A RAMBLE OF SIX THOUSAND MILES THROUGH AMERICA. JUST PUBLISHED, EMIGRATION 19 THE CANADAS. In one thick volume, with a Map, price 8s. in cloth j compiled from original Documents fur- nished by JOHN GALT, Esq., late Resident Agent of " The Canada Company," and now of " The British American Land Association," and from other authentic sources : THE CANADAS, comprehending a variety of Topo- graphical Reports respecting the quality of the Soil in the different Districts, with the fullest general Information for Emigrants, Colonists, and Capitalists. BY ANDREW PICKEN. " Sach a work, embracing as it does, the whole subject required to be investi- gated, cannot fail to be eminently useful ; and it deserves also to be remarked, that its utility is very greatly enhanced by an excellent MAP of UPPER and LOWER CANADA." Morning Advertiser. " There is a great deal of valuable information, derived from unpublished official documents, and from private sources : we would recommend every in- tended emigrant to find a place for it." Mechanic's Magazine. PICKERING'S INQUIRIES OF AN EMIGRANT; being the actual Journal of an English Farmer, from 1824 to 1830, with additions by the Author to 21st of March 1832, through the United States and Canada, with a view to settle as an Emigrant. Fourth Edition, 4s. ; or with a Map, 5s. " Mr. Pickering's narrative is that of a sensible and observant English Farmer : it is written in a plain style, and shews a decided honesty of inten- tion." Farmer's Journal. In one vol. 8vo. price 10s. 6d. with a View of the Gorge of Orsomarzo, CALABRIA ; during a Military Residence of Three Years. In a Series of Letters. By a General Officer of the French Army. From the Original Manuscript. " We regard this work as a most important addition to our knowledge of one of the most extraordinary districts in the civilized world ; and we prognosticate it will afford high satisfaction to readers in general." The Metropolitan, June. In 2 vols., post 8vo., with a Portrait, price 21s. MIRABEAIPS LETTERS, ANECDOTES, AND MAXIMS during his RESIDENCE IN ENGLAND ; now first translated from the original MSS., with an Introductory Essay on the LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THE AUTHOR. In 2 vols., post 8vo. price 18s. boards, A TOUR through the Southern and Western Parts of ENGLAND, WALES, IRELAND, and FRANCE. By a GER- MAN PRINCE. Also, in 2 vols., post 8vo. with a Portrait, price 21s., A TOUR in GERMANY, HOLLAND, and ENG- LAND ; forming the two concluding volumes of " THE TOUR OF A GERMAN PRINCE;" comprising London, the Nobility and their Mansions, &c. ; the Ascot, Newmarket, Doncaster, and York Races, and Tour to the North of England, &c. " The Tour of a German Prince is a work of deep interest to Englishmen, since it tells, with truth and without ceremony, what an individual capable of judging really thinks of our country and its people. The writer, indeed, appears to have carefully committed to paper the events of every day at its close ; hence the impressions are most distinct, striking, and lively : so graphic and true indeed are his pictures, that we feel as if we were the companions of his journey and the partakers of his adventures." Scotsman. In 1 vol. 8vo. MEMOIRS of CAPTAIN HEYWOOD, Midship- man on board " THE BOUNTY," at the time of the Mutiny. A RAMBLE OF SIX THOUSAND MILES THROUGH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. BY S. A. FERRALL, ESQ. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE. 1832. LONDON: PRINTED BY S. MANNING AND CO. London-house Yard, St. Pawl's. EJfaS 04- PREFACE. THE few sketches contained in this small volume were not originally intended for publication they were written solely for the amusement of my immediate acquaintances, and were forwarded to Europe in the shape of letters. Subse- quent considerations have induced me to publish them; and if they be found to contain remarks on some subjects, which other travellers in America have passed over unnoticed, the end that I have in view will be fully answered. 8 VI PREFACE. Although I remained in the seaboard cities sufficiently long to have collected much information ; yet knowing that the statistics of those places had been so often and so ably set before the public, I felt no inclination to trouble my friends with their repetition. In Europe, the name of America is so associated with the idea of emigration, that to announce an intention of crossing the Atlantic rouses the interfering pro- pensity of friends and acquaintances, and produces such a torrent of queries and remonstrances, as will require a con- siderable share of moral courage to listen to and resist. All are on the tip- toe of expectation, to hear what the inducements can possibly be for travel- ling in America. America!! every one exclaims what can you possibly see there? A country like America little PREFACE. Vll better than a mere forest the inhabitants notoriously far behind Europeans in re- finement filled with wild Indians, rattle- snakes, bears, and backwoodsmen ; fero- cious hogs and ugly negros ; and every other species of noxious and terrific animal! Without, however, any definite scien- tific object, or indeed any motive much more important than a love of novelty, I determined on visiting America; within whose wide extent all the elements of society, civilized and uncivilized, were to be found where the great city could be traced to the infant town where villages dwindle into scattered farms and these to the log-house of the solitary back- woodsman, and the temporary wigwam of the wandering Pawnee. I have refrained nearly altogether from touching on the domestic habits Viii PREFACE. and manners of the Americans, because they have been treated of by Captain Hall and others ; and as the Americans always allowed me to act as I thought proper, and even to laugh at such of their habits as I thought singular, I am by no means inclined to take exception to them. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. PAGE SAIL for New York in an American vessel the crew ostentation of the Captain a heavy gale soundings icebergs bay of New York Negros and Negresses White Ladies climate fires vagrant pigs Frances Wright Match between an Indian carioe and a skiff 1 CHAP. II. Depart for Albany the Hudson Albany Cohoe's Falls Rome the Little Falls forest of charred trees "stilly night" in a swamp fire fly Rochester Falls of Gennessee Sam. Patch an eccentric character Falls of Niagara the Tuscarora Indians Buffalo Lake Erie the Iroquois the Wyandots death of Seneca John, and its consequences ague fever Wyandot prairie the Delawares' mode of dealing with the Indians the trans- porting of Negros to Canada - 19 CONTENTS. CHAP. III. PAGE Arrive at Marion divorces wood-lands Columbus land offices population, &c. Shaking Quakers kidnapping free Negros Cincinnati the farmers of Ohio a corn- husking frolic qualifications necessary to Senators, Legislators, and Electors a camp- meeting militia officers' muster Presbyterian parsons price of land, cattle, &c. fever and ague - -55 CHAP. IV. Set out for New Harmony the roads a back- woodsman the j ourney peaches casualties travelling New Harmony M. Le Seur barter excursion down the Wabash the co-operative community Robert Owen - 85 CHAP. V. Depart for St. Louis Albion the late Messrs. Birkbeck and Flowers Hardgrove's prairie the roads the Grand prairie prairie wolf mode of training dogs Elliott's inn inha- bitants of Illinois ablutions coal soil and produce the American Bottom St Louis monopolies Fur companies incivility of a certain Major trapping expedition trade CONTENTS. XI PAGE with Santa Fe lead mines Carondalet Jefferson barracks discipline visit to a slave- holder the loway hostages Indian investi- gation character of the Indians - - 108 CHAP. VI. Leave St. Louis Indian mounds remains of ancient fortifications burial caverns mum- mies Flint's description of a mummy the languages of America town making the Indian summer population, &c. of Illinois the prairie hen the Turkey buzzard sett- lers forest in autumn a gouging scrape the country extent and population of Indiana hogs a settler in bottom land the sugar maple roads a baptism - - 147 CHAP. VII. Set out for New Orleans Louisville Mississippi steam-boats the Ohio the Mississippi sugar plantations the valley of the Mississippi New Orleans Quadroons slavery a Me- thodist slavite runaway Negros incendiary fires at Orleans liberty of the press laws passed by the legislature of Louisiana Miss Wright public schools yellow fever the Texas _______ 177 Xll CONTENTS. CHAP. VIII. PAGE Depart for Louisville tellandsea, or Spanish moss Natchez the yellow fever cotton plan- tations Mississippi wood-cutters freshets planters, sawyers, and snags steam-boat blown up the Chickesaws hunting in Tennessee electioneering vote by ballot trade on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers the People the President's veto finances government banks Kentucky the Kentuckians court-houses an election universal suffrage an Albino Diluvian reliqua - - 211 CHAP. IX. The political condition of the Indians Mission- aries the letter of Red-jacket the speech of the wandering Pawnee chief - - 251 CHAP. X. Kenhawa salt-works coal a Radical rattle- snakes Baltimore Philadelphia taxation shipping - - 291 CHAP. XI. " The Workies" Miss Wright the opening of the West India ports to American vessels voyage homeward the stormy petrel Gulf weed the remora the molusca quaran- tine - - 325 APPENDIX - 349 first two P in the CHEROKEE PffOS^TIX 0fJufy3Z. sew 1830. .^qsay-v DhB./lE TJW SOLG^W^IT DW13T D hB/lE DlWiq DC^OD^y ZOftiy GtrT^T BGJIE^) DJGT DhWP h4T G5Dy F4T Gb^T Bh^APO-iot)y ez GL^PT CPOU -z5Dy<5t>y S^I-?T Gtr f- GT S*^^> 6h>h as the appearance of the people clearly 26 AMERICA. indicates. In this country, as in every other, the canals are generally cut through com- paratively low lands, and the low lands here, with few exceptions, are all swampy; how- ever, a great deal of the unhealthiness-which pervades this district, arises from want of attention. A large portion of the inhabitants are Low Dutch, who appear never to be in their proper element, unless when settled down in the midst of a swamp. They allow rotten timber to accumulate, and stagnant pools to remain about their houses, and from these there arises an effluvium which is most unpleasant in warm weather, which, however, they do not seem to perceive. We entered Rochester, through an aque- duct thirty rods in length, built of stone, across the Genessee river. Rochester is the handsomest town on this line. Some of the houses here are tastefully decorated. All the windows have Venetian blinds, and generally there are one or two covered bal- conies attached to the front of each house. AMERICA. 27 Before the doors there are small parterres, planted with rose-trees, and other fragrant shrubs. About half a mile from the town are the Falls of Genessee. The water glides* over an even bed of limestone rock, ninety-six feet above the level of the river below. There is a beautiful regularity in this fall, but its extreme uniformity divests it of picturesque effect. Here the celebrated diver, Sam. Patch, subsequently met his fate in diving off this precipice. He had per- formed similar feats at the Falls of Niagara, without sustaining any injury. He was not killed by the fall ; but is supposed to have fainted when midway from his leap, as his arms were observed to relax, and his legs to open, before he reached the water. On my journey I met with an English- man, a Mr. W . He dressed a la Mungo Park, wearing a jacket and trowsers of jean, and a straw hat. He was a great pedestrian; had travelled through most of the southern States, and was now on his tour through this 28 AMERICA. part of the country. He was a gentleman about fifty, silent and retiring in his habits. Enamoured of the orange-trees of Georgia, he intended returning there or to Carolina, and ending his days. We agreed to visit the Falls of Niagara together, and accordingly quitted the boat at Tonawanta. When we had dined, and had deposited our luggage in the safe keeping of the Niagara hotel- keeper, my companion shouldered his vigne stick, and to one end of which he appended a small bundle, containing a change of linen, &c., and I put on my shooting coat of many pockets, and shouldered my gun. Thus equipped, we commenced our journey to the Great Falls. The distance from Tona- wanta to the village of the Falls, now called Manchester, is about eleven miles. The way lies through a forest, in which there are but a few scattered habitations. A great part of the road runs close to the river Nia- gara; and the occasional glimpses of this broad sheet of water, which are obtained AMERICA. 29 through the rich foliage of the forest, added to the refreshing breeze that approached us through the openings, rendered our pedes- trian excursion extremely delightful. Towards evening we arrived at the vil- lage, and proceeded to reconnoitre, in order to fix our position for the night. After having done this satisfactorily, we then turned our attention to the all-important operation of eating and drinking. While supping, an eccentric-looking person passed out through the apartment in which we were. His odd appearance excited our curiosity, and we inquired who this mysterious-looking gentleman was. We were informed that he was an Englishman, and that he had been lodging there for the last six months, but that he concealed his real name. He slept in one corner of a large barrack room, in which there were of course several other beds. On a small table by his bed-side there were a few French and Latin books, and some scraps of poetry touching on the 30 AMERICA. tender passion. These, and a German flute, which we observed standing against the window, gave us some clue to his character. He was a tall, romantic-looking young man, apparently about twenty- seven or twenty- eight years of age. His dress was particu- larly shabby. This the landlord told us was from choice, not from necessity, as he had two trunks full of clothes nearly new. The reason he gave for dressing as he did, was his knowing, he said, that if he dressed well, people would be talking to him, which he wished to avoid ; but, that by dressing as he did, he made sure that no one would ever think of giving him any annoyance of that kind. I thought this idea unique : and whether he be still at Niagara, or has taken up his abode at the foot of the Rocky moun- tains, I pronounce him to be a Diogenes without a tub. He has read at least one page in the natural history of civilized man. We visited the Falls, at the American side by moonlight. There was then an air of AMERICA. 31 grandeur and sublimity in the scene which I shall long remember. Yet at this side they are not seen to the greatest advantage. Next morning I crossed the Niagara river, below the Falls, into Canada. I did not ascend the bank to take the usual route to the Niagara hotel, at which place there is a spiral stair- case descending 120 feet towards the foot of the Falls, but clambered along at the base of the cliffs until I reached the point immediately below the stairs. I here rested, and indeed required it much, for the day was excessively warm, and I had unfortunately encumbered myself with my gun and shot pouch. The Falls are here seen in all their grandeur. Two immense volumes of water glide over perpen- dicular precipices upwards of 170 feet in height, and tumble among the crags below with a roaring that we distinctly heard on our approach to the village, at the distance of five miles up the river : and down the river it can be heard at a much greater distance. The Falls are divided by Goat Island into two 32 AMERICA. parts. The body of water which falls to the right of the island is much greater than that which falls to the left ; and the cliffs to the right assume the form of a horse-shoe. To the left there is also a considerable indenta- tion, caused by a late falling in of the rock ; but it scarcely appears from the Canadian side. The rushing of the waters over such immense precipices the dashing of the spray, which rises in a white cloud at the base of the Falls, and is felt at the distance of a quarter of a mile the many and beautiful rainbows that occasionally appear, united, form a grand and imposing coup d'ceil. The Fall is supposed to have been ori- ginally at the table-land near Lewiston ; and indeed, from the nature of the ground, and its present condition below the Falls, no rea- sonable objection can be entertained to that supposition. The upper part of the cliffs is composed of hard limestone, and underneath is a bed of schistus. Now this schistus is continually worn away by the water's dashing AMERICA. 33 against it. This leaves the upper part, or immediate bed of the river, without founda- tion. When, therefore, from extraordinary floods, the pressure of the incumbent fluid becomes more than usually great, the rock gives way; and thus, gradually, the Falls have receded several miles. I at length ascended the stairs, and popped my head into the shanty, sans ceremonie, to the no small amazement of the cunning com- pounder of " cock-tails," and "mint julaps" who presided at the bar. It was clear that I had ascended the stairs, but how the deuce I had got down was the question. I drank my " brandy sling," and retreated before he had recovered from his surprise, and thus I escaped the volley of interrogatories with which I should have been most unsparingly assailed. I walked for some distance along the Canadian heights, and then crossed the river, where I met my friend waiting my return under a clump of scrub oak. We had previously determined on visiting 34 AMERICA. the Tuscarora village, an Indian settlement about eight miles down the river, and not far from Ontario. This is a tribe of one of the six nations, the last that was admitted into the Confederation. They live in a state of community ; and in their arrangements for the production and distribution of wealth, approach nearer to the Utopean system than any community with which I am acquainted. The squaws told us that no Indian there could claim any thing but what was contained within his own cabin; that the produce of the land was common property, and that they never quarrelled about its division. We dined in one of their cabins, on lean mutton and corn bread. The interior of their habi- tations is not conspicuous for cleanliness ; nor are they so far civilized as to be capable of breaking their word. The people at the Niagara village told us, that with the excep- tion of two individuals in that community, any Indian could get from them on credit either money or goods to whatever amount he required. AMERICA. 35 I here parted with my fellow traveller, perhaps for ever. He went to Lewiston, whence he intended to cross into Canada, and to walk along the shores of Ontario ; whilst I made the best of my way back through the woods to Manchester. I cer- tainly think our landlord had some misgivings respecting the fate of my companion. We had both departed together: I alone was armed and I alone returned. However, as I unflinchingly stood examination and cross- examination, and sojourned until next morn- ing, his fears seemed to be entirely dispelled. Next day I took a long, last look at Niagara, and departed for Tonawanta. At Tonawanta I again took the canal-boat to Buffalo, a considerable town on the shores of lake Erie, and at the head of the canal navigation. There are several good buildings in this town, and some well-appointed hotels. Lake schooners, and steam and canal boats are here in abundance, it being an entrep6t for western produce and eastern merchandize. 36 AMERICA. A few straggling Indians are to be seen skulking about Buffalo, like dogs in Cairo, f*~ the victims of the inordinate use of ardent spirits. From Buffalo I proceeded in a steamer along lake Erie, to Portland in Ohio, now called Sandusky City; the distance 240 miles. After about an hour's sail, we en- tirely lost sight of the Canadian shores. The scenery on the American side is very fine, particularly from Presqu Isle onward to the head of the lake, or rather from its magni- tude, it might be termed an inland sea. On landing at Sandusky, I learned that there were several Indian reserves between that place and Columbus, the seat of govern- ment. This determined me on making a pedestrian tour to that city. Accordingly, having forwarded my luggage, and made other necessary arrangements, I commenced my pergreinations among the Aborigines. The woods in the upper part of Ohio, nearest the lake, are tolerably open, and AMERICA. 37 occasionally interspersed with sumach and sassafras : the soil somewhat sandy. I met with but few Indians, until my arrival at Lower Sandusky, on the Sandusky river ; here there were several groups returning to their reserves, from Canada, where they had been to receive the annual presents made *them by the British government. In the next county (Seneca) there is a reservation of about three miles square, occupied by Senecas, Cayugas, and part of the Iroquois or six nations, once a most powerful confe- deration amongst the red men.* In Crawford * De Witt Clinton, speaking of the Iroquois, or five nations, says, " Their exterior relations, general interests, and national affairs, were conducted and superintended by a great council, assembled annually in Onondaga, the central canton, composed of the chiefs of each republic ; and eighty sachems were frequently convened at this national assembly. It took cognizance of the great questions of war and peace ; of the affairs of the tributary nations, and their negociations with the French and English colonies. All their proceedings were con- ducted with great deliberation, and were distinguished for order, decorum, and solemnity. In eloquence, in dignity, and in all the characteristics of profound policy, 38 AMERICA. county there is a very large reserve be- longing to the Huron or Wyandot Indians. These, though speaking a dialect of the Iro- quois tongue, are more in connexion with the Delawares than with the Iroquois. The Wyandots are much esteemed by their white neighbours, for probity and good behaviour. They dress very tastefully. A handsome chintz shawl tied in the Moorish fashion about the head leggings of blue cloth, reaching half way up the thigh, sewn at the outside, leaving a hem of about an inch deep mocassins, or Indian boots, made of deer-skin, to fit the foot close, like a glove a shirt or tunic of white calico and a hunting shirt, or frock, made of strong blue- figured cotton or woollen cloth, with a small fringed cape, and long sleeves, a tomahawk and scalping knife stuck in a broad leather belt. Accoutred in this manner, and mounted they surpassed the assembly of feudal barons, and per- haps were not inferior to the great Amphictyonic Council of Greece." AMERICA. 39 on a small hardy horse, called here an Indian pony, imagine a tall, athletic, brown man, with black hair and eyes the hair generally plaited in front, and sometimes hanging in long wavy curls behind aquiline nose, and fearless aspect, and you have a fair idea of the Wyandot and Cayuga Indian. The Se- necas and Oneidas whom I met with, were not so handsome in general, but as athletic, and about the same average height five feet nine or ten. The Indians here, as every where else, are governed by their own laws, and never have recourse to the whites to settle their disputes. That silent unbending spirit, which has always characterized the Indian, has alone kept in check the rapacious disposi- tion of the whites. Several attempts have been made to induce the Indians to sell their lands, and go beyond the Mississippi, but hitherto without effect. The Indian replies to the fine speeches and wily language of the whites, " We hold this small bit of land, in 40 AMERICA. the vast country of our fathers, by your written talk, and it is noted on our wam- pumsthe bones of our fathers lie here, and we cannot forsake them. You tell us our great father (the president) is powerful, and that his arm is long and strong we believe it is so ; but we are in hopes that he will not strike his red children for their lands, and that he will leave us this little piece to live upon the hatchet is long buried, let it not be disturbed." Jackson has lately published a manifesto to all the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States, commanding them to sell their reserves ; and with few exceptions, has been answered in this manner. A circumstance occurred a few days pre- vious to my arrival, in the Seneca reserve, which may serve to illustrate the determined character of the Indian. There were three brothers (chiefs) dwelling in this reservation. " Seneca John," the eldest brother, was the principal chief of the tribe, and a man much AMERICA. 41 esteemed by the white people. He died by poison. The chiefs in council, having satis- factorily ascertained that his second brother "Red-hand," and a squaw, had poisoned him, decreed that Red-hand should be put to death. " Black-snake," the other brother, told the chiefs that if Red-hand must die, be himself would kill him, in order to prevent feuds arising in the tribe. Accordingly in the evening he repaired to the hut of Red-hand, and after having sat in silence for some time, said, " My best chiefs say, you have killed my father's son, they say my brother must die." Red-hand merely replied, " They say so;" and continued to smoke. After about fifteen minutes further silence, Black-snake said, pointing to the setting sun, " When he appears above those trees" moving his arm round to the opposite direction " I come to kill you." Red-hand nodded his head in the short significant style of the Indian, and said " Good." The next morning Black-snake came, followed by two chiefs, and having 42 AMERICA. entered the hut, first put out the squaw, he then returned and stood before his brother, his eyes bent on the ground. Red-hand said calmly, " Has my brother come that I may die ? " " It is so," was the reply. " Then," exclaimed Red-hand, grasping his brother's left hand with his own right, and dashing the shawl from his head, " Strike sure!" In an instant the tomahawk was from the girdle of Black-snake, and buried in the skull of the unfortunate man. He received several blows before he fell, uttering the exclamation " hugh," each time. The Indians placed him on the grass to die, where the backwoods- man who told me the story, saw him after the lapse of two hours, and life was not then extinct, with such tenacity does it cling to the body of an Indian. The scalping knife was at length passed across his throat, and thus ended the scene. From Sandusky city, in Huron county, I passed into Sandusky county, and from thence through Seneca county. These three AMERICA. 43 counties are entirely woodlands, with the exception of a few small prairies which lay eastward of my course. The land is gene- rally fertile. Some light sandy soil is occa- sionally to be met with, which produces more quickly than the heavier soil, but not so abundantly. I saw in my travels through these counties a few persons who were ill of ague-fever, as it is here called. The prevalence of this disease is not to be at- tributed to a general unhealthiness of the climate, but can at all times be referred to localities. I next entered Crawford county, and crossed the Wyandot prairie, about seven miles in length, to Upper Sandusky. This was the first of those extensive meadows I had seen, and I was much pleased with its appearance although this prairie is compa- ratively but small, yet its beauty cannot be surpassed; and the groves, and clusters of trees, iles dc bois, with which it is interspersed, make it much resemble a beautiful domain. 44 AMERICA. Attached, to the Wyandot reserve (nine miles by sixteen) is that of the Delawares (three miles square). On reaching Little Sandusky Kahama's curse on the town bap- tizers of America ! there are often five or six places named alike in one state : upper and lower, little and big, great and small and invariably the same names that are given to towns in one State, are to be found in every other. Then their vile plagiarisms of European names causes a Babelonish confusion of ideas, enough to disturb the equanimity of a ' ' grisly saint;" and, with all humility, I disclaim having any pretensions to that character. I have frequently heard a long-legged, sallow- looking backwoodsman talk of having come lately from Paris, or Mecca, when instead of meaning the capital of La grande nation, or the city of " the holy prophet," he spoke of some town containing a few hundred inhabitants, situated in the backwoods of Kentucky, or amidst the gloomy forests of Indiana. The Americans too speak in pros- AMERICA. 45 pective, when they talk of great places ; no doubt "calculating" that, one day, all the mighty productions of the old world will be surpassed by their ingenuity and per- severance. I reached Little Sandusky about one o'clock in the day, and there learned that there was a treaty being holden with the Delawares accordingly I repaired to the council ground. On a mat, under the shade of seven large elm trees, which in more prosperous times had waved over the war- like ancestors of this unfortunate people, were seated three old sachems, the principal of the tribe. The oldest appeared to be nearly eighty years of age, the next about seventy, and the last about fifty. On a chair to the right of the Indians was seated a young " half-breed" chief, the son of one of the sachems by a white squaw ; and on their left, seated on another chair, a Delaware dressed in the costume of the whites. This young man was in the pay of the States, and 46 AMERICA. acted as interpreter he interpreting into and from the Delaware language, and a gentle- man of the mission (a Captain Walker) into and from the Wyandot. At a table opposite the Indians were seated the commissioners. The Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, as they were called by the English, from the circum- stance of their holding their great " Council- fire" on the banks of the Delaware river, were once the most powerful of the several tribes that spoke the Delaware tongue, and possessed an immense tract of country east of the Alleghany mountains. This unfortu- nate people had been driven from place to place, until at last they were obliged to ac- cept of an asylum from the Wyandot, whom they call their uncle ; and now are forced to sell this, and go beyond the Mississippi. To a reflecting mind, the scene was touching beyond description. Here was the sad rem- nant of a great nation, who having been forced back from the original country of their fathers, by successive acts of rapacity, are AMERICA. 47 now compelled to enter into a compact which obliges them, half civilized as they are, to return to the forest. The case is this, the white people, or rather Jackson and the southerns, say, that the Indians " retard im- provement" precisely in the same sense that a brigand, when he robs a traveller, might say, that the traveller retarded improvement that is, retarded his improvement, inas- much as he had in his pocket, what would improve the condition of the brigand. The Indians have cultivated farms, and valuable tracts of land, and no doubt it will improve the condition of the whites, to get possession of those farms and rich lands, for one tenth of their saleable value. The profits that have accrued to the United States from the sys- tematic plunder of the Indians, are immense, and a great portion of the national debt has been liquidated by this dishonest means.* The reserve of the Delawares contained nine square miles, or 5760 acres. For this it * See next page. 48 AMERICA. was agreed at the treaty, that they should be paid 6000 dollars, and the value of the im- provements, which I conceived to be a fair bargain. I was not then aware of the prac- tice pursued by the government, of making deductions, under various pretences, from the purchase-money, until the unfortunate Indian is left scarcely anything in lieu of his lands, and says, that " the justice of the white man is not like the justice of the red man/' and that he cannot understand the honesty of his Christian brother. The following extract, Dollars. * Amount of lands sold up to the year 1824 44,229,837 173,176,606 acres unsold, estimated at one dollar per acre. The Congress price was then two dollars, but was subsequently reduced to a dollar and a quarter, and is now 75 cents. . . . 173,176,606 217,406,443 Deduct value of annuities, expenses of sur- veying-, &c. &c., being the amount of purchase-money paid for same . . 4,243,632 Profit arising to the United States from pur- chases of land from the Indians . . 213,162,811 Allowing 480 cents, to the pound sterling, the gross profit is 44,408,918. 19s. 2d. AMERICA. 49 taken from the New York American, will give some insight into the mode of dealing with the Indians. " The last of the Ottowas. Maumee Bay, Ohoi, Sept. 3, 1831. Mr. James B. Gardiner has concluded a very important treaty at Maumee Bay, in Michigan, for a cession of all the lands owned by the Ottowa Indians in Ohio, about 50,000 acres. It was attended with more labour and greater difficulties than any other treaty made in this state : it was the last foothold which that savage, warlike, and hostile tribe held in their ancient domi- nion. The conditions of this treaty are very similar to those treaties of Lewistown and Wapaghkenetta, with this exception, that the surplus avails of their lands, after deducting seventy cents per acre to indemnify the government, are to be appropriated for paying the debts of their nation, which amount to about 20,000 dollars." [Query, what are those debts ? could they be the amount of presents made them on former occasions ?] " The balance, E 50 AMERICA. if any, accrues to the tribe. Seventy thou- sand acres of land are granted to them west of the Mississippi.* The Otto was are the most depredating, drunken, and ferocious in Ohio. The reservations ceded by them are very valuable, and those on the Miami of the lake embrace some of the best mill privileges in the State." The Delawares were too few (being but fifty-one in number) to contend the matter, and therefore accepted of the proposed terms. At the conclusion of the conference, the Com- missioners told them that they should have a barrel of flour, with the beef that had been killed for the occasion, which was received with "Yo-ha! Yo-ha !" They then said, laughing, " that they hoped their father would allow them a little milk," meaning whisky, which was accordingly granted. They drank of this modern Leth6 and forgot for a time their misfortunes. * There are lands west of the Mississippi, which would be dear at ten cents per hundred acres. AMERICA. 51 On the Osage fork of the Merrimack river, there are two settlements of the Delawares, to the neighbourhood of which these Indians intend to remove. Near the Delaware reserve, I fell in with a young Indian, apparently about twenty years of age, and we journeyed together for several miles through the forest. He spoke English fluently, and conformed as far as his taste would permit him, to the habits of the whites. His dress consisted of a blue frock coat, blue cloth leggings, mocassins, a shawl tied about the head, and a red sash round his waste. In conversation, I asked him if he were not a Cayuga : " No," says he, " an Oneida," placing both his hands on his breast" a clear Oneida." I could not help smiling at his national pride ; yet this is man : in every country and condition he is proud of his descent, and loves the race to which he be- longs. This Oneida was a widow's son. He had sixteen acres of cleared land, which, with occasional assistance, he cultivated himself. E2 AMERICA. When the produce was sold, he divided the proceeds with his mother, and then set out, and travelled until his funds were exhausted. He had just then returned from a tour to New York and Philadelphia, and had visited almost every city in the Union. As Guedeldk that was the Oneida's name and I were rambling along, we met a negro who was journeying in great haste he stopped to inquire if we had seen that day, or the day previous, any nigger- woman going towards the lake. I had passed the day before two waggon loads of negros, which were being transported, by the state, , to Canada. A local law prohibits the settle- ment of people of colour within the state of Ohio, which was now put in force, although it had remained dormant for many years. There was much hardship in the case of this poor fellow. He had left his family at Cincinnati, and had gone to work on the canal some eighteen or twenty miles distant. He had been absent about a week ; and on his return he found his house empty, and wa& AMERICA. 53 informed that his wife and children had been seized, and transported to Canada. The en- forcement of this law has been since aban- doned; and I must say, although the law itself is at variance with the Constitution of the United States, which is paramount to all other laws, that its abandonment is due en- tirely to the good feeling of the people of Ohio, who exclaimed loudly against the cruelty of the measure. CHAPTER III. FROM Little Sandusky, I passed through Ma- rion, in Marion county. This town, like most others in Ohio, is advancing rapidly, and has at present several good brick buildings. The clap-boarded frame houses, which compose the great mass of habitations in the towns throughout the western country, in general have a neat appearance. I here saw gazetted three divorces, all of which had been granted on the applications of the wives. One, on the ground of the husband's absenting himself for one year : another, on account of a blow having been given : and the third for general neglect. There are few instances of a woman's being refused a divorce in the western coun- 56 AMERICA. try, as dislike is very generally and very rationally supposed to constitute a sufficient reason for granting the ladies their freedom. I crossed Delaware county into Franklin county, where Columbus, the capital of the state, is situated. The roads from the lake to this city, with few exceptions, passed through woodlands, and the country is but thinly settled. Beech, oak, elm, hickory, walnut, white-oak, ash, &c. compose the bulk of the forest trees; and in the bottom lands, enor- mous sycamores are to be seen stretching their white arms almost to the very clouds. The land is of various denominations, but in general may be termed fertile. Columbus, the capital of Ohio, is seated on the Scioto river, which is navigable for keel and flat boats, and small craft, almost to its source ; and by means of a portage of about four miles, to Sandusky river, which flows into lake Erie, a convenient communication is established between the lakes, and the great western waters. The town is well laid out. AMERICA. 57 The streets are wide; and the court-house, town - hall, and public offices, are built of brick. There are some good taverns here, and the tables d'hdtes are well and abundantly supplied. There are land offices in every county seat, in which maps and plans of the county are kept. On these, the disposable tracts of country are distinguished from those which have been disposed of. The purchaser pays one fourth of the purchase money, for which he gets a receipt, this constitutes his title, until, on paying the residue, he receives a regular title deed. He may however pay the full amount at once, and receive a discount of, I believe, eight per cent. A township com- prises thirty-six square miles (twenty three thousand and forty acres) in sections of six hundred and forty acres each, which are subdivided, to accommodate purchasers, into quarter sections, or lots of a hundred and sixty acres. The sixteenth section is not sold, but reserved for the support of the poor, for 58 AMERICA, education, and other public uses. There is no provision made in this, or any other state, for the ministers of religion, which is found to be highly beneficial to the interests of practical Christianity. The congress price of land has lately been reduced from a dollar and a quarter per acre, to seventy-five cents. Ohio averages 184 miles in extent, from north to south, and 220 miles from east to west. Area, 40,000 square miles, or 25,600,000 acres. The population in 1790, was 3000; in 1800, 45,365 ; in 1810, 230,760 ; and in 1820, 581,434. White males, 300,609 ; white females, 275,955 ; free people of colour, 4723; militia in 1821, 83,247. The last census, taken in 1830, makes the population 937,679. Having no more Indian reserves to visit, I took the stage, and rumbled over corduroys, republicans, stumps, and ruts, until my ribs were literally sore, through London, Xenia, and Lebanon, to Cincinnati. At Lebanon there is a large community of AMERICA. 59 the shaking Quakers. They have establish- ments also in Mason county, and at Coving- ton, in Kentucky: their tenets are strictly Scriptural. They contend, that confessing their sins to one another, is necessary to a state of perfection ; that the church of Christ ought to have all things in common ; that none of the members of this church ought to cohabit, but be literally virgins ; and that to dance and be merry is their duty, which part of their doctrines they take from the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah. Their ceremonies are as follows: The men sit on the left hand, squatting on the floor, with their knees up, and their hands clasped round them. Opposite, in the same posture, sit the women, whose appearance is most cadaverous and sepulchral, dressed in the Quaker costume. After sitting for some time in this hatching position, they all rise and sing a canting sort of hymn, during which the women keep time by elevating themselves on their toes. After the singing 60 AMERICA. has ceased, a discourse is delivered by one of the elders ; which being ended, the men pull off their coats and waistcoats. All being prepared, one of the brethren steps forward to the centre of the room, and in a loud voice, gives out a tune, beating time with his foot, and singing lal lal la, lal lal la, &c., being joined by the whole group, all jumping as high as possible, clapping their hands, and at intervals twirling round, but making rather ungraceful pirouettes : this exercise they con- tinue until they are completely exhausted. In their ceremonials they much resemble the howling Dervishes of the Moslems, whom they far surpass in fanaticism. ^ , Within about ten miles of Cincinnati we took up an old doctor, who was going to that city for the purpose of procuring a warrant against one of his neighbours, who, he had reason to believe, was concerned in the kid- napping of a free negro the night before. This is by no means an uncommon occur- rence in the free states bordering the great AMERICA. 61 rivers. The unfortunate black man, when captured, is hurried down to the river, thrust into a flat boat, and carried to the plantations. Such negros are not exposed for sale in the public bazaars, as that would be attended with risk ; but a false bill of sale is made out, and the sale is effected to some planter before they reach Orleans. There is, of course, always collusion between the buyer and seller, and the man is disposed of, generally, for half his value. These are certainly atrocious acts ; yet when a British subject reads such passages as the following, in the histories of East India government, he must feel that if they were ten times as infamous and numerous as they are in reality, it becomes not him to censure them. Bolts, who was a judge of the mayor's court of Calcutta, says, in his " Considera- tions on India Affairs," page 194, " With every species of monopoly, therefore, every kind of oppression to manufacturers of all denominations throughout the whole country 62 AMERICA. has daily increased ; insomuch that weavers, for daring to sell their goods, and Dallals and Pykars, for having contributed to, or connived at, such sales, have by the Company's agents, been frequently seized and imprisoned, con- fined in irons, fined considerable sums of money, flogged, and deprived, in the most ignominious manner, of what they esteem most valuable, their castes. Weavers also, upon their inability to perform such agree- ments as have been forced from them by the Company's agents, universally known in Bengal by the name of Mutchulcahs, have had their goods seized and sold on the spot, to make good the deficiency : and the winders of raw silk, called Nagaards, have been treated also with such injustice, that instances have been known of their cutting off their thumbs, to prevent their being forced to wind silk. This last kind of workmen were pursued with such rigour, during Lord Olive's late government in Bengal, from a zeal for increasing the Com- pany's investment of raw silk, that the most AMERICA. 63 sacred laws of society were atrociously vio- lated ; for it was a common thing for the Com- pany s seapoys to be sent by force of arms to break open the houses of the Armenian mer- chants established at Sydabad (who have from time immemorial been largely concerned in the silk trade), and forcibly take the Nagaards from their work, and carry them away to the English factory." As we approached Cincinnati the number of farms, and the extent of cultivated coun- try, indicated the comparative magnitude of that city. Fields in this country have nothing like the rich appearance of those in England and Ireland, being generally filled with half-rotten stumps, scattered here and there among the growing corn, producing a most disagreeable effect. Then, instead of the fragrant quickset hedge, there is a " worm fence" the rudest description of barrier known in the country which consists simply of bars, about eight or nine feet in length, laid zig-zag on each other alternately: the 64 AMERICA. improvement on this, and the ne plus ultra in the idea of a west country farmer, is what is termed a " post and rail fence." This de- nomination of fence is to be seen sometimes in the vicinity of the larger towns, and is contracted of posts six feet in length, sunk in the ground to the depth of about a foot, and at eight or ten feet distance ; the rails are then laid into mortises cut into the posts, at intervals of about thirteen or fourteen inches, which completes the work. Cincinnati is built on a bend of the Ohio river, which takes here a semicircular form, and runs nearly west; it afterwards flows in a more southerly direction. A complete chain of hills, sweeping from one point of the bend round to the other, encloses the city in a sort of amphitheatre. The houses are mostly brick, and the streets all paved. There are several spacious and handsome market houses, which on market days are stocked with all kinds of provisions indeed I think the market of Cincinnati is very AMERICA. 65 nearly the best supplied in the United States. There are many respectable public buildings here, such as a court-house, theatre, bazaar, (built by Mrs. Trollope, but the speculation failed), and divers churches, in which you may see well-dressed women, and hear or- thodox, heterodox, and every other species of doctrine, promulgated and enforced by strength of lungs, and length of argument, with pulpit-drum accompaniment, and all other requisites ad captandum vulgus. The city stands on two plains : one called the bottom, extends about 260 yards back from the river, and is three miles in length, from Deer Creek to Mill Creek ; the other is fifty feet higher than the first, and is called the Hill ; this extends back about a mile. The bottom is sixty-five feet above low water mark. In 1815 the population was esti- mated at 6000, and at present it is supposed to be upwards of 25,000 souls. By means of the Dayton canal, which runs from that town nearly parallel with the "Big Miami" F 66 AMERICA. river, a very extensive trade, for all kinds of produce, is established with the back country. Steamers are constantly arriving at, and departing from the wharf, on their passage up and down the river. This is one of the many examples to be met with in the western country, of towns springing into importance within the memory of com- paratively young men a log-house is still standing, which is shewn as the first habi- tation built by the backwoodsman, who squatted in the forest where now stands a handsome and flourishing city. On arriving at Cincinnati, I learned that my friend T had taken up his abode at a farm-house a few miles from town, where I accordingly repaired, and found him in good health, and initiated into all the man- ners, habits, customs, and diversions of the natives. Farming people in Ohio work hard. The women have no sinecures, being occu- pied the greater part of the day in cooking ; as they breakfast at eight, dine at half-past AMERICA. 67 twelve, and sup at six, and at each of these meals, meat, and other cooked dishes are served up. In farming they co-operate with each other. When a farmer wishes to have his corn husked, he rides round to his neigh- bours and informs them of his intention. An invitation of this kind was once given in my presence. The farmer entered the house, sat down, and after the customary compli- ments were passed, in the usual laconic style, the following dialogue took place. " I guess I '11 husk my corn to-morrow after- noon." " You Ve a mighty heap this year." " Considerable of corn." The host at length said, " Well, I guess we '11 be along" and the matter was arranged. All these gatherings are under the denomination of _ I have surely had it in my heart to impress them with the importance of the subject (religion). I have scarcely noticed an instance in which the subject was not received either with indifference, rudeness, or jesting. Of all races of men that I have seen, they seem most incapable of religious impressions. They have, indeed, some no- tions of an invisible agent, but they seemed generally to think that the Indians had their god as the whites had theirs." And again, " nothing will eventually be gained to the great cause by colouring and mis-statement," alluding to the practice of the missionaries; "and however reluctant we may be to re- ceive it, the real state of things will eventually be known to us. We have heard of the imperishable labours of an Elliott and a Brainard, in other days. But in these times it is a melancholy truth, that Protestant ex- ertions to Christianize them have not been marked with apparent success. The Catho- lics have caused many to hang a crucifix 280 AMERICA. around their necks, which they show as they show their medals and other ornaments, and this is too often all they have to mark them as Christians. We have read the narratives of the Catholics, which detailed the most glowing and animating views of success. I have had accounts, however, from travellers in these regions, that have been over the Stony mountains into the great missionary settlements of St. Peter and St. Paul. These travellers (and some of them were professed Catholics) unite in affirming that the converts will escape from the missions whenever it is in their power, fly into their native deserts, and resume at once their old mode of life." That the vast sums expended on missions should have produced so little effect, we may consider lamentable, but it is lamentably true ; for in addition to the mass of evidence we have to that effect, from disinterested white men, we have also the speeches and communications of the Indians themselves. The celebrated Seneca chief, Saguyuwhaha AMERICA. 281 (keeper awake), better known in the United States by the name of Red-jacket, in a letter communicated to Governor De Witt Clinton, at a treaty held at Albany, says, " Our great father, the President, has re- commended to our young men to be indus- trious, to plough and to sow. This we have done ; and we are thankful for the advice, and for the means he has afforded us of carrying it into effect. We are happier in consequence of it; but another thing recom- mended to us, has created great confusion among us, and is making us a quarrelsome, and divided people ; and that is, the introduction of preachers into our nation. These black-coats contrive to get the consent of some of the Indians to preach among us; and whenever this is the case, confusion and disorder are sure to follow, and the encroachment of the whites on our lands is the inevitable con- sequence. " The governor must not think hard of me for speaking thus of the preachers: I 282 AMERICA. have observed their progress, and whenever I look back to see what has taken place of old, I perceive that whenever they came among the Indians, they were the forerunners of their dispersion ; that they always excited enmities and quarrels amongst them ; that they introduced the white people on their lands, by whom they were robbed and plun- dered of their property ; and that the Indians were sure to dwindle and decrease, and be driven back, in proportion to the number of preachers that came among them. " Each nation has its own customs and its own religion. The Indians have theirs, given them by the Great Spirit, under which they were happy. It was not intended that they should embrace the religion of the whites, and be destroyed by the attempt to make them think differently on that subject from their fathers. " It is true, these preachers have got the consent of some of the chiefs to stay and preach amongst us; but I and my friends AMERICA. 283 know this to be wrong, and that they ought to be removed ; besides, we have been threatened by Mr. Hyde who came among us as a schoolmaster and a teacher of our children, but has now become a black-coat, and refuses to teach them any more that unless we listen to his preaching and become Christians, we shall be turned off our lands. We wish to know from the governor, if this is to be so? and if he has no right to say so, we think he ought to be turned off our lands, and not allowed to plague us any more. We shall never be at peace while he is among us. " We are afraid too, that these preachers, by and by, will become poor, and force us to pay them for living among us, and disturb- ing us. " Some of our chiefs have got lazy, and instead of cultivating their lands themselves, employ white people to do so. There are now eleven families living on our reservation at Buffalo ; this is wrong, and ought not to 284 AMERICA. be permitted. The great source of all our grievances is, that the whites are among us. Let them be removed, and we will be happy and contented among ourselves. We now cry to the governor for help, and hope that he will attend to our complaints, and speedily give us redress."* This melancholy hostility to the mission- aries is not confined to a particular tribe or nation of Indians, for all those people, in every situation, from the base of the Alle- ghanies to the foot of the Rocky mountains, declare the same sentiments on this subject; and although policy or courtesy may induce some chiefs to express themselves less strongly than Red-jacket has expressed him- self, we have but too many proofs that their feelings are not more moderate. On the fourth of February, 1822, the president of the United States, in council, received a * This letter was dictated by Red-jacket, and inter- preted by Henry Obeal, in the presence of ten chiefs, whose names are affixed, at Canandaigua, January 18, 1821. AMERICA. 285 deputation of Indians, from the principal nations west of the Mississippi, who came under the protection of Major O 'Fallen, when each chief delivered a speech on the occasion. I shall here insert an extract from that of the "Wandering Pawnee" chief, more as a specimen of Indian wisdom and elo- quence than as bearing particularly on the subject. Speaking of the Great Spirit, he said, "We worship him not as you do. We differ from you in appearance, and manners, as well as in our customs; and we differ from you in our religion. We have no large houses, as you have, to worship the Great Spirit in : if we had them to-day, we should want others to-morrow ; for we have not like you a fixed habitation we have no settled home except our villages, where we remain but two months in twelve. We, like animals, rove through the country; whilst you whites reside between us and heaven. But still, my great Father, we love the Great Spirit we acknowledge his supreme power 286 AMERICA. our peace, our health, and our happiness depend upon him, and our lives belong to him he made us, and he can destroy us. " My great Father, some of your good chiefs, as they are called (missionaries), have proposed to send some of their good people among us to change our habits, to make us work for them, and live like the white people. I will not tell a lie I am going to tell the truth. You love your country you love your people you love the manner in which they live, and you think your people brave. I am like you, my great Father ; I love my country I love my people I love the manner in which we live, and think myself and warriors brave.* Spare me then, my * The attachment which savages entertain for their mode of life supersedes every allurement, however power- ful, to change it. Many Frenchmen have lived with them, and have imbibed such an invincible partiality for that independent and erratic condition, that no means could prevail on them to abandon it. On the contrary, no single instance has yet occurred of a savage being able to reconcile himself to a, state of civilization. In- fants have been taken from among the natives, and AMERICA. 287 Father ; let me enjoy my country, and pursue the buffalo and the beaver, and the other wild animals of our country, and I will trade their skins with your people. I have grown up and lived thus long without work I am in hopes you will suffer me to die without it. We have plenty of buffalo, beaver, deer, and other wild animals we* have also an abundance of horses we have every thing we want we have plenty of land, if you will keep your people off it. My Father has a piece on which he lives (Council bluffs), and we wish him to enjoy it we have educated with much care in France, where they could not possibly have intercourse with their countrymen and relations. Although they had remained several years in that country, and could not form the smallest idea of the wilds of America, the force of blood predominated over that of education : no sooner did they find them- selves at liberty than they tore their clothes in pieces, and went to traverse the forests in search of their coun- trymen, whose mode of life appeared to them far more agreeable than that which they had led among the French." Heriot, p. 354. This passage of Heriot's is taken nearly verbatim from Charlevoix, v. 2, p. 109. 288 AMERICA. enough without it but we wish him to live near us, to give us good council to keep our ears and eyes open, that we may continue to pursue the right road the road to happiness. He settles all differences be- tween us and the whites, between the red- skins themselves he makes the whites do justice to the red-skins, and he makes the red -skins do justice to the whites. He saves the effusion of human blood, and re- stores peace and happiness in the land. You have already sent us a father (Major O'Fallon) ; it is enough he knows us, and we know him we keep our eye constantly upon him, and since we have heard your words, we will listen more attentively to his. " It is too soon, my great Father, to send those good chiefs amongst us. We are not starving yet we wish you to permit us to enjoy the chase until the game of our country is exhausted until the wild animals become extinct. Let us exhaust our present resourses AMERICA. 289 before you make us toil and interrupt our happiness. Let me continue to live as I have done; and after I have passed to the good or evil spirit, from off the wilderness of my present life, the subsistence of my children may become so precarious as to need and embrace the assistance of those good people. "There was a time when we did not know the whites our wants were then fewer than they are now. They were always within our control we had then seen no- thing which we could not get. Before our intercourse with the whites (who have caused such a destruction in our game) we could lie down to sleep, and when we awoke we would find the buffalo feeding around our camp- but now we are killing them for their skins, and feeding the wolves with their flesh, to make our children cry over their bones. " Here, my great Father, is a pipe which I present to you, as I am accustomed to present pipes to all the Red-skins in peace with us. It is filled with such tobacco as we were accustomed to smoke before we knew 290 AMERICA the white people. It is pleasant, and the spontaneous growth of the most remote parts of our country. I know that the robes, leggings, and mocassins, and bear-claws are of little value to you-, but we wish you to have them deposited and preserved in some conspicuous part of your lodge, so that when we are gone and the sod turned over our bones, if our children should visit this place, as we do now, they may see and recognize with pleasure the depositories of their fathers ; and reflect on the times that are past." I shall now take leave of the Indians and their political condition, by observing that the proceedings of the American govern- ment, throughout, towards this brave but unfortunate race, have only been exceeded in atrocity by the past and present conduct of the East India government towards the pusillanimous but unoffending Hindoos. Note. This chapter I wrote during my stay in Ken- tucky, and the first part of it, in substance, was inserted in the " Kentucky Intelligencer," at the request of the talented editor and proprietor, John Mullay, Esq. CHAPTER X. I left Kentucky, and passed up the river to Wheeling, in Virginia. There is little worthy of observation encountered in a pass- age up this part of the Ohio, except the peculiar character of the stream, which has been before alluded to. At Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum, ship-building is carried on; and vessels have been con- structed at Pittsburg, full 2000 miles from the gulf of Mexico. About seventy miles up the Kenhawa river, in Virginia, are situ- ated the celebrated salt springs, the most productive of any in the Union. They are at present in the possession of a chartered company, which limits the manufacture to u2 292 AMERICA. 800,000 bushels annually, but it is estimated that the fifty -seven wells are capable of yielding 50,000 bushels each, per annum, which would make an aggregate of 2,850,000 bushels. Many of these springs issue out of rocks, and the water is so strongly im- pregnated with salt, that from 90 to 130 gallons yield a bushel. The whole western country bordering the Ohio and its tribu- taries, is supplied with salt from these works. Wheeling, although not large, enjoys a considerable share of commercial intercourse, being an entrep6t for eastern merchandize, which is transported from the Atlantic cities across the mountains to this town and Pitts- burg, and from thence by water to the dif- ferent towns along the rivers. The process of "hauling" merchandize from Baltimore and Philadelphia to the banks of the Ohio, and vice versa, is rather tedious, the roads lying across steep and rugged mountains. Large covered waggons, light and strong, drawn by five or six horses, AMERICA. 293 two and two, are employed for this purpose. The waggoner always rides the near shaft horse, and guides the team by means of reins, a whip, and his voice. The time generally consumed in one of these journeys is from twenty to twenty-five days. All the mountains or hills on the upper part of the Ohio, from Wheeling to Pitts- burg, contain immense beds of coal; this added to the mineral productions, particu- larly that of iron ore, which abound in this section of country, offers advantages for manufacturing, which are of considerable importance, and are fully appreciated. Pitts- burg is called the Birmingham of America. Some of those coal beds are well circum- stanced, the coal being found immediately under the super-stratum, and the galleries frequently running out on the high road. Notwithstanding the local advantages, and the protection and encouragement at present afforded by the tariff, England need never fear any extensive competition with her 294 AMERICA. manufactures in foreign markets from Ame- rica, as the high spirit of the people of that country will always prevent them from pur- suing, extensively, the sordid occupations of the loom or the workshop. The upper parts of Virginia and Penn- sylvania are in a high state of improvement ; the land is hilly, and the face of the country picturesque. The farms are well cultivated, and there is a large portion of pasture land in this and the adjoining states. I encountered several large droves of horses and black cattle on their way to the neighbourhood of Phila- delphia and to the state of New York. The black cattle are purchased principally in Ohio, whence they are brought into the Atlantic states, to be fattened and consumed. The farmers and their families in Pennsyl- t vania, have an appearance of comfort and respectability a good deal resembling that of the substantial English yeoman ; yet farm- ing here, as in all parts of the country, is a laborious occupation. AMERICA. 295 I crossed the Monongahela at Williams- port, and the Youghaghany at Robstown, and so on through Mountpleasant to the first ridge of mountains, called " the chestnut ridge." I determined on crossing the moun- tains on foot ; and after having made arrange- ments to that effect, I commenced saunter- ing along the road. Near Mountpleasant, I stopped to dine at the house of a Dutchman by descent. After dinner, the party ad- journed, as is customary, to the bar-room, when divers political and polemical topics were canvassed with the usual national warmth. An account of his late Majesty's death was inserted in a Philadelphia paper, and happened to be noticed by one of the politicians present, when the landlord asked me how we elected our king in England. I replied that he was not elected, but that he became king by birthright, &c. A Ken- tuckian observed, placing his leg on the back of the next chair, " That's a kind of unnatural." An Indianian said, " I don't 296 AMERICA. believe in that system myself." A third " Do you mean to tell me, that because the last king was a smart man and knew his duty, that his son, or his brother, should be a smart man, and fit for the situation?" I explained that we had a premier, ministers, &c. ; when the last gentleman replied, " Then you pay half-a-dozen men to do one man's business. Yes yes that may do for Englishmen very well ; but, I guess, it would not go down here no, no, Americans are a little more enlightened than to stand that kind of wiggery." During this conver- sation, a person had stepped into the room, and had taken his seat in silence. I was about to reply to the last observations of my antagonist, when this gentleman opened out, with, " yes ! that may do for Englishmen very well" he was an Englishman, I knew at once by his accent, and I verily believe the identical radical who set the village of Brace- bridge by the ears, and pitched the villagers to the devil, on seeing them grin through a AMERICA. 297 horse-collar, when they should have been calculating the interest of the national debt, or conning over the list of sinecure placemen. He held in his hand, instead of " Cobbett's Register," the "Greenville Republican." He had substituted for his short-sleeved coat, " a round-about." He seemed to have put on flesh, and looked somewhat more con- tented. " Yes, yes," he says, " that may do for Englishmen very well, but it won't do here. Here we make our own laws, and we keep them too. It may do for Englishmen very well, to have the liberty of paying taxes for the support of the nobility. To have the liberty of being incarcerated in a gaol, for shooting the wild animals of the country. To have the liberty of being seized by a press- gang, torn away from their wives and fami- lies, and flogged at the discretion of my lord Tom, Dick, or Harry's bastard." At this, the Kentuckian gnashed his teeth, and instinc- tively grasped his hunting- knife ; an old Indian doctor, who was squatting in one 298 AMERICA. corner of the room, said, slowly and empha- tically, as his eyes glared, his nostrils dilated, and his lip curled with contempt " The Englishman is a dog" while a Georgian slave, who stood behind his master's chair, grinned and chuckled with delight, as he said "poor Englishman, him meaner man den black nigger." " To have," continued the Englishman, " the liberty of being transported for seven years for being caught learning the use of the sword or the musket. To have the tenth lamb, and the tenth sheaf seized, or the blanket torn from off his bed, to pay a bloated, a plethoric bishop or parson, to be kicked and cuffed about by a parcel of ' Bourbon gendarmerie ' Liberty ! why hell sweat" here I slipped out at the side door into the water-melon patch. As I receded, I heard the whole party burst out into an obstreperous fit of laughter. A few broken sentences, from the Kentuckian and the radical, reached my ear, such as " backed out"" damned aristocratic." I returned in AMERICA. 299 about half an hour to pay my bill, when I could observe one or two of those doughty politicians who remained, leering at me most significantly. However, I " smiled, and said nothing." " The Chestnut ridge " is a chain of rocky, barren mountains, covered with wood, and the ascent is steep and difficult. It is named from the quantity of chestnut trees that com- pose the bulk of its timber. Being a little fatigued in ascending, I sat down in a wood of scrub oak. When I had been some time seated on a large stone, my ear caught the gliding of a snake. Turning quickly, I perceived, at about a yard's distance, a reptile of that beautiful species the rattle- snake. He ceased moving : I jumped up, and struck at his head with a stick, but missed the blow. He instantly coiled and rattled. I now retreated beyond the range of his spring. Perceiving that I had no intention of giving him fair play by coming within his reach, he suddenly uncoiled and glid 300 AMERICA. across a log, thinking to make good his retreat ; but being determined on having not his scalp, for the head of a rattle-snake is rather a dangerous toy but his rattle, I pursued him across the log. He now coiled again, and rattled most furiously, thus indi- cating his extreme wrath at being attacked : the bite of this reptile is most venomous when he is most enraged. I took up a flat stone, about six inches square, and lobbed it on his coil. He suddenly darted out towards me ; but, as I had anticipated, he was en- cumbered with the stone. I now advanced, and struck him on the head with my stick. I repeated the blow until he seemed to be deprived of sensation, when I drew my hunt- ing knife and decapitated him. For a full hour afterwards the body retained all the vigour and sensitiveness which it possessed previous to decapitation, and on touching any part of it, would twist round in the same manner as when the animal was perfect. Sensation gradually disappeared, departing AMERICA. 301 first from the extremities more towards the wounded extremity than towards the other, but gradually from both, until it was en- tirely gone. The length of this reptile was about four feet, and the skin was extremely beautiful. Nothing could exceed the beauty of his eye. A clear black lustre charac- terizes the eye of this animal, and is said to produce so powerful an effect on birds and smaller animals, as to deprive them of the power of escaping. This snake had eight rattles, so that he must have been at least eleven years old. I understood afterwards that there was a rattle-snakes' den in the neighbourhood. They appear to live in so- ciety, and the large quantities that are fre- quently found congregated together are astonishing. The Jacksonville (Illinois) Ga- zette of the 22d April, 1830, says, "Last week, a den of rattle- snakes was discovered near Apple Creek, by a person while engaged in digging for rock in that part of our country. He made known the circumstance to the 302 AMERICA. neighbours, who visited the place, where they killed 193 rattle-snakes, the largest of which (as our informant, who was on the spot, told us) measured nearly four feet in length. Besides these, there were sixteen black snakes destroyed, together with one copper-head. Counting the young ones, there were upwards of 1000 killed." There are two species of rattle-snake, which are in constant hostility with each other. The common black snake, whose bite is perfectly innoxious, and the copper-head, have also a deadly enmity towards the rattle-snake, which, when they meet it, they never fail to attack. The next ridge of mountains is called the " laurel hills," which are covered with an immense growth of different species of laurel. Between these and the Alleghany ridge are situated " the glades" beautiful fertile plains in a high state of cultivation. This district is most healthy, and fevers and agues are un- known to the inhabitants. Here the " Dela- AMERICA. 303 wares of the hills" once roamed the sole lords of this fine country ; and perhaps from the very eminence from whence I contemplated the beauty of the scene, some warrior, returning from the " war path" or the chase, may have gazed with pleasure on the hills of his fathers, the possessions of a long line of Sylvan heros, and in the pride of manhood said ( The Delawares are men they are strong in battle, and cunning on the trail of their foes at the 'council fire' there is wisdom in their words. Who counts more scalps than the Lenni Lenape warrior? he can never be conquered the stranger shall never dwell in his glades.' ' Where now is the "Delaware of the hills?" gone! his very name is unknown in his own land, and not a vestige remains to tell that there once dwelt a great and powerful tribe. When the white man falls, his high towers and lofty battlements are laid crumbling with the dust, yet these mighty ruins remain for ages, monuments of his former greatness : but the 304 AMERICA. Indian passes away, silent as the noisless tread of the moccasin the next snow comes, and his " trail" is blotted out for ever. I toiled across the Alleghanies, which are completely covered with timber, and passed on to a place within about thirty miles of Chambersburg, on a branch of the Potomac. Here, coming in upon civilization, I took the stage to Baltimore. In my pedestrian excur- sion the road lay for several miles along the banks of the Juniata, which is a very fine river. The scenery is romantic, and is much beautified by a large growth of magnificent pines. The Alleghany ridge is composed chiefly of sand-stone, clay-slate, and lime- stone-slate, sand-stone sometimes in large blocks. I encountered several parties of French, Irish, Swiss, Bavarians, Dutch, &c. going westward, with swarms of children, and con- siderable quantities of household lumber : symptoms of seeking El dorado. In the neighbourhood of Baltimore there AMERICA, 305 are many handsome residences, and the farms are all well cleared, and in many cases walled in. The number of comparatively miserable- looking cabins which are dispersed along the road near this town, and the long lists of crimes and misdemeanours with which the Journals of Baltimore and Philadelphia are filled, sufficiently indicate that these cities have arrived to an advanced state of civiliza- tion. For, wherever there are very rich people, there must be very poor people ; and wherever there are very poor people, there must necessarily exist a proportionate quan- tity of crime. Men are poor, only because they are ignorant; for if they possessed a knowledge of their own powers and capa- bilities, they would then know, that however wealth may be distributed, all real wealth is created by labour, and by labour alone. Baltimore is seated on the north side of the Patapsco river, within a few miles of the Chesapeak bay. It received its name in compliment to the Irish family of the Cal- 306 AMERICA. verts. The harbour, at Fell Point, has about eighteen feet water, and is defended by a strong fort, called Me Henry's fort, on Observation Hill. Vessels of large tonnage cannot enter the basin. In 1791 it contained 13,503 inhabitants ; in 1810, 46,487 ; and at present it contains 80,519. There are many fine buildings and monuments in this city; and the streets in which business is not extensively transacted, are planted with Lombardy poplar, locust, and pride-of-china trees, the last mentioned especially afford a fine shade. A considerable schooner trade is carried on by the merchants of Baltimore with South America. The schooners of this port are celebrated for their beauty, and are much superior to those of any other port on the Continent. They are sharp built, somewhat resembling the small Greek craft one sees in the Mediterranean. A rail-road is being constructed from this place to the Ohio river, a distance of upwards of three hundred miles, AMERICA. 307 and about fourteen miles of the road is already completed, as is also a viaduct. If the enterprising inhabitants of Baltimore be able to finish this undertaking, it must necessarily throw a very large amount of wealth into their hands, to the prejudice of Philadelphia and New York. But the expense will be enormous. I left Baltimore for Philadelphia in one of those splendid and spacious steam-boats peculiar to this country. We paddled up the Chesapeak bay until we came to Elk river the scenery at both sides is charming. A little distance up this river commences the "Chesapeak and Delaware canal," which passes through the old state of Delaware, and unites the waters of the two bays. Here we were handed into a barge, or what we in common parlance would term a large canal boat; but the Americans are the fondest people in the universe of big names, and ransack the Dictionary for the most pompous appellations with which to designate their x 2 308 AMERICA. works or productions. The universal fond- ness for European titles that obtains here, is also remarkable. The president, is " his excellency," " congress men," are " honor- ables," and every petty merchant, or " dry- goods store-keeper," is, at least, an esquire. Their newspapers contain many specimens of this love of monarchical distinctions such as, "wants a situation, as store-keeper (shop- man), a gentleman, &c." "Two gentlemen were convicted and sentenced to six months' imprisonment for horse-stealing, &c." These two items I read myself in the papers of the western country, and the latter was commented on by a Philadelphia journal. You may frequently see "Miss Amanda," without shoes or stockings certainly for convenience or economy, not from necessity, and generally in Dutch houses- and " that ere young lady " scouring the pails ! An accident lately occurred in one of the fac- tories in New England, and the local paper stated, that " one young lady was seriously AMERICA. 309 injured," this young lady was a spinner. Observe, I by no means object to the indis- criminate use of the terms gentleman and lady, but merely state the fact. On the contrary, so far am I from rinding fault with the practice, that I think it quite fair, when any portion of republicans make use of terms which properly belong to a monarchy, that all classes should do the same, it being unquestionably their right. It does not follow, because a man may be introduced as an American gentleman, that he may not be simply a mechanic. The Chesapeak and Delaware canal is about fourteen miles in length ; and from the nature of the soil through which it is cut, there was some difficulty attending the per- manent security of the work. On reaching the Delaware, we were again handed into a steamer, and so conducted to Philadelphia. The merchant shipping, and the numerous pleasure and steam-boats, and craft of every variety, which are constantly moving on the 310 AMERICA. broad bosom of the Delaware, present a gay and animated scene. Philadelphia is a regular well-built city, and one of the handsomest in the states. It lies in latitude 39 56' north, and longitude, west of London, 75 8' ; distant from the sea, 120 miles. The city stands on an elevated piece of ground between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, about a mile broad from bank to bank, and six miles from their junc- tion. The Delaware is about a mile wide at Philadelphia, and ships of the largest ton- nage can approach the wharf. The city con- tains many fine buildings of Schuylkill marble. The streets are well paved, and have broad trottoirs of hard red brick. The police regu- lations are excellent, and cleanliness is much attended to, the kennels being washed daily during the summer months, with water from the reservoirs. The markets, or shambles, extend half-a-mile in length, from the wharf up Market-street, in six divisions. In addi- tion to the shambles, farmers' waggons, loaded AMERICA. 311 with every kind of country produce for sale, line the street. There are five banking establishments in the city : the Bank of North America, the United States Bank, the Bank of Pennsylvania, the Bank of Philadelphia, and the Farmers' Bank. The principal institutions are, the Frank- lin library, which contains upwards of 20,000 volumes. Strangers are admitted gratis, and are permitted to peruse any of the books. The Americans should adopt this practice in all their national exhibitions, and rather copy the liberality of the French than the sordid churlishness of the English, who compel foreigners to pay even for seeing the property of the nation. The other institutions are, the University of Pennsylvania, a College, Medical Theatre, College of Physicians, Philosophi- cal Hall, Agricultural and Linnean Societies, Academy of Fine Arts, and the Cincinnati Society, which originated in an attempt to establish a sort of aristocracy. The members were at its formation the surviving officers of 312 AMERICA. the revolution; they wear an eagle, suspended by a ribbon, which, at their death, they have appointed to be taken by their eldest sons. There are besides, the Academies of the Philadelphian Friends, and the Ger- man Lutherans ; Sunday and Lancasterian schools ; and, of course, divers Bible and Tract Societies, which are patronized by all the antiquated dames in the city, and super- intended by the Methodist and Presbyterian parsons. The Methodist parsons of this country have the character of being men of gallantry ; and indeed, from the many in- stances I have heard of their propensity in this way, from young Americans, I should be a very sceptic to doubt the fact. There are also St. George's, St. Patrick's, St. David's, and St. Andrew's Societies for the relief and colonization of British emi- grants; a French and a German Emigrant Society, and several hospitals. There are two theatres and an amphitheatre. Peal's Museum contains a large collection, which AMERICA. 313 is scientifically arranged ; among other fossils is the perfect skeleton of a mammoth, found in a bed of marie in the state of New York. The length of this animal, from the bend of the tusks to the rump, was about twenty- seven feet, and the height and bulk propor- tionate. The navy-yard contains large quantities of timber, spars, and rigging, prepared for immediate use, as also warlike stores of every description. There is here, a ship of 140 guns, of large calibre, and a frigate. Both are housed completely, and in a condition to be launched in a few months, if necessary. They are constructed of the very best ma- terials, and in the most durable and solid manner. There are now being constructed, seriatim, twenty-five ships of the line one for every state in the Union. The govern- ment occassionally sells the smaller vessels of war to merchants, in order to increase the shipping, and to secure that those armed vessels which are afloat, may be in the finest 314 AMERICA. possible condition. A corvette, completely equipped, was lately sold to his majesty the autocrat of the Russias ; but was dismasted in a day or two after her departure from Charleston. She was taken in tow by the vessel of a New York merchant, and carried into the port of that city. The merchant refused any compensation from the Russian minister, although his vessel was, when she fell in with the wreck, proceeding to the Austral regions, and her putting about was greatly disadvantageous. The minister re- turned thanks publicly, on the part of his master, and expressed his majesty's sense of the invariable consideration and friendship with which his majesty's subjects are treated by the citizens of America. There appears to be a universal wish among the Americans to cultivate an alliance, offensive and defen- sive, with his majesty of*' Russia. The cry is, " all the Russians want is a fleet, and we '11 lend them that." In fact, a deadly animosity pervades America towards Great AMERICA. 315 Britain ; and although it is not publicly con- fessed, for the Americans are too able politi- cians to do that, yet it is no less certain, that " Delenda est Carthago" is their motto. Let England look to it. Her power is great; but, if the fleets of America, France, and Russia, were to combine, and land on the shores of England hordes of Russians, and battalions of disciplined Frenchmen if this were to be done, with the Irish people, instead of allies as they should be, her deadly enemies, her power is annihilated at a blow ! For let it be remembered, that there is no rallying principle in the tempera- ment of the mass of the English people ; and that formerly one single victory, the victory of Hastings, completely subjugated them. Hume, who was decidedly an impar- tial historian, is compelled to say of that conquest, " It would be difficult to find in all history a revolution more destructive, or attended with a more complete subjection of the ancient inhabitants. Contumely seems 316 AMERICA. even to have been wantonly added to oppres- sion; and the natives were universally re- duced to such a state of meanness and poverty, that the English name became a term of reproach ; and several generations elapsed before one family of Saxon pedigree was raised to any considerable honours, or could so much as obtain the rank of baron of the realm." Yet the English people owe much to the ancestors of the aristocracy, who introduced among them the arts and refine- ments of civilization, and by their wisdom and disciplined valour have raised the country to that pitch of greatness, so justly termed " the envy of surrounding nations." I do not contend, that because a nation may have acquired the name of great, that therefore the people are more happy; but am rather inclined to think the contrary, for conquests are generally made and wealth is accumu- lated for the benefit of the few, and at the expense of the many. A law has been lately passed by the legis- AMERICA. 317 lature of Pennsylvania, taxing wholesale and retail dealers in merchandize, excepting those importers of foreign goods who vend the arti- cles in the form in which they are imported. This act classes the citizens according to their annual amount of sales, and taxes them in the same proportion. Those who effect sales to the amount of fifty thousand dollars, consti- tute the first class ; of forty thousand dollars, the second class ; of thirty thousand dollars, the third class ; of twenty thousand dollars, the fourth class ; of fifteen thousand dollars, the fifth class ; of ten thousand dollars, the sixth class ; of five thousand dollars, the seventh class ; and all persons effecting sales not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars, constitute the eighth class. The first class shall pay for license, annually, fifty dollars ; the second class, forty dollars ; the third class, thirty dollars ; the fourth class, twenty -five dollars; the fifth class, twenty dollars ; the sixth class, fifteen dollars ; the seventh class, twelve dollars and fifty cents, and the eighth class ten dollars. 318 AMERICA. Direct taxation has been found in all cases to be obnoxious, and this particular mode, I apprehend, is calculated to produce very pernicious effects. The laws of a republic should all tend to establish and support, as far as is practicable, the principle of equality, and any act that has a contrary tendency must be injurious to the community. Now this act draws a direct line of demarcation between citizens, in proportion to the extent of their dealings; and as in this country a man's importance is entirely estimated by his supposed wealth, the citizens of Pennsyl- vania can henceforth only claim a share of respectability, proportionate to the class to which they belong. The west country ladies have shewn a great aptitude for forming " circles of society," and the promulgation of this law affords them a most powerful aid in establishing a store-keeping aristocracy. The large cities in America are by no means so lightly taxed as might be supposed from the cheapness of the government ; the AMERICA. 319 public works, public buildings, and police establishments, requiring adequate funds for their maintenance and support ; however, the inhabitants have the consolation of knowing that this must gradually decrease, and that their money is laid out for their own advan- tage, and not for the purpose of pensioning off the mistresses and physicians of viceroys, as in Ireland.* Another thing is to be ob- served, that in addition to the national debt, each state has a private debt, which in many cases is tolerably large. These debts have been created by expenditures on roads, canals, and public buildings. The mode of taxation latterly adopted by the legislature is not popular, and many of the public prints have remonstrated against the system. " The Philadelphia Gazette," of the 24th Sept. 1830, makes the following remarks " The subject of unequal and oppressive * An Irish viceroy lately paid his physician by confer- ring on him a baronetcy, and a pension of two hundred pounds a year, of the public money. 320 AMERICA. taxation deserves more attention than it has hitherto received from our citizens. The misery of England is occasioned less by the amount of revenue that is raised there, than by the manner in which it is raised. In Pennsylvania we are going on rapidly, making our state a second England in regard of debt and taxation. Our public debt is already 13,000,000 dollars; and before our canals and rail-roads shall be completed, it will pro- bably amount to 18 or 20 millions. The law imposing taxes of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 dollars on retailers, is not the only just sub- ject of complaint. The collateral inheritance tax is equally unjust. The tavern-keepers are besides to be taxed from 20 to 50 dollars each. Nor does the matter end here. At the next session of the legislature, it will, in all probability, be found necessary to lay on additional taxes : and when the principle of unjust taxation is once admitted in legisla- tion, it is difficult to say how far it will be carried." AMERICA. 321 Whilst staying at Philadelphia an account of the French revolution arrived, and the merchants, there and at New York, were in high spirits, thinking that war was inevitable. A war in Europe is always hailed with de- light in America, as it opens a field for com- mercial enterprise, and gives employment to the shipping, of which at present they are much in need . During the long and ruinous war in Europe, the mercantile and shipping interests of the United States advanced with an unex- ampled degree of rapidity. The Americans were then the carriers of nearly all Europe, and scarcely any merchandize entered the ports of the belligerent powers, but in Ame- rican bottoms. This unnatural state of pros- perity could not last : peace was established, and from that era the decline of commerce in the United States may be dated. The mer- chants seem not to have calculated on this event's so soon taking place, or to have over- rated the increase of prosperity and popula- 322 AMERICA. tion in their own country, as up to that period, and for some years afterwards, there does appear to have been no relaxation of ship-building, and little diminution of mer- cantile speculations. At present the ship- owners are realizing little beyond the ex- penses of their vessels, and in many cases the bottoms are actually in debt. The frequent failures in the Atlantic cities, of late, are mainly to be attributed to unsuccessful ship speculations ; and I am myself aware of more than one instance, where the freight was so extremely low, as to do little more than cover the expenditure of the voyage. On my return to Europe, while staying at Marseilles, twelve American vessels arrived in that port within the space of two months ; and before my departure, nine of these returned to the United States with ballast (stones), and I believe only two with full cargos. In a national point of view, the difficulty of obtaining employment for the shipping of America may not have been so injurious as at AMERICA. 323 first view it appears to be ; on the contrary, I am of opinion that it has been advantageous. Whilst a profitable trade could with facility be carried on with and in Europe, the merchants seldom thought of extending their enterprises to any other parts of the world ; but since the decline of that trade, communications have been opened with the East Indies, Africa, all the ports of the Mediterranean, and voyages to the Pacific, and to the Austral regions, are now of common occurrence. The museums in the Atlantic cities bear ample testimony to the enterprising character of the American mer- chants, which by their means are filled with all the curious and interesting productions of the East. This has encouraged a taste for scientific studies, and for travelling; which must ultimately tend to raise the nation to a degree of respectability little inferior to the oldest European state. y 2 CHAPTER XL HAVING sojourned for more than three weeks at Philadelphia, I departed for New York. The impressions made on my mind during that time were highly favourable to the Philadelphians and their city. It is the handsomest city in the Union ; and the inha- bitants, in sociability and politeness, have much the advantage of any other body of people with whom I came in contact. The steamer takes you up the Dela- ware river to Bordentown, in New Jersey ? twenty-four miles from Philadelphia. The country at either side is in a high state of cultivation. It is interspersed with hand- some country seats, and on the whole pre- 326 AMERICA. sents a most charming prospect. There is scarcely a single point passed up the wind- ings of the Delaware, but presents a new and pleasing variety of landscape luxuriant foliage gently swelling hills, and fertile lawns ; which last having been lately mown, were covered with a rich green sward most pleasing to the eye. The banks of the river at Bordentown are high, and the town, as seen from the water, has a pretty effect. Here a stage took us across New Jersey to Amboy. This is not a large town, nor can it ever be of much importance, being situated too near the cities of New York and Philadelphia. At Amboy we again took the steam-boat up the bay, and after a delightful sail of thirty miles, through scenery the most beautiful and magnificent, we arrived at New York. When I was at New York about fifteen months before, I was informed that the work- ing classes were being organized into regular bodies, similar to the " union of trades" in England, for the purpose of retaining all poli- AMERICA. 327 tical power in their own hands. This or- ganization has taken place at the suggestion of Frances Wright, of whom I shall again have occasion to speak presently, and has succeeded to an astonishing extent. There are three or four different bodies of the " workies," as they call themselves familiarly, which vary somewhat from each other in their principles, and go different lengths in their attacks on the present institutions of society. There are those of them called " agrarians," who contend that there should be a law passed to prohibit individuals holding beyond a certain quantity of ground; and that at given intervals of time there should be an equal division of property throughout the land. This is the most ultra, and least numerous class ; the absurdity of whose doc- trines must ultimately destroy them as a body. Various handbills and placards may be seen posted about the city, calling meet- ings of these unions. Some of those hand- bills are of a most extraordinary character 328 AMERICA. indeed. I shall here insert a copy of one, which I took off a wall, and have now in my possession. It may serve to illustrate the character of those clubs. THE CAUSE OF THE POOR, i The Mechanics and other working men of the city of New York, and of these such and such only as live by their own useful industry, who wish to retain all poli- tical power in their own hands ; WHO ARE IN FAVOUR OF AND WHO ARE OPPOSED TO A just compensation for labour, Abolishing imprisonment for debt, An efficient lien law, A general system of edu- cation ; including food, clothing and instruction, equal for all, at the pub- lic expense, without sepa- ration of children from parents, Exemption from sale by execution, of mechanics' tools and implements sufficiently extensive to enable them to carry on business : Banks and Bankers, Auctions and Auctioneers, Monopolies and Monopolists of all descrip- tions, Brokers, Lawyers, and Rich men for office, and to all those, either rich or poor, who favour them, Exemption of Property from Taxation : Are invited to assemble at the Wooster-street Military Hall, on Thursday evening next, 16th Sept., at eight AMERICA. 329 o'clock, to select by Ballot, from among the persons pro- posed on the 6th Instant, Candidates for Governor, Lieu- tenant-Governor, Senator, and a New Committee of Fifty, and to propose Candidates for Register, for Members of Congress, and for Assembly. By order of the Committee of Fifty. JOHN R. SOPER, Chairman. JOHN TUTHILL, Secretary. So far for the " Workies;" and now for Miss Wright. If I understand this lady's principles correctly, they are strictly Epicu- rean. She contends, that mankind have nothing whatever to do with any but this tangible world ; that the sole and only legi- timate pursuit of man, is terrestrial happi- ness; that looking forward to an ideal state of existence, diverts his attention from the pleasures of this life destroys all real sympathy towards his fellow-creatures, and renders him callous to their sufferings. How- ever different the theories of other systems may be, she contends that the practice of the world, in all ages and generations, shews that this is the effect of their inculcation. 330 AMERICA. These are alarming doctrines ; and when this lady made her debut in public, the jour- nals contended that their absurdity was too gross to be of any injury to society, and that / in a few months, if she continued lecturing, it would be to empty benches. The editor of " The New York Courier and Enquirer " and she have been in con- stant enmity, arid have never failed denounc- ing each other when opportunity offered. Miss Wright sailed from New York for France, where she still remains, in the month of July, 1830; and previous to her departure delivered an address, on which " the New York Enquirer" makes the following obser- vations: " The parting address of Miss Wright at the Bowery Theatre, on Wednesday evening, was a singular melange of politics and impiety eloquence and irreligion bold invective, and electioneering slang. The theatre was very much crowded, probably three thousand persons being present; and what was the most AMERICA. 331 surprising circumstance of the whole, is the fact, that about one half of the audience were females respectable females . t( When Fanny first made her appearance in this city as a lecturer on the ' new order of things,' she was very little visited by respect- able females. At her first lecture in the Park Theatre, about half a dozen appeared ; but these soon left the house. From that period till the present, we had not heard her speak in public ; but her doctrines, and opinions, and philosophy, appear to have made much greater progress in the city than we ever dreamt of. Her fervid eloquence her fine action her soprano-toned voice her bold and daring attacks upon all the present systems of society and particularly upon priests, politicians, bankers, and aristocrats as she calls them, have raised a party around her of considerable magnitude, and of much fervour and enthusiasm." ****** " The present state of things in this city 332 AMERICA. is, to say the least of it, very singular. A bold and eloquent woman lays siege to the very foundations of society inflames and ex- cites the public mind declaims with vehe- mence against every thing religious and orderly, and directs the whole of her move- ments to accomplish the election of a ticket next fall, under the title of the ' working- man's ticket.'* She avows that her object is a thorough and radical reform and change in every relation of life even the dearest and most sacred. Father, mother, husband, wife, son, and daughter, in all their delicate and endearing relationships, are to be swept away equally with clergymen, churches, banks, parties, and benevolent societies. Hundreds and hundreds of respectable families, by fre- quenting her lectures, give countenance and currency to these startling principles and doctrines. Nearly the whole newspaper press * The " Education ticket," that of the " workies," carried every thing before it in New York and the ad- joining states, at the election of members of congress, &c. AMERICA. 333 of the city maintain a death-like silence, while the great Red Harlot of Infidelity is madly and triumphantly stalking over the city, under the mantle of ' working-men,' and making rapid progress in her work of ruin. If a solitary newspaper raise a word in favour of public virtue and private morals, in defence of the rights, liberties, and property of the commu- nity, it is denounced with open bitterness by some, and secretly stabbed at by them who wish to pass for good citizens. Miss Wright says she leaves the city soon. This is a mere ruse to call her followers around her. The effect of her lectures is already boasted of by her followers. ' Two years ago,' say they, * twenty persons could scarcely be found in New York who would openly avow infidelity now we have twenty thousand. Is not that something ?' " We say it is something something that will make the whole city think." On the day of my departure for Europe, is was announced to the merchants of New 334 AMERICA. York, that the West India ports were opened to American vessels. This is a heavy blow to the interests of the British colonies ; and it does not appear that even Great Britain herself has received any equivalent for inflicting so serious an injury on a portion of the empire by no means un- important. The Canadians and Nova Scotians found a market for their surplus produce in the West Indies, for which they took in re- turn the productions of these islands thus a reciprocal advantage was derived to the sister colonies. But now, from the proximity of the West Indies to the Atlantic cities of the United States, American produce will be poured into these markets, for which, in re- turn, little else than specie will be brought back to the ports of the Republic. It may be said, that an equivalent has been obtained by the removal of restrictions hitherto laid on British shipping. This I deny is any thing like an equivalent, as the trade with America is carried on almost exclusively AMERICA. 335 in American bottoms. I particularly noted at New Orleans, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, the paucity of British vessels in those ports; and ascertained that it was the practice among American merchants, who it must be observed are nearly all extensive ship-owners, to withhold cargos, even at some inconvenience, from foreign vessels, and await the arrival of those of their own country. I do not positively assert that the ships si any other nation are preferred to those of England ; but, as far as my personal observations on that point have gone, I am strongly inclined to think that such is the fact. The mercantile and shipping interests of Great Britain must continue to decline, if the government suffers itself continually to be cajoled into measures of this nature, and effects treaties the advantages of which appear to be all on one side, and in lieu of its con- cessions receives no just equivalent; unless a little empty praise for " liberal policy" and " generosity," can be so termed. I am well 336 AMERICA. aware that it may have been of some small advantage to the West Indies to be enabled to obtain their supplies from the United States ; but with reference to the policy of the measure, I speak only of the empire at large. Nearly all the Canadians with whom I con- versed, freely acknowledged that they have not shaken off the yoke of England, only because they enjoyed some advantages by their connexion with her: but as these are diminished, the ties become loosened, and at length will be found too weak to hold them any longer. Disputes have already arisen between the people and the government rela- tive to church lands, which appropriations they contend are unjust and dishonest. No doubt the question of tariff duties on the raw material imported into England, is one of great delicacy as connected with the manufacturing interests of the country ; yet it does appear to me, that a small duty might without injury be imposed on American cottons imported in American bottoms. This AMERICA. 337 would afford considerable encouragement to the shipping of Great Britain and her colo- nies, and could by no means be injurious to the manufacturing interests. The cottons of the Levant have been latterly increasing in quantity, and a measure of this nature would be likely to promote their further and rapid increase; which is desirable, as it would leave us less dependent on America, than we now are, for the raw material. The shipping of America is not held by the cotton-growing states ; and although the nationality of the southerns is no doubt great, yet their love of self-interest is much greater, and would always preponderate in their choice of vessels. It would be even better, if found necessary, to make some arrangement in the shape of draw-back, than that a nation which has imposed a duty on our manufactured goods, almost amounting to a prohibition, should reap so much advantage from our system of " liberal and generous" policy. I shall conclude these rambling sketches 338 AMERICA. by observing, that there are two things emi- nently remarkable in America : the one is, that every American from the highest to the lowest, thinks the Republican form of government the best; and the other, that the seditious and rebellious of all countries become there the most peaceable and contented citizens. We sailed from New York on the 1st of October, 1830. The monotony of a sea voyage, with unscientific people, is tiresome beyond description. The journal of a single day is the history of a month. You rise in the morning, and having performed the ne- cessary ablutions, mount on deck, " Well Captain, how does she head?" " South-east by east" (our course is east by south). " Bad, bad, Captain two points off." You then promenade the quarter-deck, until the black steward arrests your progress grins in your face, and announces breakfast. Down you go, and fall foul of ham, beef, pommes de terre frites, jonny-cakes, and cafe sans la-it; and generally, in despite of bad cooking AMERICA. 339 and occasional lee-lurches, contrive to eat an enormous meal. Breakfast being des- patched, you again go on deck promenade gaze on the clouds then read a little, if per- chance you have books with you lean over the gunwale, watching the waves and the motion of the vessel ; but the eternal water, clouds, and sky sky, clouds, and water? produce a listlessness that nothing can over- come. In the Atlantic, a ship in sight is an object which arouses the attention of all on board to speak one is an sera, and furnishes to the captain and mates a subject for the day's conversation. Thus situated, an occasional spell of squally weather is by no means uninteresting : the lowering aspect of the sky the foaming surges, which come rolling on, threatening to overwhelm the tall ship, and bury her in the fathomless abyss of the ocean the laugh of the gal- lant tars, when a sea sweeps the deck and drenches them to the skin all these in- cidents, united, rather amuse the voyager, z 2 340 AMERICA. and tend to dispel the inanity with which he is afflicted. During these periods, I have been for hours watching the motions of the " stormy petrel " (procellaria pelagica), called by sailors, " mother Carey's chickens.'' These birds are seldom seen in calm weather, but appear to follow the gale, and when it blows most heavily they are seen in greatest numbers. The colour is brown and white ; the size about that of the swallow, whose motions on the wing they resemble) They skim over the surface of the roughest sea, gliding up and down the undulations with astonishing swiftness. When they observe their prey, they descend flutteringly, and place the feet and the tips of the wings on the surface of the water. In this position I have seen many of them rest for five or six seconds, until they had completed the capture. The petrel is to be seen in all parts of the Atlantic, no matter how distant from land ; and the oldest seaman with whom I have conversed on the subject, never saw AMERICA. 341 one of them rest. Humboldt says, that in the Northern Deserta, the petrels hide in rabbit burrows. A few days' sail brought us into the " Gulf stream," the influence of which is felt as high as the 43 north latitude. We saw a considerable quantity of fucus natans, or gulf weed, but it generally was so far from the vessel, that I could not contrive to pro- cure a sprig. Mr. Luccock, in his Notes on Brazil, says, that " if a nodule of this weed, taken fresh from the water at night, is hung up in a small cabin, it emits phosphorescent light enough to render objects visible." He describes the leaves of this plant as springing from the joints of the branches, oblong, in- dented at the edges, about an inch and a half long, and a quarter of an inch broad. Humboldt's description is somewhat different : he calls it the "vine-leaved fucus;" says, " the leaves are circular, of a tender green, and indented at the edges, stem brown, and three inches long." -What I saw of this 342 AMERICA. weed rather agrees with that described by Humboldt the leaves were shaped like the vine leaf, and of a rusty-green colour. That portion of the Atlantic between the 22d and 34th parallels of latitude, and 26th and 58th meridians of longitude, is generally covered with fuci, and is termed by the Portuguese, mar do sargasso, or grassy sea. It was sup- posed by many, from the large quantities of this weed seen in the Gulf stream, that it grew on the Florida rocks, and by the influence and extension of the current, was detached and carried into this part of the Atlantic. However, this position is not tenable, as a single branch of fucus has never been found on the Florida reef. Humboldt, and other scientific men, are of opinion that this weed vegetates at the bottom of the ocean that being detached from its root, it rises to the surface ; and that such portion of it as is found in the stream, is drawn thither by the sweeping of the current along the edge of the weedy sea. Moreover, the fuci that are AMERICA. 343 found in the northern extremity of the Flo- rida stream are generally decayed, while those which are seen in the southern extremity appear quite fresh this difference would not exist if they emanated from the Gulf. We stood to the north of the Azores, with rather unfavourable winds, and at length came between the coast of Africa and Cape St. Vincent. Here we had a dead calm for four entire days. The sky was perfectly cloudless, and the surface of the ocean was like oil. Not being able to do better, we got out the boat and went turtle fishing, or rather catching, in company with a very fine shark, which thought proper to attend us during our excursion. In such weather the turtles come to the surface of the water to sleep and enjoy the solar heat, and if you can approach with- out waking them, they fall an easy prey, being rendered incapable of resistance by their shelly armour. We took six. Attached to the breast of one was a remora, or " suck- ing fish." The length of this animal is from 344 AMERICA. six to eight inches colour blackish body, scaleless and oily head rather flat, on the back of which is the sucker, which consists of a narrow oval-shaped margin with several transverse projections, and ten curved rays extending towards the centre, but not meet- ing. The Indians of Jamaica and Cuba employed this fish as falconers do hawks. In calm weather, they carried out those which they had kept and fed for the purpose, in their canoes, and when jthey had got to a sufficient distance, attached the remora to the head of the canoe by a strong line of considerable length. When the remora perceives a fish, which he can do at a consi- derable distance, he darts away with as- tonishing rapidity, and fastens upon it. The Indian lets go the line, to which a buoy is attached to mark the course the remora has taken, and follows in his canoe until he thinks the game is exhausted ; he then draws it gradually in, the remora still adhering to his prey. Oviedo says, " I have known a AMERICA. 345 turtle caught by this method, of a bulk and weight which no single man could support." For four days we were anxiously watch- ing for some indications of a breeze, but were so frequently deceived with " cat's paws," and the occasional slight flickering of the dog vane, that we sank into listless resignation. At length our cavass filled, and we soon came within sight of the Straits of Gibraltar. On our left was the coast of Spain, with its vine- yards and white villages; and on our right lay the sterile hills of Barbary. Opposite Cape Trafalgar is Cape Spartel, a bold promontory, on the west side of which is a range of basal- tic pillars. The entrance to the Mediter- ranean by the Straits, when the wind is un- favourable, is extremely difficult; but to pass out is almost impossible, the current con- tinually setting in through the centre of the passage. Hence, onwards, the sail was ex- tremely pleasant, being within sight of the Spanish coast, and the Islands of Yvica, Majorca, and Minorca, successively, until we 346 AMERICA. reached the Gulf of Lyons. When the north- erly wind blows, which, in Provence, is termed the mistral, the waves roll against the coast of Provence, and the recoil produces that ugly chopping sea for which this gulf is renowned. In the Mediterranean, even in the calmest weather, a light pleasant breeze springs up after sun-set ; this and the cloud- less sky, and unobscured brilliancy of the stars, are attractions sufficient to allure the most somnolent and unromantic mortal to remain on deck. The molusca, or oceanic insect, which emits a phosphorescent light, appeared here in vast quantities, which induced me to try experiments. I took a piece of black crape, and having folded it several times, poured some sea water taken fresh in a bucket, upon it : the water in the bucket, when agitated by the hand, gave out sparkling light. When the crape was thoroughly saturated with water, I took it to a dark part of the cabin, when it seemed to be studded with small AMERICA. 347 sparkling stars ; but more of the animals I could not then discern. Next day I put some water in a glass tumbler, and having exposed it to a strong solar light, with the help of a magnifying glass was enabled dis- tinctly to discern the moluscaB. When mag- nified, they appeared about the size of a pin's head, of a yellowish brown colour, rather oval-shaped, and having tentacular. The medusa is a genus of molusca ; and I think M. le Seur told me he reckons forty-three or forty-four species of that genus. We crossed the Gulf of Lyons, and came within the road of Marseilles, where we were taken charge of by a pilot. When we reached the mouth of the basin, a boat came alongside of us, and a man handed up a piece of wood, and said, " Mettez sur cela le nom du capi- taine et du batiment ;" we were to perform quarantine. Whoever has performed qua- rantine can commiserate our condition. No one can quit the quarantine ground, or rather the space in the harbour alloted to vessels 348 AMERICA. performing quarantine. If it be necessary to send any papers from the ship on shore, they are taken with a forceps and plunged into vinegar. If the sails of any other vessel touch those of one in quarantine, she too must undergo several days' probation. Our time was five days; but as we had clean bills of health, and had lost none of our crew on the passage, we were allowed to count the day of our entering and the day of our going out of quarantine. The usual ceremonies being performed, I again stepped on Euro- pean ground, and felt myself at home. APPENDIX. 351 NEW CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES. AN ABSTRACT of a " careful revision of the enumeration of the United States for the years 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, and 1830," compiled at the Department of State, agreeably to law; and an ABSTRACT from the Aggregate Returns of the several Marshals of the United States of the " Fifth Census." STATES. 1790. 1800. 1810. 1820. 1830. Maine . . . 96,540 151,719 228,705 298,335 399,463 N. Hampshire 141,899 183,762 214,360 244,161 269,533 Massachusetts . 378,717 423,243 472,040 523,287 610,014 Rhode Island . 69,110 69,122 77,031 83,059 97,210 Connecticut . . 258,141 231,002 262,042 275,202 297,011 Vermont . . . 85,416 154,465 217,713 233,764 280,679 New York . . 340,120 586,756 959,049 1,372,812 1,913,508 New Jersey . . 184,139 211,949 245,555 277,575 320,778 Pennsylvania 434,373 602,365 810,091 1,049,458 1,347,672 Delaware . . 59,096 64,273 72,674 72,749 76,739 Maryland 319,728 341,548 380,546 407,350 446,913 D. Columbia 14,093 24,023 33,039 39,588 Virginia . . . 748,308 880,200 974,622 1,065,379 1,211,266 N. Carolina 393,751 478,103 555,500 638,829 738,470 S. Carolina . 249,073 345,591 415,115 502,741 581.458 Georgia .' . . 82,548 162,101 252,433 340,987 516,504 Kentucky .- . . 73,077 220,955 406,511 564,317 688,844 Tennessee .' . 35,791 105,602 231,727 422,813 684,822 Ohio . . . . 45,365 230,760 581,434 937,679 Indiana . . . 4,875 24,520 147,178 341,582 Mississippi . . 8,850 40,352 75,448 136,806 Illinois . . . 12,233 55,211 157,575 Louisiana 76,556 153,407 215,791 Missouri . . 20,845 66,586 140,084 Alabama . . 127,902 309,206 Michigan . . 4,762 8,896 31,123 Arkansas . . 14,273 30,383 Florida . . . 34,725 3,929,827 5,305,925 7,289,314 9,638,131 12,856,437 INCREASE FROM 1820 TO 1830. Maine N. Hampshire . Massachusetts . Rhode Island . Connecticut Per Cent. . 33,398 . 10,391 . 16,575 . 17,157 . 8,151 . 19,005 S. Carolina Georgia Kentucky . Tennessee . Ohio Indiana New York New Jersey Pennsylvania . Delaware Maryland D. Columbia Virginia . N. Carolina Ave . 39,386 . 15,564 . 25,416 . 5,487 . 9,712 . 20,639 . 13,069 . 15,592 Mississippi Illinois Louisiana Missouri . Alabama . Michigan Arkansas . Florida . 32 Per Cent. . 15,657 . 51,472 . 22,066 . 62,044 . 61,998 . 132,087 . 81,032 . 185,406 . 40,665 . 110,380 . 141,574 . 250,001 . 113,273 APPENDIX. 353 EXTRACTS FROM THE CHEROKEE PHCENIX,' OF JULY 31, 1830. The following is part of a Letter written by a Creek Chief, from the Arkansas territory. "THE son of General M'Intosh, (an Indian chief), with the M'Intosh party, held a treaty with the govern- ment, and were induced, by promises, to remove to Arkansas. They were promised 'a home for ever/ if they would select one, and that bounds should be marked off to them. This has not been done. They were assured that they should draw a proportionate part of the annuity due to the Creek nation every year. They have planted corn three seasons yet they have never drawn one cent of any annuity due to them ! Why is this ? They were promised blankets, guns, ammunition, traps, kettles, and a wheelwright. They have drawn some few of each class of articles, and only a few they have no wheel- wright. They were poor; but above this, they were pro- mised pay for the improvements abandoned by them in 2 A 354 APPENDIX. the old nation. This they have not received. They were further assured that they should receive, upon their arrival on Arkansas, thirty dollars per head for each emigrant. This they have not received. But the acting sub-agent, in the spring 1829, finding their wants very pressing (indeed many of them were in a famishing con- dition), gave to each one his due bill, in the name of the agent, for the amount of bounty due them, and took their receipts for the amount, as vouchers for the agent, to settle his account by with the government. The conse- quence was, that the Indians, not regarding paper as of any real value, would go to the traders, and sell the due bills at what they could get for them. And the traders having no confidence in the promises of the government through its agents, united with the hazard of delay at all events, would not give the real value of the amount promised by the due bills. If the Indians attempted to trade them to the whites for cattle, or any thing which they stood in need of, the consequence was, that they were compelled to make a discount upon them. Not finding them worth as many dollars as they purported to be for, they were willing to let them go upon any terms, rather than keep them in their possession. The due bills amounted, in all, to about twenty-one thousand dollars, which due bills are now in the hands of the original holders, or the purchasers, but not lifted by the agent according to his promise. (Is not the government bound APPENDIX. 355 by the acts of its agent or attorney ?). It is but fair to estimate the loss of the Indians at one third of the sum above stated, and this loss owing entirely to the govern- ment, by its agent's withholding the fulfilment of its contract with the M'Intosh party. * # * & " Mr. Joseph Brearly was left here by his father, the agent, in charge of his affairs, and being apprised of a party of emigrants about to arrive, was making prepara- tions to obtain the provisions necessary to subsist them for one year; and for that purpose had advertised to supply six thousand bushels of corn. The day came for closing the contract, when Colonel Arbuckle, command- ng Cantonment Gibson, handed in a bid, in the name of the Creek nation, to furnish the amount of corn required at one dollar and twelve cents per bushel ; the next lowest bid to his was one dollar and fifty cents ; so that Colonel Arbuckle saved the government 2,280 dollars. * * * * " Mr. Blake, the sub-agent sent by Colonel Crowell, had superseded Mr. Brearly, and was engaged in giving his receipts for the corn delivered under the contract. A speculation was presented ; and as the poor Indians were to be the victims of rapacity, why, it was all very well. The aforesaid Major Love, to secure the speculation, repaired to St. Louis, with letters of credit from Mr. Blake, the sub-agent of Colonel Crowell, and purchased 356 APPENDIX. several thousand dollars' worth of merchandize, and so soon as he could reach the Creek agency, commenced purchasing the corn receipts issued by the sub-agent. It is reasonable to suppose that the goods were sold, on an average, at two hundred per centum above cost and carriage ; and by this means the Indians would get about one third of the value of their corn at the contract price ! they offered to let the receipts go at twenty-five per cent, discount, if they could only obtain cash for them. " The United States owe the Creeks money they have paid them none in three years the money has been appropriated by congress. It is withheld by the agents. The Indians are destitute of almost every com- fort for the want of what is due to them. If it is longer withheld from them, it can only be so, upon the grounds that the poor Indian, who is unable to compel the United States to a compliance with solemn treaties, must linger out a miserable degraded existence, while those who have power to extend to him the measure of justice, will be left in the full possession of all the complacency arising from the solemn assurance, that they are either the stupid or guilty authors of his degradation and misery. TAH-LOHN-TUS-KY. " P. S. The Creeks have sent frequent memorials, praying relief from the War Department ; also a dele- gation, but can obtain no relief! ! " APPENDIX. 357 Extract from a Communication made by a Cherokee Chief. " A company of whites was in this neighbourhood, with forged notes and false accounts to a very con- siderable amount upon the Indians, and forcibly drove off the property of several families. This, Sir, is the cause of our misery, poverty, and degradation, for which we have been so much reproached. This is what makes us poor devils. If we fail to make good crops, some of the white neighbours must starve, for many of them are dependent upon us for support, either by fair or foul means. Some of the poor creatures are now travelling among us, almost starved, begging for something to eat they are actually worse than Indians. If they can't get by begging, they steal. To make us clear of these evils, and make us happy for ever, the unabating avarice of some of the Georgians, by their repeated acts of cruelty, point us to homes in the west but as long as we have a pony or a hog to spare them, we will never go, and not then. This land is heaven's gift to us it is the birth-right of our fathers : as long as these mountains lift their lofty summits to heaven, and these beautiful rivers roll their tides to the mighty ocean, so long we will remain. May heaven pity and save our distressed country ! VALLEY TOWNS." 358 APPENDIX. The following Extracts may serve to show the state of the country to which the Indians are compelled to emigrate: [FROM THE KENTUCKY INTELLIGENCER.] Extract of a Letter, dated Prairie du Chien. "January 15, 1830. "There is a prospect, I think, that the Indian depart- ment in this part of the country will soon require effi- cient officers. There is little doubt that there will be a general and sanguinary war among the Indians in the spring. The outrages of the Sauks and Foxes, can be endured no longer. Within a short time, they have cut off the head of a young Munomonee Indian, at the mouth of Winconscin river killed a Winnebago woman and boy, of the family of Dekaree, and a Sioux called Dixon. The whole Sioux nation have made arrange- ments for a general and simultaneous attack on the Foxes ; the Winnebagoes, and probably the Muno- monees will join them." APPENDIX. 359 " Little Rock, Ark. Ter. Feb. 5. et Murderous Battle. A gentleman who arrived here yesterday, direct from the Western Creek agency, informs us that a war party of Osages returned just before he left the agency, from a successful expedition against the Pawnee Indians. He was informed by one of the chiefs, that the party seized a Pawnee village, high up on the Arkansas, and had surrounded it before the inmates were apprised of their approach. At first the Pawnees showed a disposition to resist ; but finding themselves greatly outnumbered by their assailants, soon sallied forth from their village, and took refuge on the margin of a lake,' where they again made a stand. Here they were again hemmed in by the Osages, who throwing away their guns, fell upon them with their knives and tomahawks, and did not cease the work of butchery as long as any remained to resist them. Not one escaped. All were slain, save a few who were taken prisoners, and who are perhaps destined to suffer a more cruel death than those who were butchered on the spot. Our in- formant did not learn what number of Pawnees were killed, but understood that the Osages brought in sixty or seventy scalps, besides several prisoners. " We also learn, that the Osages are so much elated with this victory, that another war party were preparing to go on an expedition against some Choctaws who reside on Red river, with whom they have been at vari- ance for some time past." 360 APPENDIX. Extract of a Letter from an Officer of the Army, dated Prairie du Chien. [FROM THE NEW YORK COM. ADVERTIZER.] "May 6, 1830. " Indian Hostilities. When coming down the Missis- sippi, on the raft of timber, a war party of Sioux came to me and landed on the raft, but did not offer any violence. They were seventy strong, and well armed; and when they arrived at the Prairie, they were joined by thirty Menominees, and then proceeded down the river in pursuit of the Sauks and Foxes, who lay below. This morning they all returned, and reported that they had killed ten of the'JFoxes and two squaws. I saw all the scalps and other trophies which they had taken; such as canoes, tomahawks, knives, guns, war clubs, spears, &c. A paddle was raised by them in the ajr, on which was struag the head of a squaw and the scalps. They killed the head chief of the Fox nation, and took from them all the treaties which the nation had made since 1815. I saw them, and read such as I wished. One Sioux killed, and three wounded, was all the loss of the northern party. The Winnebagoes have joined with the Sioux and Menominees, and the Potawatomies have joined with the Sauks and Foxes. We shall have a great battle in a day or two." LONDON: PRINTED BY MANNING AND co., LONDON-HOUSE YARD, ST. PAUL'S. 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