UCSB LIBRARY
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 Daniel Wadsworth Coit 
 
 OF 
 
 NORWICH, CONNECTICUT 
 1787-1876 
 
 WFTH THK COMI'LTMHNTW OF 
 
 WILLIAM O. OILMAN, 
 
 NORWICH TOWN, CONNECTICUT. 
 
 fa 
 
 UAMUKiDUli 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 1909
 
 THE STORY OF 
 
 "SOME OF THE INCIDENTS OF THE 
 EVENTFUL LIFE " OF 
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 RETOLD 
 WITH AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE 
 
 FOR HIS 
 
 DESCENDANTS AND NEAR KINDRED 
 AND ALL WHO CHERISH HIS MEMORY 
 
 BY ONE OF HIS NEPHEWS 
 
 IS NOW LOVINGLY INSCRIBED 
 
 TO 
 
 DANIEL COIT OILMAN-* 
 
 WHO DIED WHILE IT WAS IN 
 AT LOWTHORPE, NORWICH, CONN 
 OCTOBER 13, 1908 
 
 BY HIS BROTHER 
 
 W. C. G.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 A MAN'S own story of his life is, 
 or ought to be, the most in- 
 teresting of biographies. He, 
 himself, a great part of the events he 
 describes, telling what he has seen and 
 heard and done, holds the center of the 
 stage and animates the scene. 
 
 To see him tell the story, sitting by 
 his own fireside or under the elms in 
 the summer twilight, to listen, and to 
 lead him on by questions from one ad- 
 venture to another, is more charming 
 than written words ; for with pen in 
 hand he sometimes assumes that his 
 readers are as familiar as he is with 
 the causes, the events, and the environ- 
 ment that governed or seemed to gov- 
 ern him in critical periods of his life,
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and thus he leaves them in the dark 
 as to facts of vital interest. Or again, 
 in a retrospective mood, he may dwell 
 on trivial and unimportant matters, 
 " droll legends of his infancy/' and the 
 like, more interesting to himself than 
 to any one else, that might be called 
 "Twice told tales of a Grandfather." 
 
 The hero of this memoir, DANIEL 
 WADSWORTH COIT, was named for 
 his father's friend and companion in 
 Europe, Col. Daniel Wadsworth, of 
 Hartford. He was born in his father's 
 house, "up-town," under the elms, in 
 Norwich, Connecticut, on November 
 the twenty-ninth, 1787, and in that 
 house he died, on the eighteenth of 
 July, 1876. 
 
 It is noteworthy that, notwithstand- 
 ing the chances and changes of a life 
 of very remarkable adventure, this house 
 was his home for most of his years, and 
 still more noteworthy, in these days of
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 migration and inevitable family changes, 
 that not only he himself, but his father 
 and his grandfather and his younger 
 son, Daniel Lathrop Coit the second, 
 a youth of great promise, four gen- 
 erations, ended their days under the 
 same roof. 
 
 In the year 1 877, twelve months after 
 his death, a brief sketch of his life, writ- 
 ten by his brother, Joshua Coit, of New 
 Haven, was printed for his family. This 
 was reprinted ten years later, together 
 with a filial tribute by his son, Charles 
 Woolsey Coit, of Grand Rapids, as sup- 
 plementary to his Autobiography, in 
 which he had said that "at the re- 
 peated solicitation of his family and 
 friends and for the gratification of his 
 children he had jotted down some of 
 the incidents of his eventful life." This 
 was a well-chosen expression, for while 
 of course no man can continue the story 
 of his life from year to year to the very 
 
 [3]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 end, his modesty and delicate sense of 
 propriety prevented more than a slight 
 reference to some of the most interest- 
 ing "incidents of his eventful life," or 
 entirely suppressed them. 
 
 A writer in the "Atlantic Monthly" 
 quotes a witty remark that " besides bi- 
 ographies and autobiographies there are 
 ought-not-to-be-ographies." The auto- 
 biography of Daniel Wadsworth Coit is 
 not open to the latter designation, for it 
 occasions no regret but by its brevity. 
 Our knowledge of him has been in- 
 creased, however, by letters to his fam- 
 ily now in the possession of Mrs. Charles 
 W. Coit, and of his granddaughter, Mrs. 
 Edward Wilder Haines, and still more 
 from letters, greater in number and of 
 equal interest, from his parents, and 
 brothers and sisters, preserved in the 
 archives of Lowthorpe. 
 
 His father, Daniel Lathrop Coit, who 
 was descended from John Coit, of Salem, 
 [4]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Massachusetts (about 1630), and from 
 the Reverend John Lathrop, a victim 
 of persecution in England, and an emi- 
 grant to Massachusetts in 1635, died in 
 the year 1833 at the age of seventy-nine 
 years. 
 
 His mother, Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Captain Ephraim Bill, was descended 
 from John Bill, of Boston (1635), and 
 from Simon Huntington, of Saybrook 
 and of Norwich (1659). She died at 
 the age of seventy-nine in the year 
 1846. 
 
 Among his ancestors are also John 
 Gager and Thomas Adgate, who are 
 enrolled among the founders of Nor- 
 wich (1659), and John Perkins and 
 Joshua Abel. Such ancestry, good 
 English stock, transplanted to new soil, 
 is a heritage for which later genera- 
 tions may congratulate themselves. 
 
 He was the oldest of six children, 
 three sons and three daughters, and, 
 
 [5]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 unlike some families who seem to boast 
 that they "enjoy poor health," serious 
 illness was almost unknown among 
 them, and the average of their ages at 
 death exceeded four score years. It 
 was a happy family, and the bond of 
 affection established in childhood was 
 firm to the end of their days. The 
 house on the hillside, under the elms, 
 where they were born, built by their 
 father, and kept in repair and improved 
 from time to time, remains, after nearly 
 a century and a quarter, in the posses- 
 sion of two of his granddaughters, and 
 is practically unchanged in appearance 
 both without and within. 
 
 In June it was as delightful then as 
 it is in these degenerate days, when one 
 shudders to think of their winters and 
 winter nights, and, worse still, of the 
 everlasting spring ; not the " everlasting 
 spring" of the hymnal, but the real, 
 old fashioned, uncommonly late spring, 
 [6]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 with impassable roads, no public con- 
 veyances, private vehicles quite out of 
 commission, the meadows bleak and 
 desolate, and the wheels of industry 
 stopped by the ice-bound water courses. 
 The house was, indeed, abundantly 
 stored with provisions and raiment and 
 fuel, but there were no steam heaters, 
 no furnace, no kitchen range sending 
 perpetual streams of hot water to every 
 floor, nothing but open wood fires 
 which must be carefully banked up at 
 bedtime to prevent the escape of a 
 single spark, and to keep a few coals 
 alive for the morning. Happily, when 
 the call was heard, " heap on the wood, 
 the wind is chill," there was plenty of 
 "old wood to burn/' 
 
 There was no evening lamp to be 
 lighted ; the " astral " had not yet come 
 into use; and constant nightly experi- 
 ment determined how far a little candle 
 could shed its beams. Providence had 
 
 [7]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 not raised up Mr. Rockefeller as a light- 
 bearer to the whole world to crush his 
 rivals, the poor whales, and drive them 
 out of a profitable business with his 
 standard oil. The night air was cold 
 enough for the requirements of modern 
 advocates of the refrigerative treatment of 
 tuberculosis, and yet, although this family 
 escaped it, the dreaded white plague was 
 not unknown in the town. But though 
 they knew them not there were allevia- 
 tions, for they were spared self-register- 
 ing thermometers, telling how cold had 
 been the night, and weather bureau 
 forecasts of a colder to-morrow ! 
 
 His boyhood was spent in Norwich, 
 where, and at the adjacent town of Lis- 
 bon, he attended the best schools ; but 
 though he was a fair scholar there can 
 be no doubt that his best education was 
 received in the home circle under the 
 guidance of his father, whose cultured 
 mind had been improved by foreign 
 [8]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 travel, and under the sweet influence of 
 his devoted mother. 
 
 His nearest neighbors were his own 
 cousins, the Lathrops, seven bright boys 
 and girls whose ages differed not widely 
 from those of his own family. Their 
 mother, Mrs. Hannah Bill Lathrop, 
 and two of the daughters known to 
 the present generation as Mrs. Emily 
 Perkins and Mrs. Hannah Ripley are 
 still held in affectionate remembrance. 
 There were other Lathrop cousins, Coit 
 and Huntington cousins, and Perits, and 
 a host of cousins-once-removed, many 
 of whom were his schoolmates and near 
 friends. To be remembered with them 
 also is Lydia Huntley, afterwards Mrs. 
 Sigourney. 
 
 The wise man of Portland in the east 
 told his attractive daughters that he 
 knew some one in Norwich who had 
 a pair of rose-colored spectacles which 
 would bring a distant relation as near 
 
 [9]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 as a second cousin ! Those glasses came 
 down from a former generation which 
 had proved their usefulness in a wide 
 family circle. 
 
 His natural preference was for active 
 life out of doors ; he knew the hiding- 
 place of the big trout in the brook, and 
 many a quail and partridge and wood- 
 cock fell before his unerring fowling- 
 piece. From his father he inherited a 
 love for practical work in the garden 
 and orchard, and these pursuits, not less 
 than the cold winters, strengthening his 
 constitution, were an admirable prepa- 
 ration for the toilsome and perilous 
 journeys of later years. 
 
 When he was about fourteen years 
 old, in 1 80 1, in the absence of his father 
 on a long journey to Ohio, he was quite 
 the man of the house ; and keeping a 
 watchful eye on affairs generally, and 
 especially on the garden, he made fre- 
 quent reports to his father. In July 
 [10]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 he says : " The garden looks as well as it 
 did last year ; " and again he speaks 
 of " inoculating the peach trees." His 
 father replies : " Daniel's account of 
 outdoor transactions affords me much 
 pleasure, not only that the things men- 
 tioned have been done, but that he is 
 thoughtful to mention them/' 
 
 Without quoting largely from other 
 letters, extracts from a letter from his 
 mother to her husband, and from a 
 letter from the father to the son, will 
 sufficiently illustrate the family relation 
 at that time. 
 
 Elizabeth Coit to her husband, July 
 21, 1801 : 
 
 " I hope, my dear, you will find the chil- 
 dren have made some improvement, but do 
 not expect too much or you will be disap- 
 pointed. I feel sometimes almost impatient 
 with the slow progress they make when I 
 reflect how many things they have to learn 
 and how fast time flies, and I very sensibly
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 feel my incapacity to fill up their time to 
 the best advantage. I cannot sufficiently 
 impress on their minds the importance of 
 study and learning while they are young. 
 Some relaxation I know they require, but I 
 am frequently at a loss how far to indulge 
 them. Daniel's propensity for amusement 
 is very great, but his judgment is not suffi- 
 cient to direct his choice. Books which 
 afford the most rational amusement he does 
 not relish alone, and I have little time to 
 hear him free from interruption. He is as 
 attentive to my business as I could expect, 
 and is very obedient, as are all the children." 
 
 Daniel Lathrop Coit to his son 
 Daniel, aged fourteen : 
 
 YOUNGSTOWN (O.), 19 August, i8oi. 
 
 MY DEAR BOY, I don't know but you 
 will expect a letter directly to you during my 
 long absence, and I shall be well satisfied in 
 writing to you if it will afford you either 
 pleasure or advantage. . . . 
 
 I take great satisfaction in learning from 
 your mama, and, indeed, from your own 
 
 [12]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 letter and by Col. Huntington, that you 
 are so attentive to the concerns of the family 
 in my absence. I am likewise gratified that 
 Bristol x is so careful and attentive in matters 
 of a domestic nature ; indeed, I ought to 
 have commissioned you to thank him that 
 he was desirous of my remembrance, &c., 
 thereby manifesting his regard for me. I 
 therefore do it now. 
 
 We ought at no time to receive any favor 
 or civility of even so small a kind without 
 some suitable acknowledgment, and surely 
 thanks are a cheap and easy return. Of this, 
 my dear, I wish you to be truly sensible, 
 and that every species of ingratitude is a 
 great blot in the character of any person pos- 
 sessed of reason and understanding. . . . 
 Always be ready to acknowledge a favor, 
 and to repay it as a debt of honor and jus- 
 tice. At the same time do not always wait 
 to be indebted in this way, but be as ready 
 to grant as to receive a favor, remembering 
 
 1 This Bristol, an old negro slave, an inheritance from 
 Daniel Lathrop Coit's aunt, Madam Green, was a tole- 
 rated tyrant in the household. He it was who refused to 
 recognize Sunday as the Sabbath when by chance there 
 were no baked beans for breakfast !
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 that if we even sometimes make some sacri- 
 fices in this way we are sure to be repaid in 
 kind, or, what is of more consequence, have 
 an approving conscience, which is at all times 
 one of the greatest sources of happiness a 
 man can enjoy. 
 
 I think I can truly say that I have no 
 more fervent and anxious desire of an earthly 
 nature than to procure for your mama and 
 my children as great a share of happiness 
 and contentment as they are capable of, anil 
 you will readily agree that my experience is 
 greater than yours, and that the advice I 
 give you in order to promote your happi- 
 ness must be more safely trusted to than 
 your own opinion where it shall differ from 
 mine. . . . The present is the time for the 
 cultivation of your understanding and form- 
 ing useful and good habits, and you may 
 believe me when I assure you that when 
 once good habits are formed they will be as 
 easily practiced as bad ones and will afford 
 infinitely more satisfaction. Study, then, my 
 son, to improve your mind and to render 
 yourself by kind, affable, and agreeable man- 
 ners, pleasing and acceptable to all whom
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 you have reason to respect and esteem. . . . 
 I wish you to be convinced that if you set 
 out thus early in life with an inflexible reso- 
 lution, and continue to pursue it with steadi- 
 ness, you may make yourself almost whatever 
 you wish. It is little I can do for you ; I 
 can just point out the road, but it must 
 be your own exertion that shall carry you 
 through it. I feel a great desire that you 
 shall become agreeable and estimable to all 
 your acquaintance, and this, I know, you 
 can easily do, and that to effect this will 
 be the most ready way to promote your 
 happiness. 
 
 Your studies, I hope, you will regard as 
 of great importance, for on them will depend 
 in a great measure your future prospects in 
 life. Learning is the inlet of knowledge, 
 and by knowledge men are raised above the 
 rest of creation, and a few among men above 
 the rest in Honor, Respect, and Esteem. . . . 
 
 Adieu, my son ; be attentive and obedient 
 to your mama, and endeavor to make up her 
 loss of me as much as is in your power. 
 
 Your loving and affectionate Father, 
 
 DANIEL L. COIT. 
 
 [15]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 These benign influences were not lost 
 upon the " Dear Boy." He heard the 
 instructions of his father, and forgot not 
 the law of his mother, and when he 
 was old he did not depart from them. 
 
 When he was about fifteen years old 
 he and his sister Lydia and his brother 
 Henry were sent to Mr. Hale's school 
 at Lisbon ; his parents, with the younger 
 children, Maria, Eliza, and little Joshua, 
 having removed to New York in con- 
 sequence of his father's business engage- 
 ments. Twelve months later he joined 
 them, and after a few months with Gil- 
 bert and John Aspinwall, merchants and 
 importers of dry goods, was formally 
 indentured to them for a term of nearly 
 five years, until he should attain his 
 majority. 
 
 The indenture, signed and sealed by 
 all the parties to it, bound his employ- 
 ers to teach him "the trade, art, and 
 [16]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 mystery of a merchant," he on his 
 part, and his father for him, agreeing 
 that " he shall of his own free will and 
 accord his master faithfully serve, his 
 secrets keep, and his lawful commands 
 everywhere readily obey ; shall not con- 
 tract matrimony ; shall refrain from 
 vice, and from business on his own 
 account ; and in all things shall behave 
 himself as a faithful apprentice ought 
 to do during his term of service." His 
 only compensation was to be his board 
 and washing. The theory was that the 
 employer stood in the place of a parent 
 to the apprentice, was interested in his 
 welfare, gave him special opportunities 
 for advancement and improvement, with 
 a commercial education that was a full 
 equivalent for his services. By this 
 system, now almost obsolete, except as 
 it may be suggested by the youthful 
 experience of Admiral Sir Joseph Porter 
 in " Pinafore," he received a training
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 that was invaluable in the important 
 and complicated transactions in which 
 he was concerned in later years. The 
 art of writing a faultless business letter, 
 acquired early in life, was an accom- 
 plishment not to be despised, in which 
 he excelled. 
 
 The particular duties of the youngest 
 clerk, as he describes them, were " to 
 open the store at an early hour, to sweep 
 and dust the floors, to make fires through- 
 out the winter, and not infrequently 
 to roll empty hogsheads and barrels 
 through the streets for packing, and to 
 shoulder and carry goods from one part 
 of the city to another." If the hours 
 were no more than sixty minutes long 
 there were more working hours in 
 twenty-four than there are now, and 
 that work was often carried well into 
 the night appears by letters to his par- 
 ents, written when he was " so sleepy 
 he could hardly keep his eyes open." 
 [18]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 He was desirous of acquiring a knowl- 
 edge of the French language, and there- 
 fore changed his boarding-place to a 
 family where it was spoken, but carried 
 with him the kind interest of his land- 
 lady, who offered to continue to mend 
 his clothes, " But," he says, " of course 
 I shall not think of letting her.'* 
 
 Replying to his father's suggestion 
 that he should avoid bad company, he 
 says: 
 
 " I should be sorry to have you under 
 apprehension of my getting acquainted with 
 bad characters here, as my acquaintance is 
 very limited, and I have been more confined 
 at home this winter than usual, as my French 
 has required my attendance evenings, and I 
 have no other time to myself. I have, how- 
 ever, to thank you for your good advice on 
 this subject, and shall always be very thankful 
 to you for it." 
 
 Before proceeding with him in the 
 next steps of his career it is interesting
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 to close this chapter with an extract 
 from a letter of his brother Joshua to 
 his nieces, from which other quotations 
 will be made hereafter. 
 
 " He had a physical organization admi- 
 rably adapted to what he took in hand. His 
 eye was quick, keen, and true as an Indian 
 hunter's ; his hand pliant, dexterous, and 
 ready in all the manipulations for which he 
 had occasion ; his frame, light, sinewy, ac- 
 tive, and, at least in early life, capable of 
 long-continued exertion. His early love 
 for field sports, in which he never entirely 
 lost his interest, gave scope and exercise 
 to all these qualities to which they greatly 
 contributed. 
 
 " His beautiful handwriting, his familiar 
 letters, written with facility and despatch, in 
 businesslike form, without flourish and with- 
 out blot or erasure, were, particularly if ac- 
 companied by a plan or sketch, like the 
 careful work of a civil engineer. He was 
 so much my senior that I was too young to 
 take any part in his field sports before he 
 had left home for a counting-house in New 
 
 [20]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 York, but I fell heir to sundry ingeniously 
 constructed boy's sleds, box traps, fences, 
 and snares for game, set up in the woods, 
 and other like devices by which, I am sorry 
 to say, I profited less than I might have 
 done." 
 
 If in the latter years of his appren- 
 ticeship, realizing that his knowledge 
 and experience had become valuable, he 
 impatiently looked for the day when he 
 should earn something more than bread 
 and butter and cease to be a burden on 
 his father, he nevertheless fulfilled his 
 contract to the end. He then engaged 
 for a year as assistant with his friend 
 and cousin, David Greene Hubbard, at 
 a salary of $500, with the privilege of 
 trading for himself: not an enormous 
 income, indeed, but infinite riches com- 
 pared with nothing. After another 
 twelvemonth he began business solely 
 on his own account, employing as a 
 clerk his brother Henry, of whom he 
 
 rail
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 wrote in praise as " doing as well as he 
 could expect, and as likely to become 
 of much service after a little more prac- 
 tice." He and his father also entered 
 into partnership with their kinsman, 
 William Leffingwell, of New Haven, 
 but owing to the hard times it was of 
 short duration. 
 
 But the most interesting of his many 
 enterprises was obtaining and manufac- 
 turing quercitron bark, then as now 
 used by tanners and dyers. With this 
 object he traversed the forests of New 
 Jersey where he resided for a time, and 
 established a mill for grinding and pre- 
 paring the bark for export. His cous- 
 ins, G. G. and S. S. Howland, also took 
 an interest with him, and his father en- 
 gaged in the manufacture at Norwich. 
 It is characteristic of father and son that 
 they were scrupulously careful that their 
 product should be of the best possible 
 quality for shipment, and that, sparing
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 neither labor nor expense, they gave 
 their own close personal attention to 
 details. They were sensible that it cost 
 as much to transport a poor article as a 
 good one, and that a good reputation 
 went far to command a good price. His 
 father wrote to him, " That you have 
 made any profit, or are like to, gives me 
 real pleasure ; but be cautious, not 
 too sanguine : keep within your own 
 depth." 
 
 A recent writer in the " Forestry 
 Magazine" (November, 1907), says: 
 "A famine in tan-bark oak is seriously 
 threatening the Pacific coast tanning 
 industry. Continual harvesting is rap- 
 idly depleting the supply, and disastrous 
 fires the last fifteen years have destroyed 
 bark that would be worth one and one- 
 third million dollars." 
 
 The monotonous routine of work, 
 however, was not without relief. He 
 was always a welcome guest in the large
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 family circle of his Rowland cousins, 
 sons and daughters, in New York and 
 Phillipsburgh ; there were occasional 
 opportunities for a day's sport with dog 
 and gun in New Jersey or on Long 
 Island ; and the considerable skill in 
 sketching and drawing in water-colors 
 which he acquired at this time afforded 
 him great pleasure as long as he lived. 
 Perhaps it is significant, too, that a 
 young man of fine appearance and at- 
 tractive manners was somewhat partic- 
 ular about the ruffles of his shirts ! 
 
 Although he himself does not speak 
 of military honors, we know that in the 
 year 1814, when the Atlantic coast was 
 ravaged by the British fleet, and New 
 York was in such peril that almost every 
 able-bodied man was pressed into ser- 
 vice, he was not found wanting, but 
 served with the Huzzars in defence of 
 the city.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 The first eighteen years of the nine- 
 teenth century were not altogether pro- 
 pitious for mercantile business. In this 
 country feuds of federalists and repub- 
 licans, in congress and in the newspapers, 
 raging with unrestrained bitterness and 
 malignity, resulted not infrequently in 
 personal violence and the deadly duel. 
 Hard words were freely used, com- 
 pared with which the forcible explosions 
 of ebullient wrath in high places that 
 sometimes shock us to-day are like the 
 gentle roaring of a sucking dove. The 
 vituperation and scurrility of the news- 
 papers of the period would be intolerable 
 even in modern yellow journals. Can 
 any one imagine the present editor 
 of the "Evening Post" as adopting 
 for his own the following words di- 
 rected by his illustrious predecessor, 
 William Cullen Bryant, to Thomas 
 Jefferson, and addressing them to Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt?
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " Go, wretch ! resign the Presidential chair, 
 Disclose thy secret measures, foul or fair; 
 Go, search with curious eyes for horned frogs, 
 'Mid the wild wastes of Louisiana bogs." 
 
 Our southern border and great western 
 frontier were harassed by hostile Indian 
 tribes; communication and transporta- 
 tion by land or water were difficult and 
 expensive; strikes and labor riots were 
 not infrequent ; the slavery question was 
 vexatious ; and arguments for and against 
 "protection of our infant industries" 
 kept merchants in perpetual perplexity. 
 It was a serious question whether the 
 tariff on imported calf skins should not 
 be raised so as to sustain the price of 
 our quercitron bark ! 
 
 More than this, the English Orders 
 in Council, the Berlin and Milan de- 
 crees, the impressment of American sea- 
 men by the British claiming the right 
 of search, the blockade of our ports, the 
 embargo, the capture of hundreds of 
 
 [26]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 our merchantmen by the French, were 
 among the exasperating causes that cul- 
 minated in the war of 1812 and para- 
 lyzed our commerce. 
 
 A young merchant, unwilling to risk 
 everything by running the blockade in 
 violation of law with the hope of mak- 
 ing a fortune, could do but little more 
 than make occasional purchases of com- 
 modities, that could be bought cheap in 
 New York, and ship them to Connecti- 
 cut, receiving in return coarse country 
 produce and manufactured stuff that 
 might be salable in the city. Some ad- 
 venturous spirits, taking chances, found 
 it expedient at short notice to seek se- 
 clusion in foreign parts. It is no won- 
 der, then, that " at the end of ten years 
 in commission and shipping business, it 
 had resulted in little benefit beyond the 
 experience acquired." But how valu- 
 able was that experience ! It was in- 
 vested capital.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 It is remarkable that during this long 
 period, when financial and commercial 
 affairs were at the lowest ebb, when taxes 
 were enormously high, and great unrest 
 prevailed throughout the country, this 
 constant, intimate family correspond- 
 ence was almost exclusively confined 
 to domestic affairs, with scarcely an 
 allusion to public events, not even to 
 the achievements of our navy on the 
 ocean and great lakes, nor the famous 
 victory of General Jackson at New Or- 
 leans, nor, nearer home, to the burning 
 of Stonington in 1814 by the British. 
 
 But in spite of everything the country 
 grew and prospered. Extensive internal 
 improvements were projected and car- 
 ried on by the government ; lighthouses 
 were erected ; steam navigation began 
 on the Hudson River ; the Coast Survey, 
 of inestimable value, was founded ; and 
 the acquisition of Florida and Louisiana, 
 by means however questionable at the 
 
 [28]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 time, added enormously in the end to 
 the prosperity of the country. With the 
 administration of President Monroe be- 
 gan what was popularly called " the era 
 of good feeling," and at about the same 
 time there came a turn in the tide of 
 the affairs of our hero which led him 
 on to fortune. 
 
 In the year 1818 his cousins, G. G. 
 and S. S. Rowland, already mentioned, 
 well-known merchants in New York, 
 invited him to enter their counting- 
 room on a salary larger than he had 
 ever received, and gave him encourage- 
 ment that they might in the near future 
 offer him a better position. Within a 
 few months, in partnership with Peter 
 Harmony, a Spanish merchant resident 
 in New York, they determined to send 
 to Peru a cargo of firearms, munitions 
 of war, and other merchandise, and, 
 through the favor of the Spanish minis- 
 
 [29]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ter, obtained a license for the admission 
 of the cargo into that country, which 
 was then at war with the adjoining 
 province of Chile. Accordingly they 
 fitted out the small, fast-sailing brig 
 " Boxer," and gave Mr. Coit the situa- 
 tion of supercargo. The supercargo 
 was a person of no small importance, 
 for, although the captain was charged 
 with the navigation of the vessel and 
 discipline of the crew, upon the super- 
 cargo, as the confidential agent and 
 personal representative of the owners, 
 devolved the responsibility of disposing 
 of the cargo and of collecting and re- 
 mitting the proceeds, under instructions 
 of course, yet with large discretionary 
 power in emergencies. 
 
 The vessel was loaded with despatch 
 and with secrecy lest the purpose of the 
 voyage and the nature of the cargo 
 should become known ; the crew was 
 shipped, and his own preparations were 
 
 [30]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 made ; but much to his regret he had 
 no opportunity of visiting his home in 
 Norwich, where his father was suffering 
 from an accidental fall. 
 
 And now began the Voyage of Life ! 
 
 "Journal on board the Brig Boxer, Wil- 
 liam Skiddy, master, from New York towards 
 Northwest Coast of South America. 
 
 " Sunday, Sept. 27, 1 8 1 8. Got under way 
 at 9 o'clock, A. M., with a light breeze from 
 N. West: were becalmed in the bay at, 
 3 P. M. : at 8 P. M., a breeze springing up, 
 passed by the Hook, and at 9 P. M. dis- 
 charged the Pilot and proceeded to sea. 
 
 "All hands on board in good health." 
 
 These are the first words of the super- 
 cargo's private log-book, in which he 
 kept a daily record of latitude and longi- 
 tude, of the temperature of the air and 
 water, of distance traveled "per log," 
 with brief notes of the weather, the 
 vessel's course, and other incidents of 
 the long voyage of one hundred and
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 six days, covering by his calculation 
 13,405 miles. 
 
 Needless to say, there were no stops 
 for coal, nor was this a junketing cruise, 
 like that of President Roosevelt's "Ar- 
 mada" in its majestic course to the Pacific. 
 Not a single port was entered, and direct 
 communication was had with but one 
 vessel, a homeward-bound Nantucket 
 whaler, whose captain came on board 
 and became the bearer of a letter to 
 New York. The highest temperature 
 recorded is eighty-eight degrees, and the 
 lowest thirty-nine degrees. The longest 
 day's run was two hundred and forty- 
 three miles, and the shortest eighteen 
 miles. The vessel crossed the equator 
 on November I , but we have no record 
 of the "high jinks" which traditionally 
 celebrate that event. At midnight a 
 week later, however, sufficient excite- 
 ment of a different kind was created by 
 the imminent danger of shipwreck on
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 one of the small precipitous islands of 
 Martin Vass, to the eastward of Brazil. 
 This peril was happily averted, and the 
 voyage, he says, "was not unpleasant, with 
 the exception of about thirty days com- 
 ing round Cape Horn, where we experi- 
 enced much bad weather, and were three 
 weeks of the time under storm sails." 
 " I am not anxious/' he adds, " to make 
 the voyage again in winter, in a vessel 
 not one of the strongest." The only 
 diversion for the voyager in the gloom 
 of the perpetual fogs of the region was 
 in watching the whales and porpoises, 
 the penguins, and other aquatic birds 
 that abounded in the air and sea. 
 
 At this time, also, occurred the most 
 exciting incident of the voyage, a 
 mutinous demonstration by the mate 
 and half the crew, who, defying the 
 captain, refused to obey orders. Their 
 purpose was to take possession of the 
 vessel, run her into a port of Chile, and 
 3 [33]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 sell the arms to the government; but it 
 was frustrated by the coolness and cour- 
 age of the captain, who subdued them 
 with his pistols, though the situation 
 was for a time alarming. 
 
 The arrival of his vessel off the harbor 
 of Callao, eight miles distant from the 
 city of Lima, on the 1 4th of January, 
 1819, ended his voyage, but by no 
 means ended his adventures, for, being 
 becalmed late in the day, it became 
 necessary for him to take a boat with 
 two seamen and row in to the shore in 
 the hope of finding a pilot ; " But," he 
 says, 
 
 " the shore being more distant than we sup- 
 posed we were benighted before arriving 
 there : and in consequence, not being able 
 to land on the rocky shore with the surf 
 rolling heavily, I steered for what I supposed 
 to be the port, and about eleven o'clock at 
 night fell in with the guard boat on duty 
 patrolling the harbor. My explanations, 
 being anything but satisfactory I was arrested 
 
 [34]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 as a prisoner of war and put on board the 
 Spanish Ship of war ' Esmeralda.' " 
 
 There were two parties in Peru at this 
 time, the royalists, who supported the 
 Spanish viceroy, and the revolutionists, 
 who advocated a popular government. 
 Moreover, the government of Chile had 
 designs upon Peru, and with the co- 
 operation of Lord Cochrane, who had 
 distinguished himself in the English 
 navy, was known to be preparing to 
 send a fleet from Valparaiso against 
 Lima ; it was, indeed, hourly expected. 
 
 "It was natural, therefore, that suspicion 
 should attach to a boat discovered at mid- 
 night prowling about the harbor, and that 
 I should be arrested as a spy. Our arrival 
 on the frigate occasioned no little stir. The 
 captain with his leading officers formed a 
 council and subjected us to a long course 
 of examination, the result of which was 
 that I was sent on shore in charge of an 
 officer to the Admiral. With some diffi- 
 
 [35]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 culty he was aroused from his slumbers, 
 and was so alarmed that he came in person 
 with us on board the ship and again sifted 
 the sailors and myself with questions. It 
 was finally determined to await the arrival 
 of the Boxer, and I was shown to the 
 ward room and provided with comfortable 
 quarters until the following afternoon when 
 the brig, which had been concealed by the 
 island of San Lorenzo, hove in sight, and 
 in a few hours freed me from my anxiety 
 and temporary confinement." 
 
 It now became a very serious question 
 what to do with his cargo. Business 
 naturally came to a standstill ; and as 
 opportunities to sell were for a time cut 
 off, it seemed equally unsafe to discharge 
 it or to leave it on board. Under the cir- 
 cumstances the best course seemed to be 
 to bring the brig within the Spanish 
 lines for protection and land his cargo 
 as soon as possible. Hardly had he 
 done so when in came Admiral Coch- 
 rane with a fleet of five large ships, 
 
 [36]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 while the Spanish vessels protected by 
 the forts prepared to give battle. The 
 consternation of the spectators on shore 
 was increased by a dense fog which ren- 
 dered the approaching ships invisible. 
 Our supercargo, who had landed before 
 the action began, " was gratified by see- 
 ing the whole of it from a balcony on 
 the water's edge at little more than half 
 gunshot from the enemy. Their balls 
 came nearer than was pleasant, not a 
 few going over our heads, and some 
 entering the houses about us." The 
 engagement, lasting only an hour, re- 
 sulted in the loss of a few killed and 
 wounded on each side, when the ad- 
 miral withdrew his ships, saying that 
 he had come in only for a reconnois- 
 sance. Some days afterwards, by proc- 
 lamation, he declared the whole coast 
 in a state of blockade. The supercargo 
 determined to send his vessel home with 
 a cargo of cocoa, and about the 24th of 
 
 [37]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 March she ran the blockade under cover 
 of night. This gave him an opportu- 
 nity to write long letters to his parents, 
 describing his adventures during his ab- 
 sence of six months, and expressing 
 his anxiety on account of the con- 
 dition of his father when he left New 
 York. 
 
 He now found himself in a most 
 perplexing predicament. He had not 
 burned his ships, but, what was as bad, 
 he had sent the " Boxer " home, and 
 had no alternative but to stay and com- 
 plete his business. He had remitted 
 the proceeds of a large part of his cargo, 
 which had been sold so advantageously 
 that he estimated the net profits of his 
 principals at one hundred and fifty per 
 cent, but unfortunately the Spanish 
 government, which had purchased arms 
 to the value of $30,000, while acknowl- 
 edging its obligation, was without money 
 to make payment. To leave the coun- 
 
 [38]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 try would be to abandon his claim, and 
 in remaining he would be subjected not 
 only to great personal inconvenience but 
 to great anxiety lest an overthrow of the 
 existing government should result, as 
 it probably would, in the repudiation 
 of the debt. A stranger in a strange 
 land, ignorant of the language, with no 
 friendly adviser, he could only wait and 
 hope with all the patience he could 
 command. 
 
 Lima, the capital of Peru, founded by 
 Hernando Pizarro on the festival of the 
 Epiphany in 1535, was originally named 
 the City of the Kings, in honor of the 
 kings of the Orient. Called by Pres- 
 cott " the Beautiful City, the fairest 
 gem on the shores of the Pacific," it was 
 long renowned for its great wealth, its 
 commercial importance, its magnificent 
 palaces, churches, and convents, and as 
 the seat of the university of San Marco, 
 established in 1551, and remaining to- 
 
 [39]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 day the oldest institution of learning in 
 the western hemisphere. 
 
 In 1819 its glory had departed in 
 consequence of volcanic eruptions, earth- 
 quakes, internal dissensions, and wars 
 with the neighboring provinces. Cal- 
 lao, its ancient seaport, a place of con- 
 siderable importance, had been destroyed 
 by an earthquake seventy years earlier, 
 and was now nothing but a filthy, squalid 
 landing place. To say that earthquakes 
 and revolutions were of daily occurrence 
 would be an exaggeration, but Peru had 
 long been in a state of physical and po- 
 litical unrest. The foundations of Lima 
 had been laid deep and strong by Pi- 
 zarro, however, and traces of its former 
 splendor still remained. 
 
 The climate in January, the summer 
 season, was delightful. Although the 
 situation was but twelve degrees south 
 of the equator, breezes from the Pacific 
 on the west and from the Andes on the 
 
 [40]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 east so tempered the air that the heat 
 was at no time oppressive. There was 
 never any rain and there was never a 
 drought, for natural streams from the 
 mountains and artificial irrigation pro- 
 duced luxuriant vegetation and an abun- 
 dance of the choicest fruits and such 
 tropical flowers as are never seen in 
 higher latitudes except in hot-houses. 
 
 The population of Lima was about 
 seventy thousand, half of whom were 
 negroes, mulattoes, and Indians. The 
 most respectable were emigrants from 
 Spain or were of Spanish descent. It 
 was the policy of the government to 
 exclude from the country all foreigners, 
 and indeed to prohibit exports and 
 imports of merchandise except under 
 enormous duties. Only about fifty 
 other foreigners, admitted by special 
 permit, were in Lima at this time. 
 As one consequence of their exclusion 
 there were no decent hotels or board-
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ing houses for their accommodation. 
 Whether conditions are now better or 
 worse doth not appear, but a newspaper 
 recently reported that a traveler in the 
 country was temporarily imprisoned 
 pending a controversy about his papers. 
 On his release he betook himself to a 
 hotel, but speedily escaped and asked 
 to be readmitted to the greater com- 
 forts of the common jail ! 
 
 It was then customary in Lima, how- 
 ever, for merchants to receive into their 
 own houses captains and supercargos of 
 vessels consigned to them, and thus our 
 hero became the guest of Don Pedro 
 Abadia, a man of wealth, of great ur- 
 banity and integrity, the head of an 
 important commercial establishment. 
 Under the same roof resided his part- 
 ner, Mr. Blanco, with his wife and 
 four children. Writing of them to 
 his mother in August, 1819, he says: 
 " I have found them both very honor- 
 
 [4*]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 able men and good friends, but even 
 in the best educated families there is 
 a license in conversation and a freedom 
 of speech which astonishes one accus- 
 tomed to different habits." 
 
 Under the same date he continues: 
 
 "I am astonished when I reflect that it is 
 now almost a year since 1 left New York and 
 longer since I have seen you. The novelty 
 I have met with has made the time pass 
 quickly and pleasantly with the exception 
 of the time occupied by my voyage, but the 
 scene now begins to alter, the novelty is 
 wearing away, and when I consider seriously 
 the state of society here and the habits of 
 the people I am more than ever desirous of 
 being back again in my own country. For 
 a considerable time I lived in the house of 
 Mr. Abadia. Since then I have taken a 
 snug and comfortable house in company 
 with a Mr. Mercier of Baltimore, who 
 is here on commercial business. He is a 
 well-informed, gentlemanly man, and I 
 consider myself fortunate in having such a 
 companion. 
 
 [43]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " I have acquired so much of the lan- 
 guage in six months that I can speak it a 
 little, and understand it, when spoken, con- 
 siderably. In the further space of six 
 months I hope to know it very tolerably. 
 Amusements are very limited ; the theater 
 is miserable ; there are many religious pro- 
 cessions and bull-fights. 
 
 "My principal occupation, apart from 
 studying the language, is drawing, and I 
 hope to give you a perfect idea of the ap- 
 pearance of the country, the dresses of the 
 inhabitants, and of the Indians of the in- 
 terior, by sketches which will have some 
 novelty to recommend them." 
 
 Reluctant though he was to remain 
 in Lima he became convinced that 
 there was an opening there for an ex- 
 ceedingly profitable business. Writing 
 on this subject to his father he says: 
 
 " I have embraced this opportunity to 
 write particularly to my friends in New 
 York, having it in my power to hold out 
 very strong inducements to them to make 
 further shipments to this country. They 
 
 [44]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 can, if they are not blind to their interests, 
 take advantage of the circumstances and 
 add another fortune to that they already 
 possess. I have told them that the coun- 
 try is a most unpleasant one to reside in, 
 both on account of the bad state of society 
 and of the state of war which it is in, and 
 the jealousy of the inhabitants to foreign- 
 ers, with other disagreeable circumstances, 
 and that nothing but the expectation of 
 realizing something extraordinary would 
 induce me to remain here any considerable 
 time. I think I ought to have twenty per 
 cent of the net profit, but am willing to 
 leave it to you to make such terms with 
 them for me as you think proper." 
 
 His anxiety on this point was not 
 relieved, and great was his disappoint- 
 ment in December when he was still 
 without letters from his principals or 
 from any of his family. Writing to 
 his sister Maria he says : 
 
 " I hardly need tell you how anxiously I 
 am expecting to hear from you. It is now 
 
 [45]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 more than eight months since my vessel left 
 this for New York, and should my friends 
 have determined on sending her back, as is 
 my calculation, she will undoubtedly be here 
 this month. If my hopes are realized and 
 I hear you are all well and happy it will be 
 the greatest pleasure I can possibly enjoy." 
 
 But his hopes were not fullfilled ; the 
 inexplicable delay in the arrival of let- 
 ters continued ; he was without response 
 from his principals; he was unable to 
 transact any business, and the possibility 
 of collecting his claim was more and 
 more questionable. 
 
 At last, however, when his prospects 
 were as gloomy as in the darkest days 
 off Cape Horn, by the exercise of re- 
 markable tact and business sagacity he 
 accomplished what had seemed impos- 
 sible, and established his reputation as 
 a far-seeing man of affairs. The gov- 
 ernment, still with an empty treasury, 
 was finally induced through the friendly 
 
 [46]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 influence of Don Pedro Abadia to give 
 Mr. Coit permission to export a cargo, 
 and consented to remit the duty thereon 
 in satisfaction of his claim. He had al- 
 ready made the acquaintance of Captain 
 Cleaveland of Boston, and persuaded 
 him to charter a Swedish vessel then in 
 port, and load her with cocoa which 
 was the only article which could be 
 exported in sufficient quantity to answer 
 the purpose. Mr. Abadia undertook 
 to purchase the cocoa at Guayaquil, six 
 hundred miles to the northward, it 
 being understood that our hero should 
 proceed thither to superintend the load- 
 ing, and then set sail for Gibraltar where 
 he was to sell his cargo and divide the 
 proceeds as the agent of all parties in- 
 terested. To accomplish all this as 
 successfully as he did demanded busi- 
 ness talent of the highest order. 
 
 The Viceroy at the same time gave 
 Mr. Coit a license to introduce a cargo 
 
 [47]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of merchandise into Peru free of duty, 
 a concession which was believed to 
 be of considerable value, as he was at 
 liberty to use it himself or to dispose 
 of it for his own advantage. 
 
 We next hear from him at Guayaquil 
 in April, 1820, by a letter to his sister 
 Maria, which closes this account of his 
 first residence in South America. 
 
 " Eighteen months have elapsed since I 
 left New York, and I am yet without a line 
 from any of my friends in the United 
 States or, indeed, any information respecting 
 them. 
 
 " My coming to this port is connected 
 with a very long voyage I have in view which 
 removes to a considerable distance the pleas- 
 ing hopes I had entertained of seeing you all 
 within a few months. 
 
 " I have engaged with Captain Cleaveland, 
 of the ship " Beaver," to take the consignment 
 of a large Swedish ship to be loaded here with 
 cocoa for Gibraltar. Should the whole 
 of this undertaking be crowned with sue- 
 
 [48]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 cess I shall be enabled to return to my 
 native land under circumstances favorable 
 beyond my most sanguine hopes when 
 leaving it. 
 
 " This port, about six hundred miles north 
 of Lima, is situated on a river of the same 
 name about eighty miles from the Pacific 
 Ocean. The population is twenty thousand, 
 a large proportion being indians, mulattoes, 
 and negroes. The women, celebrated for 
 their beauty are called the Circassians of 
 South America. Delicious fruits, pine-ap- 
 ples weighing ten or twelve pounds, oranges, 
 cocoanuts, and other fruits are in abundance, 
 yet I think we should suffer materially in 
 an exchange of fruits. They are strangers 
 to our fine apples, pears, peaches, plums, and 
 apricots, whereas we can generally have the 
 best of theirs from the West Indies, though 
 not in the same perfection. 
 
 " Education and customs are strikingly dif- 
 ferent from ours. Little children are very 
 precocious and are taught to dress and act 
 like grown men and women. The leading 
 traits in the character of the women are van- 
 ity and avarice : they are almost without 
 
 4 [ 49 ]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 modesty, and even young ladies use language 
 that would be shocking to North American 
 ears. 
 
 " We are ready to go to sea this morning 
 in company with Captain Cleaveland who will 
 proceed in the " Beaver " and be the bearer 
 of this, while I shall sail for Gibraltar." 
 
 His strictures on society in Guayaquil 
 were somewhat mollified, however,, by 
 the gratifying attentions he received 
 from the Rosa Puerto family, at whose 
 house he became a frequent visitor. It 
 was rendered exceedingly attractive by 
 a large circle of beautiful and well-bred 
 women, sisters, wives, and children, 
 all living under one roof and form- 
 ing a delightful society of their own. 
 
 His next letters were to his father 
 and mother from Gibraltar at the close 
 of September, 1820. In them and in his 
 autobiography he records the incidents 
 of his voyage in nearly the following 
 words : 
 
 [5]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 "It is with no small pleasure that I ad- 
 dress you from this side the Atlantic, and I 
 may say my happiness would be complete if 
 I could be assured that no unpleasant occur- 
 rence has happened in the family in my long 
 absence. I have been more particularly anx- 
 ious respecting my father, from the distress- 
 ing accident which visited him at the moment 
 of my leaving New York. 
 
 " This day, September 27, completes two 
 years since I left New York, during which 
 period I have not received a line from any 
 of my friends in the United States. My 
 last letters were sent from Guayaquil by 
 Captain Cleaveland, but as I hear that he 
 put in to Lima leaky probably they never 
 reached you. 
 
 " I left Lima on the 5th of March, pro- 
 ceeded to Guayaquil, and loaded my ship 
 with eight hundred thousand pounds of 
 cocoa in bulk, and sailed on April 16 for 
 Gibraltar. The voyage of one hundred and 
 fifty days was monotonous and tedious. The 
 captain gave Cape Horn and the Falkland 
 Islands a wide berth, and we crossed the 
 equator after three months without having
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 sighted land. In a violent gale we were in 
 imminent danger; the captain was utterly- 
 confused and took refuge in the companion 
 way, but finally by some means the vessel 
 righted and got on her course. 
 
 "A few days later an alarming sight ap- 
 peared. At a distance a long, low, warlike- 
 looking craft, having the appearance of a 
 privateer, was watching us, and we fully 
 expected to be boarded and plundered if 
 nothing worse. On she came, then hove 
 to, and we could see the boats lowered with 
 men in arms. Our case seemed desperate, 
 when, to our infinite surprise, after the boats 
 had made half the distance to us, a signal was 
 given for their return, which was instantly 
 complied with. For some cause that we 
 were left to conjecture the stranger had taken 
 alarm and left us. 
 
 " Near the close of the fifth month, when 
 we hoped to arrive at Gibraltar in twenty- 
 four hours, a violent " levanter " brought us 
 again under close-reefed sails, and we drifted 
 at its pleasure. At this time we had a fresh 
 alarm in the appearance of two war-vessels 
 which we had reason to fear were Algerine 
 
 [52]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 pirates, but to our great relief they took no 
 notice of us and passed on their way. 
 
 " This delay of eight days was the more 
 annoying as our limited supply of food was 
 reduced to poor salt beef, and wormy, very 
 wormy, sea-biscuit. But still, I cannot say I 
 really suffered ; good health and good appe- 
 tite made me relish even this coarse fare. 
 Again, when perhaps twenty miles east of 
 Gibraltar, the wind and current drifted us 
 within range of the guns of the fort off Cadiz. 
 In this position we were in danger of being 
 boarded by the officers of the fort, and knew 
 not what our fate might be, but providen- 
 tially a light breeze sprang up and we were 
 for a third time relieved from anxiety. In a 
 few hours we found ourselves in the port of 
 Gibraltar." 
 
 Addressing his mother he says : 
 
 " I expect to go from hence to England, 
 and it would be very pleasing to me if I 
 could return home from thence and visit 
 you all, but I am inclined to believe I shall 
 undertake another voyage to Peru in the 
 hope it may enable me to return to my 
 
 [53]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 native land with more reputation and under 
 more favorable conditions than I can at 
 present. Such being the case, I am sure 
 you will acquiesce in the propriety of the 
 measure, notwithstanding it may occasion 
 you 'some uneasiness and disappointment. 
 
 " I cannot avoid saying here that I am sen- 
 sible of having occasioned you more of those 
 painful sensations all my life than either of 
 your other children, certainly not from 
 a wish to do so, but perhaps too often from 
 a selfish disposition and the result of impru- 
 dencies. I assure you I shall never feel en- 
 tirely at ease on this point until I have it in 
 my power to make some amends by a more 
 guided and correct conduct, which I pray a 
 kind Providence may afford me the means 
 of showing by returning me to you in his 
 own good time." 
 
 This was not the language of a home- 
 sick child, but the deliberate words of a 
 grown man whose warm affection for 
 his family and his old home appears 
 throughout his correspondence. 
 
 His autobiography gives this account 
 
 [54]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of his sensations on his arrival at 
 Gibraltar. 
 
 "In recalling the experiences of my life 
 I cannot recollect hours so full of unalloyed 
 happiness as those which I now enjoyed. As 
 before stated, I had staked all on this event- 
 ful voyage, and now that it had proved suc- 
 cessful everything in the future seemed bright 
 and hopeful. I was soon to be in the posses- 
 sion of what, to a young man, was a hand- 
 some capital. I had gained mercantile 
 knowledge of a foreign trade that others 
 would be desirous to possess, and should 
 soon have the pleasure of visiting some of 
 the most interesting capitals of the Old 
 World. The change in my physical condi- 
 tion it is difficult to describe. I was at last 
 freed from the discomforts and dangers of a 
 most tedious voyage in an old tub of a ship. 
 In the place of fare that a beggar would have 
 turned his back upon, my table was furnished 
 with all the luxuries of a well-supplied mar- 
 ket, for scarcely had our anchor struck ground 
 when boats were at hand with a profusion of 
 meats, bread, fruit ; in fine, everything that a 
 
 [SSl
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 famished appetite could crave ; the weather, 
 too, was delightful, and the bands in the 
 forts enlivened us with their music. 
 
 " My cargo was soon disposed of, with the 
 exception of a small venture of my own, 
 which I shipped to Bordeaux to avail of a 
 better market. I now closed up the affairs 
 of the voyage so far as the various parties 
 interested were concerned, and, remitting to 
 my friends in New York the balance due 
 them on the " Boxer's " voyage, was now 
 prepared to proceed to Paris and to carry 
 my own private views into effect. I deter- 
 mined to make the journey by land, as it 
 afforded a favorable opportunity of seeing 
 something of the interior of France and 
 Spain." 
 
 His stay at Gibraltar was not pro- 
 longed after he had completed his busi- 
 ness, and he then proceeded by mules 
 and post chaise, in company with two 
 English gentlemen, to Madrid. The 
 journey, though fatiguing and rather 
 uninteresting, afforded some novel 
 
 [56]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 glimpses of Spanish low life. Progress 
 was necessarily slow ; the vehicle and 
 the harness and manner of driving 
 were quite primitive; the driver kept 
 up a lively conversation with his mules, 
 calling them by their names, and when 
 language and gesticulation failed to 
 quicken their pace, like the old farmer 
 in the fable he tried what virtue there 
 was in pelting them with stones. Ac- 
 counts came to his notice of robberies 
 on the road which were so frequent 
 that travelers generally went armed or 
 with an escort of cavalry. 
 
 During his stay in Madrid illness 
 deprived him of much enjoyment he 
 might have had in that interesting city, 
 and he greatly regretted his inability to 
 visit the Escurial, with its wonderful 
 creations of Murillo. He made an 
 effort, however, to witness the grand 
 and imposing ceremony on the return 
 of the king to the capital, attended by 
 
 [57]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 the queen and officers of state, in royal 
 carriages, with outriders and other at- 
 tendants glittering with gold, rich and 
 showy beyond anything he could have 
 imagined. 
 
 With his usual good fortune in mak- 
 ing friends, he was invited by Mr. For- 
 syth, our minister to the court of Spain, 
 to accompany him in his private car- 
 riage to Bordeaux ; but although he 
 accepted the invitation, he was com- 
 pelled by illness to part company at 
 Bayonne, near Biarritz, on the shore of 
 the Bay of Biscay. 
 
 After a detention of two weeks he 
 proceeded by diligence to Bordeaux, 
 where he was cordially received by the 
 German house of Classman, to whom 
 the cocoa he had shipped from Gib- 
 raltar had been consigned. An agree- 
 able acquaintance thus formed with Mr. 
 Classman's family added much to the 
 pleasure of his visit. He met a large 
 
 [58]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 circle of intelligent, polite, and thor- 
 oughly well-bred people at his table, 
 where he dined frequently, and as it 
 was understood he was not quite well, 
 a bottle of claret was placed by his side 
 for his special use. " But such claret ! 
 I had never seen the like. It was a 
 perfect bouquet, and its flavor was equal 
 to its fragrance ! " 
 
 Writing to his father, he says : 
 
 " You will think that I travel under very 
 great disadvantages from the circumstances 
 of my having come to Europe without a 
 single letter of introduction, and I might 
 almost say without even an acquaintance 
 (indeed I can with truth say it of that part 
 of Europe I have already passed through), 
 but I can assure you I have not found the 
 least inconvenience on this account. In 
 Gibraltar I received the most particular 
 attention from all the American and some 
 English gentlemen there that letters would 
 have given me, and I have brought letters 
 here which have, I can venture to say, made 
 
 [59]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 me some very excellent friends that have 
 overpowered me with attentions." 
 
 " I also take with me to Paris and London 
 sufficient letters to give me an introduction 
 to the society of those places. I mention 
 this so that you may have no uneasiness on 
 my account in this particular." 
 
 He concluded his business in Bor- 
 deaux without delay, and then took the 
 diligence for Paris, with little expecta- 
 tion of disposing of his license there, 
 but anticipating much pleasure in seeing 
 the wonderful city. Here, again, good 
 fortune attended him, for he found in 
 Paris Don Pedro Blanco of the house 
 of Abadia, and Philip Mercier, both 
 of whom he had known intimately in 
 Lima. By them he was received with 
 the utmost hospitality, and under their 
 auspices, to his great enjoyment and 
 instruction, he saw all that was best 
 worth seeing in the beautiful capital. 
 But his hopes were fixed on London, 
 
 [60]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and thither without much delay he 
 directed his steps. 
 
 If on entering the great metropolis 
 he had felt considerable elation of spirits 
 it would not have been unnatural. He 
 was no longer a clerk or an agent for 
 principals who were far away, and who 
 might or might not approve of his con- 
 duct of their affairs, in which he had 
 been compelled to assume grave respon- 
 sibilities. He was now his own master, 
 possessing capital which he himself had 
 acquired, and holding a license which, 
 as has been seen, he had reason to expect 
 would prove valuable. He had tested his 
 powers and knew his strength, and had 
 good ground for self-confidence, espe- 
 cially in his knowledge of men and affairs 
 political and commercial in South Amer- 
 ica. It was many years later that he said : 
 
 "it surprises me, now, to reflect with what 
 
 boldness and confidence I entered London 
 
 [61]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 where I was utterly unknown, and without 
 even the advantage that letters from home 
 might have given me. The probability of 
 my introducing myself and my business to 
 strangers in such a manner as to meet their 
 favorable consideration was very slight. My 
 friend Mercier had kindly given me a letter 
 of introduction to Frederick Huth & Co., 
 a house with which he was somewhat ac- 
 quainted. This was my only chance for 
 making my antecedents known aside from 
 my own representations." 
 
 These representations must have been 
 made in an exceedingly winning and 
 convincing manner. Merchants of large 
 affairs are naturally cautious in receiving 
 the proposals of strangers ; but his ar- 
 dent enthusiasm, his confidence in him- 
 self and in the value of the propositions 
 he had to submit, were so tempered by 
 his deferential courtesy, his accurate 
 knowledge of details and his scrupulous 
 truthfulness, that he had every reason 
 to be gratified by the impression they
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 made on Mr. Huth, and by the consid- 
 erate reception he gave him. 
 
 The partners of the firm of Frederick 
 Huth & Co. were German by birth. 
 They possessed a large capital and had 
 long been established in London, where 
 they enjoyed a high reputation among 
 merchants. 
 
 After consideration, Mr. Huth's opin- 
 ion was that the license was of less value 
 than Mr. Coit had believed, as the ne- 
 cessities of Peru would compel the 
 admission of vessels, license or no li- 
 cense ; but he recognized the value of 
 Mr. Coit's knowledge and experience, 
 and offered him a compensation of 
 $3,500 for his time and services in 
 selecting and purchasing a cargo for 
 shipment thither. This offer exceeded 
 his expectations and the arrangement 
 was concluded forthwith. 
 
 As the condition of affairs in Peru 
 did not encourage immediate action in 
 
 [63]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 sending a cargo thither, he improved 
 several weeks of leisure in seeing some- 
 thing of the country. He visited Hull, 
 Leeds, Manchester, Chester, and Liver- 
 pool, finding in all these places so much 
 that was novel and interesting that the 
 time passed pleasantly, especially in vis- 
 iting the great manufacturing towns. 
 
 " Leeds," he said, " is filled with smoke 
 and dirt and appears like a great workshop, 
 but the neighboring country is very fine with 
 numerous elegant buildings and country 
 seats, withal a good hunting and shooting 
 country. These sports are now out of sea- 
 son, or I should have desired to devote a few 
 days to them. You perceive I make good 
 the old saying that ( as the twig is bent the 
 tree 's inclined.' Perhaps I am more dis- 
 posed to be pleased with Liverpool from the 
 very flattering manner in which I have been 
 received here, and a most hospitable recep- 
 tion from Mr. Woolsey and his good family. 
 Our cousin Abby Woolsey is a most excel- 
 lent and lovely woman, and since my recent 
 
 [64]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 intercourse with her I am more than ever 
 sensible of the loss her friends sustain in 
 being deprived of her society. I have cor- 
 responded with her since my return to 
 London, having consented to expose my 
 own poverty in letter writing for the sat- 
 isfaction her letters have afforded me. In a 
 recent one she says, 'You must let me know 
 if you hear from your own family. Do not 
 forget to remember me with sincere affec- 
 tion to each one, but particularly my always 
 dearly beloved aunt.' ' 
 
 His business in London was not so 
 engrossing but that he had leisure for 
 amusement and for seeing all that was 
 most worthy of attention in the great 
 city. He was particularly fortunate in 
 having an opportunity of witnessing the 
 imposing ceremonies on the occasion 
 of the coronation of King George IV. 
 in Westminster Abbey in July, 1821. 
 By great good fortune through the 
 kindness of his friends he obtained a 
 seat that proved to be one of the best 
 
 * [65]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 in the house, and the magnificence of 
 the spectacle amply repaid him for the 
 tedious delay in waiting from daylight 
 to eleven o'clock. As the King was 
 leaving the Abbey in procession he 
 was gratified with a near view of him 
 while the walls were echoing shouts of 
 " God save the King ! " " Long live King 
 George ! " 
 
 In the following September the ex- 
 pedition for Lima, in which he had 
 been interested, was ready for sea, and 
 he was tempted by very favorable pro- 
 posals from the owners to join it. But 
 he had other prospects in view, and 
 remembered with anything but pleasure 
 his last tedious voyage of five months 
 from Peru. His experience at sea 
 might have taught him to say with 
 Shylock : " Ships are but boards, sail- 
 ors but men: there be land rats and 
 water rats, water thieves and land 
 thieves, I mean pirates : and then, there 
 [66]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 is the peril of waters, winds and 
 rocks." 
 
 The object he had in view was to 
 establish himself, with the advice and 
 assistance of the good friends he had 
 made in England, Mr. Huth and others, 
 in commercial business in Gibraltar, 
 and to Gibraltar he proceeded by way 
 of Paris where he was detained much 
 longer than he had expected on account 
 of the unhealthy condition of Spain. He 
 had no reason to regret the detention, 
 however, as will appear hereafter. It 
 is interesting to contrast his opinions of 
 Paris with those expressed by his father 
 forty years earlier, and printed in the 
 
 memoir of Daniel Lathrop Coit. 
 
 \ 
 
 " I continue much pleased with Paris and 
 give it preference over London as a place of 
 residence. There is such a variety of objects 
 to amuse and engage the admiration in the 
 magnificent and numerous public edifices, 
 gardens, and streets, as well as in the exhi- 
 
 [67]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 bitions of fine arts collected from all parts of 
 the world, such as are not to be met with in 
 any other country. Indeed, the round of 
 pleasureable enjoyments is such that foreign- 
 ers particularly, and not infrequently our 
 countrymen who come here solely for amuse- 
 ments, give themselves up too much to them 
 and commit very great follies. Yet, not- 
 withstanding this, Paris is still a place of 
 greater industry than perhaps any other. 
 Manufactures are carried on to a great ex- 
 tent. The women are more industrious and 
 their time more devoted to profitable em- 
 ployment than in any other country. Paris 
 must be much altered and improved since 
 you were here. A principal improvement 
 made by the late Emperor, besides fine public 
 buildings and monuments, are the piers of 
 free stone on both sides of the Seine, the 
 whole length of the city." 
 
 On his journey to Paris he stopped 
 for two or three days at Southampton 
 and the Isle of Wight, and passed the 
 time very agreeably in sketching from 
 nature. At Newport he was diverted 
 [68]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 by the annual fair, lasting three days 
 and made a frolic, in which servants 
 from all parts of the island are engaged 
 for a whole year, a novel perform- 
 ance, similar to the scene represented 
 in the opera of "Martha." 
 
 To his great surprise he was recalled 
 from Paris by letters from Mr. Huth 
 so urgent and important that he had no 
 alternative but to abandon his plans for 
 Gibraltar, and return immediately to 
 London. Mr. Huth's proposition was 
 nothing less than that they should form 
 a copartnership to last for six years, for 
 the transaction of a commercial business 
 in Valparaiso and Lima, under the firm 
 name of Frederick Huth, Coit & Com- 
 pany. His share of the profits was to 
 be thirty-two per cent. A vessel with 
 a valuable cargo was to be fitted out 
 immediately and he was to go out in 
 her and have full control of the business 
 in Lima where he would make his 
 
 [69]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 residence. As the existing house of 
 Frederick Huth & Co. possessed ample 
 resources, and enjoyed the highest 
 reputation as merchants in England, 
 Germany, and Spain, the success of 
 the enterprise seemed to be assured in 
 advance. Such a proposition, coming 
 from such a source, was not less grat- 
 ifying than surprising, and although 
 it deferred for a long period all hope 
 of his return to the United States, there 
 could be no question as to the propriety 
 of its immediate acceptance. 
 
 In company with Mr. Huth he then 
 visited the principal manufacturing 
 towns in England, making purchases 
 for shipment and negotiating for further 
 consignments. Arrangements were per- 
 fected for sending a large and valuable 
 cargo in a fine English ship in which 
 he was to sail, and he estimated his 
 own share of the profits on that cargo 
 alone at not less than ten thousand
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 dollars. Writing from London in 
 May, 1822, he says: 
 
 " I confess I am a little surprised to find 
 people willing to adventure their property at 
 this moment so freely to a market so distant, 
 and from which the accounts have been very 
 unfavorable, but so it is, and I have no doubt 
 I shall have as many goods shipped to me as 
 I can possibly dispose of, even if a million 
 sterling, per annum. ... It may be consid- 
 ered a singular circumstance, situated as I 
 have been in England, a stranger, coming 
 here without the advantages I might have 
 had from letters had I come direct from the 
 United States, that I should so soon have 
 had two offers from different houses of the 
 first respectability to form establishments 
 abroad and take the entire responsibility of 
 them, but such has been the case." 
 
 He and Mr. Huth continued their 
 tour as far as Liverpool, where they 
 received every civility from Mr. and 
 Mrs. Woolsey. Mr. Woolsey strongly 
 advised them to change their arrange-
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ments in favor of Mexico, and proposed 
 to take an interest in promoting an 
 establishment there; but Mr. Huth's 
 plans were already irrevocably fixed. 
 
 There was unavoidable delay in mak- 
 ing the cargo ready for shipment, com- 
 ing as it did from different points, part 
 of it from Hamburg, and it was not 
 until early in June, 1822, that the 
 "Ship Catharine, Robert Young, mas- 
 ter, from London to the coast of Chile 
 and Peru," with Mr. Coit, and a gen- 
 tleman whom he had consented to 
 receive on board as a passenger, took 
 her departure. 
 
 His last letter to his family from 
 London is dated May 26. He says : 
 
 " I have heretofore mentioned to you the 
 high reputation as an author which our coun- 
 tryman, Mr. Washington Irving of New 
 York, has established for himself in England 
 by the publication of his { Sketch Book.' I 
 am happy to say he has now added not a little 
 
 [72]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 to his fame by a new work which he calls 
 * Bracebridge Hall.' By reading early and 
 late I have got through it, my engagements 
 to the contrary notwithstanding, and can 
 truly say I never laughed and wept more at 
 one and the same book in my life. I am 
 willing to think I am not altogether an im- 
 partial judge of the work from the friendship 
 and esteem I have for the author and the 
 interest I feel in his success, and, indeed, 
 in all that relates to him. 
 
 " It would have been a great gratification 
 to me if I could have looked in upon you in 
 Norwich, if but for a very short time, pre- 
 vious to this undertaking ; but under this 
 deprivation your letters just received are a 
 greater consolation than you can imagine. 
 To learn that our dear mother's health is 
 even better than usual is, at this particular 
 moment, the greatest pleasure that could have 
 occurred to me. May a kind Providence, 
 my dear sister, watch over and preserve us 
 all to a happy meeting, at some future day." 
 
 One more letter, and this the last 
 from London, was to Mrs. Woolsey 
 
 [73]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 on the 2d of June. He acknowledges 
 the courtesies extended to him and Mr. 
 Huth in Liverpool, and, with affec- 
 tionate farewells, sends her a copy of 
 "Bracebridge Hall." 
 
 There is some reason to conjec- 
 ture that the impossibility of maintain- 
 ing close and frequent communication 
 with his principals, Messrs. Howland 
 and Harmony, during his first so- 
 journ in Lima, resulted in misunder- 
 standing on their part, and in criticism 
 which he could not but regard as 
 unwarranted and entirely unjust. It 
 was gratifying to him therefore, on 
 the eve of his departure from Eng- 
 land, to receive from his Howland 
 cousins renewed expressions of friend- 
 ship, good will, and confidence, with 
 cordial congratulations on his pros- 
 perity. 
 
 In the same connection his father 
 wrote to him : . 
 
 [74]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " Your very good friend, G. G. Rowland, 
 who passed through town recently, took oc- 
 casion to congratulate me on the very hon- 
 orable conduct manifested by you in this 
 transaction. It had immortalized you even 
 in New York, and placed your character in 
 a most shining and conspicuous light, and 
 given you almost unbounded credit and 
 eclat." 
 
 A long interval, nearly four months, 
 elapsed before the date of the traveler's 
 next letter, September 29, 1822, from 
 Monte Video. Of this letter there re- 
 mains only a fragment, which suffices 
 to show that the tedious voyage was 
 interrupted by a violent gale as they ap- 
 proached Cape Horn which so strained 
 the ship as to make it necessary to re- 
 turn to the Rio de la Plata for repairs. 
 
 At midnight, through the ignorance 
 or incompetence of the captain, the 
 vessel ran upon a reef on the island of 
 Flores and for a time seemed to be in 
 
 [75]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 imminent peril, but by means almost 
 miraculous was righted and proceeded 
 to Monte Video, not far distant. There, 
 as it was found necessary to discharge 
 the cargo and repair the vessel, he was 
 detained for a month under conditions 
 that were not altogether agreeable, 
 though he lived in the house of an 
 English gentleman who took charge 
 of the ship, " his wife an agreeable 
 lady, much superior to most foreign 
 women in Spanish countries, who are 
 apt to become negligent in neatness and 
 propriety, or what we should esteem so, 
 and fall more or less into the customs 
 of the natives. I really do not think 
 there are a dozen very good-looking 
 women in all Monte Video, and not 
 half that number that would be called 
 pretty with us. A very handsome per- 
 son there is not ! " He had not forgot- 
 ten the early lessons in propriety that 
 he had learned at home, nor the attrac- 
 
 [76]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 tive graces of the girls he had left 
 behind him ! 
 
 Although the damage to his ship and 
 cargo was not very serious, the deten- 
 tion at Monte Video gave him an op- 
 portunity to modify his plans for the 
 continuance of his journey. He had 
 already made two disagreeable voyages 
 around Cape Horn ; and he now goes 
 on to say : 
 
 "You will readily imagine after all my 
 trials I am ready to grasp at almost any ex- 
 pedient to avoid another journey around 
 Cape Horn, and will be pleased that I pro- 
 pose to go from hence to Buenos Ay res, 
 about one hundred miles up the river, and 
 from thence by land to Valparaiso, there to 
 have the ship meet me." 
 
 He was evidently undismayed by the 
 captain's unfortunate attempt to navi- 
 gate the ship overland in proposing to 
 go overland himself! 
 
 [77]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 "The journey is no trifling one, being 
 about sixteen hundred miles, to be per- 
 formed on horseback : however, I can un- 
 dergo fatigue of body better than anxiety 
 of mind; severe exertion never injures 
 me, and I think I was never in better con- 
 dition to bear it than at present." 
 
 Having put his ship in order to pro- 
 ceed on her voyage, he left Monte 
 Video and went up the river to Buenos 
 Ayres, where he remained a fortnight 
 waiting for traveling companions, and 
 there he received favorable news from 
 Peru promising an excellent trade and 
 a liberal profit on the merchandise he 
 had shipped. 
 
 " These you will acknowledge are bright 
 prospects, and should they be realized only 
 in part I shall soon be more independent in 
 a pecuniary point of view than I have ever 
 been, and shall be able, I hope, to return to 
 my own country, a wish that is now dearest 
 to my heart." 
 
 [78]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 His traveling party, besides himself, 
 consisted of three American gentlemen, 
 and numbered nine in all, including 
 drivers and servants, fully armed and 
 prepared to resist any attack from the 
 roving bands of lawless savages that in- 
 fested the country. They were also 
 provided with bedding, cooking uten- 
 sils, provisions, and other indispensables 
 for the journey. The alarming reports 
 of robberies and murders on the road 
 almost made him wish that he had gone 
 with the ship, but it was now too late. 
 
 On the 29th of November, 1822, all 
 things being in readiness, he began his 
 memorable journey across the continent 
 of South America. It was his birthday, 
 and he wrote : 
 
 " It may not occur to you, and I therefore 
 remind you that I am writing on my birth- 
 day. I feel sensibly the rapidity with which 
 time passes, and when I reflect how little I 
 
 [79]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 have done to any good purpose at this ad- 
 vanced age, I am startled and cannot be with- 
 out apprehension for the future. Still, I 
 have great reason to be thankful for many, 
 very many things, and, if my present pros- 
 pects are realized only in part, I shall have 
 it in my power to return before a very long 
 time to a life which is dearest to my heart." 
 
 He could not imagine what vicissi- 
 tudes the next fifty years of his life 
 would bring ! 
 
 Not even the anticipation of robbers, 
 who fortunately did not come, could 
 make the long carriage drive over the 
 pampas from Buenos Ayres to Mendoza, 
 at the foot of the eastern Cordillera, 
 anything but monotonous and weari- 
 some. These vast plains afforded grass 
 for herds of innumerable cattle, and 
 especially wild horses, and the chief 
 diversion at the frequent post-houses 
 was to see two or three men, when a 
 relay was called for, ride off into a herd
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and drive in one or two hundred of all 
 sizes and descriptions, and capture such 
 as were desirable with their unerring 
 lassoes. 
 
 Mendoza, a large inland town, was 
 and had long been a halting-place for 
 travelers who were about to cross the 
 Andes. Here the country was in a high 
 state of cultivation, abounding in fields 
 of grain, orchards, and vineyards. It was 
 the destination of two of his party, and, 
 after two days' rest, Mr. Coit, with a 
 Lieutenant Nixon of the United States 
 navy, who had been in the company, 
 mounted their horses and with their 
 guides began the exciting ascent over 
 the Uspallata Pass. 
 
 After seventy-five years, on the 
 summit of this pass at an altitude of 
 thirteen thousand feet above the sea, 
 on the boundary line between Chile 
 and Argentina symbolizing peace be- 
 tween those countries, stands to-day, 
 6 [81]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 supported by a cross, a colossal statue 
 of Christ! 
 
 Not far distant in the south was the 
 volcanic mountain, San Jose, twenty 
 thousand feet high, and in the north 
 towered Aconcagua, nearly twenty-four 
 thousand feet, supposed to be the high- 
 est peak in the western hemisphere. 
 Over this route, traversed by Mr. Coit 
 in twenty-one days, eighty-six years ago, 
 a railway now in course of construction 
 is so near completion that a recent trav- 
 eler in midwinter, climbing the most 
 arduous part on his feet, and using the 
 railway in the ascent and descent, did 
 what had been believed to be impossi- 
 ble and crossed the continent in five 
 days. 
 
 Huge masses of rock hurled from 
 the summits to the valleys far below in 
 many places obstructed the road and 
 gave abundant evidence of a recent 
 earthquake. Of this he received full 
 
 [82]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 intelligence at Santiago, a fine city 
 ninety miles in the interior, and on his 
 arrival at Valparaiso, his destination, 
 he witnessed its appalling results, the 
 city lying in ruins, and the inhabitants 
 destitute of food, shelter, and clothing. 
 
 It is not without surprise and regret, 
 considering his artistic appreciation of 
 the picturesque and sublime in natural 
 scenery, and his power of narration 
 which could make a remembered scene 
 seem actually visible, that we find in 
 his letters that still exist next to noth- 
 ing of the wonderful region, then almost 
 unknown to civilized men, through 
 which he had passed. He plainly 
 intimated that he might give a further 
 account of his journey at a future day, 
 but no trace of it has been found. 
 
 In interesting contrast with the ex- 
 perience of her kinsman, Mr. Coit, is 
 Mrs. Faith Ripley Atterbury's charming 
 account of her twice crossing the South 
 
 [83]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 American continent with her husband, 
 about eighty years later, over nearly the 
 same route, but under very different 
 conditions. The panorama of the 
 Andes as seen from the Pacific between 
 Valparaiso and Lima was not less glo- 
 rious than in his day, but those ancient 
 cities, while retaining remains of their 
 former grandeur, had been transformed 
 by commercial enterprise and modern 
 civilization into gay and brilliant capi- 
 tals. Even Callao, which he had found 
 no better than "a filthy, squalid land- 
 ing-place," called forth her cordial 
 approval as "quaint, little Spotless 
 Town," looking so cosy and attractive 
 and friendly that she was loath to 
 leave it. 
 
 Mr. Coit's ship made a good passage 
 around the cape and reached Valparaiso 
 shortly before he did, a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance, as it enabled him to go on 
 board at once and make his home there 
 
 [84]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 during his stay in the city, which was 
 prolonged beyond his expectations in 
 consequence of the unsettled condition 
 of political affairs in Peru and incessant 
 conflicts between the royalists and the 
 revolutionists. The detention was not 
 detrimental to his interests, however, for 
 his cargo found an excellent market. 
 He says : " I live constantly on the ship 
 and am comfortable in all respects. With 
 the troubles of others ringing in my ears 
 I have reason to be thankful that my 
 individual concerns are more than fa- 
 vorable." The sufferings that he wit- 
 nessed on every side appealed to his 
 sympathy, and he took much pleasure 
 in rendering substantial assistance to the 
 United States consul and his family, who 
 had lost everything by the earthquake. 
 The United States seventy-four gun ship 
 " Franklin/' Commodore Stewart, was 
 in port at this time, and with him and 
 his family he had a friendly acquaint- 
 
 [85]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ance, as also with the family of the 
 consul. 
 
 He remained three months in Valpa- 
 raiso and then went north to Quilea, 
 the port of Arequipa, where his ship 
 delivered a portion of her cargo. Be- 
 fore he could collect the amount 
 due to him the persons to whom he 
 had made sales found it necessary for 
 their safety from the opposing army to 
 make their escape from Arequipa, and, 
 choosing not to lose sight of them, 
 he followed them to the ancient city 
 of Cuzco, formerly the seat of the 
 Incas, the native kings, who ruled 
 the country for hundreds of years be- 
 fore the Spanish conquest. The four 
 months that he spent there gave him 
 full opportunity to survey the ruins 
 of the once great and magnifi- 
 cent city, its fortress, its palaces, its 
 churches, and the famous Temple of 
 the Sun. 
 
 [86]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 In December, 1823, after an absence 
 of more than three and a half years, he 
 found himself once more within the 
 walls of the city of Lima, with sensa- 
 tions very different from those with 
 which he had left it. He was then 
 making a bold venture in which he 
 could not be fully confident of suc- 
 cess ; he returned at the head of an 
 important establishment which had 
 already yielded handsome profits and 
 now opened more brilliant prospects. 
 
 Writing to his mother he says : 
 
 "I assure you, my dear mother, I have 
 felt much gratified by the particulars you 
 have given me of your family group and of 
 our immediate friends and neighbors in whom 
 I shall always feel a lively interest. It also 
 affords me much pleasure that in being sep- 
 arated from your own sons, you should have 
 found in Mr. Gilman all that an own son 
 should be. I feel this as the kindest favor 
 he could do me, and I shall never be for- 
 getful of it." 
 
 [87]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 To his father, after speaking of the 
 outlook for good business as exceeding 
 his expectations, he says: 
 
 a I had advanced pretty well in the knowl- 
 edge of the Spanish language before leaving 
 this for Europe, at any rate sufficiently to 
 transact my business in it and carry on a 
 conversation with any one ; but the French, 
 which I acquired to a certain extent while in 
 Europe rather confused my Spanish, and 
 that, with want of practice for so long a time 
 put me back very much. However, I have 
 recovered what I lost, and am, I think, more 
 advanced than before." 
 
 Except for a comparatively short trip 
 to Quilea, the following years of his 
 life in South America were spent in 
 Lima. Here he occupied a large and 
 commodious house after the Spanish 
 fashion with a family that usually num- 
 bered about twenty. Household ex- 
 penses were enormous, but commissions 
 were large in proportion, and he sub- 
 [88]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 mitted without much repining to what- 
 ever inconvenience as part of the regular 
 course of business, hoping it might the 
 sooner enable him to accomplish his 
 ardent desire to return to his native 
 land. Writing to his mother at two 
 o'clock in the morning, he says : " Our 
 business keeps our house constantly 
 thronged with captains and supercar- 
 goes, who give me not a moment's 
 leisure or peace except when I am 
 in bed." 
 
 Although he engaged in no specu- 
 lative ventures for himself or for his 
 firm, his constantly increasing commis- 
 sion business taxed his powers to the 
 utmost. In February, 1825, he had 
 eight vessels in port consigned to him 
 with cargoes amounting to $400,000. 
 In August he names eleven more, and 
 in the January following he was over- 
 whelmed with business, cargoes com- 
 ing from the United States, England, 
 
 [89]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 France, and Germany exceeding a mil- 
 lion of dollars. Although he did not 
 think it possible in April, 1826, that 
 his firm could ever have another three 
 months' business as profitable as the 
 last, yet after eighteen months he could 
 say, " the present year is the best we 
 have ever had," and he entertained great 
 hopes that the final six months of his 
 partnership would be " a very handsome 
 winding up." All this is the more re- 
 markable because of disturbances and 
 conflicts between the opposing political 
 parties, and the constant fluctuation in 
 the prices of all commodities imported 
 into the country. It had been a period 
 of great financial distress in Lima. Very 
 many families who had been in affluent 
 circumstances when he first came to the 
 country were now reduced to want and 
 beggary. 
 
 Not less gratifying than his material 
 prosperity was the cordial approbation 
 
 [9]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of all his acts and proceedings repeatedly 
 expressed by his partners in London. In 
 a private letter to him, in April, 1826, 
 Mr. Huth wrote: 
 
 " Let me assure you your letters always 
 give me the greatest pleasure, they are so 
 interesting, both from their important con- 
 tents and from the masterly manner and style 
 in which they are written. . . . Could we 
 but have peace and harmony in Peru what a 
 wide field would be open for you and for us : 
 as it is, we must not complain, we have had 
 hard work to set things agoing, but by de- 
 grees I trust it will be easier, and rest assured, 
 no effort shall be wanting on our part to sup- 
 port the establishment. ... I conclude with 
 the renewed tender of my most sincere friend- 
 ship, and with the assurance that no one can 
 possibly take a livelier interest in your 
 welfare." 
 
 His partnership was to expire by limi- 
 tation on the eleventh day of April, 1828, 
 and to that day he looked forward with 
 the eagerness of a school-boy expectant
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of his vacation. The years of his ab- 
 sence were now reduced to months, and, 
 as he counted them, he declared that 
 nothing would induce him to remain in 
 Lima beyond the term of his original 
 agreement. In this connection he says : 
 
 " What changes have not a few years pro- 
 duced in my situation ! To look back seven 
 years to when I first arrived in this country 
 a stranger, with but a small cargo under my 
 direction, and now, to find myself at the head 
 of an establishment doing more business than 
 any other in Peru, and actually giving assist- 
 ance to the family of him who was at the 
 head of commerce and one of the richest 
 men in the country at that time, Don Pedro 
 Abadia!" 
 
 He was much interested in hearing 
 from his parents the details of their jour- 
 ney to Ohio in 1826, when they visited 
 his brother Henry. " If any one had 
 predicted, when father made his first 
 journey there in 1801, that it might 
 
 [9*1
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 become a pleasure jaunt for ladies, that 
 person would have been thought cracked, 
 at least." 
 
 ac- 
 pros- 
 
 He was also concerned by their 
 count of his brother Henry, whose piua- 
 pects were somewhat unpromising, and 
 wrote : 
 
 " He certainly has an unusual capability 
 for business, and I regret that he is not 
 where he can exercise it. ... It must be a 
 heavy charge to have a growing family with- 
 out more means than he possesses, and it will 
 be very gratifying to me if I can aid in plac- 
 ing him in an eligible situation. Remember 
 me affectionately to him and his family and 
 say that on my return I shall not be long 
 without making him a visit." 
 
 To his mother he says : 
 
 " I have just got out from England a nice 
 camera lucida, a new invention for taking 
 landscapes and figures with despatch and 
 much precision, and I intend to add con- 
 siderably to my collection of views in this 
 neighborhood before I leave it, so you will 
 
 [93]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 perceive the cares of business have not de- 
 prived me of my fondness for this favorite 
 amusement; and will you be offended or 
 think me frivolous if I tell you that I would 
 like of all things a fine day's sport with my 
 dog and gun by way of recreation after the 
 tolerable spell of business I have had ? This, 
 you know, was a passion which began early 
 with me, and, it is best to be candid, I believe 
 it will last late. However, you will admit 
 that I can lay it aside when business or duty 
 bid. . . . But the clock strikes twelve, and 
 reminds me it is bedtime." 
 
 The business prosperity of his firm 
 was unabated, and his partners offered 
 him flattering inducements to continue 
 the partnership for at least another year ; 
 but he was firm in his resolution to 
 return home at the earliest possible 
 moment. To that end he closed his 
 private affairs and made remittances of 
 his funds, some to Gibraltar and Eng- 
 land, but the greater part he proposed to 
 carry with him in specie, gold and silver 
 
 [94]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 bullion, coined silver, and sealskins. He 
 speaks almost apologetically of his affairs 
 to his father, " for not to tell you would 
 be to deprive you of a pleasure." 
 
 Late at night, on the 28th of April, 
 with only half an inch of candle re- 
 maining, he writes : 
 
 "You are aware that my copartnership 
 expired on the 1 1 inst., and of course since 
 that period I have had no connection with 
 my former house, but, notwithstanding, the 
 captains and supercargoes will not let me rest, 
 and I have exactly the same direction in the 
 new house that I had in the old, and though 
 I wish it were otherwise it will unavoidably 
 continue so while I am here. . . . Since 
 my last we have had a dreadful earthquake. 
 You can hardly form an idea of the horror 
 of it, the ground rising and falling with 
 undulations like the sea ; houses and parts 
 of houses falling ; clouds of dust rising in all 
 directions ; people running naked into the 
 streets, some screeching, others crying, and 
 all beseeching for mercy. Such a scene I 
 never wish to witness again. 
 
 [95]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Since the earthquake we were very nigh 
 having another revolution, and there is no 
 telling what dreadful consequences might 
 have ensued had it taken effect. Do you 
 wonder that I wish to get out of such a 
 country where earthquakes and revolutions 
 are of almost daily occurrence, to say nothing 
 of numerous lesser evils ? " 
 
 In a letter to his brother he gives an 
 interesting narrative of his personal ex- 
 perience in this earthquake. He had 
 risen at an early hour with the purpose 
 of making a sketch from a lofty tower 
 which commanded a fine view of the 
 city and river at the end of a bridge 
 crossing the Reimac. It could be 
 reached only by long, dreary passages 
 and various staircases and trapdoors in 
 an old convent. While seated at his 
 work in this dangerous position the 
 trembling of the tower and the rum- 
 bling of the earthquake warned him of 
 its approach. So sudden and violent 
 was the shock that, leaving his sketch 
 
 [96]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and implements while the walls and 
 roofs were falling about him, he had 
 barely time to make a descent that was 
 far from facile and escape through the 
 ruins to the street. " He was after- 
 wards so fortunate as to recover his 
 unfinished sketch, which he completed 
 under more favorable conditions, and it 
 remains as an excellent view of the 
 cathedral and an interesting memorial 
 of the event." 
 
 Early in June, 1828, he embarked at 
 Lima in the " Danube," one of Good- 
 hue & Co.'s ships, for New York, via 
 Cape Horn, and took leave of South 
 America forever. No seaman on a 
 man-of-war in a foreign port ever saw 
 the " homeward-bound pennant" at the 
 royal masthead with greater joy. 
 
 An affectionate letter to his mother, 
 especially interesting because it is per- 
 sonal, closes this narrative of his expe- 
 ^ [97]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 riences in South America and his ten 
 years' absence from home : 
 
 " It now really seems like returning home 
 in earnest, and perhaps when you receive, 
 and may be reading, this I shall be already 
 on the way. . . . You will not hesitate to 
 believe me when I tell you what sensations 
 agitate me when I reflect on the changes 
 which a few months are likely to produce in 
 my situation and happiness. The setting 
 foot on my native land again, the meeting 
 with old acquaintances, the embraces of the 
 family, of you, my dear Mother. . . . Per- 
 haps I ought to prepare you to expect con- 
 siderable change in myself. I certainly have 
 retained my hair and my teeth, but then 
 time has committed its usual ravages. I 
 have not made so many tedious voyages and 
 journeys and passed through so many differ- 
 ent climates without carrying in my face some 
 marks of my cares and anxieties. ... As 
 to finding my habits or manners changed or 
 assimilated to those of the people among 
 whom I have been so long, that you need 
 not expect. I am pretty clear in this respect 
 and do not fear to be taken for a Spaniard. 
 
 [98]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 . . . Although I shall retire from all direct 
 interest with any house in the Pacific I shall 
 maintain relations with several, and I have 
 besides several important agencies offered 
 me from which I expect a handsome and 
 sure income without putting at hazard the 
 property I have acquired which is itself suffi- 
 cient for my reasonable wants, even supposing 
 me as speaking as a man of family. When 
 this last supposition will be realized I can at 
 present form no idea ; perhaps never ; but 
 do not think that I mean to despair, although 
 I am an old bachelor. A good establishment 
 has charms for those who have not one, and, 
 I assure you, I do think a man of forty, yes, 
 forty, with such is fully a match for one of 
 thirty without. As I never expect to be 
 thirty again you will allow me to say so. 
 Will you present my best love to Elizabeth 
 and her family, and believe me 
 
 [99]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 His absence of more than ten years 
 was a period of no little anxiety to his 
 family in Norwich. His letters, at long 
 intervals, gave intimations year after 
 year of hairbreadth escapes from disas- 
 trous chances and moving accidents, but 
 they left ample room for the imagina- 
 tion to conjure up worse calamities that 
 might have befallen him. His father 
 wrote : 
 
 c< I am well aware that your situation and 
 trials must have been arduous and perplexing, 
 and I am concerned lest you shall be op- 
 pressed beyond your health and strength 
 with the immense concerns 'on your hands. 
 The wretched state of the government of 
 Peru also causes anxiety for your personal 
 safety and possible loss of property. The 
 greatest caution, forecast, and watchfulness, 
 in addition to constant application seem 
 necessary in the management of such exten- 
 sive concerns. You have, however, passed 
 through the school of experience and have 
 given good evidence that you have profited 
 [100]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 by it, not only to your friends in this quarter 
 of the world, but to the fast friends you have 
 made abroad." 
 
 His sister Maria, speaking of their 
 parents, says: "As respects their chil- 
 dren they have but one wish ungratified. 
 I need not say it is the return of their 
 son. . . . We have the subject much at 
 heart, and we hope the declining years 
 of our parents will be cheered by having 
 you soon among us." His happy return 
 in health and prosperity in the month 
 of November needed not the Gover- 
 nor's proclamation to make the family 
 reunion an occasion of sincere thanks- 
 giving ; and it may well be believed that 
 never were the tales of a traveler, illus- 
 trated with his own sketches, listened 
 to with deeper interest. 
 
 He had already intimated that it 
 might become expedient for him to go 
 to London at an early day at the re- 
 
 [101]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 quest of Mr. Huth, who desired to con- 
 sult him in regard to his successors in 
 Lima and the expediency of establishing 
 a mercantile house in New York. The 
 perils and dangers of the sea had no 
 more terrors for him, as " in the present 
 state of navigation the voyage to Europe 
 is little more than a jaunt of pleasure ! " 
 Accordingly he sailed for London in 
 May, 1829, muc h to the regret of his 
 mother, whose maternal solicitude was 
 not diminished by " a dream that he 
 was dead, which made her gloomy all 
 day." Inasmuch as he survived her by 
 thirty years, her grandchildren regret 
 that her undeviating sweetness and se- 
 renity were disturbed for a moment by 
 the baseless fabric of a dream. 
 
 His father, who had made a study of 
 the culture of silkworms, not only theo- 
 retically but by practical experiment, 
 urged him to investigate the methods 
 employed in Europe. He also desired 
 [102]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 him to inform himself fully as to the 
 cultivation of the grape and the making 
 of wine in the countries through which 
 he might pass. Some years later he 
 did experiment with mulberry trees and 
 silkworms, but with no more encourag- 
 ing success than his father had twenty 
 years earlier. It was demonstrated that 
 silk could be produced, but not with a 
 commercial profit at that time for lack 
 of cheap labor. Whatever knowledge 
 he acquired of grape culture he was en- 
 abled to make practically useful at a 
 subsequent period in Norwich in his 
 hot-houses. A connoisseur was heard to 
 say that he doubted not for a moment 
 that what Mr. Coit offered him was the 
 pure juice of the grape, but however 
 that might be it certainly was not wine ! 
 There is no reason to suppose that the 
 making either of wine or of silk was 
 long continued. 
 
 Mr. Coit's departure from New York
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 was made noteworthy by circumstances 
 that can never occur again : four beauti- 
 ful packet ships bound for European 
 ports, beating down the bay within 
 pistol-shot of each other, prepared, not 
 for an ocean race, but for an " experi- 
 ment " as to their sailing qualities ! 
 Great was the interest among the pas- 
 sengers for four-and-twenty hours, but 
 as the wind increased, the Columbian 
 it seems almost superfluous to say that 
 she was Mr. Coit's vessel " walked 
 away from the others and maintained 
 the high reputation she had held as a 
 first-rate ship for speed." 
 
 His stay in Europe was prolonged 
 much beyond his expectation, a possible 
 absence of one year being extended to 
 three. It is to be regretted that a large 
 portion of his journal kept during this 
 interesting tour is missing, and that but 
 few of his letters from the continent 
 have been found, but existing letters 
 [104]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 addressed to him by members of his 
 family, especially by his sister Maria, 
 an ever faithful and affectionate corre- 
 spondent, indicate his travels in Scot- 
 land, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, 
 Switzerland, and on the Rhine. He 
 enjoyed to the highest degree the works 
 of art in these countries, and not only 
 continued his agreeable pastime of 
 sketching from nature, but pursued the 
 study of art under the best teachers. 
 His well-filled portfolios, and the val- 
 uable paintings by old masters which 
 he purchased and sent home, afforded 
 life-long pleasure to himself and his 
 friends. Until his return they covered 
 the walls of his sister Maria's house in 
 New York and were much admired 
 by many visitors. She speaks particu- 
 larly of Murillo's "Holy Family" as 
 "quite enchanting in a bright sunny 
 morning," and of " Saint John with the 
 lamb" as one of her special favorites.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 "You have all witnessed," writes his 
 brother, Joshua Coit, " your uncle's passion 
 for sketching from nature which was one of 
 the most enduring of his favorite pursuits. 
 At one time he, together with Mr. Fisher, 
 of Philadelphia, and Mr. Alleyn Otis, of 
 Boston, both gentlemen of culture, made a 
 tour through the borders of the Rhine, Switz- 
 erland, and Italy. They had their own car- 
 riage and stopped on their route at discretion. 
 I was well acquainted with Mr. Otis, who 
 used to take pleasure in telling me of the 
 agreeable, companionable qualities of my 
 brother, and of their interest in witnessing 
 his zeal in this occupation. Hardly would 
 they stop for rest or refreshment, when he 
 would be off, sketch-book and pencil in hand, 
 for an artistic point of view, and seldom failed 
 to bring away a more or less finished sketch 
 and memento of figure or landscape." 
 
 His father was deeply interested in 
 his travels, and followed him as well as 
 he could with " Moore's Travels in 
 France and Italy," "a pleasant 
 writer, whose observations on the whole 
 [106]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 appear sensible, natural, and amusing." 
 Much as he desired his son's return, 
 hoping he would " never again leave 
 home for such a distant excursion," he 
 nevertheless encouraged him to make 
 the most of " an opportunity that prob- 
 ably would not occur again to lay up 
 a stock of information not only as 
 respects business, but of men and 
 manners, from which to draw with 
 satisfaction, delight, and amusement 
 for a good while to come." With 
 quiet humor he adds, " Should you pass 
 over to Ireland and spend a few weeks 
 among that people famed for their hos- 
 pitality, steer clear of all mobs, riots, 
 and so forth, and, finally, return in 
 safety, you will find it an agreeable tour, 
 and add much to your acquirements. 
 
 He spent the month of October, 1830, 
 in Switzerland, and, " having done pen- 
 ance long enough in diligences and 
 public carriages, exposed to the smoke 
 [107]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and vulgarity of disagreeable people, he 
 bought a very strong but at the same 
 time very good and handsome traveling 
 carriage," that he might move about 
 at his convenience, stopping when and 
 where he pleased to make sketches, or 
 to walk across country and climb moun- 
 tains in search of picturesque effects. 
 Rising with the sun to secure a view 
 before continuing his journey, or leav- 
 ing the dinner table to make a sketch 
 from the window of the inn, or improv- 
 ing another opportunity before night- 
 fall, he succeeded not infrequently in 
 making at least two or three sketches 
 in a day. 
 
 His journal on this tour, written in 
 pencil at night when the impressions of 
 what he had seen were still fresh, is free 
 from the phrases of a guide book, and 
 from any attempt at style, or " word 
 painting," but is full of remarkably clear 
 and definite descriptions exhibiting fine 
 
 [io*j
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 discrimination and quick perceptions, 
 enlivened, moreover, with humorous 
 incidents of the day's travel. Had he 
 been working for his bread and butter 
 like a commercial traveler, he could 
 not have been more indefatigable in 
 his pursuit of the picturesque, " in this 
 country where there was every requi- 
 site for a beautiful picture and a new 
 one at every step." 
 
 Naturally he was impressed with the 
 contrast between these scenes and those 
 he was familiar with in South America. 
 
 4 
 
 He says, "Nothing I have yet seen in 
 Switzerland is to be compared with the 
 dangers of some of the mountains of 
 Peru and Chile." Nevertheless, after 
 passing through "scenes from which 
 Salvator Rosa himself might have caught 
 an idea," in crossing the Gemmi with 
 its frightful, precipitous galleries over- 
 hung with rocks, where he devoted two 
 hours to making a sketch, "he felt 
 [109]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 much satisfaction when emerging into 
 the valley in thinking he was out of the 
 reach of dangers that are after all more 
 imaginary than real, something like that 
 which one experiences after a good, 
 hearty shock of earthquake." 
 
 The beautiful, the picturesque, always 
 appealed to him more strongly than the 
 awful and sublime. 
 
 " I have seen sufficient of the Alps to de- 
 termine that the Andes are not to compare 
 with them in point of beauty. I speak of 
 course of such parts of the Andes as I have 
 seen, having crossed them no less than five 
 times in Peru and Chile. One marked and 
 all important difference is that the Andes, at 
 least in a great part of Chile and particularly 
 in Peru, on the side of the Pacific are quite 
 barren, hardly producing grass except in the 
 higher parts, and no trees whatever, except 
 fruit trees in the valleys. Even to their very 
 base, they are nothing but rocks and sand, 
 the pictures of dreariness and desolation. 
 
 On the contrary, nothing can be more 
 [no]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 beautiful than the vegetation on these moun- 
 tains. Wherever there is the least soil on 
 the almost perpendicular ascents there are 
 cultivations, or at least bushes and clumps 
 of firs ; indeed, whole groves of trees are 
 sustained on the nearly perpendicular sides 
 to an immense height in a manner truly 
 surprising, so as constantly to attract your 
 attention and call forth your admiration." 
 
 The traveler in his absence was not 
 unmindful to gratify his sisters from 
 time to time with such gifts as young 
 ladies would especially appreciate, nor 
 did he fail to remember generously his 
 sister Maria's " Poor Widows' Society." 
 
 The alarming illness of his father 
 while still suffering from a broken leg 
 increased the anxiety of his mother and 
 sisters for the traveler's return. Al- 
 though not a murmur escaped his fa- 
 ther's lips, his mother cried, "Oh, if 
 Daniel were here what a support he 
 would be to me." 
 
 [in]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 His sister Maria wrote: 
 
 " My dear brother, when shall we see you 
 back again ? I begin to feel some of that 
 impatience with which I waited your re- 
 turn from the Pacific. I have sometimes 
 thought it a little strange considering our 
 long separations and the little time we have 
 spent together that my attachment should be 
 so strong for you. But true it is that you 
 are very dear to my heart, and I look for- 
 ward to your return and to your residence 
 among us as one of the most pleasing inci- 
 dents of my future life." 
 
 His father wrote to Maria in June, 
 1832: 
 
 " We shall all be in readiness to receive 
 your long-absent brother with open arms 
 and hearts, which may Heaven grant in due 
 time." 
 
 And his brother Joshua: 
 
 " Length of time and distance of place 
 have by no means diminished the esteem 
 and affection which all the members of the 
 family possess for you." 
 [1.2]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 That Mr. Coit at this time contem- 
 plated returning to Italy to continue the 
 study of art, appears from a letter from 
 Mrs. George M. Woolsey to Mrs. Perit. 
 After speaking of the pleasure she and 
 Mr. Woolsey had in seeing him in Eng- 
 land, she continues : 
 
 " If my life is spared I shall hope to see 
 him here again, but I have told him my 
 hopes and wishes in regard to his future 
 plans, and I hope he will profit by my hints. 
 To see him here unaccompanied by any 
 friend less dear than a sister I should regret, 
 for I should then fear he would put his own 
 plans into execution and return to Italy for 
 the purpose of devoting himself to his fa- 
 vorite pursuit. This we must endeavor to 
 prevent. We must persuade him of the fact 
 that he can be more usefully and more hap- 
 pily engaged (even in this pursuit) in his 
 own country." 
 
 Although it might have been late in 
 life for a beginner to undertake the 
 study of art as a profession, there can be 
 
 8 "
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 little doubt of Mr. Coit's success had 
 he chosen to adopt it, for he was no 
 novice. His interest in art continued 
 through many years, and the skill he 
 had acquired by unremitting practice 
 with pencil and brush had already ad- 
 vanced him beyond the rank of amateurs. 
 
 At last, in July, 1832, the returned 
 traveler had the happiness of finding 
 his father in greatly improved health 
 and of receiving a cordial welcome 
 from an unbroken family circle. His 
 winning and convincing manner in pre- 
 senting business propositions to strangers 
 we have already seen to be remarkable. 
 Still more interesting is the firm hold 
 he retained on the affection of all 
 his family, notwithstanding the new 
 attachments they had formed during 
 his exile, which seems to prove the 
 truth of the adage, " absence makes 
 the heart grow fonder." 
 
 The summer of 1 832 was the dreaded 
 ["4]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 cholera season in New York. As neither 
 duty nor necessity compelled the broth- 
 ers, Daniel and Joshua, to remain in 
 the city, they spent some time under 
 the elms, to the great gratification of 
 their parents. Their mother wrote: 
 
 " Our dear sons are with us, and I think 
 are enjoying themselves. Daniel has had 
 two or three hunting excursions, quite in 
 style, and, though he complains of dearth of 
 game, has given us several nice dishes of 
 wood cocks and partridges. Strawberries are 
 abundant and a luxury for him. Joshua fills 
 up the time with books. They have now 
 gone to ride." 
 
 In November, 1833, a year after his 
 return, occurred the death of his father, 
 an event not wholly unexpected but 
 the first break in the family circle, and 
 his presence at that time was a great 
 comfort to his bereaved mother. 
 
 His sister Maria, herself happily mar- 
 ried, had more than once expressed her
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 desire to see him in the enjoyment of 
 equal felicity. When he was in South 
 America, hearing that a friend of his 
 had married a Spanish woman, she felt 
 "pretty confident that he would be con- 
 tent only with one of his own country- 
 women." There are allusions to " Har- 
 riet," who had passed the day with her, 
 and to " Harriet, the only daughter, 
 a pleasant girl and quite a charming 
 child." And again referring to her 
 mother's wifely devotion, she says : 
 
 " Had you seen her I think even you 
 would have acknowledged that a good wife 
 is a valuable acquisition. How often have I 
 wished you had such a treasure ! I appre- 
 ciate your domestic qualities too highly to 
 feel satisfied with your leading a single life, 
 and I mention the subject to you often, 
 though selfishness might prompt to silence." 
 
 How far an intimacy was promoted 
 by her gentle influence does not appear, 
 but the autobiography informs us that 
 [1.6]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 he " settled down as a married man " 
 in September, 1834, when "Harriet 
 Frances, daughter of Levi Coit, and 
 granddaughter of Joseph Rowland, 
 both old merchants of New York," 
 became his wife. Her mother, Lydia 
 Howland Coit, was his own cousin. 
 
 The center of fashion in New York 
 at that time was " above Bleecker 
 Street," in the neighborhood of " the 
 Parade Ground," as Washington Square 
 was then called, and here the bridal pair 
 made their home in Washington Place, 
 near Broadway, which reached its ex- 
 treme northern limit at Fourteenth 
 Street, and here they were surrounded 
 by a large circle of friends and cousins. 
 Mr. Coit's early love of rural life and 
 occupations was so far revived that after 
 two years he bought an estate at New 
 Rochelle, seventeen miles distant from 
 the city, where he was as successful as 
 of old in the cultivation of peaches and
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 pears. At New Rochelle were born 
 his two elder children, Elizabeth Bill 
 and Charles Woolsey. 
 
 At a somewhat earlier period, Octo- 
 ber 25, 1833, an event occurred which 
 afterwards proved to be of great impor- 
 tance. It is thus described in his brother 
 Joshua's " Reminiscences " : 
 
 " He went on a western tour for the pur- 
 pose of grouse shooting, a variety of game 
 which, under the name of prairie chickens, 
 abounded in the then unsettled prairies of 
 Michigan. He fell in with a commissioner 
 of the United States who was engaged in 
 locating some lands for the government of- 
 fices and county seats in that state, then a 
 territory. As the commissioner proved to 
 be a brother sportsman, they partook of the 
 pursuit of grouse together. In the course 
 of the trip his companion told my brother 
 he could not do better than invest a few 
 thousand dollars in government lands in well 
 selected sites, which would at least serve to 
 [M8J
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 defray the expenses of his excursion. My 
 brother thought favorably of the suggestion. 
 He proceeded, however, as far as the rapids 
 of Grand River, where he found an old 
 French Indian trader, Campau by name, 
 who had long before settled in the wilder- 
 ness, and was the only landowner of note 
 living there. He took great interest in my 
 brother's skill in shooting and knowledge of 
 wood craft, invited him to his house, pointed 
 out the advantages the place had for settle- 
 ment, aided him in selecting desirable land, 
 and the result was he made extensive pur- 
 chases there. The place was soon made the 
 county seat ; it has since become an impor- 
 tant manufacturing town, and this shooting 
 excursion thus led to a purchase which has 
 become the main dependence of his family." 
 
 Uninterrupted prosperity through a 
 long life is the lot of very few men of 
 affairs, and Mr. Coit did not escape the 
 calamities which prevailed throughout 
 the country in the period since known 
 as the hard times of 1837. The par-
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ticular causes that led to his misfortunes 
 need not here be inquired into. A few 
 words from his autobiography tell all 
 that we know : 
 
 " Unfortunately, in a few years I lost the 
 property I had acquired abroad, and was 
 under long-continued embarrassment. I will 
 not enlarge on so unprofitable a subject ; 
 suffice it to say that I was glad to accept a 
 proposition of my mother to take up my 
 abode with her in the old family mansion, 
 with little expectation that I should again be 
 known in the haunts of business." 
 
 The summer of 1841 found him re- 
 established with his wife and children 
 under his mother's roof, the home of 
 his boyhood, beginning life anew at the 
 age of fifty-four, impoverished indeed, 
 but with undaunted spirit and courage. 
 With no less zeal than he had given to 
 business interests involving millions, he 
 now applied himself with all his might 
 to the cultivation of his gardens and 
 [120]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 orchards ; and in this, as in all his affairs, 
 acting on the maxim that " unceasing 
 care and vigilance were the indispen- 
 sable requisites of success," he soon 
 established a reputation in the markets 
 as a most successful producer of choice 
 fruits and vegetables. 
 
 With patience and Christian fortitude 
 he accepted a situation that would have 
 been humiliating after his twice seven 
 years of prosperity, his well-earned holi- 
 day in Europe, and the auspicious begin- 
 ning of his married life, had he not 
 been sustained by consciousness of his 
 own integrity, by his naturally hopeful 
 temperament, and by domestic happi- 
 ness in his old home in the town he 
 loved so well. 
 
 But on the whole, the years passed 
 slowly, and his vision sought a wider 
 horizon in the west where were allur- 
 ing prospects of new fortunes. He 
 made several excursions to the middle 
 
 1
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 western territories, then, only seventy 
 years ago, a wilderness ; and, among 
 other ventures on the prairies of Iowa, 
 beyond the Mississippi River, he 
 began sheep-farming, in which he 
 saw great prospective profits. More 
 encouraging and more substantial was 
 the gradual development of his prop- 
 erty at Grand Rapids, which, though 
 at times a heavy burden, he was fortu- 
 nately able to retain. In his quiet 
 retirement under the elms he found 
 abundant occupation ; he welcomed 
 his friends and relatives with courtly 
 hospitality, and maintained constant in- 
 terest in the welfare and prosperity of 
 the church in the "first parish," which 
 he had joined, and in its Sunday-school. 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman, who 
 warmly encouraged the writing of this 
 memoir, shortly before his death fur- 
 nished this little memory picture of 
 Mr. Coit after more than sixty years: 
 [122]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " How fine to have those letters by my 
 dear old Sunday School teacher, Mr. D. W. 
 Coit ! I say old, but of course I must be a 
 score of years the senior of that affectionately 
 delightful, travelled Mentor, at the age when 
 he made even Puritanism attractive to me. 
 I prized, too, the visits to his house on the 
 hill, where he showed me drawings my 
 first glimpses of art and told wondrous 
 tales of moneys gained in South America, 
 and necessarily brought away by stratagem. 
 I must then have been about twelve or thir- 
 teen, say 1845-6, and I clearly remember 
 that he went to Mexico afterwards, to recruit 
 his fortune, and that he of course came back 
 in time with another sackful of melted silver. 
 His story would make a winsome book for 
 young or old." 
 
 It is not strange that in his letters to 
 his wife in these repeated western jour- 
 neys he was always solicitous for her 
 health and happiness and for the wel- 
 fare of their children. That was to be 
 expected of course, but most interesting 
 and characteristic are his minute direc- 
 [ I2 3]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 tions in regard to the garden and fruit 
 orchard ; how the strawberry beds shall 
 be treated; when certain melons shall 
 be picked and brought in to ripen on 
 a particular shelf in a sunny window ; 
 where the ruta-bagas shall be planted; 
 and the special attention that shall be 
 given to a certain tree on which is a 
 graft with only three pears that must 
 be nearly ripe and must be carefully 
 picked by hand and kept until his re- 
 turn. 
 
 These journeys to the western coun- 
 try gave him the opportunity he had 
 long desired of visiting his brother 
 Henry at his home near Cleveland, 
 Ohio. 
 
 The contrast in the interesting ca- 
 reers of the two brothers is specially 
 noteworthy. 
 
 Daniel, as has been seen, thoroughly 
 trained to scrupulous exactness in vast
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 business enterprises ; bold but cautious ; 
 able to direct large affairs, while atten- 
 tive to details ; inured to hardship on 
 the land and on the sea, yet retaining 
 the hand and perceptions of an artist ; 
 capable of roughing it in the Andes 
 with Spanish herdsmen and muleteers, 
 and of meeting on even terms bankers 
 and merchants of distinction, was 
 equally at home in his orchard and in 
 the brilliant capitals of Europe. 
 
 Henry, amiable, affectionate, gener- 
 ous, early established in domestic life 
 on his father's lands in the Western 
 Reserve, the so-called " Land of Prom- 
 ise," the land of great expectations and 
 of great disappointments, widely sep- 
 arated from his parents and brothers and 
 sisters, and from the home of his boy- 
 hood; a fast friend, a good neighbor, a 
 useful citizen ; always enterprising and 
 always hopeful, endured hardships and 
 privations in the wilderness undismayed
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 by the inevitable reverses that are the 
 fate of all pioneer settlers. 
 
 Unlike as the brothers were in their 
 environment and manner of life, they 
 were alike in their devotion to those to 
 whom they were specially bound by 
 ties of kindred and affection, in their 
 strict integrity, and in their loyalty to 
 the principles of true virtue and godli- 
 ness of living in which they had been 
 nurtured in their childhood. 
 
 They were alike also in their fond- 
 ness for out-of-doors avocations, and in 
 their gardens and fruit yards they found, 
 with Lord Bacon, " the purest of human 
 pleasures, and the greatest refreshment 
 to the spirits of man." No new variety 
 of fruit or improved method of cultiva- 
 tion ever escaped their watchful eyes. 
 
 A sister of theirs who inherited the 
 same family trait had in the backyard 
 of her city house a grapevine which 
 she had grown from a cutting secured 
 
 [1*6]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 from her next neighbor. The elder 
 brother, visiting her, said : " Sister, I 
 see you have a promising young grape- 
 vine, but it has not been well trimmed. 
 If you will allow me I will take my 
 knife and cut away all the old wood, 
 and the result will be more and better 
 grapes." " Certainly, brother," she said, 
 " I shall be glad to have you do what 
 you think best." A few months later 
 came the younger brother, with critical 
 eye, and said : " Sister, I was sorry to 
 see that your grapevine an Isabella, I 
 believe had been neglected and needed 
 trimming. I have taken the liberty of 
 cutting away all the old wood, and now 
 I think you will find it greatly im- 
 proved." She said, " Thank you very 
 much, brother." But the younger gen- 
 eration never ceased to wonder where 
 the grapes would come from if all. the 
 old wood was cut away twice in one 
 year. 
 
 [127]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 The revolving wheel of fortune, in 
 January, 1848, opened a new chapter 
 in the life of Mr. Coit not less inter- 
 esting than those that had preceded it. 
 In response to a telegraphic invitation 
 from his friends and kinsmen, Rowland 
 & Aspinwall, he left his home at short 
 notice to engage in a confidential finan- 
 cial enterprise in their behalf in the city 
 of Mexico, and embarked in a sailing 
 vessel for Vera Cruz by way of the 
 island of Jamaica. The voyage of thirty 
 days was so long and tedious that, not- 
 withstanding his experience on the 
 ocean, he was never so miserable on 
 shipboard before. Attempting to de- 
 scribe the wretchedness of the situation, 
 he says : " Oh, how fatiguing, how nau- 
 seating, how every way unpleasant, is a 
 long, hard gale at sea ! " On a Sunday, 
 the worst day of all, he remained in his 
 berth, and, as many a traveler has done, 
 derived such comfort as he could from 
 
 [128]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 the one hundred and seventh psalm, 
 " They that go down to the sea in 
 ships " ; but he did not find even that 
 a sovereign remedy. 
 
 His journey over two hundred miles 
 on horseback from Vera Cruz to Mexico 
 was perilous on account of the lawless 
 bands of guerrillas that infested the 
 road ; but having provided himself 
 with a suitable horse, a Mexican saddle, 
 blankets, and accoutrements, he set off 
 "quite a la Spagno/e." "This used to 
 be very pleasant," he adds, " but I assure 
 you there is no longer the least romance 
 about it at all." By powerful influence 
 he was enabled to attach himself to a 
 government train of about eighty four- 
 horse army wagons carrying supplies to 
 the capital under an escort of two hun- 
 dred soldiers. The annoyances and per- 
 plexities, the nameless horrors he now 
 experienced, not only in the inevitable 
 discomforts of the road, but in the com- 
 9 [129]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 pany of dissolute and blasphemous troops 
 and wagoners from whom escape was 
 impossible, made his expedition over 
 the South American Cordilleras seem in 
 comparison like a pleasure trip. 
 
 The fatiguing journey was interrupted 
 by a short stay at Jalapa, where it was 
 once more his good fortune to renew 
 his acquaintance with one of his former 
 friends in Lima, a Mr. Kennedy, by 
 whom he was hospitably entertained. 
 
 The city of Mexico at the time of 
 his arrival was occupied by the victori- 
 ous army of the United States under 
 General Winfield Scott. An armistice 
 had been concluded, and as the troops 
 were comparatively idle pending the 
 signing of the treaty of peace, disorder 
 and vice were prevalent in the city to a 
 degree that exceeded anything that he 
 had ever seen either in South America 
 or in Europe.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Not long after his arrival he witnessed 
 the evacuation of Mexico by General 
 Scott's army with imposing ceremonies, 
 exchange of salutes, and all the honors 
 of war. He said he was never so home- 
 sick in his life and wished he could go 
 home also. 
 
 " I would gladly turn my face tomorrow 
 towards old, unpretending Norwich rather 
 than to the finest city the world has to boast 
 of, not excepting this far famed city of the 
 Montezumas. ... I find a vast difference 
 in my feelings and views now from what ex- 
 isted in my former travels ; there was a 
 compensation then, in being absent from 
 one's country and family, but nothing what- 
 ever abroad can now make any tolerable 
 amends for absence from wife, family and 
 home, though my duty regarding pecuniary 
 considerations renders it necessary for me to 
 be yet some time absent. . . . 
 
 " Taking into view all the encomiums I 
 had heard of this city I expected to find 
 it very superior to Lima ; it is larger and 
 somewhat better built ; there are more large
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 and showy streets and houses, but neither 
 the climate nor the location are, in my view, 
 equal to those of Lima, and the morals and 
 general character of the people are, I think, 
 decidedly worse." 
 
 His financial and commercial business 
 in Mexico consisted in negotiating drafts 
 and making remittances, and was con- 
 ducted through the firm of William 
 Drusina & Co. in whose house he had 
 comfortable lodgings and through whom 
 he was introduced to the most agreeable 
 society, both of Mexicans and foreign- 
 ers, that the city afforded. 
 
 In Mexico, his knowledge of the 
 Spanish language, which had grown 
 rusty, came back to him, and, much 
 to his advantage, he could soon "speak 
 it famously." 
 
 In October, 1848, having "still two 
 long months, long in prospective, to 
 look forward to," he quoted Young's 
 "Night Thoughts" on the slow ap-
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 proach of "Time, creeping decrepit 
 with his age/' and anticipated his 
 speedy return home on "broad pin- 
 ions swifter than the wind." He goes 
 on to say: 
 
 " To tell you the truth, however, my time 
 does not pass either unprofitably or disagree- 
 ably, and, with the exception of separation 
 from you, which is, to be sure, a sad draw- 
 back, I may say, pleasantly. I have the 
 satisfaction of reflecting that I am accomplish- 
 ing something substantial for your benefit at 
 very little cost of labor, while my leisure 
 moments are usefully occupied with the 
 pencil in illustrating this celebrated city and 
 its neighborhood in a manner which, so far 
 as I know, has not been before attempted, 
 and which may result in considerable 
 pecuniary advantage." 
 
 The sketches that he made at this 
 time, more than thirty in number, are 
 of peculiar value and interest, not only 
 as faithful representations of the scenes 
 that were before him, but as examples 
 ['33]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of the artistic perception which enabled 
 him to select for his pencil, almost in- 
 stinctively, the best points of view for 
 picturesque effects whether of buildings 
 or of landscapes. He had indeed rare 
 skill, such as few amateurs possess, in 
 an art which, since the advent of pho- 
 tographic cameras, is becoming one of 
 the lost arts. 
 
 Continuing to speak of his sketches, 
 shortly before leaving Mexico he 
 wrote : 
 
 " I get a drive occasionally to one or other 
 of the villages in this neighborhood. They 
 originated in the time of the Spaniards and 
 great wealth was bestowed on large churches 
 and convents with extensive gardens and 
 orchards. The houses are built of corre- 
 sponding size and architecture, enclosing one 
 or more courts filled with orange, lemon, and 
 other ornamental trees and shrubbery and 
 fountains in the center. One of my last 
 sketches was of a court of this kind. It is 
 one of the smallest but every foot of it is 
 
 [134]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 occupied with objects of interest, and it is a 
 perfect little gem of itself. It has been a 
 laborious thing to sketch and much more to 
 fill up afterwards with so much detail, but 
 as it is different from anything we have, 
 I think it will please, and pay for the 
 trouble. . . . 
 
 " I shall probably send home my sketches 
 ere I leave for the west coast with some curi- 
 osities and paintings I have succeeded in 
 obtaining, the most curious of which are a 
 set of rich tapestry hangings, originally sent 
 by the King of Spain to a rich Mexican as a 
 return for a large amount of bars of silver 
 he had sent the King. The subjects are 
 very humorous, representing the most amus- 
 ing passages in the life of Don Quixote. . . . 
 There are seven of these hangings, quite 
 large ; the largest, some eighteen feet long, 
 by nine or ten feet in height. . . . They 
 are in the worst possible condition to be seen, 
 and those who know nothing about them, 
 and how far they are capable with proper 
 treatment of being restored, would, I well 
 know be much inclined to turn up their 
 noses and pronounce them rubbish. They 
 
 [35]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 are also broken in many places, and are more 
 or less faded ; but all this is capable of being 
 remedied to a considerable degree. . . . They 
 came into my possession in a curious way, 
 as you shall hear some day. . . . The paiflt- 
 ings, also, are in a very bad state, though 
 capable of restoration." 
 
 Twenty-five years later, when he was 
 in his eighty-eighth year, he told the 
 story in a letter to his cousin, Mrs. 
 George C. Ripley of Minneapolis, 
 which, happily, has been preserved to 
 this day. 
 
 NORWICH, May 13, 1875. 
 
 MY DEAR COUSIN, I acknowledge with 
 pleasure your note of Saturday last in which 
 you ask for some " historical points " in 
 regard to the tapestries which I possess. . . . 
 I have no doubt a very pretty story might 
 be constructed out of their lives, and that, 
 without infringing upon strict truthfulness. 
 . . . Their checkered history involves in 
 its course stranger vicissitudes than ever 
 happened to their like before. Fancy them 
 in all their early freshness and beauty, adorn-
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 ing the walls of the palace at Madrid, or 
 perhaps the Escurial, throwing into shadow 
 for the moment the wonderful productions 
 of Murillo and others of the most celebrated 
 masters of art. . . . How long they main- 
 tained this high elevation we cannot tell ; it 
 might have been for a hundred years, or it 
 might have been not half that period, but 
 certain it is, the day of their decadence had 
 at length arrived, and now comes in the his- 
 tory of my acquaintance with them and 
 finally my possession of them. 
 
 You have doubtless heard of a visit I 
 made to the city of Mexico some twenty-five 
 years ago. Now it has always been my cus- 
 tom wherever I have been in the Spanish 
 cities of America, to be looking about if by 
 any chance I might stumble upon an original 
 picture by one of the old masters which were 
 known to have been formerly sent from Spain 
 for the use of the churches. It so happened 
 that in one of these searches I entered into a 
 painter's shop, a large lofty apartment, where 
 to my great surprise I found the rough walls 
 adorned with these rare and beautiful crea- 
 tions of art. . . . Of course I enquired what
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 strange circumstance had brought them into 
 this queer place, when the following history 
 was given me. 
 
 Some rich person (I think the head of a 
 noble family) had rendered important services 
 to the King of Spain, and these tapestries 
 were sent as a testimonial of his appreciation 
 of those services. This rich man died, and 
 so little importance was attached to the 
 tapestries, that by some strange freak they 
 fell into the hands of the Padre, or priest of 
 the family, and by him they were transferred 
 to my friend the painter. 
 
 I had some other transactions with him, 
 and frequently visited the place for my grati- 
 fication, never dreaming of becoming the 
 purchaser of articles so valuable (I had been 
 told a valuation of $7000 had been put upon 
 them), when one day the painter dropped in 
 upon me to ask a favor : he was much pressed 
 for a little ready cash, and if I would accom- 
 modate him he would deposit in my hands 
 as security a couple of these tapestries. Of 
 course I did so, and it was not many days 
 before the request was repeated with the 
 same result, and now it flashed upon my
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 mind that they would eventually be mine, 
 and so it was. A proposition soon came to 
 me which I gladly embraced, and thus you 
 have the history of the tapestries so far as I 
 know. 
 
 Pray excuse the delay in replying to your 
 request, and believe me, 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 D. W. COIT. 
 i 
 
 If this is partly conjecture, it is nev- 
 ertheless a very pretty story as it stands, 
 and may it not be asserted with confi- 
 dence that invention is the mother of 
 history ? 
 
 At the close of the year 1848, when 
 his engagement with Rowland & As- 
 pinwall was about to expire, and he was 
 looking homeward with longing eyes, 
 he, and indeed the whole world, was 
 astounded with reports that seemed 
 almost chimerical of the discovery of 
 gold in California. After vain endeav-
 
 ors to persuade his friends in New York 
 to undertake a new enterprise with him 
 in California, he closed with a proposal 
 made by Mr. Drusina, with whom he 
 was then on terms of friendly intimacy, 
 to proceed overland to the Pacific coast 
 and thence by steamer to San Francisco 
 with a view of purchasing gold dust 
 which the miners would willingly ex- 
 change at less than its value for silver 
 coin that was readily convertible into 
 the necessaries of life. 
 
 In this business he and Mr. Drusina 
 were representatives of the Rothschilds, 
 the eminent European bankers, and as 
 such were supplied with ample capital 
 and credit. Mr. Coit was to receive a 
 liberal commission on all purchases and 
 shipments, and the prospect thus pre- 
 sented to him of realizing a comfortable 
 fortune was so flattering that he had no 
 alternative but to accept it. His disap- 
 pointment was great, however, that his 
 
 [HO]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 friends in New York would not engage 
 with him in this business, which, he 
 believed, would be profitable, and he 
 thus wrote to his wife : 
 
 " When I received my discouraging letters 
 from the house, all my bright plans and pros- 
 pects appeared for the moment blasted, and 
 I had, I assure you, the most gloomy day I 
 have experienced since I have been in Mexico; 
 but what short sighted beings we are ! We 
 never can see much beyond the length of 
 our noses, and often when appearances are 
 most unfavorable they are working for our 
 ultimate good. I passed as I have said a 
 very dull day, but called on Mr. Drusina the 
 following morning and told him the course 
 the business had taken. Perhaps he saw 
 that I looked more sober than usual, for he 
 said, 'you know I am very busy, and until I 
 get off my packet letters I can say nothing, 
 but just write to Mrs. Coit in general terms, 
 that you will still be able to carry out your 
 views with no loss to your prospects !' Was 
 not this noble, and is there not besides, this 
 pleasant reflection in it, aside from any 
 
 [HI]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 pecuniary consideration, that the moment 
 almost that I leave my humble retirement, 
 and, without any means, am thrown among 
 strangers, I am able to form friendships and 
 inspire confidence such as the foregoing indi- 
 cates ? Still, my dear wife, I have learned to 
 look with distrust on all brilliant prospects, 
 and, even now, in this matter which puts on 
 so bright an appearance, I may from some 
 unexpected cause meet disappointment ; but 
 as it appears clearly the leading of a kind 
 providence so it should be received and acted 
 upon ; yet if a change comes over my pros- 
 pects I hope you will not find me downcast 
 
 and disheartened." 
 
 
 
 Early in March, 1849, a ^er some 
 delay, but with short notice at the last, 
 he left Mexico with a party of eighteen 
 besides muleteers, all mounted and fully 
 armed, for the ride of five hundred miles 
 to San Bias on the western coast. The 
 journey was not without inconveniences, 
 such as sleeping on the ground in the 
 open air, and especially from the fa- 
 [142]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 tigue of being in the saddle at midday 
 under a blazing sun ; but he was not a 
 novice and could not see but he bore 
 fatigue as well as the others, though he 
 had never realized his age so much as 
 on this occasion when he was treated 
 with all the consideration and respect 
 he could desire as the father of the party. 
 He did not lose the opportunity to record 
 with his pencil some of the interesting 
 objects on the route. 
 
 Arriving in San Francisco, the new 
 Eldorado, by steamer after a voyage of 
 seven days, repeating his former expe- 
 riences, Mr. Coit again found himself 
 in a novel environment, among strangers, 
 far from home, in perilous times, and 
 was enrolled as one of the modern Ar- 
 gonauts and an " original forty-niner." 
 Information received in Mexico had 
 prepared him to find that the people 
 of the United States were " beside them- 
 selves on this California gold business."
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Multitudes, deluded by the vain hope of 
 growing rich in a day, poured into Cal- 
 ifornia by the overland route, by the 
 isthmus, or by the long voyage round 
 Cape Horn. All means of transporta- 
 tion for those coming or returning were 
 overcrowded; the prices of all com- 
 modities were inordinately high ; and 
 thousands of disappointed adventurers, 
 stricken with disease, and left penniless, 
 without shelter, food, or clothing, were 
 unable to return to their homes. 
 
 There was, of course, another side to 
 this picture of disappointment and suf- 
 fering among the pioneer gold hunters, 
 and Mr. Coit names as examples, among 
 many successful ones, some of his own 
 acquaintances who by good luck in the 
 "diggings" had drawn prizes in the 
 lottery, or by wise foresight in buying 
 land and building houses, had in a short 
 time acquired fortunes that were re- 
 garded as very large ; yet it remained
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 true that in the scheme of the California 
 lottery there were a few brilliant prizes, 
 and many smaller ones, but that the 
 greater number were blanks. 
 
 Mr. Coit's habits of prudence, tem- 
 perance, and self-control, strengthened 
 by his years, his experience in time of 
 danger and disturbance, and by his sense 
 of moral and religious obligation, kept 
 him clear from the manifold misfor- 
 tunes and pitfalls that entrapped and 
 ruined multitudes of men, both the 
 young and the old. 
 
 Among those who had been fortu- 
 nate in the gold fields, or lucky in 
 speculation or gambling, vice and dis- 
 sipation of all kinds were prevalent. 
 In the absence of an efficient govern- 
 ment and adequate police protection, 
 desperadoes and lewd fellows of the 
 baser sort, fearing not God and regard- 
 ing not man, not only menaced they
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 outraged the property, the persons, and 
 the lives of peaceable citizens. 
 
 In the summer of 1849 lawlessness 
 and open violence by bands of ruffians, 
 calling themselves "hounds" or "reg- 
 ulators," had increased to such an extent 
 that a reign of terror prevailed. As the 
 police were incompetent to quell the 
 disturbance the respectable citizens, al- 
 most to a man, organized themselves as 
 a committee of safety for self-defense, 
 patroled the streets day and night with 
 armed men, hunted down and arrested 
 the marauders, established a criminal 
 court with a judge and jury, and exe- 
 cuted summary justice until safety and 
 order could be restored. These meas- 
 ures for self-protection, though without 
 the sanction of the law, commended 
 themselves to right-minded men as en- 
 tirely justifiable under the then existing 
 circumstances, and were vindicated by 
 the results.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Mr. Coit yielded to no temptation to 
 engage in speculations, but confined 
 himself strictly to his own business, 
 which, while it imposed grave respon- 
 sibilities, left him leisure to increase the 
 number of his sketches that are now 
 valuable as historical records of the early 
 days of San Francisco. He lived a re- 
 tired life, and as economically as was 
 possible when the prices for even small 
 articles in daily use were enormous. 
 Milk, for example, was seventy-five 
 cents a quart ; washing, six dollars a 
 dozen ; common laborers demanded six 
 dollars a day ; a woman, " to oblige," 
 charged twenty-five cents a yard for 
 running up seams of cotton cloth, but 
 could afford to do no more at the 
 price ! Clothing, food, and rent were 
 high in proportion. 
 
 The town was a great tinder-box, 
 with no protection whatever against 
 fire, so that Mr. Coit was in constant
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 dread of a general conflagration, which 
 after a few months came, and, thrice 
 repeated, brought ruin to hundreds of 
 merchants. 
 
 Altogether, the lot of a " forty-niner," 
 especially if he desired to do his business 
 in peace and quietness, was not a happy 
 one. There was no congenial society. 
 Tidings from home were infrequent, 
 and the mails from the Atlantic coast, 
 coming but once a month, were long 
 on the route. On August 21 Mr. Coit 
 reported the mail as arrived, and " after 
 waiting two days and making sundry 
 useless efforts to get through the throng 
 pressing about the post-office for letters, 
 I have at last succeeded in getting yours 
 of June 25, with the best of news, that 
 you are all well ! " Almost sixty days 
 from Norwich ! 
 
 At about the same time he wrote to 
 Mr. Gilman: 
 
 [148]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " I had the pleasure to receive per last 
 steamer your favor of June 28, enclosing a 
 most unexpected letter from my sister Kings- 
 ley, and no less gratifying than unexpected, 
 informing me of the improved state of her 
 health, and that Mr. Kingsley and the chil- 
 dren were in the enjoyment of that greatest 
 of blessings. I have replied to her, and as 
 it occurs to me that sister Eliza and the girls 
 may be interested in a brief account of the 
 strange and unexampled state of things here 
 I leave the letter open for their perusal. . . . 
 Tell them that my thoughts and affections 
 turn more than ever towards home, and that 
 I trust, with the blessing of a kind and 
 watchful providence we may meet again ere 
 long, bound to one another by stronger ties 
 than ever." 
 
 Almost all of his letters conveyed 
 salutations and greetings to his friends 
 and kinsmen, mentioning them by 
 name, as in the following: 
 
 " Remember me to neighbor Thomas ; 
 tell him to hold on a little longer and he will
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 see me again at my old stand in the garden 
 and fruit yard, and further that I shall have 
 a good long yarn to spin for him. Remem- 
 ber me also to George and Hannah Ripley, 
 and tell George I shall be right glad to take 
 him by the hand again one of these days, 
 not very remote, I trust. My love to my 
 dear Aunt Lathrop, also to dear cousin Mary 
 Ann Woodhull and Elizabeth." 
 
 His own concerns prospered, and in 
 May, 1850, he wrote to his wife as 
 follows : 
 
 " It is gratifying to perceive that the 
 prompt manner in which the business en- 
 trusted to me has been conducted is now 
 somewhat more advantageous than in the 
 early days of my being here. It is further 
 gratifying to reflect that in the rather large 
 transactions for my Mexican friends the past 
 year, not only has no fault or objection been 
 made, but the most entire satisfaction ex- 
 pressed; neither has the smallest error oc- 
 curred in my accounts rendered. 
 
 " Indeed, I should have filled the station
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of principal for so long a mercantile life to 
 little purpose were I now unable to perform 
 the duties of an agent with tact and efficiency . 
 I nust tell you that I now consider it exceed- 
 ingly fortunate that my friends in New York 
 did not accept the proposition I made to 
 them. It would have involved me in great 
 responsibilities, given me hard labor with 
 many annoyances, and the uncertainty of 
 giving satisfaction. 
 
 " As it is, I am entirely my own master, 
 which, with one of my age and habits, is 
 something, at least; and then I have an ex- 
 ceedingly easy position as to labor, with no 
 responsibilities that I am unequal to or afraid 
 to grapple with ; while in a pecuniary point 
 of view I certainly have lost nothing." 
 
 The letters that he received at this 
 time from his friends in Mexico were 
 of unusual interest, covering, as he 
 wrote, bills of lading of $70,000 in 
 gold and silver coin to his address, 
 making him the largest consignee on the 
 steamer's manifest. He goes on to say :
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " What a strange, eventful life this of mine 
 has been ! Do you not sometimes think so, 
 dearest ? And the last chapter in it is the 
 most strange of all ! But little more than 
 two years ago, long retired from all inter- 
 course with men of business, and lost sight 
 of, or, if thought of, perhaps considered in- 
 competent, or already too old for an active 
 life ; without credit or property, or compara- 
 tively none ; submitting rather from necessity 
 than choice to much irksome toil and labor 
 to which I was unaccustomed, and now how 
 changed ! Enjoying the unlimited confidence 
 of mercantile houses of very high standing in 
 the world whose acquaintance is quite recent 
 and accidental, among others the Rothschilds; 
 with the control of large specie funds, and 
 credits on different parts of the world ; hand- 
 ling gold coin and gold dust with as much 
 sang fr oid as I did my garden seeds a little 
 time ago ! I say, are not these rapid changes 
 and contrasts truly astonishing ? How won- 
 derfully has an ever presiding and gracious 
 providence watched over me and directed all 
 my footsteps for good ! "
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 In the first year of his residence in 
 San Francisco the church buildings 
 were of the most primitive construc- 
 tion, scarcely more than rough sheds ; 
 but he continued his habit of regular 
 attendance on public worship, giving 
 the preference from associations at 
 home to the Congregational church, 
 but finding on the whole greater satis- 
 faction in the Episcopal church, where 
 he listened to 
 
 " capital sermons from the Reverend Flavel 
 S. Mines, whom I have been much in the 
 habit of going to hear of late. The fact is, 
 I feel a little more at liberty to do so here 
 than I should at home, and I go where I 
 can hear the best preaching, and be most 
 edified and instructed. He is one of the 
 most uniformly impressive and orthodox 
 preachers, as an Episcopalian, I have ever 
 heard." 
 
 In January, 1851, he wrote: 
 " My health here has been uniformly 
 good. I don't know how frequently it has 
 
 [153]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 been remarked within the last six months, 
 ' Why, how well you are looking ! ' This, 
 it will be observed, is to a person on the 
 wrong side of sixty." 
 
 His pleasant intercourse in Liverpool 
 with his relations, Mr. and Mrs. George 
 M. Woolsey, has already been referred 
 to. In September, 1851, he wrote to 
 his wife : 
 
 " So your uncle Woolsey has been taken 
 from us. I saw it was to be so, and your 
 letter did not greatly surprise me, though it 
 makes me sad to think that I shall no more 
 see him and enjoy his refined society and 
 gentlemanly hospitality, which very few in- 
 deed have the knowledge and the tact, and 
 at the same time the means, to make so de- 
 lightfully agreeable, as he had, though the 
 mantle of the father seems to have fallen 
 on the son." 
 
 It was not to be expected that the 
 business of buying gold dust could long 
 continue to be profitable. As more
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 coined money came into circulation 
 prices inevitably equalized themselves ; 
 and such stories as that of Indians giving 
 for Spanish silver dollars their weight 
 in gold dust (sixteen to one), or even 
 of gold dust being sold for eight silver 
 dollars an ounce troy, came to be re- 
 garded as fabulous. 
 
 By this time Mr. Coit had acquired 
 sufficient capital to enable him to en- 
 gage for his own account in business, 
 the details of which are not disclosed 
 in his letters, for long experience had 
 taught him the wisdom of keeping his 
 own counsel in several different lan- 
 guages. Even to his wife, under in- 
 junctions of secrecy, he did not reveal 
 all that he was doing. But there is no 
 doubt that he made considerable invest- 
 ments in buildings and land. In March, 
 1851, he wrote: 
 
 " I am now daily looking for the arrival 
 of certain iron ware houses which were or- 
 
 [55]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 dered from England more than a year ago. 
 They were planned by me for certain friends 
 of mine who propose to erect them as soon 
 as they arrive. They are very large, entirely 
 of iron, and, of course, fire proof, and when 
 put up will be the most extensive and com- 
 modious buildings for storage that exist here. 
 It is this business that is keeping me here, 
 and until it is finally disposed of, I mean 
 turned over to other parties, I cannot leave." 
 
 In these buildings, which arrived and 
 were erected in the ensuing summer, 
 and in the lands and wharves connected 
 with them, Mr. Coit had a quarter 
 interest. As they were immediately 
 rented at the rate of $96,000 per an- 
 num, at which rate they would pay for 
 themselves in a short time, the invest- 
 ment promised to be highly profitable. 
 Although they were believed to be fire- 
 proof, care was taken to erect the struc- 
 tures beyond the line of exposure from 
 such great conflagrations as had already 
 visited San Francisco. But in avoiding
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 one danger another was incurred, for 
 the sand-bluffs on which they were 
 built, like the sand in the parable, were 
 an unstable foundation, and when the 
 rain descended and the floods came, and 
 the winds blew and beat upon them, 
 they fell, and great was the fall thereof. 
 Mr. Coit suffered some loss and was 
 disappointed in his expectations, and 
 being satisfied with what he had gained 
 from other sources, did not care to re- 
 main to repeat the experiment. He 
 therefore closed his interests in Cali- 
 fornia, and to the great joy of his wife, 
 his children, and his friends, after an 
 absence of more than four years, re- 
 turned to his home in Norwich in the 
 summer of 1852. 
 
 The following letter to his wife closes 
 the story of his life in California : 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13, 1851. 
 
 " Libby's nice little note [his daughter, 
 Elizabeth, aged fourteen years] was very 
 
 [157]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 gratifying, though I must tell her I don't 
 quite approve of writing letters that have so 
 many miles to go on note-paper. A good 
 honest sheet of letter paper would be more 
 to the purpose. By the by, her hand writing 
 is forming very prettily indeed. I have seen 
 nothing like this before. 
 
 I hope she had a nice visit in New Lon- 
 don. I remember perfectly the first visit I 
 made there when very much younger than 
 she is, with my father and mother in the 
 chaise with the little bobtail mare, when it 
 took half a day to drive there over a hilly 
 road. 
 
 I am glad you speak so highly of our New 
 London cousins [the families of Robert 
 Coit, and Mrs. Nancy Coit Learned], and 
 that you are disposed to keep alive your 
 intercourse by frequent interchange of 
 visits." 
 
 That Mr. Coit was gratified to hear 
 twenty years after his return that his 
 early sketches were still appreciated in 
 San Francisco appears by the following 
 letter to his sister:
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 " I don't know whether you are aware 
 that when Daniel Oilman left here to go to 
 San Francisco I put into his hands a number 
 of pencil drawings of that city and its sur- 
 roundings which I had taken with some 
 degree of care when I was there, and of 
 course in its very early history. Well, I 
 have recently received from Daniel a most 
 enthusiastic account of the reception of these 
 drawings. They were admitted on all hands, 
 by those most capable of judging, as being 
 perfectly true and withall valuable ; nothing 
 short of his letter will give you any proper 
 idea of the estimation in which they were 
 held ; I sent the letter to Harriet, but I can 
 give you, till you have an opportunity of 
 seeing that, The San Francisco Bulletin, 
 which has an article sufficiently minute and 
 commendatory of them." 
 
 The reader of these pages is now fa- 
 miliar with " some of the incidents of 
 an eventful life," not the least remark- 
 able of which was Mr. Coit's experience 
 in Mexico and California. Few men
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 past the age of sixty make a hazard 
 of new fortunes in a strange country 
 as successfully as he did. Fewer still, 
 after the vicissitudes of a strenuous life, 
 are permitted for nearly a quarter of a 
 century to " rest and stand in their lot 
 to the end of their days." 
 
 In the chances and changes of his 
 business career, and as a great traveler, 
 he had suffered many things on the land 
 and on the deep. He had seen the most 
 sublime scenery of Switzerland and 
 South America, and the masterpieces 
 of art in the galleries of Europe. He 
 had lived for years amid scenes of polit- 
 ical turmoil and violence and of disas- 
 trous earthquakes and conflagrations. 
 Foreign travel had no longer any attrac- 
 tions for him, and having reached the 
 haven to which he had long looked 
 forward, he was contented at last in the 
 halcyon days of peace and tranquillity 
 to say, as his father had said forty years
 
 DANIEL WADS WORTH CO IT 
 
 before, " Norwich remains a more suit- 
 able residence for the old than for the 
 young whose enjoyment is in action, 
 but at my time of life quiet and ease 
 constitute the principal part of my 
 enjoyment." 
 
 But in his retirement he was by no 
 means idle or inactive. On the con- 
 trary, having increased means, he engaged 
 with enthusiasm in the improvement of 
 the family mansion, its gardens and its 
 meadows, and in the erection of glass 
 houses for fruits and flowers. In these 
 houses he might be found in winter 
 regulating their temperature, and ex- 
 posure to sun and light ; and when he 
 was well advanced in years he was a 
 familiar figure on a summer day super- 
 intending his garden work, sheltered by 
 a broad-brimmed Panama hat that he 
 had brought from Mexico, or delving 
 like banished Adam in the soil with his 
 ii [161]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 own hands. Coming into the house for 
 a brief rest he responded quickly to 
 slight refreshment, and then, after re- 
 turning to his occupation, he would 
 reappear, immaculate, at dinner time, 
 prepared for its full enjoyment. 
 
 He paid liberal wages and expected 
 faithful service, but for a lazy man or a 
 shirk he had no use. Going to his gar- 
 den one morning he found a man whom 
 he hired by the day comfortably resting 
 under a convenient tree. As Mr. Coit 
 approached hastily and with some in- 
 dignation, the man said, " I saw you 
 coming, sir, but I did not go to work ; 
 it is a very hot day, and I was tired." 
 Said Mr. Coit, in telling this story, " I 
 respected that man. Had he picked up 
 his spade and gone to work my feelings 
 would have been very different ! " This 
 fairly illustrates Mr. Coit's disposition. 
 He knew his rights and could maintain 
 them ; but he could make allowances 
 [i6a]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 for human weakness, and was charitable 
 and lenient when a failure or an error 
 was acknowledged. 
 
 He cultivated choice fruits for pleas- 
 ure rather than for profit, and used to 
 say that he should be quite satisfied if 
 cash returns equaled the amount of his 
 coal bills. It is quite safe to believe 
 that they never did, but in such pursuits 
 he found abundant and agreeable occu- 
 pation. He tested and tasted different 
 varieties of peaches and pears and grapes 
 with as much discrimination as a con- 
 noisseur might bestow on rare old wines, 
 and it is needless to say that his table was 
 abundantly supplied with the choicest 
 productions of his orchard and hot- 
 houses. He desired to have his guests par- 
 ticipate in his enjoyment of them, and 
 if the uneducated palates of his younger 
 friends made them wish for one whole 
 pear that they knew by sight and by name
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 rather than samples of a dozen that they 
 knew not of, they could not complain 
 of a lack of generous hospitality. 
 
 Another source of unceasing pleas- 
 ure to the end of his days was in the 
 sketches and drawings he had made in 
 South America, Europe, Mexico, and 
 California. When house-bound or shut 
 in, the time passed quickly while he 
 was arranging and finishing them, and 
 using them as illustrations he became 
 eloquent in describing the places and 
 scenes he had visited. 
 
 The paintings, also, that he had 
 brought from foreign lands and that 
 adorned his walls gave him continual 
 enjoyment. They could be fully ap- 
 preciated by those only who, like him- 
 self, had carefully studied the works of 
 the old masters, but he watched with 
 keen interest their renovation under the 
 hands of an artist skilled in such work,
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 an eccentric Dutchman, who spent 
 two summers under his roof for that 
 purpose, and was not less enthusiastic 
 than Mr. Coit in admiration of them. 
 
 In 1848, while he was in Mexico, 
 he had heard with sorrow from his wife 
 of the death of their little daughter, 
 whom he had left when she was but a 
 few months old ; and again, after four- 
 teen years they were deeply grieved by 
 the death of their daughter Elizabeth, 
 the wife of the Reverend H. C. Haydn. 
 After a year of married life she passed 
 away, leaving an infant daughter who 
 bears her name and was ever regarded 
 with twofold affection by her devoted 
 grandparents. 
 
 Yet again, three years later, in 1865, 
 his son Daniel became the victim of 
 disease contracted in the service of the 
 Sanitary Commission in the War for the 
 Union.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 On a severely cold night early in 
 1865 Mr. Coit and his family were 
 aroused by fire in their dwelling. While 
 only half clad and almost suffocated with 
 smoke, notwithstanding his nearly four- 
 score years, he fought the flames with 
 the good judgment and intrepidity of a 
 veteran fireman. 
 
 Among the burned contents of the 
 house was the "Panama hat" that we 
 have already seen in the garden. Mr. 
 Coit prized it as the gift of a friend, and 
 although the old Mutual Assurance So- 
 ciety did not pay for sentiment it could 
 not deny that its remarkably fine text- 
 ure gave it the unusual value, if tradi- 
 tion may be believed, of one hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 Greatly to the gratification of Mr. 
 
 Coit and his wife, his sister Eliza (Mrs. 
 
 Gilman) and her daughters coming to 
 
 Norwich from New York in 1 864 made 
 
 [i661
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 their home near his residence, and af- 
 fectionate, intimate intercourse between 
 the families enhanced the happiness of 
 both households. 
 
 Although Mr. Coit took no active 
 part in politics, and never held political 
 office, he was always an interested ob- 
 server of affairs of the town and the 
 nation, and especially of the course of 
 events before and during the War for 
 the Union in which his two sons, grad- 
 uates of Yale College, served their coun- 
 try with honor, Charles Woolsey, the 
 elder, in the Christian Commission, 
 and Daniel Lathrop, in the Sanitary 
 Commission. 
 
 Mr. Coit's charities were free from 
 ostentation, yet he hesitated not to give 
 his name and influence to promote a 
 good cause ; as in 1 875, when he wrote 
 and signed with his own hand a sub- 
 scription paper in behalf of an unfortu- 
 nate neighbor who was in danger of
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 losing all he had by the foreclosure of a 
 mortgage. He was a regular attendant 
 upon public worship, a liberal supporter 
 of the church of which he was a mem- 
 ber, a loyal friend of its ministers, and 
 by his quiet influence encouraged every 
 effort for the repression of wickedness 
 and vice and the maintenance of true 
 religion and virtue. 
 
 He never spoke publicly of his per- 
 sonal religious convictions, and seldom, 
 if ever, so far as is known, in private, 
 but he was a truly devout man, scru- 
 pulously conscientious in the discharge 
 of his duty in all the relations of life. 
 In his later years he was accustomed to 
 read the scriptures and prayers at family 
 worship. On one occasion, before be- 
 ginning his devotions, he assured his 
 family of his sincere affection, which, 
 indeed, they never had reason to doubt, 
 and with considerable emotion expressed 
 [168]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 his sorrow for his occasional impatience 
 and sharp criticism of small, juvenile 
 improprieties which naturally were an- 
 noying to one who was by many years 
 the senior of his children. The inci- 
 dent revealed his heart, and, as one who 
 was present testifies, was truly affecting. 
 Love for them made him solicitous that 
 their lives and manners should be in 
 accordance with the high ideals by 
 which he had long governed his own 
 life. Not every man would have yielded 
 so far to the impulses of a warm heart. 
 
 If he was punctiliously exact in his 
 dealings with others, he demanded from 
 them no more than he rendered himself, 
 and so far from being censorious or quick 
 to take offense he was ready to attribute 
 any lack of courtesy or propriety to ig- 
 norance or oversight. 
 
 Few, if any, are now living on earth 
 who remember hearing Mr. Coit say
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 much about the " incidents of his event- 
 ful life." Although he was always kind 
 and friendly with the younger genera- 
 tion, by reason of his age he seemed to 
 them very superior and remote, far 
 more interested in the present than in 
 the past; in his pears and peaches than 
 in his adventures in the Alps and the 
 Andes. Sometimes, however, though 
 not very often, when he was found with 
 his portfolio open, taking one of his 
 drawings as a text he grew eloquent in 
 discoursing on the scene ; and no one 
 who ever heard him tell of the wonder- 
 ful sagacity of his favorite pointer dog, 
 " Don," could forget the vivacity with 
 which he told the story. 
 
 His eldest niece, Elizabeth Oilman 
 (Mrs. Thompson), who had pleasant 
 recollections of him, wrote from Berlin 
 in 1877 as follows: 
 
 " Probably no one remembers more I 
 mean among the nephews and nieces than 
 [170]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 I, of our dear uncle Daniel, of his delicate 
 tastes, his perceptions of everything beautiful, 
 his kindness and generosity to all around, 
 and, in later years, in his quiet retired life 
 there was a peculiar charm in his society. 
 My husband used greatly to enjoy his even- 
 ing visits on the doorsteps under the big 
 trees in conversation upon old times and the 
 present with one who had been such a careful 
 observer through a long life." 
 
 Another quotation from his brother's 
 "Reminiscences" is interesting: 
 
 " One point I cannot omit to allude to. 
 I refer to his uncommon facility, clearness 
 and vivacity in narration, whether orally or 
 in his letters ; some of which I hope his son 
 Charles may be able to get together in a form 
 that may be permanent. Not inclined to be 
 garrulous, and never boastful or egotistical, 
 it was not difficult, in the family circle, to 
 direct his attention to some of the many 
 scenes of life and adventure through which 
 he had passed. 
 
 " His observation was discriminating and 
 accurate, his memory retentive and his power
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 of description lively and picturesque. He 
 kindled with warmth and enthusiasm in 
 recalling the scenes and adventures of former 
 days and of remote countries. Whether of 
 shooting in the stubble fields of New Jersey, 
 and in the prairies of the West, whether 
 in the picture galleries and among the artists 
 of Europe, whether in his toilsome travels 
 over the Pampas and across the Andes of 
 South America, whether of perils among 
 the giddy passes of the Cordilleras and 
 among the wild tribes now occupying the 
 ruined cities of the Incas, whether of 
 escapes from the earthquakes he encountered 
 during his long residence in the volcanic 
 regions of Peru, and from mutinous crews 
 on board the treasure ships of which he had 
 charge, whether among the stirring events 
 in our conquest and occupation of Mexico, 
 and with the adventurers and desperadoes 
 among the early settlers and gold hunters of 
 California, or whether amid the tranquil 
 and domestic occupations of his later years, 
 literally under his own vine and his own 
 fig-trees few have had so varied and so 
 striking experiences to relate, and very few 
 
 [172]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 have such a gift of awakening the interest 
 and carrying with them their listeners in the 
 narration of their adventures." 
 
 Allusion has been made already to 
 the benign influence of his parents be- 
 ginning in his childhood and continuing 
 through his life. He himself was con- 
 scious of it, for in writing to his grand- 
 daughter in his eighty-sixth year he 
 said: 
 
 " If 1 myself have any special regard for 
 truth I must in great means attribute it to 
 my father and mother who, equally, took 
 pains to inculcate it on their children as the 
 one thing needful in their intercourse with 
 the world." 
 
 In December, 18/1, Mr. Coit wrote 
 to his sister : 
 
 " I am quite surprised myself by my out 
 door performances to-day, in going out into 
 the woods up back of the Winship house, to 
 direct the men in collecting leaves and cedar 
 boughs for our borders, etc. Is it not a
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 blessing, my dear sister, this sound health 
 and activity, and real enjoyment of life at 
 my time of life. The exemption from all 
 pecuniary care in old age is certainly not a 
 small blessing of itself, and which I feel the 
 more from contrast. True it came late in 
 my case, but none the less on that account 
 should be the thanksgiving and gratitude 
 for it." 
 
 One more extract from a letter to his 
 son, bearing date November 28, 1871, 
 fitly closes this chapter of his life : 
 
 " This week is eventful in my own case. 
 The twenty-ninth inst. will commemorate the 
 completion of the eighty-fourth year since I 
 first breathed the breath of life, in the house 
 and probably in the very room where I write 
 this. How strange, how passing strange, has 
 the course of this long life been, how wonder- 
 fully I have been protected and guided in 
 those strange wanderings, from dangers seen 
 and unseen, through adversity and prosperity, 
 thro' sickness and thro' health, and now at 
 the end to have been brought out into a 
 smooth place, the very spot of all others I
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 would have chosen, in the enjoyment of 
 health and the blessings of life to a degree 
 allotted to but few of the sons of men : is 
 not here cause for gratitude ? 
 
 " I regret that your mother's condition 
 prevents our drawing a circle of friends 
 around us on Thanksgiving alike to honor 
 the day, and this old family mansion. The 
 day will be celebrated at the Gilmans' where 
 I shall be found should nothing intervene 
 to prevent." 
 
 Thomas Cole, an American artist, a 
 friend and traveling companion of Mr. 
 Coit in Europe, painted a series of alle- 
 gorical pictures known as The Voyage 
 of Life. The first represents a little 
 child attended by an angel guardian, in 
 a flower-decked boat just launched upon 
 an unknown river. The next, a youth, 
 hopeful, self-confident, taking the tide 
 at its flood in quest of fame and fortune. 
 The third, a man of mature years, tem- 
 pest-tossed, almost shipwrecked, strug- 
 gling against storm and rapids.
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 Thus far we have followed our voy- 
 ager, and now leave him, cheerful and 
 serene in his eighty-ninth year, on a 
 calm sea under bright skies, still at- 
 tended by his angel guardian who 
 points him to a happy harbor and 
 heavenly mansions. 
 
 In the beautiful cemetery on the 
 banks of the Yantic River at Norwich 
 a suitable monument is inscribed with 
 these words: 
 
 DANIEL W. COIT, 
 
 born Nov. 29, 1787, 
 died July 18, 1876. 
 
 " But what things were gain to me, 
 those I counted loss for Christ" 
 
 HARRIET FRANCES, 
 
 his wife, 
 
 born Aug. 15, 1805, 
 died Oct. 25, 1878. 
 
 So he giveth his beloved sleep."
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT. 
 Dates. 
 
 1787. November 29. Born, Norwich, Conn. 
 
 1803. Apprenticed to merchants in New York. 
 
 1808. Began business on his own account. 
 
 1818. September 27. Sailed from New York 
 
 for Peru. 
 
 1819. January 14. Arrived at Lima. 
 
 1820. April. Sailed from Guayaquil for Gib- 
 
 raltar. 
 
 1820. September 27. Arrived at Gibraltar. 
 1820-22. Traveled in Spain, France, and 
 
 England. 
 1822. June. Sailed from London for South 
 
 America. 
 1822. October. Arrived at Buenos Ayres. 
 
 1822. December. Crossed the Andes to Val- 
 
 paraiso. 
 
 1823. December. Arrived at Lima. 
 
 1828. June. Sailed from Lima for New York. 
 
 1829. May. Sailed from New York for England. 
 182932. Traveled in Europe. 
 
 1832. June. Returned to Norwich. 
 
 1833. October. Visited Grand Rapids. 
 
 1834. September i. Married Harriet Frances 
 
 Coit. 
 
 [177]
 
 DANIEL WADSWORTH COIT 
 
 1834-41. Lived in New York and New Rochelle. 
 1841-47. Lived in Norwich. 
 
 1848. January. To Mexico for How land and 
 
 Aspinwall. 
 
 1849. March. From Mexico to San Francisco. 
 184952. In business in San Francisco. 
 
 1852. June. Returned to his home in Norwich. 
 1876. July 1 8. Died, Norwich.
 
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