A Run through the United States during the Autumn of 1840

Front matter

A RUN THROUGH THE UNITED STATES. VOL. I LONDON: PRINTED BY MOYES AND BARCLAY, CASTLE STREET, LE1CESTFR SOL'ARE. WAS®m ©s we mail sum j ©urn iiL&a'^iE'sr.JEÆjB.i&j&GJL ■ . A RUN THROUGH THE UNITED STATES, DURING THE AUTUMN OF 1840. r;y Lieut. -Col. A. M. MAXWELL, K.H. L\T TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MAELBOROUGH STREET. 1841. TO HIS EXCELLENCY MAJOR-GENERAL SIR JOHN HARVEY, K.C.B. K.CH. &c. &c. My dear General, Emboldened by your kind letter, in which you say, " That as we have stood by " each other in a moment of strife and of " difficulty, if not of actual war, you are " again ready to associate your name with " mine in the more enviable object of cre " ating friendly feeUngs between kindred " nations," I gladly avail myself of the op portunity of dedicating the following pages to you ; and as I attribute, in some degree, the friendly reception I met with throughout VI the United States to my having been placed by your Excellency in a responsible situa tion at a moment of considerable difficulty to both countries, it is a matter of great satisfaction to me to be enabled to bring forward my remarks upon America under the sanction of a name so highly respected as yours is throughout the Union. I have the honour to be, My dear General, Your most obedient and faithful Servant, A. M. MAXWELL, Lt.- Col. 36th Regt.

Preface

. There are very few books presented to the Public which do not need some apology from their Authors, and I frankly admit that mine is not one of them. My ramble in the United States was made at railroad speed, during a short relaxation from military duty; and afforded me little opportunity of deeply and accurately investigating the cha racter of the people. But, among many things which surprised and pleased me, there was none which made a. more favourable impression upon my mind than the strong feeling of attachment and respect towards the mother country, which I perceived to exist in America ; and this not in one place, and in one particular society, but in every city which I visited, and in every circle to which I was admitted. In the following Letters, hastily and carelessly written, and in a great measure occupied by the

PREFACE.

. trivial subjects of an every-day tour over a beaten track, there will, I conceive, be found ample evidence that these sentiments exist : and it is the hope, perhaps arrogantly and unwisely taken up, that these pages may tend to augment the reciprocity of good feeling between the two coun tries, which has been my chief inducement to publish them. It will, I trust, be also received as my excuse for their manifold imperfections. By the kindness of His Excellency Sir John Harvey, then the Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, I was furnished with a letter of in troduction to one of the most eminent and influ ential individuals in the Union — General Scott, whose command extended throughout the whole of the eastern division of the United States, and embraced a vast extent of frontier. To the kindness of this gallant soldier and most accomplished gentleman, and to the numerous letters of introduction which he gave me, I feel that I am indebted for the marked attentions which I received from many of his most distinguished countrymen ; and the circumstance of my having, under the orders of Sir John Harvey,

PREFACE.

. IX commanded on the disputed frontier during a period of considerable excitement, and having been so fortunate as to prevent any hostile collision between the two nations, was probably also in my favour* But the opinion which I have * The British Colonial Governments of Lower Canada and New Brunswick had heretofore maintained some degree of possession and jurisdiction over the disputed country. But, in the beginning of the year 1838, the Mainites. either desirous of new settlements, or from a scarcity of timber nearer home, actually proceeded, with a Colonel M'Intire at their head, who was the accredited Land Agent of the State of Maine, to survey, and make allotments, and cut timber. Some of the New Brunswick Lumberers, as they are called, had also gone out into the disputed country to help themselves to whatever trees they thought fit to take ; but under very different circumstances, as the latter were interdicted from so doing by the laws of the colony and the proclamation of its Governor.

Angry feelings arose, and the parties came into collision. The New Brunswickers broke open a store where government arms were kept ; armed themselves, and made prisoners the American Land Agent, and others of the party, and brought them to Fredericton. The Mainites made reprisals ; and Colonel Maclauchlan, who had been appointed by our Colonial Government as Warden over the disputed territory, was in turn seized, and marched prisoner to Bangor. Previous to this, the Congress of Maine had held secret X

PREFACE.

. formed of the American character has not, unless I greatly deceive myself, been biassed by the personal civilities which I received at their hands. It has resulted from numberless circumstances, not in the remotest degree connected with my self individually. It is a matter of first-rate importance that two sittings, money had been voted, a large militia force embodied, and military posts established high up the Aristook River, with intent to cut off our communication with Canada, and also close to our line on the St. John's ; and at the mouth of the former river Fort Fairfield was erected. The Federal Government had also voted a large sum in support of the State of Maine. This was the state of affairs when, about the middle of February, 1839, 1 was suddenly ordered by His Excellency Sir John Harvey, then Lieut. -Governor of New Bruns wick, to take command on the disputed frontier ; with power to call out an additional militia force, to put the frontier in a state of defence, and at the same time to keep open our communications with Lower Canada: but to avoid, if possible, hostile collision.

Acting under these orders, I immediately proceeded northward, accompanied by the Solicitor-general of the Province as my legal adviser, with the intention of occupying the Madawaska Settlements ; but the alarm was so great at Woodstock, opposite to which town the Ame ricans were concentrating their forces, that it became

PREFACE.

. XI of the greatest nations on the globe, springing from one common stem, speaking the same lan guage, and united by the same faith, should lay aside all remnants of hostile feelings, natural in their origin, but which have been far too long retained ; and, by a warm and generous union, augment the strength and the resources of both. necessary for me to make my head-quarters there. The service on which I was employed was one of great difficulty and anxiety ; and it was a considerable time before the angry feelings on both sides could be removed. That my efforts on this occasion were so far successful, as not only to be favourably mentioned in the general orders of the Commander-in-chief, Sir John Harvey, but to obtain for me a vote of thanks from the House of Assembly of the Province, and a most kind address from the magis trates and inhabitants of Frederictou, will ever be a source of deep gratification to me.

It may be almost superfluous to state, that the Border diffiijulties had their origin as far back as the Treaty of 1783. By that treaty it would appear that the intended boundary was to be a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix to the north-west angle of Nova Scotia. But the river St. Croix has two branches, — a western and a northern ; and the north-west angle of Nova Scotia remains as yet undetermined ; and hence has arisen the principal difficulties in this long-protracted question.

PREFACE.

. An intimate knowledge of each other is, I con ceive, all that is requisite to produce this happy — this most important result ; and my earnest advice, to all those of my countrymen who have the leisure and the means, is to go and judge for themselves. I have no doubt of what must be the result. London, August 1841. CONTENTS. PACF Dedication v Preface vii

Letter I

The Writer claims Admission into the somewhat long List of American Explorers — His previous Journeyings — The Companions of his Tour — Voyage from New Brunswick to Boston — Terrors occasioned by a Volume of Poems — Arrival at Boston — Meeting with Friends and Acquaintances — Mr. Grattan — Statistics — Heat — Mint Julep and Sherry Coblers — Their Merits and Manufacture — Admission to the Ladies' Dinner Apartment — Bunker's Hill — Robert Burns — Environs of Boston — Multiplicity of Travellers 1

Letter II

Separate Feeding Establishments of the Ladies and Gentlemen in America — General Miller — Trinity Church — Dr. Wainwright — Heat — Exertions of the Ladies to keep down the Temperature — The Fair Sex seen to great advantage on a Sunday — Religious Zeal at Boston CONTENTS.

Letter III. Pace

Massachusetts Hospital — Lunatic Asylum — Mode of Treatment — Doctor Bell — General Miller — Old Days at Woolwich — Visit to the Playhouse — Power and Dennis 26

Letter IV

Dock-yard — Ships of War — Receiving Ship — Acadia Steam-ship — Visit to a Banker's Cottage — Politics — After-dinner Philanthropy — Advice and Loans — A Combination of the Two very desirable — One good Letter of Introduction sufficient in America 32

Letter V

Commencement-day at Cambridge University — Breakfast at the Hotel— Importance of a Fair Start — Military Procession — Academical Examination — Doctor Wainwright — Mount Auburn — Washington's Head-quarters — Judge Story — Good feeling towards England — Boundary Question — Fete Champetre — American Ladies — General Dearborne 37

Letter VI

A new Acquaintance from Calcutta — Second Day's Academical Transactions — The President of Bowden College, Mr. Lennard Woods — Oratory — Alston the Painter — Amateur Poet — Dinner at Harvard College — Toast-giving and Speechifying — Horror9 of being called up before a Phalanx of Professors of Eloquence — Collegiate Song CONTENTS. XV PAGE

Letter VII

An American Breakfast — Bolting System— Its Disadvantages, bodily and mental — American Ladies — Lynn — Temperance — Improvement — Lowell and its Cotton Manufactory — General Dearborne — Future progress of Steam — Steam Birds — Count de Pampour's Treatise 67

Letter VIII

Departure from Boston — Hotel Charges — Innkeeper's Liberality — Railroad Journey — Accurate Arrangements — Yankee Phraseology — Springfield — Arms Manufactory and Armory — American Muskets superior to British — Public Establishments gratuitously exhibited 75

Letter IX

Endfield — Shakers and Shakeresses — Their Dress, Evolutions, Dances, Tunes, and Doctrines — John Pease — Ann Lee, the Foundress of the Sect — Their Social Economy 90

Letter X

Journey to Mount Lebanon — Multiplied Deceptions of Coach Proprietors — Antiquated Travelling Companions — Loss and Recovery of Baggage — West Springfield — Westfield — Dwarf — Railroad among the Hills — Blasting the Rock — Portrait of John Pease the Shaker, and of a fair Fellow-traveller — The Green Mountains — Peru — Pittsfield — Mount Lebanon CONTENTS. PAGE

LETTER XL

Bathing — Erudite Breakfast — Negro Opinions of fair Ladies — Expediency of a Trip to Lebanon — Shakers — Details of their Domestic Arrangements — History of old Annie the Dairy-maid — Controversy between John Mantle and Captain O — The Captain retires from the Conflict — John Mantle's Exposition of his Tenets, and History of Himself — Hotels at Lebanon — Misery of a Groundfloor Apartment — Sensitiveness of a Black waiting Damsel — The use of Cigars interdicted by a Virginian Planter 118

Letter XII

The Love of Change — Waters and Baths of Lebanon — Journey to Albany— Temperance Societies — Politics — Harrisonian Emblems — Albany — Bundling on the Decline 139

Letter XIII

Albany — American Attachment to Royal Names — Basin of the Erie Canal — Multitude of Steamboats — Travelling Companions — Troy — Mount Ida — Residence of an ex-blind Gentleman — His strange Estimate of Beauty — Advice to the Ladies — Deficiency of Classic Names — Politics — Origin of the Harrisonian Symbols — Ballston Springs Saratoga — General Scott— General Macomb — Friends from Canada — Kind Reception from General Scott CONTENTS. XVII

Letter XIV. Page

Increase of Good Feeling between England and America — Saratoga— Touring Instructions from General Scott — Excursion to Saratoga Lake — Dinner Party — The Queen— The Duke — Sir John Harvey—Speech by General Scott— America's Treatment of her Officers — Peace and War — Wise Views of the Americans on this Subject — General Scott's Reception by the President after the Border Difficulties — Slavery Question 163

Letter XV

Mr. Davies and Anecdotes of former Days — Washington — His Habits of Business — Bet regarding a Note written by him — Lords formerly, and still, in high Consideration — Lord Napier and the old Lady — Elbow-room — Society at Saratoga 179

Letter XVI

Mineral Waters — Delights of Saratoga — Revolutionary Reminiscences — Presbyterians — Universalists — General Macomb — Mr. Davies — Reception of British Officers in America — Frequency of Desertion among the Soldiers — General Scott 188

Letter XVII

Railroad from Saratoga to Utica — Ballston Springs — Scenectedy — Railroad Refreshment Rooms — Rapidity of Movement — Amsterdam — Port Jackson — Johnston Ville — Sir William Johnston and the CONTENTS. XVIII PAGE 228 Indian Chief — Dreams — The Little Falls— West Canada Creek — Mohawk River — Militia Drilling — Military Freaks — Utica — A Man's Dinner hangs upon a Minute — Commerce of Utica — More Militia-men — White Negroes — Johnson's Long Boat — Birds — Louis XVI. — Drive to Trenton — View of the Falls by Moonlight 197

Letter XVIII

Trenton Falls. Fanny Elssler — Beauties of the Scenery — Dark-coloured Gentleman from Calcutta — His Theory of the World in General, and of Trenton Falls in Particular — How much may be effected by a single Pebble — Fatal Accidents — Miss Sondan — Miss Thorn — Treacherous Clearness of the Water — Fate of Dr. Bell — Advice to the Ladies — Certainty that it will not be attended to — Boon's Bridge 216

Letter XIX

Trenton Falls Hotel — Geological Specimens — Log- Huts and hard Cider will carry the day — Tree of Liberty — Journey to Auburn — Erie Canal and Mohawk River — Indian Women — Salt Works at Salina — Auburn — Bundling narrowly escaped . .

Letter XX

State Prison at Auburn — Journey to Cannandaigua — Cayuga Village and Lake — Waterloo — Geneva — Religious Sects — High-sounding Names — Cannandaigua — Letters of Introduction CONTENTS. XIX PAGE

Letter XXI

Cannandaigua — An American Gentleman's Country Residence — Love of Country — Patriotic Innkeeper — The Ladies against Van Buren— Journey to Rochester — Chimneys — American Character — Grecian Architecture and Classical Names — Papineau and the Patriots 250

Letter XXII

Niagara — Night View of the Falls — Anecdotes — Journey from Rochester — Falls of the Genesee — Their Utility has Injured their Beauty — Banks of the River — Ridgeroad to Lockport— No Gambling in America — Its Absence supplied by Speculation — Clarkson — Lake Erie— Lockport — Niagara 260

Letter XXIII

Niagara — View from Point House — Goat's Island — Cataract Hotel — Iris — Horseshoe Fall — Prospect Tower — Rapids — A Sunday devoted to the Worship of Nature's Works — Introduction to General Porter — Delight of seeing Old Scotia's Warriors — Death of Four Soldiers of the 93d Regiment — Animals sent over the Fall. — Escape of a Cat — Appearance of the River above and below the Falls —Din of Waters 271

Letter XXIV

Departure of Sunday Visitors — Praise of America — Excursion to Louiston — Whirlpool — Dancing Trees — Abrupt turns ofthe River — View of Queen- XX CONTENTS. PAGE 280 288 ston and Brock's Monument — Niagara, smooth and tranquil — Zacaressa, the old Indian Chief- Emigration of his Tribe— Ill-timed Boasting of an Indian Bravo — The Ladies of the Tribe — Their Coquetry and Cunning — Sulphur Springs — The finest View of the Falls

Letter XXV

Niagara above the Falls — Navy Island — Mackenzie — Tona-wanta — Erie Canal — Blackrock — Buffalo Regiment of Artillery — Major Zantzinger — Barracks — Parades — Colonel Bankhead — Politics ....

Letter XXVI

Military Details at Buffalo — Parade Business — Review — Attention to the Comforts of the Soldier — Powers of Commanding Officers — Daily Court- Martial — Advantages resulting from it — Liberality of the American Government to her Defenders — Strength of the United States' Regular Army — Militia Force — The Union too extended to endure — Colonel Bankhead- — Banks of the Niagara — Navy Island — Fort Schlosser — Major Zantzinger — Kentucky Manners — Bowie Knife — Sicilian Bravos — Ground of the Quarrel — Crossing the River below the Falls — Still Water — Canada — 93d Foot — Stragglers — Race — Want of Decorum in a Lieutenant beating his Commanding Officer — Whist on Board-ship — Luiidy Lane — Canadian Inns are not American Inns THE UNITED STATES.

Letter I

The Writer claims Admission into the somewhat long List of American Explorers — His previous Journeyings — The Companions of his Tour — Voyage from New Brunswick to Boston — Terrors occasioned by a Volume of Poems — Arrival at Boston — Meeting with Friends and Acquaintances — Mr. Grattan — Statistics — Heat — Mint Julep and Sherry Coblers — Their Merits and Manufacture — Admission to the Ladies' Dinner Apartment — Bunker's Hill — Robert Burns — Environs of Boston — Multiplicity of Travellers. Boston, Capital of Massachusetts, 22d August, 1840. My DEAR S , Many years ago I made you a solemn promise, over a bottle of most excellent Chateau Margaux at , that if ever I VOL. i. B A PROMISE. visited the United States, I would send you a full, true, and particular account of all I saw in this most wonderful of countries, all I heard, and all I felt.

You may have for gotten this : but I am resolved that you shall soon have good cause to remember it; for, lo and behold ! here I am in America ; and, what is more, here I am sitting down to indite to you a series of letters as numerous as the days of my ramble : for as the good old knight ' Summ'd the actions ofthe day Each night before he slept," so am I resolved not only to sum up hut to set down all my adventures, discoveries, speculations, and opinions, and to ship them off to you without remorse or intermission — nee mora nee requies. You cannot re fuse to receive them ; and you are too far off to hope to stop the flood-tide of corre spondence, which will break in upon you so unexpectedly. THE AUTHOR'S RESOLVES. 3 Although to-day, for the first time in my life, I have set my foot upon Yankee ground, my position in New Brunswick has lately made me acquainted with many things con nected with the United States, of which I was previously ignorant ; and has changed my opinions on a still greater number, on which, in common with the great mass of my countrymen, I had formed very erro neous impressions.

You are doomed, therefore, my dear friend, to become the repository of a most heterogeneous mass of transatlantic lucubra tions ; for I am resolved to be very political, very statistical, very philosophical, and very everything-else-ical. Methinks I hear you exclaim, " This will never do, Master Archibald ! You are all very well in your own line. Stick to mili tary matters, my good fellow, and I will attend to you ; but ne sutor ultra crept dam. What right have you, a mere soldier, THE AUTHOR'S PREVIOUS TRAVELS. 4 whose sphere of knowledge must be confined to a camp or a garrison, to discuss loftier topics — men, manners, nations?" Now to this I answer, that I have the best possible right, the right founded on about as extensive a range over the different parts of this globe of ours as most men can boast of.

Have we not, since the time that our acquaintance first began by the cheerful blaze of a midnight bivouac in Spain — an hour which I account one of the most for tunate in my life — have we not visited France, Italy, and Germany together ? Have we not run over the ruins of Rome — pranced in the Prater at Vienna — hunted in Hungary — feasted at Florence — imbibed the pure liquid at Carlsbad and Langen Swalbach — bathed at Lucca, Wisbaden, and Aix-la-Chapelle? Have we not promenaded the streets of Palermo — lived at Malta — masqueraded at Milan and Venice — as cended Etna and Vesuvius — been at Genoa NAPOLEON. 5 and Leghorn ? ay, and Elba too, when it was the resting-place of Napoleon the Great; and where that ambitious and unsettled spirit remained just as long as it might be expected he would do in a place of exile so absurdly chosen?

Have you forgotten on what gallant horses Murat mounted us at Naples — our visit to that fair Princess, into whose presence we were ushered by il bel Bergami; whom, by the bye, I always considered a vulgar coal heaver-looking fellow, with knocked -knees and red hair : mais, chaqu'un a, son gout — our standing together on the Bridge of Sighs, and striving to feel poetical in spite of a blazing mid-day sun — and then our embarkation for Trieste in the first steamer we had ever beheld; and the greatness of our surprise at being put ashore precisely at the hour named, in despite of a furious Borer that was blowing right in our teeth as we paddled up the Adriatic's gulf ? EFFECTS OF TALKING. Then followed the hospitable reception we met with at Trieste — our gaieties at Lay bach — our adventures at Gratz — and my travelling under the honourable surveillance of the police to Vienna, in consequence of my having talked too loudly at a table d'hote of my visit to Napoleon, and my rencontre with Maria Louisa at Parma.

You abandoned me at Vienna, where I went to spend a week and stayed a year. Since that time I have visited various other parts of the old world, and, consequently, as a cosmopolite, consider myself authorised to give my opinion of the new ; which I mean to do in the most point-blank manner. And if I am somewhat too egotistical, you must pardon me ; for I propose to describe to you what I hear, see, think, and do : and bear this in mind, that I have never read any account of America, save and except the " Life of Columbus " and Robertson's " History: " therefore, if my opinions differ WRITERS ON THE AMERICANS. 7 from the accounts given by former travellers, it is only a proof of the rapid changes which are going on in this hard-working, "go-a-head," improving, and extraordinary nation. Captain M I have not the pleasure of knowing : many years ago, and before she turned authoress, I had the honour of spend ing a week in the same house with Mrs. T : and Captain H I know, as having accompanied a gallant relative of mine to China, and greatly respect him.

Various other productions from the pens of these talented persons I have perused with delight ; but their remarks on the Ameri cans have never come under my observation; and, ever since I formed the project of judging for myself, I have studiously avoided them. Since you and I last met, I have been once quartered in the Mediterranean, and twice in the West Indies ; where I saw a TRAVELLING COMPANIONS. hurricane, and had the yellow fever. About two years ago I was transplanted from the torrid to the frigid zone — leaving Barbadoes in the middle of November, with the thermometer at 85°; and landing at Halifax the latter end of December, with the thermometer at 20° below zero. Thence I was hurried to New Brunswick, where I got into the very thickest of the frontier feud ; and now behold me set out on my Ameri can voyage of discovery !

Moreover, I am travelling with a great Temperance chief. For let me advise you, as the mercantile man says, that after taking leave of my regiment at Fredericton (and a jovial leave-taking it was), I steamed it to Saint John's, on the magnificent river of that name ; and there foregathered with two agreeable and accomplished friends and fellow-soldiers — one of them the said Tem perance chief — who are to be my compa nions in my journey through the United INDIAN ENCAMPMENTS. 9 States : and after another leave-taking* with our gallant friends of the , whose feel ings and facings are as friendly and familiar to me as those of my own dear boys, we em barked for Boston on the 20th of August, in a large steamer crammed with a most heterogeneous mass of passengers. The weather was splendid, and we passed Partridge Island, Mahogany Island, and a vast variety of islands as well as of rivers ; amongst others the Magaguadavic, now likely to figure in the Boundary line; reached the grand Manan and Campobello, and entered the bay of Passamaquoddy on a charming evening and amidst enchanting scenery.

Indian encampments were seen on the different promontories, to which we passed so close that we had an opportunity of ob serving the various costumes of the wild wanderers of the West; whilst others of their community were paddling canoes in b AN AMERICAN SQUADRON. all directions around us, and numberless fishingboats were seen in the distance. The course of the Scoudiac (which is, I believe, the real St. Croix) was pointed out to me, and the town of Saint Andrew's, situated about sixteen miles up this very large river. The anchorage, when you enter the bay, is excellent, both at Harbour de Lute on the Campobello side, as well as at Mouse Island; where is built the pretty Dutch-looking town of Eastport, which I perambulated during the short time the steamer halted, meeting several American middies with unsailor looking but extremely dandified and com fortable togas.

An American squadron, commanded by Commodore Shubrich, being in the roads, consisting of the Macedonian and two sloops, the Erie and Levant, the New Bruns wick passengers — a fine, hardy, loyal, and mother-country loving race — did not fail to EASTPORT. 11 let me perceive that they knew their old frigate, and that the sight of Yankee colours on board her was not particularly gratify ing to them. There is at Eastport a piece of ground well adapted for a citadel : fortifications have been marked out upon it, and some guns mounted, with a barrack, &c. The plan was formed, and the works commenced, when in our possession in 1814; at which time, I am strongly inclined to think, the Boundary question might have been brought to a final and favourable issue. We embarked some passengers at East port, amongst others the English Consul at Portland ; who said he knew me by re pute, my name having been often mentioned in his public despatches during the said Boundary blow-up.

He introduced me to an intelligent American friend, with his beautiful young wife, who had visited Italy ; and who agreed with me that Passama- AN ADVENTURESS. quoddy Bay, which we were now quickly leaving under the influence of a splendid sun-set, with Eastport and Lubeck in the distance, was not unworthy to be compared to the far-famed Bay of Naples ! I must here observe, that the moment I was known to be a British officer, I was treated by the numerous Americans on board with the greatest respect. Amongst our American passengers was a fair Philadelphian adventuress, beating up for recruits, in the shape of subscribers to a poetical work, composed or composing by a bed-ridden husband. This fair and clever dame I had seen at Fredericton ; his Ex cellency the Governor, to whom she was recommended, having introduced her to me.

I subscribed to her work then, which was only in embryo, I believe ; although prompt payment was the order of the day. I en deavoured all I could to awaken the sym pathies of my fellow-travellers, but in vain. DESART ISLAND. They avoided the poor lady as carefully as if she had been infected with the plague instead of poetry. I believe, however, she has made a very successful tour ; and has, to speak idiomatically, " pretty considerably done " the Nova Scotians and New Bruns wickers. I have never regretted the six dollars which this fascinating agent for the Muses extracted from me, as she was the means of my becoming acquainted with a most talented and agreeable literary man at New York, to whom she gave me a letter of introduction. Yesterday we were at sea off Desart Island, with the mountains in the distance.

This iron-bound coast seems well provided with lighthouses. As we steamed by I saw the mouth of the Ponobscot, which the an cient sticklers for England's rights term the commencement of the real boundary line. This morning, soon after daylight, we neared the harbour and port of Boston, be- CUSTOM-HOUSE VISIT. studded with a hundred islands and receiv ing many waters. We passed Fort Warren and Fort Independence, which guard the entrance and separate the outer from the inner harbour. Close to the wharf was lying one of the great connecting links be tween the old and new worlds — the Acadia, commonly called " a part of Cunard's Steam Bridge ; " also the American line-of-battle ship the Columbia, and my old friend the little Grampus, with whose captain and officers I had become acquainted in New Brunswick.