Narrative of a Tour in North America: ... with an excursion to the island of Cuba. In a series of letters, etc

Preface

. In venturing to submit the following Work to public notice, the Author is by no means influenced by the vain ambition of seeing himself in print, but is induced by the higher motive of endeavouring to do justice to a much -abused and slandered people, whose fate it has hitherto been to be misrepresented by those who ought to have cherished the very opposite feeling. The voyage across the Atlantic was undertaken for the purpose of re-establish ing a state of health somewhat impaired, as also of visiting the only quarter of the globe which the writer had not seen ; and in order to behold, among the wonders of the New World, the magnificent Cataract of Niagara. Nothing was farther from the Author's intention than the publication of the remarks that might be suggested in the

PREFACE.

. VI course of his excursion ; and had he not perceived an unhappy and unwarrantable tendency in American tourists, particularly in the authoress of a work entitled " Do mestic Manners of the Americans," to sully the fair reputation, and to depreciate what ever is excellent in the rising greatness of our Transatlantic brethren, his observations would have been confined to the narrow sphere of his own family circle. The Author feels it his bounden duty, at the same time, to make one honourable exception to the generality of American travellers in the person of Mr. Stuart, who has recently published a work entitled " Three Years in North America." In the liberal and enlightened views of this gentle man, he acknowledges, with equal pleasure and candour, that he fully coincides ; and he is happy to bear his humble testimony to the general tone of good feeling, good taste, and fidelity, by which his observa tions on the manners, principles, and in stitutions, of the citizens of the United States, are characterised throughout.

PREFACE.

. VII With respect to the observations of Mrs. Trollope, at once uncharitable as they are, and illogical in their deductions, the Writer has felt it his duty to make some remarks, which will be found towards the latter part of the second volume. It was not till some time after the Au thor's return to England that his reluctance to give publicity to the following Letters was overcome. They had been written (with some few alterations in reference to the press,) to various friends in England, during the hurried intervals of travelling — but little favourable to study and the refine ments of elegant composition — and without the smallest intention of having them sub mitted to the public eye. He might, per haps, be permitted to mention, as an ad ditional motive to his final determination, the pressing requests of private friends ; but as this apology has become rather common-place from repeated use, and as the motive was in truth quite of secondary importance, he prefers resting on the more solid ground of attempting to rescue from

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. VIII unmerited obloquy the character and in stitutions of a nation to which, as English men, we ought to be attached as well by the ties of policy as by the rights of con sanguinity. The Author frankly acknowledges that he feels proud of the descendants of the mother-country, who, inheriting as they do an equal spirit and enterprise with their British ancestors, have done, and are still doing, more to extend the British name and language throughout tbe boundless regions of the western world than even their aristocratic progenitors. Instead of entertaining an ignoble jealousy respecting their rising greatness and importance, he willingly confesses that the pride of his honest feeling, at least on this point, is fully identified with theirs. He feels con vinced that if, in the revolution of ages, the British Isles, like the empires of ancient times, should be destined to fall from the grandeur of their present position in Eu rope, their inhabitants will find, on the shores of America, a second and more ex-

PREFACE.

. IX tended Britain, characterised by true En glish feelings and associations, amid which, like the fabled phœnix, they may rise again with renovated vigour from the ashes of the parent state. Long may the unex ampled prosperity of the Anglo-American nation continue, and the progressive de velopement of her resources be as auspicious as the happy result that has hitherto marked the commencement ! The Writer of the following Work lays not the smallest claim to literary merit. His statement is simple and unvarnished, and rests its principal credit on the faith fulness of its details, and the sentiments of honest feeling which have suggested its publication. This sentiment, entertained towards a community from many indi viduals of which he has received marked hospitalities and kindness, in his endeavours to rectify the gross misrepresentations so wantonly indulged against them, has alone induced him to take up his pen, and has invariably guided its course through the following pages. It has been his ruling X

PREFACE.

. motive in preparing for the press, and will best sanction the publication which he now offers to the world. Should this motive be fairly appreciated, as he trusts it will be, the Author has no doubt that he will receive from the liberality of the public that credit for his work to which it will, in that case, be entitled. He is induced more particularly to hope for this result from the consideration of its being the first attempt on which he has ever ventured. Though the tenour of the following Narrative is, from a sense of impartial justice, generally eulogistic of the people and institutions of the United States, yet the Author is not so blinded by his ad miration of their rapid and unequalled advancement to a high degree of civilisa tion, as to be unconscious of their defects — since perfection belongs no more to com munities than to individuals — and on which, where they have occurred to his observation, as in several instances of wanton misconduct in persons belonging to the

PREFACE.

. XI state of Kentucky and others, he has in dulged the freedom of remark. If, in conclusion, the Author shall be so happy as to create in the minds of the citizens of the Union a better understand ing of English feeling towards them, and shall have satisfied them that they are not to regard the thoughtless and malicious severity which some evil-minded persons have so unwarrantably exercised to their prejudice, as any criterion of British sentiment, he will have fully and most gratefully gained his object ; and in the producing of so desirable a result will feel perfectly con soled for the perhaps inefficient accomplish ment of his design. London, January 1834. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Letter I

Voyage across the Atlantic — Emigrants — Hail-storms — Two Atheists on board — Banks of Newfoundland — Fogs — Icebergs — Fishing for Mackerel — Whales — News-boats — Sandy Hook — New York Bay — Dinner at the City Hotel Page 1

Letter II

Description of New York — Tables of Comparative Population — Number of Newspapers published — City Hall- — Exchange — Churches — Distribution of Religious Sects — The Battery — New York Ladies — American Curiosity — The Navy- Yard— The Table d'Hote — Rapidity of Eating — Letter of Credit — Quick -sightedness of a Banker — Journey to Philadelphia — New Brunswick — Princeton — Picture of George III. — -Delaware — Bordentown — Approach to Philadelphia Page 20 VOL. I. b CONTENTS.

Letter III

Cheapness of Travelling — -Chesapeake and Delaware Canal — Chesapeake Bay — Baltimore — Equivocal Accommodation of American Coaches — Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road — Ingenious Principle of Locomotion — Discussion on Slavery — Washington — The Capitol — Houses of Congress — The Potomac — Alexandria — Mount Vernon, Country Seat of Washington — His Tomb in the Grounds — Museum at Alexandria — Relics of the Patriot P°ge 46

Letter IV

Fire-flies — Description of Baltimore — The Washington Monument — Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road — Cathedral — Battle Monument — Charles Carroll — Vanity of the Americans — The American Novelist — Description of Philadelphia — United States' Bank — Pennsylvania Bank — Comparative Tables of Population of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia — Girard's Bank- — State House — Fairmount Waterworks — Pennsylvania Hospital — The Navy-yard — The large Ship Pennsylvania — New Penitentiary — Systems of Prison Discipline — Churches, &c. &c. — Canals Page 71

Letter V

Bordentown — Joseph Buonaparte — Sudden Change of Temperature — Climate ofthe States — Anniversary of American Independence — Universal Rejoicings on the occasion — Dinners — Processions, Fireworks, &c- — Beauty of the American Ladies — Calashes to conceal their Charms — Museum at New York — Passage up the Hudson to West Point — Military Academy at West Point Page CONTENTS. XV

Letter VI

Pope — Invention of Letters — Cadmus — Catskill Mountain — Pine Orchard — Splendid View thence — Fine Temperature on the Mountain — Singular Appearance of the Fog — Kaaterskill Falls — Corduroy Road — Town of Hudson- — Lebanon Page 1 38

Letter VII

Society of Shakers — Their extraordinary Doctrines — Ann Lee, their Founder — Forbid Matrimony — Believe that Christ has appeared a second Time — That the " Bride" alluded to in Revelations vvas Ann Lee — That the Millennium has commenced — Their Tenets respecting Baptism — The Holy Sacrament — The Resurrection and Day of Judgment — Believe that the latter have already commenced — Their Faith as to the Perfectibility of Man — Extravagance in their Religious Ceremonies — Dancing the principal Worship in their Churches — Quotations from Scripture in support of it Poge 152

Letter VIII

Leave New Lebanon — Albany — Erie Canal — Patroon of Albany — Prejudice against Entails — Anecdote on the Subject — Cross the Hudson — Horse Tow-boat — City of Troy — Fondness of the Americans for classical Names — Examples of it — Arrive at the Springs — Ballston — Saratoga — Schenectady — Proceed on the Erie Canal — Valley ofthe Mohawk — Indians fast disappearing- — Little Falls — German Flats — Danger from the Canal-bridges — Utica — Trenton CONTENTS. Falls — Melancholy Occurrence there — Journey to Auburn — Dreadful Roads — ■ Carriage breaks down — Tears and Lamentations — Tribe of Oneida Indians — Syracuse — Auburn — Bumps and Bruises Page 1 77

Letter IX

State Prison of Auburn — Admirable System of Discipline — Different Principle to the Penitentiary at Philadelphia — Thirty Women a match for Seven Hundred Men! — Cayuga Lake — Specimen of Democratical Equality — Seneca Lake — Geneva — Jemima Wilkinson, the Enthusiast — Canandaigua — New Settlements just emerging from the Forest — Singular Appearance of them — Mode of destroying the Trees — Their melancholy Aspect — Rochester — Sam Patch — Meet some agreeable Travellers — Temperance Societies — Interesting Details of them — Lockport — The most splendid Works there on the Canal Page 204

Letter X

Falls of Niagara — Description of them — British, or Horse- Shoe Fall— American Fall — Impossibility of doing them justice — their Height — Comparison with the Pyramids of Egypt — General Whitney's Hotel— Military Titles in America — Ferry Staircase — Goat Island — Biddle Staircase Sam Patch's leap into the Gulf — View from the centre of the River — Whirlpool and Devil's Hole — Lewiston — Queenstown — Comments on Captain Hall's Work on the States Forsyth's — Visit behind the Falls- — Scene by Moonlight. Page CONTENTS. XVII

Letter XI

Buffalo — Lake Erie — Source ofthe Niagara — Western Lakes — Welland Canal — Noble and useful Work — Launch of Vessel over the Falls — Return to Niagara — Final Adieu — Cross Lake Ontario — York, Capital of Upper Canada — Canada Land Company — New Settlements — Guelph — Goderich — Price of Land, &c. — Country most eligible to Emigrants — Imposts and Duties — Expense of Passage to Emigrants — Constitution of Upper Canada — Kingston — The Rideau Canal — The St. Lawrence- — The Thousand Islands— Rapids of the St. Lawrence — Arrival at Montreal. Page 269

Letter XII

Description of Montreal — the dominant Religion — School Societies — Island of St. Helena — Passage to Quebec — Description of Quebec — Cape Diamond — Heights and Plains of Abraham — Falls of Montmorency — Indian Village of Lorette — Ceremonies of Indian Marriage — The War-Whoop and Dance— French Canadians — Falls ofthe Chaudiere — Catholic Cathedral — Museums — Monument to Wolfe and Montcalm — Constitution of Lower Canada — Climate — Fruits Page 300

Letter XIII

Arrival at Quebec ofthe Royal William Steam-Boat — Embark in her for Nova Scotia — Passage down the St. Lawrence — Miramichi — Dreadful Conflagration — Arrive at Halifax — Windsor, Nova Scotia — the College there — Annapolis — Condition of the Soil — Bay of Fundy — St. John's, New VOL. I. C CONTENTS. Brunswick — Passage to Eastport — Frontier Town ofthe United States — Bay of Passamaquoddy — Curious Mode of Fishing — Passage to Boston — Lady deranged from Sea sickness — Description of Boston — Origin ofthe Settlement — Navy -Yard — Bunker's Hill — Curious Rencontre — Manufactories of Lowell — American Skill in driving. Page 333

Letter XIV

Cambridge — Harvard University — Public Schools — Sweet Auburn — Consecration of a Cemetery — Fresh Ponds — Ice — Extensive Traffic in it- — The Fine Arts at Boston — Nahant — Quincy Granite Quarries — Churches — State of Religion — Depart for the White Mountains — Salem — Notorious for Witchcraft — Oriental Museum — Portland — Quality of the Land — the Tariff — Floating Bridge — Climate- — Disputed Territory — Gardiner — Banks of the Kennebec — Interesting Family — Traits of Character. Page 370

Letter XV

Augusta — Cause of greater Beauty in American Towns — Paris, State of Maine — Lose my Baggage — Cultivation of Pumpkins — Travel in a Wagon — Reach the White Mountains — The Notch — Appalling Destruction of a whole Family — Fearful Avalanches — The Carriage breaks down — Haverhill — Banks ofthe Connecticut — Conversation in Coach — Revivals — Religious Opinions — Church Discipline — Hanover — Royalton — Gulf Road — Election of Judges — Freemasonry — Burlington — Lake Champlain — Lake George Page CONTENTS. XIX

Letter XVI

American Court of Chancery — Wigs and Gowns — Chancellor's Salary — -Forensic Eloquence — Formation of a Literary Society — Ex-President Adams — New York Deaf and Dumb Asylum — Depart for New Orleans — Canvass-back Ducks — Curious Invention — Potomac — Arrive in Virginia — Fredericksburg — Horrible Roads — Republican Equality — Singular Mode of Farming in Virginia — First Settlement of the State — Charlottesville — The Blue Mountains — Staunton — Separate from my Party — Business and Pleasure incompatible — Magnificence of the Weyer's Cave — Extraordinary Impudence of a Democrat Landlord Page NARRATIVE OF A TOUR IN NORTH AMERICA.

Letter I

Voyage across the Atlantic — Emigrants — Hail-storms — Two Atheists on board — Banks of Newfoundland — Fogs — Icebergs — Fishing for Mackerel — Whales — News-boats — Sandy Hook — New York Bay — Dinner at the City Hotel. New York, United Slates of America, 5th June, 1831. MY DEAR FRIEND, In fulfilment of the promise which I made to you, on quitting England for the shores of the New World, to give you a faithful narrative of my adventures, I now draw forth my best pointed Bramah, on the continent of America, in order to redeem my pledge. And as I know your curiosity ranges over the sea as over the VOL. I. B EMIGRANTS. land, and that a voyage across the great deep will have more of novelty for you than an excursion by land, I shall commence my letter by giving you a slight sketch of my passage across the Atlantic.

I sailed from Portsmouth, on the 2d of May, on board of the Hannibal, one of the New York packet-ships, which, for accommodation, elegance, excellent fare, kind treatment, and good seaman ship, are quite equal to any ships that navigate the ocean. Our vessel was something short of 500 tons, and was commanded by Captain He bard, a very attentive and obliging American ; and our society on board consisted of about twenty four cabin passengers, making up the full com plement for which berths could be supplied. In addition, however, to the company here enumerated, there were about a hundred unhappy emigrants crowded together in the steerage, who were hastening to seek that better lot in a strange and distant land which they had failed to realise in their own. They presented an interesting, but mournful, picture of a population redundant be yond the means of support; driven away from country and friends, through the resistless influ ence of moral and physical causes, to seek sub sistence and a home perchance in the wilderness.

Our voyage commenced under rather inauspicious circumstances ; since, in addition to the adverse wind with which we left the harbour of HAIL-STORMS. 3 Portsmouth, we encountered, in the Channel, a succession of the most violent and tempestuous hail-storms that I ever remember to have seen. The deck of the ship was so completely and pro fusely covered with hail and snow, drifted in some places into large heaps, that the gentlemen acted over again the days of their schoolboy feats, and pelted each other with snow-balls. Such weather as this on the 2d of May, and off the mild and temperate coast of Devon, excited in no small degree our surprise, and compelled us to wrap our cloaks around us, when in truth we might have expected to throw them aside altogether. The sea, as you are aware, agrees with me extremely well, having traversed every ocean on the globe without having once experienced the dreadful sensation of sea-sickness ; dreadful, according to the report of others, and which I am, as with respect also to the toothache, much happier to learn at second than at first hand.

The boundless mass of waters, too, on which I was just entering, awfully magnificent and pas singly wonderful as it is, always rivets my attention, whether sailing on its blue expanse or sauntering along its shores, and ever presents to my mind an unfailing source of grateful and sublime contem plation. I never behold this glorious object with out having the beautiful passage of the Psalmist most forcibly recalled to my memory : — " They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business ATHEISTS ON BOARD. in great waters; these see the works ofthe Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For he command eth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths ; their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketli the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet ; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his won derful works to the children of men !" In consequence, therefore, of my entire free dom from all indisposition at sea, joined to the fine weather which is in general prevalent at this season of the year, you might suppose my passage to New York to have been an agreeable one. Ab stracting from consideration some painful solicit udes, unconnected with the voyage, such, indeed, I found it to be, in comparison with what I had anticipated. I should have enjoyed, however, in a still higher degree, the bustle and excitement around me — absorbing attention, otherwise de voted to less pleasing contemplations — had there not been present in our little society two of the most confirmed and daring Atheists that it was ever my misfortune to meet.

Other infidels, ATHEISTS ON BOARD. whom I have met in my various travels through the world, were, in comparison with these, characterised by decency and moderation of expres sion, and even tenderness of allusion with respect to sacred things and the existence of a Supreme Being. Their principal pleasure appeared to con sist in denying, with fearful tokens of defiance and ribald mockery, the very being of the mighty God who had created them, and who had endowed the mind of the elder of the two with a strength of intellect, and with a germ of natural talent, which, if exercised aright, would have elevated their owner to eminence and respectability. But God's bounty to him has been most awfully per verted ! For what is the worth of the brightest intellect that ever was matured in the mind of man, if it lead its besotted possessor to abjure the very God who formed him ?

His zeal, too, in particular, for making proselytes, equally exceeded all that I had previously witnessed in the conduct of similar persons ; since, in addition to his ha ranguing the steerage passengers on the falsity of the Scriptures, and the non-existence of a superin tending Providence, his attempts on the youthful minds of two unprotected schoolboys, just fresh from the pious instruction of their tutor, and blooming, as it were, into early virtue, aroused my just and deep indignation. I had several times a discussion with him, in AN ATHEISTS GOD. the earlier part of the voyage, on various religious subjects ; but I soon found it absolutely necessaiy to cease all reference to these interesting topics, inasmuch as my objections to his desolating creed and doctrines, however mildly enforced, only served to exasperate his hostility to the proposition of an over-ruling Providence, and of the authenticity of the Bible, in a tenfold degree.

This hostility was, at the same time, conveyed in such terms of bitter scorn and blasphemous expression, as to drive every one immediately from his presence. He seems to have been wofully neglected when a boy, having been educated apparently without the slightest consciousness that he possessed a soul. He stated, in the course of conversation one day, that the only god he was ever taught to worship, was the god Neptune ; and that, during a voyage which he was making on a certain oc casion, when about seven years of age, he was accustomed to go down on his knees, every clay, before the captain of the vessel, in order to say his prayers to Neptune, and beseech the deity of the waters not to drown him. He declared that he was never taught to believe in any other object of adoration, and that whenever afterwards he was in any kind of trouble or affliction, he used to kneel down and supplicate the god of the sea !

About the 20th of May we found ourselves on the banks of Newfoundland, the very region of BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND. 7 fog and vapour, and in comparison with which, the generality of London fogs are a simple mist. The cold here was excessive, and even a great-coat closely buttoned, but ill kept out the penetrating damp : indeed, the temperature of the air was absolutely freezing. This extreme cold, in ad dition to the fog that more or less constantly prevails on the banks, is chiefly caused by the numerous icebergs which, for several months after the breaking up of the northern winter, pass over them on their way to the southward, affecting the atmosphere to a very considerable distance, according to the quarter from which the wind may happen to blow. Though we were rather too early in the season for these dreaded visitants, since they are not frequently seen before the month of June ; yet as the earliness of seasons varies, and as exceptions to general rules are quite arbitrary in their occurrence, we found it necessary to keep a good look out a-head, and occasionally felt somewhat anxious when the mist was so dense that we could not even see the ship's length in any direction.

Had there been an iceberg in our course, going as we were at the rate of eight and nine knots an hour, it would have been physically impossible to have been aware of the danger till the crash of the vessel against the artificial rock had brought us into destructive contact. A few years ago, the Liverpool, one of the WRECK ON AN ICEBERG. New York packet-ships, having a number of pas sengers on board, was lost on the banks of New foundland, under the melancholy circumstances to which I have alluded. The cabin-bell had a few moments before rung for dinner, when the ill-fated ship struck against an iceberg, closely concealed from view by an impenetrable fog, and in less than half an hour she filled with water and went down. The passengers and crew, most fortunately, had just time to save themselves in the ship's boats ; and, after encountering fearful perils, and suffering severe hardships, they at length reached Newfoundland, upwards of 200 miles from the place where they were wrecked ; a poor little child, the daughter of the only lady passenger on board, having died of fright and exposure.

The exhalations around these shoals frequently assume very singular appearances. I witnessed in particular, one day, the most extraordinary and perfect illusion of land that could possibly be formed, in the shape of what is called a fogbank. The mist had condensed into deep and broad lines and masses on the edge of the horizon, as closely resembling terra firma as any thing short of the reality, and which so completely deceived the second-mate, that he declared if it were not land, he had never beheld it in his life. The captain, however, on being appealed to, assured us we TREAT OF FRESH MACKEREL were at least 150 miles distant from it, as the result fully proved to be the case. We had flattered ourselves with the hope, on approaching the banks, of having a delicate treat, of fresh fish, as they abound with the finest cod in the world, and are resorted to during the summer by innumerable fishing-boats, of which the owners make a very good livelihood by exercising their craft of catching and curing them, as well for the American as for European markets.

Our hopes, however, were in this respect (like too many others, and more fondly cherished) doomed to disappointment ; for, though we cast out our lines, on the falling away ofthe wind, to the depth of eighty fathoms, we found, in consequence of the drifting of the ship, and our having been driven too far towards the southern edge of the bank, that we could not reach the bottom. We were, nevertheless, amply compensated when we arrived on the St. George's Bank, as we caught here a number of very fine mackerel, which, being dressed immediately, proved as delicious a bonne bouche as ever captivated the palate of a London alderman. The shoals of these fish were here truly immense ; covering large portions of the sea, and strongly rippling the otherwise tranquil waters by their sportive movements on its surface, as if they had been agitated by a powerful breeze.

The greediness with which they swallowed the b2 WHALES. bait was surprising ; for the instant the line was dropped in the water, was it again drawn up with a fine mackerel writhing at the end of it. Our fishing operations continued for some time; for our "beauteous breeze," as an Irish acquaintance of mine used to express it, had bidden us adieu, to go in quest of other adventures; and, with the exception of the partial ripplings caused by the fish, the sea was as delightfully placid as was the lovely lake of Killarney when I cast the part ing glance over it last year, on quitting its interest ing shores for the romantic rocks of Glengariff. And such is life ! — calm and tempest — sunshine and shade ; and too often when there is repose without, there is a storm within ! I need hardly tell you, that of the larger in habitants of the great deep, such as the whale, grampus, shark, and others similar, we saw numerous specimens ; some of them basking in the sunshine, others heaving their huge forms above the billows, and spouting forth water like so many fountains.

These are interesting objects at all times, but more especially when launched forth into the distant ocean, since they serve as so many reliefs to the unvarying monotony of endless sea and sky. The circumstance, however, that surprised me the most in my passage across the Atlantic, was the extreme coldness of the at mosphere during so generally fine a month as that LAND IN SIGHT. 11 of May, and which continued until we were almost in sight of the shores of America. Coats and cloaks were in universal requisition ; and, besides our exterior clothing, we found it necessary to make good use of our legs in pacing up and down the decks, in order to obtain a comfortable degree of warmth. The contrast which my voyage to Madeira exhibited, on going out to India some years ago, was extraordinary. I left the Downs in January, shivering under the double covering of a great-coat and a cloak : the Thames was frozen solidly over, and a well-heated stove blazing in the cuddy, round which every one was crowding and shaking; when, in ten short days, off the island of Madeira, coats and cloaks were thrown aside ; the under coat even was exchanged for a calico jacket, such as is worn in the East ; the stove was unshipped, and stowed away for another English winter ; and we marched forth on the deck without hat and gloves, luxuriating in all the delicious warmth and sun shine of that unequalled climate.