they 
 make a fire, the smoke of which ascends through a hole 
 in the roof. 
 
 The houses in Japan are not so tastefully furnished as 
 those of Europe, and the beautiful varnished tables and 
 boxes that are so much admired are found rather in their 
 cabinets than parlors. The porcelain is good, but infe- 
 
 ^:.«t'!,lrt4.*.*;!'A^.7&*- 
 
 •.ViiWt»E*fl*^.jfti»»»ii'.'>*.«r » 
 
 »•»-•*.. ■*. 
 
^50 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAIT. 
 
 rior to the Chinese, and the paintings are brilliant and 
 gaudy. The Japanese are fond of show, and wha* fur- 
 niture they have seems made rather for sight than ser- 
 vice, more as ornaments than utensils. 
 
 These islanders seem to have the elements of a great 
 character; they have steadiness of purpose, contempt of 
 death, and, what is more rare, of pain. They have in- 
 genuity in the arts, and aptitude to learn foreign lan- 
 guages. They seem to be an odd mixture of the Italian 
 and the Russian. The passion oi revenge is with them 
 a tornado that sweeps away every obstacle in its course; 
 when rendered desperate, they are not, like the Javan- 
 ese, satisfied with a general massacre, of running ' a- 
 muck; ' but they pursue their eicmy with the pertinac- 
 ity of a beagle. If they fail to compass their revenge, 
 (and it is no slight obstacle that will discourage them) 
 they rip open themselves rather than live in the torments 
 of ungratified rage. Formerly, family feuds descended 
 with the family name, but I did not learn that debts of 
 gratitude were ever thus bequeathed; the heir would 
 not so readily pay the legacies. The benefits* that a man 
 receives die with him, and often he survives his own 
 memory of them; he tries to forget what it is painful to 
 remcinber, who saved his life, or loaded him \\ith fa- 
 .'ors. while he * remembers who owes him money or gave 
 the last kick on the shins,' and the memory of an insult, 
 an injury, a word, a look, is hoarded up for revenge. 
 To conclude, my hearers, (for I have got into a sermon 
 without a text} if you would practice a fashionable and 
 * gentlemanly vice,' take up \ th ingratitude. Byron 
 gave the preference to avarice, but I can show you a 
 great many men on 'Change and in church, proficients in 
 both. ' 
 
 I found at Nangasaki several of the natives, who 
 were shrewd and intelligent, and I explained to thenr. 
 
 Kit<^ 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF JAPAN. 
 
 251 
 
 the principles of a republic, but they were slow to com- 
 prehend how we could get along without an emperor. 
 I told them that we were all equal and free, (though it 
 stuck a little in my throat,) that the rulers were the ser- 
 vants of the people, who were the sovereigns, and that 
 all of them obeyed laws of their own choice. These 
 were startling assertions, and produced skilful cross 
 questions, forcing me to admit that, in the republic, at 
 Boston the head of it, at Worcester its heart, and at 
 Northampton its bark-bone, a rich man may make a 
 poor one, his serf, his slave, and his captive. Of the 
 poor, tho most to be pitied are those who have once 
 been rich, and their numbers have of late frightfully in- 
 creased. They must always have out paper enough, 
 (such is the phrase) for a rich rogue to buy up at a dol- 
 lar a hundred, and thus he may feed his prisoner upon 
 the vapor of a dungeon, he may destroy his health, and 
 inflict upon him moral degradation; he may crush him 
 where he is most sensitive, in his honor, his family and 
 affections, til4 death removes him beyond the humane 
 operation of the laws. 
 
 Thus sir have I told you all that I know of Japan, and 
 something more. I have written four times as much as 
 I intended, and yet could write as much more, but 
 enough has been done to entitle me to reward, and I 
 look to the merchants for a service of plate, though it 
 should be pewter, or a medal, if only of leather. 
 
 ' ifi 
 
rrw^ 
 
 ■ PII.B.M^|H I Pll 
 
 m^mmmmtmmmft^mmm 
 
 ■PR 
 
 iiiiW 
 
 I 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 NO. I. 
 
 u 
 
 • I 
 
 i 
 
 Sir — ^Though I am not of that class of travellers, 
 who, (as the African said) ' take big walk, make big 
 book,' yet something I have seen which I am encourag- 
 ed to describe by your praise of the sketches of the 
 Boston Merchant, whom I hold in slight esteem; for he 
 was nothing out of Italy, and not much there; I also 
 have been there, but the eternal city, iantum vidi, for 
 what could I investigate in three days; therefore my 
 recollections of Rome, are like the memory of a dream 
 or like a lake in a storm, rellecting only broken images 
 of grandeur. . 
 
 It is known to you that I am not only a scholar, but 
 an instructer; for the village school has been so long 
 under my administration, that the birch I planted at the 
 corner has become a goodly tree. 
 
 When I was a young man (which was not in this 
 century) I was a year in Canton, though as I was gen- 
 erally moored in the river, I saw less of the land than 
 of the people, and shall there fore not so much describe 
 China aa the Chinese. But * Recollections ' yea 
 
ll!i«IWWBPBWS!iiiWBP^»W?f!fWI?fF5^^ 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 253 
 
 know, Sir, come as thpy will, and not as the reminiscent 
 may desire, which J offer, to palliate my want of method, 
 as you will see that I often connect things together by 
 very remote resemblances. 
 
 In North America there is such a connexion between 
 the sciences and arts, that it would excite your won- 
 der to see in China, the arts so high and the sciences 
 so low; yet their arts are at a stand, and have not for 
 centuries advanced. The Chinese have known the 
 
 « 
 
 qualities of the magnet, the invention of printing, 
 and of gunpowder, longer than the Europeans, yet their 
 compass is hut a blind guide, their types are blocks of 
 wood, and their matchlocks are as perilous at the breech 
 as af the muzzle. 
 
 Their g eatest monuments ure more creditable to 
 their industry than their skill, and the great wall was 
 not founded on the reasoning of Romulus. It was the 
 labor of cowardice, inviting an attack because display- 
 ing fear. Yet it is a greater work than your Mill Dam, , 
 for it runs over mountain and valley as far as from Bos- 
 ton to iVew Orleans; 'uut it is shorter than the grand 
 canal from Canton to Pekin. ./ , ' 
 
 An honest man soon l)ecomes suspicious in China, 
 where '•c finds enough to excite sarcasm and misanthro- 
 py. 1 he Chinese have no sincerity, and therefore no 
 confidence, for they look into themselves to discover the 
 character of others. 'I hey believe in magic but not in 
 virtue, for they buv the favor of wizards and distinist 
 the honesty of all men. 
 
 Their govcriiuient is admirably well adapted to make 
 them hypocrites and knaves; it is a representative d'?s- 
 potism, where you may see ' the image of authority,* 
 better than in a cuv barking at a beggar. Every func- 
 tionary represents in his circle the power of the Empe- 
 ror, and his lightest way of enforcing it is by the bamboo. 
 2!2 
 
^r^mif^i^^mim^'^ 
 
 mmmmmm^'mm'i^''fimm 
 
 254 
 
 RECOLLECTIOxNS OF CHINA. 
 
 :! 
 
 
 \m 
 
 M? 
 
 1 
 
 lwi> 
 
 ! 
 
 19 
 
 1 
 
 lH^I 
 
 i 
 
 1 B 'iH 
 
 1 
 
 
 m 
 
 [ 
 
 Servility and insolence are correlative, and you will no- 
 where else find power so lordly and obedience so humble 
 as in China. 
 
 The press is prolific, but such is the system of review- 
 ing that I should think it mercy to fall into the hands of 
 Mr Walsh. An ill-starred author dared, like Webster, 
 to meddle with the great dictionary of the nation, and 
 to insert the liltley or fami'y names of Emperor, and of 
 Kong-fut-see. The critics in China, have high juris- 
 diction, and adjudged the criminal guilty of treason, 
 when it was only murder of the Emperor's Chinese; but 
 he was sentenced to be cut in pieces, and to have his 
 children put to death. But the Emperor was clement, 
 and commuted the punishment to cutting off the ofiTen- 
 der's head, and his children wore reprieved for the great 
 autumnal execution. This is worse than it is with us 
 in the republic of letters, where, though the author is 
 sometimes cut up, his relatives always escape the knife. 
 
 You are to remember that in China the only noble 
 family by inheritance, is that of Confucius, or Kong- 
 fut-see; he has been dead twenty centuries, but those 
 of his lineage are called ' Nephews of the Great Man.' 
 
 The Chinese all smoke, though good tobacco is too 
 dear to be used unmixed; it is blended with opium, 
 which it is penal to take, yet every one abuses and smokes 
 it. There are in Canton societies for the suppression 
 of opium eating; the viceroy is the president, and he 
 made a pathetic appeal to his constituents to give up 
 BO perilous a practice, though he takes his own opium 
 as regularly as a Virginian his julep. 
 
 The Chinese are free from some prejudices, touching 
 food, that yet exist in other countries; the beef of the 
 horse is preferred to that of the cow, and their game is 
 what we call vermin; rats are fattened for epicures and 
 
^HWHU^B^i^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 255 
 
 u will no- 
 o humble 
 
 >f review- 
 hands of 
 Webster, 
 it ion, and 
 3r, and of 
 igh juris- 
 f treason, 
 nese; but 
 have his 
 clement, 
 the ofTen- 
 the great 
 is with us 
 author is 
 the knife, 
 nly noble 
 or Kong- 
 but those 
 sat Man.' 
 ceo is too 
 h opium, 
 id smokes 
 ppression 
 it, and he 
 give up 
 wu opium 
 
 touching 
 ef of the 
 r game is 
 3ures and 
 
 a pheasant is sold at the same price with a cat. Pork, 
 however, is the general meat, and the hams are excel- 
 lent; but in this country of the imitative arts, ham is 
 counterfeited, and many a foreigner has bought a gam- 
 mon from which he could slice nothing but chips; nut- 
 megs, however, are so cheap that they are seldom imi- 
 tated. 
 
 Beef is a prohibited meat, but 1 cannot now tell 
 wherefore it is not free; when sold in the streets, it is 
 hawked as mutton, though the purchaser knows what 
 he buys. It is only change of name and no one is de- 
 ceived any more than in dining on a rabbit in Spain, 
 where a coney is always a cat. 
 
 The dog butchers have a brisk trade, but when they 
 stir abroal the whole canine commonwealth barks at 
 their heels, and when one of their fraternity is dragged 
 to the shambles, the others attempt a rescue. A pup 
 of six weeks makes a delicate roast, and has a peculiar 
 flavor, something between the taste of a kid and of an 
 opossum. At first, my regard for poor Tray at home, 
 rendered me indifferent to such dainties, but I soon 
 overcome this prejudice by reflecting that I must have 
 eaten dog sausages from the Boston market. In Ame- 
 rica, venerable prejudices stand between our teeth and 
 excellent food — for, with us, who eats shark's fins, bear's 
 claws smoked, or bird's nests boiled. 
 
 In the way of food, nothing comes amiss to a Chinese, 
 for his appetite is as accommodating as a Hottentot's. 
 A Frenchman keeps a rabbit till it has acquired aflavoTf 
 and a Chinese does i.ot scorn to eat pig or poultry 
 that has floated for weeks in the river. 
 
 But JiC f^ceat aricle of food is rice, which is boiled, 
 and eit ) with a chop-stick and porcelain spoon. In 
 rice Co .ntries, the four pronged fork would be more 
 
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 
 
 256 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 II 
 
 useful than with us, for we use it from affectation, and 
 to imitate the French. French cooks delight in cut 
 and compound dishes, without joint or substance, wherein 
 this fork is an excellent feeder; but the Turk and Per- 
 sian eat in the primitive, justifying the proverb, that 
 settles the relative antiquity of forks and fingers. 
 
 The Chinese have a compound countenance * nose 
 of Turk, and Tartar's lips.' Yet, although the Tartar 
 race holds the empire of China, it has failed to dissemi- 
 nate its own unmixed features. China was conquered 
 by that warlike people, and as the brave always find 
 favor with the fair, the Chinese ladies were courted af- 
 ter the manner of the Sabine. The annals relate that 
 in those days of glory and profusion, two dollars would 
 buy a wife, and a sack to carry her in; so that rating 
 the lady as nothing, the purchaser paid but double for 
 his bag. 
 
 The Chinese take great delight in what they call mu- 
 sic, though they are little pleased with the strains of the 
 £olian harp. But they have the tom-tom or the gong, 
 producing an indescribable combination of horrid sounds. 
 Their music is prized according to its loudness; I can 
 hardly give you a conception of it from description, but 
 I could select performers that would make music like a 
 Chinese band, viz., ten jackasses braying, five brazier'a 
 pounding on the copper boiler of a steam boat, thirty 
 bag-pipers, and a sexton to pull a cracked bell. 
 
 But there is in every man's mind something that re- 
 sponds to the touch of his national music, be it bagpipo 
 or banjo, and a national tune is a compression into the 
 smallest compass, of everything that binds us to our 
 country, as the legends of the nursery, ahd the songs 
 of the festival. I have heard a Dundee sailor in a 
 moonlight calm off Java head, when the air was filled 
 with the odour of flowers, sing ' Should auld acquaint- 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 267 
 
 tion, and 
 lit in cut 
 , wherein 
 and Per- 
 erb, that 
 igers. 
 ice * nose 
 he Tartar 
 } dissemi- 
 :onquercd 
 ways find 
 ourted af- 
 elate that 
 &rs would 
 iiat rating 
 ioubie for 
 
 Y call mu- 
 lins of the 
 the gong, 
 id sounds. 
 ss; I can 
 ption, but 
 iisic like a 
 
 brazier'a 
 )at, thirty 
 1. 
 
 ig that rc- 
 it bagpipe 
 1 into the 
 us to our 
 the songs 
 3iilor in a 
 was filled 
 
 acquaint- 
 
 
 ance be forgot,' in such a manner as to draw the crews 
 of the whole fleet on deck, and their souls out of their 
 bodies; but when the same sailor sung another song, 
 without national interest, no one cared to listen. 
 
 The tragic muse, has not in China, a very reputable 
 train of votaiies; the companies of actors have but five 
 or six persons, so that one man ' plays many parts,' and 
 boys perform the characters of females. They are, of 
 course, strollers, that strut and fret their little hour, in 
 any coign of vantage or tap-room corner, where they 
 can hang a curtain. Centuries are embraced in the 
 time of one play — and the same liberal arrangement is 
 made with regard to space. They have some shifts 
 equal to Bottom's moonshine and wall; if a char- 
 acter is supposed to take a journey, he runs round 
 the stage cracking his whip, and stops when the specta- 
 tors may imagine him arrived. 
 
 These strollers are but one class of vagabonds, for 
 China is half peopled with what the statute calls ' rogues 
 found loitering,' ' valiant beggars,' fire eaters, bonzes, 
 and jugglers. The jugglers perform surprising feats, 
 which I am inclined to inscribe to diabolical aid; they 
 will plant you a mango twig in the ground, moisten it 
 with blood, and in a few minutes, under their incanta- 
 tions the twig becomes a tree, covered with flowers or 
 bending with fruit. I have not seen such rapid vegeta- 
 tion even in Ohio. Their feats of balancing seem to 
 defy the principle of gravitation; I should suppose that 
 a bird could hardly perch where I have seen a dance. 
 Another of their performances is to have a ribbon a 
 hundred feet long attached like a lash to a twelve inch 
 rod, which they so whisk about that the ribbon is never 
 tangled, and yet is always in the air; so perfectly can 
 they do this, that while the lash is floating in the air, it 
 describes many fanciful and regular figures. 
 22* 
 
 
mmm 
 
 S58 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OV CHINA 
 
 The mountebanks of the east are renf.wnsd for their 
 skill in poising. They will spin round plates oa their 
 fingers or on sticks, as if they were wheels with axles. 
 1 have seen one of these magi, fasten three sticks aa 
 pivots to each boot, and then on six other sticks ho 
 would spin like whirligigs as many pl.ites, which, while 
 spinning, he transferred to the sticks in his boots, whero 
 they continued still to spin. The operator then set in 
 motion three other plates in his hand, so that he had 
 nine goftig at once. Puppet shows are more common 
 at Canton than at Maples, hut Punch has more wit in 
 Italy. The puppets in China are under the inspection 
 of the police, which is vigilant lest they utter anything 
 against the paternal government. At Rome they havo 
 more freedom, and form the only means by which a 
 satire may be aimed at the rulers, or follies of the great. 
 Puppets in China are the amusement of all classes, and 
 indicate the refinement of the public taste. 
 
 The dress of some of the countrymen about Canton, 
 is principally a cloak of rice straw, so that the peasant 
 v^'alks about under a thatched roof They sleep upon 
 mats, and the people generally have no better beds. 
 
 The Chinese children have a great reverence for the 
 schoolmaster, and seldom incui" his displeasure. Tho 
 booksellers have a vast variety of books for juvenilo 
 scholars, who, in a language so intricate and volumin- 
 ous, receive every possible aid. If you have never ar- 
 rived at the distinction of keeping a school, you can 
 hardly estimate the public gratitude that should follow 
 those who simplify the process of education. I would 
 acknowledge a pedagogue's delt to the compiler of th© 
 National Reader, which I once heard called a national 
 bulwark. Some grave and wise man rated the influence 
 of the ballads in a language above that of tha laws) 
 but, Sir, the school-books have a greater agency than 
 either, in forming character. 
 
RECOLLECTIOXS OF CHINA. 
 
 259 
 
 for their 
 
 on their 
 th axles. 
 
 sticks aa 
 sticks ho 
 ch, while 
 its, whero 
 en set in 
 it he had 
 
 coiiiinon 
 ore wit ia 
 nspection 
 
 anything 
 they have 
 
 which a 
 the great. 
 assesj and 
 
 Canton, 
 
 e peasant 
 
 eep upon 
 
 beds. 
 
 ce for tho 
 
 re. Tho 
 
 juveniloi 
 
 volumin- 
 
 never ar- 
 
 you can 
 
 Id follow 
 
 I would 
 
 er of tha 
 
 1 national! 
 
 influence 
 
 tha lavvs{ 
 
 ;ncy than 
 
 It is a sight to make my green spectacles glisten to 
 look at the shelves of Munroe and Francis. They 
 have changed the whole system of juvenile reading; 
 Blue Beard and Tom Thumb, have abdicated their 
 high places in favor of better people, and a child, while 
 he seeks only amusement, may now learn history and 
 the sciences, and avoid the silly tales that composed my 
 own early library, and which haunt the memory for evil, 
 like stories of ghosts and spectres. If the children of 
 the commonwealth were to erect a monument to their 
 greatest benefactors, you would find it inscribed to our 
 friends at the corner of Water street; this may seem a 
 strong assertion, but every schoolmaster or parent, that 
 educates his own children, knows it to be but faint 
 praise. You, I think, deserve well of your country, 
 being the father of eight sons; when the season of 
 Christmas presents comes, let them not make a profitless 
 investment of half a dollar in a whistle, or statues of 
 men and horses in sugar, but purchase a book, that if 
 they read but once and throw it by, will yet leave a 
 lasting impression on their minds. This is my course 
 with the young Doolittles, who have already a miniature 
 library of fifty volumes, and whose greatest treat it is 
 to visit the bookstore of the publishers. 
 
 ERASMUS DOOLITTLE. 
 
 NO. II. 
 
 Sir — The first impulse of an American, when he seesr 
 for the first time a Chinese, is to laugh at him. His 
 dress, if judged by our standard, is ridiculous, and in a 
 Mandarin, a stately gravity sets it off for double derision. 
 
 ^1 
 
 i ( 
 
 II 
 
 hi 
 
260 
 
 RECOLLETTIONS OF CHIPTA. 
 
 His trowsers are a couple of meal bags, reaching just 
 below the knee, his shoes arc huge mnchines, turned up 
 at the toe, his cap is fantastic, and his head is shaven 
 except on the crown, whence ther^ hangs down a tuft of 
 hair as long as a spaniel's tail. This appendage is one 
 of honor, and cherished with care; for a long streamer 
 at Canton is as much a distinction as a beard that covers 
 the girdle at Ispahan. As the Emperor of Persia haa 
 the best beard in his dominions, so he of China has the 
 longest tail, and no Mandarin presumes to rival, by half 
 an ell, that of the Emperor. 
 
 When I was at Canton, the Majesty of China was a 
 younger son of old Kien Long, so well known at the 
 time of the embassies. Kien Long had rather more than 
 common sense, which, for an Emjv or, was prodigious; 
 like old King Cole, he had a fondness for the bowl, and 
 actually composed an ode on Tea; but like you and me 
 he had his failings, though he was as good a man as some 
 who think themselves better. Like the monarch of 
 Britain, he could not rfesist ' the light of a dark eye in 
 woman;' he therefore had some domestic troubles, for his 
 Empress hung herself for jealousy, and his son died of an 
 imperial kick, for wearing mourning for his mother. 
 But Kien Long was as good as other kings, and abdi- 
 cated in favor of his fifteenth son, after which his life was 
 short, for a deposed or abdicating prince seldom survives 
 his power. The Emperor of China, like Augustus, 
 covers his power with specious names; his government 
 is supposed to be paternal, and, like Charles II, he is 
 called the father of his people. He is also called the 
 father, and sometimes the mother, of his country, which 
 is as bold a figure as ' Father of Chemistry, and Brother 
 of the Earl of Cork.' He is accountable for his actions 
 to no created being, and his paternal relation gives him 
 the right of chastisement. He inflicts death for disobe- 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHIXA. 
 
 261 
 
 ing just 
 irncdup 
 
 shaven 
 a tuft of 
 3 is one 
 treamer 
 t covers 
 rsia has 
 
 has the 
 , by half 
 
 a was a 
 1 at the 
 ore than 
 digious; 
 owl, and 
 I and me 
 I as some 
 (larch of 
 i eye in 
 s, for his 
 led of an 
 mother, 
 id abdi- 
 life was 
 survives 
 ugustus, 
 ernment 
 I, he is 
 tiled the 
 y, which 
 Brother 
 i actions 
 ves hin» 
 r disobe- 
 
 dience, and minor penalticH for less enormous crimes; 
 China is his farm, and his subjects are tenants by sufTer- 
 ance, paying rents in kind. On the north his farm ia 
 ftnclost'd by a tone wall, and, as Johnson said, it is an 
 honorable distinction to be grandson to a man who has 
 seen that wall. In so large a family as the Chinese 
 Empire, the brethren sometimes fall out, but this hap- 
 pens in smaller circles, further west. 
 
 The great man, once in the year, condescends to turn 
 a furrow with his own hand. This is at the Feast of 
 Agriculture, a kind of cattle show, held in the spring. 
 The Emperor is, however, as much above the Mandu- 
 rins, as tiiey are elevated above the rest of the people. 
 They speak to him on their knees, prostrate themselves 
 nine times before him, and kneel to his chair and his 
 robes. IVIen are said to be under the government of the 
 cudgel in Russia; in China, they are governed by the 
 bamboo. Blows are too common to be disgraceful, and 
 are a sort of penalty that all the subjects may suffer. 
 The bamboo offers a very simple method of obtaining 
 evidence, for if a witness fails to testify as he is desired, the 
 testimony is flogged out of him; while in our courts, he is 
 only scrfAved. The blows make him conformable, but 
 when the witness is flogged, the accused is in danger. 
 
 The lesser punishments are inflicted under the inspec- 
 tion of the judge, which is, no doubt, gratifying, when 
 the judge is the complainant. The culprit sometimes 
 procures a substitute, which may be had for a round 
 sum, except in capital cases; the executioner, too, is 
 willing to deal at fair prices, and for a moderate com- 
 pensation, he will strike lightly, and somewhat aside. 
 This, however, is a great risk to run for benevolence, 
 for if detected, he would suffer twice what he remits, in 
 ^ his own person. 
 
■■ 
 
 262 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 Justice, soch as it is, is administered grntis in China; 
 and it is some comfort to the Clunese, among all their 
 grievDPces, that they are free from lawyers. No offence 
 is punished with less than five lashes, and fifty are often 
 given. The manner of flogging is this: the great man 
 has three attendants, the culprit is prostrate on his belly, 
 one attendant sits astride on his shoulder to heep hinn 
 down, another draws his Icj^ja out by a cord around his 
 heels, and a third applies the bamboo. The sufferer 
 hoards no malice, but retires like one of my scholars after 
 * correction,' with increased veneration for his master. 
 
 There i!^ an instrument in comm )n use, in the naturo 
 of a moveable pillory, but I have f()rgotten the name; 
 though if 1 had worn it, I might have remembered it 
 longer. It is a wide board like a table, opening to en- 
 clo.se the neck, and on this is inscribed the ofl^'nder'a 
 demerits, for the amusement of passengers. Like F'al- 
 staff, he cannot see his own knees, nor can he put hi* 
 hand to his mouth; for in compass, this poke is equal to 
 the ruflf in the time of Queen Klizabcth; he is fed by 
 some compassionate and congenial soul, whose own 
 manner of life gives a prospective chance that he may 
 require, in time, the same good office. 
 
 A Chinese soldier has little resemblance to Mars, 
 He is encumbered with heavy arms, the most effective 
 of which, at a distance, is the bow and arrow; for his 
 matchlock is sd clumsy, that when discharged, it requires 
 an iron rest. The soldiers have among their equipments 
 umbrellas, and fans, and smelling bottles for canteens; 
 they are sometimes dressed in stripes, like a tiger, and 
 have two horns on the head piece, which, with a hideous 
 face carved on the shield, is enough to alarm a child 
 who sees it for the first time. Their system of war is 
 the defensive, and they feel less security in a field than 
 in a garrison. ' 
 
 ^t,^' 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 263 
 
 But this would be no dispfirai;emciit, if they would /i^/t/ 
 behind an entrenchment; the best ofour own butties havo 
 been won in breastworks, und it is no disgrace to any 
 General to cover with the ennniy'd bodies the grcund 
 before his line of cotton bajjs. 
 
 The Chiii'.ise, if they do not rntjch reflect upon a fu- 
 ture state, have yet a great desire to be buried in « 
 good coflliii; and in some, this amounts to such a pas- 
 sion, that their life passes, like a silk worm^s, in the pre- 
 paration of something fine to cover themselves when 
 they are dead. They have also a careful eye to the cof- 
 fin of a friend, and a son wiji sell hitnseK to slavery to 
 buy a good one for his father; whom perhaps he neg- 
 lected while alive, as in western C(juntries we raise mon- 
 uments to genius, when it is dead, that we suTered to 
 languish in want while it lived. Where the coffin is 
 splendid, the funeral is, of course, magnificent; and if a 
 family is unable to bury its dead in a suitable, that is, in 
 a sumptuous manner, the bodies arc kept sealed end 
 glazed in tiie coffin, until more favorable times, it may 
 be for twenty years. 
 
 In a country where death is so much honored, there 
 must be a code of funeral ceremonies. 'I'he first part of 
 a funeral is somewhat like an Irish burial, and consists 
 in howling, in whiih all the mourners and friends are 
 expected to bear a part; and after a few howls, come re- 
 freshments and tea. The funeral procession is led oy 
 music, and has banners, streamers, and images. The 
 eldest son walks with a stick, as if to intimate that he is 
 overcome with grief. The suits of mourning are worn 
 twentyseven months, and the time was formerly longer. 
 Their dead are buried in places that do more credit to 
 the living than our sombre grave yards; it is an amiable 
 weakness in the survivors, to suppose that their deceased 
 friends may be gratified with a tomb in a pleasant spot— 
 
 
 ■ I 
 
 ■ ^^^..-A..^..**.!— ^.* 
 

 264 
 
 ■>IEC0LLECTI0XS OF CHINA. 
 
 some airy hill, shaded with trees, where they themselves 
 may linger to muse and commune in spirit with the de- 
 parted. When u friend is dead, it strikes upon our 
 hearts to remember how we misprized him, and how ill 
 we requited his kindness; we forget his failings before 
 
 ^ we have covered him with earth, and remember only 
 what is amiable. We recall the thousand times that he 
 preferred our happiness to his own, and our harsh re- 
 turn for what was so kindly meant; and though he is 
 beyond the reach of our vain regret and late remorse, 
 it is some relief to a wounded spirit, to lay him in a 
 shaded spot, and ' manibus plenis ' to scatter flowers upon 
 his grave. Excuse me for this digression, but I feel 
 what I write; I am myself lacerated by this vain regret, 
 and late remorse, and would give ten years of life that I 
 might recall from death, for a single day, a friend who 
 never knew how much I loved him, if he judged me with 
 half the severity with which I now condemn myself. 
 He lies in the deep sea, where flowers cannot be scat- 
 tered or inscriptions graven, and I have no monument 
 for him but these lines of self-reproach, that I have writ- 
 ten in sorrow, and you will read with indifference. 
 
 ,^ On the death of the Emperor's mother, there was an 
 edict, bearing heavily upon the barbers, that, for a hun- 
 dred days, no one should be shaved, and another that 
 fell like a bolt upon lovers, that none should be married. 
 One of the missionaries remarked, that it was wonder- 
 ful, during the one hundred daysof mourning, to see the 
 decorum of the people; in the streets, they conversed 
 but in whispers, for the whole term there was no 
 wrangling or altercation, and a decent gravity was upon 
 every face, as if all sympathized witii tijc aflliction of the 
 Emperor. I'he ceremonial of the funeral was described 
 in twentyfour volumes, and the apartment, where the 
 body lay in state, was called the Hall of Nine Prayers 
 
 \ 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 
 
 265 
 
 emselves 
 1 the (le- 
 ipon our 
 (1 how ill 
 rs before 
 iber only 
 )s that he 
 liarsh rc- 
 jgh he is 
 remorse, 
 him in a 
 vers upon 
 ut I feel 
 lin regret, 
 life that i 
 iend who 
 id me with 
 1 myself, 
 be scat- 
 nonument 
 lave writ- 
 nce. 
 
 e was an 
 for a hun- 
 )ther that 
 3 married, 
 i wonder- 
 to see the 
 I'-onvorsed 
 was no 
 was upon 
 ion of the 
 described 
 vhere the 
 e Prayers 
 
 
 and Three Great Affairs. The Hall of Ancestors is a 
 large apartment, common to all of the same family; and 
 there they meet at certain seasons, without distinction of 
 rank, except that the oldest take precedence. The 
 names of the dead are recorded upon the wall, with the 
 usual lapidary allowance of virtues. The congregation 
 sometimes amounts to ten thousand, who are fed at the 
 expense of the richest in the family; it is a good cus- 
 tom, and if it were introduced here, fev ; r of us would 
 forget poor uncles and cousins. Why, Sir, upon my ve- 
 racity, I myself know a man who denied his own grand- 
 father. 
 
 There is another good festival of tke Chinese, held in 
 April, when they go to the tombs of their ancestors and 
 eradicate the weeds that have sprung up around them. 
 
 This reverence for the dead is a consequence of the 
 peculiar state of the paternal relation in China. If filial 
 piety in China, is less a feeling than a political institu- 
 tion; still, it is inculcated so early, and enforced by such 
 penalties, that there are few undutiful sons, and when 
 a child feels the irksomeness of the yoke, he comforts 
 himself with the thought, thit he shall hereafter have 
 to himself the same deference. 
 
 The obedience of a child to his father is absolute and 
 unconditional, and if it be morally possible, the father 
 has the civil right to inflict the punishment of death. 
 Monuments have been erected to children who have 
 distinguished themselves by filial tenderness and respect, 
 and half the books in China, are but records of Huch 
 dutiful actions. Children are under the same useful 
 restraint that I have imposed upon my scholars; a p >n 
 must ask his father's permission to go out, and sai«ii#; 
 him on his return; and to whatever the father enjoin«, 
 the son can make but three remonstrances — but this is 
 a greater latitude than I myself allow. To speak disre- 
 
 « 
 
 IWl 
 
 I 
 
m 
 
 266 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 ■•V 
 
 I ! I 
 
 spectfully of a parent, or grandparent, is death by stran- 
 gling, and to strike them, is death by beheading. 
 
 By a poli<ical fiction, the Emperor assumes that he 
 is the father of his subjects, and exerts in his pohtical 
 capacity, all that is conceded to the paternal relation. 
 This is a lever of immense power, and though he abuses 
 the paternal relation, the filial is seldom interrupted. 
 
 Your own calling, Mr Editor, is neither safe nor 
 common in China; for there are a great many constructive 
 offences in publications, and to write anything remotely 
 against the government, is death to the editor, the 
 printer, the paper maker, and the carrier. What a 
 massacre there w^ould be, if such a law were to be exe- 
 cuted tomorrow, in Boston. The only independent 
 editor in China, is the Emperor, who superintends the 
 Pekin Gazette, a ' respectable Daily.' The articles are 
 in the usual imperial style, and as true as the bulletins 
 of a defeated general. The Almanac is also a court 
 publication, filled with astrology and predictions, and 
 enjoins industry to the people, that they may fill the gra- 
 naries of thoir father the Emperor. Kien long, who 
 was something of a pedant, ordered a pocket edition of 
 the best authors, but the publication was dropped before 
 it reached the hundred and seventy thousandth volume. 
 Literature is the only read to preferment in China, 
 though it takes a contrary direction with us, where igno- 
 ranee oflen has the advantage. 
 
 I think you are fond of an eel pie; what think you of 
 a viper broth? It is very palatable and nourishing, but 
 rather inflammatory. The viper sellers go about with a 
 bamboo over the shoulder, from which is dependant two 
 ^ essels, one holding the broth, and the other the reptiles 
 alive. V'ou rnay see snakes exposed for sale in China, 
 its oflen as a codfish in Boston, and on the lid of ihe 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 267 
 
 !)y straij- 
 
 that he 
 
 political 
 relation, 
 e abuses 
 ipted. 
 safe nor 
 structive 
 remotely 
 itor, the 
 
 What a 
 3 be exe- 
 ependent 
 ends the 
 tides are 
 bulletins 
 » a court 
 ions, and 
 1 the gra- 
 g, who 
 edition of 
 ed before 
 1 volume, 
 n China, 
 
 ere igno> 
 
 vessel is written the contents with (as on all sign boards) 
 the words ' no cheating here,' though this denial of what 
 is not charged, looks less like innocence than guilt. 
 These snake-butchers are very expert in their calling; 
 when they find an adder asleep, they seize him by the 
 back of the head, and with a pair of tweezers take out 
 his fangs, before he is fairly awake. 
 
 The Chinese calendar has prognostications of weather, 
 and points out the lucky and disastrous days for serious 
 enterprises, such as marriages and lotteries, for the peo- 
 ple have a great reverence for the stars, which they 
 think regulate the events of the world. They divide the 
 zodiac into twelve signs — the Mouse, the Cow, the 
 Tiger, the Hare, the Dragon, the Serpent, the Horse, 
 the Sheep, the Monkey, the Hen, the Dog, and the 
 Bear. 
 
 I would have sent a longer letter, but for the visit of 
 an uninvited guest. Whai is your method with such? 
 I once had a neighbour who called upon me daily — I 
 heated my stove red hot, and tried to burn him out, but 
 he stood fire like a salamander; next, I essayed smoke, 
 which he bore lilie a badger; at last, I lent him five dol- 
 lars, and have not seen him since. 
 
 1, 
 
 '1 
 
 !» } 
 
 I 
 
 
 III 
 
 nk you of 
 ihing, but 
 out with a 
 id ant two 
 e reptiles 
 in China, 
 id of ihe 
 
 ^O. HI 
 
 Sir — Some of the penances that the bonzes in China 
 inflict upon themselves, are as strange and wild as our 
 own fancies under the incubus. They do not, from a 
 spirit of devotion, run into the torturing self-sacrifices 
 of the Hindoos, but seem willing to save both soul and 
 
 'itmistitasx^^m 
 
tHI 
 
 m 
 
 \\': 
 
 m 
 
 ' i,'. 
 
 ill 
 
 268 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 body, or rather to make use of the means of saving the 
 soul for the support of the body. Hence, a devotee, who 
 has imposed it upon himself to wear a heavy chain about 
 his neck, asks charity of the devout, who sacrifice less to 
 religion. I have seen a short fat bonze, saddled and bri- 
 dled to crawl on all-fours, thirty leagues, and as his tuft of 
 hair was conducted under the saddle and hung down by 
 the crupper, he made a tolexable representation of an 
 ass. He thought it needful to the success of his plan 
 to go through the usual motions of a donkey, and he 
 would curvet, kick and bray with surprising fidelity. It 
 would have delighted Monboddo to see that bonze. 
 
 The city of Canton lies so low, that from no point, to 
 which foreigners can penetrate, is there an extensive 
 view of it. The river is wide above the Boca Tigre, 
 and the water swarms with boats of every size. There 
 may be about twenty of these immense junks of twelve 
 hundred tons, but there are countless fleets of boats of 
 fifty tons; families occupy them, whose home is on 'iie 
 water, and who, in half a life, have seldom slept on *r- 
 rafirma. There is a long oar, at the stern, moveable 
 on a pin, and the boat is skulled by four or five sailors. 
 The oar strikes the water like a fish's tail. The streets 
 are filled with people, and, when seen for the first time, 
 it is a ludicrous sight to see so many close-shaven heads 
 without covering; you look down upon them as on the 
 closely-packed audience at a theatre. I have some- 
 times seen one Chinese running away from another, and 
 it was too much to see with gravity, for their tails were 
 streaming out horizontally a yard and a half 
 
 Where the head is shaven, the barbers hcwe a double 
 
 advantage, for a Chinese i,. *^man must keep his head 
 
 ' very smooth, though the common people hardly shave 
 
 once in a week. The heads, in a crowd look like a 
 
 collection of large turnips and offer excellent specimens 
 
saving the 
 t^otee, who 
 bain about 
 ficelessto 
 ed and bri- 
 3 his tuft of 
 5 down by 
 tion of an 
 of his plan 
 jy, and he 
 fideHty. It 
 )onze. 
 lo point, to 
 
 extensive 
 loca Tigre, 
 :e. There 
 3 of twelve 
 of boats of 
 e is on ' iie 
 lept on * r- 
 
 moveable 
 ive sailors. 
 The streets 
 
 first time, 
 aven heads 
 
 as on the 
 lave some- 
 lother, and 
 
 tails were 
 
 c a double 
 3p his head 
 rdly shave 
 3ok like a 
 specimens 
 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 269 
 
 for the study of phrenology. The shampooing is a 
 separate job with the barbers, and has an additional 
 price. It consists in cleaning out the ear with a small 
 spoon, and introducing some very soft brushes. 
 
 The Chinese form their written characters very nice- 
 ly; they write with a hair pencil, in lines from top to 
 bottom, beginning at the right hand corner of a page, 
 and this is peculiar to China and Japan. In all memo- 
 rials to Mandarins, but more especially to the Emperor, 
 the greatest nicety is required, both in the expression 
 and characters. There are particular words appropria- 
 ted to different ranks, and no words must occur twice in 
 the same memorial; to write a proper memorial in Chi- 
 na is therefore as difRcult as to draw a special plea in 
 more favored countries. But good penmen will write 
 with wonderful rapidity, and they seem to write as fast 
 as they can think. Would, Sir, that I could do it; you 
 would have better ' recollections,' for when I happen to 
 have a good thought it escapes before I can get it out. 
 
 The Chinese can calculate eclipses. These are cal- 
 culated for the capital of every province in the empire; 
 and the mandarins of the provinces are therefore in 
 readiness for the eclipse at the very moment when it is 
 to happen. When the obscuration begins, the people 
 (like the Neapolitans in a snow storm) fall onth-oir knees, 
 amid a horrid noise of gongs and other soft ini?'.«ments 
 of Chinese music. They have a belief, fouv^'^i. r.i tra- 
 dition, that the luminary is about (o be devourea by a 
 dragon, which catastrophe nothing but noise and tumult 
 can prevent; and if outcries can preserve her, the moon 
 is safe. When the luminary emerges, the exultation is 
 extreme, and every man prides himself on the part he 
 himself took to aid her. 
 
 In a country where so many thousand families live 
 on the river, many must subsist upon fish, which are 
 23* 
 
 •l^ 
 
 t , 
 
 ! 
 
 1 u 
 
 i'nl y 
 
 II 
 
m 
 
 mm. 
 
 »^ 
 
 11^ ie 
 
 270 
 
 RECOLLKCTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 providentially abundant. In China every animal must 
 work, unless, as in England, the hog is the only gentle- 
 man; cormorants, therefore, are employed in the river 
 fisheries. The birds are trained to it with care, and lest 
 they should eat a good fish, a leathern thong is tied 
 about their neck, so that they cannot swallow. One 
 fisherman goes out with a dozen birds, which you may 
 see perched on the gunwale of his boat; when one of 
 them takes a fish too large for its strength, another comes 
 to its assistance, and lifting the prey by the tail and the 
 gills, they carry it to the master. Some of the cormo- 
 rants, like men, have a sense of honesty, and require no 
 bandage about the neck; but having finished their em- 
 ployer's business, are allowed to fish on their own ac- 
 count. Ducks also are used as in Lincolnshire for de- 
 coys; but a very common method to catch the fowl is 
 this; in the bays and rivers where they are found, the 
 sportsmen throw a large kind of gourd with which the 
 ducks get so familiar that they will swim and play around 
 them; then comes the traitor, with his head enclosed in 
 a similar gourd, and a bag tied about his middle, in which 
 us the fowl are numerous, he carries off as many as he 
 requires. 
 
 The Chinese have a passion for flowers, and there 
 are flower-sellers everywhere in the streets. They 
 have also a taste for cultivating dwarf trees, and on their 
 terraces you may sec pines, oaks and oranges not so 
 high as your knee. To give some of these trees the ap- 
 pearance of great age, honey is s.r»ro«d over them to at- 
 tract the insects that they may bore mto the barh, and 
 to increase the delusion, a few branches are killed 
 and covered wi h moss. Their rage however is for the 
 peony, which they call the kin:; of flowers, and for a 
 favorite plant they will give a hundred dollars. There 
 are about two hundred and fifty species of this flower in 
 
nal must 
 ' gentle- 
 the river 
 and lest 
 g is tied 
 V. One 
 you may 
 in one of 
 er comes 
 and the 
 e cormo- 
 jquire no 
 heir em- 
 own ac- 
 e for de- 
 le fowl is 
 »und, the 
 k^hich the 
 y around 
 closed in 
 in which 
 ny as he 
 
 ,nd there 
 They 
 on their 
 not so 
 s the ap- 
 m to at- 
 ari:, and 
 e killed 
 s for the 
 nd for a 
 There 
 lower in 
 
 RECCI-LECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 271 
 
 China, cultivated in large beds, and so managed as to 
 blossom in spring, summer, and autumn. But Chinese 
 flowers have generally nothing but their beauty; their 
 lilac is without smell, and their splendid rose, the Hor- 
 tensia, without fragrance. 
 
 In China an old bachelor is a phenomenon; it follows 
 that there are but few single ladies, and, perhaps, not 
 one vestal, where Diana is so generally known as Lu- 
 cina. Marriages are early, and blessed with great in- 
 crease, and I have often seen, on the gunwale of a lit- 
 tle junk, a lino of fifteen small children. The Chinese, 
 however, are not a gallant race of men, and they do not 
 regard females with t!ic romantic deference of our times 
 of chivalry. They seldom break a lance for beauty, un- 
 less in the unmanly form of a bamboo raised against 
 what they should honor, and (as the lawyer says) for- 
 ever defend; for the Chinese code, like the English, al- 
 lows a husbiind (or as his lordship is styled in our book, 
 a baron) to correct his wife with a stick no larger than 
 his thumb. Such privileges in the brave are, 1 suppose, 
 apt to create docility in the fair; and, in Chinu, Grisel- 
 da would look too much like the truth, for a popular 
 novel. Cinderilla would have the most admirers, where 
 to have a little foot is to be every way amiable and at- 
 tractive. The fashion of feet, however, varies, even in 
 China, where the Tariar ladies take a pride in display- 
 ing a foot of substance. Ihey wear a hujic shoe, with 
 wooden soles turned up at the toe; of course, they do 
 not walk gracefully, but they are excellent riders, sitting 
 with one foot on each side of the horse. 
 
 I think it is staled by Sir George Staunton, that he 
 saw lew beggars in China, though the population was 
 so crowded that he estimated at a hundred thousand the 
 number of the people living on one branch of a river; 
 yet the mass of the people are poor, and there seem to 
 
 
 i.M 
 
 ill 
 
 ■11 
 
 f 
 
 
 if 
 I 
 
 rvl 
 
; 
 
 '!i 
 
 272 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 be no rich merchvints retired from trade, or landholders 
 with hereditary domains. In law, if not in fact, the 
 land is the Emperor's, and rent is paid in kind. The 
 grain is stored in various parts of the empire, and in a 
 season of scarcity is so freely distributed that the Em- 
 peror sustains the paternal character, and seems to be 
 indeed the father of his people. 
 
 In a country with a population so crowded, the cir- 
 'julating medium is well accommodated to the wants of 
 ths poor. The lee is a coin of copper, not without alloy, 
 of the value of one mill, so that there is a thousand to a 
 dollar. There is a hole through the middle and they 
 are strung like buttons; but large payments are made in 
 silver, cast into lumps of ten ounces each. The Span- 
 ish dollar is current in circulation, but scarce, and I can 
 say the same of it where I live. It is said that count- 
 less millions have been used to adorn the temples of the 
 Lama in China and in Tartary. ' 
 
 When an Emperor dies his coin passes at a discount, 
 as under similar circumstances the medals of our own 
 great men are depreciated. The coin seems to be 
 the only monument that an Emperor can transmit to 
 posterity, for the envy of his successor is sure to destroy 
 his triumphal arches and pagodas. 
 
 In China there is no union between church and state, 
 partly because the Emperor is strong enough alone, but 
 principally because there is no church. The people are 
 credulous in omens, ana have various methods of divina- 
 tion; the mobt common, before they enter upon any 
 great undertaking, isto throw up a lee, or ' sky a copper,' 
 and they abandon the enterprise when the coin comes 
 up ' tail.' This is rather a loose method of proceeding, 
 but is sagacious enough before a law-suit, where, with 
 all the omens, and the law itself on his side, a man may 
 be vanquished. 
 
ndholders 
 fact, the 
 nd. The 
 , and in a 
 the Em- 
 ems to be 
 
 I, the cir- 
 3 wants of 
 lout alloy, 
 isand to a 
 
 and they 
 e made in 
 he Span- 
 
 and I can 
 at count- 
 )les of the 
 
 discount, 
 
 our own 
 
 ms to be 
 
 ransmit to 
 
 destroy 
 
 and state, 
 alone, but 
 leople are 
 of divina- 
 ipon any 
 
 1 copper,' 
 o'm comes 
 oceeding, 
 ere, with 
 man may 
 
 :l' 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 273 
 
 All religions are tolerated, but that of Fo is the most 
 general. It includes a belief in transmigration of the 
 soul, till the spirit of the transmigrator has atoned the 
 misdeeds committed in the first body, and the ' lex talio- 
 nis ' is the rule of infliction; that is, whatever sufl^Dring 
 a man has wantonly caused to others, the same he is 
 obliged to endure in their own forms. To me, Sir, this 
 would be a startling creed, for to say nothing of the 
 wounds I have given to the afl^ection of those who are 
 now beyond the reach of ingratitude, I should have some- 
 thing formidable to suffer besides. I should, according 
 to my estimates, be impaled thirteen thousand times in 
 the character of a fish worm; I must reanimate the bod- 
 ies of two thousand grasshoppers that died of a fish hook 
 in the back; I should die four thousand and odd times 
 (and often miserably lacerated) with pigeon shot; I 
 should revive thrice in the form of an alligator, to be 
 dug from my hole and killed with a spade in the head; 
 I should live seventy times as a woodchuck in a clover 
 field and be as often despatched by a farmer's cub with 
 a cudgel; I should live under a bank, as a speckled 
 trout, and gasp out life twelve hundred times on the 
 green grass of the meadow ; and lastly if I must trans- 
 migrate and suffer all the pain myself that I have wan- 
 tLiily or without excuse inflicted, or permitted on other 
 animals, I must live and die in the body of poor Rescue, 
 who was hung from the great beam on suspicion of steal- 
 ing sheep. Neither man nor dog should be executed 
 on circumstantial evidence; for Rescue died bold in in- 
 nocence, and my heart smites me to this day that I had 
 not firmness to resist the clamor of the neighbors, who 
 wanted a victim to save their own vile curs. If, afler 
 all, the doctrine of transmigration should be true, I would 
 not, bad as I have been, take the lot of Izaak Walton, 
 who has so much reparation to make to frogs, that it 
 will take him a great while to get into the fish. 
 
 ' I, 
 
 fi' 
 
 '! 
 
 ( n 
 
 
 U\ 
 
 i 
 
 -|: 
 
274 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 Vt\U' 
 
 It is common in Europe to reproach the Chinese with 
 their practice of destroying or exposing infants, though 
 it is so seldom known that it can hardly be termed a 
 practice. Sometimes indeed, a new born babe may be 
 seen floating down tlio river, tied to a gourd, that some 
 compassionate soul who has the means of supporting, 
 may rescue it. But consider, censorious Sir, that where 
 a practice has descended from antiquity, it implies far 
 less crime to follow it than to commit the same act 
 where the feeling and custom and law are against it; 
 and did you never read of the exposure of infants in 
 London or Paris, or did you never hear of it in more moral 
 cities, and are not a thousand infants secretly destroyed 
 where the murder of one is detected. In China infan- 
 ticide is almost necessary; the population is full; and 
 many a man ' finds no cover set for him at nature's ta- 
 ble.' The land is filled with people, and the single 
 branch of a river is thought to contain in floating fam- 
 ilies more than a hundred thousand. If we have less 
 than the Chinese to answer for in exposing children, do 
 we educate them in a better manner? Is there not with 
 us H wretched class, the offspring of sin and the inheri- 
 tors of shame, brought up from their cradle to follow evil 
 rather than good ? Hearken to the schoolmaster. A 
 child is born into the world whtch he soon finds to be 
 one of sorrow. He is wrapped in a mass of clothes that 
 checks the circulation, and embarrasses the free motion 
 of his limbs. He is soon frightened with tales of ghosts 
 that ' squeak and gibber ' till darkness aud solitude be- 
 come a state of suffering. It is little better for his in- 
 tellect to be amused with fairy tales or the usual nursery 
 rhymes. When with his comrades at the narrow school, 
 two amiable principles lead him through the flinty 
 paths of learning, pride and fear; the fear of the pain 
 rather than the shame of punishment, and the pride of 
 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 275 
 
 ese with 
 , though 
 crmed a 
 may be 
 lat some 
 )porting, 
 at where 
 iplies far 
 tame act 
 gainst it; 
 infants in 
 ore moral 
 lestroyed 
 la in fan- 
 full; and 
 ture's la- 
 ne single 
 ing fam- 
 ave less 
 Idren, do 
 not with 
 e inheri- 
 Ibllow evil 
 ister. A 
 nds to be 
 ithes that 
 e motion 
 of ghosts 
 itude be- 
 'or his in- 
 1 nursery 
 iw school, 
 [the flinty 
 the pain 
 pride of 
 
 excelling his mates. He is instructed in languages and 
 sciences, but who gives him religious and moral instruc- 
 tion? At the period of life, when the disposition is ar- 
 dent and new impressions indelible, what kind master 
 instructs him in the sorrow and shame that follow de- 
 ceit, or the indissoluble union between duty and hap- 
 piness? Fellow citizens! listen to the pedagogue. If you 
 subject yourselves to the responsible relation of parents 
 it is fearful to neglect the duties. Bestow upon the morals 
 a tythe of the time devoted to Latin and there will be 
 to the public less crime, and to you in your age more 
 respect and gratitude. Is there any excuse for an un- 
 dutifulson? Yes, the care of his parents in h'is youth 
 that he should advance more in knowledge than in vir- 
 tue. ■' ' '■ ,^, ;:..,. :. 
 
 NO. IV. 
 
 K 
 
 Sir — In my last letter concerning transmigrations I 
 forgot to state that old Kien Long was so well satisfied 
 with the mind that animated his body as to believe it 
 that of Fo himself This opinion seemed to him so rea- 
 sonable that he acted upon it, and his temples dedicated 
 to Fo, were so splendid as to employ a great part of the 
 silver imported to China, and what has gone from our 
 city is enough to ornament at least one altar. I never 
 heard, however, that the Chinese Emperor imitated the 
 sagacious Roman and acted as priest to himself 
 
 The Chinese liave with strangers thaf. easy confi- 
 dence that witl' us a 'ich man feels towards the poor; 
 that kind of sell- possession, founded on conscious supe- 
 riority, and sometimes called impudence. The polite- 
 
 /a 
 
 M 
 
 I 
 
 f 
 
 -Ml 
 
..r... 
 
 
 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.1 
 
 1^ 
 
 ■so 
 
 1^ ££ 
 
 i;'i 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1 1.4 1.6 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sdences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 2;t V<;eS VASN STRKT 
 
 WEBSTER, M.Y. 14S80 
 
 (71«) 872-4503 
 
,.<^. 
 
 
 "S^ 
 
 
if* 
 
 imm 
 
 276 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 ness of China is established by law. It is a strict cere- 
 monial, and as a stranger knows nothing of it, and as a 
 Chinese thinks it founded on what Square calls ' the 
 rule of right and eternal fitness of things,' the self com- 
 placency of the polite Mandarin is mingled with a little 
 contempt for the stranger. When the Chinese, how- 
 ever, has shewn ofi his accomplishments in the eye of a 
 less refined foreigner, he is so good natured as to make 
 him forget the vast diflTerence between the parties, by 
 an obliging condescension. Chinese politeness, like 
 thcreligion of the Catholics, (and some of the Protes- 
 tants) is one of ceremonial. It is convenient, inasmuch 
 as it does not compel a man to surrender his own pleas- 
 ure to another; for the demands of civility are satisfied 
 with certain established movements of the body and nod- 
 dings of the head. No less convenient is a religion that 
 is confined to formal observances. If a man be a thief, 
 and steal the property of his neighbor, or worse, a ca- 
 lumniator, and rob him of his good name, the creed that 
 would command restitution and repentance, must be less 
 agreeable than that which buys the absolution of the 
 priest, or the intercession of St Peter. 
 
 There are good catholics at Macao, where there is 
 a bishop who is truly a pious man. At the same place, 
 in a population of seven thousand Portuguese, there are 
 fourteen churches, four monasteries, one convent for 
 nuns and another for Magdalens; the latter ladies are 
 shut up till they are married, and as a good name is not 
 there an indispensable dowry, they are soon released. 
 
 The Portuguese character at Macao is equally ami- 
 able with the national peculiarities at Lisbon. The Hi- 
 dalgo will not soil his hands with toil, but condescends 
 to beg; and he is as brave as he is industrious. It would 
 be hard to settle the question of the relafive courage of 
 the Portuguese and Chinese, as it has never been test- 
 
RECOLLECTIONS IN CHINA. 
 
 277 
 
 ict cere- 
 and as a 
 alls * the 
 lelf com- 
 li a little 
 }e, how- 
 eye of a 
 to make 
 irties, by 
 ess, like 
 J Protes- 
 inasmuch 
 urn pleas- 
 satisfied 
 and nod- 
 igion that 
 le a thief, 
 rse, a ca- . 
 ireed that 
 st be less 
 m of the 
 
 B there is 
 me place, 
 there are 
 jnvent for 
 ladies are 
 ime is not 
 eleased. 
 I ally ami- 
 TheHi- 
 idescends 
 . It would 
 ourage of 
 )een test- 
 
 ed in the field, but John China-man shuts the land gate 
 and starves his neighbour into his own way of thinking; 
 for there is a strange connexion of the intellect wiih the 
 appetite, as you may sec if you happen to be sitting with 
 a discordant jury. I hope, Sir, to be tried for this libel 
 after dinner, for ' wretches hang, that jurymen may dine.* 
 
 The Chinese, with a great many secrets in the arts, 
 are yet ignorant in the sciencoSi Lord Amherst won 
 the heart of the Viceroy of Canton, by the present of a 
 phosphorus bottle, tit light hi^ pipe, and the ^cat man 
 exulted that he could carry fire without burning hij 
 pocket. 
 
 The medical profession in China is not lucrative, and 
 a fee, in case of difficulty, is about sixpence sterling. 
 The student obtains the knowledge of the profession, 
 like Gil Bias with Doctor Sangrado— by watching the 
 practice of his master, rather thun turning over books. 
 Surgery is in a state of similar advancement, amputa- 
 tion is unknown, and, in cases of mortification, death, 
 instead of the doctor, relieves the patient; though in 
 America I have known both upon him at once. The 
 Empcroi^s physicians are eunuchs, but Kien Long had 
 so good a constitution, that he survived all his physicians, 
 thou'^h, strange to tell, he took their medicines. Tho 
 accoucheurs are invariably females; — a different state 
 of things would be considered preposterous. The reg- 
 ular physicians, in consideration of their slender fees, 
 are allowed to practise on horses and cattle, and, with 
 Ao much skill that they oflener lose a man than an ox- 
 They have adopted the judicious way of some of our 
 doctors, to bring their merits be. ore an undiscriminat- 
 ing public. They have handbills, testifying to their 
 pkill and cures. I do not know that they have the lo- 
 24 
 
 4 
 
 4- 
 
mmm 
 
 wm 
 
 278 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS IN CHINA. 
 
 I ^ 
 
 li ', 
 
 W \ 
 
 belia; though they have means equally speedy of draw- 
 ing a patient's sufferings to a close. 
 
 A Chinese physician not only desires to give good 
 medicine, but is anxious to administer it at a lucky time; 
 — and this is throwing a fee in the way of a professional 
 brother, for a conjuror is consulted for the auspicious 
 hour. There is a medicine in great demand; it is a 
 kind of elixir vitce, or draught of immortality. All men 
 die, yet their successors have the confidence to drink. 
 Grave men may smile at this; but what is their own cus- 
 tom? Have they not some favorite 'drop or nostrum/ 
 that is to keep death at bay for the present, and, when 
 the present becomes the past, that will still cast the grim, 
 ' but sccptered sovereign, ' far into the shadows of the fu- 
 ture? Do any men think to die at the present moment, 
 and is not all time the present ? This elixir is thought, 
 by Sir George Staunton, to be composed chiefly of opi- 
 um, and when the candidate for immortality is under its 
 influence, his visions are so beatific that they seem like 
 a foretaste. 
 
 The Chinese have for ages practised inoculation for 
 the small pox; the matter is put :ipon a piece of cotton 
 and thrust up the nostril, and if the patient lives, he was 
 born under a lucky star, to which he is as much indebt- 
 ed as to his doctor. 
 
 Were you joking ? or was it really your fortune to 
 serve the commonwealth on the jury, at a dollar a day? 
 It is a splendid allowance for a responsible office. 
 There is nothing like it in China, where the juryman's 
 duty is discharged by the judge; a system of economy 
 like ours of brevet, in which a man is obliged to sup- 
 port the splendor of two titles, with the pay that pertains 
 to the less. This trial by jury is called a great bulwark, 
 and on paper it looks remarkably well; but abuses will 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 t79 
 
 ves, he WEB 
 ich indebt- 
 
 creep into the best of systei][is. The inlet to abuse in, 
 that the returns of jurymen are too general, and inchide 
 men that I ^ould not trust to count 6(ly; I should 
 not like to be tried by such, though, when my time 
 comes, I shall have no choice. Be honest, and tell, 
 in the form of a note, if some of your twelve did not fall 
 asleep in the box. Were not four of them shallow, four 
 obstinate, two careless, and the rest not over attentive? 
 Be pacified, grave Sir, I mean not the men who com- 
 posed that ']ury J for I know them not, but I am speaking 
 of what too often occurs. The jurors are taken from 
 the body of tl- people, and I grant you that it is in the 
 main a respecUible body; yet I would that some of them 
 had stayed longer at school; jurymen should be above 
 the reach of prejudice or party excitement. In this 
 country (it is well said) we have no rabble; true, we 
 have not a race of vagabonds without home or family, 
 local attachment, or moral honesty — but we have a for- 
 midable body of men who despise knowledge in others 
 because they are themselves ignorant, and who would 
 banish refinement and elevation of character, because 
 they are the mark of a gentleman. They have among 
 themselves, men whom they delight to honor, because it 
 is elevating a brazen image of tbemselves. Their fa- 
 vorites owe their popularity to a readiness in flattering 
 the faults of their constituents, and in calumniating men 
 more intelligent and h( it.. able than themselves; they 
 foment the jealousy that li.e ignorant na irally feel to- 
 wards the better informed, and ride into office on the 
 storm that they themselves have raised. It is a bad 
 sign for the constitution when such men bear sway. 
 Within the present century it was, ail over New Eng- 
 land, a character for a man, that he had a liberal educa- 
 tion and was a gentleman. I am no aristocrat, though I 
 stand for the aristocracy of merit; but we live in ahigh- 
 
 .kf 
 
 ( 
 

 wm^mm 
 
 mm 
 
 I 
 
 280 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 ]y artificial state of society and of political economy, to 
 understand which men must read as well as think; and 
 I will as soon believe that a blacksmith is a proper per- 
 son to repair a watch, as that a man with no other qual- 
 ifications than ignorance and impudence, can make or 
 administer the laws. 
 
 Here is much evil already, and the germ of more; 
 what is the remedy? schoolhouses; every question in 
 the last appeal comes to the people; theirs is the su- 
 preme tribunal, but ignorance never made a good judge. 
 I do not say or believe that the greatest scholars are 
 the wisest men, but there is a high degree of general 
 intelligence necessary in this country to preserve our 
 institutions. If the body of the people are ignorant, 
 more, if they are not very intelligent, they will be dupes 
 to the crafty and unptincipled. They must have an 
 early and faithful, but plain education, and there will 
 be no country on earth so happy and flourishing as this; 
 but if our youth are brought up in ignorance themselves, 
 and are excited to distrust knowledge in others, Turkey 
 itself is not so near to a fall as these United States. 
 
 I, Sir, am one of the people; my sympathies and 
 good wishes are rather with the Plebeians than the Pa- 
 trician^, yet I lament that the most numerous class 
 should be deluded by the craft of the designing — that 
 they should distrust one man because he is intelligent, 
 and confide in another because he abuses what he can- 
 not attain to, or comprehend. 
 
 Educate the rulers, that is, send the people to school, 
 and they will be well able to govern themselves, but a 
 w!ld horse is not wilder than an ignorant, and therefore 
 a wilful man, clothed in authority. But lop offthe mili- 
 tia system and have the same rate of fines for delin- 
 quents at school, and we shall have better citizens as 
 well as better soldiers. 
 
mmm 
 
 jmmmm 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 281 
 
 It ia a great tb'ng for China that she has a permanent 
 fashion of national dress. A national dress makes a 
 man more patriotic, as it gives him a vivid conception of 
 the great and good of antiquity, and forms a desirable 
 distinction between people of different countries. It is, 
 moreover, a measure of private economy, very advan- 
 tageous in a crowded population. In this country, dress 
 is a terrible tax upon industry, for not even a plain 
 schoolmaster can hold his station in society, without at 
 least a biennial coat; while in China, the same garment 
 covers successive generations of men. 1 myself, once 
 endeavoured (though not from choice) to overturn this 
 state of things, but what can one man do against an 
 universal evil. This was at Ratsburgh, where I kept 
 my first school, twentyseven years ago, and * boarded 
 round.' There was a ball at Thanksgiving, (it was 
 enjoined in the proclamation) and I went, in a coat that 
 was first expanded at my father's wedding, some lus- 
 trums before. I have forgotten what was the fashion 
 then, for it has since changed a hundred times, but well 
 I remember the contour of that coat; the skirts were 
 skirts indeed, and in dancing flapped against my ancles; 
 the waist was under the shoulder-blades, and in front 
 was a row of gilded buttons, touching each other, to the 
 top of the collar. But in these latter days, we judge a 
 stranger exclusively from his dress, and it was the 
 saying of a poor man in a profession, that he could not 
 afford to wear a cheap coat, it would cost him half his 
 patients. 
 
 Have I told you anything of the Great Wall ? Sir 
 George Staunton described it accurately, for he crossed 
 it in going from Pekin to Zhe-hol. The majesty of 
 China was then resident in Tartary, at the ' Palace of 
 Grateful Coolness,' in the ' Grove of Innumerablo 
 Trees.' The Wall, is misnamed, it is rather a chain of 
 24* 
 
mufrnmi 
 
 ■■ 
 
 i'l 
 
 \\\ 
 
 282 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 forts, of the extent of fifteen hundred miles; the idea of 
 tt wall does not include half its wonders, even na our 
 White Mountains with all their grandeur, are belittled 
 by the name of Hilli. 
 
 On the fourth day of the embassay's journey from 
 Pekin, was seen a tine running through valleys and over 
 the summits of mountains. As the cavalcade approach- 
 ed, they discovered bastions and battlements, and at 
 important passes several successive ranges of the wall. 
 This line of defence ran over mountains six thousand 
 feet in height, and across rivers of the largest size. 
 The general height, without the battlements, was twen- 
 tyfive feet, and the thickness was about the same. 
 
 A volume of Roman history might have given the 
 Chinese some better learning on the subject of walls. 
 It would have shown them the policy of Romulus, and 
 they would have gathered more wisdom from later times. 
 They would have seen the constant struggles of the 
 North to overcome and overrun the fertile South. 
 Could walls defend a country, the Alps had defended 
 Italy — what wall is like them? yet the African, the Gaul, 
 and the Gctth, poured over its summit upon the land of 
 the olive and vine. To build a wall of defence is to 
 invite an attack; as it ijUimates at the same time wealth 
 and cowardice. There can be no better wall than a line 
 of hay between two rail fences, or a hasty redoubt of 
 cotton bags. But the Chinese carry the principle 
 to their private dwellings; and their houses are sur- 
 rounded by a wall eight feet high, where is entrenched 
 a family of several generations; as, if he be safe, a 
 Chinese little cares how; for, (in the language of Field- 
 ing's learned turnkey) — 
 
 « Virtus an bolus quis in a hostess equiret.' 
 
 E. D. 
 
nCCOLLECTIONA OF CHINA. 
 
 389 
 
 L' idea of 
 { H» our 
 belittled 
 
 ley from 
 and over 
 j)proach- 
 , and at 
 the wall, 
 thousand 
 rest size. 
 /as twcn- 
 mc. 
 
 riven the 
 of walls. 
 Lilus, and 
 ter times, 
 les of the 
 3 South, 
 defended 
 the Gaul, 
 le land of 
 ence is to 
 ne wealth 
 ran a line 
 cdoubt of 
 principle 
 are sur- 
 atrenched 
 J safe, a 
 of Field- 
 
 E. D. 
 
 ^O. V. 
 
 Sir. — The population of China is to us Americans, 
 who require a square mile each to bustle in, almost a 
 marvel. We arc not unsocial, though we like not to 
 have o'.'.r neighbours too near ; and our resource, when 
 one comes ' cranking in,' is to emigrate westward 
 where the forest never echoed to an nxc. In Illinois a 
 m-m considers himself cramped if there be a neighbour 
 within fifteen miles. But then a family over the moun- 
 tain?, though it occupy but one room, can bring to the 
 forest twelve or fourteen axes, and the average number 
 of white headed urchins in one household, is twenty 
 two. But there, as in C.iina, is no celibacy. The 
 Chinese have no wars to which they can send their 
 vagabonds, ' the cankers of a calm world and long 
 peace.' Chna, for this unlucky absence of wars, is 
 crowded with houseless vagrants, ' that eat the wall 
 newt and the water newt.' Consider that there are 
 about three hundred people to a square mile, who cul- 
 tivate the earth faithfully, and draw more subsistence 
 from bread than from beer. Necessity teaches them 
 economy in the expenditure of food, and our overstock- 
 ed commonwealth would support twice the number if we 
 would follow the thrifty practice of the Chinese, and in- 
 troduce to our tables, cats, dogs, rats, mice, ' and such 
 small deer.' 
 
 There are few cattle in China, where the land is re- 
 quired to be more productive than in grazing. The 
 Kmpcror is the great and universal landlord, letting out 
 his lands like a feudal baron on a variety of tenures, 
 though not upon mortmain. Yet for so great a prince 
 he has some strange humilities, he permits certain cen- 
 sors to record his actions, and sometimes they venture 
 
S84 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA 
 
 \M 
 
 to censure, but this is to walk, like Seneca, on slipperj 
 ground, and may cost the philosopher his life. Flattery 
 is venial where since ity is so perilous. The great 
 landlord has a rond over his farm, from which the ten- 
 ants arc excluded. It is ten feet wide, and it is death 
 for a pig to cross it, or for u subject to travel on it. It 
 is swept like a parlor, watered like a garden, and shaded 
 like a bower. 
 
 The Emperors of China have a practice at variance 
 with that of the potentates of Europe ; they never 
 marry a foreign princess,, but select their wives from 
 the daughters of the Mandarins. When the Emperor 
 dies, they are widows indeed, but upon the principle 
 that boggled FalstafT — compulsion. They are shut up 
 in a cold northern edifice, called the Palace of Chastity, 
 for it is considered derogatory to the dignity of the 
 prince's memory, that his princess should be devoted to 
 anything but the cold urn of her husband ; a d truly I 
 think that Agrippina, as described by Tacitus, landing 
 at Brundusium, with her eyes fixed upon the ashes of 
 Germanicus, makes a better figure in history, than 
 Maria Louisa, listening to Wellington or Saxe Cobourg. 
 But this I hope is a calumny upon the Duchess of Parma 
 and widow of Napoleon. 
 
 The daughters of a Chinese Emperor are not married 
 to foreign princes, but given in marriage to favorite and 
 faithful servants. The Emperor is too powerful to sell 
 his offspring in exchange for the uncertain favor of 
 another monarch ; and when, even in Europe, did a 
 family alliance predominate over a reason of state, or 
 >vhen, among princes, was the expedient deferred to the 
 right. 
 
 The Chinese, however, have adopted some European 
 practices. As there are many offices with inadequate 
 salaries, and as no man cares to serve his country for 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 285 
 
 nothing, a Mandarin, in spite of Mngna Chartn, brings 
 his patriotism to market, and sells justito or pardon at 
 regular prices. But there ih no monopoly in this ; the 
 Emperor, as it is right, has the first advantage, receiv- 
 ing a mighty sum from the viccroy^s, who in return have 
 their purses from the Mandarins, who again look for 
 remuneration from the people. 
 
 But it is safe for no man to display his wealth, in 
 China he had better be content to hide and enjoy it. 
 A Mandarin has got a broker's eye for a money-bag, 
 and when it is discovered, there comes some grievous 
 chorgc of the violation of the law of ceremony, which 
 subjects the offender to speedy death, while his effects 
 pass to the officer as administrator. Yet the Mandarins 
 are liable to punishment if they defer justice, and at 
 their gate there is a gong which any suitor may ring, 
 and the functionary must discharge his duty at any hour; 
 but then there is a clause in the law, making it penal 
 to strike the gong for lYivolous causes, and as the 
 Mandarin adjudges the importance of the cause, few 
 petitioners use this privilege. 
 
 One of the Emperors of China who loved pleasure 
 h' tter than daylight, and who disliked the succession of 
 liijht and day, built a palace of inrumerable lamps, a 
 hall like that of P^blis, where the sun would not rise 
 upon his slumber, or go down upon his mirth. The same 
 Emperor, however, wished to know what was doing 
 among the stars, and made some judicio'is regulations 
 for the >encourgement of astronomy ; tor he ordered 
 that all astronomers should be put to death who failed 
 to announce an eclipse. By this method he had better 
 alniuimcs than he would have had, by giving a medal or 
 a premium for the best. This Palace of the Illumina- 
 tions was the true origin of the feast of lumps, so p'-'iised 
 in Japan, by ^our prosing Boston Merchant. 
 
 II 
 
 m 
 
wmm^^ 
 
 ^■p 
 
 286 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CIIINl. 
 
 I havo sometimes seen an affray between two pugna- 
 cious Chinese. They first attempt to catch each other 
 by the tail, or long tuft of hair, 
 
 •Then comes the tug of war,* 
 
 at every jerk they make hideous grimaces that would be 
 applauded ut a grinning match. They seldom strike a 
 blow, and when one party gives the other a slight tap 
 with a fan, the contest is over, the oflender running 
 away from justice, which the injured seeks of the Man- 
 darin, who is prompt to avenge any flogging but his own. 
 
 You may safely say, when you liave read these recol- 
 lections, that you know nothing of Ciiuia. To judge lof 
 a country by such sketches, would be to condemn a 
 temple from the specimen of a single brick ; for at Can- 
 ton less can be lea»'ncd of the Chinese, than of the Eng- 
 lish at Wapping. 
 
 Some great aian, at the time when the philosophers of 
 Europe were full of admiration for Chinese institutions, 
 lamented that he had not been born in China ; but, had 
 he known more of the Empire, his regrets would have 
 been less. Even Voltaire, who, it was said, believed 
 by turns, everything but the Bible, gave credit to the 
 superior moral excellence of the Chinese. China was 
 held to be a sort of Asiatic Arcadia, a country without 
 crimes, where men lived in innocence and acted only 
 from good impulsjs. The public were bent upon being 
 deluded ; or when they read of monuments to chaste 
 women and just Mandarins, they would have doubted 
 if what was universal would be thus commemorated, 
 and if the arches and pagodas were not rather an inti- 
 mation of the infrequency of chastity, and justice, for 
 inscriptions on tombstones depend as much on the fancy 
 of the writers as on the characters of the deceased. 
 
■« 
 
 RE( OLLECTIONS OP CHINA. 
 
 The English embasHies gave us better knowledge of 
 China. To the Dutch, we arc less indebted. These 
 high-minded people, when they found that the English 
 had failed, through want of docility, in the kotoUy pre- 
 pared with alacrity, an embassy upon more accommoda- 
 ting principles. The envoy wos willing to knock his 
 head as oilen as requested, and the secretary records 
 the particulars, as if they had been food for national 
 vanity. 
 
 The Abbe Raynal also thought the Chinese a nution 
 of philosophers. Their philosophy, however, reserr'iles 
 more that of Diogenes, than that of Socrates o** IMato. 
 In mathematics, they have produced no one likeAr-'hi- 
 medes, or I would, in imitation of Cicero, remove th*) 
 brambles I'rum his tomb. Yet, one of the worthy mis- 
 Bf'cnaries praises their love of the mathematics, though, 
 said the honest man, ' they know little of them.' The 
 Chinese, indeed, refer to their own annals to show, that 
 twenty centuries ago, they were highly civilized; but it 
 is more probable that they lived in caverns end trees, 
 for they admit that their country was so full of snakes, 
 that the salutation of one man to another was, < I hopo 
 you have not been bitten.' These same philosophers 
 have a language of monosyllables, and written charac- 
 ters, as difficult to be acquired as any of the sciences in 
 Europe; it is an admirable invention to keep the people 
 ignorant. Where the language is rude, what can be 
 hoped for the sciences ? it is but slow and uncertain tra- 
 velling, where there is no road. It has been thought 
 that the present is the remnant of a more perfect lan- 
 guage, fallen upon a race of men that cannot improve or 
 restore it. No man has power to introduce a new cha- 
 racter but the Emperor, which is too strict for republi- 
 can institutions. Here, with us, each man coins his 
 own words, without danger of punishment; but, in the 
 
288 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF CHINA. 
 
 
 empire, it is safer to alter the Emperor's coin, than his 
 Chinese. 
 
 Many of the fifty thousand Chinese characters are 
 pictures of the object si<»riificd. A prison is denoted by 
 a square enclosure, like a pound, which, with a dot in 
 the middle, expresses a captive. The character that 
 signifies a tree, if used twice, denotes a thicket, and 
 thrice, a forest; and time repeated, is eternity. 
 
 There is much ingenuity in the compound characters. 
 The character for icater and motlier, when combined, de- 
 note the sea, mother of waters; ^ood and word, together, 
 make ptaisc, which is a good word; calamity is express- 
 ed hyjiye and ivaler, fire and sword, and also by a broken 
 reed, probably the bamboo, which, in China, is a true 
 symbol; an ear and door sign. fy to listen; to grieve, is 
 e.\ pressed by a heart and knife, and to meditate, by a 
 heart ixnd field; a sword, pointing to a heart, like a free- 
 mason's, signifies patience, and a bargain is denoted by 
 a ivord and nail, (probably clenched.) 
 
 The Chinese are as little gallant in their characters, 
 as the Castilians in their proverbs; the mark for a 
 woman, if repeated, is strife, and if used three times, may 
 mean anything bad. A barber is signified by razor and 
 respect, and doubtless a man is more respectable when 
 shaved; comfort is expressed by rice and mouth — and 
 there arc a thousand similar compounds, as you may 
 see in the G cat Dictionary of two hundred volumes. 
 
 I-iterature in China is an open field, where all may 
 reap or glean. If an author avoid politics, he may vkith 
 safety outrage good morals or good taste; but with us, 
 he may do this in politics. 
 
 Thus, sir, have I performed what I promised of China. 
 These recollections are but shreds and patches, con- 
 nected without order or art. I have fallen, too, into 
 
 
&0»> 
 
 , than his 
 
 icters are 
 3noted by 
 a dot in 
 icter that 
 cket, and 
 
 laracters. 
 binedjde- 
 together, 
 } express- 
 I a broken 
 is a true 
 grieve y is 
 'ate, by a 
 ke a free- 
 jnoted by 
 
 haracters, 
 irk for a 
 imes, may 
 razor and 
 ible when 
 outh — and 
 
 you may 
 olumes. 
 D all may 
 
 may viith 
 t with US; 
 
 of China. 
 
 3hes, con- 
 
 toO| into 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
■lr««Mj«V'")Pl<lfW"^' '•"■*^-'>*' ■ ■•••■L.wiwniiih vi«p«|.iiiii in^iiMB||Miam*nMi 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 [From the Lefendary.*] 
 
 < Pri§cian, a little scratched.' 
 
 On a memorable day in August, I emerged from the 
 red schoolhouse on the Germantown road, where, for 
 sixteen years, I had trained the rising generations of 
 men in all the sciences — ^but more particularly in the 
 knowledge of reading and writing. 
 
 Of my little scholars I took a mournful and affecting 
 leave, bestowing on them a parting address, better — that 
 is, longer — than three hours, which it is my intentioii 
 to publish, as a specimen of eloquence in modern times. 
 It produced a great sensation among the benches, and 
 I had the pleasure of seeing many eyes as red as beets 
 Mrith weeping, though I scorn to deny that I perceived, 
 simultaneously, the scent of an onion. 
 
 Packing my wardrobe in the crown of my hat, and 
 my coin in a small tobacco-box, I walked slowly and 
 sorrowfully down to the great city, which, like Babylon 
 of old, is of brick, and which was founded by a man 
 
 * This article is reprinted from the Legendary, to make a book <tf 
 the proposed size. All pieces that folbw, have appeared in the 
 Courier, or were originalj^ written for it. 
 
Mi 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 291 
 
 Dot unlike myself in liis reverence for a right angle. 
 The city is a magnificent chess board; and if a knight 
 would advance thereon a mile, it is needful to turn 
 thrice to the right and as often to the left. 
 
 Let me not omit to premise, that I had, at German- 
 town, cherished a tender sentiment till it threw a purple 
 light, chequered with shade, over my whole existence. 
 Therefore I resolved to journey westward, seeking — 
 in aliquo abdito et Innginquo rure — some * happy valley,' 
 where I could cultivate love without jealousy, or, in 
 other words, | ass life without care. These at least 
 were the mciives that I held out to the world; that is, 
 to half a do::en friends who inquired coldly, whither I 
 would go; yet, doubtless, I was somewhat incited by 
 that restless national spirit, that leads so many to seek 
 Fortune beyond the mountains, at the very moment 
 when the goddess — though I am no heathen — begins to 
 smile on them at home. 
 
 Though no sectarian in philosophy. I travelled as a 
 peripatetic. My only comrade was one, who, though 
 ranked among curs, is more faithful to his master than 
 some other dogs of higher lineage, and that wear richer 
 collars. His, however, was a * braw brass collar,' bear- 
 ing his master's name, and his own, which was Jowler, 
 and a motto. Cave Canevn, suggested by a great travel- 
 ler who had read it on a Roman threshold at Pompeii. 
 
 In my hand I ported a crabstick that I had cut in the 
 woods of Camden, and I carried in my pocket a ferule, 
 that had descended from my grandfather, and which, 
 therefore, I have tasted as well as administered. This 
 I took as a diploma, to be a passport to the confidence 
 and tables of the great — of esquires, judges, and gen- 
 erals, titles, that, in a plain republic, where none seek 
 or refiise an ofiice, often pertain to one fortunate man. 
 
 |: 
 
 ■ a 
 
 ii 
 
392 
 
 THE SOHOOLMASTEIl. 
 
 Indulge me with a last word concerning the ferule, 
 or, as Maro hath it — for I like a new quotation — 
 
 ' Extreinum hunc mihi concede laborem.' 
 Generally I prefer it to the birch. In Latin I hold a 
 divided opinion; but in ' rhetoric,' and its kindred 
 studies, i t seems fitting and emblematical, to deal with 
 the ' open palm.' Moreover, in * correcting' an offen- 
 der it is proper to look him in the face. If I see there a 
 sullen obstinacy, I am too much his friend to spare him; 
 but if I mark a manful resolution to bear the pain, and 
 a shrinking only from the disgrace, that is a boy af^er 
 my own heart, and he has little to suffer from the 
 sevei ity of his master. 
 
 Thus attended and equipped, I went forth rejoicing, 
 for I had much to delight, and nothing to afflict me, till 
 I came to the Susquehanna, where, at Harrisburgh, 
 I lamented anew over the grave of a friend, Simon 
 Snyder, who had been governor of the commonwealth. 
 But that friendly man was dead, and probably decayed, 
 though there is authority no less than Shakspeare's — 
 and the grave-digger gives the reason — that ' a fanner 
 will last you some nine year.' 
 
 The Susquehanna is broad but not deep, and you 
 may, if you would perpetrate injustice, apply the same 
 character to me. It has a sonorous name, and is a 
 beautiful stream, bending, with a noble sweep, around 
 wild or cultivated hills, reflecting their pride, and carry- 
 ing upon its waters the rich products of their soil. 
 
 Not far from York I ascended the South Mountain, 
 an outpost or advanced guard of the Alleghanies, and 
 time and travelling soon brought me to the main body. 
 
 I passed an hour at a rude village to which Indian 
 massacre has given the name of Bloody Run, and here 
 I studied diligently the features of a countenance entirely 
 seraphic. It was like the ifioat celestial of Raffaelle's 
 
 ■t.a*'wji M*s »* li i ' i. ^| i|ii (| ^, j*« ,.. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 299 
 
 ferule, 
 
 I hold a 
 kindred 
 sal with 
 in offen- 
 3 there a 
 are him; 
 ain, and 
 )oy after 
 irom the 
 
 ejoicing, 
 t me, till 
 risburgh, 
 3, Simon 
 mwealth. 
 decayed, 
 »eare's — 
 a fanner 
 
 and you 
 the same 
 and is a 
 around 
 id carry- 
 oil. 
 
 [ountain, 
 lies, and 
 n body. 
 
 Indian 
 and here 
 3 entirely 
 aff'aelle'a 
 
 •■•-Vf>M <* *^>*M 
 
 Madonnas, or the purest of Carlo Dolce's Saints I had 
 not thought, when I left Germantown behind, to find 
 such beings among the mountains; yet this admiration 
 of what was beautiful and pure, had no connexion with 
 infidelity, and could not have offended the lady whose 
 ring the schoolmaster aspires to wear. It was but his 
 perception of the same qualities in another that are so 
 attractive in her, though in no other can they be, to him, 
 BO amiable. I left the dark haired cherub with regret, 
 for I may never see another, or her, again. 
 , At Bedford I entered the schoolhouse, making known 
 to the master my name and calling, and as much of my 
 life and opinions as might attract his regard, when the 
 kind soul seated me at his desk, pressing me to examine 
 his school; and I closed the examination with a short 
 address. 
 
 He walked with me several miles, to the foot of the 
 Alleghany Ridge, but when I asked him to ascend it, 
 that good and grave man shook his>head, for he was of 
 few words when signs could express his meaning. I 
 left him standing like a statue of Silence, while I 
 walked briskly on, animated with renewed benevolence 
 to the whole human race; for the kindness of that worthy 
 gentleman seemed to be transfused into my own soul. 
 
 This ridge gives its name to the mountains, and, to 
 geographers, the bold figure, * the backbone of the 
 United States;' but Uncle Sam has grown so much 
 from his original shape, that at present the spine is 
 somewhere in the side of that strong man. Having 
 reached tho summit I looked down upon an interminable 
 valley or * glade,' where cultivation had so much en- 
 croached upon the wilderness, that the rivers reflected 
 alternate forest and farm. Other ridges, blue in the 
 distance, lay before me, and the Laurel and Chestnut 
 gave names to the next. 
 26* 
 
 f 
 
 m 
 
394 
 
 THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 On the bleak side of the Chestnut Ridge, I entered 
 a log cabin that had been the abode of misfortune, 
 where an old soldier retired to his miseiable dole, and 
 shared it with the needy traveller; though seldonv was 
 the most needy as poor as General St Clair. Fellow 
 citizens! it is neither generous nor just, when a man 
 has served us faithfully and long, to turn him out to 
 graze on the hill side like an old war horse that can no 
 longer charge; or to let him starve like an aged hound, 
 that has lost its teeth for an ungrateful master. 
 
 The Alleghanies have little of the sublime, but much 
 of the beautiful. In wildness and abruptness they can- 
 not bo compared with the White Mountains. Yet, 
 when villages with red schoolhouses shall be sprinkled 
 over them, he must go far who would find a more 
 attractive country. To me these mountains were charm- 
 ing and new, and I loitered among them with a school- 
 boy lightness of heart, careless of the future and obliv- 
 ious of the past. Often did I quit the road, attracted 
 by the sound of a waterfall or the coolness of a fountain, 
 of which thousands are gushing from the rocks. 
 
 I could never, when alone, resist a ducklike propen- 
 sity to play in running water, though I have frowned 
 upon the same pastime among tlie urchins of the school, 
 principally from a care of their health, but partly from 
 that unamiable principle that makes us so intolerant to 
 our own faults when we see them reflected in others. 
 It may sink me as a moral philosopher in your esteem, 
 as much as it would raise me as a good soul among my 
 scholars, to confess that I toiled half a day among the 
 mountains to make a dam across a little ^orrent, and 
 that, when I had completed this beaver-like monument, 
 I led it with the regret that all men feel when dismount- 
 ed from their hobby. Your own I believe to be Pega- 
 sus, but seldom, as I think, have you reason for a simi- 
 lar regret. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 296 
 
 entered 
 ifortune, 
 ole, and 
 lom was 
 Fellow 
 i a man 
 a out to 
 it can no 
 i hound, 
 
 tut much 
 hey can- 
 s. Yet, 
 sprinkled 
 a more 
 e charra- 
 a school- 
 nd obliv- 
 attr acted 
 fountain, 
 
 propen- 
 frowned 
 e school, 
 tly from 
 lerant to 
 1 others. 
 
 esteem, 
 nong my 
 [long the 
 ent, and 
 mument, 
 ismount- 
 )e Pega- 
 r a simi- 
 
 As I was sitting on a log, listening to the sounds of 
 my little waterfall, 
 
 < mellow murmur, and fairy shout.' 
 they seemed at intervals to be mingled with the tolling 
 of a distant bell, and it had great solemnity of effect, to 
 hear, in these solitudes of ereation, the sound that man 
 has consecrated to the worship of the Creator. 
 
 Yet I knew that I was distant fifly miles from even 
 the rudest church, and this sound, to state the truth, 
 was too puzzling for satisfaction. I was forced to give 
 it up as a bad cormndrum, lamenting that the senses, 
 with a little aid from fancy, lead us to error as well as 
 to truth, for, deciding by the car, I could have almost 
 sworn that I had heard a ' church-going bell.' Yet in 
 turning the angle of a rock I fell upon a little colony of 
 emigrants, and what I had listened to was but the bell 
 that tinkled from one of their herd; though, while it 
 lasted, my delusion was complete. So it is in other, and 
 in all things; therefore let us have more charity for the 
 opinions of others, and less confidence in the infallibility 
 of our own. 
 
 These people were hospitable as Bedouins, and 
 pressed a hungry traveller, who never stood upon cere- 
 mony, to a supper of venison coUops that would have 
 satisfied Daniel Boon. 
 
 As I swam with the currd/, I saw less of the stream 
 of emigration than I should have seen if going eastward; 
 yet I found emigrants of almost every European nation, 
 though, mostly, they were from the British Islands. 
 Among these were many Irish, though there were not 
 wanting the ' men of Kent ' or of ' pleasant Tivi'dale.' 
 Some of them had flocks and herds, and others were no 
 richer than a pedagogue, and this is saying little for 
 their wealth. But it is a most unfortunate road for 
 charity. The fountains of benevolence are frozen, 
 where every man is a publican. 
 
396 
 
 ftie SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 I once met at a Dutch tavern, a humble old man, 
 who seemed to owe little gratitude to fortune. The 
 German boor repulsed his timid efforts at conversation, 
 for a Dutchman, though not always civil to a traveller 
 who has money, is invariably rude to him who has it not. 
 The poor man next solicited the acquaintance of my dog, 
 who very frankly wagged his tail in reply, for he is as 
 good natured, almost, as his master. As the veteran 
 seemed to have survived the last of his friends, and was 
 as venerable in front aS' Cincinnatus himself, 1 invited 
 him to share my supper — it was not of turnips — and 
 had the pleasure of seeing him assail it a» if he had 
 seldom fared so well. ' / 
 
 There is, in the morning, a singular appearance about 
 the mountains. The body of mist, rising from the glades, 
 settles at a certain altitude, and, from above, it looks 
 like an ocean with islands; for the green summits of the 
 lessor hills rise above the vapor, and present to the eye 
 and the imagination an insular paradise; yet, whrm the 
 mist had arisen, like a veil from a pretty face, it was 
 not always to increase my admiration, for the'^fancy dis- 
 covered beauties in the obscurity, that the eye could 
 not find in the light of the sun. 
 
 On the summits of the mountains I beheld frequent 
 vestiges of the tempest in trees riven by lightning or 
 prostrated by the tornado; and they suggested, to an- 
 humble pedestrian, the consoling reflection, that the 
 highest are not the safest places. It was my fortune to 
 behold a war of the elements as awful as that which 
 assailed the demented monarch; but, like Lear, I was 
 near to a hovel, one of the hospices erected for the 
 poor or benighted traveller, and there I rested through 
 the night, sheltered from the fury, but elevated and 
 appalled by the uproar of the tempest. 
 
THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 297 
 
 The next day the wind was still a hurricane, and as I 
 descended to the thick forests of the valley, it was a 
 singular sight to behold the tops of the trees wrenching 
 in the gale, while not a leaf was stirred below. 
 
 Deep woods and solitudes have always inclined my 
 spirit to devotion. The '■ solemn temples ' that the piety 
 of man has raised to the worship of his Maker, are less 
 impressive than a primeval forest; and among churches, 
 those that have the gpeatest devotional influence on the 
 mind are Gothic cathedrals, that owe half their charac- 
 ter to their resemblance to a grove. 
 
 To sustain it in devotional duties, human weakness 
 requires the aid of local situation and solemn ceremo> 
 nials. The piety of even the devout Johnson was 
 ' warmer in the ruins of lona,' and the Liturgy of the 
 English Church no less elevates the confidence of the 
 righteous, and inspires hope in others who pray to be 
 delivered from evil. 
 
 Having crossed the mountains, I descended the Ohio, 
 t^Iio most beautiful of rivers. The Alleghany is limpid 
 rnd swifl, the Monongahela more turbid and slow. One 
 may remind you of a Frenchman, the other, of a Span- 
 iard; in their union, they may bring to your recollection 
 a grave and placid gentleman, who desires to take for 
 the better, a more joyous companion. 
 
 In this rich and wonderful valley of the West, gran- 
 deur is stamped upon the works of creation. What are 
 the meagre and boasted Tybur and Arno, the Illyssus 
 and Eurotas, to a stream navigable °o three thousand 
 miles, and rolling, long before it meets the ocean, through 
 a channel of sixty fathom! What, but grottoes, are the 
 vaunted caves or catacombs of Europe, to the mighty 
 
 
^^ 
 
 S98 
 
 Tins SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 eaverns of the West — that extend beneath wider dis- 
 tricts than German principalities, and under rivers larger 
 than the Thames. Ye sun-burnt travellers! whose 
 caravans have rested under the shade of the banyan, 
 while ye marvelled at the circuit of its limbs — come to 
 the Ohio and see a tree that will shelter a troop of horse 
 in the cavity of its trunk. 
 
 A stroll even now Upon the * Beautiful River,* will 
 explain the enthusiasm that led tHte first bold hunters of 
 the * Long Knife,* to the forests of the * Bloody Ground.' 
 Danger was but a cheap price, at which they enjoyed 
 the rich, wild profusion of the West, when it first open- 
 ed to the admiration of civilized men. 
 
 It was my good fortune to see one of those aged sons 
 •f the forest, who, ia his youth, had loved danger and 
 venison better than Robin Hood; for Kentucky had 
 other rangers than guarded deer in Sherwood Forest. 
 The lands that he had taken in the wilderness now hold 
 a populous city, and have r<iade the fortunes of his 
 countless progeny. He hLd paid the purchase by in- 
 stalments, and when the dreaded day of payment ap- 
 proached, he would stroll with his rifle a few hundred 
 miles to shoot an Indian for the bounty on his scalp. 
 
 I descended the river as I had hoped to pass through 
 life — suffering no damage from the rapids, and lost in 
 admiration of the beauty of the banks. At Vevay, in 
 the coiinty of Switzerland, I moored my bark, and have 
 cast anchor for life among a kind and simple race that 
 sing the Ram dea vache^ in an adopted country, hallow- 
 ed by names that remind them of their Alps. 
 
THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 
 
 QUcite justitiam moniti, et non temner« IMtos. 
 
 HAvmOy in my present retirement, some leisure for 
 writing, and much for reflection, I devote it to a sketch 
 of my life; in reading which, something may be learned 
 of my opinions. The motto prefixed is, probably, Latin, 
 and it was kindly furnished by the chaplain. My pre- 
 sent seclusion is not the voluntary solitude of an anchor- 
 ite, for I am in a municipal citadel, that is under the im- 
 mediate protection of the State. 
 
 FroAi the governor of this castle (he is called also the 
 keeper J though the word smacks of Exeter ''Change,) I 
 abstracted a book, that I have diligently read; and lean 
 say as much of no other but the * Games ' of Mr Hoyle. 
 The governor's, was a book, of Roman history, and it is 
 in reference to a passage therein, that I have titled my- 
 self— < Last of th.e Blacklegs.* 
 
 I find that one Cremutius Cordus destroyed himself, 
 in distrust of the clemency of a mild Emperor, named 
 Tiberius, who was disMnguished by many other prince- 
 ly qualities. The guilt, that weighed so heavily upon 
 the culprit, was, that he had, in his history, caJIed an 
 
 
 m 
 
 I 1 
 
mmmmmmmmmmm 
 
 ioo 
 
 ^•M" 1'^f^'* ' ^^^^y^^KfHff^' ^■'^^^'W^^^p**^^^^^* 
 
 f 1. m^^ 
 
 itaMtoeI«i»iii9i||i#l|^^ wiltb ill fn^ia- 
 
 ilT UaMM 
 
 
 
 ie,b0«ftiiie 
 li« met 
 
 I, Mid lilt edttld 
 ilie evolution 
 
 %Ml^ ..^'U,'' '5» 
 
 
THK LAST or THE BLACKLEGS. 
 
 noi 
 
 
 Ike 
 
 ir«iiui 
 Umm* 
 
 link tkat 
 
 OVBU ^ 
 
 ''mbI eir 
 , lie m«t 
 
 
 
 In features, I resembled mj sire, whose face wab - n- 
 sidered hard, and I rather improved this character of 
 countenance by the cultivation of a formidable whisker. 
 I have felt flattered when the ladies called me ' the man 
 in the iron mask.' 
 
 In youth my education was neglected, and this I have 
 had reason in after life to lament; for an early acquaint- 
 ance with books would have advanced my schemes upon 
 society, by giving that knowledge of evidence and a/t6t, 
 which I have more expensively acquired, at intervals , 
 from the County Attorney, 
 
 In arithmetic, I could never get fairly beyond Subtrac- 
 tion; though I have had many battles with my comrades 
 in support of my own rule of Division; yet I am not so 
 ignorant of numbers, as it was once my ill fortune to pre- 
 tend. This was at Auburn, where there is a large col- 
 lege, in which all are professors; the president (blast 
 his eyes! for he brought the waters into mine,) directed 
 me to measure a slab of granite, and also to saw it off, 
 at the length of thirtyone inches; but as I disliked the 
 problem, I severed the block a few inches short, saying 
 in excuse, that I had never been good at figures. 
 
 ' Give him thirtyone stripes,' said the president, ' and 
 let him keep his own account.' This proposition was a 
 poser; but it gave a new impulse to my mathematical 
 talent; for when the lash was raised the thirtysecond 
 time, I told my instructer that I had already counted 
 thirtyone. 
 
 It was at an early age that I enrolled myself in one 
 of the two classes into which philosophers divide man- 
 kind. My early tastes received much encouragement 
 from the theatres, from which I was never absent when 
 the play was the Beggar's Opera, or the Forty Thieves. 
 The fame of Tom and Jerry has reached me, even here; 
 for in our fraternity it is' a favorite play; but as it did 
 
 ^ 26 
 
 'S-^ 
 
 I..V 
 
'"■^^^SWSWHIHail 
 
 mmmm 
 
 302 
 
 THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 
 
 V 
 
 not come out till I myself got in, I can only describe it 
 as it has been described to me ; that is, a faithful mirror 
 to hold up to a gentleman Blackleg. 
 
 I had, from youth upwards, a taste that is said to mark 
 a gentleman; I had a passion for wearing white and fine 
 linen; and this it was that drew me so oflen, at evening, 
 to the laundress's lines. I had also a singular reverence 
 for the beaver, and collected a great many memorials 
 (both in skin and fur) of that amphibious animal; for 
 when I ' did the genteel thing ' and frequented polite as- 
 semblies, I would go out in a hat of felt, upon which, on 
 my return, I was sure to find a nap from the castor, and 
 in the crown a pair of his gloves. This, I suppose, if 
 the reason why the doctor once said (when I shammed 
 sickness and chalked my tongue) that I had been too 
 long engaged in the fur trade. 
 
 I now became very diligent iw my vocation. I have 
 read in my book, of an Emperor who piqued himself on 
 being the benefactor, as he was called the ' Delight of 
 Mankind.' This weak prince, when the sun had set and 
 he performed no worthy action, would exclaim, ^ I have 
 lost a day;' and I have made the same remark when the 
 day has closed, and as little had been performed in my 
 own line. 
 
 But these adventures were in what the history calls 
 the ' golden age,' for now I have fallen upon iron times. 
 In that age of gold, I was animated by the heroic pas- 
 sion, and tied my cravat at the sister of a school-fellow; 
 but when I called upon her, she directed a servant, (and 
 a trucrlent fellow he was,) to allow me the choice be- 
 tween his cudgel and the window; and as he stood di-> 
 rectlyl before the door, to oblige the lady I raised the 
 sash. This was, (as they say at the theatre,) but mak- 
 ing an exit, as I had often elsewhere made an entrance. 
 
 
THE LAST OF THE BLACKLEGS. 
 
 303 
 
 cribe it 
 1 mirror 
 
 to mark 
 and fine 
 vening, 
 verence 
 jmoriala 
 lal; for 
 (olite as- 
 hich, on 
 3tor, and 
 ppose, ii 
 hammed 
 3een too 
 
 I have 
 mself on 
 >elight of 
 d set and 
 ' I have 
 when the 
 ed in my 
 
 :ory calls 
 on times, 
 roic pas- 
 )l-fellow; 
 ant, (and 
 loice be- 
 stuod di-* 
 lised the 
 but mak- 
 entrancc. 
 
 
 The rations in our corps are not devised to encourage 
 the enlistment of recruits, though the ranks are well 
 filled by conscriptions. I almost blush to state, that I 
 am sometimes fain to suspend my cap by a packthread, 
 and draw up through the wires of my cage the few cop- 
 pers that charity throws to the unfortunate. This gives 
 me a manifest resemblance to Belisarius; but at other 
 times, if Allston should behold me, with my iron visage, 
 sitting upon a granite pillar, and shaping it with ham- 
 mer and drill, what a picture the world would have of 
 Marius, amid the ruins of Carthage ! 
 
 Reader! ilius have I sketched my life, and with but a 
 seeming levity, for the reality I could not feel; and the 
 levity has been feigned but to keep awake your atten- 
 tion, which I fear, is apt to slumber over what it seri- 
 ously said. But it is time that I should drop the mask 
 which I have assumed only for your advantage. If I 
 have giown gray without becoming good, one good ac- 
 tion I will do, in giving my example as a warning to 
 sons, and my advice as a legacy to fathers. 
 
 If you have an undutiful son, bring him to my cell, 
 and I will say to him ; ' behold an aged sinner, v.ho has 
 human blood in his veins, and who once had human ten- 
 derness in his hsart; confined, and justly, like a beast 
 that ravages and kills. Mark his hair, shagged as a 
 hyena's, and shudder at his wolfish eyes. I was in my 
 youth, l/ke you, but tin.. > was no example such as is now 
 before you, to wain me to fly from evil; nor was there 
 any kind hand to restrain me in its downward course. 
 Now look upon those convicts in the yard, and see the 
 savage sneers, with which malice and hatred have dis- 
 torted, like a demon's, the human face! If what you 
 now behold, cannot divert you from evil, as hopeless is 
 your case, as that of the wretch, who has lived for sixty 
 years, with no other advantage to bis race, than that of 
 appalling example.' 
 
 9. 
 
 H' 
 
jmi mwumigifsmiimiKmm 
 
 SELECTIONS 
 
 THE HANG-BIRD. 
 
 The red-bird that builds on the end of the bough 
 A nest like a cottager's, oovered with straw, 
 
 Has a note that I loved, when I followed the plough^ 
 And the prettiest plumage that ever you saw. 
 
 The hurons, a cradle in sycamores make, 
 That rocks, when the winds the tall pinnacles bend ; 
 
 And safe from the school-boy, the cat, and the snake, 
 The hang-bird, her brood from a twig will suspend. 
 
 Then spare the red hang-bird that builds such a nest 
 As the birds of the tropic might envy to see ; — 
 
 O soil not with blood the bright hues of his breast, 
 But look foi a victim in yonder pine tret 
 
 Trere 's a solemn, ' gray bird,' among ruins that flies,, 
 In countries where ruins abound more than here ; — 
 
 Come, rest on my shoulder, take aim at his eyes, 
 And one enemy less will the mice have, my Dear. 
 
 WOLFE AND MONTCALM, 
 FortuncUi ambo. 
 
 Thet raise but a single column fair. 
 To the cl.iefs who fell contending ; 
 
 For death united their ashes there, 
 And glory their names is blending. 
 
 
 % 
 
 '■*^*%.--'-'*^l.^ 
 
305 
 
 The lofty Montcalm, if his spirit glide 
 Round the field he has raised in story, 
 
 Will see, with joy, and a warrior's pride, 
 That his foes have recorded his glory. 
 
 But the brave are brothers, and when they fall, 
 The tears of the brave drop o'er them ; 
 
 For rivalry dies on the sable pall. 
 And foemcn, as friends, deplore Ihem. 
 
 •T is a hero's prayer to prevail or die, 
 And Fortune to Wolfe's relented ; 
 
 For he lingered to hear * (hey fly, they fly,' 
 Before he co'ild ' die contented.' 
 
 Though few remain, who as greatly dare. 
 His glory shall swell their numbers ; 
 
 This, long will the sons of Britain swear. 
 On the spot where her hero slumbers. 
 
 PLEASURES. 
 
 
 ll 
 
 There are bubbles that vanish, \vhen grasped in the hand, — 
 There are rose-buds that wither, bCTore they expand, — 
 There are hopes that are blighted, when brighest they seem, 
 And pleasures that fade like the joys of a dream. 
 
 A mirage, when our prospects were desolate grown, 
 Its charm o'er the sands of life's desert has thrown; 
 And we hoped when the rest of the desert was past, 
 To quench this mad thirst after pleasure at last. 
 
 But from him who pursues it, the faster it flies, 
 As the waters seem neaf, while the traveller dies ; — 
 And spice groves before it, their limbs seem to wave 
 While the caravan finds in Zahara, a grave. 
 26 • 
 
w^mmm^fmammm^ 
 
 mmi 
 
 306 
 
 If life in its threshold, so desolate seem, 
 If its pleasures are only the joys of a dream, 
 If its noon-day with doubt and dismay is perplext, 
 O who would not long for the dawn of the next 
 
 GENERAL F.^ASER. 
 
 In the pride of his daring, Eraser fell. 
 And while slowly away we bore him ; 
 
 The warriors rude, whom he loved so well 
 Shed bitter and stern tears o'er him. 
 
 ' I die ' — he cried to his heart struck chief — 
 ' Life flows away like a fountain, 
 
 * Let my funeral rites be few and brief, 
 And my tomb, the peak of the mountain.* 
 
 There was not a heart, but heaved with wo 
 
 As the hero's hearse ascended. 
 Though the vengeful shot of the watchful foe 
 
 With our farewell volley blended. 
 
 But the pilgrim of honor seeks his grave. 
 Where the bright clouds rest in glory ; 
 
 His memory lives in the hearts of the brave, 
 And his fame, in his country's story. 
 
 y 
 
 THE DOG STAR. 
 
 Briqht star of my fortunes, that shone on my birth, 
 , And nerves that would vibrate, and blood that would bum ; 
 Thy ray never falls on the cold of the earth, 
 Whose hearts are as dull as the sleep of the urn. 
 
SOI 
 
 But souls that have feeling, and fancy, and fire, 
 Hearts that can glow, through obstructions of clay, 
 
 And hands that can waken the lute and the lyre. 
 Derive the rich gii^s from thy tempering ray. 
 
 Thou sett'st on the forehead of Beauty, thy seal, 
 And the soft light of passion thou shedd'st in her eyes; 
 
 With blood in her pulses, that will not congeal. 
 Like that of the daughters of temperate skies. 
 
 Bright star of my fortunes, impress on my soul 
 
 An ardour for virtue, a passion for fame ; 
 Light my wandering steps to that fa: distant goal, 
 
 And set in the heavens, like Castor's, my name. 
 
 d burn ; 
 
 SORROWS OF A ROAN HORSE. 
 
 When I was a colt, in a Green-mountain glade, 
 My mane it was k>ng, and in thunder arrayed : 
 My delight was to frolic, to bite, and to play, 
 And to care, when it came, my reply was a nay. 
 
 When I nibbled the clover, in pastures of green, 
 A mole that was sleeker you never have seen : 
 I was good at a gallop, and great at a rack. 
 But tremendous, with Major Mc' Wrath on my back. 
 
 Poor Major, he furnished me many an oat. 
 And covered me often when cold, with his coat ; 
 He was honest and kind, and I found him a friend, . 
 Till brought by podagra and wine to his end. 
 
 I was sold like a negro, at six years of age. 
 To a master who drove like Jehu in a rage ; — 
 In his harness I trotted fourteen to the hour, 
 And he sold me again, when I wanted the power. 
 
308 
 
 But time was at work on my mane and my tail, 
 And through many gradations in misery's scale 
 I descended, at last, to that lowest of ill. 
 For a horse or a rogue, and went round in a mill. 
 
 On the Sabbath, a rest both to beast and to man, 
 I shamble away from the wheel and the tan, 
 To a lane where the thistles are bitter and tall. 
 Though the clover is blossoming over the wall. 
 
 But my race of existence is rapid and brief. 
 My sorrows will end at the fall of the leaf; 
 For my master I heard, when the farrier was by. 
 Say, in accents of wo, * poor old horse — let him die.'- 
 
 FOURTH OF JULY. 
 
 Let the voice of thanksgiving have utterance now, 
 Sing the praise of the good, in the land of the free ; 
 
 Let the breeze that is waving the blossom and bough, 
 Waft the song of our gladness o'er mountain and sea ; 
 
 Far south, where the orange is bending with fruit, 
 And the laurel shoots up to a pinnacle fair. 
 
 The voice of rejoicing no longer is mute. 
 For the patriot is breathing his orisons there. 
 
 Far west, where he lingers ere sets the bright sun. 
 There is feasting, and music, and pageant, to day ; 
 
 For the fame of the heroes, whose labors are done, 
 And whose name from the scroll can no time wash away. 
 
 One only remains, like a pillar at Rome, 
 The column of Trajan, to star d on the mind 
 
 How great is the race that has past to the tomb, ^^ 
 And how sacred the fame, they have left to mankind. 
 
309 
 
 THE DEFORMED TRANSFORMED. 
 
 A DREAM. 
 
 Methouoht that I sat by the side of the way, 
 
 When an old man approached me, whose tresses were gray, 
 
 And asked me the cause why I looked so dejected, 
 
 If my love were despised, or my merit neglected. 
 
 To merit said I, my pretence is but small, 
 And of love, honored sir, I know nothing at all ; 
 But if the sofl passion my heart should assail, 
 'T is not merit I fear, in the suit would prevail. 
 
 My son, said the sage, thy remark is but just ; 
 Then take you a box of this magical dust, 
 Which he that is lucky enough to obtain, 
 Has a balm for all woes and a cure for all pain. 
 
 Though you limp, I confess, like an ass in a fetter, ^ 
 This will alter your gait, Mr Tag, for the better ; 
 Though you squint like a Satyr direct from the wood, 
 'T is no more, 'twill be said, 'than a man of sense should.' 
 
 A similar change will be made in your wit, 
 For which there is chance enough, too, I admit ; 
 Till Friendship shall praise what it slighted before, 
 And Beauty shall scorn, while she charms thee no more. 
 
 Thus the limp of thy leg and the squint of thy eyes 
 
 Amended, and thou become witty and wise ; 
 
 Be loud and vehement, pugnacious and bold, 
 
 Which the weakest may be with this dust, which is gold. 
 
 I 
 
 \}.f 
 
 ! 
 
 
 ^-■'Ttt--*^^ 
 
 ,•*»•♦, 
 
 • ■>*i*«t'i^,«i««iiS*-> 
 
mm 
 
 310 
 
 HARVEST HOME. 
 
 Brave sons of New England, high lords of the soil, 
 With hands ever ready to give and to toil ; 
 The harvest is bending o'er valley and plain, 
 Come, come, to its festival labor again. 
 
 We boast not the olive, we want not the vine ; 
 For the orange and citron we do not repine ; 
 We look at no climate with envious eyes, 
 For what nature refuses our labor supplies. 
 
 Our country we serve when we follow the plough, • 
 And 'tis seldom a traitor is wiping his brow; 
 But the labor we love, is the pledge of our faith 
 To the land that we live in, through danger and death. 
 
 Then long be that land the abode of the free, 
 Afar may its foJl in futurity be ; — 
 Long, long, may its harvests so bountiful wave. 
 And long may they gladden the hearts of the brave. 
 
 WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN. 
 
 Our hopes are a cheat, and our joys are a dream ; — 
 We are dew on the flowers, we are flies on the stream ; 
 And downward we float, without caution or fear, 
 For the water is smooth, but the cataract near. 
 
 And sooner with evil, than good, we comply. 
 For we love but a season and hate till we die ; 
 We forgive in our foes, any injury past. 
 But those that we injure, wo pardon the last. 
 
 What is friendship ? a wish to make use of our friends ;- 
 Ambition ? bad means to accomplish worse ends ; 
 What is love .' he will find in his bosom who delves, 
 'T is that ardent afiection wc feel for ourselves. 
 
 
oil, 
 
 311 
 
 Our love is all selfish, our honor all nride. 
 And many a wretch like a hero has died ; 
 Our wit is but malice, and who tries to smother 
 The laugh it excites at the cost of another. 
 
 Our reason what is 't? I am blushing for mine, 
 It has led me so ofl in a devious line ; 
 For when reason and passion blow contrary ways. 
 Which, pray, is the impulse the vessel obeys ? 
 
 death . 
 
 ave. 
 
 
 3am; 
 
 LAMENT. 
 
 Lament, my sad friend, for the days that are over, 
 And dread in the future, more ills than the past; 
 
 For, as I was once told by a Doctor in Dover, 
 The toughest of grinders, to ache, are hte last. 
 
 O had we but lived in the fabulous ages. 
 When men were all honest, contented, and true ; 
 
 When youth was instructed in virtue by sages. 
 And criminal judges had nothing to do. 
 
 Or in those later times that we find in romances. 
 When honor pertained to the brave and the strong ; 
 
 When lords, for the right, perilled breaking of lances, 
 Which ladies would smile on, though broke for the wrong. 
 
 O for that era of beauty and banners. 
 
 When minstrels like us, could win riches and fame ; 
 When if morals Avere easy, the better the manners. 
 
 Than in folks, that it might be a libel to name. 
 
 nds ; — 
 
 >^' 
 
•mm 
 
 mm 
 
 mmm 
 
 312 
 
 THE CALUMNIATOR. 
 
 Behold a tall tree that is blasted, my son, 
 Yet not by the lightning, though heavy the stroke ; 
 
 More surely the work of destruction was done, — 
 And niark thou the foe, that can prostrate an oak. 
 
 Vile worm ! could a reptile as feeble as thou. 
 Destroy in its strength, a magnificent tree ? 
 
 Did the hurricane pass, when it shattered the bough, 
 But to leave the strong trunk, as a victim to thee f 
 
 There are some of our lineage aa slowly that die, 
 And by reptiles more loathsome than any that crawl j 
 
 While the foe that destroys them, no one can descry, 
 For the arrow is hidden, till after their fall. 
 
 Thus a calumny strikes to the sensitive heart, 
 Which, the less it discloses, the more it endures : 
 
 While the hand that directed and poisoned the dart, 
 May be that of a/nend ; but should never be yours. 
 
 \A 
 
 GRAND MENAGERIE.— FATHER AND SON. 
 
 Oh, what is that beautiful animal, Dad, 
 So tame and so gentle ? — A Tiger, my lad 
 And this, with an innocent aspect, and mild ? 
 How honest he seems. — That is Reynard, my child. 
 
 What a fierce looking beast, with those terrible ears, 
 And a roar so appalling, how bold he appears ! 
 Though lied, I am fearful so near him to pass. — 
 The beast that you dread, little son, is an ^s. 
 
 / 
 
m^ 
 
 ;he stroke ; 
 lone, — 
 te an oak. 
 
 ee ? 
 
 the bough, 
 
 1 to thee f 
 
 lat die, 
 
 f that crawl ; 
 
 an descrj, 
 
 irt, 
 
 endures : 
 the dart, 
 or be yours. 
 
 \ND SON. 
 
 1 
 
 lild? 
 
 , my child. 
 
 terrible ears, 
 
 tears ! 
 pass.- 
 1 >^a. 
 
 /