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A YEAR 
 
 OP 
 
 AMERICAN TRAVEL 
 
 BY 
 
 JESSIE BEOTON FREMONT 
 
 i \ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE 
 
 1878 
 
F&3 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 11 Je divague fort, mais j y retouriie." 
 
 MONTAIGNE. 
 
 THERE are some years of our lives that 
 compare with the others as our October 
 days do with those of the rest of the year. 
 They follow the fitful, doubting spring and 
 the heat of summer, and beyond them lie 
 the short cold days of winter; but they 
 themselves are perfect rest, and their still, 
 gentle influence is made perfect by the mer 
 ciful veil of mist that shuts out past and 
 future, and leaves only the serene present. 
 
 In such an October-time we had made our 
 charming visit to Denmark itself a little 
 mist-enveloped bit of fairy-land to us ; for 
 there W T C had walked upon the very ram 
 part where the buried majesty of Denmark 
 
8 A YEAR, OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 ha^ ; walked ,Woi;e;iii :By so much were 
 we closer to Shakes psare s Hamlet not the 
 ,. of .tha foot-lights, but Hamlet the 
 d. we;h^d H e ^ *h? low lapping 
 (if the wave s on the 3ahds o f Elsinore, and 
 thought 
 
 " of them that sleep, 
 Full many a fathom deep, 
 By thy wild and stormy steep, 
 Elsiuore." 
 
 And, in short, we had been where centuries 
 of tradition and fancy and fact had blended 
 into an atmosphere that shut out ordinary 
 ideas, and left us in that charmed and 
 dream-like state of mind which I am afraid 
 can only belong with an old country where 
 everything "stays put," where the word 
 "fixed" has its corresponding meaning in 
 facts. 
 
 One of our little party, perhaps because 
 of always living in such an atmosphere, ar 
 gued against " the good " of this, but she 
 had never known the ordeal of being up 
 rooted and transplanted. My wider expe 
 rience had taught me "the large grief that 
 these infold." I knew the good and the ne- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 cessity of progress in a nation, but I knew 
 also what it cost the individual to make part 
 of this progress. This question of haute po- 
 litique whether the nation should be for 
 the good of the individual, or the individual 
 for the good of the nation was one that 
 often came up for discussion at the "family 
 hearth." We christened our compartment 
 of the railway carriage by this name, for the 
 hours we were seated there gave us the 
 best opportunity for talking over what we 
 saw and the many ideas suggested. 
 
 Just out of Hamburg our train halted at 
 a station where an emigrant train was ready 
 to go off to connect with the steamer for 
 America. The people were all gathered 
 at the village station. The afternoon sun 
 came bright on their uncovered heads as 
 they knelt in a parting prayer ; their pastor, 
 standing with uplifted hands, in the dress 
 we know from the pictures of Luther, was 
 giving them his farewell blessing. Back of 
 him was a young woman of better dress and 
 appearance than the more simple class in 
 front, and by her a fine-looking white-haired 
 old man. As the prayer ended, she fell across 
 
10 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 his breast ; it was the helplessness of ex 
 hausted, unavailing grief; and hold her 
 and grieve over her as he might, yet the 
 father had to give her up, for the parting 
 hour had come. 
 
 We saw this picture as we moved slowly 
 past. It was the constantly recurring do 
 mestic tragedy of emigration. I could have 
 called out to her to stay ; for in that instant 
 I saw back into the time when I had learned 
 to know how painful is the process of found 
 ing a new country. What loneliness, what 
 privations, what trials of every kind, went 
 to the first steps of even that rich and lovely 
 country of California an experience which 
 made one sure that what cost so much to 
 build must not be broken up ; an experi 
 ence, too, which was in such strange con 
 trast to all that belonged before and since 
 in my life that it stands apart, and never 
 loses its own outlines and color. 
 
 The many memories this gave rise to un 
 folded themselves in long talks constantly 
 renewed, until they crystallized into what 
 we named the year of American travel: 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 11 
 
 something necessarily personal and nar 
 rowed to personal experience, but inter 
 woven with a period of governing impor 
 tance to our country. 
 
 When it was first planned that I should 
 go to California, in the spring of 1848, the 
 gold discoveries had not been made. In Au 
 gust of that year was the first finding, and 
 with the uncertain, slow communications 
 then had with that coast, it was nearly win 
 ter before the news reached us in Washing 
 ton. It seems odd to recall now the little 
 vial of gold-dust so carefully brought as 
 voucher for the startling story. A long sail 
 down the coast to Mazatlan, then the cross 
 ing through Mexico, then another sailing 
 vessel to New Orleans, made the chance 
 mail-route : only a strong party could risk 
 itself overland, and few ventured into the 
 winter. 
 
 For reasons which belonged with the mil 
 itary history of California, our whole plan 
 of life was changed, and I, too, decided to go 
 to the newly acquired Territory and live on 
 some lands we had there. It would be too 
 long here to go into these reasons, but those 
 
12 A YEAK OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 who may share my wish always to know 
 " why," and get completed ideas, I would 
 refer to my father s Thirty Years View* the 
 second volume, and the chapters that treat 
 of the acquisition of California. Judge 
 Black said to me lately that my father s 
 work " had the privilege of standing uncon- 
 tradicted." He was exact in facts, and had 
 the habit of a good lawyer " to secure evi 
 dence when it presented itself;" and in that 
 way from the best official and personal 
 sources, he gives the exact record of that 
 period. Since then there have been such 
 great events that even important matters 
 of that time have been overlaid and ob 
 scured, except to those who lived through 
 them. And lately two works have been 
 published by writers of distinction which 
 show this, as they have just reversed some 
 of the most prominent facts relating to the 
 early history of California.! 
 
 Nothing could have been more complete 
 than the arrangements which were to make 
 
 * Senator Benton. 
 
 t Colonel Higginson s Child s History of America, 
 General Sherman s Memoirs. 
 
A YEAH OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 13 
 
 this journey delightful as well as comfort 
 able. By waiting until March my father 
 would be free to go with me after the ses 
 sion of Congress was ended. He looked for 
 ward with eagerness to this journey over 
 the track of the early Spanish conquests. 
 His large knowledge of Spanish history 
 upon our continent, aided by his knowledge 
 of the Spanish language, gave this part of 
 the voyage a peculiar interest to him. 
 
 My father s French and Spanish clients 
 from the later acquired Territories of Louisi 
 ana and Florida became his friends also. He 
 not only comprehended, but strongly felt 
 for, their bewilderment at finding them 
 selves under new and strange laws. He 
 knew that this condition must obtain in 
 California also. He wished to know per 
 sonally the newly acquired country, its 
 people, and its needs. Should it remain a 
 Territory, he, as Senator from Missouri, had 
 the neighbor s right to look out for its in 
 terests ; and from many causes, personal, po 
 litical, and geographical, this friendly rep 
 resentation would have been for him, as a 
 queen of Spain said of something akin to 
 
14 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 this, mi privilegio, prerogatives, y derecho 
 my privilege, my prerogative, and my right. 
 
 But not even my father foresaw how 
 much they would need this, nor the shame 
 ful injustice of our government in disre 
 garding its treaty stipulations, and despoil 
 ing them. 
 
 General Herran, then minister from New 
 Granada, gave us letters to his friends in 
 Panama, although it was not probable that 
 we should be long enough there to use 
 them. Mr. William Aspinwall, who was 
 much in Washington on business connected 
 with his new enterprises of mail steamers to 
 the Pacific and the projected Panama Rail 
 road, was a great favorite with my father, 
 who gave him a standing invitation to dine 
 with us whenever he could, and talk over 
 at that leisure time the large interests 
 opened by these new channels for Oriental 
 commerce. 
 
 Coming to us in this familiar way, Mr. 
 Aspinwall entered into the family anxieties 
 regarding my journey with all the sympa 
 thies of his kind nature. His experience 
 taught him how to render these sympathies 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 15 
 
 efficient, and he made the most thorough 
 arrangements for my comfort and security. 
 In short, everything that foresight and 
 friendship could do was planned : how 
 events disposed of our well-laid plans was 
 another thing. 
 
 I have been reading lately a reprint of 
 the letters of the Hon. Miss Eden, who was 
 with her brother, Lord Auckland, when he 
 was Governor-General of India. She says 
 that although only family letters, they will 
 have more interest on that account, as giv 
 ing the details of their two years journey 
 of inspection, and the contrast of that past 
 time when to seven persons belonged a ret 
 inue of twelve thousand people, with ele 
 phants, camels, and horses to match with 
 the present condition of India, where now 
 railroads have reduced the Governor-Gener 
 al to a first-class passenger with a travel 
 ling-bag. 
 
 In the same way I look back to my prep 
 arations for that voyage into the unknown 
 all the planning and reading and grief 
 and fears in contrast with the seven days 
 pleasure trip of to-day. Mr. Aspinwall, who 
 
16 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 had so large a part in making things smooth 
 for me on that first journey, was near me at 
 a morning wedding when, quite simply, and 
 in the same tone with which he had been 
 speaking of the bride and the flowers, he 
 said, "Have you any messages for San Fran 
 cisco ? We leave for there to-night to be 
 gone six weeks." Only twenty years had 
 brought about this wonderful change. 
 
 It is easy to resume situations into a par 
 agraph when they are ended; to live through 
 them day by day and hour by hour is an 
 other thing. 
 
 I look up at the little water-color which 
 is my resume of that time of severance from 
 all I held indispensable to happiness it 
 was made for me on the spot, and gives my 
 tent under the tall cotton-woods, already 
 browned and growing bare with the com 
 ing winter winds. 
 
 Mr. Fremont was to make a winter cross 
 ing of the mountains, and I went with him 
 in October to his starting-point, the Dela 
 ware Indian reservation on the frontier of 
 Missouri, to return when he left, and remain 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 17 
 
 at home in Washington until rny time came 
 to start in March. 
 
 Of everything in the Centennial Exhi 
 bition, I think nothing interested me so 
 much as the display made by Kansas. It 
 seemed so few years since I had been there, 
 when only a small settlement marked the 
 steamboat landing where now Kansas City 
 stands. Looking at its silk manufactures, 
 its produce of not only essentials, but luxu 
 ries, it was hard to realize the untracked 
 prairie of my time, with only Indians and 
 wolves for figures. 
 
 I had been there before to meet Mr.. Fre 
 mont on his return from different journeys; 
 this time it was to stay with him until the 
 last preparations were completed. 
 
 The party was gone. Major Cummings 
 was to take me the next day to connect 
 w r ith the river steamer at Westport Land 
 ing (now Kansas City). He had been an 
 noyed by a wolf, which carried off his sheep 
 to her cubs, and had just succeeded in 
 following up her trail and destroying her 
 young ones ; and as the place was not far, 
 the good major took me over for a " pleas- 
 
18 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 ant change of ideas." I was sorry for the 
 wolf, " still for all sins of hers," with the 
 mother nature, coming back to her ruined 
 place and her dead cubs. 
 
 We came back by way of the deserted 
 camp, which did not lessen my sympathy 
 for the wolf; the ashes of the morning s 
 fire were still warm. Altogether nothing 
 alleviated the lonely impression of the even 
 ing, which closed in on the old gentleman 
 moaning with a toothache, while the creak 
 of his wife s rocking - chair was the only 
 other break to the silence. 
 
 I was glad to go off to sleep. While one 
 is young, that comes with surprising read 
 iness. The house was a succession of log- 
 cabins, set, some gable end on, some facing 
 front, making a series of rooms alternating 
 with open places, having only the connect 
 ing roof. These frontier houses grow as 
 the family requirements increase ; the tim 
 ber and the strong willing hands are there, 
 and the getting a new house costs no heart 
 burnings or cares. This establishment of 
 Major Cummings s, who had been for thirty 
 years superintendent of Indians there, was 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 19 
 
 of many years growth, and my room was 
 the extreme end of the last added wing. 
 A stone chimney built up on the outside 
 gave an ample fire-place, where the great 
 fire of logs made a cheerful home light in 
 the great clean room. 
 
 My good " Aunt Kitty" was in my room, 
 and we were both fast asleep, when I was 
 awaked by a sound full of pain and grief, 
 and wild rage too a sound familiar enough 
 to frontier people, but new to me. It was 
 the she-wolf hunting her cubs ; there fol 
 lowed with it, as a chorus, the cry of the 
 pack of hound puppies they were young, 
 and frightened. As for me, with nerves al 
 ready overstrained, a regular panic carne on. 
 I knew hunters built fires to scare off wild 
 things ; but after Kitty had made a great 
 blaze, a new fear came. The windows were 
 near the ground, and without shutters or 
 curtains. What if the blaze only served to 
 guide the wolf ! More than once I had seen 
 dogs go through a pane of window-glass as 
 safely as circus-riders through their paper 
 hoops ; so shawls were quickly hair-pinned 
 over the -windows, and by that time men s 
 
20 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 voices and the angry sounds from older dogs 
 gave a sense of being protected, and sleep 
 came again, to be broken again by a big 
 dark object, rough-coated, and close to me. 
 It was a speaking wolf too, but not exactly 
 like Red Riding - hood s, although it was 
 hungry. Camp had only been moved about 
 ten miles, and a fast ride through and back 
 before sunrise would give us another hour 
 together, " and would Kitty make tea ?" 
 And so, with our early tea for the stirrup- 
 cup, "he gave his bridle-rein a shake," and 
 we went our ways, one into the midwinter 
 snows of untracked mountains, the other to 
 the long sea -voyage through the tropics, 
 and into equally strange foreign places. 
 
 The question of a servant to go with me 
 to California was a serious one. The elder 
 women could not leave their families, and 
 after much thinking, a younger one was set 
 apart, and each of us was considered a 
 victim selected for a sacrifice. Although I 
 was born and brought up among slaves, the 
 servants in my home were all freed people, 
 their children had grown up with us, and 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 21 
 
 there was great attachment between us. 
 One of these whom I particularly liked was 
 decided upon and agreed to go and remain 
 with me. 
 
 Not only had none of us ever been to sea, 
 but we knew but very few people who had 
 made a real sea-voyage. This to California 
 was to be very much like the old journeys 
 to India, and a friend who had been with 
 her husband in China was called in for con 
 sultation, while an old-fashioned book, The 
 Lady of the Manor, really gave us some most 
 useful details. Only we followed our mod 
 els too literally, and made absurdly large 
 preparations. 
 
 I must remind that this was before sew 
 ing-machines, that we were in Washington, 
 and that it was quite before the day of 
 ready-made outfits in our country, so that 
 we busied ourselves with preparations for 
 the heat of the tropics, with refreshing my 
 Spanish, and I, for my part, chiefly in rec 
 onciling myself to the fact that in a few 
 months I should be cut loose from every 
 thing that had made my previous life. 
 
 March came, and the start had to be 
 
22 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 made. My father came with me to New 
 York, although by this time the original 
 plan had lost its best point to me, for he 
 found himself unable to go from home. 
 
 A brother-in-law (Governor Jacobs, of 
 Kentucky), who had been ordered a sea- 
 voyage for his health, and was going to 
 Rio Janeiro and back, changed his plan, 
 and started with me for California instead. 
 At the Astor House, where we were staying, 
 we found a large party of favorite relations, 
 my cousin General William Preston and his 
 family, assembled to welcome back from Eu 
 rope a member who had been away for years. 
 I was much in the position of a nun carried 
 into the world for the last time before taking 
 the veil. All the arguments, all the reasons, 
 all the fors and againsts, had to be gone over 
 with this set of friends; all the griefs open 
 ed up again, and the starting made harder 
 than ever. While we were talking, Mr. 
 Stetson came in and spoke to my father, 
 who went out with him, soon returning to 
 call me out also, and explain a new break 
 in our plans. It seemed niy maid, "young 
 Harriot" (to distinguish her from the elder 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 23 
 
 Harriot, who was our dear old nurse), was, 
 at the last, riot to be permitted to go with 
 me by her New York friends ; and as one 
 of them was the man she was to marry, he 
 spoke with authority. All this had been 
 considered and arranged; but at the last 
 he withdrew his consent. 
 
 She stood true to me ; she knew that 
 never in my life had I had a strange ser 
 vant about me, that I was already as much 
 grieved as I could endure, and she would 
 not add to it by leaving me without her 
 care, and as much of home as she could 
 represent to me. 
 
 Finding that no argument prevailed on 
 her to stay, he hit upon an idea which was 
 successful. He went off and raised the 
 whole force of people who were allied for 
 rescuing colored people being carried off to 
 the South against their will, and they pour 
 ed into the Astor House, filling the lower 
 halls, and raising such a commotion that 
 Mr. Stetson came for us to see what could 
 be done. The cry of " carrying off a free 
 colored girl against her will " had the same 
 effect in those days as an alarm of fire. 
 
24 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 Looked at by all of our lives, it seems in 
 credible that a colored mob should have 
 assembled against my father and myself on 
 such a hue and cry, but they would not be 
 reasoned with. It was true that we were 
 Southerners, it was true that Harriot was a 
 free colored girl, although it was not true 
 that she was being carried off against her 
 will. The trouble was that she had no will; 
 she had only affections, and these pulled 
 her in contrary directions. When she ap 
 pealed in tears to us to decide what she 
 should do, we told her to stay. So I was not 
 only to be without my father s care, but I 
 had lost my last fragment of home. Mr. 
 Stetson and my father tried at once to find 
 some one going out on the same steamer who 
 would be glad to have the place ; and this 
 was done : " a reliable middle - aged New 
 England woman, far more useful than Har 
 riot, who could only sew and dress hair." 
 
 I barely looked at her, and saw she was 
 a hard, unpleasing person to my mind ; but 
 the steamer sailed next day, and there was 
 no time for any choice. She was only an 
 item in the many griefs that seemed to ac- 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 25 
 
 cumulate on me at this time. My father s 
 going with me would have made it a de 
 lightful voyage for both of us ; without 
 him, it was, in all its dreary blankness, my 
 first separation from home. I had never 
 lived out of my father s house, nor in any 
 way assumed a separate life from the other 
 children of the family Mr. Fremont s long 
 journeys had taken him from home more 
 than five years out of the eight since we 
 were married ; I had never been obliged 
 to think for or take care of myself, and 
 now I was to be launched literally on an 
 unknown sea, travel towards an unknown 
 country, everything absolutely new and 
 strange about me, and undefined for the 
 future, and without even a servant that 
 knew me. 
 
 The first night out, when the numbness 
 of grief was over, I put my little girl to bed ; 
 for she would have nothing to do with the 
 new woman, and I myself pretended to be 
 asleep in order not to have to speak to her. 
 Later on in the night this woman came into 
 my cabin and looked at me, to make sure 
 that I was really sleeping. Being satisfied 
 
26 A TEAK OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 that such was the case, she opened my trunk, 
 and commenced a leisurely examination of 
 its contents, laying aside in a small heap 
 such articles as she preferred ; at the same 
 time she lifted off her dark wig, and gave 
 her head a little shake, and stood there, not 
 the dark-haired, middle-aged woman who 
 was to be so much better for me than my 
 Harriot, but a light-haired woman under 
 thirty, with an expression of hardness that 
 puzzled me then, and frightened me too, so 
 that I kept as much asleep as possible, and 
 let her help herself to all she wanted from 
 the trunk. When she left the room, with 
 an armful of undergear, I jumped up and 
 bolted the door after her, and remained 
 blockaded until morning, answering none 
 of her knocks or calls. 
 
 When I recognized the clear voice of the 
 stewardess in the morning, I let her in. She 
 was that good Mrs. Young, with the gray 
 hair and fine teeth, that we all knew so well 
 when she was with Captain Lines on the 
 Humboldt and Arago. Then I was safe, for 
 Mrs. Young brought the captain, and the 
 woman was put into a separate cabin un- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 27 
 
 der guard for the journey. In brief, this 
 person should never have been allowed to 
 go with me. She was a protegee of an au 
 thoress who believed in certain moral re 
 forms, and who thought that by giving her 
 a start in a new country she would carry 
 out her promises of good conduct. This 
 lady, well known in New York, had given 
 her such credentials that Mr. Stetson chose 
 her from other applicants on those recom 
 mendations. 
 
 My brother-in-law was thoroughly sea 
 sick, and I was naturally supposed to be 
 so, because I kept my room and had no 
 appetite. 
 
 But the stewardess saw it w T as not so, and 
 made me go into the air. We were through 
 with the rough weather off Hatteras, and 
 were in the Gulf Stream. I had never seen 
 the sea, and in some odd way no one had 
 ever told me of the wonderful new life it 
 could bring. It stays with me in all its 
 freshness, that first recognition of the ocean 
 which came to me when I went on deck ; 
 that grand solitude, that wide look from 
 horizon to horizon, the sense of space, of 
 
28 A YEAK OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 freshness, the delightful power and majesty 
 of the sea all canie to me as necessities ; 
 I loved it at the first look, and I am never 
 fully alive without it; sometimes I cannot 
 get to it when I need it, but when I can, I 
 go there, and am soothed and calmed and 
 comforted if I am in trouble ; if I am hap 
 py, it is only there that I feel completed by 
 the exultant, abounding vitality and keen 
 happiness which it alone brings to me. 
 
 The ship was crowded, but I was too worn 
 down and silenced to care to know stran 
 gers. The captain, Captain Schenck, who 
 was a naval officer, was in every way kind, 
 and very wisely so in securing me entire 
 quiet while on deck, so that the " healing 
 of the sea " soon began to revive my health, 
 and the silent teaching of sky and sea lifted 
 me from morbid dwelling on what was now 
 ended. 
 
 The young think each thing final they 
 cannot well see that 
 
 "I shall outlast this stroke, I know, 
 For man is conquered by the mighty hours," 1 
 
 must be true for them too. Perhaps the 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 29 
 
 sharpest lesson of life is that we outlast so 
 much even ourselves so that one, look 
 ing back, might say, " when I died the first 
 time" 
 
 But the sea asserts its mighty power also, 
 and no one ends an ocean voyage in the same 
 state of mind with which he began it. 
 
 In this gentle state of mental convales 
 cence I remember how persistently my mind 
 pictured scenes of my childhood and early 
 girlhood. Especially the many charming 
 things belonging with our constantly recur 
 ring long journeys to and from our homes. 
 For we had three homes : the winter home 
 in Washington, which was " ours ;" that in 
 St. Louis, which was " our father s home ;" 
 and that of our grandfather in Virginia, 
 which was rny mother s dearly loved home, 
 and my birth-place as well as hers. This 
 was near the beautiful mountain town of 
 Lexington, best known of late from both 
 General Lee s and "Stonewall" Jackson s 
 connection with its great colleges. These 
 were widely apart, and before the day of 
 railways, made travel serious; taking so 
 much time that it divided our lives into 
 
30 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 distinct parts, but broke up nothing of 
 family life, and did not interrupt, although 
 it altered, the form of our studies. A cer 
 tain little English valise held the maps and 
 books, and our school-room was improvised 
 anywhere on the " guard " of a river steam 
 boat or in its cabin, or resting under trees. 
 It trained us to holding on to our thoughts 
 through interruptions ; it trained us to much 
 for which I can never be grateful enough, 
 for then my father himself was our teacher 
 to his real pleasure, and our endless re 
 grets when we had to drop back to regular 
 teachers, who could not enrich and illumi 
 nate every topic as he did. He suited the 
 books to his own tastes ; and though much 
 was above our comprehension, yet we grew 
 into them. Especially we never got away 
 from Plutarch and the Iliad. The gods and 
 goddesses descended on us everywhere. 
 
 The little invalid of our family was not 
 let to brave the harsh prairie winds of early 
 spring in St. Louis, so we took New Orleans 
 first on the alternate years when we went to 
 the West. It was thousands of miles out of 
 our way, but water transportation made it 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 31 
 
 no trouble, while the eight days on the Mis 
 sissippi was as welcome a rest for my parents 
 as we now find our Atlantic crossing. Ours 
 was a constant changing from an English- 
 Protestant into a French-Catholic atmos 
 phere, to find them blended in Washington 
 through widely various representations, and 
 by the diplomatic corps, which was a more 
 permanent body than now, when steam and 
 telegraphing have nearly abolished diplo 
 macy. 
 
 It had been but few years since the Louisi 
 ana Territory had been ceded to us, greatly 
 to the indignation and regret of most of its 
 settlers. It was an article of faith with 
 these to alter nothing in their habits, not 
 even to learn the language of the country 
 of which they had become unwilling citi 
 zens : Je suis fran$ais, et je parle ma langue, 
 was a common expression among them. 
 Among these w r e came into an atmosphere 
 thoroughly foreign dress, cookery, all do 
 mestic usages and ideas, as well as their 
 language and religion. St. Louis being a 
 so much smaller place, the American ele 
 ment told there more quickly, especially as 
 
32 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 it was also the frontier garrison and the 
 head of the fur business. From the broad 
 gallery of my father s house in St. Louis 
 there was always to be seen in rny earlier 
 day a kaleidoscopic variety of figures ; the 
 lower classes of the French still wore their 
 peasant dress, and its bright and varied 
 colors and the white caps belong as much 
 to the remembrance of that time in St. Louis 
 as they do to iny earlier visits in France ; 
 now it is hard to find a peasant costume 
 even in their own countries on travelled 
 routes; the sewing-machine has abolished 
 picturesqueness in dress. When I was first 
 in France, even in Paris the streets were 
 animated by the pretty white caps and gray 
 gowns of the working-women ; now a pall 
 of black alpaca has hidden all this, though 
 the greatest desecration I have seen is a 
 Tyrolese mountaineer in a ready-made bus 
 iness suit. 
 
 There were also long files of Indians step 
 ping silently by, the squaws and babies 
 bringing up the rear real Indians in real 
 Indian dress, or real Indian want of dress ; 
 any number of Catholic clergy in the cler- 
 
A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 33 
 
 ical robe ; hunters and trappers in fringed 
 deer-skins ; army officers in worn uniforms 
 going by on horseback. 
 
 Our house in Washington was a head 
 quarters for the varied interests from all 
 these places, while about my mother there 
 collected and shaped itself a circle which 
 formed for many years really a salon, to be 
 broken up only by her loss of health. 
 
 This life rubbed out many little preju 
 dices, and fitted us better than any reading 
 could have done to comprehend the neces 
 sary differences and equal merits of differ 
 ing peoples, and that although different, 
 each could be right. The manner in which 
 my father taught us also led us up to the 
 same ideas. 
 
 The French language was a necessity, and 
 that we acquired without any trouble, be 
 cause we had a nurse who began us with it 
 as soon as we could speak ; whatever gov 
 erness or teacher we had, my father always 
 was our real teacher, my mother reserving 
 one day and one line of instruction, which, 
 like the red strand in English navy cables, 
 marked us for her own. 
 3 
 
34 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 While in "Washington we had our routine 
 of studies and town life, in New Orleans 
 my elder sister and myself rose to the pro 
 portion of members of society, for my fa 
 ther s clients, when on their visits to Wash 
 ington, were pleased to have us for their lit 
 tle interpreters, and when we would be in 
 New Orleans they would insist on treating 
 us as grown people, inviting us formally to 
 dinners, where we would be taken in formal 
 ly by grown gentlemen, and sit through the 
 whole entertainment. There was great in 
 herited wealth among these planters ; they 
 were generally educated in Paris ; and with 
 the combined resources of climate, taste, and 
 wealth, their mode of living was beautiful as 
 well as luxurious. 
 
 One detail I have never met since in any 
 country, that of having the dinner and the 
 dessert in different dining-rooms. With us 
 this classic custom has faded into the after- 
 dinner coffee of the drawing-room, but it 
 was completely carried out in these great 
 houses. 
 
 One occasion I remember especially. 
 While the earlier part of the dinner was 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 35 
 
 in a spacious and splendid room, and served 
 with plate enough to satisfy even English 
 ideas, the next room was more charming, 
 for its furniture, as well as that of the table, 
 was suited to the grace and fragrance and 
 lightness of the dessert. The crystal ser 
 vice and the wax-lights in their glass shades 
 were reflected in great mirrors on three sides 
 of the room, while the fourth was open to a 
 court of grass and flowers, where the moon 
 shone on the sparkling spray of a large foun 
 tain. The punkah-wallahs, as they would be 
 called in India, had great fans of peacock 
 feathers. I do not wonder it fitted into 
 the Arabian Nights entertainments in my 
 mind. 
 
 In St. Louis, where our house stood among 
 its great trees, in a square of its own, we 
 had, to a large degree, a pleasant out-door 
 life : our lessons always were given on the 
 broad gallery running around the house, 
 and in every way we had a great deal of 
 open-air life ; but our true delight in out- 
 of-doors was only to be had at my grand 
 father s place in Virginia. When going 
 there from Washington we used no public 
 
86 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 conveyances beyond Fredericksburg ; there 
 the carriage and saddle-horses met us, my 
 mother as well as my father often making 
 the journey back on horseback, while the 
 carriage was there for us children, and for 
 her to return to when tired a London-built 
 travelling coach which gave all the rest one 
 looked for large, high swung, and with so 
 many springs that the jolting from the ex 
 ecrable roads was lessened. Its pale yellow 
 body and scarlet morocco lining made us 
 children christen it "Cinderella s pumpkin ;" 
 maybe, too, an underlying consciousness of 
 unlimited indulgence associated with those 
 who sent it. 
 
 There was always a sense of freedom and 
 expansion of mind connected with the ar 
 rival at my grandfather s. His was one of 
 the crown grants of the colonial time, and 
 had been given, for military service, to his 
 father, an English officer, who was killed in 
 the early Indian wars, but not before he 
 had planted his old-country ideas upon his 
 home. The oaks here were especially beau 
 tiful ; they had been preserved, and made a 
 noble park. Leading straight through this 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 37 
 
 park to the large hospitable-looking house 
 was a planted double avenue of cherry-trees, 
 which had been arched on the inner boughs 
 and trimmed up straight on the outer side ; 
 these had grown to the height and thickness 
 of forest trees by my time, and made a love 
 ly vista, whether they were in blossom or 
 red with fruit, or their naked boughs glit 
 tering with ice. On the lawn about the 
 house some remarkable oaks had been kept, 
 and some sycamores of really giant propor 
 tions. There were beautiful old-fashioned 
 gardens to the south, and masked by the tall 
 hedge of holly and privet were the cabins 
 of the house servants. These were comfort 
 able, clean cottages, but forbidden ground 
 to the children of " the Big House " unless 
 they were with some of the family. 
 
 The land patent gave the ownership of 
 all the lands in sight from a certain point 
 in the valley, and we knew, as we crossed 
 the last hill before entering this valley, that 
 we were monarchs of all we surveyed, in 
 cluding the grandparents. 
 
 On this travel we rarely stopped at a pub 
 lic place ; it was held as an unkindness to 
 
38 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 pass a relative s home, so our journey was 
 a progress along a cordon of great estates 
 of this kind, where everything had so long 
 been going along in an established way 
 that it was small wonder they believed in 
 predestination and fore-ordination. 
 
 Everywhere among them was inherited 
 property their houses, their servants, the 
 cattle and sheep on a hundred hills, were 
 theirs by descent. Nothing varied much 
 things were all in the deep lull of secured 
 prosperity. 
 
 The life on these estates will not be lived 
 over. With the introduction of railways, 
 the war, and the termination of slavery, this 
 phase of living has completely passed away ; 
 it lies back in my memory like a sunny, 
 peaceful landscape, and I am as thankful 
 for having been born in that atmosphere 
 of repose as De Quincey says he was for 
 having been born in the country in Eng 
 land. It was to us what Hawthorne and so 
 many others have found England, " the old 
 home," with soothing influences that go al 
 ways with its memory. 
 
 When we would return to this place of 
 
A YEAH OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 39 
 
 my grandfather s, each resumed the delights 
 belonging to it. 
 
 The grown people would go to the White 
 Sulphur Springs, then the Saratoga for the 
 North as well as the South. I always had 
 the pleasure of being left with my grand 
 mother, and went with her on that daily 
 round of inspection which made one of the 
 necessary duties of a Southern lady. This 
 included not only the immediate household, 
 but the cabins of the house servants, the 
 gardens to see, in short, that all had been 
 faithfully attended to ; and then into the 
 spinning and sewing rooms, and always into 
 the large room used as a day nursery and 
 hospital for the infants of women who were 
 employed about their different work. I can 
 hardly get to the end of all the duties that 
 filled up the busy mornings. I know that 
 the garden and the nursery are the points 
 that remained most in my memory as the 
 place where my grandmother gave the most 
 time; the dairy was all right under the 
 care of its presiding head, " Aunt Chloe," 
 who was the wife of " Uncle Jack," shoe 
 maker to the plantation, and Methodist 
 
40 A YEAH OF AMEKICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 preacher to his own people. It was not 
 considered respectful in us children to ad 
 dress the elder slaves by their name mere 
 ly ; there was always the prefix of "aunt" 
 or "uncle ;" to the head nurse always "mam 
 my." Occasionally there were inspections 
 at a longer distance from the house to the 
 weaving-rooms, the shoe-maker s, etc. Ev 
 erything that was worn was grown and 
 made on the place, except the finer wool 
 lens and linens for family use which came 
 from Richmond. 
 
 The various stages of woollen fabrics, 
 from the sheep on the hill-sides, and the 
 dyes taken from the sumac bushes and 
 the green bark of walnuts, all the details 
 of buzzing wheels, and carding wool, and 
 winding hanks, were part of the object- 
 teaching of my childhood. 
 
 The interval between the close of the long 
 session and the winter was too short for 
 the long, tedious journey to St. Louis and 
 back. We only made that on alternate years 
 after the short session, when high waters 
 gave us large steamboats and comfortable 
 transportation for our little crowd. What 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 41 
 
 we do now in two days required then sev 
 eral weeks. 
 
 Mv father knew no plan of life that sepa 
 rated him from his family; so we led this 
 charming nomadic existence, with its fixed 
 points in such contrast to the trouble of 
 travel and distance between them. Wash 
 ington was in one way w T ork, and St. Louis 
 and New Orleans had their sides of political 
 work and his duties as a lawyer. But it 
 was all holiday here, and my father enjoyed 
 it thoroughly. Especially he liked the au 
 tumn shooting. The birds were most plenti 
 ful in certain large wheat-fields, which, in 
 their warm tints of stubble, undulated over 
 the south face of the hills, the trees of the 
 "little orchard" and the park making a 
 good screen to the north. 
 
 Here and there through the fields were 
 good apple-trees ; under one of these we 
 would rest, and eat our luncheon of a bis 
 cuit and some fruit taken from the tree 
 above us ; and then my father would take 
 a book from his pocket, usually a classic in 
 a French translation, from which he would 
 read aloud for me to translate. 
 
42 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 There were plenty of ideas, even words, 
 that I did not understand ; if it had been a 
 description of the steam-engine, I should 
 have gone through it with equal good-will 
 and docility ; but much of it remained in 
 my memory, and I grew into it. Hard 
 words and hard ideas tired my mind as the 
 long tramps and ploughed fields tired my 
 young feet, but with time I grew used to 
 both, and the benefit of both remained with 
 me : these long sunny mornings in the open 
 air were the most delightful phase in which 
 my lessons came. In winter I had my cor 
 ner at the library table. No matter how 
 good our teachers were, my father had us 
 always prepare our lessons with him. 
 
 About a year after I was married, my fa 
 ther sent for me one morning, and pointing 
 to my old place at the end of the library ta 
 ble, said, " I want you to resume your place 
 there ; you are too young to fritter away 
 your life without some useful pursuit." So 
 back I went to my mornings of work and 
 readings and translations, which brought 
 with them the scraps of talk and connect 
 ed interest on all subjects which can only 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 43 
 
 exist where lives are passed together in that 
 pleasant intimacy. 
 
 As I have said, the long expeditions which 
 Mr. Fremont made took him from home five 
 years of the first eight after we were mar 
 ried, and I remained in many respects in my 
 old place as one of the children of the fam 
 ily. My mother s long illness deprived my 
 father of her companionship to a great ex 
 tent, and made him turn to me still more. 
 How great a loss this was to him and to us 
 can only be known to those who knew her ; 
 but I do not speak of that life, for it is not, 
 like mine, in a manner public property. For 
 myself, so much good-will and warm feel 
 ing have been given me during the public 
 portions of my life that it does not seem 
 more intrusive to talk of myself to my un 
 known friends than to those I know per 
 sonally. 
 
 As my mind turns back to that time, so 
 much crowds upon it that I can neither tell 
 it in its fulness, nor can I bring myself to 
 leave it a mere skeleton. I think there 
 could hardly have been a happier life than 
 mine as a child, and in all my youth ; it 
 
44 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 would be a full volume, to be bound in white 
 and gold, and red-lettered throughout, and 
 full of lovely pictures, and everywhere and 
 in all of them my father the prominent fig 
 ure. He made me a companion and a friend 
 from the time almost that I could begin to 
 understand. We were a succession of girls 
 at first, with the boys coining last, and my 
 father gave me early the place a son would 
 have had ; and my perfect health without 
 a flaw until I was twenty-four gave me not 
 only the good spirits but the endurance and 
 application that pleased him. 
 
 When we reached Chagres, if it had not 
 been for pure shame, and unwillingness that 
 my father should think badly of me, I would 
 have returned to New York on the steamer, 
 as the captain begged, putting before me 
 such a list of dangers to health, and dis 
 comforts and risks of every kind, as to kill 
 my courage. One often gets credit for what 
 he does not really deserve, and it would 
 hardly do to tell the whole truth about 
 everything ; but I have since confessed that 
 when I first saw land my pleasure in the 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 45 
 
 first sight of palm-trees and the tropical 
 growth was lost in the feeling that I had 
 to make another separation from what had 
 grown to be something of a home. Cap 
 tain Schenck had made everything as pleas 
 ant as possible for me. My large double 
 cabin, which at first seemed like a closet, 
 had grown home-like. Never having been 
 on a ship before, I had only a house to 
 compare it with, and felt choked on first 
 going into it ; but I have learned since to 
 know that a double cabin, with a large 
 square port, is a luxury. 
 
 The little tender on which the passengers 
 and mails were landed was as small as a 
 craft could well be to hold an engine, and 
 was intended to go as high as possible up 
 the Chagres River. It seemed like stepping 
 down upon a toy. But even this had to be 
 exchanged, after the first eight miles, for 
 dug-out canoes, the shallows and obstruc 
 tions of every kind making it impossible 
 to use the little steamboat. 
 
 Here Mr. Aspinwall s care secured for me 
 what was, by the contrast to what the oth 
 er travellers ha d to endure, luxury. While 
 
46 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 they had to take the dug-out canoes, with 
 their crews of naked, screaming, barbarous 
 negroes and Indians, I was put in the " com 
 pany s " whale-boat, with a responsible crew 
 in the " company s " service ; this was a dif 
 ference which I learned to appreciate more 
 thoroughly on hearing afterwards of the 
 murder of passengers by their crews. With 
 all our advantages, we only made a few miles 
 each day, taking three to reach Gorgona, 
 where we were to exchange our boats for 
 mules, on which we crossed the mountains. 
 This travel is so changed by the railroad 
 that it may be interesting to know just how 
 we made the crossing in 1849. The other 
 passengers took their chances of sleeping 
 on the ground or in the huts of the Indians, 
 and in that way contracted fevers from the 
 night air, the tropical mists, and all causes 
 of ill-health that were so well known, while 
 I was protected from all this through Mr. 
 Aspinwall s care. He had sent with me 
 one of his trusted employes, a captain of a 
 vessel in the mahogany trade, who had had 
 his wife with him on his different journeys 
 on that coast, and knew just what to do for 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 47 
 
 the health and safety of a lady. When 
 Mr. Aspinwall told him that he was to see 
 me across, and leave me in safety at Pana 
 ma, his wife objected, because, she said, I 
 would be a Washington fine lady, and make 
 objections to the Indians having no clothes 
 on, and make him a great deal of trouble 
 altogether, and he had better ask Mr. As 
 pinwall to have some one else do this ; but 
 after Mr. Aspinwall introduced him to me 
 at his house, the captain, as he told me 
 afterwards, told his wife he would take 
 care of me ; " that I was not a fine lady at 
 all ; that I was a poor thin pale woman, 
 and not a bit of a fine lady ; that he would 
 see me through. And she agreed to it." 
 
 While the sun was still bright we made 
 our landing. One needs to realize it in the 
 tropics to know how true is the line, 
 
 " Dovm dropped the sun, up rose the moon ;" 
 
 and with the dropping of the sun, rose not 
 only the moon, but the discordant noises of 
 night in the tropical forests ; a hideous, con 
 fusing rush of sound without, which made 
 more comfortable the pleasant interior of 
 
48 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 our tent, with its canvas floor and walls, 
 lit up by the great fire outside, which was 
 our protection not only against wild ani 
 mals, but the deadly dews, which were so 
 heavy that they had obliged the further 
 protection of a fly tent. Persons sleeping 
 on shore even one night forfeited their life- 
 insurance. Within, it was ready for us with 
 all the comforts the " company " could pro 
 vide, and our clean linen cots were very wel 
 come after the fatigue of the day, with all 
 its excitement and new ideas. Among all 
 the passengers there was but one other lady. 
 I invited her to go with me; I could not 
 leave her to meet all the exposures and risks, 
 when I had such care taken of me. I am 
 sorry to say that I was also obliged to have 
 with me my " reliable maid." The captain 
 had treated her " man-of-war" fashion, and 
 put her under lock and key w r hile w r e were 
 on the steamship, and intended taking her 
 back to New York ; but she refused to go. 
 She claimed not only her rights as an Amer 
 ican citizen to travel where she pleased, but 
 to say what she pleased, and created a sort 
 of public opinion for herself among the steer- 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 49 
 
 age passengers, who, hearing only her side 
 of the story, looked upon her as an ill-used 
 woman, and it w r as thought best that I 
 should at least take her as far as Panama. 
 She too had the benefit of all this friendly 
 and delicate care. 
 
 Each camping-place was provided for in 
 the same way, always one or two of the army 
 officers connected with the survey that was 
 being made for the railroad were there to see 
 that everything was right, and to have the 
 pleasure of home talk with a lady. It took 
 a long time to make these thirty miles of 
 river travel, for we were only poled along 
 against the stiff current of this mountain 
 river. Though we made but a few miles 
 each day, they were full of novelty and in 
 terest. Sometimes for nearly a mile we 
 would go along gently ; the men could use 
 oars, and we \vould be sometimes out in the 
 stream, sometimes close to the bank under 
 the overarching branches of trees, bent into 
 the water, and so matted by masses of flower 
 ing creepers that we seemed at times to glide 
 along an aisle of flowers through a great con 
 servatory. There I first saw the white and 
 4 
 
50 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 scarlet varieties of the passion-flower, and 
 many flowers, both fragrant and brilliant, 
 for which I know no name. Then we would 
 have to put out into the stream from under 
 this shade, and the sun was hot. At times 
 we would have to get out while the men 
 would be busy with their long knives clear 
 ing a little pathway for us through the 
 dense growth, where some point put out in 
 such a shallow that we could not get the 
 boat round it. We hardly felt the heat more 
 than in our own hot weather; but the effects 
 of the sun were very different upon white 
 people. The Indians and Jamaica negroes, 
 of whom our crew was composed, tumbled 
 from the boat into the water, giving it a 
 shove, and leaping back, as much at home 
 in the water as porpoises. We were near 
 to the close of the last day s journey, with 
 in an hour of Gorgona, when my brother-in- 
 law, being young and strong and a Ken- 
 tuckian, in his impatience at the delay on 
 one of those sand spits, jumped into the 
 water and dragged the boat, in spite of the 
 men, who told him that it would kill him. 
 We did get off sooner than usual through 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 51 
 
 his help, and he was very triumphant about 
 it, when suddenly his eyes rolled back in 
 his head and he fell prostrate from sun 
 stroke just as we reached Gorgona; and 
 throughout that whole night the physician 
 with the engineering corps was doubtful 
 if he could live. 
 
 I will say here that this deprived me of 
 his care, for the illness that followed was 
 such that he was taken back in the next 
 steamer to the United States, as he could 
 not recover in a hot climate. His illness 
 kept us at Gorgona some days, the officers 
 of the engineering corps all begging me to 
 return to the United States, telling me that 
 I had no idea of what I was to go through. 
 In fact, at each step of my journey I was 
 told, like the young man in " Excelsior," 
 that the thing was impossible ; and quite 
 secretly to myself I said so too when I 
 began to see what the emigrants suffered. 
 There were hundreds of people camped out 
 on the hill-slopes at Gorgona in apologies 
 for tents, waiting for a certainty of leaving 
 Panama, from which as yet there was no 
 transportation. There were many women, 
 
52 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 some with babies, among these ; they were 
 in a hot, unhealthy climate, and the uncer 
 tainty of everything was making them ill : 
 loss of hope brings loss of strength : they 
 were living on salt provisions brought from 
 home with them, which were not fit for such 
 a climate, and already many had died. 
 
 Some pleasant English people, returning 
 from South America, were, like myself, guests 
 at the headquarters of the engineer corps. 
 The alcalde of the village invited us all to 
 a breakfast, where I had a caution given 
 me just in time to prevent my showing my 
 horror at the chief dish, a baked monkey, 
 which looked like a little child that had 
 been burned to death. The iguana, or 
 large lizard, of which we had seen so 
 many along the river, was also a chief dish. 
 This is held to be very delicate, and its 
 eggs are esteemed as much as certain eggs 
 are among us. The alcalde s house was a 
 thatched roof on poles, with wattled sides, 
 like a magnified vegetable crate. Un 
 bleached sheeting had been tacked over 
 this, in our honor, and the wall further 
 adorned by four colored lithographs. There 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 53 
 
 were the " Three Marys," and although mere 
 daubs, had at least the garments and attri 
 butes of their subjects. The fourth was a 
 black - haired, red -cheeked, staring young 
 woman in a flaming red dress and ermine 
 tippet, and a pink rose in her hand, under 
 
 al! MAKY, 
 
 WIFE OF JAMES K. POLK, 
 President of the United States. 
 
 This, he evidently thought, was the Mary 
 of our worship. When we went back, Mrs. 
 
 W said, " We will have our breakfast 
 
 now," and had her own tea-pot and tea 
 brought out. When she found that I was 
 too young a traveller to know the necessi 
 ty of carrying these with me, she gave me 
 -hers, with a warning, which I have heeded 
 to my great comfort, never to separate from 
 my own tea equipage again. 
 
 The distance from Gorgona to Panama 
 was about twenty-one miles. It was dis 
 tance, not a road ; there was only a mule 
 track rather a trough than track in most 
 places, and mule staircases with occasional 
 steps of at least four feet, and only wide 
 
54 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 enough for a single animal the same trail 
 that had been followed since the early day 
 of Spanish conquest; and this trail followed 
 the face of the country as it presented it 
 selfstraight up the sides of the steepest 
 heights to the summit, then straight down 
 them again to the base. No bridges across 
 the rapid streams. These had to be forded 
 by the mules, or, when narrow, the mule 
 would gather his legs under him and leap 
 it. If one could sit him, so much the bet 
 ter ; if not, one fell into the water ; and in 
 this way many emigrants got broken bones, 
 and many more bruises and thorough wet 
 tings. There was no system about the 
 baggage ; people generally had taken the 
 largest trunk they could find, because the 
 journey was to be a long one; there was 
 no provision for taking these across other 
 than by hand ; and when the trunk was 
 absolutely too large, mules and cows were 
 pressed into the service. My invaluable 
 Captain Tucker had made all arrangements 
 for me, and I knew nothing of these trou 
 bles on my own behalf, but even the civil 
 ized "baggage-smashing" of our railroads 
 
A YEAH OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 55 
 
 was nothing compared to the damage done 
 in that Isthmus transfer. The slender In 
 dians bending under the weight of a trunk 
 carried between them on poles, and the 
 thin, ill-fed little mules which almost dis 
 appeared under the load of trunks, valises, 
 and bags, both got rid of their load when 
 tired of it. There were very narrow de 
 files worn through the rock where we could 
 only go in single file, and even the men sat 
 sidewise, because there was not room to sit 
 as usual. At one of these we came upon a 
 cow loaded with trunks and bags. She 
 was measuring her wide horns against the 
 narrow entrance of the defile, as her load 
 prevented her twisting through. There we 
 had to wait until some solution of the dif 
 ficulty was found, which she reached by 
 rubbing oif all her load, leaving us the 
 debris of the broken trunks and smashed 
 baggage to climb over. We had two days 
 of this before reaching Panama. 
 
 A fine mule is really a delightful animal 
 to ride, especially in a mountain country ; 
 but these very small, badly fed, ungroomed, 
 wretched little creatures that we had were 
 
56 A TEAK OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 full of viciousness, and they resented the 
 unusual work required of them. I had 
 been, as usual, provided with the best a 
 fine mule belonging to the " company ; * 
 and Captain Tucker was exultant that I 
 was neither ill nor tired, nor in any way 
 broken down by the unusualness of the 
 whole thing, and repeated his constant ex 
 pression, "I told my wife you were not a 
 bit of a fine lady." He judged, as we all 
 judge, by appearances. As there were no 
 complaints or tears or visible breakdown, 
 he gave me credit for high courage, while 
 the fact was that the whole thing was so 
 like a nightmare that one took it as a bad 
 dream in helpless silence. The nights 
 were odious with their dank mists and 
 noises ; but there was compensation in the 
 sunrise, when from a mountain - top you 
 looked down into an undulating sea of 
 magnificent unknown blooms, sending up 
 clouds of perfume into the freshness of the 
 morning; and thus from the last of the 
 peaks we saw, as Balboa had seen before 
 us, the Pacific at our feet. There I felt in 
 connection with home, for Balboa and Pi- 
 
A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 57 
 
 zarro meant also Prescott s history of the 
 conquest, and family readings and discus 
 sions in a time that seemed so far back 
 now, for it lay before the date which should 
 hereafter mark all things before and after 
 leaving home. Panama, too, was the first 
 walled city I had ever seen ; and its land 
 gate and water gate, and its old cathedral, 
 with the roof and spire inlaid with moth 
 er-of-pearl, all made me feel that I had 
 come to a foreign country. 
 
 My stay at Panama was not all one-sided ; 
 it had its very pleasant aspects. General 
 Herran s letters made his family accept me 
 as one of themselves. One of them, an 
 elderly lady, a widow, made me come to 
 her house and remain with her during my 
 whole stay ; there, with her daughters and 
 her nice old servants,! had none of the for- 
 lornness which belongs to being in a hotel, 
 *and quickly slipped into a routine very 
 much like my ordinary life, only with very 
 different scenery and actors. I learned the 
 reality of Spanish hospitality, and that " La 
 casa y todo que tiene es a su disposicion " 
 is not merely a phrase. 
 
58 A YEAB OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 Many of the young people had been edu 
 cated in London and Paris, but there was 
 no want of topics in common, and of inter 
 est, even with those who had never left 
 their country. 
 
 I had plenty of books with me ; there were 
 interminable letters to be written home, vis 
 its to receive and visits to return ; and de 
 lightful walks on the ramparts in the cool of 
 the day just before sundown, often ending in 
 going to dine or have an evening of music 
 with the ladies of native or foreign consular 
 families, who also had their exercise there. 
 
 When I was in Paris in 1852, I thought 
 I recognized in a carriage that passed me 
 in the Bois de Boulogne a beautiful face 
 with those eyelids the Spanish call durmidi- 
 dos, a peculiarity I had first seen in one of the 
 most beautiful girls in the Hurtado family. 
 The Empress had those eyelids, and as she 
 was then in the first blaze of her new dis 
 tinction, Spanish beauty was in fashion. 
 It was among her beauties commented on 
 and praised. This expression, durmididos, 
 or sleepy eyelids, is a characterization given 
 to the long, heavily fringed, slowly moving 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 59 
 
 eyelid, where the eye is more open at the in 
 side than at the outer corner, and where the 
 eyelid descends with a sweep, giving that 
 look that we see in a child when it is strug 
 gling against sleep. 
 
 I ventured a bow, which was quickly re 
 turned, and we drew up beside each other 
 and renewed acquaintance. I was so pleased 
 to find I could be of any service to them in 
 Paris, helping to decide on a school for the 
 young girls, and in every way I could think 
 of taking from them in turn the sense of 
 being far from home. 
 
 On Sundays we had the service of our 
 own church. Mr. Aspinwall had looked to 
 the starting of the Episcopal Church in 
 California, and sent out the Kev. Mr. Minor 
 to plant it. It was liberal and kind of some 
 Catholic Panama ladies to give the use of 
 their large rooms for a Protestant service. 
 They not only did this, but every Sunday 
 we found the room arranged with as many 
 seats as it could contain placed in aisles, a 
 temporary altar made by a table covered 
 with the finest linen and decorated with 
 flowers, while they themselves, although 
 
60 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 they could not join our service, stayed just 
 without the door, and made us feel welcome 
 in that way. Some passengers had a me- 
 lodeon, and not a bad improvised choir 
 chanted the responses. It was a sincerely 
 religious gathering, and I recall no other 
 service like it for simple, genuine impres- 
 siveness. 
 
 The best rooms in that climate are al 
 ways on the upper floor, their only win 
 dows being as large as our barn doors, 
 which, in this room, when slid aside, gave 
 us a broad view over the bay. Mr. Minor, 
 in his orthodox robes, at the flower-deco 
 rated table, the melodeon with its little 
 choir around it on one side, the space at the 
 other side remaining open for the ladies of 
 the house who were in the doorway of an ad 
 joining room, where they, with their idea of 
 respect, sat in full evening dress satin slip 
 pers, fan, lace mantillas, and flowers in the 
 hair everything in the old Spanish style ; 
 the few American ladies in the front row of 
 chairs in their morning suits and bonnets, 
 while the rest of the room was crowded with 
 men in every variety of dress and want of 
 
A YEAR, OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 61 
 
 clress. No one had anticipated such deten 
 tion, and the small outfit intended for rapid 
 travel was pretty much used up, while at 
 that time there were no means of replacing 
 it ; red-flannel shirts and corduroy clothes 
 seemed to be the only thing to be had in 
 Panama, and so made a picturesque though 
 uncomfortable wear for the tropics. 
 
 Some observances of the Catholic Church, 
 of which I had only read, I saw here. The 
 house where I was staying was on the great 
 square where the cathedral and custom 
 house and other large buildings are ; my 
 rooms were about twenty feet above the 
 ground, one a corner room ; the broad cov 
 ered balcony that ran around both sides 
 gave me a look out on the whole active life 
 of Panama. Sometimes it was a church pro 
 cession to the ramparts to bless the waters 
 and pray for a favorable season ; very pict 
 uresque from the brilliant awnings carried 
 over the heads of the officiating priests, in 
 their splendid lace robes over the red un 
 der-dress, and followed by a long array of 
 ladies in the old Spanish costume lace 
 mantillas on the head, bright silk and satin 
 
C2 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 gowns, and satin slippers, all carrying flow 
 ers to be cast in the water ; they in turn 
 followed by gentlemen in full European 
 evening dress ; and then a long crowd of 
 Indians and women, looking like pictures 
 because of their very odd and scanty gar 
 ments ; these would have not only the mu 
 sic of the church service, as it was chanted 
 by the priests and taken up by the people, 
 but at the end of the procession nearly ev 
 ery man had a rude form of guitar on which 
 he played, and sang, while women danced 
 along at the end of the procession, remind 
 ing one of Miriam s dancing in the early 
 Jewish ceremonials. 
 
 On Good-Friday the search for the body 
 of the Saviour made another very striking 
 church occasion ; the usual persons were in 
 the formal procession, led by priests, but 
 they were in funeral vestments, the ladies 
 all in the deepest mourning, with black 
 veils over their heads, and every one carry 
 ing a lighted candle. 
 
 Often and often the Kev. Mr. Minor, our 
 Episcopal clergyman, with white robes and 
 bared head, followed a solitary rough coffin, 
 
A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 63 
 
 attended by a few men in red-flannel shirts, 
 making their way to the temporary burial- 
 place just beyond the land gate, where the 
 graves were growing thick. Just by was 
 the entrance to the calaboose. The soldiers 
 on guard, who had muskets, and hats with 
 feathers, but no shoes, whiled away their 
 time by fighting chickens. I became, in 
 spite of myself, expert in judging these; 
 there was a constant bringing in and com 
 paring ; it was the high exchange for fight 
 ing-cocks. Those, and a shrivelled little 
 man who carried on his business as jeweller 
 in the open air, just as in the Arabian Nights, 
 a bench and stool his only shop, I saw all 
 the time. My Panama Tiffany s best effort 
 was the making of filigree crosses with the 
 imperfect Panama pearls interwoven, for 
 which I became one of his customers. 
 
 One morning I heard a voice of lament 
 ing, a voice of real sorrow. Looking down, 
 I saw walking to and fro in the shade be 
 neath my balcony, a young Indian man, 
 carrying a child of about three years old, 
 both of them with the least possible cloth 
 ing on country Indians, evidently. The 
 
64 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 face of the child shocked me, and I called 
 to the man that it was very ill ; to bring it 
 in and let us do something for it. He in 
 terrupted his wailing to say, " No, no ; ya 
 se murio " (" It is dying now "). He had 
 been with it to the Cathedral near by. 
 Candelaria, one of the servants of the house, 
 a quick, sympathetic Spanish Indian, ran 
 down to the man at my asking, and brought 
 them in and cared for them ; but the child 
 was really in the agonies of death, and only 
 lived a little while. 
 
 The next morning the tinkle of the little 
 bell announcing that the Host was passing 
 through the streets drew me to the balco 
 ny. I saw for the first time, in action, the 
 theory that the death of an infant is a cause 
 for thankfulness. People often say this 
 with us ; it is the religious belief of the 
 Catholic Church, and here, where the peo 
 ple were simple and acted their belief, it 
 was being carried into practice. It was an 
 Indian funeral, and on a very humble scale. 
 The priest led the way, as usual, preceded 
 by the Host, chanting a service for the dead, 
 but with a quick, glad intonation, which 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 65 
 
 was taken up by the Indian women follow 
 ing. The little child, robed in white, with 
 ruffles and lace and ribbons and wreaths of 
 flowers, lay on an open bier carried by men 
 singing loudly and cheerfully. Next the 
 child Avas its father, now dressed out in a 
 shirt and pantaloons, with a haggard face, 
 and wistful eyes fixed upon his child, but 
 singing also. Behind them a long crowd 
 of women in their holiday dresses ; violins 
 and guitars -were playing cheerful, quick 
 music, and they followed them dancing. 
 But for the dead child one would not have 
 known that it was not a marriage proces 
 sion. When we realize our utter helpless 
 ness to shield those we love from the 
 chances of life, cajrwe say that these peo 
 ple are wrong ? 
 
 This was April of 1849, and only one 
 steamship had preceded ours. Its passen 
 gers had been taken up the coast to San 
 Francisco on the California, the first of the 
 line sent round the Horn ; she was to have 
 returned and been at Panama to connect 
 with us. A second steamship, the Panama, 
 
GO A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 had also left New York on her way round, 
 but was not to reach Panama until a month 
 later. It could only be conjectured why 
 the California did not return, and it was 
 supposed, as was afterwards proved, that all 
 her crew had, deserted to go to the mines, 
 and no men could be induced to take their 
 places. The madness of the gold fever was 
 upon everybody up there, GO we were de 
 tained in Panama seven weeks before the 
 relief came. Seven weeks of tropical cli 
 mate in the rainy season was hard upon 
 those who had even the best accommoda 
 tion, but simply fatal to those who had only 
 tents and no resources against the climate. 
 Another monthly steamer, and sailing ves 
 sels from all our ports,^rought in acces 
 sions, until there were*everal thousand 
 Americans banked up in Panama, and none 
 of them prepared for this detention. The 
 suffering from it was great, and one of the 
 greatest troubles was that, though the mails 
 continued to arrive, which Would contain 
 not only their family and business news from 
 home, but in many cases money remittances 
 which were very much needed, no one was 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. G7 
 
 authorized to open them, as they were made 
 up for San Francisco. Our consul, who 
 was, of course, a foreigner,. cared more for 
 the technical offence he might give to the 
 government than for the actual good he 
 might do to the Americans. Our people 
 met the emergency in their national way : 
 they called a public meeting, where it was 
 decided that a committee of twelve should 
 be chosen, to be agreed upon by all pres 
 ent; that these twelve persons before all 
 should open the mails.aud distribute them. 
 This committee was selected from among 
 the government officials there the Ameri 
 can commissioners for running a boundary 
 line between Mexico and California, the 
 custom-house officers, officers of high rank 
 in the army, and persons of political and 
 personal distinction well known to all who 
 were there. From among these the com 
 mittee of twelve was made up. 
 
 The newspapers brought over by the 
 steamer passengers gave me my first infor 
 mation of the sufferings of Mr. Fremont s 
 overland party, and with these were rumors 
 still more painful than the reality. I knew 
 
68 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 tli at in those mail-bags were letters from 
 my father giving me the truth, and bring 
 ing such comfort as could be sent through 
 letters, yet for want of them I was left to 
 the horrors of imagination. This, added to 
 the effects of the rainy season, began to 
 make me ill. When the bags were opened, 
 they quickly came to letters with my fa 
 ther s well-known frank upon them, which 
 were as quickly brought to me, and passed 
 up to the balcony on the end of a split sug 
 ar-cane the sugar-cane for my little girl, 
 the letters for me. Then I only thought of 
 my letters ; now I can see in it the intelli 
 gent results of self-government, making our 
 people do the right thing under unusual 
 circumstances. Hundreds were suffering 
 for want of proper food and apcommoda- 
 tions, which they could not have without 
 money, while in these closed bags lay the 
 letters containing their drafts, which could 
 be exchanged by the company s agents or 
 express company ; so they made their laws 
 as they went. 
 
 This was the governing letter brought me 
 by the mails. I do not apologize for giv- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 69 
 
 ing it in full, for it is a necessary " supple 
 ment and complement" of this narrative of 
 personal experience of the impediments to 
 reaching California at that period : 
 
 LETTER FROM COLONEL FREMONT T9 HIS 
 WIFE. 
 
 " TAGS, NEW MEXICO, January 27, 1849. 
 
 " I write to you from the house of our good friend 
 Carson. This morning a cup of chocolate was brought 
 to me while yet in bed. To an overworn, overworked, 
 niuch-fatigned, and starving traveller these little luxu 
 ries of the world offer an interest which in your com 
 fortable home it is not possible for you to conceive. 
 While in the eujoymeut of this luxury, then, I pleased 
 myself iu imagining howgratih ed you would be in pict 
 uring me here in Kit s care, whom you will fancy con 
 stantly occupied and constantly uneasy in endeavoring 
 to make me comfortable. How little could you have 
 dreamed of this while he was enjoying the pleasant 
 hospitality of your father s house ! The furthest thing 
 then from your mind was that he would ever repay it 
 to me here. 
 
 " But I have now the unpleasant task of telling you 
 how I came here. I had much rather write you some 
 rambling letters in unison with the repose in which I 
 feel inclined to indulge, and talk to you about the fut 
 ure, with which I am already busily occupied ; about 
 my arrangements for getting speedily down into the 
 more pleasant climate of the lower Del Norte and rap 
 idly through into California, and my plans when I get 
 there. I have an almost invincible repugnance to go- 
 jug back among scenes where 1 have endured much 
 
70 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 suffering, and for all the incidents and circumstances 
 of which I feel a strong aversion. But as clear infor 
 mation is absolutely necessary to you, and to your fa 
 ther more particularly still, I will give you the story 
 now instead of waiting to tell it to you in California. 
 But I write in the great hope that you will not receive 
 this letter. When it reaches Washington you may be 
 on your way to California. 
 
 " Former letters have made you acquainted with our 
 journey so far as Bent s Fort, and from report you will 
 have heard the circumstances of our departure from 
 the Upper Pneblo of the Arkansas. We left that place 
 about the 25th of November, with upwards of a hun 
 dred good mules, and one hundred and thirty bushels 
 of shelled corn, intended to support our animals across 
 the snow of the high mountains, and down to the low 
 er parts of the Grand River tributaries, where usually 
 the snow forms no obstacle to winter travelling. At 
 the Pneblo I had engaged as a guide an old trapper 
 well known as Bill Williams, and who had spent 
 some twenty-five years of his life in trapping various 
 parts of the Eocky Mountains. The error of our jour 
 ney was committed in engaging this man. He proved 
 never to have in the least known, or entirely to have 
 forgotten, the whole region of country through which 
 we were to pass. We occupied more than half a 
 month in making the journey of a few days, blunder 
 ing a tortuous way through deep snow, which already 
 began to choke up the passes, for which we were 
 obliged to waste time in searching. About the llth 
 of December we found ourselves at the north of the 
 Del Norte Canon, where that river issues from the St. 
 John s Mountain, one of the highest, most rugged, and 
 impracticable of all the Rocky Mountain ranges, inac 
 cessible to trappers and hunters even in the summer- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 71 
 
 time. Across the point of this elevated range our 
 guide conducted us, and having still great confidence 
 in his knowledge, we pressed onward, with fatal reso 
 lution. Even along the river-bottoms the snow was 
 already belly-deep for the mules, frequently snowing 
 in the valley and almost constantly in the mountains. 
 The cold was extraordinary ; at the warmest hours of 
 the day (between one and two) the thermometer (Fah 
 renheit) standing in the shade of only a tree trunk at 
 zero ; the day sunshiny, with a moderate breeze. We 
 pressed up towards the summit, the snaw deepening, 
 and in four or five days reached the naked ridges which 
 lie above the timbered country, and which form the 
 dividing grounds between the waters of the Atlantic 
 and Pacih c oceans. Along these naked ridges it storms 
 nearly all winter, and the winds sweep across them 
 with remorseless fury. On our first attempt to cross 
 we encountered a poudrerie, and were driven back, 
 having some ten or twelve men variously frozen face, 
 hands, or feet. The guide became nigh being frozen 
 to death here, and dead mules were already lying about 
 the fires. Meantime it snowed steadily. The next 
 day we made mauls, and, beating a road or trench 
 through the snow, crossed the crest in defiance of the 
 poudrerie, and encamped immediately below in the 
 edge of the timber. The trail showed as if a defeated 
 party had passed by pack-saddles and packs, scatter 
 ed articles of clothing, and dead mules strewed along. 
 A continuance of stormy weather paralyzed all move 
 ment. We were encamped somewhere about 12,000 
 feet above the sea. Westward the country was buried 
 in deep snow. It was impossible to advance, and to 
 turn back was equally impracticable. We were over 
 taken by sudden and inevitable ruin. It so happened 
 that the only places where any grass could be had 
 
72 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 were the extreme summits of the ridges, where the 
 sweeping winds kept the rocky ground bare, and the 
 snow could not lie. Below these, animals could not 
 get about, the snow being deep enough to bury them. 
 Here, therefore, in the full violence of the storms, we 
 were obliged to keep our animals. They could not 
 be moved either way. It was instantly apparent that 
 we should lose every animal. 
 
 "I determined to recross the mountain more towards 
 the open country, and haul or pack the baggage (by 
 men) down to the Del Norte. With great labor the 
 baggage was transported across the crest to the head 
 springs of a little stream leading to the main river. 
 A few days were sufficient to destroy our fine baud of 
 mules. They generally kept huddled together, and as 
 they froze, one would be seen to tumble clown, and 
 the snow would cover him ; sometimes they would 
 break off and rush down towards the timber until they 
 were stopped by the deep snow, where they were soon 
 hidden by the poudrerie. The courage of the men fail 
 ed fast ; in fact, I have never seen men so soon discour 
 aged by misfortune as we were on this occasion ; but, 
 as you know, the party was not constituted like the 
 farmer ones. But among those who deserve to be hon 
 orably mentioned, and who behaved like what they 
 were men of the old exploring party were Godey, 
 King, and Taplin ; and first of all Godey. In this sit 
 uation I determined to send in a party to the Spanish 
 settlements of New Mexico for provisions and mules 
 to transport our baggage to Taos. With economy, 
 and after we should leave the mules, we had not two 
 weeks provisions in the camp. These consisted of a 
 store which I had reserved for a hard day macaroni 
 and bacon. From among the volunteers I chose 
 King, Brackeuridge, Creutzfeldt, and the guide Will- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 73 
 
 iams ; the party under the command of King. In case 
 of the least delay at the settlements, he was to send 
 me an express. In the meantime, we were to occupy 
 ourselves in removing the baggage and equipage down 
 to the Del Norte, which we reached with our baggage 
 in a few days after their departure (which was the day 
 after Christmas). Like many a Christmas for years 
 back, mine was spent on the summit of a wintry 
 mountain, my heart filled with gloomy and anxious 
 thoughts, with none of the merry faces and pleasant 
 luxuries that belong to that happy time. You may be 
 sure we contrasted much this with the last at Wash 
 ington, and speculated much on your doings, and made 
 many warm wishes for your happiness. Could you 
 have looked into Agrippa s glass for a few moments 
 only! You remember the volumes of Blackstoue 
 which I took from your father s library when we were 
 overlooking it at our friend Brant s ? They made my 
 Christmas amusements. I read them to pass the heavy 
 time and forget what was around me. Certainly you 
 may suppose that my first law lessons will be well re 
 membered. Day after day passed by, and no news 
 from our express party. Snow continued to fall al 
 most incessantly on the mountain. The spirits of the 
 camp grew lower. Proue laid down in the trail and 
 froze to death. In a sunshiny day, and having with 
 him means to make a fire, he threw his blankets down 
 in the trail and lay there till he froze to death. Aft 
 er sixteen days had elapsed from King s departure, I 
 became so uneasy at the delay that I decided to wait 
 no longer. I was aware that our troops had been en 
 gaged in hostilities with the Spanish Utahs and Apa 
 ches, who range in the North River Valley, and became 
 fearful that they (King s party) had been cut off by 
 these Indians. I could imagine no other accident. 
 
74 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 Leaving the camp employed with the baggage and in 
 charge of Mr. Vincenthaler, I started down the river 
 with a small party, consisting of Godey (with his young 
 nephew), Mr. Preuse, and Sauudcrs. We carried our 
 arms arid provisions for two or three days. In the 
 camp the messes had provisions for two or three meals, 
 more or less, and about live pounds of sugar to each 
 man. Failing to meet King, my intention was to 
 make the lied River settlement, about twenty-five 
 miles north of Taos, and send back the speediest re 
 lief possible. My instructions to the camp were that 
 if they did not hear from me in a stated time, they 
 were to follow down the Del Norte. 
 
 "On the second day after leaving camp we came 
 upon a fresh trail of Indians two lodges, with a con 
 siderable number of animals. This did not lessen our 
 uneasiness for our people. As their trail when we met 
 it turned and went down the river, we followed it. Ou 
 the fifth day we surprised an Indian on the ice of the 
 river. He proved to be a Utah, sou of a Grand River 
 chief we had formerly known, and behaved to ns in a 
 friendly manner. We encamped near them at night. 
 By a present of a rifle, my two blankets, and other 
 promised rewards when we should get in, I prevailed 
 upon this Indian to go with us as a guide to the Red 
 River settlement, and take with him four of his horses, 
 principally to carry our little baggage. These were 
 wretchedly poor, and could get along only in a very 
 slow walk. On that day (the sixth) we left the lodges 
 late, and travel led only some six or seven miles. About 
 punset we discovered a little smoke in a grove of tim 
 ber off from the river, and thinking perhaps it might 
 be our express party on its return, we went to see. 
 This was the twenty-second day since they had left us, 
 and the sixth since we had left the camp. We found 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 75 
 
 them three of them, Crentzfeldt, Brackenridge, and 
 Williams the most miserable objects I have ever seen. 
 1 did not recognize Creutzfeldt s features when Brack- 
 eurklge brought him up to me and mentioned his 
 name. They had been starving. King had starved to 
 death a few days before. Eis remains were some six 
 or eight miles above, near the river. By aid of the 
 horses, we carried these three men with us to Red Riv 
 er settlement, which, we reached (January 20) ou the 
 tenth evening after leaving our camp in the mountains, 
 having travelled through snow and on foot 1GO mile?. 
 I look upon the anxiety which induced me to set out 
 from the camp as an inspiration. Had I remained 
 there waiting the party which had been sent in, every 
 man of us would probably have perished. 
 
 " The morning after reaching the Red River town, 
 Godey and myself rode on to the Rio Hondo and Taos 
 in search of animals and supplies, and on the second 
 evening after that on which we had reached Red Riv 
 er, Godey had returned to that place with about thirty 
 animals, provisions, and four Mexicans, with which 
 he set out for the camp on the following morning. 
 On the road he received eight or ten others, which 
 were turned over to him by the orders of Major Bea?e, 
 the commanding officer of this northern district of 
 New Mexico. I expect that Godey will reach this 
 place with the party on Wednesday evening, the 31st. 
 From Major Beale I received the offer of every aid in 
 his power, and such actual assistance as he was able 
 to render. Some horses which he had just recovered 
 from the Utahs were loaned to me, and he supplied 
 me from the commissary s department with provisions 
 which I could have had nowhere else. I find myself 
 in the midst of friends. With Carson is living Owens, 
 and Maxwell is at his father-in-law s, doing a very 
 
76 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 prosperous business as a merchant and contractor for 
 the troops. 
 
 " Evening. 
 
 "Mr. St. Train and Aubrey, who have just arrived 
 from Santa Fe, called to see me. I had the pleasure 
 to learn that Mr. St. Vrain sets out from Santa Fe on 
 the 15th of February for St. Louis, so that by him I 
 have an early and certain opportunity of sending you 
 my letters. Beale left Santa F6 on his journey to Cal 
 ifornia on the 9th of this month. He probably carried 
 011 with him any letters which might have been at 
 Santa F6 for me. I shall probably reach California 
 with him or shortly after him. Say to your father that 
 these are my plans for the future. 
 
 "At the beginning of February (about Saturday) I 
 shall set out for California, taking the southern route 
 by the Rio Abajo, the Paso del Norte, and the south 
 side of the Gila, entering California at the Agua Ca- 
 liente, thence to Los Angeles, and immediately north. 
 I shall break up my party here, and take with me only 
 a few men. The survey has been uninterrupted up 
 to this point, and I shall carry it on consecutively. 
 As soon as possible after reaching California I wi.l go 
 on with the survey of the coast and coast country. 
 Your father knows that this is an object of great de- 
 pire with me, and I trust it is not too much to hope 
 that he may obtain the countenance and aid of the 
 President (whoever he may be) in carrying it on ef 
 fectually and rapidly to completion. For this I hope 
 earnestly. I shall then be enabled to draw up a map 
 and report on the whole country, agreeably to our 
 previous anticipations. All my other plans remain 
 entirely unaltered. I shall take immediate steps to 
 make ourselves a good borne in California, and to 
 have a place ready for your reception, which I autici- 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 77 
 
 pate for April. My hopes and wishes are more strong 
 ly than ever turned that way. 
 
 " Monday, 29. 
 
 " My letter now assumes a journal form. No news 
 yet from the party. A great deal of falling weather ; 
 rain and sleet here, and snow in the mountains. This 
 is to be considered a poor country mountainous, with 
 severe winters and but little arable laud. To the Unit 
 ed States it seems to me to offer little other value than 
 the right of way. It is throughout infested with In 
 dians, with whom, in the course of the present year, 
 the United States will be at war, as well as in the 
 Oregon Territory. To hold this country will occa 
 sion the government great expense, and "certainly one 
 can see no source of profit or advantage :u it. An ad 
 ditional regiment will be required for special service 
 here. 
 
 "Mr. St. Vrain dined with us to-day. Owens goes 
 to Missouri in April to get married, and thence by wa 
 ter to California. Carson is very anxious to go there 
 with me now, and afterwards remove his family thith 
 er, but he cannot decide to break off from Maxwell 
 and family connection!?. 
 
 "I am anxiously waiting to hear from my party, in 
 much uncertainty as to their fate. My presence kept 
 them together and quiet, my absence may have had a 
 bad effect. When we overtook King s starving party, 
 Brackenridge said that he would rather have seen 
 me than his father. He felt himself safe. 
 
 " TAOS, NEW MEXICO, February 6, 1849. 
 
 "After a long delay, which had wearied me to n 
 point of resolving to set out again myself, tidings 
 have at last reached me from my ill-fated party. Mr. 
 Haler came iu last night, having the night before 
 
78 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 reached the Red Eiver settlement, with some three 
 or four others. Including Mr. King and Proue, we 
 have lost eleven of our party. Occurrences after I left 
 them are briefly these, so far as they are within Haler s 
 knowledge. I say briefly, because DOW I am unwill 
 ing to force myself to dwell upon particulars. I wish 
 for a time to shut out these things from my mind, to 
 leave this country, and all thoughts and all things 
 connected with recent events, which have been so sig 
 nally disastrous as absolutely to astonish me with a 
 persistence of misfortune, which no precaution has 
 been adequate on my part to avert. 
 
 " You will remember that I had left the camp with 
 occupation sufficient to employ them for three or four 
 days, after which they were to follow me down the 
 river. Within that time I had expected the relief 
 from King, if it was to come at all. 
 
 " They remained where I had left them seven days, 
 and then started down the river. Manuel you will 
 remember Manuel, the Cosumne Indian gave way to 
 a feeling of despair after they had travelled about two 
 miles, begged Haler to shoot him, and then turned 
 and made his way back to the camp, intending to die 
 there, as he doubtless soon did. They followed our 
 trail down the river twenty-two men they were iu 
 all. About ten miles below the camp, Wise gave out, 
 threw away his gun and blanket, and a few hundred 
 yards farther fell over into the snow and died. Two 
 Indian boys young men, countrymen of Manuel 
 were behind. They rolled up Wise in his blanket, 
 and buried him in the snow on the river-bank. No 
 more died that day none the next. Carver raved 
 during the night, his imagination wholly occupied 
 with images of many things which he fancied himself 
 eating. In the morning he wandered off from the 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 79 
 
 party, and probably soon died. They did not see 
 him again. Sorel on this day gave out, and laid dov:n 
 to die. They built him a fire, and Morin, who was iu 
 a dying condition, and snow-blind, remained. These 
 two did not probably last till the next morning. That 
 evening, I think, Ilubbard killed a deer. They trav 
 elled on, getting here and there a grouse, but proba 
 bly nothing else, the snow having frightened off the 
 game. Things were desperate, and brought Haler to 
 the determination of breaking up the party in order 
 to prevent them from living upon each other. lie 
 told them that he had done all he could for them, 
 that they had no other hope remaining than the ex 
 pected relief, and that their best plan was to scatte;- 
 and make the best of their way in small parties down 
 the river. That, for his part, if he was to be eaten, he 
 would, at all events, be found travelling when he did 
 die. They accordingly separated. With Mr. Haler 
 continued five others and the two Indian boys. Roh- 
 rer now became very despondent. Haler encouraged 
 him by recalling to mind his family, and urged him to 
 hold out a little longer. On this day he fell behind, 
 but promised to overtake them at evening. Haler, 
 Scott, Ilubbard, and Martin agreed that if any one of 
 them should give out, the others were not to wait for 
 him to die, but build a fire for him, and push on. At 
 night Kern s mess encamped a few hundred yards 
 from Haler s, with the intention, according to Taplin, 
 to remain where they were until the relief should 
 come, and, in the meantime, to live upon those who 
 had died, and upon the weaker ones as they should 
 die. With the three Kerns were Cathcart, Andrews, 
 M Kie, Stepperfeldt, and Taplin. 
 
 "Ferguson and Beadle had remained together be 
 hind. In the evening Kohrcr came up and remained 
 
80 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 with Kern s mess. Mr. Haler learned afterwards from 
 that mess that Rohrer and Andrews wandered off the 
 next clay and died. They say they saw their bodies. 
 In the morning Ilaler s party continued ou. After a 
 few hours Hubbard gave out. They built him a fire, 
 gathered him some wood, and left him, without, as 
 Haler says, turning their heads to look at him as they 
 went off. About two miles farther, Scott you re 
 member Scott, who used to shoot birds for you at the 
 frontier gave out. They did the same for him as for 
 Hubbard, and continued on. In the afternoon the In 
 dian boys went ahead, and before nightfall met Godey 
 with the relief. Haler heard and knew the guns 
 which he fired for him at night, and, starting early in 
 the morning, soon met him. 1 hear that they all 
 cried together like children. Ilaler turned back with 
 Godey, and went with him to where they had left 
 Scott. He was still alive, and was saved. Hubbard 
 was dead still warm. From Kern s mess they learned 
 the death of Andrews and Rohrer, and a little above 
 met Ferguson, who told them that Beadle had died 
 the night before. 
 
 ."Godey continued on with a few New Mexicans 
 and pack-mules to bring down the baggage from the 
 camp. Haler, with Martin and Bacon, on foot, and 
 bringing Scott on horseback, have first arrived at the 
 Red River settlement. Provisions and horses for 
 them to ride were left with the others, who preferred 
 to rest on the river until Godey came back. At the 
 latest, they should all have reached Red River settle 
 ment last night, and ought all to be here this evening. 
 When Godey arrives, I shall know from him all the 
 circumstances sufficiently in detail to enable me to 
 understand clearly everything. But it will not be 
 necessary to tell you anything further. It has been 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 81 
 
 sufficient pain for you to read what I have already 
 written. 
 
 "As I told you, I shall break up my party here. I 
 have engaged n Spaniard to furnish mules to take my 
 little party, with our baggage, as far down the Del 
 Norte as Albuquerque. To-morrow a friend sets out 
 to purchase me a few mules, with which he is to meet 
 me at Albuquerque, and thence I continue the journey 
 on my own animals. My road will take me down the 
 Del Norte about 160 miles below Albuquerque, and 
 then passes between this river and the heads of the 
 Gila to a little Mexican town called, I think, Tusson ; 
 thence to the mouth of the Gila and across the Colo 
 rado, direct to Agua Calieute, into California. I in 
 tend to make the journey rapidly, and about the mid 
 dle of March hope for the great pleasure of hearing 
 from home. I look for a large supply of newspapers 
 and documents, more, perhaps, because these things 
 have a home look about them than on their own ac 
 count. When I think of you all, I feel a warm glow 
 at my heart, which renovates it like a good medicine, 
 and I forget painful feelings in a strong hope for the 
 future. We shall yet enjoy quiet and happiness to 
 getherthese are nearly one and the same to me now. 
 I make frequently pleasant pictures of the happy home 
 we are to have, and oftenest and among the pleasant- 
 est of all I see our library, with its bright fire in the 
 rainy, stormy days, and the large windows looking out 
 upon the sea in the bright weather. I have it all 
 planned in my own mind." 
 
 ******* 
 
 Now friends and strangers both rose to 
 protest against my going any farther; ev 
 ery one was convinced that, after such fa- 
 
82 A YEAB OP AMERICAN TEAVEL. 
 
 tignes and starvation, Mr. Fremont would 
 not succeed in making his way through an 
 unknown country to California, and that I 
 should find no one to meet me when I did 
 reach there. This decided me to go on, 
 for I could not accept that idea. 
 
 The ladies in whose house I was were as 
 kind as possible to me, and fortunately I 
 could speak Spanish with them. All this 
 time there w r as no steamer either from round 
 the Horn or from California, and the only 
 way of leaving the Isthmus was to return 
 to New York, which was insisted upon by 
 friends who thought that I ought not to 
 wait any longer, with such uncertainties 
 of transfer, and the greater uncertainty 
 ahead. It was a forlorn situation. On 
 the yellowed leaf of a " little well-worn 
 book," in faded ink, I see now the words, 
 "Alone. Panama, May, 1849," and the 
 quotation, 
 
 " Ou a narrow strip of land, 
 Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand." 
 
 Mr. Gray, one of the Boundary Commission 
 ers, came to me early one morning with a 
 newspaper containing a long letter from my 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 83 
 
 father regarding the expedition, in which 
 he gave, for the benefit of the friends of 
 those with Mr. Fremont, all that was known 
 positively of the expedition, and the most 
 reasonable and reasoning conjectures as to 
 the safety and results of that which had 
 just started again from New Mexico. 
 About sundown Mr. Gray came back with 
 another newspaper, with still more on the 
 same subject. He found me where he had 
 left me in the morning sitting upon the 
 sofa, with the unopened paper clasped in 
 my hand, my eyes closed, and my forehead 
 purple from congestion of the brain, and 
 entirely unable to understand anything 
 said to me. All the long train of troubled 
 feeling and uncertainties and discomforts, 
 aided by the climate, had culminated in 
 brain-fever. 
 
 Now came all the benefit of being in a 
 private family; Madame Arce* cared for me 
 as though I had been her own child, and 
 so conscientiously that she summoned an 
 American, although her own preference 
 was for her Spanish family physician. His 
 course of treatment was to exclude all out- 
 
84 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 er air, and follow the old Spanish practice 
 of bleeding, and hot water internally and 
 externally. The American physician (at 
 tached to the Boundary Commission) was 
 for iced drinks, cooling applications to the 
 head, currents of fresh air, and blisters. 
 These two, with their contradictory ideas 
 and their inability to understand each 
 other fully, only added to the confusion 
 of my mind, and became part of my de 
 lirium.- My lungs were congested, and it 
 was needed to apply a blister all over the 
 chest. No leeches could be had, and cro- 
 ton-oil, which would have answered the 
 purpose without leaving disfiguring marks, 
 was not to be found anywhere. And here 
 I had another of the kindnesses done me, 
 of which I have had so many before and 
 since, from American men, who deserve 
 fully their reputation for disinterested kind 
 ness and care towards Women. No one ven 
 tured willingly into the sun ; but a gentle 
 man had himself rowed out to ah English 
 man-of-war which lay in the bay, and found 
 in their medicine-chest the croton-oil that 
 was needed. This was no small thing to 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 85 
 
 do. The reef in the harbor at Panama is 
 so far extended that vessels had to lie out 
 about three miles ; the tide rises twenty- 
 five feet, so that not only \vas it a protract 
 ed exposure to the sun, but dangerous from 
 the impetuosity with which the tide came 
 in. 
 
 My brother-in-law all this time remained 
 dangerously ill from the effects of his sun 
 stroke, and as he had to be taken back to 
 the United States, even my new Spanish 
 friends thought I too should return at the 
 same time. I had become well enough to 
 walk as far as the ramparts, which were 
 very near the house. All the Americans 
 came there the hour before sunset, the only 
 cool time of the day. They were an eager, 
 animated set of people when first there, but 
 the failure of the steamers to arrive had 
 told upon every one. They felt, like ship 
 wrecked people, that there was no escape 
 from there ; every sailing vessel that could 
 be chartered had been to carry up the peo 
 ple. Those who had their through tickets 
 still held to the hope that one steamer 
 might come round the Horn if the other 
 
86 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 did not return. The first time I went to 
 the ramparts after my illness the sight of 
 this discouraged set of people almost de 
 cided me to go home, all the more that 
 with the natural kindliness of fellow-coun 
 trymen in a distant place many of them 
 came up, as I sat upon the old brass gun 
 in an embrasure, to tell me how glad they 
 were I had not died, and begged me not to 
 stay there any longer, but to go back. I 
 was spared the necessity of deciding for 
 or against by the simultaneous arrival of 
 the two steamers, one from California, the 
 other from around the Horn, both getting 
 there in the night within an hour of each 
 other ; so that their guns were mistaken 
 for a second fire it was supposed the first 
 steamer had fired again. Every one had 
 been listening for weeks for these guns. 
 It was a splendid moonlight night, about 
 two o clock, and in a few minutes all the 
 Americans had crowded to the ramparts, 
 and the native people were up and talk 
 ing on the streets. All the passengers were 
 landing, but the interest concentrated on 
 those from California. Straightway men 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 87 
 
 forgot all the trials connected with the 
 crossing and the waiting,, for there was the 
 stream of returning gold-diggers, bringing 
 with them the evidence that in the new 
 country was more than justification for all 
 the trials they were going through with to 
 reach there. Of course I was up, dressed, 
 and looking at all this busy throng crowd 
 ing the great square which was in front of 
 our house. I heard my own name, and 
 caught sight of a familiar face and uniform 
 as two gentlemen turned into the entrance 
 below the balcony. One of them was say 
 ing, " Mrs. Fremont here ! Heavens, what 
 a crib for a lady !" The naval officer* was 
 on his way direct to Washington with of 
 ficial statements and gold specimens for 
 warded to the government. Here was the 
 hardest trial for me. This time I was not 
 advised but ordered to go home, and every 
 thing short of force was used to make me 
 return, under their care. I had only a few 
 hours to decide, for at the earliest light 
 thev had to leave to connect with the re- 
 
 Edward F. Beale, late minister to Austria. 
 
88 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 In the chronicle of the conquest of Mexico 
 there is one night of disaster and massacre 
 which Bernal Diaz records under the head 
 tristlsima noche ; I had had many sad nights 
 since leaving home, but after my old friends 
 left I think I could name this my saddest. 
 
 After this I did no more deciding, but 
 let myself go with the current. The Pana 
 ma, having just come round the Horn with 
 but few passengers, and having had for its 
 commander Lieutenant (now Admiral) Por 
 ter, was in admirable condition, and I was 
 put upon her. Her sister steamer was in 
 all the disorder and discomfort resulting 
 from the want of a proper crew and ser 
 vants. Lieutenant Porter left the ship 
 here, and the captain who took charge 
 broke down on the voyage from fever, and 
 died shortly after. There were accommo 
 dations at most for eighty passengers ; we 
 had over four hundred. The ship s stew 
 ard gave us scanty fore, reserving the can 
 ned provisions to sell for his own benefit. 
 For a piece of gold he would sell a little 
 can of vegetables or preserved meat. As 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 89 
 
 usual, I, however, was thoroughly well tak 
 en care of. My cough was incessant and 
 racking, and I saw so many eyes turned to 
 me with pity in them that I left the deck 
 and went to my cabin to be where I would 
 disturb no one. The gentleman in the 
 next state-room became alarmed by the 
 peculiar sound of the cough which he un 
 derstood better than I did, and getting no 
 answer to his knock opened the door and 
 found me, as he feared, with a broken blood 
 vessel. After that I was better off than be 
 fore, for they made me a room on the quar 
 ter-deck with the big flag doubled and 
 thrown over the boom. Everybody con 
 tributed something to make me comfort 
 able : one a folding iron camp-bedstead 
 some, guava jelly some, tea while one of 
 my fellow-passengers gave me from his own 
 private stores delicate nourishing things 
 which brought back my strength, and per 
 sonally superintended their preparation. 
 That this was kindly felt as well as well 
 clone will be understood by all who know 
 him Mr. Samuel Ward. There were sev 
 eral ladies, and one of them, the wife of an 
 
90 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 officer, shared my deck tent. The ship was 
 so crowded that the whole floor of the deck 
 was chalked out into measured spaces allot 
 ted to persons who slept there. My state 
 room was kept merely for a dressing-room, 
 and I let a good quiet woman who was out 
 of money, and whose husband was working 
 his passage lip, sleep there. My " reliable 
 woman " claimed her place in it, but she 
 had to go up in the steerage. I had paid 
 all her expenses in Panama at the hotel, 
 and through to San Francisco, on condi 
 tion that she never came in my sight. The 
 seven w r eeks in Panama had proved that 
 new scenes brought no desire for reforma 
 tion, and by this time there was no popular 
 opinion to sustain her. To dismiss her with 
 a completed record, I will add that one of 
 the great fires in San Francisco in 1851 was 
 traced to her, where she had set fire to her 
 dwelling-house in revenge on Mr. De Lessert 
 for having refused to permit her to remain 
 as his tenant. The Vigilance Committee, as 
 she was a woman, disliked to punish her as 
 they did other criminals ; so she was only 
 sent out of the country. It must have been 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 91 
 
 some comfort to her to know that my house 
 was burned in the fire she had started. 
 
 The first voyage had only made me know 
 the ocean by day, but on this journey up 
 the Pacific I learned to know it by night 
 also. My flag tent on deck first taught me 
 the luxury of sleeping in the open air, a la 
 "belle etoile, truly; and the still greater de 
 light of watching the night through all its 
 phases, and seeing the sun rise from the 
 ocean : it was full compensation for all the 
 discomforts of the voyage. As I have said, 
 the deck was parcelled out into sleeping- 
 places; nearest us were the gentlemen of 
 our more immediate party and acquaint 
 ance. I overheard among these one night 
 a stir and murmuring which took shape to 
 my mind as the announcement of some im 
 pending danger; I caught the sense that 
 the captain would not open his door, that 
 the captain would not answer any one, and 
 then the quick decision to do themselves 
 what was necessary. A new sound was 
 added to that made by the steamer s way 
 through the water a low, busy, grating, 
 whispering sound of waters and I could 
 
02 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 see long broken lines of foamy white, which 
 even my inexperience told me were unusual. 
 Seeing that we were sitting up and listen 
 ing, we were told not to be alarmed, al 
 though we were in sound of the breakers, 
 that there was time yet to work the ship 
 off, and that Captain Ringgold had taken 
 command. I was too ignorant to be alarm 
 ed. To me it was only a beautiful new 
 phase of the sea. It was fortunate for us 
 that we had experienced naval officers on 
 board, for the captain remained ill, and they 
 proved a safe dependence. 
 
 As our voyage wore on, the lack of read 
 ing-matter began to be felt ; we had all ex 
 hausted our supply during the long deten 
 tion at Panama before getting on ship 
 board, and there was nothing to be ex 
 changed, for each one had the same thing. 
 Everybody had a Shakespeare and not much 
 besides. Something was said among us 
 one day about this : how people inevitably 
 read the same books, thought the same 
 thoughts, and used the same expressions; 
 how rare it was under the sun to find any 
 thing new or fresh ; whether from want of 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 93 
 
 courage to do our own thinking, or unwill 
 ingness to make the breach in received 
 usages, we continually would follow in 
 grooves laid for us. The first school of 
 whales we met illustrated this. I sent dif 
 ferent gentlemen about the deck to quietly 
 ascertain what the people were writing in 
 their note-books, for every one had produced 
 a little note-book as soon as the whales were 
 seen. I was sure that the greater number 
 would put it, " This morning, for the first 
 time, we met the leviathan of the deep dis 
 porting himself in liis native element," or, 
 " Glorious sight ! huge monsters at play !" 
 I was sure very few would call a whale a 
 whale, and it proved so. It was a morn 
 ing s fun for us to watch the different am 
 bassadors on their missions: they would 
 draw out the unsuspecting writer, saying 
 " there was a fine sight ;" " something to 
 write home about ;" " it was very hard to 
 keep a journal on a monotonous sea-voy 
 age," etc. Then the writer would proudly 
 read out what he had been preparing for 
 home. In almost every case it was the 
 stereotyped sentence. When the returns 
 
94 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 were in, we found " the leviathan " had it 
 by an immense majority ; very few whales. 
 
 For myself, I did not miss books. I was 
 in the languid content of convalescence, 
 and it was enough to lie still and take in 
 so much that was new and, as a German 
 friend of mine puts it, " harmonious" to me. 
 From my flag tent on deck I loved to look 
 out, myself in shadow, to the deep blue of 
 the ocean, stretching far, for, to where it 
 joined with the line of the cloudless blue 
 sky to the calm splendor of the bronze 
 and golden sunset cloucls at that grand mo 
 ment of the sun s setting in the ocean. I 
 had never before seen the stars all through 
 a night. I had not known how close, how 
 animated, they could be. I had never 
 watched the paling of the stars before the 
 coming day, nor that beautiful ripple that, 
 just at sunrise, comes with the first breath 
 of morning. Like nothing else in nature for 
 its suggestion of freshness and new happy 
 life, except the smile that sometimes comes 
 on the face of a sleeping baby about to 
 wake. 
 
 There was no need to keep a journal 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 95 
 
 Everything burned itself in its own image 
 on my mind, and all settled there as part 
 of the endless talks I should have when, 
 returned home, like Sindbad, I should re 
 late my voyages. 
 
 Against all adverse circumstances was 
 the pure air of the ocean coming into my 
 lungs night and day and healing them. 
 By the time we reached San Diego I was 
 fairly well ; but I do not know how it would 
 have been if fresh discouragements had 
 reached me there. At this point I was to 
 learn whether Mr. Fremont had or had not 
 arrived in California. As we dropped 
 anchor, and boats put off to us from the 
 shore, I went below. If I had needed any 
 proof of the universal good feeling and in 
 terest in me, it came now, for I think the 
 whole ship s passengers crowded to my 
 door. "The Colonel has come!" "The 
 Colonel is safe I" " It s all right now, 
 madam !" " The Colonel was in the Ange 
 les three weeks ago," and had gone up 
 overland to meet the steamer, which was 
 overdue. Then their fears and sympathies 
 were openly expressed to me. No one had 
 
96 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 thought it possible that a party so broken 
 down with hardships could force its way 
 in the winter months through the then un 
 known country, and they dreaded the re 
 sult for me. 
 
 The few remaining days of the journey 
 were completely charming. We had come 
 into bracing cool air, which repaired the 
 damage done by the tropics, and every one 
 was eager and confident of success in the 
 now certain gold country. Major Derby 
 (" John Phoenix ") gave way to- his wildest 
 fun and high spirits, and organized a series 
 of tableaux vivants and theatricals that were 
 acted every night on deck in a way that 
 would have made the fortune of a theatrical 
 manager there were many cultivated and 
 charming people among the passengers 
 and altogether life seemed very bright and 
 full of happy possibilities as we entered 
 the Golden Gate.* 
 
 * "Called Chrysopylce, (Golden Gate) on the map, on 
 the same principle that the harbor of Byzantium 
 Constantinople afterwards was called Chrysocerai 
 (Golden Horn). The form of the harbor and its ad 
 vantages for commerce, and that before it became ail 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 97 
 
 We found a bleak and meagre frontispiece 
 to our Book of Fate. A few low houses, and 
 many tents, such as they were, covered the 
 base of some of the wind-swept treeless hills, 
 over which the June fog rolled its chilling 
 mist. Deserted ships of all sorts were 
 swinging with the tide. A crowd of men 
 swarmed about what is now Montgomery 
 Street, then the mud shore of the bay. It 
 was Aladdin s old lamp, however, homely 
 as it seemed, and fortune was there for those 
 who had what my father used to call " a 
 
 entrepot of Eastern commerce, suggested the name to 
 the Greek founders of Byzantium. The form of the 
 bay of San Francisco and its advantages for com 
 merce, Asiatic inclusive, suggest the name which is 
 given to this entrance." 
 
 This is a foot-note occurring in " Senate Document, 
 Miscellaneous, No. 148, Thirtieth Congress, First Ses 
 sion." A resolution dated " June 5, 1848," ordered the 
 printing of this document, which is called "Geograph 
 ical Memoir upon Upper California in Illustration of 
 his Map of Oregon and California, by John Charles 
 Fremont." 
 
 There have been various versions of the naming of 
 the entrance to the bay of San Francisco. This was 
 the origin of the name given on the map published in 
 June of 4S. The first gold was found in August of 
 that year. J. B. F. 
 
 7 
 
98 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 stomach for a fight," or for those who, born 
 lucky, succeed by virtue of the unknown 
 force to which we concede that term. 
 
 The mere landing of the passengers w r as 
 a problem. The crews who took boats to 
 shore were pretty sure not to come back. 
 The Ohio, Captain Ap Catesby Jones com 
 manding, was there. Captain Jones very 
 kindly invited me on board to remain until 
 Mr. Fre mont should arrive, for I had the 
 disappointment of finding he was not yet 
 here. Mr. Howard, a wealthy merchant, had 
 brought out his boat, and I accepted his 
 invitation, as after so much sea travel the 
 land was best for me. 
 
 There were then some three or four regu 
 larly built houses in Sail Francisco, repre 
 senting the Hudson Bay and the Kussian 
 hide business ; the rest were canvas and 
 blanket tents. Of course there \vas no lum 
 ber there for building, and there were not 
 even trees to be cut down ; nor would any 
 man have diverted his attention from the 
 mines to go to house-building. A little 
 later, when they found the hardships of 
 mining life too great and the returns too 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 99 
 
 uncertain, the tide turned, and many men 
 came back to make fortunes at steady work 
 in building up the town. Sixteen dollars 
 a day was ordinary pay for carpenters. The 
 young officers of the army and navy there 
 used to lament to me that their business was 
 so far less profitable. One of them turned 
 to profit his having been on the Wilkes sur 
 veying expedition, and made really a great 
 sum of money by piloting in the thick in 
 coming fleet of vessels of all sorts. 
 
 I was taken to one of these houses, which 
 had been the residence of Liedesdorff, the 
 Russian consul, who had recently died there. 
 It was a time of wonderful contrasts. This 
 was a well-built adobe house one story high, 
 with a good veranda about it, and a beau 
 tiful garden kept in old-world order by a 
 Scotch gardener. Luxuries of every kind 
 were to be had, but there were wanting 
 some necessaries. Fine carpets and fine fur 
 niture and a fine Broadwood piano, and no 
 house-maid. The one room with a fire-place 
 had been prepared for my sleeping-room, 
 and had French furniture and no end of 
 mirrors, but lacked a fire. 
 
100 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 The June winds were blowing, and I felt 
 them the more from recent illness, which 
 had left the lungs very sensitive. There 
 was no fuel proper; and little fagots of 
 brush-wood, broken-up goods boxes and 
 sodden ends of old ship timber were all 
 that could be had. 
 
 The club of wealthy merchants who had 
 this house together had excellent Chinese 
 servants, but to make everything comfort 
 able to me they added the only woman that 
 could be procured, who accepted a tempo 
 rary place of chamber-maid at two hundred 
 and forty dollars a month and perquisites. 
 One of the perquisites was the housing of her 
 husband and children as well as herself. She 
 had been washer -woman to a New York 
 regiment, and was already the laundress of 
 these gentlemen. She w r as kind enough to 
 tell me that she liked my clothes, and would 
 take the pattern of certain dresses, and seem 
 ed to think it a matter of course that I would 
 let her carry off gowns and wraps to be 
 copied by her dress-maker, a Chinaman. I 
 declined this as civilly as I could, but the 
 result was that she threw up the situation. 
 
A YEAR O5 AMKlUCAft THA^SI. JQf 
 
 The only realty private x n6use was one be 
 longing to a young New-Yorker, who had 
 it shipped from home, house and furniture 
 complete a double two-story frame house, 
 which, when in place, was said to have cost 
 ninety thousand dollars. At this price, with 
 the absence of timber and the absence of 
 labor, it will be seen that it was difficult to 
 have any other shelter than a tent. The 
 bride for whose reception this house was in 
 tended arrived just before me, but lived only 
 a few weeks ; the sudden and great changes 
 of climate from our Northern weather into 
 the tropics, and from the tropics again into 
 the raw, harsh winds of that season at San 
 Francisco, were too much for her, even with 
 all the comforts of her own beautiful home. 
 At a party given to welcome her the whole 
 force of San Francisco society came out, the 
 ladies sixteen in number. 
 
 Visits in the daytime were held as a mark 
 ed attention. I was told that "time was 
 worth fifty dollars a minute," and that I 
 must hold as a great compliment the brief 
 visits which were made to me constantly 
 through the day by busy men. 
 
?.OS J> ^fcAR OV? A -\IE1?ICA.TT TRAVEL. 
 
 was not billy gold to be had at the 
 mines, but a golden shower was falling for 
 whoever had wit to catch it. I heard of 
 many marvellous strokes of fortune, which 
 caused elevated eyebrows when I repeated 
 them on my return. 
 
 Our steamer was to have put in at Mon 
 terey, but her fuel was so nearly exhausted 
 that we made straight for San Francisco. 
 Mr. Frgmont had ridden up from the An 
 geles to Monterey to meet me, and, after 
 waiting there a little, and no steamer ar 
 riving, came on to San Francisco, getting 
 there about ten days after I did fortunate 
 ly for me, for I was already getting ill again 
 with morbid imaginings that I had been de 
 ceived, and that he had not arrived in the 
 country at all. Now that we have the tele 
 graph and railroad, as well as our steamer 
 connection, only those who experienced the 
 want of all these can realize the dead blank 
 absence created then. 
 
 The winds of San Francisco had renewed 
 the trouble with my lungs, and we went 
 down by steamer to Monterey, where there 
 was a very different climate. Bayard Tay- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 103 
 
 lor has celebrated the noble pine-trees that 
 border the Pacific here. 
 
 There was none of the stir and life here 
 which made San Francisco so remarkable. 
 There was a small garrison of married offi 
 cers with their families, but no man of any 
 degree voluntarily kept away from the mines 
 or San Francisco ; it was their great oppor 
 tunity for sudden money-making. Domes 
 tic matters were even more upset than in 
 San Francisco, where Chinese could be had. 
 Here it was like after a shipwreck on a des 
 ert shore; the strongest and the most ca 
 pable was king, and, to produce anything 
 like comfort, all capacities had to be put 
 to use. The major-general in command of 
 the post, General Riley, was his own gar 
 dener. He came to me, proud and trium 
 phant, with a small market -basket on his 
 arm, containing vegetables of his own rais 
 ing. And as we would bring roses of our 
 cultivation, so he brought me a present of 
 a cabbage, some carrots, and parsley. 
 
 The French ships brought cargoes of 
 everything that could be sealed up in tin 
 cans and glass, but the stomach grows very 
 
104 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 weary of this sort of food. It was barely a 
 year since the gold had been discovered, but 
 in that time every eatable thing had been 
 eaten off the face of the country, and noth 
 ing raised. I suppose there was not a fowl 
 left in the northern part of the state, conse 
 quently not an egg ; all the beef cattle left 
 had been bought up by " Baron" Steinber- 
 ger in San Francisco ; there were no lon 
 ger vaqueros or herdsmen, and flocks and 
 herds had dispersed. 
 
 There were no cows, consequently no 
 milk. Housekeeping, deprived of milk, 
 eggs, vegetables, and fresh meat, becomes 
 a puzzle ; canned meat, macaroni, rice, and 
 ham become unendurable from repetition. 
 There were only the half-domesticated In 
 dians as servants poor cooks at best ; and 
 while wood was abundant around here, there 
 was no one to cut it. Mrs. Canby, wife of 
 one of the officers, was fortunate in having 
 an attached as well as capable servant, a 
 Mexican mulatto who had been with Gen 
 eral Canby through the Mexican war, and 
 who remained with them against all temp 
 tations. This man was a very capable baker, 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 105 
 
 and until I was fortunate enough to chance 
 upon a cook, Mrs. Canby sent me daily a fra 
 grant loaf of fresh bread, wrapped in its clean 
 napkin and on a beautiful china plate. Nor 
 was I the only one who felt the great kind 
 ness of this lady ; she was kind and thought 
 ful for all the children of the soldiers, any 
 one; wherever she could give help, she did 
 so. 
 
 General Canby was one of those modest 
 officers whose promotion fell behind his 
 merits. My father was for twenty -eight 
 years chairman of the Senate Military Com 
 mittee, and while the Secretary of War 
 changed with the changing political fort 
 unes of the day, he remained fixed, the 
 comprehending and thorough friend of the 
 army. Understanding army interests, and 
 having his friendships with officers, he was 
 its intelligent and useful friend. I think 
 it is to him that is due the longevity ra 
 tion. When, my voyage over and myself 
 safe back at home, I told of this among the 
 many other kindnesses shown to me, my fa 
 ther quietly looked up General (then Major) 
 Canby s position, had him written to, and 
 
106 A TEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 the result was promotion and a more con 
 genial post. Both himself and his wife were 
 so good and gentle, and thorough in their 
 kindness to others, that it seemed unnatural 
 he should meet a cruel death. 
 
 Monterey was quite a town, with many 
 good houses. Their adobe walls looked like 
 rough stone, while the red-tiled roofs gave 
 color and picturesqueness the finer houses 
 built with a disregard of space, a long front 
 to the street, and short wings running back 
 at either end, while the remainder of the 
 square was a large garden, shut in by high 
 adobe walls with a coping of red tiles. 
 
 Travel teaches one that there is nothing 
 new under the sun. In all the different 
 countries in which I have been, and in 
 all grades of society, everywhere I have 
 seen certain characteristics inevitably re 
 peated. There are women in all classes 
 upon whom every advantage is thrown 
 away ; while there are as certainly to be 
 met with in every grade women who seem 
 to have a creative faculty for embellishing 
 life ; they seem to have the power of not 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 107 
 
 only using to the best advantage what they 
 have, but even to create resources about 
 them. I could see this even in the village 
 of Digger Indians who were rny nearest 
 neighbors on the Mariposas; one woman 
 would have her baby in a frightful condi 
 tion of dirt, the coarse black hair matted 
 into its eyelashes; while another would 
 have hers clean, and hung about with neck 
 lace and decorations of bits of polished 
 bone, beads, ends of red tape, even wax seals 
 which she had cut from envelopes thrown 
 away, while her shock of black hair was 
 comparatively tidy and in some order. This 
 difference of capacity was eminently notice 
 able at this time in California, where all 
 usual surroundings were not to be had. 
 
 Among the California ladies were some 
 married to Americans, and they came at 
 once to see me ; others, who were thorough 
 ly Californian, and to whom my name rep 
 resented only invasion and defeat, did not 
 come at first, but after a little were among 
 the kindest people I knew there. The only 
 cow in the town belonged to one of these, 
 and she sent me daily a portion of the milk, 
 
108 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 because I too had a little child. They had 
 very much the life of our Southern people ; 
 their household, their children, their domes 
 tic surroundings, filled their days busily and 
 contentedly. Their houses were charming 
 ly neat and orderly, and when I made a vis 
 it I generally found the lady of the house 
 sitting in the inner court, shaded by the 
 projecting roof, and surrounded by domes 
 ticated Indian girls at their sewing. 
 
 They seemed to have the passion of Hol 
 landers for the accumulation of household 
 linen; also for satin dresses, which they 
 bought in number, and had made up with 
 out any reference to style or fashion, and 
 packed them away in huge Chinese trunks. 
 These trunks were painted bright reds, 
 greens, and yellows, with well - executed 
 wreaths of flowers upon them, and were 
 kept as ornamental pieces of furniture in 
 the sitting-rooms, along with French clocks, 
 no end of chandeliers, and other handsome 
 things. Pictures of church subjects and 
 English hunting - scenes were to be met 
 everywhere. 
 
 In making a visit, one of the first atten- 
 
A YEAR, OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 109 
 
 tions was to hand you the cigarette, both 
 made and unmade, in order that you might 
 " consult your habit." This part of the en 
 tertainment was a failure with me, and I 
 had always to explain that I inherited an in 
 ability even to endure the smell of tobacco. 
 
 As we show a photographic album, they 
 would open these huge trunks and show the 
 satin dresses. The Fourth of July made the 
 occasion for a grand ball ; there were some 
 Californians in town, and there was a man- 
 of-war, and the post furnished some dancing 
 men, among them a long thin young Cap 
 tain, since General, Sherman. 
 
 The dressing for this ball was a serious 
 matter to these native California!! ladies. 
 They had already all these expensive gowns, 
 but they wished something absolutely new 
 and in our fashion as they expressed it, 
 " as they wore them in the States." An 
 American who had lived there many years 
 asked me to show her " in strict confidence" 
 my ball dresses ; she did not believe me 
 when I told her I had none with me ; she 
 said that she would show them to no one 
 else, that only her dress-maker and herself 
 
110 A YEAK OF AMEKICAN TKAVEL. 
 
 should see them (the dress-maker was the 
 wife of a corporal). I could not convince 
 her that it was not unwillingness on rny 
 part to share " the fashions " with her ; she 
 looked upon it as an excuse. When I said 
 " really I had no evening dresses with me," 
 she broke out with " What have you got in 
 all those trunks, then, for I know you have 
 many trunks ?" I told her to come and see, 
 and insisted that she should look. When 
 she saw only morning and walking dresses 
 and under-wear, she exclaimed, as though 
 it had dawned upon her that I w r as a sort of 
 social impostor : " Why, you was pore when 
 you left the States ! Why, I have thirty- 
 seven satin dresses, and no two off the same 
 piece." 
 
 The evening of the ball w T as to disclose 
 the secret of the toilets of the native ladies; 
 each had had a new dress that was to be a 
 surprise to the others; the merchant who 
 sold the goods and the dress-maker who 
 made them were each pledged to let no one 
 know about the others dress. When the 
 company assembled, eight of these ladies 
 had gowns exactly alike: a cafe au lait 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. Ill 
 
 Chinese satin, with a large pattern on it, 
 making the effect of what we use for furni 
 ture covering. On no account would they 
 have worn a low-necked and short-sleeved 
 dress ; so while the sleeves were long, the 
 corsage was completely covered by a large 
 Madras silk handkerchief, pinned down 
 Quaker fashion. 
 
 The largest and best building in the town 
 was the Governor s residence ; it occupied 
 double the usual space, and was really a 
 good building, with very thick walls, and 
 a charming great garden, surrounded by a 
 hed<re of roses. I was fortunate to have 
 
 C3 
 
 one wing of this, where I made my first 
 housekeeping. The large window of one 
 room looked into the bay, with its great 
 crescent-shaped sweep towards Santa Cruz ; 
 the boom of its long rollers was with me all 
 the time. For furniture we had what could 
 be gathered in San Francisco and shipped 
 down by steamer. Beautiful Chinese mat 
 ting of varied colors, whole pieces of French 
 and Chinese furniture damask, and Chinese 
 bamboo furniture. An exquisite circular 
 table of carved and inlaid work made a 
 
112 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 dining-table, and we had beautiful Chinese, 
 French, and English china. There was no 
 toilet china, but a punch-bowl makes a good 
 basin ; the best wax candles, but flat tin 
 candlesticks. We had one great luxury, a 
 large fire-place for a wood fire, but no shovel, 
 tongs, or andirons, and no wood to be had 
 for money. Here friendship stepped in,, and 
 supplied me bountifully with wood of the 
 right kind and cut in the right way, for the 
 government teamsters were ordered to sup 
 ply me as they did the ladies of the Post. 
 I had no servant at all. A woman with a 
 baby in her arms came to the open door 
 one day, and asked me if I wanted a cook ; 
 on being told that I did indeed, she asked, 
 " Would you take one from Sydney ? Be 
 cause I am from Sydney, and am off the ship 
 that came in yesterday." She was under 
 the influence of some hurt feeling, and went 
 on : " I have been to the General s and to 
 the Consul s, and they would not have me 
 because I was from Sydney and on that 
 ship. Why are you not, too, afraid to take 
 me?" I said, "Because your baby is so 
 clean, so well-kept, and looks so well" (a 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 113 
 
 child eighteen months old) ; " he answers 
 for it that you are clean, patient, and kind." 
 " You will not repent taking nie," the wom 
 an said. And I never did. She went into 
 place at once, and made me wonderfully 
 comfortable as long as I remained. She 
 was a thoroughly trained English servant, 
 who had lived in Australia with the wife of 
 the Chief-Justice. She had all her creden 
 tials, and deserved them. 
 
 This need of a cook had been provided 
 for in a man who had already travelled with 
 Mr. Fremont, and who had come with him 
 again this time. He had been cook on a 
 man-of-war, and we knew him and all his 
 people, most respectable colored people in 
 Washington. With him, and my own wom 
 an Harriot, I had the nucleus of a good 
 household. The mission Indians made good 
 women-servants, as Mr. Frgmont had seen in 
 the many California households with which 
 he had been familiar, so we had never fore 
 seen any trouble on this account. In fact, I 
 had grown up to such a fixed order of things 
 in all domestic arrangements that ideas of 
 this kind had never come to my mind. But 
 8 
 
114 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 I lost nay Harriot in New York in the way I 
 have told, and Saunders was in the mines. 
 Although a free man himself, his wife and 
 children were slaves, because of the law 
 that children of a slave mother were also 
 slaves. He had now the opportunity of 
 making quickly the money with which to 
 buy their freedom. He had been offered 
 "the lot" for seventeen hundred dollars, 
 and Mr. Fremont equipped him and sent 
 him off to our mines, on their first arrival 
 at San Francisco, to gather this. He really 
 did not like to leave me, but we would not 
 have allowed him to stay under such cir 
 cumstances. 
 
 Up to a certain point everything seemed 
 to be against us. Then the tide turned, and 
 it was indeed a flood of good fortune. When 
 we left home it was on the. plan of a seven 
 years absence, amounting to exile ; into an 
 unknown country, without mail communi 
 cations ; and upon the slow process of the 
 increase of flocks and herds was based the 
 possibility of a journey back to revisit my 
 people. The gold discoveries made rapid 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 115 
 
 the advance in travel and mail facilities 
 which would otherwise have been of grad 
 ual, slow growth. 
 
 General Taylor was at this time Presi 
 dent. His was a direct, brave, and single 
 nature. What he thought just and right he 
 did, irrespective of usage or politics. His 
 brother, Colonel Taylor, had been upon the 
 court-martial which made the decision upon 
 which Mr. Fremont refused the promotion 
 given him, and resigned from the army. 
 
 Colonel Taylor was one of the four offi 
 cers who said that the oldest officer in the 
 army would have been puzzled how to act 
 upon the question which Mr. Frgmont had 
 been called upon by his superior officers to 
 decide for them the question of the rel 
 ative rank between a commodore and a 
 general. 
 
 Quite without my father s knowledge, the 
 President offered to Mr. Fremont a govern 
 ment employment of dignity, and one for 
 which his past life had fitted him the place 
 of Commissioner for the United States to run 
 the boundary line with Mexico under the 
 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This, the 
 
116 A TEAK OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 President told my father, was intended to 
 express his personal feeling in regard to 
 that harsh finding of the military court. 
 
 As may be imagined, the arrival of the 
 mail was the event to all. This was among 
 the things we learned by the first mail that 
 reached us after my arrival. Mr. Beale, a 
 young naval officer, was sent out with spe 
 cial despatches from the government, and 
 was also given this commission to bring to 
 Mr. FrSinont. We thought we had nothing 
 more to ask of fate when we found that we 
 too had our proportion in the great stream 
 of wealth, which meant for us independence, 
 and its first use the return home ; but this 
 unlooked-for and gracious act of justice 
 crowned our content. 
 
 My father w T as especially touched by it. 
 Apart from personal gratification, he had 
 been too long a leader in the triumphant 
 and fierce Democratic party not to feel the 
 full value of this unlooked-for giving of a 
 high post outside of the President s party. 
 The commission sent in such a way had to 
 be accepted for a time at least ; but as it 
 would have involved some years of stay out 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 117 
 
 there, there was no hesitation about not 
 holding it. Our new independence was 
 too complete and too sweet to be given up 
 for any cause. That long white envelope, 
 with its official stamp in the corner, which 
 brings such terror into officers families, and 
 sounds the note of separation to so many, 
 was not again to come to us ; henceforth we 
 were to direct our own movements. That 
 was what we proposed. 
 
 Mr. Beale was from Washington, and a 
 young favorite of my father s. He, too, had 
 had his part in the early California con 
 quest. For the few months he remained 
 on that coast he made part of our little 
 household. With a friendly captain (also 
 from Washington), and really no service to 
 be done, as his ship lay at anchor in the 
 bay, renewed leaves of absence were very 
 easy to get. 
 
 All our plans had been made before the 
 discovery of gold. We had expected to live 
 the usual life of people going to a new coun 
 try, and had sent round all manner of useful 
 things, from a circular saw to a travelling 
 carriage. All these, except the latter, were 
 
118 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 stored in the company s warerooms in San 
 Francisco. 
 
 "While the fine weather lasted I travelled 
 wherever wheels could go, and lived night 
 and day in this carriage. Mr. Aspinwall 
 had it built under his own directions in 
 New Jersey, and a sliding bottom to the 
 seats and double cushions made an excel 
 lent sleeping-place. We had this and dou 
 ble and single harness in quantity, but no 
 horses, no one to drive, and no made roads 
 to drive upon; we just followed bridle 
 paths among the trees, and where the 
 ground was very sloping the Indian men 
 put their "riatas" around the carriage, keep 
 ing it up until we came to level ground 
 again. Mine was the first carriage that had 
 ever been in the country, and horses had 
 not been used in harness there. Low-hung 
 wagons with solid wooden wheels, drawn 
 by oxen, made the transportation for ladies 
 who wished to go by wheel carretas, they 
 called them. Our experiences in gathering 
 a team were unusual and rather trying to a 
 woman s nerves ; an Oregon mare, warrant 
 ed gentle, was harnessed in with a .rather 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 119 
 
 old California riding-horse, which was sup 
 posed to be tamed by time and work. Mr. 
 Beale, who had in him the traditions of 
 his boyhood in Maryland, and the remem 
 brance of reins handled there, felt sure that 
 he could drill these into an efficient pair 
 of carriage-horses : he was very strong, and 
 he had that confidence in himself which 
 belongs under twenty-five. I wonder now, 
 when I remember, that I got into that car 
 riage w T ith those horses. The Oregon mare 
 rose straight on her hind-legs, while the Cal 
 ifornia horse, slower to understand, stood 
 quiet for a little, and then commenced the 
 favorite local habit of " bucking." And 
 this they kept to, getting frightened and 
 obstinate. I too was frightened, and beg 
 ged for mules, which we tried. There were 
 only pack-mules, and these considered har 
 ness as an unpleasant pack, and tried to 
 rub it off against every object trees and 
 whatever offered them a surface to rub 
 against. I do not know what we should 
 have done, but we came upon a camp of 
 Texans who had just arrived, and were a 
 short distance out of Monterey; they had 
 
120 A YEAH OF AMEKICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 with, them a number of fine-looking mules, 
 which Mr. Fremont found had been used 
 in wagons, and he tried, at first quite in 
 vain, to buy some of these for rne. They 
 were men of means, " liked their animals, 
 and had no reason to part with them." I 
 caught the name of one of the party as 
 they spoke to each other, and told Mr. Fr6- 
 mont to ask him if his mother was not from 
 North Carolina, and if her name was not 
 Caroline ; the young man came up to the 
 side of my carriage, very much astonish 
 ed, and we found he was the grandson of 
 old friends of my father s ; so I had again, 
 through friendship, what money alone 
 could not have bought me a comforta 
 ble pair of harness mules. They were mis 
 matched in size ; the larger was white, slow, 
 and a very patient creature ; w r e named him 
 Job ; while his companion, which was small 
 enough to deserve the name of Picayune, 
 was a brisk little animal that made up in 
 work and nerve force for lack of size. 
 
 Mr. Fremont had with him two of the 
 better class of Mission Indians, who had 
 been with him for years, coming and going 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 121 
 
 between the United States and California. 
 These men, Juan and Gregorio, were the 
 most graceful horsemen I have ever seen, 
 even in their country of graceful horsemen. 
 When we came to a good bit of open coun 
 try, and could go at speed, they would fast 
 en to the carriage the long riatas, which 
 were always carried at the saddle-bow, and 
 in this way I would have two postilions 
 riding abreast in front of my mules. The 
 men wore the old picturesque California 
 dress, and their regular rhythmed move 
 ment as they moved gracefully with their 
 horses made it a picture I always loved to 
 watch. How I enjoyed that out-door life ! 
 In this way we w^ent from Monterey to San 
 Francisco and back again from San Fran 
 cisco to Monterey, stopping at different ran- 
 chos and farms to see and be seen by the 
 people who wished Mr. Fremont to bring 
 me to them. We would turn out of our way 
 to accept the invitation of some of the old 
 Californians to visit them at their ranches. 
 At one of these we came to where the 
 whole family connection had assembled to 
 meet me. Families of fourteen, eighteen, 
 
122 A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 even to twenty, children were not uncom 
 mon. And one Madame Castro had twen 
 ty-six children, nearly all sous. At this 
 rancho, which belonged to one of the many 
 Castros, they had collected in force, the 
 married members coming in also, while the 
 grandmother was the one to bid me wel 
 come. There was nothing about these homes 
 or people to remind us that we were in a new 
 country, nor was anything lacking to com 
 fort and well- being. The buildings were 
 spacious and beautifully clean, while the 
 physical advantages of the people were be 
 yond doubt. The old lacly, though herself 
 past eighty, was like the portraits of Cath 
 erine of Russia. Her thick snow-white hair 
 was turned back in a natural cushion upon 
 her head, while her bright eyes, fine teeth, 
 and clear color belonged to youth. 
 
 It was very agreeable to me to make these 
 visits. They had learned that my father 
 understood and protected the new citizens 
 of the United States in Louisiana and Flor 
 ida, and that they could rely upon him as 
 a friend at the seat of government ; and al 
 ready there was sufficient evidence that the 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 123 
 
 Americans who were coining in were to be 
 the source of great trouble to them. They 
 would also tell me of their gratitude to Mr. 
 Fremont "Don Flemon," as they called 
 him 1 for having protected them from all 
 rudeness or unnecessary loss of any kind 
 during the progress of his battalion through 
 the state when it passed from their owner 
 ship to ours. Our own war has taught us 
 there was a difference in commanding offi 
 cers in that respect. 
 
 As Mr. Fremont neared California he met 
 a large party of Sonorians, some twelve 
 hundred, including women and children, 
 who were going up into California to the 
 mines; from these he first knew of the 
 discoveries of gold. The American crowds 
 pouring in looked very unfavorably upon 
 these as Mexicans, and resented any nation 
 but ours having the good of the gold. Mr. 
 Fremont joined his little party to theirs 
 to protect them from this feeling, and ar 
 ranged with them to work upon his lands 
 at the Mariposas, from which they could not 
 be driven off, as it was private property : he 
 knew the gold must be found there as well 
 
124 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 as farther north in the same mountain 
 range. The Sonorians were accustomed to 
 mining - work, particularly gold - washings, 
 and he arranged that they should work for 
 him, giving the lands and the protection, 
 and they giving him half the results. Al 
 ready we had had the astonishment and 
 pleasure of receiving buckskin bags filled 
 with gold-dust and lumps of gold as an in 
 stalment on this arrangement. I remember 
 the first came to us at San Jos6, where we 
 had stopped over. Our means and our sur 
 roundings were in sharp contrast. It was 
 good fortune to get even one room in a 
 house, and I had one room pour tout par- 
 tage, but I had learned by this time that it 
 was great good luck to have a whole room. 
 One bedstead and one table made the fur 
 niture, each the simplest and crudest con 
 struction of rough wood ; the bed was at 
 least clean, as it was fresh straw sewed up 
 in clean cotton cloth. I had my large grass 
 hammock, which not only made a sleeping- 
 place at night, but in the morning it was 
 triced up higher, while Mr. Fremont and 
 our midshipman coachman, with their high 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 125 
 
 boots drawn outside of their trousers, del 
 uged the room with hot water to put an 
 end to that day s supply of fleas. 
 
 Our food, such as it was, was supplied by 
 a man who kept a restaurant in the town, 
 and who, having once been cook on a whal 
 er, considered himself equal to any occasion. 
 
 We were at this place when our first 
 convoy of gold reached us. The buckskin 
 bags, containing about a hundred pounds 
 of gold, were put for safety under the straw 
 mattress. There were no banks nor places 
 of deposit of any kind. You had to trust 
 some man that you knew, or keep guard 
 yourself. We sent this back to Monterey, 
 and it accumulated in trunks in our rooms 
 there. 
 
 When jthose Sonora people wanted to go 
 back to their country, at the end of some 
 months, they sent one of their number to 
 say to Mr. Fremont that they were going, 
 and that their share came to a certain 
 amount. We were in San Francisco then, 
 and it was not convenient for Mr. Fremont 
 to go back to Monterey, so he sent them the 
 keys of our rooms and of the trunks, leav- 
 
126 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 ing it to them to make the division. This 
 they did with scrupulous honor, not taking 
 an ounce more than their stipulated portion. 
 
 Sydney Smith tells of a merchant who 
 bought a lottery ticket for himself and one 
 for a friend, and, marking on them their 
 names, put them by in a drawer without 
 further thought. Some time after, he saw 
 that one of these numbers had drawn a 
 great prize, and going to look, found that 
 it was his friend s ticket, and turned over 
 to his friend the prize. 
 
 Sydney Smith said he never thought of 
 this without feeling an emotion of grati 
 tude and pride that such an act could be 
 done. I think that our Sonorians take 
 rank with the London merchant. 
 
 We were in the most delightful season of 
 the year ; no rains, no heavy dews ; the wild 
 oats were ripe, and gave the soft look of 
 ripe wheat-fields to all the hill-sides; the 
 wild cattle were feeding about or resting 
 under the evergreen oaks, which looked so 
 like orchard trees that one was disappoint 
 ed not to find the apples on the ground be- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 127 
 
 neatli them ; the sky was a deep blue, with 
 out a cloud. We were young and full of 
 health, and in all the exhilaration of sudden 
 wealth which could enable us to realize our 
 greatest wishes. The continued life in the 
 open air night and day in this balmy cli 
 mate completely healed my lungs. Mr. Fre"- 
 mont knew the country thoroughly well, 
 and we made our camp each evening at 
 some place where he was sure of good wa 
 ter, as well as trees and a good view. I 
 am very sorry that in the burning of my 
 father s house all my letters home at this 
 time were lost with everything else : one 
 cannot give afterwards the freshness ol 
 impression that belongs with the actual 
 day s experience. But I was charmed with 
 every detail of my camping - life. To be 
 sure, it was in an unusual form, with most 
 unusual people, in a most unusual coun 
 try and climate. 
 
 Knight, one of Mr. Fremont s old guides 
 a man almost the equal of Carson in fine 
 qualities came down from his ranch to see 
 him again, and we took to each other so 
 kindly that it was nearly two months before 
 
128 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 he left us. Like Captain Tucker, he had 
 thought I would prove " a fine lady," and 
 unable to live in an unusual way ; but he 
 too gave rne his hearty approval. 
 
 These, with myself and my little girl, 
 made the party. We had the two Indian 
 men, Juan and Gregorio, who knew exactly 
 what to do, as they had crossed and recross- 
 ed the continent with Mr. Fr6mont. They 
 were Indians, but they were men, and the 
 presence of a lady in the camp kept them 
 all the time in their best clothes and best 
 behavior. The old California dress was 
 very like that that we know in Spanish 
 pictures, and made them look like figures 
 out of the scene of an opera. They rode 
 well ahead, following Mr. Frgmont ; then 
 came the carriage, all its curtains rolled 
 up, freighted with youth and health and 
 happiness and hopefulness; after us, at a 
 little distance, was our baggage train a 
 string of mules packed with our cooking 
 apparatus, our grass hammocks, and such 
 clothes as we could pack in those square 
 leather panniers which the Spaniards call 
 alforjas. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 125 
 
 Mr. Fremont and Mr. Knight "Old 
 Knight" every one called him rode ahead, 
 looking out the best road for the carriage, or 
 going back to ride beside it. We used to 
 make a very early start. My early cup of tea 
 was brought to the carriage to me at dawn. 
 We always camped by the side of a brook, 
 and a dressing-tent was quickly made for 
 me with a pair of blankets; I had a tin ba 
 sin, plenty of towels, plenty of French soap 
 and Cologne-water, and running water in 
 plenty. Diana never had such advantages. 
 We were usually on our way as the sun rose, 
 and we travelled along, very often at a good 
 gait, until eleven, when we always stopped 
 for the long noon halt. Then was our break 
 fast, and this we made exceedingly good, 
 notwithstanding the scarcity of fresh pro 
 visions in the country. "An army travels 
 on its stomach." Many years of camping 
 experience taught our chief how to pro 
 vide for this. From the ranches we pass 
 ed near w T ould be procured half a sheep 
 and green corn, some of the large Spanish 
 onions, and such vegetables as could be had, 
 and always an abundance of sweet red pep- 
 9 
 
130 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 per; of these the guisada of the country 
 would be made, which answers to the pot 
 aufeu of the French, only more warmly fla 
 vored with this pepper. The grass ham 
 mocks would be spread out on the ground, 
 on them the morocco carriage cushions piled 
 into a good seat for me. My share of the 
 duty was to take the result of all the others 
 preparations to eat with all the appetite 
 I could gather, to grow well, and be happy. 
 After some hours of rest we would go on, 
 stopping before sundown to make our camp 
 for the night. This was always well chosen 
 in advance. 
 
 Here the carriage made an admirable 
 sleeping-place for myself and my little girl, 
 while the gentlemen stretched their ham 
 mocks to the trees, and the supper w r as a 
 duplicate of the breakfast. They had ex 
 cellent claret and coffee and tea, and the 
 best French sweet things for the little one. 
 The camp-fire lit up the whole scene with 
 a beauty that only those who have seen it 
 can realize. What talks we had around 
 .those camp-fires! Knight was a mighty 
 hunter, and Mr. Beale, midshipman as he 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 131 
 
 was, had the same vocation. Each of the 
 three had had large experience of a kind 
 only known to me through books: from 
 Indians, from wild animals, and from 
 war ; while I gave the element of society. 
 About nine o clock all would be still ; 
 only the sounds of the logs and boughs 
 as they crackled and burned, and the 
 steady munching of the animals over their 
 feed, with occasionally a disturbance from 
 a coyote that would come and try to steal 
 his supper ; but a coyote is only a little wolf 
 at best, and though they would stay off at a 
 little distance and howl and bark, yet the 
 noise was only laughable, not like that 
 strange howl of the wolf of the prairies : 
 and how changed the circumstances ! 
 
 I was left at San .lose" for a week at one 
 time, as it w r as found that each visit to San 
 Francisco renewed the irritation of the 
 lungs. It was here I saw something of the 
 local life of the people. Before we brought 
 taxes and litigation upon them, the Califor- 
 nians were a wholesome and cheerful people, 
 going about their pleasures not sadly, as is 
 
132 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 the inherited wont of our nation, but mak 
 ing a joyful noise. 
 
 I found in their folk-music a connecting 
 link between themselves and the Panama 
 street people ; in the swift yet plaintive airs 
 so characteristic, which the Spaniards kept, 
 together with many other things belonging 
 to the Moors irrigation, for example, which 
 they did not originate, but for which they 
 get credit. 
 
 The voices of the Panama street people 
 had a slow, almost melodious, accent that 
 was very agreeable. They used to collect on 
 the square in the nights and sing, accompa 
 nied by a sort of tambourine, which kept up 
 a low drumming rhythmed movement. One 
 air and some of its words I heard so frequent 
 ly that they fixed themselves in my memory 
 as part of Panama, evidently of Moorish 
 origin, coming through Spanish channels 
 across to this people. In the Tramata Verdi 
 has introduced a Spanish folk-song, which 
 is the polished twin of my Panama street 
 song. I only know the words of one verse, 
 for I could get no one to give me the rest, 
 the servants saying that it was not for a 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 133 
 
 lady to know the words.* (Evidently there 
 was no opera T)ouffe there- to educate that 
 public.) It is a minor key, and its abrupt 
 turns and vague unterniinated effects are 
 eminently Oriental. 
 
 Even the educated people in South Amer 
 ican countries drop much of the Castilian 
 nicety of pronunciation, giving the hard 
 sound to the d and c, which so altered the 
 language to me that I had almost to acquire 
 another in order to feel at home with the 
 Spaniards I met there. In addition to that, 
 the illiterate people drop and misplace the 
 8 exactly as a London cockney does the h ; 
 for example, the first line of this verse, " L 
 los frailes no me quiere confesar," they give, 
 "A lo fraile no me quiere confear." This 
 was evidently their favorite song, to which 
 their strongest expression of excitement fit 
 ted itself. 
 
 The night the two steamers got in to- 
 
 * "A los frailes no me quiere confesar, 
 Porque se euojau que me guste bailar, 
 
 Bailar ! 
 
 Bailar ! 
 
 Con Francico, mi Francico, 
 Fraucico Cumana." 
 
134 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 gether, not only the Americans flocked to 
 the ramparts, but the whole Indian popu 
 lation were out in the bright moonlight, 
 and the sound of the deep rub-a-dub-dub 
 and that constantly recurring chorus of 
 "Cumana!""Cumana!" filled the air until 
 sunrise. 
 
 Another of these Moro-Spanish airs, not 
 so vivacious or clean in its outlines, had 
 grafted itself among the Californians, and 
 had, as all gypsy music has, the governing 
 qualities of swiftness and sadness com 
 bined. This last I could not choose but 
 learn: I heard it whistled, sung, played 
 upon guitars and violins, wherever Cali 
 fornians were. 
 
 During this time I was in San JosS I saw 
 in perfection the good riding of the country. 
 From my hammock, swung under the open 
 gallery of the house where we were fortu 
 nate enough to have a room, I heard and 
 saw the festivities of a California wedding. 
 These lasted three days. It was a wedding 
 among the vaqueros, and attended, there 
 fore, by good riders. The bride s house was 
 not much of a building, but extensive tern- 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 135 
 
 porary shelter had been put up for dancing- 
 rooms, covered over with green boughs a 
 ramada. But the point of rivalry among 
 the guests was more in riding than in dan 
 cing, though after riding all day they would 
 dance all night ; and all day and all night 
 that one air was repeated by violins, guitars, 
 and voices, until the drone of it got into 
 the air, and made as much part of it as does 
 the whir of locusts in the autumn months. 
 The first day the procession started for the 
 church where the marriage was to take place 
 to go down and along the Alameda, a 
 beautiful double avenue of willows, three 
 miles in length, planted by the early fathers. 
 The first day was to go to the church for the 
 marriage ceremonies; the second, to take 
 out the bride for a general pasear through 
 the town; and the third, a series of con 
 tests and rivalries in feats of horsemanship. 
 There were about five hundred horses ; the 
 riders were more. In many cases they had 
 with them a woman mounted on the horse ; 
 the woman sat on the man s saddle, while 
 behind her, with his arm around her waist, 
 and holding the reins, sat the man -just 
 
136 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 the reverse of our country habit. They ad 
 vanced in regular order, eight abreast, the 
 musicians, also on horseback, playing their 
 violins and guitars as calmly as though they 
 had a floor under them. The bride sat alone 
 on her horse, under an arch of flowers and 
 ribbons, which was carried by a groomsman 
 on either side, the ends of the arch resting 
 on their saddles, and on either side of them 
 her bride- maids ; the bridegroom, on an ex 
 ceptionally fine horse, surrounded by his 
 friends ; and then the rest of the company, 
 most of the men riding singly, but many 
 riding as I have described, with a girl on the 
 saddle a bright glittering mass of ribbons, 
 flowers, bright beads, gold-lace ; the women 
 in satin dresses and slippers, the men in the 
 dress of the time in California, which is ex 
 actly that we see in Spanish pictures short 
 velvet jackets covered with braid and gold 
 embroidery, the velvet trousers open over 
 full white drawers, while a string of bells 
 down the seam jingled even more than do 
 the bangles of ladies in church. 
 
 The starting-point was almost facing my 
 place of observation. They would form in 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 137 
 
 great order and quiet, the horses knowing 
 the order of the proceedings evidently as 
 well as their masters, and the signal for 
 starting was the exploding of fire-crackers 
 by the hundred boxes under the feet of the 
 horses. What with the sparks and noise, 
 it looked as if the whole thing had gone up 
 like the close of a pantomime. 
 
 It was a point of honor to show which 
 horse behaved best under these circum 
 stances. The horses were trained in the 
 way that has always been favorite with 
 Spanish people, to make any number of 
 dancing movements in imitation of prog 
 ress, while in reality they do not go for 
 ward at all. I think they are trained to 
 this by having weights tied to their legs. 
 
 Each one was a perfect horseman. Each 
 man did not simply ride his horse, but was 
 in the habit of living with it and upon it, 
 and was consequently in perfect rapport. 
 Each one of these put in force every art 
 known to him to exhibit the spirit and 
 the beauties of his horse. As they passed 
 down the one street of the tow r n the correct 
 thing was for people from the side to ad- 
 
138 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 vance and throw fire-crackers in mass under 
 the horses feet ; the firing of pistols was 
 of course ; no end of little shrill screams, 
 laughter, voices in every varying intonation, 
 couplets sung to the air which was being 
 played, and taken up with shouts of laugh 
 ter ; the chorus by every one who took the 
 local allusions. With all this the musicians 
 played with as much steadiness and anima 
 tion as though seated on a platform instead 
 of the saddle. 
 
 The third day I feel myself incompetent 
 to describe. They had their field-sports for 
 that day on the large open green just by 
 my perch in the hammock. And here the 
 evolutions in a small space the rush with 
 which they would go, as though shot from 
 a bow, across the plain; the bringing -up 
 all standing, without any slacking of the 
 speed, leaving them motionless as an Eng 
 lish Horse-guard on duty; the continuous 
 whirls in a small circle, winding nearer and 
 nearer in towards the central point, until it 
 seemed as though man and horse must fall 
 from sheer dizziness ; the mounting of a vi 
 cious, screaming young horse, which would 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 139 
 
 spring like a cat into the air, with all its 
 legs stiffened out and its back bowed, mak 
 ing one jump this way, another that, until 
 it would seem as though everything would 
 dislocate in its rider were a part of the 
 exhibition which perfectly fascinated me. 
 
 We travelled about in this delightful 
 manner, putting into San Francisco for 
 news, or San Jose" for soft weather. We 
 made one halt at San Jos6 to get our 
 clothes washed. We thought this could be 
 done there because there were a number of 
 emigrant families ; but they were rolling in 
 their own money, and none of ours was a 
 temptation to them. Juan and Gregorio 
 undertook to find some Mission Indians who 
 could do it for us. When these women 
 brought the things back, they came in a 
 body as a family, the relations and men of 
 the family lounging in the rear and looking 
 on ; they were evidently proud of the work, 
 and wanted to see the impression it should 
 make. It made a decided impression on me. 
 Their only method of washing was to put 
 the clothes in a brook and pound them be 
 tween flat stones, using as soap a native 
 
140 A YEAB OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 bulb called amole. Everything looked very 
 white and smelled fresh, but they had been 
 merely washed and dried; there was no 
 starching, no ironing, and a very distorted- 
 looking lot of garments they were. I made 
 the women my compliments, seeing that was 
 expected, and asked when the linen would 
 be ironed, and found that ironing was nei 
 ther known nor would it be attempted. 
 "Everything was clean," that was enough in 
 their ideas ; nor could any bribe or persua 
 sion make any diiference. They accepted 
 their fee and went off gravely, with the. 
 usual "Dios te le paga, senora" (God will 
 repay you, madam). Rough-dried lingerie 
 is not comfortable, nor is it pretty. We 
 looked so crumpled and askew that we could 
 not forget the subject, and it w r as with de 
 light that we accepted the offer of a negro 
 woman to wash and iron for us ; but when 
 with this was coupled the obligation to 
 buy her, we gave her up. It required no 
 thinking or effort to make this decision : it 
 was simply following out the habit of mind 
 which came from my education and the ex 
 ample shown me at home. All the neces- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 141 
 
 sary thinking and deciding had been done 
 a generation before, when my mother gave 
 freedom to her slaves because of her con 
 scientious feeling on the subject. I have 
 always thought it one of the most unusual 
 of the many unusual high qualities in my 
 father, that while he did not share these 
 ideas from the same religious and logical 
 thoughts that made them obligatory on my 
 mother, he yet made it thoroughly easy for 
 her to carry out her feelings. My father 
 himself had refused two large inheritances 
 because he would have had to take the 
 slaves with the lands. It was not an open 
 question, but one that had been settled, and 
 I merely followed in the home ideas and ex 
 ample ; and it was not merely as a domestic, 
 but a political question that I had often 
 heard it gone over. The more intimate 
 friends, John Randolph, Chief- Justice Mar 
 shall, and many Virginia gentlemen of great 
 estates, were united in their intention to 
 bring slavery to an end. Some, as the Fair 
 fax family and niy mother, put this inten 
 tion into force, and not only gave freedom 
 to their inherited slaves, but maintained 
 
142 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 them and their children until they were 
 self-supporting, sending others to Liberia 
 and maintaining correspondence with them. 
 I go into this laundry incident a little 
 fully because, simple as it seemed, it soon 
 after became of political importance. The 
 Convention had met at Monterey to settle 
 the Constitution of the state, and the ques 
 tion whether slavery should or should not 
 be admitted was, as every one remembers, 
 the exciting feature. With slave labor there 
 would be no delay in opening up the min 
 eral wealth of the country, and to the fabu 
 lous profits of the owners. Slave-holders 
 and speculators in slaves only waited the 
 decision to bring them overland in great 
 droves. Paid labor must necessarily be 
 scanty in numbers, very expensive, and 
 equally unreliable. There was also the 
 consideration, which is strong when you 
 are made to feel it, that it would put an 
 end to the great discomfort of being with 
 out a class to attend to the daily necessities 
 of life. The want of proper food, proper 
 clothing, were the sources of ill-health as 
 well as discomfort, and there seemed no 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 143 
 
 way to get at a class to attend to this where 
 no one would work for wages, for they 
 could be too independent in other ways. 
 Of course, with time, this would be righted, 
 but to people suddenly possessed of great 
 wealth the impatience to enjoy it without 
 care is equally great. These were a troub 
 lesome class in the Convention. To these 
 might be added nearly every woman in the 
 country, who lifted up her voice and wept 
 over her discomforts. The government pat 
 ronage was on the side of slavery. 
 
 Every one knows the important part of 
 a good dinner in diplomacy. The great 
 Napoleon knew and acted on this. The 
 very badly prepared food with which the 
 members of the Convention had to be con 
 tent during their work made them ready to 
 cry out for cooks at the price of any prin 
 ciple. Here it was my good fortune to be 
 of service, and come in aid to the serious 
 work being clone by men opposed to slav 
 ery. Our rooms in the Castro house were 
 very pretty, with their French and Chinese 
 fittings. My army and navy allies helped 
 me to keep them orderly ; and although I 
 
144 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 had then only the two Indian men, we man 
 aged to be very comfortable. We had the 
 grand wood fires ; everybody sent me birds 
 and squirrels of their shooting, and these are 
 never so good as when broiled on the coals. 
 Each of our travellers was capable of di 
 recting, and the men of making, the Span 
 ish pot au feu " guisada." We had every 
 good thing in fruits, vegetables, and sweets 
 that France puts up for transportation, and 
 all served on beautiful Chinese and French 
 china and glass (I had to get used to Juan 
 and Gregorio breaking a great deal of this). 
 Old Knight, who believed in me, brought 
 in his friends to be convinced from myself, 
 by talking with me, that I really did not 
 want slaves, and w T ould never own them. 
 Our house and table were open, after the 
 hospitable fashion of a new country, to all 
 who had been, or would like to be, friends, 
 and they saw for themselves that it was 
 quite possible for the most cheerful hospi 
 tality to exist without the usual working 
 forces. Here, again, I got credit for what 
 was no effort. I was not let to do anything 
 that would fatigue me. Ideas and deco- 
 
A YEAE OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 145 
 
 rative touches I was allowed to give dra 
 peries and " effects " were rny department 
 and the two Indian men had perfect 
 good-will and eagerness to serve me in ev 
 ery way. I should have liked my clothes 
 ironed, otherwise I felt the need of nothing. 
 In short, my pretty rooms were the head 
 quarters of the antislavery party, and rny- 
 self the example of happiness and hospital 
 ity without servants. I did not mind about 
 the housekeeping, for all that would right 
 itself, and I was really let to have no cares 
 and no fatigues. 
 
 But we did think and consult over this 
 question of slave labor because of a far 
 greater which it involved. Our property 
 was chiefly in mines, by this time proved 
 to be of the richest quality. The diffi 
 culties of working them by paid labor 
 or bodies of men working on shares had 
 been experienced and were fully under 
 stood. Only a slight portion of the gold 
 taken out could be counted on as ours 
 in this way of working them. We could 
 not often hope for such honor as our So- 
 uorians had shown. With slaves in the 
 10 
 
146 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 mines, as our Southern friends constantly 
 urged upon us, we would have certain and 
 immediate wealth by millions. We had 
 just come through the ordeal of want of 
 income. It had involved separation from 
 each other, from home, exposure to many 
 forms of danger to health and life. This 
 was a subject for serious consideration. 
 
 Our decision was made on the side of free 
 labor. It was not only the question of injus 
 tice to the blacks, but of justice to the white 
 men crowding into the country. Here was 
 a field where labor was amply repaid, where 
 man s energy, his physical as well as men 
 tal strength, could bring him a great re 
 turn. We were in the rebound from our 
 own plan of patient waiting and slow gains 
 to all the immediate happiness and power 
 given by the new order of things. Slave 
 labor would shut off this happiness from 
 those who had only their labor to depend 
 upon. It would have been a very poor re 
 turn for the good fortune that had come to 
 us if we had taken part in shutting it out 
 from these. 
 
 I was going over this with an English 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 147 
 
 officer whom I knew very well when I 
 was at Nassau ; it came up in connec 
 tion with our talks over the war. He 
 w r as thoroughly English, thoroughly anti- 
 slavery ; but when I finished, he sprang up 
 and walked about the room, exclaiming, 
 " He ought not to have done so ! He ought 
 to have let the blacks wait another thirty 
 years ; they were used to it !" With Mr. 
 Fr6mont it was the abstract idea of justice 
 and equal rights, but with me only the fol 
 lowing a habit of mind in which I had 
 been nurtured. I think I may claim as 
 I have said to our Northern friends to be 
 long to the " aristocracy of emancipation," 
 for with my people it has always entailed 
 voluntary sacrifices moneyed, political, 
 and social ; not as with most emancipation 
 ists at the North, where it was a local 
 strength and advantage. 
 
 We went into San Francisco shortly be 
 fore the rainy season about three months 
 after I had first seen it. Already it was 
 changed out of recognition by the crowds 
 of people added, and the buildings which 
 
148 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 had gone up. Houses were rapidly going 
 up for the winter ; night and day and Sun 
 days the sounds of hammers never ceased. 
 Ready-made houses were to be had, and 
 some very pretty little ones from China. 
 One of these was bought and put up for me 
 on a lot we had in what was then called 
 Happy Valley, next to where is now the 
 Palace Hotel. It was put up without nails, 
 except the shingling on the roof, all the rest 
 fitting in together like a puzzle, and was 
 of pretty smooth wood, making a very good 
 temporary lodging. Forty-eight hours at 
 the chief hotel had convinced us that it was 
 neither a pleasant nor safe place for a lady. 
 The partitions between the rooms were only 
 of thin cotton cloth stretched on a light 
 frame, yet thirty-six thousand a year was 
 given as rent for this building. 
 
 Our little house had but two rooms, but 
 they were large and clean, and we had what 
 were luxuries a wood fire burning in front 
 of the cottage, and clean food well cooked. 
 We did not attempt furniture, for we were 
 only going to stay ten days. Two bundles 
 of unused shingles made a very good table, 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 149 
 
 while I was absolutely clear of unpleasant 
 sights and sounds inevitable from such a 
 crowd as there was in the town. A friend 
 thought this was too rough for me, and 
 much to my regret made us exchange it for 
 a house he had recently built and furnished 
 in the usual expensive, commonplace way. 
 
 Now my open fire was a luxury counter 
 balancing carpets, curtains, and finery, and 
 our men, who knew exactly how to roast 
 meat on sticks before the wood coals, or 
 between hot stones, and in hot wood ashes, 
 and who were at home in making guisada 
 swinging in its kettle from a tripod of green 
 sticks in true gypsy style were lost when 
 confronted with a cooking -stove. There 
 was a great slamming and banging of the 
 iron doors, and many a " caramba /" So 
 we fell back on supplies from a French res 
 taurant. We were all pleased when the 
 word was given for another start. The 
 drive back from San Francisco to Monterey 
 in the loveliest October weather, through a 
 country now so familiar to San Francisco 
 people as the San Matteo Road, was the last 
 of our charming out-door life. After the 
 
150 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 rains began I had to remain at Monterey ; 
 not only the rainy season, but the approach 
 ing elections, interfered with our ownership 
 of our time. We lingered over this part of 
 our travelling, knowing it was to be the 
 last, for the political duties claimed now 
 the first place. 
 
 Rien n arrive que Vimprevu. We had 
 planned to stay in California about seven 
 years, the world forgetting, by the world 
 forgot, our first object to live our lives in 
 independence, and with the animating mo 
 tive and object, to me, that in about seven 
 years I should return to my people. The 
 " unforeseen" in this case was the discovery 
 of gold. That delightful factor changed 
 our calculations, abolished all our plans, 
 and substituted a power to live where we 
 pleased and do as we pleased, when close 
 upon this came another unforeseen force 
 which made it impossible to put our own 
 will and pleasure first. 
 
 What we had done in Monterey when 
 the State Constitution was being framed 
 there had enrolled us on the antislavery 
 side. It would have been deserting not to 
 
A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 151 
 
 go through with the work. Mr. FrSinont 
 could have been either Governor or first 
 Senator from the state. As Governor he 
 could have overlooked his private interests 
 to the greatest advantage in certain ways 
 have been of most use. to the state ; but, on 
 the other hand, as Senator he could defend 
 the interests of the state in Congress. To 
 me the overruling consideration was that 
 what I so much wished myself would be 
 rendered obligatory, and that we should 
 have to return to Washington, and our old 
 home life be restored. 
 
 It was foreseen that the antislavery clause 
 would be opposed, and need a positive de 
 fender, but no one foresaw the prolonged 
 opposition and bitterness of the contest 
 which did follow, Mr. Calhoun leading the 
 opposition. 
 
 The first Legislature met in San Jose, 
 but I was taken back to Monterey because 
 of my comfortable rooms there ; they and 
 the climate there would keep the good 
 health I had gained. Some rain had al 
 ready fallen, and the creeks were up on the 
 broad plains, so broad that there would be 
 
152 A YEAB OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 scarcely an undulation in twenty miles, but 
 occasionally seamed by a creek -bed or 
 " gulch." Even in the dry season these 
 dry creek -beds and gulches had been a 
 trial to nerves only accustomed to regular 
 roads. The last camp we made was on the 
 Salinas River, after crossing the Salinas 
 plain. There was not much timber here, 
 and we had only a thicket of tall brush 
 for shelter. The carriage was well closed 
 with its strong leather curtains, and made 
 an admirable shelter ; but they were wise 
 in leaving me in Monterey, for camping in 
 wet weather is very different from the sum 
 mer travel we had had, and this was not 
 yet heavy weather, only the gathering for 
 rain. But it had its own picturesque ele 
 ments, and I remember giving them that 
 night the substance of George Sand s Mare 
 au Didble, of which the place reminded me. 
 Even the little rain that had fallen dur 
 ing the night had so swollen the Salinas 
 River that it was found I could not cross it 
 in the carriage. The animals and the pole 
 were taken out, the harness and cushions 
 securely lashed on the roof, and strong ropes 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 153 
 
 passed around the carriage to lower it prop 
 erly into the stream. Other strong ropes 
 were attached to it, together with the men s 
 lariats ; the men themselves, swimming their 
 horses across, took their places on the oppo 
 site bank, which was nearly upright, ready 
 at the word given to start the horses off. 
 The carriage lowered, off galloped the horse 
 men, shouting and cheering their horses, and 
 so the equipage was whipped through the 
 stream and up the bank. 
 
 So few horses swim level that I was not 
 put upon one to cross. Our midshipman 
 took soundings by walking across the river 
 at a point that promised something of a 
 ford, and found the water nowhere above 
 his waist. Fortunately I weighed but little 
 then, and Mr. Beale carried me across on his 
 outstretched arms; and we accomplished 
 our object of outriding the storm, and were 
 safe in the comfortable rooms at Monterey 
 before night, housed, dry, warm, and well- 
 fed the four luxuries of travellers. Our 
 Englishwoman was a most efficient house 
 keeper : we had sent an Indian ahead, and 
 she had had some hours to prepare. We 
 
154 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 found everything thoroughly warm ; a great 
 wood fire ; dry clothes laid out for each one ; 
 the round table, with its gleaming damask 
 and glass and china and delightful good 
 food, ready for us. We thought this the 
 best camp we had made yet. After a little 
 rest I was left alone here ; politics and busi 
 ness belonged in the busy American towns 
 to the north. 
 
 The rains set in furiously, and I was com 
 pletely house-bound; but I could see the 
 bay, and even through the closed windows 
 I could hear the delightful boom of the long 
 rollers falling regularly and heavily on the 
 beach. Near by I had my wood fire, and 
 plenty of reading, such as it was : a collec 
 tion of the Merchant s Magazine, five bound 
 volumes of the London Times, including the 
 period of the Spanish marriages and the 
 political history of Europe for as many 
 years, and an "unabridged Byron" the 
 whole library of a great flour merchant, 
 who said he " had no time to read himself, 
 but thought, I might find some of those 
 interesting." The Merchant s Magazine was 
 tough reading at first, but I did read it, 
 
A YEAR OF AMEKICAN TBAVEL. 155 
 
 and gained a great deal of knowledge that 
 has since fitted itself into more than one 
 occasion of my life. Also, I had the first 
 solid experience in the more usual feminine 
 pursuit of sewing. A large part of my 
 wardrobe had been left in San Francisco at 
 the company s warehouse all the heavier 
 things that had been needed in leaving 
 New York and would be required again for 
 the return voyage ; in one of the many fires 
 this warehouse went, and while my loss 
 was comparatively small, it was important 
 to me, for it obliged me to make up some 
 warm dresses. That I had never made a 
 dress did not trouble me; I had done so 
 many things that I had never done before 
 that a new sense of power had come to me, 
 and I had no hesitation in undertaking 
 that. But the only stuffs to be had were 
 Chinese satins and the harshest English 
 merinoes. I got these in the darkest colors 
 that could be found, and ripping up a faith 
 ful old black silk, made afac-simile of it in 
 the new stuffs. We knew an old lady at 
 home who never shaped the stockings she 
 knit, but knit straight in one size to the 
 
156 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 heel, saying it was a badly shaped leg that 
 could not shape a stocking: I think my 
 dresses were somewhat on this plan. But 
 I was in the happy age when figure graced 
 the dress, and queer as they must have 
 been, they looked very well when once on. 
 And I gained another warm gown by cut 
 ting off the extra length of my riding-habit. 
 But even with reading and sewing and writ 
 ing, the time would have been too still, if 
 there had not been some human voice to 
 break it. The heavy rains made getting 
 about impossible, and I had practically no 
 carriage, as there was now no one to drive 
 me. Mrs. M Evoy, my cook and prime-min 
 ister, had lived in Australia with the wife 
 of the Chief-Justice ; it interested me very 
 much to have her tell in detail the domes 
 tic life of that new country. She was an 
 intelligent woman, who had been in a po 
 sition to see a great deal, and when the 
 evening closed in I made it a regular cus 
 tom that she should bring in her own sew 
 ing, and her pretty, clean baby had its even 
 ing roll on the great grizzly bear skin that 
 was stretched in front of the fire ; my own 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 157 
 
 little girl played herself into early sleeps. 
 The other wing of the house was occupied 
 by Madame Castro herself, and her very 
 nice little girls made charming playmates 
 for mine. 
 
 Some years before, I had read in LitteTTs 
 Living Age the account of a trial before Sir 
 Joseph Forbes, the Chief- Justice w r ith whose 
 wife my woman had gone out to Australia. 
 The sentence of the judge reviewed the 
 case, and dwelt especially upon one state 
 ment of the man who was being sentenced, 
 and whose own chief view of his crimes 
 seemed to be that they were so easy to 
 commit that therefore they were matter 
 of course. We had talked this over at our 
 dinner - table at home "a table round" 
 over which everything of interest was dis 
 cussed. Among us it was the family habit 
 to keep for the dinner-table subjects of in 
 terest, and equally forbidden ever to allow 
 any disagreeable topic to come up ; this 
 was a law of my father s to which we had 
 complied so long that the mind obeyed it 
 unconsciously. 
 
 The man under sentence had committed 
 
158 A TEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 eleven murders before being detected ; there 
 was no escape for him, and he confessed, 
 and described the first murder. He had a 
 way-side stopping-place, and victims easily 
 came in his way. He said that this first 
 man he meant to rob only ; but he let him 
 leave his house and get to a certain point 
 on his journey, where he knew he would 
 have to stop and water his horse. He was 
 there before him, in hiding, and as the man 
 leaned over to get water for himself, he gave 
 him a blow on the back of the neck ; this 
 quite killed him. He made no movement, 
 and was dead. Then this murderer said he 
 " had not Icnown before how easy it was to Mil 
 a man; he didn t think it was so little trouble. 
 After that he always killed them when he 
 found they had money with them." But 
 eleven such murders brought on the inves 
 tigation which terminated his career. Mrs. 
 M Evoy knew all about this case, and many 
 incidents belonging to it and to the great 
 excitement it created. 
 
 It is one of the odd things that come up 
 in life that I should have found here a liv 
 ing link with what had been heretofore 
 
A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 159 
 
 only a matter of reading and family dis 
 cussion. 
 
 The time was monotonous, and seemed 
 long. The Merchant s Magazine is instruc 
 tive, but not exciting or amusing when one 
 is young. One evening of tremendous rain, 
 when we were, as usual, around the fire, 
 Mrs. M Evoy, with her table and lights, sew 
 ing at one side, myself by the other, explain 
 ing pictures from the Illustrated Times to my 
 little girl, while the baby rolled about on 
 the bear-skin in front of the fire, sudden 
 ly Mr. Fremont came in upon us, dripping 
 wet, as well he might be, for he had come 
 through from San Jos6 seventy miles on 
 horseback through the heavy rain. He was 
 so wet that we could hardly make him cross 
 the pretty room ; but " beautiful are the feet 
 of him that beareth glad tidings," and the 
 foot-marks were all welcome, for they point 
 ed home. He came to tell me that he had 
 been elected Senator, and that it was nec 
 essary we should go to Washington on the 
 steamer of the 1st of January. 
 
 At daylight the next morning he was off 
 again, having to be back in San Jose. A 
 
160 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 young sorrel horse, of which Mr. FrSmont 
 was very fond, brought him down and car 
 ried him back this one hundred and forty 
 miles within thirty - six hours, without fa 
 tigue to either. 
 
 The few intervening weeks went by quick 
 ly now, and we were all ready for the 1st. 
 Mrs. M Evoy grieved to lose me, but Saun- 
 ders was there, happy, with more than mon 
 ey enough to buy the freedom of his family 
 and secure them a home also. 
 
 When we heard the steamer s gun, New- 
 year s night, the rain was pouring in tor 
 rents, and every street crossing was a living 
 brook. Mr. Fremont carried me down, 
 warmly wrapped up, to the wharf, where 
 we got into a little boat and rowed out. I 
 have found that it changes the climate and 
 removes illness to have the ship s head 
 turned the way you wish to go. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 161 
 
 HOMEWARD BOUND. 
 
 We had on board some of our fellow-pas 
 sengers who had made the journey up with 
 me in June, six months before Dr. Gwin, 
 who was elected the other Senator from the 
 state, and Mr. Ward. Our first stop was at 
 Mazatlan. At Chagres, at Panama, at San 
 Francisco, the getting to and from the steam 
 ers was very unpleasant and even danger 
 ous : queer boats with undisciplined boat 
 men, no w T harves or steps ; but at Mazatlan 
 we found the solid stone pier with prop 
 er steps, such as the English are sure to 
 build wherever they establish themselves. 
 An English man-of-war was at anchor, and 
 learning that the newly elected Californian 
 Senators were on the steamer she paid us 
 the compliment of a salute of honor, and 
 put the captain s gig at our service. In 
 place of the dangerous landing and heavy 
 swell, as at the mouth of the Chagres, or 
 being carried through the water on the back 
 of an Indian over the reef, as at Panama, 
 or in the same way up the mud bank, as at 
 San Francisco here the tide being so out 
 11 
 
162 A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 that the boat could not quite reach the 
 steps the sailors jumped into the water 
 and laid their oars in a compact bridge 
 from the bow of the boat to the steps, stand 
 ing on either side with their elbows out, 
 making a living parapet to the improvised 
 bridge. I felt that we had already returned 
 to civilization. On the pier waited the ba 
 rouche and fine horses belonging to the 
 English consul-general. His were orthodox 
 harness horses, and I could enjoy my drive. 
 His house was interesting. There were ac 
 cumulations made during many years resi 
 dence of beautiful things, modern as well 
 as old Mexican curiosities, and interesting 
 things from both shores of the Pacific. Even 
 the well-served dinner and trained* servants 
 had their own charm, from my long absence 
 from such things. The house was of stone, 
 and the walls many feet thick, making it 
 delightfully cool. We had felt the heat be 
 fore reaching Mazatlan, and to do honor to 
 Mr. Forbes (and also because I distrusted 
 the effect of my Monterey gowns on ladies) 
 I took off warmer clothing, and dressed my 
 self in one of my best white gowns, in which 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 163 
 
 I felt orthodox, as my Englishwoman had 
 put these and all my " frills " into lovely 
 condition. 
 
 We met a norther in coming out of the 
 Gulf of California, and had some days of 
 great discomfort waves breaking on deck, 
 every one having to remain below under 
 closed hatches. Each of us had taken cold 
 from the imprudent change of dress at Ma- 
 zatlan. Added to this was the bad air from 
 the necessarily closed hatches. 
 
 As I am fortunate enough not to be sub 
 ject to sea-sickness, I have the correspond 
 ing disadvantage of being awake to every 
 thing that goes amiss ; in this case the con 
 sequence was an illness which took a form 
 that put me in danger of dying. Here again 
 my usual good fortune showed itself. There 
 was a regular ship surgeon, for whom I could 
 have no deference ; but among the passen 
 gers was a really good physician a navy 
 surgeon who had made his studies in Paris. 
 Dr. Bowie had me immediately moved up to 
 the captain s state-room on deck, where his 
 skill, aided by the great physician, pure air, 
 kept me alive. 
 
164 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 There was no stewardess, and only one 
 woman passenger ; no ice. Perfect quiet and 
 freedom from all motion was the first requi 
 site for me. This was, of course, impossi 
 ble ; but, against all disadvantages, I lived 
 on, although when we reached Panama I 
 was too exhausted to make the land cross 
 ing. There was only a monthly steamer at 
 that time-. No one would tell me that I 
 should have to miss this and stay in Pana 
 ma over the next month ; on the contrary, 
 little sketches were made of ships ham 
 mocks on stretchers, and all devices for get 
 ting me across without danger or fatigue 
 were constantly talked over to me, and I 
 believed that I should go straight through. 
 "English Tom" a big quiet-faced old man- 
 of-war s man carried me down the gang 
 plank, and took me ashore without a rough 
 motion. I noticed that Saunders was not 
 about, nor Mr. Fre mont, and asked for them ; 
 but my physician had taken the precaution 
 to give me an opiate, and I slept for a long 
 time, waking to find myself again under the 
 hospitable roof of Madame Arce, who claim 
 ed me as hers. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 165 
 
 Mr. Stephens (generally known as " Cen 
 tral America Stephens ") was in Panama at 
 tending to the affairs of the future Panama 
 Railway, of which he was vice - president. 
 We had known him well in Washington. 
 On learning that I was on board and so ill, 
 he knew I would be unable to cross, and 
 had at once told Madame Arce", who said 
 that I belonged to her by right. When I 
 waked it was to find myself again on a 
 sick-becl, with her kind face near nie ; but 
 in the next room was another sick person, 
 over whom the doctor was standing ; and 
 then I learned for the first time that Mr. 
 FrSmont was perfectly crippled with rheu 
 matic fever. The thorough chilling he had 
 received in Mazatlan had brought on rheu 
 matic fever in the leg which had been frost 
 bitten the winter before. This turned my 
 mind from my own disappointment. 
 
 Our good friend and physician remained 
 with us until the last moment in which he 
 could connect with the steamer at Chagres, 
 and would have remained the month if we 
 had needed him. It was hard every way to 
 give him up, but we were where we could 
 

 166 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 have very good care, medical and per 
 sonal. 
 
 Madame Arc6 had moved into the house 
 of a daughter who had recently died, and 
 the views were quite different this time, 
 looking across the garden of an adjoining 
 convent to the open blue sea. The early 
 church buildings in Panama were in keep 
 ing with the wealth of the Spaniards and 
 their need for repentance ; but many were 
 now roofless, and all except the cathedral 
 itself in a state of decay. The roof and 
 spire of this great building were complete 
 ly inlaid with mother-of-pearl shells, which 
 gave out wonderful colors under sunlight, 
 especially when sunshine followed rain, and 
 they had the added beauty of water in the 
 shells. The convent buildings, which made 
 the nearest foreground, were only the more 
 picturesque from being in decay. The bell 
 tower, with its crumbling arched openings 
 around the bell, through which showed the 
 background of deepest blue sky, made a 
 beautiful frame for the picture one saw 
 when the bells had to be rung, especially 
 at vespers, the time at which I saw it often- 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 167 
 
 est. The machinery for ringing the bell 
 was gone, and it was sounded by striking 
 it with, stones. The laughing young Indian 
 girls who went up to do this wore the usual 
 fluttering loose ruffled garments of Panama, 
 and they were near enough for us to see 
 the glitter of their eyes and teeth as they 
 were pounding away at the bell in their 
 unorthodox and unmusical fashion. 
 
 This was a picture of which I never got 
 tired, and it grew to be a mixture of read 
 ing and realities which, when the fever was 
 on me, would take shape ; the " unabridged 
 Byron " which had been lent me at Monte 
 rey had given me the story of Parisina, and 
 the execution of Hugo framed itself in this 
 convent tower. 
 
 In California we were well off when we 
 had one room, and luxurious with two. 
 Here Madame Arc6 had given us the larg 
 est and coolest rooms in her house, and my 
 cot was placed in the large ballroom, which 
 opened from the bedroom where Mr. Fr6- 
 mont lay. In that warm climate very lit 
 tle furniture is used. This ballroom was 
 eighty feet long, and high and wide in pro- 
 
168 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 portion, and the chairs and sofas were set in 
 compact rows around the room. The floor 
 was of dark polished wood, and the walls 
 and ceiling painted darkish blue, to which 
 the furniture corresponded. There was one 
 sofa, or rather a sofa-divan, on which I lay 
 in the day, while a linen cot, with one sh eet 
 under and one sheet above, made all that 
 was necessary for the night. There were 
 no glass windows ; great doors, like barn 
 doors, slid back and left huge openings 
 which let in the view, and, from the height 
 we w r erc above the ground, I was in the 
 neighborhood of the bell in its tower, and 
 of the tops of the thicket of young cocoa- 
 nut-trees, which kept waving and fanning 
 to and fro between me and the waters of 
 the bay. Stephens was the first to notice 
 the effect of these trees upon me, seeing 
 my eyes follow their balancing movements 
 from side to side. He came every day, and 
 often during the day, to be with us ; some 
 times putting his chair where he could com 
 mand both of our positions, saying, in his 
 cheerful way, "I have come to take my 
 chill with you," and proceeding to shake 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 169 
 
 with those violent chills which he had 
 contracted there, and which not long after 
 killed him. 
 
 I astonished them one clay declaiming 
 the execution of Hugo, which had gradual 
 ly come out from its place in my memory, 
 and embodied itself with the vesper ringing 
 of this bell and the general sunset and trop 
 ical effect of the whole view before me : 
 
 " The convent bells are ringing, 
 
 But mournfully and slow ; 
 In the gray square turret swinging, 
 
 With a deep sound, to and fro. 
 
 Heavily to the heart they go ! 
 Hark ! the hymn is singing 
 
 The eong for the dead below, 
 
 Or the living who shortly shall be so !" 
 
 My illness had taken the form of intermit 
 tent fever, as most things do in the ague 
 climates, and regularly as the fever hour 
 came, Hugo came up with it. 
 
 Although not well enough to sit up, we 
 saw very pleasant people, among them the 
 Governor of New Granada, and the officers 
 of one of our men-of-war, while the old serv 
 ants Narcissa and my former favorite, Can- 
 delaria, dosed and petted us and brought 
 
170 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 us nice things, as though we were babies 
 that had to be brought back to life by un 
 remitting care. 
 
 Every day the kind nuns from the con 
 vent sent me over some delicate prepara 
 tion of fruits. A smiling Indian girl, with 
 soft drawling accent, would give the little 
 message with it, which was always to the 
 same effect, " that they prayed I might not 
 die so far from my own country." It was 
 some delicate preparation of preserved fruit, 
 and the pretty china plate on which it was 
 sent was always surrounded by blossoms 
 of some white flower, orange or jasmine ; 
 from these they would take away every 
 green leaf and stem, and set the flowers 
 around thickly, one against the other. We 
 saw here a flower called the " variable," 
 or "mujercita" (young woman), because it 
 changed three times a day in the morning 
 pure white, at noon rose color, and at sun 
 down deep red, which a botanist once told 
 me was nature s mourning. 
 
 There was a man-of-war in the harbor, 
 and its captain planned for me a palanquin 
 in which I could be taken across in perfect 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 171 
 
 safety from any jarring or the weather ; this 
 was a ship s cot swung to two poles, and 
 carried by four men, with a light awning 
 over a frame, and its white duck curtains 
 could roll up or lower at pleasure. 
 
 Stephens, the Governor, and Mr. Fremont 
 had many talks over the Isthmus railway 
 which was just then being built, and over 
 the future railways across the continent, 
 which are now completed, but which then 
 were only believed possible by the few who 
 were working for them. I had seen enough 
 of the suffering of the emigration, when I 
 crossed the Isthmus in going out, to be able 
 to realize the terrible loss of life required to 
 build this Isthmus road. The first eight 
 miles go over marsh ground which gave very 
 poor foundation. The difficulty of planting 
 the piles was just then the uppermost sub 
 ject. I remember Stephens saying that as 
 yet they stood only on human bones. This 
 was not literally, but figuratively true, for 
 the climate cost many lives. The terms of 
 agreement on which laborers came out were 
 three months work and their free passage 
 back to New York or to California, as they 
 
172 A TEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 chose. Only about thirty per cent, claimed 
 this passage, and almost all of those went 
 back to New York ; the rest were buried 
 where they had fallen, from the climate; and 
 Stephens himself contracted such a deadly 
 form of chills and fever that he lived but 
 a few years after this. He is best known 
 by his writings and travels in Arabia and 
 Central America ; but his friends knew also 
 how far-sighted he was in practical matters. 
 His was one of the impelling minds towards 
 building the Croton Aqueduct. When we 
 were first in New York, in 48, he drove us to 
 what was then a country spot surrounded by 
 trees and open meadows the reservoir on 
 Forty-second Street and from the top of it 
 pointed upward to the fields and rocks that 
 lay beyond, telling us that he was so con 
 vinced that the near future of New York lay 
 there that he had invested in lands which 
 would make the fortune of some one else ; 
 that he would not live to see it, because, nat 
 urally delicate, his health was too broken for 
 him to look forward to any length of life. 
 He told us of the contempt with which his 
 belief was received by the wealthy citizens 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 173 
 
 of his acquaintance, who scouted the idea of 
 entering into any such " wild speculations " 
 as that ; told us of calculations they had 
 made how the interest on the money which 
 he had expended would overbalance any 
 profits before those lots could be built upon. 
 He said that he had made his will, giving 
 that property to young relations, who would 
 certainly have the benefit of his foresight 
 as they have had. 
 
 The steamers were then a month apart. 
 "We were both comfortably well long before 
 the time for starting came. I was not 
 strong enough to leave my room, but Mr. 
 FrCmont, in spite of prophetic warnings in 
 regard to the influence of the climate, made 
 daily excursions in the neighborhood with 
 Saunders, searching about the country, with 
 its new and interesting botany. We had not 
 a bad time at all. February is one of the 
 best months in the tropics. We had lots 
 of books, and saw intelligent and pleasant 
 people ; everything about us was beautiful 
 and comfortable, and our minds were en 
 tirely content with our own affairs, and it 
 was a novelty to be quietly together, with 
 out a separation in prospect. 
 
174 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 My palanquin was ready and was brought 
 up for me to see. It looked like the illus 
 tration to " Madagascar " in an old-fash- 
 ioned geography. We had to time start 
 ing so as to avoid being detained in Cha- 
 gres, and we had also to have a sufficiently 
 strong party to meet a new danger which 
 had grown up with the travel on the Isth 
 mus a regular banditti force, which way 
 laid and robbed, and sometimes murdered, 
 passengers; this was recruited from our 
 country, Australia, and especially Jamaica. 
 
 It had never come in my way to meet, a 
 man entirely without personal courage. It 
 was such a matter of course to me that men 
 took care of women, and could not be fright 
 ened by anything, that it came to me, as a 
 young friend of mine says, " a rev lation, a 
 perfect rev lation," to come upon such an in 
 stance of want of courage as we met at this 
 time. Our party had been carefully chosen ; 
 competent persons had looked out for every 
 belonging good men to carry my ham 
 mock, and good reliable men for the bag 
 gage ; and, in short, a good fighting as well 
 as travelling force had been put together. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 175 
 
 The California steamer was in, and one 
 of its passengers, having his gold with him 
 in a small trunk, actually came to us not 
 only to ask us to take him across in our 
 party to protect this gold, but to keep it 
 for him until the following clay, when we 
 were to start. He was an entire stranger 
 to us, but was an educated man, and ap 
 peared to be, what he said he was, a phy 
 sician. He said he heard of my being ill 
 there, and of the strength of our party, and 
 that he thought he could go as my physi 
 cian, and not be suspected of having treas 
 ure with him. He was in an anguish of 
 terror about his gold. Mr. Fremont let 
 him join us. We were only to cross the 
 plain a few miles, and make our camp at 
 the foot of the hills that first night. I was 
 put in my hammock and carefully carried 
 down into the street, after a leave-taking with 
 our dear, kind friend which left me shaken. 
 Pier hospitality and motherly goodness and 
 care had been vital to me now on two oc 
 casions, and she herself was so intelligent 
 and charming that it had been a pleasure 
 to know her, apart from this. Mr. Fr6mont 
 
176 A YEAR OF AMEKICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 and herself had had long talks on all sub 
 jects, and it was a pain to each to lose the 
 other. My men were very proud of niy 
 new equipage, the first of its kind ever seen 
 there, and the people flocked around to look 
 at it as they would to any other show ; the 
 men would halt to explain it, and expati 
 ate upon its merits, while equally free ex 
 planations of myself were asked and given 
 at the same time. Among a colored race I 
 would have seemed fair at any time, but 
 now, whitened by long illness, they thought 
 me dying, and said so. They hardly offered 
 bets that I would not reach the other side, 
 but something to the same effect, while the 
 compassionate women would make prayers 
 over me that I might at least get to my own 
 country before dying. " La pobrecita ! morir 
 tan lejo de su pais !" (Ah, the poor young 
 thing dying so far from her own country !) 
 When we came to our halting-place for 
 the night, I was already so excited that an 
 opiate was given me ; this had only the ef 
 fect of making me quiet and dumb, but 
 did not make me sleep. I lay in my ham 
 mock watching all things; I wanted to 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 177 
 
 rouse some one to take care of a white horse 
 which had a great vampire bat upon its 
 neck, fanning it with its wide wings and 
 sucking its blood, so that next day we could 
 not use it, but I was tongue-tied. 
 
 The next day we had a longer pull, and 
 here the physician who had asked our pro 
 tection could in turn have been of some use 
 by keeping near me, and seeing that I re 
 ceived at once any care that might be need 
 ed ; this he offered to do, and so Was put 
 nearest me in the file when we started. I 
 fell asleep, and they made a little halt that 
 I might have my sleep unbroken ; the bag 
 gage escort was at some little distance, 
 so as not to disturb me. " The doctor " 
 thought too much time was being lost, and 
 that his dear trunk would be exposed to 
 more evil chances as dark fell, so he gave 
 an order to the men to go on with the bag 
 gage ; and they not doubting his authority, 
 went on, leaving us just the palanquin and 
 its bearers, with Mr. FrSniont and my little 
 girl, to follow through the most dangerous 
 part of the route, all defiles and thickly 
 wooded mountain-sides ; also, he carried off 
 12 
 
178 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 with him my medicines. Saunders had been 
 charged not to lose sight of the baggage, 
 and, suspecting nothing, was giving his 
 whole attention to that, so was off with it. 
 
 Our punishment to the doctor was not to 
 let him have our care on the descent of the 
 river. We left him to take his chance there. 
 They told us at Gorgena of the recent mur 
 der of thirteen persons, the whole of a party, 
 by the Jamaica negroes who had brought 
 them up. We, took care this story should 
 be repeated, with details, to him, and then 
 refused him the protection of our boat, 
 which he shamelessly begged for. 
 
 Going down the river was much easier 
 than coming up it ; we had only to float, and 
 keep the boat off from the sunken trees and 
 points of land ; occasionally the men used 
 their long sweeps. It took but two days, as 
 we went with the stream, and we had in 
 that way but one night on the river. We 
 took all the best precautions of thorough 
 shelter from the night dews, and a great 
 ftre to purify the air about us, and kept to 
 our quinine and coffee. The heat did not 
 seem, very great, and I was absolutely com- 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 179 
 
 fortable in rny hammock, which made a sort 
 of gondola of our canoe, and the Scotch 
 plaid stretched over it made a cool shade 
 beneath. We were in such content that the 
 beauty of the tropical growth, with all its 
 strange shapes and splendid coloring, its 
 giant creepers and masses of blossoms, gave 
 us the delight that we ought to have had 
 in them, but which I could not feel fully 
 when I was going up the river. I saw it 
 all now with new eyes. 
 
 Towards the close of the second day, as 
 we neared the mouth of the river, across a 
 bend which stretched before us green and 
 feathery with its palm-trees, I caught sight 
 of a dark straight line pointing upward. If 
 I had known what I was doing, it would 
 have been unpardonable, but too much fever 
 had unhinged me ; and in my excitement at 
 recognizing the mast of a steamer, I sprang 
 up, crying there was the ship that was to 
 take me home, and so undid all the good 
 work that had been done by the month of 
 quiet at Panama. This time the fever set 
 in for good. The climate had told on us 
 too, and even the one night on the river 
 
180 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 was sure of bad results. But here I came 
 on one of my best pieces of good fortune. 
 At that time this steamer line was officered 
 from, our navy. The percentage on the 
 treasure carried gave them each month 
 more than their usual year s pay, while the 
 owners of the steamers and treasure had 
 the certainty of brave as well as honorable 
 men to protect their property. After all, it 
 was not so long since the Gulf had been the 
 scene of a great deal of piracy, and with this 
 new stream of gold pouring into that lone 
 ly region, there were rumors of a renewal 
 of the old pirate business. 
 
 Commodore Porter, father of the admi 
 ral, had distinguished himself so much in 
 the Mediterranean by his services in help 
 ing to put down piracy there that he was 
 sent to the West Indies to stop it in those 
 waters. Lafitte s men were then (1824) the 
 terror of commerce. He succeeded in do 
 ing this thoroughly. There was more than 
 suspicion that it was connived at by the 
 Spanish authorities in the West India Isl 
 ands, and at one of these ports Porto Rico 
 the resentment for disturbing their profits 
 
A YE All OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 181 
 
 took the form of an insult to our flag ; this 
 Commodore Porter compelled them to atone 
 for. But even then we had a habit of study 
 ing Spanish feelings first, and our nation 
 al feeling after ; so Commodore Porter was 
 court-martialled on some point involving 
 the letter of the law. The finding of the 
 court-martial was against him. 
 
 One can imagine the feeling of an officer 
 who knew that he had performed unparal 
 leled services, and been of greatest benefit 
 to his country. He must have looked at 
 this sentence by the light of the eighty odd 
 whale-ships which he had burned in the Pa 
 cific Ocean, inflicting immense loss on Brit 
 ish commerce, and making the streets of 
 London " burn dark for a year," as was said 
 in Parliament ; there must have crowded on 
 him the memories of years of isolation and 
 separation from home, all the weary, un 
 shared hours that go to make up the hard 
 est side of a naval officer s life, his joy and 
 pride in his service to his country ; and then 
 to strike, as it were, on a sunken rock in 
 this cold, bloodless interpretation of a trea 
 ty stipulation discriminating in favor of the 
 
182 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 enemy ! It was no wonder that the old offi 
 cer broke his sword and threw it away, vow 
 ing never to draw it again in defence of a 
 country that would let him be treated in 
 that manner. This was under the adminis 
 tration of Mr. Adams. 
 
 Diplomatic relations were opened with 
 Turkey in General Jackson s administra 
 tion. It was necessary to send some one 
 who should be suitable in all respects. Com 
 modore Porter s name was already known 
 there from his exploits in his young days ; 
 it was synonymous with the power and the 
 dignity of our flag. This led to looking into 
 the reasons for his resigning from the navy, 
 and renewed the indignation wihch those 
 who had followed the court-martial at the 
 time felt at its cold, ungenerous treatment 
 of one of the country s most efficient officers. 
 
 My father was a born redresser of wrongs, 
 and General Jackson was not the man to 
 bother over a technical detail where the 
 honor of the flag was concerned. With him 
 the honor of the flag canie first, after that 
 the sensibilities of other nations. 
 
 Commodore Porter, then living on the 
 
A YEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 183 
 
 Mediterranean, was old and broken with 
 exile and many cares when there reached 
 him the respectful and flattering request to 
 be our first representative to the Turkish 
 Empire. He made the long journey to the 
 United States by sail then to give his 
 thanks in person to those who had done him 
 this late act of justice. Finding that my 
 father, who had never seen him, had most 
 information regarding, and the keenest in 
 terest in redressing, this wrong, he gave him 
 his warm friendship. During the time he 
 remained in Washington he was constantly 
 with my mother as well as my father, and 
 in this way an intimacy was commenced 
 which lasted through his life. 
 
 It was his eldest son who had command 
 of this steamer, with a staff under him of 
 his young naval friends, among them a good 
 surgeon, who said I must have at least some 
 hours of absolute repose. The ship was 
 light, and out of coal, and rolled heavily in 
 the swell off the mouth of the Chagres. The 
 coming on board of the passengers would 
 necessarily make a great noise. The cap 
 tain was not then, any more than now, a 
 
184 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 laggard in his decisions. He steamed down 
 to Portobello, where the waters were calm, 
 and gained for me the freedom from all 
 motion and quiet on the ship. The pas 
 sengers were furious at being delayed, and 
 having to come that distance on the little 
 tender. After the fashion of our people, 
 they immediately held a public meeting, 
 passed a vote of censure on the captain, 
 and adopted resolutions recommending the 
 company to remove him, under penalty of 
 the displeasure of the California travel. 
 Having done this in their haste, they imme 
 diately undid it as soon as they learned 
 the reason for the captain s conduct, and 
 followed another and better fashion of our 
 people in undoing an injustice, and did all 
 in their power to help him take care of me. 
 In every part of my journey I came upon 
 proof upon proof of this manly kindness 
 and care for women among our American 
 men. To travel alone in Europe is impos 
 sible ; even travelling with one s children 
 and a maid you do not receive the respect 
 or attention that you have if there is a gen 
 tleman in the party. But in our country 
 
A YEAH OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 185 
 
 it is exactly different. The need of atten 
 tion or assistance draws out that instinc 
 tive sense of protection which seems to be 
 innate in our people. To be in mourning, 
 or look ill or sad, or to be encumbered with 
 children, is a sure appeal to the exercise of 
 this instinct. 
 
 A part of the main cabin had been por 
 tioned off with sheets and table-cloths tack 
 ed to the ceiling and floor, and to keep me 
 from being thrown off I was lashed to the 
 sofa, for it was now March, and we were al 
 ready in a norther, and continued in one 
 gale after another until we reached New 
 York. When I was able to understand 
 again, I found myself tightly lashed to this 
 sofa, the ship rolling and pitching tremen 
 dously. The officers would come to look 
 after me often sometimes in their " rain 
 clothes," icicles on their beards and eye 
 lashes, and very glad at last to find me not 
 only alive, but able to ask questions and 
 understand everything again. I have been 
 told since that by all the laws of medicine 
 I should have died then, but the greatest 
 physicians maintain that there are more re- 
 
180 A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 sources in nature than are yet dreamed of 
 in their philosophy, and this was a case in 
 support of that idea. Mr. Fremont also was 
 extremely ill ; perhaps we had all been un 
 dermined by the month s stay on the Isth 
 mus and the river travel, and the anxieties 
 about my illness added the feather s weight. 
 A beautiful English copy of Lane s trans 
 lation of the Arabian Nights, with fine Eng 
 lish illustrations, was among the books 
 that had been put up for my little girl. 
 Grown people were very thankful for it on 
 the ship going up from Panama, and then, 
 and later in our camping-life, w r hen it was 
 read aloud to her. fragments of it interwove 
 themselves with our daily experience, and 
 it was the child s idea that when we reach 
 ed home we should relate to her grand 
 father our voyage, as Sindbad related his ; 
 we too had had our dangers by sea, and 
 seen strange beasts and birds ; we had found 
 our " valley of diamonds," and the alterna 
 tions and sudden transitions in climates, 
 languages, people of every varying rank 
 and dress, our unusual modes of travel all 
 seemed nearer to fiction than to the formal 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 187 
 
 routine life to which we had belonged, and 
 which shortly before had been to us the 
 only way of living. 
 
 During the Mexican war, a Mexican who 
 had brought through secret despatches at 
 great risk, in telling my father of the diffi 
 culties he encountered, said he had to leave 
 ordinary travelled routes, and make his way 
 as he best could by mule or horse, or at 
 times on foot, through to Vera Cruz as he 
 put it in his broken English, "on horse 
 back or mule-back, and many times on foot- 
 back. 1 We could include this last mode 
 of travel among the many ways in which 
 our year s journey had been made. Start 
 ing by railway from Washington, then the 
 ocean steamer, then the little whale-boat 
 on the Chagres, then the mules of the land 
 crossing, with again a steamship, followed 
 by such experiments in carriage-horses that 
 driving became a novelty, always walking 
 in hard, troublesome places, and then with 
 my ship s hammock as a palanquin ; on the 
 return across the Isthmus, together with the 
 varied peoples we had seen, ranging from 
 the highest to the lowest in intelligence 
 
188 A TEAR OP AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 and cultivation, differing languages, color, 
 and any number of new and startling phases. 
 Of social observances and want of observ 
 ances we had a great deal to tell talks 
 that were never to end, for we were not to 
 go back to California ; that was settled. 
 The risks to health were too certain and 
 too great ; the trial of separation unneces 
 sary, now that Mr. Fremont s place as Sena 
 tor would keep him in Washington through 
 the winters. 
 
 Having just gone through the experi 
 ence that all our "best laid plans had gone 
 agley," and that it was of no use for man to 
 propose when the whole chapter of acci 
 dents lay open to dispose of you otherwise, I 
 would lie contentedly making plans for the 
 long peaceful time ahead of me in Washing 
 ton. This was early in March. In October 
 of that year I was again at sea, had again a 
 touch of fever at the Isthmus in crossing, 
 and it was three years before I again saw 
 any of my home people. But it is only the 
 Immortals who read the Book of Destiny. 
 Fortunately for us, we live our lives only as 
 we see the days. 
 
A YEAR OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 189 
 
 We were a sorry - looking lot when we 
 landed ; even my little girl had had some 
 of the fever of the Isthmus. Her splendid 
 hair had been cut close, and its loss, with a 
 silk handkerchief knotted about her head 
 to take its place, altered her almost beyond 
 my own recognition. When we reached our 
 rooms at the Irving House, we laughed at 
 our own appearance : we looked as though 
 we had been taken off a wreck, so thin and 
 haggard were we, and in such odd dress. 
 Jenny Lind was in her progress through 
 the country at that time, and we had the 
 rooms that had been beautifully fitted up for 
 her at the Irving House, then a fashionable 
 up-town hotel opposite Stewart s Chambers 
 Street warehouse. How good it was to get 
 to regular things again ! the warm, carpet 
 ed rooms, the large bath, the white roses and 
 my dear violets, with which Mr. Howland 
 never failed to welcome me to New York. 
 
 Of all my carefully prepared outfit, fire 
 and the accidents of travel had left me only 
 this ridiculous toilet which I saw reflect 
 ed in the long mirrors on every side my 
 dark blue cloth riding-habit, cut short, and 
 
190 A YEAH OF AMERICAN TRAVEL. 
 
 hanging as straight and shapeless about 
 my ankles as the clothes on the women in 
 a Noah s ark ; black-satin slippers ; a Leg 
 horn flat, tied down with a China crape 
 scarf; doubled and folded about me, the 
 faded Scotch plaid which had served as a 
 carpet in camp and an awning on the river 
 Chagres. Just opposite, at the door of Stew 
 art s, we saw a match-girl dressed very much 
 in this way, except that her shoes were bet 
 ter for the weather. 
 
 We took two days of needed rest and 
 refitting. There were not the resources in 
 New York then that we have now, but for 
 ty-eight hours restored us, and sent us on 
 our way equipped like other people. 
 
 As in the old ballads, I 
 
 " Had been gone but a year and a day," 
 when I was again back in my father s house. 
 
 THE END. 
 
GEORGE ELIOT S NOVELS, 
 
 LIBRARY EDITION. 
 ADA M EEDE. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. 
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 Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 MIDDLEMA R CIL 2 vols. , 12mo, Cloth , $3 00. 
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 SCESES OF CLERICAL LIFE, and SILAS MAR- 
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 Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 THE MILL ON THE FLOSS. Illustrated. 12mo, 
 Cloth, $1 50. 
 
 & BnoTiiEiis also publish Cheaper Editions of 
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 A Sack of Gold. 
 
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 Miss Naney*a Pilgrimage. 
 
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