THE UNIVERSITY 

OF ILLINOIS 

LIBRARY 

From the library of 

Walter Colyer 

Albion, Illinois 

Purchased 1926 



-~ A --^ 

TuM 1STORICAC 



THE LIBRARY 

OF THE 
UKIYEBS1H &F illi&OJS 



BEING 

A JOURNAL OF A TOUR 

TO 

Clje ^anttefc States, 

PRINCIPALLY UNDERTAKEN TO ASCERTAIN, BY POSITIVE EVIDENCE, 

THE 

CONDITION AND PROBABLE PROSPECTS 

OF 

BRITISH EMIGRANTS; 

INCLUDING 

ACCOUNTS OF MR, BIRKBECK'S SETTLEMENT 
IN THE ILLINOIS: 

And intended to shew Men and Things as they are in America. 



BY W. FAUX, 

AN ENGLISH FARMER. 



PRINTED FOR W. SIMPKIN AND R. MARSHALL, 

STATIONER'S HALL COURT, LUDOATE STREET. 

1823. 






niendatiou 



. n in '.h' 

ra' Before ii 



a tho t'"~ie 



y, Took* Court, 
Line, London. 



vo from Wit; library in 



F 2 7 
co \o, a 



TO 



HIS GRACE, THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, 

AND TO 

THOMAS WILLIAM COKE, ESQ., M. P., 

THE 
DISTINGUISHED PATRONS OF THE AGRICULTURE 

OF THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY, 
THE FOLLOWING FAITHFUL PAGES, 

INTENDED TO ENABLE 
THE CAPITALISTS, YEOMEN, AND LABOURERS 

OF ENGLAND, 

TO FORM A JUST AND ' WELL-FOUNDED ESTIMATE 

OF THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES 

OF BRITISH FARMING 

AND 
AMERICAN EMIGRATION, 

ARE, 

WITHOUT PERMISSION, 
BUT WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT, 

INSCRIBED, 
BY THEIR ADMIRER, FRIEND^ AND COUNTRYMAN, 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



IN any other point of view than with reference 
to the facts and observations which are here sub- 
mitted to the public, who I am, and what I am, 
is certainly a matter of small moment; nor shall I 
detain the reader with any observations on that 
subject, on which sufficient information, through 
the medium of the following pages, will probably 
be found. 

The motives which induced me to visit Ame- 
rica, and afterwards to give to the public the re- 
sults of my experience, originated in many favour- 
able prepossessions for that country, and in a 
strong desire to ascertain the naked truth, in all 
particulars relating to emigration to that land of 
boasted liberty. When I saw thousands of my 
countrymen hurrying thither, as though they fled 



Vlll PREFACE. 

for life, and from the city of destruction, I became 
very anxious to know the real nature of their pros, 
pects. To them, I felt assured, that a statement, 
containing, to the best of the writer's belief, the 
truth and nothing but the truth, plainly and fear- 
lessly spoken, and calculated to give a correct im- 
pression, would be of the most essential service; 
and, upon those subjects to which my inquiries 
were particularly directed, I may, perhaps, be al- 
lowed to say, that I was, in some measure, quali- 
fied to judge, by experience, and by the habits of 
my life. With these views, 1 have endeavoured 
to retrace my many steps, and to take the reader 
with me, that he may see, taste, and know, things 
as they are; the rough with the smooth; the bitter 
with the sweet; the good with the evil. That he 
may go where 1 go; hear all, see all, and, by evi- 
dence, judging all, form his own resolutions and 
conclusions. 

1 may truly say, that throughout the whole of 
this enterprize, I have been, in a great degree, 
influenced by a sense of patriotic duty. The 
same sentiment impels me to the completion of 
my task, in the hope that the truth, so long per- 



PREFACE. IX 

verted and concealed, may contribute to destroy 
the illusions of transatlantic speculation, and to 
diffuse solid, home-bred satisfaction amongst my 
industrious countrymen. Deeply sensible, as I 
am, of all the kindness which I met with in the 
United States, and fond, as its natives are pro- 
verbially known to be, of unmixed praise, I shall 
yet speak of them and their country, as I, from 
first impressions, corrected by subsequent reflec- 
tion, thought, found, and felt, alternately and im- 
partially blaming and praising, where I believe 
censure and encomium to be honestly due. 

To my many subscribers in both the old world 
and the new, some apology for the delay which 
has taken place in the publication of this volume, 
may be thought necessary. It is simply this; 
and found in one circumstance, over which I had 
no control a long and painful paralysis, con- 
tracted in America, which seemed, for some time, 
to threaten my life. 

Throughout the work, I have studiously avoid- 
ed every thing which might savour of systema- 
tical or methodical arrangement; it being ray wish 



X PREFACE. 

to give, as nearly as practicable, my Journal, as 
it was begun, progressively continued, and ended; 
and thus to make plain delineations and convey 
correct impressions Pictures from life Things 
as they are ! 

Somersham, 
June, 1823. 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 



A. 

ATKINSON, Rev. John, Somersham. 

Asplan, Mr. William, Bluntisham. 

Asplan, Mr. ditto, for three friends, ditto, 3 copies. 

B. 

BEDFORD, His GRACE THE DUKE OF, Woburn Abbey. 

Butler, Rev. Mr. London. 

Bonfield, Rev. J. Chatteris. 

Bon field, Mr. Wimblington. 

Bird, Mr. Thomas, London. 

Blake, Mr. John, Yarmouth. 

Bigg?, Mr. Linton. 

Brown, Mr. John, Earith. 

Brown, Mr. Samuel, Somersham. 

Barley, Mr. Edward, March. 

Betts, Mr. Potton. 

C. 

COKE, T. W. Esq. M. P. Holkham. 
Curwen, J. C. Esq. M. P. 

Chowns, John, Esq. Welches, near Welwyn, Herts. 
Chatfield, Rev. Dr. Chatteris. 



Xll LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

Cooper, Rev. Mr. Potton. 

Chaplin, , Esq. Fulborn. 

Culledge, , Esq. March. 

Cockle, George, Esq. M. D. St. Jves. 

Cockle, George, jun. Esq. Willingham. 

Cole, Mr. G. Norwich. 

Cole, Mrs. St. Ives. 

Cooche, Mr. ditto. 

Coote, Mr. William, ditto. 

Coote, Mr. John, Wisbeach. 

\ 

D. 

Dudley, Sir H. B. Bart. Ely. 

Day, G. G. Esq. St. Ives, 4 copies. 

Dawes, Frederick, Esq., M. D., Washington^ America, 

100 copies. 
v Dumbleton, Mr. E. Coppingford Lodge. 

E. 

Emery, Mr. T. W. Potton. 
Ellis, Mrs. ditto. 

F. 

Fiske, Rev. Mr. Fulborn. 

Farre, J. R., Esq. M. D. Charter-House Square, 

Fryer, John, Esq. Chatteris. 

Fryer, Thomas, Esq. ditto. 

Fryer, Mr. Daniel, ditto, 6 copies. 

Faulkner, William, Esq. Potton. 

Freshwater, Mrs. ditto. 

Fisher, T. E. Esq. St. Ives. 

Fountain, Mr. J. Norwich. 

Faux, William, sen. Sutton. 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Xlll 

G. 

Gurney, John, Esq. Serjeant's Inn, London. 

Gifford, Mr. J. Cambridge. 

Gray, Mr. Nathan, March. 

Grey, Mr. G. Wimblington. 

Groocock, Mr. W. A. St. Ives. 

Gell, Miss, ditto. 

Gray, Mr. Buckworth, (for the Kimbolton Book Society). 

H. 

Hunt, Henry, Esq. King's College, Cambridge. 

Hardy, Johnson, Esq. March. 

Hammond, John, Esq. Fenstanton. 

Hatchard, Rev. John, Chatteris. 

Holmes, Rev. Mr. Wisbeach. 

Hill, James, Esq. ditto. 

Hallack, Mr. Cambridge. 

Huckberry, Mr. Spalding. 

Harris, Henry, Esq. Peterborough. 

Howson, Mr. sen. Huntingdon. 

Hutchinson, Mr. Stoakley, Colne. 

Hagger, Mr. Potton. 

Hall, Mr. Biggleswade. 

I. 

Isaacs, Rev. Mr. Chatteris. 
Johnson, Hardy, Esq. March. 
Johnson, Mr. Catlin, Potton. 
Jecks, Mr. Wisbeach. 
Ilett, Edward, Esq. Chatteris. 
Ilett, Mr. Jonathan, Earith. 
Ingle, John, Somersham. 
Ingle, Mr. Willingham. 



XIV LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

K. 
King, Rev. , Prebendary of Ely. 

L. 

Lloyd, John, Esq. Potton. 

Leeds, Mr John, Somersham. 

Leigh, Mr. Thomas, Earith. 

Livet, Mr. Richard, Cumberland Street, New Road, London. 

M. 

Moseley, L. Esq. Somersham. 

Mason, William, Esq. ditto. 

Martin, , E*q. Potton. 

Martin, Downes, Esq. Godmanchester. 

Margetts, Thomas, Esq. Hemingford Grey. 

Margetts, Mr. P. ditto. 

Morton, Mr. Potton. 

Manning, Mrs. ditto. 

Masters, Mr. ditto. 

Massey, Mr. ditto. 

Martin, Mr. sen. Somersham. 

Mayfielcl, Mr. John, St. Ives. 

N. 
Nicholls, Mr. Bmkworth. 

O. 

Osborne, J. Esq. St. Ives. 
Orris, Rev. , Somersham. 
Owen, Mrs. Mepal. 

P. 

Pinchard, Dr. Haddenham. 
Prince, , Esq. Balsham. 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. XV 

Pittiss, Edward, Esq. Newport, 2 copies. 
Pryme, George, Esq. King's College, Cambridge. 
Pratt, William, Esq. March. 
Pratt, Mr. Norwich. 
Pierson, Mr. Kimbolton. 
Potto, Mr. Carter, Earith. 
Peake, Mr. St. Ives. 
Patrick, Miss, Potton. 

R. 

Rugeley, W. P. Esq. Potton. 

Rugeley, Mrs. ditto. 

Rugeley, Mr. H. St. Ives. 

Robinson, Mr. Noble, ditto. 

Rogers, Mr. John, Potton. 

Robinson, Captain, of the Electra Packet. 

S. 

Smith, Major, Somersham. 

Smith, Mrs. Coppingford Lodge. 

Sewell, Thomas, Esq. Chatteris. 

Sparrow, Mr. Norwich. 

Starling, Mr. Yarmouth. 

Sutton, Mr. G. St. Albarfs. 

Setchfield, Mr. D. St. Ives. 

Shaw, J. jun. Esq. King Street, Cheapside, 2 copies. 

Smith, Mr. J. Chatteris. 
Steed, J. London. 

T. 

Tillard, Rev. Richard, A. B. Bluntisham. 
Thomson, George, Esq. Somersham. 
Tebbutt, M. Esq. Bluntisham. 

U. 
Underwood, Mrs. Potton. 



XVI LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

\ 

Underwood, James, Esq. Ordnance Office, Tower. 
Underwood, Mr. Somersham. 
Upsher, Mr. Thomas, Sutton. 
Upsher, Joseph, Esq. St. Ives. 

V. 

Vipan, Benjamin, Esq. MepaL 
Vipan, Joseph, Esq. Sutton. 

W. 

Wilson, Thomas, Esq. Houghton, St. Ives. 

Wilson, John, Esq. Somersham. 

Wilson, Mr. J. Oakes, ditto. 

White, Mr. Thomas, Bluntisham. 

White and Medcalf, Messrs., Oxford Street, London, 2 

copies. 

Wallis, Mr. R. Hemingford Grey. 
Wells, Mr. Samuel, Huntingdon. 
Wittingham, Rev. R. Potion. 
Warner, Charles, Esq. Somersham. 
Wright, Mr., Chemist, Wisbeach. 

Y. 

Youd, George, Esq. Wisbeach. 



JOURNAL. 



HAVING, through the medium of the public prints, 
advertized my intended departure, and made the 
necessary preparations, I bade farewell to my good 
and venerable father, whom I never expected to 
see more, and tore myself from the embraces of 
my wife, and of one dear and only child. On the 
following day, being the 

I 27th November, 1818, I reached London, on the 
Defiance codch, after riding all day in the rain. 
On the next day, I boarded, in the King's Dock, 
the good ship Washington, which carried out Mr. 
Fearon and Mr. Lancaster. The former gentle- 
man was, I found, disliked by the captain, and, 
indeed by all Americans, on account of the fide- 
lity of his Sketches. I called on him and thought 
him an interesting and intelligent man. I request- 
ed of the tourist, letters to his friends; " J\o,"said 
he, " my book has destroyed them : you will con- 
firm my reports." 

December \Qtli. I, this day, boarded the good 
ship Ruthy, and paid 151. in part of passage, to 

B 



2 MEMORABLE DAYS [January, 

Captain Wise of Boston, to Charleston bound : 
" We are," said he, " short of money in America ; 
but sure of living." 

2lst. Insured 120/. on rny luggage with Butler 
and Wade, and tried in vain at several offices to 
effect a life-insurance, the climate to which I was 
destined being doubly hazardous. Received from 
my physician a prescription, costing and really 
worth three guineas, and fit for both land and sea. 
Take two-thirds of Cheltenham salts, and one- 
third of Epsom salts, mixed ; a quarter of an ounce, 
dissolved in a pint of hot spring water, and drunk 
an hour before rising, is a dose which may be 
often repeated, if necessary, by patients disposed 
to indigestion. 

January 1st, 1819. On Monday last, five days 
since, I came on board the Ruthy, then lying in, 
and now creeping down the Thames; nothing^e- 
markable having yet transpired. On Wednesday, 
1 showed myself at the custom-house at Graves- 
end. Now, twenty-five miles from the Downs. 
Our crew and passengers consist of three English- 
men, one Welshman, one Spaniard, and nine 
sprightly Americans, including our youthful cap- 
tain, twenty-five only, of very energetic habits, man- 
ners, and aspect; possessing an air, an eye, and a 
voice which say, arm; which create or annihilate; 
which say be or not be. What a pity that so much 
natural manly talent and efficiency should be mixed 
up with so much frightful profaneness ! The ship 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 3 

has yet no motion, nor is there any sickness, 
except amongst the poultry, and first mate, who 
seems sick and ready to die. I began an epistle 
to my father, and assured him that my heart is a 
compass, which will ever truly point towards Eng- 
land, and that a ship is a prison, a house without 
land, where life is most uncertain, and death al- 
ways at hand. 

Sunday, 3rd. Under weigh at half past eighty 
but soon stranded ; struck and stuck fast on thfe 
shallow sands above Margate roads. Somewhat \ 
alarmed, but providentially off again at threeo'clock 
tide, losing only an anchor and cable worth 100/. 
Terrible language even on this day; but Sabbath 
none here ! 

4th. Safely anchored in the Downs, off Deal ; 
where at six, p. in. the pilot left us. Boarded by 
smugglers, offering best Hollands at 14s. and 12s. 
6d. per gallon, which they keep sunk in the sea. 
The captain traded, and thereby saved 100/. per 
cent. Wind full south, right a-head; rough sea; 
felt squeamish, not sick. 

5th. Jn company with the captain, visited 
Deal Castle, the seat of Lord Carrington, an an- 
cient fortress, and fortified, during the reign of Eli- 
zabeth, against the Spanish Armada. Called on 
Edward Iggledon, Esquire, the American vice- 
consul. The captain here evinced a laudable, and 
obliging, yet barbarian curiosity. 

Qth. Under weigh at noon. Passed Dover 
B 2 



, 

4 MEMORABLE DAYS [January, 

Castle. Distinctly saw the coast of France. Part- 
ed with our old friends, the Deal smugglers ; sea- 
robbers, whose constant prayer is, " Give us a 
good south-wester :" a wreckful gale in the fatal 
Downs. Boarded by Lloyd's agent, who reports 
the time of coming in and leaving the Downs. Saw 
\ two bright light-houses, shining from the South 
{Foreland. At eight, p. in. came on, right a-head, 
k strong wind on a leeward shore, and a very 
^eavy, swelling, rough, angry sea, such as I had 
never before seen, alternately lifting me on my 
head and heels, while in bed. No sleep, all night. 

7th. Both wind and sea more violent than 
ever; the latter running deep, right over the ship, 
and falling like claps of thunder on the roof of my 
cabin. Continued thirty-six hours in bed with but 
little sleep, drinking neat Hollands, and eating bis- 
cuit only, so avoiding sea-sickness, though morally 
sick at heart. 

8th. Rose at eight. Fine morning, wind N.W. 
The Jsle of Wight a-head. Visited the steerage, a 
hole unfit for either man or beast. My simple 
Cambrian friend found himself robbed of his dol- 
lars; by the sailors artfully borrowing his keys. 
Passed the Isle of Wight. At six, p. m., off the 
Isle of Portland, another tremendous gale came 
on, worse than the last, on a leeward shore ; no 
port; a dismal atmosphere, with all the horrors of 
Thursday night doubled. From the captain's 
dark physiognomy I saw our danger, though not 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 5 

willingly admitted by him. We could see no land 
from the mast-head, only a dismasted vessel; and 
knowing not where we went, suffered the ship, 
without sail, to drift back. Felt iny nervous sys- 
tem greatly shocked and impaired; passed a most 
dreadful night, admitting of no sleep, but a fearful 
looking out for death and swift destruction on the 
rocks. At nine, p. m., the gale abated, and hope 
dawned ; and we hailed an Isle of Wight pilot- 
boat, which led us to Mother Bank, Portsmouth- 
harbour. Great and general was the joy of all on 
board, some being sick, and all worn down with 
fatigue and excessive watching. Thunder this 
morning. Off Ryde, at anchor, by eleven o'clock, 
a. m. Felt great gratitude, but not commensurate 
with the deliverance. The feeling during the gale 
was that of overwhelming fear, and as one under 
sentence of death, in dreadful suspense, waiting 
the moment which was to sink us all in old ocean's 
deep unfathomed caves. It was the most misera- 
ble 24 hours of my life, but worse were to follow. 
I was near resolving, that if I reached shore, I 
would abandon my mission ! My hopes, objects, 
prospects, and all the bright visions of the future, 
seemed only as things passed away. When safely 
anchored, I felt as one risen from the dead; and 9 
though my fears tried to seduce me towards home, 
shame, and my little remaining courage, impelled 
me to proceed. 

lith. The gale continues: how happily an- 



6 MEMORABLE DAYS [January, 

chored ! Infinite mercy calls for infinite gratitude ! 
In the gale, we damaged our cargo, and lost nearly 
all our water ; the bung-holes of the casks being 
left carelessly unclosed. If this had happened in 
the midst of the western sea, we must have re- 
turned, or have perished with thirst. 

12th. In the stage for Newport, Isle of Wight, 
to the hospitable board of Messrs. J. and Edward 
Pittiss, where we were regaled like princes. This 
town is London in miniature; it contains 6,000 
people, and is as beautiful as any in Britain. 
Viewed Carisbrook Castle, with its wonderful 
well, 250 feet deep. Visited JVJr. Barnet of Cowes, 
who has wild cattle on his estate. Left our good 
and hospitable friends, and promised to ourselves 
to return such kindness with interest, when oppor- 
tunity occurred. 

19th. Reached Roxhall-farm, near God's Hill, 
to dine with John Arnold, Esq. whose house and 
estate are delightful. Mr. Arnold has resolved on 
emigration, with handsome property, good agri- 
cultural knowledge, and first rate general intelli- 
gence. He farms 400 acres of good land at 20$. 
per acre, but has lost on it 300/. per annum for 
some time past, which he thinks is an argument 
in favour of emigration.* 

25th. For the first time in my life it has been 

* This gentleman and family, with 10 of the Pittiss family, 
sons and daughters, brave and fair as Britain boast, have emi- 
grated to the Western wilds. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 7 

my lot, while on board the Ruthy, and that too 
in Portsmouth Harbour, to partake of chicken 
which had died diseased, and pig killed because 
it could no longer live, though well nursed during 
its sickness. I, in consequence, dread starving 
if I remain here ; the recollection of having thus 
fed, quite destroying appetite. Mr. Pittiss this day 
came on board with the present of a hare, which 
was barbarously boiled, and slush (or melted fat) 
poured over it for dinner. This was my last inter- 
view with this respectable man, to whom 1 gave 
introductory letters to friends in America. 

%7th. To dinner this day at the Cornish Arms, 
Portsmouth, the landlord of which always pre 
sides, and at table toasts Bonaparte, by saying 
aloud, " God bless Bonaparte, the man of the 
people, the Frenchman's hope, and the glory of 
the world !" Splendid portraits, too, hang in al- 
most all parts of the house ; and one in particular, 
in the drawing-room, must only be approached 
bareheaded and bowing. Mr. Cole is quite an 
original. At noon, a S. E. wind hurried us on 
board, to prepare for sea. Received a pilot. 

28^. Weighed anchor at five, and dropped 
into Cowes harbour at ten, a. m., having in view 
the beautiful hills of the Isle, adorned with castles 
and mansions. Spoke the ship Plato, from Balti- 
more to Bremen bound, and recently exposed to 
the worst gales and weather, and much damaged 



8 MEMORABLE DAYS [January, 

on the banks of Newfoundland, where the crew 
were frost-bitten and lost their toes and fingers' 
ends. 

%9th. Sailed at six this morning. Wind at 
S.E. Passed Yarmouth, Lymington, and Christ 
Church, in full view, and, at one, p. m., those sub- 
lime romantic rocks rising high out of the water, 
and therefore called the Needles. Here the pilot 
left us. 

30th. Now off Plymouth, but no land in view. 
Made, since yesterday, 130 miles. Felt possessed 
of more courage than when last at sea, or rather a 
sort of desperate, not pious, resignation. On leav- 
ing St. Aldhams head, yesterday, saw no more of 
poor old England. Peace to my dear native land! 

31st. In lat. 48. Saw two Yankee brigs, for 
England bound. Rose at midnight, and beheld 
the pale moon illuminating the dark sea, which 
looked like an infinite lake of quicksilver. 

To my sorrow is it known, that the captain finds 
his beef and porter (bought for good) good for no- 
thing, the former having been a voyage to the East 
Indies! Navigators up the Mississipi river, fre- 
quently steal from 10 to 20 sheep at once from the 
farmers, and think it no crime; it being more con- 
venient to steal than to buy. Captain Wise, when 
there, acknowledges he saw his crew dressing se- 
veral sheep so stolen, but forbid them not; only 
telling them they should not let him know of such 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 9 

thefts. Alas ! poor honesty, how art thou dis- 
carded ! 

February 2nd. Fine day. Wind none. Eleven 
sail in view: a dead calm. Lat. 48. 

3rd. Almost a gale, and right a-head all day. 
I perceive my fears lessen as 1 proceed. Huge 
mountainous waves of a mile in length, but as 
they do not break, as in the Channel, the ship gal- 
lantly rides over them. Saw a fine mast afloat, 
recently fallen from some ill-fated ship. Lat. 47', 
and on the skirts of the Bay of Biscay. A large 
shoal of sea-hogs, alias porpoises, played round our 
ship; we harpooned one, which instantly became 
a prey to its fellows. Its blood invites them to 
destroy and devour it. 

4th. Bad weather, wind west, right a-head; 
lat. 47 30' at noon. At a recent anniversary in 
Boston of Free Blacks, met to celebrate the aboli- 
tion, or as they term it the Boblition of the slave- 
trade; the chairman rose after dinner, and said, 
" Gemmen, I be Massa Peter Guss, and give you 
this toast, That President Madison be no more 
like General Washington than pute finger in the 
fire, and haul it out again !" great applause. And 
another toast was, " Mr. Wilberforce be the blacky- 
man's friend, and may he never want polish to his 
boots." 1 give this anecdote, as I heard it from 
an American ; but contempt of the poor blacks, or 
niggers, as they are there called, seems the national 
sin of America. 



10 MEMORABLE DAYS [February, 

5th. Squally, and almost a gale all day. Felt 
no fear, but hope and confidence in the good 
hand which can deliver. Our first mate turned 
into the steerage for disobedience this morning, 
arid a fight near at hand between himself and the 
captain. Our black steward is known as a cham- 
pion of champions, having conquered a hero of his 
own colour by butting on all fours, like two rams, 
a mode of fighting common amongst blacks. 

7th. In the bay, off Spain, and 170 miles from 
the port of Corunna. 

Qth. Lat. 44. Bad day, wind a-head, blowing 
hard. Black superstition. Our steward has this 
moment lost a drop of red blood, which involun- 
tarily fell from his black pug nose. " There," 
said he, " I have lost my mother a good friend." 
This blood-losing he considers as a sure ornen of 
death taking place, having more than once proved 
it. 

9fh. All's in the wrong. Head wind. No fire 
in the cabin. So cold, that I am compelled to wear 
two pair of hose, and my large box-coat. Coals 
are few and our captain stingy, being one of those 
Yankees (says our first mate) who, in the Southern 
States, are said to skin a flea for the sake of its 
hide and tallow. My liver, however, seems on 
fire, through want of exercise and wholesome food. 
I am pained in all positions, and every breath is 
costly. This is an evil day. A small jug of 
water fell of itself to the floor from the table, at 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 11 

\vhich the captain in high rage rang for the poor 
absent broken-backed steward, and accused him 
of doing it. Then, doubling his fist, he knocked 
the steward down twice, by violent blows on the 
head, and, when down, set his foot on his neck, 
and stamped three times on it violently. The 
poor fellow gave no provocation, but only begged 
for mercy, and said, " Captain, you must do as 
you will with me now." He is a faithful creature, 
and the captain's conduct brutal, but somewhat 
national. 

15th. Turned in this evening, much indisposed, 
and in want of every good. Hapless is the pros- 
pect; a long passage yet before us, with but little 
water, no fire, weather cold, provisions bad and 
few. The sailors already on short allowance 
both of bread and water, and wind yet a-head. 
At two this morning greatly scared by several 
frightful squalls, one of which bellowed like loud 
thunder, and nearly laid the ship on her Aee side ; 
insomuch that I expected a visit from the grim 
king of terrors, clad in his most dismal attire. At 
eight, a. m. rose from my bed of horrors after a 
racking of 38 hours; sad, as ever fell to the lot of 
man ! In a gale, and laid to, for the two following 
days. 

19th. Wind still a-head. Find that the steer- 
age, through want of cleanliness, swarms with 
creeping things. Now, 3,000 miles in a direct 
course from our destined port, Charleston city. 



12 MEMORABLE DAYS [February, 

We are off those beautiful Western isles, the Azores, 
abounding with herds, grapes, wine, oil, and earth- 
quakes. Summer, this morning, suddenly burst 
in upon us ; the air being, in the shade, warmer 
than May in England. 

^Qth Fine day, dead calm, lat. 38; therm, in 
shade 65, in the water 61, at night 70. Have now 
taken leave of old winter. It is June ; no chilling 
breezes. How delightful, to an Englishman, is 
weather like this in February. Now, within 70 
miles of the Azores, to which ship-loads of maho- 
gany are annually drifted along the gulf stream, 
from the bay of Honduras. 

%3rd. Day-light from six to six in this de- 
lightful climate. I saw, during the day, what 
sailors call sun-dogs, a species of rainbow, with- 
out either pillar or arch, having only a base, and 
being thought symptomatic of windy, squally wea- 
ther. The horizon at sun-set glowing with crimson, 
pink, and blue, the perfection of beauty. This 
being the 60th day of our passage, we have yet 3,000 
miles to sail, and stores for 10 days only. Dis- 
tress and famine are predicted. The men grumble 
about long days' work, and short allowance of 
food and sleep ; more of the latter is given, and as 
to the former, they intend redressing themselves. 
At this distance from land, we saw a land- 
bird. 

25th. Met a fine Grampus. Rose at five, a. m. 
and laid aside my winter dress. Saw a few dol- 



1819.J IN AMERICA. 13 

phins. I find my eyes glisten with returning 
health, after a week's fine weather and a favour- 
able wind, which has done more for us than the 
three preceding weeks. 

28th. Lat. 28, and a fine trade wind, N. E. 
Every thing outward wears a propitious aspect, 
but not so within. Only one ounce of ham for my 
breakfast, and no meat for dinner; but soup made 
of lean, dry, and dirty salt beef, stewed to rags, 
and pudding made of flour and water only. Feel 
however my spirits healed, and find mercy mixed 
in this bitter cup, to be long remembered with 
blessings and praise. 

March 1st. Stripped to my shirt all day. Sail- 
ing eight knots an hour, in lat. 32. Saw this night 
the young moon in a position new to me, lying 
horizontally, flat on her back, as the sailors say, 
with her horns upwards; a sign of fine dry wea- 
ther. A regular trade-wind, and at sunrise and 
set, the sky full of beautiful blushing amber clouds, 
of indescribable richness, but common in this lati- 
tude. The sea, by reflection, becomes a flood of 
gore, especially while these clouds fly round the 
expansive horizon. The effect was greatly heigh- 
tened by a huge rainbow at noon, which gave to 
the waves all the changeful hues of the camelion. 

2nd. Therm. 72, lat. 26. Find it necessary to 
seek shade under the awning all day, and at the 
second and third watch of the night to take an air- 
bath, quite undressed ; when I saw Venus, the 



14 MEMORABLE DAYS [March, 

bright morning-star, lighting the sky and sea like 
a moon, casting a long broad shadow over the 
bosom of the wave, and yielding a light nearly 
equal to the moon in her first quarter. Being 
now nearly in the tropic of Capricorn, all the lumi- 
naries of Heaven blazed with a light and brilliancy 
quite novel to me. Horrible dissatisfaction openly 
reigns amongst the crew, because hard worked 
and half starved. The captain, in reply, kindly 
called them damned gluttons, and bid them go and 
fare better if they could. He complained of my 
talking to them, a condescension on my part 
which, he said, teaches them insubordination, and 
a liberty taken by me not allowable in a cabin 
passenger. Saw many flying-fish, winged as a 
bird, and also several beautiful tropical birds, a 
species of sea-gull, having sharp long tails, formed 
of only one quill, and called by sailors Neptune's 
children. 

Our brutish captain this day beat and bruised 
the poor steward with a thick rope about his 
broken back, head, and face, until a torrent of 
red blood gushed from his thick black nose. For 
what? Because the poor fellow had been smoking, 
and could not by washing make his black face 
white ! 

oth. Therm. 78, lat. 22, long. 40, and now 
midway between London and Charleston. Saw 
a fine whale, reflecting in its course from the sun 
all the hues of the rainbow ; and a large flock of 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 15 

flying-fish, bright and silvery, and at a distance 
easily mistaken for the feathered tribe. 

Sunday, 7tk. Wind dead a-head ; a rather sin- 
gular circumstance in the trades. The men busy 
making coffee of roasted barley. Eat the pig, the 
last killed yesterday. The captain full of dark, 
savage thoughts. It is now a fortnight since a sail 
was seen, and as all seems wrong, we droop and 
hang our heads like bulrushes. 

9tk. Lat. 21, therm. 78. Met a huge shark, 
two dolphins, and a grampus. All hands now go 
nearly naked, and quite stockingless and shoeless, 
and frequently jump into the brine. A passenger, 
being once seized with the cramp, soon found him- 
self drowning; on which a line was thrown out, 
and he seized it with his teeth until it was tied 
round his arm, and he could be so hauled up. 

llth. S. W. wind blowing a gale all day, a 
rather remarkable thing in this latitude, being 
within the tropic line, where a regular trade-wind 
is expected from either the N. E. or S. E. All 
hands now brought to short allowance; one bis- 
cuit only, in 24 hours, for the crew ; and one and a 
half for each man in the cabin. When I, as now, 
omit the latitude, it is because we cannot get an 
observation, and are driven backwards, and tossed 
to and fro. Our hopes are very low. This evening, 
immediately after the sun sunk, the full moon rose 
from a huge pillowy cloud, and shone with an 
angry redness and largeness, casting an awful 



16 MEMORABLE DAYS [March, 

splendour on the dark sky and mountainous sea. 
Still a gale, in direct opposition to the generally 
received theory of the trades, which should blow 
as above mentioned, says Captain Wise; but at the 
command of God, how his works laugh at the 
theories of man ! 

12//*. Lat. 22 15'. A beautiful fat flying-fish 
flew on board this morning, and furnished us with 
a delicious breakfast. 

Sunday, [4th. In lat. 22, long. 45. Wind 
due west, dead a-head ; a hope-blasting wind. I 
continued nearly all last night on deck during a 
strong gale, it being better to see the worst than 
to imagine it. This is the sad seventy- eighth day, 
from the port of London. At three o'clock, p. m. 
saw, distant from us 10 miles, a large Jndiaman; 
hailed her with a signal of distress. At four, the 
captain boarded her, the good ship Hamilton of 
Boston, from Canton 92 days, returning from a tra- 
ding voyage round the world, manned and com- 
manded by Captain Martyn and a fine, efficient 
crew of 30 men, and armed with 20 guns, mus- 
quetry, swords, and pistols, and a large maga- 
zine. Our captain now returned from the Hamil- 
ton, with his boat laden with bread, pork, and 
hams, tea, coffee, sugar, and rum. What a pro- 
vidential supply! What joy shone in the faces 
of all on board, who till now were greatly suf- 
fering, and constantly meditating on what should 
be their conduct in case of extremities. Captain 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 37 

Martyn being told that a passenger, meaning my- 
self, was very anxious to quit the Ruthy for his 
noble ship, instantly ran on deck, and through 
the mouth of a loud sounding brazen trumpet, 
said, " Sir, come on board, you are welcome; I 
shall charge you nothing, although yet 3,000 
miles, in a direct course, to sail." Seeing I 
hesitated a little, he sent off his boat and first 
officers for me, and through them pressingly re- 
newed his invitation. I now took my leave of the 
Ruthy, and returning with them, found my new 
captain a generous, gentlemanly man, having a 
noble vessel stored with pigs, poultry, turtles, 
and goats (for milk), all alive and fat, from Can- 
ton city. There was besides on board, a profusion 
of China sweetmeats, Jamaica rum, old oily brandy 
and wine, and new bread, on table daily; and, at 
night, a Chinese bed of down to receive me, all 
from Asia, the Sandwich isles, and the north-west 
coast of the American continent, where during 
the last four years, this adventurous ship has been 
trading to its awful hazard but great advantage. 
It has netted to its owner in four years 20,000/. ; 
to the captain seven and a half per cent, and to 
the first mate one per cent. The present cargo 
being composed of China silks, crapes, and teas, 
is rich, and valued at 20,000/. It was received in 
exchange for furs and skins, purchased by barter 
from the Indians and South Sea islanders, who 
gladly take in exchange train-oil, powder, shot, 

c 



18 MEMORABLE DAYS [March, 

knives, simple toys, and gaudy printed cottons. 
This is a fine trade for men of capital. 

i 6th. Fine day; wind fair, N. . lat. 22. 
Owing to want of science, and inability to take 
lunar observations, on board the Ruthy, I discover, 
by Captain Martyn, our longitude to be 48 instead 
of 45. We have on board a beautiful white Chi- 
nese mouse working a wheel, like a squirrel ; and 
a cage full of Java sparrows, with crimson beaks. 
Caught this morning three beautiful dolphins, 
which we fry and eat as a luxury. We now sail 
nine knots an hour with little motion, and I amuse 
myself with reading General Washington's inva- 
luable Legacies. Beautiful silk umbrellas and 
huge parasols from Canton, on board ; prime cost, 
two dollars; and portraits, large as life, in elegant 
frames, at eight dollars each. Living in style at 
Calcutta, costs for a mess (several in number) one 
dollar per day. 

18^. Fine breeze, lat. 24, long. 52 15'. Caught 
a fine fat porpoise weighing 200lbs., which sup- 
plies us with beef-steaks, fried in oily fat. Saw 
beautiful Canton crape, three dollars a piece, suffi- 
cient for two dresses ; shawls of it equally low and 
very rich, such as in England are almost unattain- 
able except by the rich. Pictures, too, four of them 
coloured, four feet in length, and one fan, all for 
one dollar. These Chinese pictures want expres- 
sion or impress of mind, yet display great inge- 
nuity. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 19 

20th. Lat. 25, long. 56. As to-morrow is Sun- 
day, we this morning kill a fat Canton pig with 
little head and short legs, a delicious thing at sea. 
It weighs 100 Ibs. (or 40 Ibs. Chinese), and is fatted 
on rice-bran only, food on which an English pig I 
suppose would starve. Saw a whale almost the 
length and breadth of the ship. 

The owner of the Ruthy, which I quitted, 
though now a very rich man, the Honourable 
Wm. Gray, of Boston, who has a ship at almost 
every port, was once very poor, a little shoemaker- 
His first mercantile speculation was a shipment of 
warming-pans to the West Indies, which some 
wag advised him to send thither; it was, of course, 
a very successful shipment in so cold a country, 
but not for the uses intended ; the pans were 
used as ladles for molasses or treacle. 

Sunday, %]st. Saw two sail to England bound, 
and two whales sporting by our ship. What a 
glorious transfer I have made, and how timely 
and unexpected, just at the moment when, on 
board the Ruthy, all our hopes had perished ! 
How merciful is the God on whom I called ! For 
instead of drowning, starving, or eating each 
other, I am living on the new and interesting lux- 
uries of the east, and surrounded with many rare 
curiosities of unseen lands ; a bleating goat of 
Owhyhee supplies me with milk ; and in the morn- 
ing, the shrill clarion of Canton cocks, the cack- 

c 2 



20 MEMORABLE DAYS [March, 

ling of geese, and the grunting of swine early 
rouse me from my warm and downy bed ; and, all 
together, make me fancy 1 am in my farm-yard, 
although 4,000 miles distant, 

22wd. Lat. 27, long. 61. Now about 11 days 
sail from Boston. The captain this morning turn- 
ing out first, cast a cup of cold water into the 
bosom of his clerk, who was yet in bed, and pro- 
mised him a pailful if necessary. The clerk is 
a pleasant young man of about 25, and only said, 
" Captain, if you expect perfection of me you will 
be disappointed; I am not perfect." Republicans 
seem uncommonly tyrannical, and sometimes aris- 
tocratical. We sail swiftly, and sometimes 228 
miles in a day. 

I now sleep in high style every night, having 
under my pillow a bottle of madeira and a basket 
of China sweetmeats; at my side nine muskets 
and a huge broad-sword ; and underneath me a 
magazine of gunpowder and balls. 

24JA. Warm day, wind S. W. almost a calm, 
lat. 30, long. 65, now opposite to and distant 40 
miles from Bermuda, and 720 from Boston, our 
destined haven. In this port (says our captain) 
there is an old hump-backed pilot now living, to 
whom some British officers once waggishly said, 
" What's that on your back ?" He answered, 
" What do you think ? Bunker's hill, to be sure, !" 
a reply which silenced the facetious inquirers. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 21 



Lat. 32, long. 66, sailing all day 7, and 
at night 10 knots an hour. The old Southern 
goat, kid, Canton cocks, geese, hogs, and turtles, 
begin to quake with northern cold. In the win- 
ter of 1817-18, the fish generally experienced a 
vast mortality; the shores and water, quite out at 
sea, were literally covered with countless tons and 
ship-loads of dead and dying fish : much to the dis- 
comfiture of shipping, dependent on them for a sup- 
ply of food. The cause is unknown, but supposed 
to be volcanic;. as very frequently, loud subter- 
raneous, or rather subaqueous sounds, like the 
discharge of artillery, were heard in these deso- 
late regions. 

27th. Now only 440 miles from Boston, wind 
a-head. At midnight it blew a gale, and we were in 
serious danger of losing our masts through not 
taking in sail in time. I rose at this awful hour, 
and saw the horizon wearing a singularly angry 
aspect. It is predicted that this gale will continue 
three days. It did, in fact, last just three days: 
some men are truly weather-wise, and 

" Old experience doth attain 

To something like prophetic strain." 

Saw three sail ; one, a Frenchman, who seemed 
disposed to conceal his colours, when we shewed 
him the star-spangled banner, and then loaded, 
pointed, and fired a cannon over, not at him, just 



22 MEMORABLE DAYS [March, 

to teach him good manners. He now hoisted the 
dirty white flag of Louis 18th, but would not speak 
us. Spoke a Yankee brig, out five days from 
Boston, and compared her longitude with ours, 
by exhibiting both on a board, from the bows of 
each ship. They agreed ; and so proved the nau- 
tical skill of our captain to be of the first order. 

It is now so cold that three coats are necessary, 
although only six days since it was too hot to 
wear one, or any thing else: we are now anxious 
to see land. Saw the moon distinctly at nooi> 
day. In stores for a long voyage, the Americans 
take out roasted geese, ducks, fowls, partridges and 
pigeons, in casks secured from external air by 
closing the tops over with melted lard or mutton 
fat, so keeping all good for several months : when 
any are wanted, they are heated over the fire or in 
an oven. As a luxury, pickled oysters are taken 
for stewing, which eat as good as if then opened 
alive from the shell. 

30th. At eight last night came on a strong 
breeze from S. W. carrying us from 8 to 10 miles 
an hour, and increasing through this day, to 
a gale of unprecedented fury. Lat. 36, long. 68, 
by a correct lunar observation. At five this even- 
ing, the affectionate mother of one dear and only 
child was, by the violent rolling of the ship, im- 
pelled overboard, and sunk to rise no more, being 
buried instantly in a huge billow. She was a na- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 23 

tive of Owhyhee, and is deeply lamented by all on 
board, who had shared in her kindness, for she 
was milk and honey to all during a long passage 
from Asia. But what pen can depict the mad, 
shrieking sorrows of her now motherless child, 
who witnessed this sad catastrophe, and who be- 
came a poor orphan, dependent on the humanity 
of the captain or owner of the Hamilton! By 
force only was the frantic child prevented from 
plunging into its mother's grave. Its agonies made 
the following night memorable. The gale, too, 
continued with unabated fury, ready to blast all 
hope. At midnight, we found ourselves in the 
midst of the gulf stream, a current 60 miles broad, 
and running eastward, in a calm, three miles an 
hour. Here, until and after the dawn of day, we 
experienced severe thunder and lightning, forming 
altogether a horrible tempest ; a perfectly novel 
scene, such as I had never witnessed. Up all 
night. 

3lst. The morning dawns, with a most dismal 
frowning aspect; the air being full of blue fire 
and crashing thunder, and the sea rising and fall- 
ing over, on, and around us, like swelling moun- 
tains of liquid fire. The captain apparently be- 
wildered, not knowing how to act, and seemingly 
overwhelmed with doubt and indecision. 

At nine, a. m. we tried for soundings, but found 
none, the gulf being unfathomable. At ten, fell a 
smothering rain, succeeded by a short calm, when 



24 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

the wind veered to N. W. and the air became 
suddenly cold and clear, though in the gulf it was 
singularly, warm and foggy ; the salt water was 
there as warm as milk from the cow, and very 
steamy, and sparkling like burning sulphur or 
volcanic lava, having luminous particles large as 
a hazel nut; but these, when touched by the finger, 
disappeared. Lat. 39, long. 70 50'. Saw several 
pieces of wreck. This is the last day of March, 
and was expected to be the last of our lives. 

April 1st. Wind N. W. dead a-head, brisk, 
and colder than I ever felt it on a winter's day in 
England. I resume my winter dress, but can- 
not be warm. Tried for soundings, but our line 
of 140 fathoms found no bottom. At present we 
know not where we are. The captain, during 
yesterday's gale sulked, and would eat nothing, 
nor suffer any thing eatable to be cooked ; I was 
therefore pining 24 hours on tea, coffee, wine, 
China sweetmeats, and dry, hard biscuit. These 
brave circumnavigators state, that during the last 
four years' voyage, they met not a worse gale than 
the equinoctial tempest of yesterday ; and the 
captain says, that at six, a.m. he saw the most 
dangerous sea he had ever witnessed. It was 
mounting 15 feet above the ship, and ready to 
burst over her stern ; a mighty mass of water, 
more than sufficient to have swept the deck of 
every man and beast and mast upon it, if not to 
sink the ship itself. My fears were not great; 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 25 

but I felt rather loth to die without telling ray own 
tale, or enabling others to tell it for me. " The 
chamber where the good man meets his fate," 
seemed indeed a matter of envy, and " privileged 
beyond the common lot." I desired and prayed 
it might be mine, instead of sinking in these dark, 
desolate, unfathomed waters. 

At noon, we saw several indications of land ; a 
land-sparrow on our rigging, and several fat 
Yankee ducks and geese near us. At four, p. m. 
got soundings in 100 fatboms water, on a sandy 
bottom, by which we knew we were only 70 miles 
from land ; Gay-head lighthouse. Loaded a can- 
non, ready for calling a pilot, when we make the 
said lighthouse, which we hope to do by four to- 
morrow morning. At six, p. m. saw one sail to 
the north. At eight, ten, and twelve, p. m. 
sounded again in 40, 35, and 30 fathoms. Still 
extremely cold. 

2nd. Fine clear morning; in 10 fathoms white 
water, just on the edge of a dangerous wrecking 
shoal, but soon plunged into 20 fathoms. 

At ten, a.m. blessed with the heart-cheering 
sound of Land, O ! and saw the island of Nan- 
tucket from our topmast, distant 15 miles, and 
marked by three windmills and a few high white 
houses. My heart now rebounded with gratitude, 
at being made so signal a monument of providen- 
tial mercy. 

At eleven, a. m. saw distinctly a beautiful island, 



26 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

1 6 miles round, of red and yellow ocbre, called Mar- 
tha's Vineyard, now occupied principally by civi- 
lized Indians, pilots, and fishermen. We hoisted the 
patriot colours of South America, the best signal 
for a pilot, who soon boarded us, and conducted 
us to an anchorage in the bay, formed by the 
above island and by a cluster of other smaller 
isles, smothered with small hardy sheep, which 
graze all winter upon them. Passed a huge group 
of wreckful rocks, (some in and some out of the 
water) called The Old Sow and Pigs. At six, 
p. m. a fishing-boat came along side, and brought 
us a fine fry in exchange for putrid South-Sea 
pork. The head fisherman seemed a mighty fine 
independent fellow, both in manner and conduct. 
Found our fine huge China turtle (a present for 
the ship-owner) quite frozen to death ; indeed [ 
was myself half frozen, being colder than ever I 
felt in England in my life. Absence, distance, 
and difficulty, seem to enhance the value of the 
unprized comforts which I leave behind me; my 
heart is thereby enlarged for those too little loved 
objects whom I have quitted, perhaps, to see no 
more. 

3rd. At six this morning weighed anchor in 
HolnCs Hole harbour, a beautiful little port of 
Martha's Vineyard. On leaving this pleasant vine- 
yard, we fired a salute of five guns, which nearly 
shook me out of bed. Saw a beautiful fleet, of 
10 sail, around us. The island of Nantucket 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 27 

alone sent oat last year 60 sail of whalers round 
Cape Horn. At noon, we made Cape Cod, a 
long neck of land running 100 miles into the sea, 
and having four light-houses on it, offering to the 
eye a singular scene; an immense bank or ridge 
of dirty white sand, quite naked, and bare, with- 
out grass, shrubs, or trees ; it is the most perilous 
part of the coast. By midnight we made Boston 
light, and fired two cannon for a pilot, who soon 
came to us, and took the helm. 

Sunday, 4th. At daybreak passed Fort Inde- 
pendence, Fort Strong, and Fort William, which 
are all founded by nature, and built upon two 
little islands, a fine cluster of which surround and 
ornament the mouth of this noble harbour of Bos- 
ton, now lying, with all its towers, spires, and 
masts, in full view before me; the hills around are 
all capped with snow. At eight, a. in. we saluted 
this town, the grand emporium of Yankee land, 
with 16 guns. At nine, a. m. our ship was 

boarded by its fortunate owner, Lyman, jun. 

Esq. one of the richest men (says the captain) in 
America. I was introduced to him by a polite 
and friendly shaking of hands, in the presence of 
the captain, who said 1 was an English gentleman 
taken out of a ship in distress, belonging to his 
neighbour, the Honourable W. Gray. He then 
invited me to his town mansion, and saying that 
he would see me again next morning, in the kindest 
and most gentlemanly manner took his leave. I 



28 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

now shaved and arrayed myself in the costume of 
London ; and at ten o'clock, in company with the 
captain, went on shore. With great gratitude, I 
felt my foot press the earth once more, the free 
earth of America ! On landing, curiosity brought 
many gay, cheerful, free, easy, good-looking faces 
to behold, and gaze, and guess, what I, the fo- 
reigner, was, whence coming, whither going, and 
why? Of the women whom I saw at first, I 
thought but meanly, all being old or ugly; but 
the men fair, and in their Sunday dress; the town, 
too, though full of melting snow, was highly inte- 
resting, especially when associated with the recol- 
lection of its having so bravely fought for liberty, 
and preferred it to English tea, sweetened with 
taxation, and the milk of maternal monarchy. I 
feel much nearer home than I am, and find good 
fare, good wine, and good company at my board- 
ing-house, the cost of which is one dollar per day. 
My fellow boarders are moderately social. I ac- 
companied one gentleman to church, an edifice 
inwardly and outwardly splendid, and the congre- 
gation fashionable; but I thought the service and 
sermon very dull and insipid, and the worship 
altogether inanimate. As Sunday here vanishes 
with the daylight, I went in the evening to the 
Town-hall, to Caucus, a grand political meeting 
of thousands of the Monocracy, met to deliberate 
upon the choice of a state governor, &c. The 
orators, on the present occasion, being principally 



1819.1 IN AMERICA. 29 

V 

well educated federalists, seemed, some of them, 
eloquent and ingenious abusers of the democrats, 
who angrily retorted on their opponents. Thus I 
found two strong parties, which I am at present 
unable to define, except as mutual haters of each 
other, like Whigs and Tories in England. 

5th. The people here seem thankful for no- 
thing, or rather, they do not shew it. Mr. Smith, 
my landlord, a pleasant Scotsman, advises his and 
my countrymen to keep at home, if they cannot 
bring from 500/ to J,OOOZ. The poor, he says, 
are not wanted here, nor any where in the state 
of Massachusetts, where many are unemployed, 
and nobody is satisfied. According to promise, I 
met Mr. Lyman again, at his large commercial 
office, who renewed his kind offer of any needful 
services while in Boston. He then accompanied 
me to the exchange, and there introduced me to the 
richest merchant, save one, in America, the Ho- 
nourable Wm. Gray, a gentleman of kind manners, 
but of an eccentric look ; with long withered fea- 
tures, pale complexion, white hair, and dressed 
in an old cloak, and a hat, seemingly 20 years 
old. Notwithstanding all this, he appeared on 
change to be an influential object of attraction. 
He kindly offered me a letter of introduction to his 
friends and bankers, at Charleston, S. Carolina. 

6th. Seemed pleased with every thing and 
every body, and every body with me. Visited the 
State house, where assembles the legislature, and 



30 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

governor at its head. From the top of the dome 
of this stately structure I surveyed the university 
of Cambridge and Bunker's Hill, about two miles 
distant. Boston, from this elevation, appears to be 
encircled by the sea, and by broad rivers, over 
which are bridges nearly a mile in length. The 
beauteous hills and contiguous valleys shine with 
villas, villages, and towns, which, together, make 
the perspective rich and inviting to an English 
stranger. Of churches there are here plenty ; but 
churches create not religion. The new part of the 
town glitters with elegant mansions, which strike 
the eye of the stranger with surprise. In these 
live rich or retired merchants. 

1th. My trunks and person, this day, exposed 
at the custom-house to a gentle scrutiny only, not 
a British searching. This establishment is supe- 
rior and well conducted. At noon very politely 
introduced by Mr. Jonson to the Reading 
Rooms, where I found nearly all foreign and do- 
mestic newspapers. The morning's first salutation 
from a gentleman to a young lady is, " Miss Lucy, 
you look smart," or " you come out bright this 
morning." Fine man, smart man, or woman, 
seems the highest praise amongst the commonalty. 
Took leave of my friendly guide, Mr. Burnham, 
who left me for the interior. He presented me, at 
parting, with a keepsake; an elegant burning- 
glass, for kindling segars ; and, in return, carried 
with, him my esteem and regards. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 31 

8th. By appointment 1 met on change and re- 
turned home with Mr. Lyinari to dinner, where all, 
within and without his establishment, is attractive. 
The lady of my host is an accomplished daughter 
of Otiss, Esq. the celebrated oratorical sena- 
tor in congress from this state. In politics Mr. 
Lyman is a very strong federalist, and his lady 
also. She thinks America and its government far 
inferior to ours, regrets the loss of the British 
yoke, and ranks our Courier and Post amongst 
her favourite papers. " And then," said she, 
" how pleasant are even the cottages of your 
poor!" Mr. Lyman and his lady seemed on all 
subjects unanimous, and especially in giving pre- 
ference to England, and every thing English. His 
brother is now in England, on a visit to Holkham, 
the seat of our illustrious commoner, Mr. Coke. 
Mr. Birkbeck and emigration now became the 
theme: " At that gentleman," said he, " I am asto- 
nished. He is intentionally or unintentionally de- 
luding your English farmers, who, if they come to 
America, must drive their own carts, waggons, 
and ploughs, into the field and to market, and 
work here as hard as labourers work there, or not 
live. And even in this state, you see, as to-day, 
our farmers hauling their own produce, such as 
hay and corn, to market, where they have to stand 
all day, or hawk it about from house to house. 
What would your smart English farmers think of 
this, and how would they like it ? If however, Mr. 



32 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

Birkbeck arid others must emigrate, why should 
they go into our wilderness, far from society, or 
at best mixing up with the refuse of our popula- 
tion, with men of stained names, thieves, and in- 
solvents, who go thither to hide themselves ; vo- 
luntary exiles, of whom society is well rid, because 
unable to endure them. The Caucus which you 
attended on Sunday night, embodies the respect- 
able part of the citizens, federalists, and democrats, 
who differ but little in real principle: the former are 
always most favourable to England, and think a 
war with her always unnecessary, and an evil to be 
avoided, the latter prefer France and the French." 
My host seems to regret that his freehold and other 
large estates give to him no more power than that 
of the humblest citizen, and says that rny coun- 
tryman, Joseph Lancaster, will be forbidden to in- 
struct the black people of the South, it being in- 
dispensably necessary that they should remain in 
ignorance. 

9tk. Agreeably to promise, I this morning vi- 
sited the Honourable Wm. Gray, a moderate demo- 
crat, a hoary honest patriotic chronicler of Ame- 
rica long before the revolution. He is, in other re- 
spects, a kind-hearted, intelligent, grandee of this 
republic, highly influential both in commerce and 
politics, filling and having filled the most respon- 
sible stations in the state of Massachusetts. He 
seems the exact reverse of Mr. Lyman, in state 
matters and opinions: he feels sure that British 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 33 

farmers and labourers, of steady habits, must, and 
do benefit by emigration, to so good and flourish- 
ing a country as America, and says, that English- 
men are esteemed far above all other Europeans. 
1 said I thought that feeling was mutual between 
the people of both countries, but that little good- 
will existed in our government towards revolted 
America : he thought so too. " I wish you to call 
on the British consul, an amiable man, to whom I 
will introduce you ; he lives near my country seat; 
and, sir, any advice or money of mine, is much 
at your service. I regret 1 cannot pay you better 
attentions, for 1 am greatly pleased to see English 
gentlemen come amongst us, to witness, as to- 
day, the fairness, freeness, and openness of our 
elections, which you see are conducted in an 
orderly, respectable manner. Here is no c/m- 
fusion ; a voter has only to choose his ticket, and 
give it as and to whom he pleases, and that secretly, 
and unknown, if he thinks proper." While I 
was thus snugly closetted with my honourable 
friend, a gentleman abruptly entered and joined 
our conversation. He was at the head of a manu- 
factory of broad cloths, equal, he thought, to any 
imported. An establishment of this kind, till 
lately, was almost a novelty; he wished me to 
view it. J now said, for the present, farewell ; and 
was introduced by a professional gentleman, to 
the floor of the supreme court, then in judgment as- 
sembled, in a large and goodly building. I heard 

D 



34 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

but little eloquence, and saw nothing interesting 
about their proceedings ; all seemed plain, simple, 
and undignified, like a vestry meeting in England. 
The lawyers or counsellors were easy and collo- 
quial, and the judges by no means awful, nor in 
anywise distinguished, but by a higher bench and 
a silk gown. The former gentlemen are both wig- 
less and gownless. A wig is thought superfluous, 
when nature has given hair to the head, whether 
of a judge or a barrister. 

\Qth. By Mr. Gray I was this cjay introduced 
to the most respectable bookseller in Boston, in 
order that he, Mr. Armstrong, and others, might 
view my friend Heath's sample of English quarto 
Bibles, of unequalled elegance. I sent them ; but 
a note, politely written, soon accompanied their 
return ; stating that on account of the extreme 
scarcity of money, the gentlemen declined pur- 
chasing, but wished to do me service. 

Intending to quit Boston on Monday, Mr. Ly- 
man called on me, and took a formal leave, but 
wished me to revisit him, now or at a future time ; 
saying that his brother, a large proprietor and 
farmer in the district of Maine, wished to see and 
communicate with me on agricultural matters. 
I also called on, and bid a final farewell to my 
friend, Mr. Gray, who very kindly put into my 
hand an introductory letter to his bankers and 
agents at Charleston, with a liberal purse of dol- 
lars, which he thought 1 should need before I 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 35 

could arrive at my destination. This purse was 
unsolicited, and received without absolute neces- 
sity on my part, and without giving him any. se- 
curity for it. I took it principally for the sake 
of the singular confidence and liberality shewn 
in the circumstance, and for the same reason I 
here record it. "Take, sir/' said he, "more 
money." " O this is more than enough," replied 
[ ? " What ! enough ? Take more, and repay it 
at your own time and convenience. I shall be hap- 
py to hear of your happiness and safe arrival ; my 
son and his lady sailed last week in one of my 
best ships. I wish you had come in time for it : 
you should have sailed with him to the south, 
whither he is gone on a tour of health." 

Sunday, \.1th. To chapel, once. Thought less 
meanly of American worship than on Sunday last, 
the sermon being rather eloquent, and containing 
something more likereligion. Sunday commences 
here on the Saturday eve; or, at any rate, ends at 
sunset on the following eve. Taught three of my 
fellow boarders, (revenue captains,) good manners. 
They were all standing spread out before the fire, 
to the complete exclusion of all around. 1 reached 
two or three chairs for them. They all took the 
hint, and were immediately seated at a fit distance 
from the fire, while all the rest 'of the company 
seemed greatly amus*ed by the silent lecture which 
John Bull had so smartly given them. 

Left the good Yankee town of Boston, 

D2 



36 MEMORABLE DAYS [April 

this morning, full of blessings on it and America, 
but scarcely hoping to find another Boston, where 
I wished a longer stay, because people of all ranks 
and colours are so generally disposed to please 
and be pleased. Left behind me a letter of thanks 
to Captain Martyn of Cape Ann, who so gene- 
rously snatched me out of the vile and starving 
Ruthy, and kept and conveyed me well and safely 
so many miles, without charging or wishing to 
charge a single cent. At nine, a. m. got under 
weigh on board the packet schooner, Swiftsure, 
for Charleston, S. C. about 1,000 miles passage. 
Met seven comical fellow passengers, besides a 
country-woman of mine, Miss Jane Compere, an 
ancient maid, who states that all emigrants with 
whom she is acquainted, are disappointed ; but 
that they settle in an unfit neighbourhood. She 
is going to her reverend brother, a missionary, 
living at Bethel town. I learn from her that the 
Rev. Mr. Keeling, late ofWoburn, Bucks, Old 
England, and known to J. Ingle, the patriarch of 
Somersham, is now with his wife and children set- 
tled in a church near Boston, and likely to suc- 
ceed. Many of the followers of Mr. Keeling, who 
accompanied him thither, felt and feel greatly 
disappointed. 

The captain discovers a few stray vermin in the 
cabin, and I, two whales in sport, spouting water 
at each other. 

l%th. Awoke this morning and found myself 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 37 

out of sight of land, and 150 miles from Boston, 
lat. 40 59'. At nine, a. m. caught a fine fat ha- 
libut, a most valuable fish, weighing 180 pounds; 
the flesh of which partakes of fish, flesh, and fowl, 
and is fit for broiling, frying, boiling, or stewing. 

14th. The price of passage, in this vessel, to 
Charleston, is 15 dollars ; to Havre, in France, 
100 dollars. Picton, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, 
is a good place for cheapness of passage to Eng- 
land ; 12. and found in cabin. At three, a. m- 
spoke a schooner, the Eloisa, 17 days from New 
Orleans, to Boston bound, requesting our latitude 
and longitude, and what distance from the south 
shoal of Nantncket. It is no unusual thing for 
some of the people of this country, on going to 
Charleston, to take their free negroes w ith them 
and sell them for slaves, by way of turning a 
penny, or as they say, of making a good spec, of it. 
Two white gentlemen, I was told, determined on 
a plan to benefit themselves, and cheat the planter, 
or slave buyer ; one blackened his face and body 
and became a negro ; the other was his owner and 
salesman, and sold his friend to the planter for 
800 dollars, but in less than three days he re- 
turned, a white free-man again, to divide the spoil, 
nor was the imposition ever discovered to prose- 
cution. Our captain had green peas, on the 1st 
March, in abundance at Charleston. From two 
passengers, (shoemakers), I learn that first-rate 
hands will turn out from five to six pairs of 



38 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

ladies' shoes, per day, and earn from 10 to 12 dol- 
lars per week. One of these gentlemen, a staunch 
republican, Mr. Atman, of Lynn, near Boston, 
and an intelligent man, says, in reference to the 
federalists, that for every Julius Cresar, there is a 
Brutus. 

16th. Spoke a brig, the James Monroe, from 
New Orleans. Recommended my ship-mate, Mr. 
Atman, to read Mr. Fearon's Sketches, which he 
promised to do, but learning they were unfavour- 
able to America, he said he thought he should not 
read them. My Yankee friends love nothing but 
unmixed flattery. My fellow passengers, one a co- 
lonel, and the rest of the most respectable order of 
the middle class, all seem of uncleanly manners 
and habits ; with unwashed hands, and grossly in- 
delicate in language. To the honour however of 
this section of the land, there seem few or no idle 
hands ; from the richest down to the poorest, 
meanest citizen, none are seen eating the bread of 
idleness ; even my rich friends, Mr. Lyman and 
Mr. Gray, are no exception to this remark. The 
former gentleman is found at his office after dinner, 
till sunset ; and the latter, by sunrise throughout 
the year. 

17 Ih. Lat. 36, long. 74, a beautiful morning, 
after much lightning and thunder, at six, a. m. 
when all sail was taken in, in expectation of a ter- 
rible squall. Saw an immense number of dog-fish 
round our stern. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 39 

Sunday, 18th. A very warm dense fog to-day, 
at noon, and therefore unable to get an observa- 
tion ; but judge ourselves to be off Cape Hatteras, 
260 miles from Charleston ; and, on sounding, 
found 20 fathoms ; saw four sail ; the wind very 
variable. 

Wth. Rose at eight this morning, becalmed in 
the gulf stream, and therefore drifting back with 
the current, three miles an hour. The air and 
water warm and steamy, and the sky summerish 
and gleamy, and ornamented with huge pillar-like 
thunder-clouds, from which we saw one small and 
one very large water-spout, about one mile distant, 
and dipping into the sea. It was formed like a 
tunnel, bottom or tube upwards. Nine of these 
phenomena are sometimes seen at once in this 
tempestuous latitude, 34 40', long. 76, from 
Greenwich. A fine breeze immediately followed 
the bursting of these two spouts. 

At midnight came on a terrific tempest, filling 
the horizon above, and the sea beneath, with blue 
forked lightning, and stunning the ear with loud- 
sounding, crackling, rattling, crashing thunder, 
presenting a scene more sublimely horrific than 
1 had ever seen ; the lightning might almost be 
handled, being what our captain calls " double- 
twisted ropy" The gulf seemed, literally, a lake 
of boiling fire and brimstone. 

20M. Warm, calm, bright day, and 13 sail in 
sight. Yankee sailors, says our captain, are now 



40 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

so badly paid (14 dollars per month), that they 
leave the sea, for ploughing land, and therefore 
half the crews of our vessels are composed of Bri- 
tish seamen. I find that watches, costing from 
three and a half dollars to 20 dollars each, are 
selling at Massachusetts from six to 30 dollars 

each; made in Geneva, but marked London. 

. te , > 

2\st. At two this morning we were providen- 
tially prevented from running our ship ashore, on 
those dangerous shoals off Cape Look-out, by a 
singular dream of the captain's, who awoke much 
alarmed with the dream, in which he saw both 
sides of the ship falling out, a complete wreck. 
He rushed on deck, took soundings in 15 fathoms, 
and again in only nine fathoms, just on the edge 
of these fearful shoals, where, in less than twenty 
minutes, we must, perhaps, have gone to pieces, 
and sunk like lead in the mighty waters. But in 
all this deliverance, there were none who seemed 
to see and acknowledge the hand of Omnipotence. 

Now, 120 miles from the city; spoke a schooner, 
26 days from North Carolina, and in distress for 
provisions, yet only bound to Savannah, about 
400 miles from her starting. 

22wd. After safely passing Cape Fear, again 
greeted with the blessed sound of Land, O; and 
saw the beautiful isles round Charleston where 
I arrived at six, on the evening of this day; so 
finishing a passage of 112 days, the longest, per- 
haps, ever known between London arid this city. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 41 

Presented my kind introductory letter from Mr.W. 
Gray to Messrs. Prescot and Bishop, two eastern 
gentlemen, who politely introduced me to Mr. Bird, 
landlord of the Planters' hotel, where I became 
immediately acquainted with the high-minded Ge- 
neral Young Blood, then boarding at this house, 
and on a visit to the city, to meet his excellency 
the governor, arid also the president of the United 
States, who, on the morrow, was expected to make 
his entry here. The general and I became very 
friendly, and held a long and interesting conversa- 
tion, and that without a formal introduction, which 
is generally held to be indispensable amongst al- 
most all ranks in this country. In our politics, 
foreign and domestic, we seemed one. At nine 
this evening, I plunged into a warm bath to wash 
off all marine impurities, paying for it half a 
dollar. I was then introduced by Mr. Bishop, to 
the grand hall, where his excellency is to dine in 
public next week, with all the grandees of this 
aristocratical state. During my walk to and fro, 
and on my landing, I felt immediately impressed 
with the respectable, happy, and healthy appear- 
ance of the slaves, with which the city seems to 
swarm, and of whom I have now six or seven 
males, and as many females, in constant attend- 
ance, and one or two at all meals, surrounding 
the long table, waving over it plumes of peacock's 
feathers, to fan away hungry flies from eatables 
and eaters. It is commonly asserted, and main- 



42 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

tained, that slaves are happier here and better off 
than free blacks. There seems, indeed, in this 
city, no want of happiness amongst them. 

23rd. Accompanied by my courteous and 
obliging friend, Mr. Bishop, to my bankers, Mess. 
Lovent and Wulf, Germans, of high commercial 
repute, and to Mitchell King, Esq., now Judge 
King, a Scotch gentleman of high reputation, to 
whom, with several others too numerous to name, 
T brought letters of introduction. At three o'clock 
I returned to my hotel to dinner, where I again met, 

in the chair, General Young Blood, Watts, 

Esq., the Secretary of State, the French consul, and 
many other grandees of this state, civil and military. 
Besides turtle-soup and turtle-steaks, the number 
of our viands was to me countless, and at present 
indescribable ; and to every plate stood two half- 
pint decanters of rum, brandy, or Hollands, to 
drink at dinner, instead of ale. After dinner 
came claret, champaigne, and cider, all of the best 
kind, for those gentlemen who gave an order for 
it, and to those who did not, the bottle seemed to 
pass with the name of its proprietor, when both 
socially drank to each other. In the evening, 

after supper or tea, 1 was taken by Prescott, 

Esq., to the grand new steam-ship, the Savannah, 
a beautiful and superb vessel, then about sailing, 
for the first time, to Liverpool and St. Petersburgh. 
24th. Bought a piece of fine India bandanas, 
seven in number, for 34*. Fixed on William, a 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 43 

fine young yellow slave, as my body guard, to at- 
tend my person within or without, and to dress 
or undress if necessary. He so offered himself, 
agreeable to the custom of this establishment, and 
is considered always at command and faithful to 
his trust. The population of this warm city 
seems above half black and yellow. Called on 
the venerable Nathaniel Russell, Esq., residing 
in a splendid mansion, surrounded by a wilder- 
ness of flowers, and bowers of myrtles, oranges, 
and lemons, smothered with fruit and flowers. 
This gentleman is near 90 years old, very cour- 
teous and friendly, and willing to give any assist- 
ance in promoting the object of my mission, being 
the original trustee to the estate of my late ma- 
trimonial uncles, Rowland and Henry Rugely, 
Esqrs. These gentlemen were merchants here and 
in London, previous to the American revolution, 
in which they bravely fought as colonels under 
Lord Cornwallis. The former, Rowland, a poet 
of some celebrity, died a natural death in this 
city, and the latter (Henry) at Potton Beds. Old 
England lost in them two generous fellows, of 
whom I shall hereafter say more. 

Sunday, %5th. Conducted by Mr. Bird to the 
seat of Patrick Duncan, Esq., a Scotsman, who 
emigrated 36 years since, and is now the head of 
a bank in this city. He is a rich, knowing old gen- 
tleman, living in a garden of the choicest flowers 
and fruits, breaking down the trees with their 



44 MEMORABLE DAYS [April, 

weight. Although, nine days ago, I was freezing 
amidst an icy, snowy winter, yet here is summer 
in all her gay luxuriance, and down every street 
is the Pride of India (a tree so called) in full 
flowery perfection, forming an ornamental colon- 
nade on every side. Met and parted with Dr. 
Osgood, a physician of Boston. He kindly left 
me introductory letters to two of his friends here, 
a physician and a counsellor, each in his profes- 
sion, the most eminent man in the city. 

%6tk. Met my countryman, G. Beale Brown, 
Esq. of the respectable firm of Bainbridge and 
Brown, London, and gave him my introductory 
letter from England. Thought him a clever, smart, 
and efficient young gentleman, willing to further 
the interests of my mission. Walked several miles 
on a dusty, sandy road, under a scorching sun, in 
expectation of seeing and meeting his excellency, 
the President of the United States, who, this morn- 
ing, made his public entry into this city. But he 
passed by me in the tumultuous crowd, quite un- 
observed. So many civil and military characters, 
more imposing in figure, quite eclipsed the supreme 
magistrate. We therefore returned as we went. 
By Mr. Bishop, introduced to two noble young 
fellows, Mr. Richmond of Philadelphia, and Mr. 
Dodge of Providence, who kindly pressed me to 
visit them in the north. 

27/*. Promenaded round the city with Mr. 
Brown, who introduced me to F. Fleming, Esq., 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 45 

and to the respectable firm of Messrs. Broadfoot 
and M'Neale. 

28^/i. After rising this morning, from my hot 
and feverish bed, I found, by the inflammatory 
eruptions on my hands, legs, and feet, that I had 
been stung by the mosquitoes, which, in New 
Orleans, are said to kill more men than the pesti- 
lence; as a remedy, I bathed the parts stung and 
swollen in brandy, and, at noon, took a warm 
bath. A leno net, fine as a lady's veil, surrounded 
my bed in future, and protected me from these 
midnight blood-thirsty assassins, which seldom 
annoyed me more. 

May 1st. A waggoner, on the day of the presi- 
dent's entry to this city, was commanded, by the 
military, to move out of the road, and give place 
to the coming show. " Pray," said he, " by what 
authority do you stop me? It is more than the 
president dare do. Shew me your authority. If 
you had civilly asked me, I would have driven 
into the ditch to obleege you." During the few 
days spent here, several robberies, burglaries, and 
attempts at murder, have disgraced and alarmed 
this city. In the street where I sleep, for two 
nights successively, our slumbers have been dis- 
turbed by the cries of murder! At the theatre, a 
gentleman has been stabbed by a Spaniard. This 
morning presented a poor fellow lying all night 
until nine, a. m. in the street, in a hot, broiling sun, 
110 by the thermometer. He was found nearly 



46 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

murdered, having his legs both broken, and other- 
wise terribly bruised about his head and breast, 
and robbed of all he had, 15 dollars. To the dis- 
grace of the nightly watch and city centinels, and 
to the open day humanity of the citizens, here was 
he suffered to lie, saturated with pestilential dew, 
and, in the day, left to roast and be devoured by 
flies, until an old Prussian colonel offered a dol- 
lar to have him removed as a nuisance, too dis- 
gusting to delicate nerves and sensibilities. Mr. 
Brown, a landlord in Church Street, then called 
out to two black men, " Here, June and July, 
come and assist, and tell August to help you." 
These three men w r ere so named ; and but for them 
and the colonel, the poor forsaken sufferer must 
have taken three months, literally, to effect his 
removal. 

Sunday, 2nd. Went in grand procession to the 
elegant Scotch church, where I met, and was 
seated near his excellency the President, James 
Monroe, Esq , an amiable, mild-looking gentle- 
man, of about 60, dressed in a common hat, plain 
blue coat with gilt buttons, yellow kerseymere 
waistcoat, drab breeches and white silk stockings, 
and a little powder in his hair, just a sober grey. 
His eyes beam with an expansive kindness, gen- 
tleness, and liberality, not often seen in persons 
of his elevated station, and his physiognomy, 
viewed as a whole, announces a noble, well-judg- 
ing, and generous mind. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 47 

3rd. Paid my hotel bill, 28 dollars and a half 
for 11 days. The business of the bar-keeper, an 
influential character, seems to be, to make a bill. 
One bottle of madeira, in the bill, more than 1 or- 
dered or drank. It is charged 2 dollars or 9s. 
sterling a bottle, and cider half a dollar, the finest 
in the world, and first cousin to champaigne ; it 
is made in the north. Strong cider is procured 
thus : set out a large cask, during winter, until the 
whole body seems frozen; then bore into its centre, 
from which runs an unfreezeable quantity, highly 
spirituous. It is then bottled and closely corked, 
and in summer comes forth, the pure sparkling 
soul of the barrel. Parted with Mr. Richmond 
for the north, a sober, sensible, honourable man. 

5th. Wrote to J. Ingle in Illinois, and to my 
cousin, Major Rugely, of Camden, S. Carolina, ap- 
prizing them of my intended visit. General Young 
Blood, the lieutenant governor of this state, took 
his leave of us this morning for his country seat. 
Introduced this day by my friend, Colonel M'Kin- 

non, to a young gentleman, Edwards, Esq. of 

Savannah, and others, who, with the young colonel, 
had all there met as gay proud birds of a feather ; 
men, I mean, who, in duels, had killed their man 
each ! ! 

6th. Colonel M'Kinnon was this day refused 
claret at dinner. The landlord was called to ac- 
count for so refusing, and instructing the bar- 
keeper. He appeared, and said, " You, colonel, 



48 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

have referred me to your father for payment of 
your bill of 250 dollars, contracted here during 
the last three weeks, but he says he cannot and 
will not pay any more for you. And that I know 
from your father's friend, Captain Bell of the ship 
Homer, now in port." After this, the colonel 
looked thoughtful, and requested I would accom- 
pany him to the captain. I did so. After the 
captain had politely spread out his brandy, the 
colonel, with pistols in his hand, said, " If you 
will not meet me I will shoot you instantly." The 
captain, with an angry laugh, replied, " O fear 
not! I am ready with either sword or pistol, and 
to-morrow morning, at ten, expect me at the hotel." 
He fulfilled his promise, but the colonel had cooled 
and fled. After our return from the ship, the co- 
lonel wanted to shoot the landlord, and then at- 
tempted to shoot himself, but had no prime. He 
then begged round for prime, but could get none. 
I endeavoured to reason with him, but with as 
much effect as with a woman possessed with seven 
devils. " I have a right, sir," said he, " to do as 
Brutus did. ' What Cato did, and Addison ap- 
proved, cannot be wrong.' I am a blasted lily 
and a blighted heath." This young gentleman, 
naturally witty and highly gifted, has married and 
abandoned three wives, and yet is only 22 years 
of age. 

7th. Visited the supreme court, over which 
preside six judges on the bench, but, from my 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 49 

not understanding the nature of the cases under 
consideration, the speeches of the several young 
advocates seemed jargon, and little short of non- 
sense. In court I met Patrick Duncan, Esq., 
who knew a young gentleman, who once bought 
a negro wench, the only slave he ever purchased ; 
but, at his death, his heirs divided 70 slaves 
amongst them, all her offspring and posterity, 
during a period of only 35 years. Increase and 
multiply is here the grand first order of the day. 
Two men were this day sentenced to die; one 
for the murder of a white man, and the other 
for stealing a negro. A man may, here, murder 
a negro almost with impunity, or by paying a 
paltry fine to the state ; but, if he steals one, he 
must be hanged for it, and almost without benefit 
of clergy. 

I find, that James Gregory, Esq., a gentleman 
to whom I brought an introductory letter, stands 
at present much in the way of my mission. Vi- 
sited Judge King, my constant friend and adviser. 
He came hither from lean-landed Scotland, bring- 
ing nothing with him but his capacities. He 
began as a schoolmaster, but, during his leisure 
hours, gained a knowledge of law, in which, though 
not great as an orator, he has become eminent as 
an advocate and judge, because he is wise, honest, 
and good. He came hither in his own proper napme 
of Michael Kinggo, which, at the request of his 
American friends, he changed into Mitchel King, 

E 



50 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

his right name being obnoxious to national preju- 
dices. . Y 

Sunday, 9tk. Accompanied Mrs. Atkins, a 
countrywoman of mine, once of St. ives, a lady 
of good fortune, and amiable mind and manners, 
to the new Episcopal church, to which a female 
friend of hers has subscribed 4,000 dollars. Met 
a small genteel auditory, in a splendid edifice ; 
but the parson seemed dull. He prayed not for 
George IV., but for the President ; nor for lords 
temporal and spiritual in parliament assembled, 
but for the congress, &c. I walked nearly all 
day through a dissolving heat, and thought myself 
the better for it. So necessary is exercise to the 
continuance of health. 

Wth. Leaving Planter's hotel for a season, I 
took my place in the Columbia mail, 15 dollars 
for 70 miles, and slept at the mail-house. Met 
several travellers who knew my friends in the in- 
terior, and found them talkative and agreeable on 
subjects interesting (p me, after I had told them 
who I was, what I was, whither going, and for 
what purpose, 

V2th. At four this morning we left the city by 
the mail, four in hand, and drove on to a team-boat, 
worked by eight horses, by which we were ferried 
over the Ashley river, large ancj broad as the 
Thames. We soon entered what seemed to be an 
interminable forest, and rode 28 miles to breakfast, 
m company with his Excellency J. Geddiss, Esq., 



1810.] IN AMERICA. 51 

Governor of South Carolina, an Irish gentleman of 
much style, but apparently of easy, kind, sociable 
and polite manners. We met accidentally; and 
he presided at table, frequently helping and in- 
viting me to beefsteak, chicken, cakes, coffee and 
tea, for which we paid three quarters of a dollar 
We passed a large deep black-looking pond, on 
the banks of which are sometimes seen as many 
as ten huge alligators, ten feet along. A puppy 
carried thither and made to cry, calls them in- 
stantly up from the bottom of the pond, when 
they seize and eat it, as they would the carriers, 
if they remained. 1 saw no plantation on which 
I should like to live ; but the best are not viewed 
from the road. Many, however, I observed 
cleared, cultivated, worn out, and abandoned, 
with their houses burnt down, or otherwise in 
ruins. Passed, during the day, General Young 
Blood and other gentlemen-travellers, who all 
invariably bowed politely to me and to my fellow- 
travellers. On inquiring the cause of this bowing 
to strangers, I was given to understand that this 
state boasts of a supereminent degree of civiliza- 
tion. We slept and supped at a farm-house, on 
roast leg of pork hot, price for all, one dollar; 
but we longed for some of the many squirrels and 
other game which we passed all day. 

I3tk. This day's journey of 80 miles lies 
through a valley of sand, nearly on a level with 
the sea, and without any hills, stones, or peb&les 

E 2 



52 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

on its surface. Roused at two this morning from 
my refreshing bed in the bosom of this vast wilder- 
ness, which, during the night, seems awfully dark 
and still. Intermitting sounds are, however, 
heard, something like the noise of a distant water- 
fall, and produced (a poet would say) by the 
trees becoming vocal and talking all together. 

Language is inadequate to describe a journey 
through this interesting, romantic, fantastic forest. 
At one time the eye beholds large fleets or groves 
of naked masts, trees which have been girdled, 
and by time stripped of all their bark : at another, 
roads apparently conducting to the houses of great 
men ; spots, too beautiful for description, into 
which the traveller enters by infinite serpentine 
windings. To find what? Miserable negro huts, 
and negroes, (if by night) with blazing torches in 
their hands. The roads and paths are so con- 
stantly and suddenly winding, and withal so 
beautiful, that common mortals might fear to 
proceed further, expecting to meet some mighty 
prince or celestial spirit in these sacred haunts; 
or perhaps some gigantic monster, rushing out of 
these dark shades to annihilate all. Imagination 
is here highly and almost fearfully excited. It 
is, therefore, difficult to rid one's self of the idea 
that one is certainly moving into some castle or 
palace, by favourite concealed paths, ornamented 
with magnolias. An archbishop seems conse- 
crating the spot ; but, as I approach nearer, I fincj 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 53 

the most reverend father is only the black stump 
of a burnt tree, variegated with ashes. Immense 
snakes, alligators, and hydras, appear in burnt 
serpentine arms of trees, waiting to fall on and 
destroy the poor traveller. But it is impossible 
to convey a just idea of the beauties and decep- 
tions of these singular regions. 

A little before sunset, this day, we crossed the 
fine river Wateree, a little below its falls and 
rocks. On the banks of this river, stands Co- 
lumbia, the capital of South Carolina, and the 
seat of a flourishing university. Here, too, my 
friend, Governor Geddiss, sits enthroned as king 
over his parliament or state government annually 
assembled. I sup and sleep at the house and 
sumptuous table of Mr. Randolph, where for the 
present I say good night. 

14th. At breakfast, I found five or six sorts of 
bread, hot and cold, with boiled rice and hominy, 
Indian corn husked and boiled. Visited the 
university and its president's house; Dr. Max- 
well is the head. There are here 125 students who 
are very disorderly, frequently disturbing congre- 
gations on the Sunday, because the Doctor is too 
idle to preach, and thereby keep them together. 
Saw several of these learned young gentlemen 
stretched on a table, with their learned legs care- 
lessly hanging out of their chamber windows, 
which seemed nearly all broken. Want of dis- 
cipline is here too palpable, but there is no lark 



54 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

of whiskey. In company with the ladies of Mr. 
Randolph's family, I attended a lecture given at 
the house of the minister, an able man, who very 
impressively said, " The Christian must swear on 
the altar of his God never to forgive sin ; never to 
be its friend ; as did Hannibal against the Romans." 

15th. I left sweet Columbia this morning, well 
pleased with the compliment paid to me and my 
distant country, by Captain Strode, now here on 
a visit from Fayette-Ville, who entrusted to me, 
though a perfect stranger to him and all here, an 
unsealed letter full of cash for his lady, to whom 
1 was requested to forward it by the first safe 
conveyance. " Before my marriage," said the 
captain, " 1 had a splendid carriage and a pair of 
the finest horses in the world, given me by a 
friend, but now gifts are few and unwanted." 
He seems to love his old mother-country, and 
says, " I think king, lords, and commons to be 
the best system of government for Old England, 
if the commons were but good and faithful." 

Arrived at fair Cain den at six o'clock, p. ni. 
First and again crossed the Wateree river, in the 
stage, on a flat. Called on I. K. Douglas, Esq., 
who was not at home. Took a hasty view of this 
good and growiug town, sacred to revolutionary 
blood and battles, and where my uncle Henry, 
the loyal British colonel, lived, loved, fought, ran 
away, and lived to fight another day. 

Sunday, \Qth. Called a second time at the 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 55 

mansion of Mr. Douglas ; not at home. T thought 
myself slighted, but found, on meeting him at the 
Presbyterian church, that I was mistaken. He 
had called at my hotel, and waited at the church- 
door for me, where he kindly engaged to driye, or 
find guard, horses, and carriage, to conduct me, 
to his and my late uncle's friend, General Cantey. 
From two gentlemen present, I learned many 
anecdotes of my uncle, Colonel Rugeley. He 
was a favourite royalist, but often hesitated ; 
yet, by the advice and reasoning of his friend, 
Colonel Chesnut, (lately dead) it was mutually 
agreed, that Colonel Rugeley, being a man of in- 
fluence, and then the richest of the British, should 
remain true to his party, and that Colonel Chesnut 
should adhere to the side of the rebels, in order 
that each might be useful to the country, and 
serve the sufferers on both sides, which they did 
in an eminent degree, during that long day of trial 
and unnatural strife. Attended three times this 
day, at Presbyterian and Methodist churches, 
where I met small congregations, little talent, 
and, as I thought, less devotion. 

Very politely waited on and invited to ride, 
this evening, with five young, dashing, generous 
Carolinians, who all came on horseback, with a 
horse in their hand for me, in order to shew me 
fields of revolutionary battles, and the solitary 
house which Lord CornwalHs made his head- 
quarters. Muring the battle of Camden. 



56 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

I saw, with some surprise, churches and the 
tombs of citizens, all exposed on the common, 
uninclosed, and without a grave-yard ; as though 
man had died accidentally and was buried in like 
manner. Some graves were distinguished by 
shrubs, laurels, and flowers, planted on them, and 
had rails around them, to prevent swine and cattle 
from offering indignities to the dead, who here seem 
to slumber in unregretted forgetfulness. But it is 
patriarchal " to bury my dead out of my sight." 

Negro's food. All that some planters deem 
necessary is one peck of corn-meal and a little 
salt for an adult, and six quarts for a child, with- 
out either milk or bacon. Such is the allowance 
for a whole week ! What gluttony ! What extra- 
vagance in a land of scarcity ! Famine surely is 
at hand. 

nth. With a handsome introductory epistle 
from Mr. Douglas, I met General Cantey, Captain 
Cantey, and ladies, at one of his mansions, seven 
miles off in the wilderness, on a beautiful planta- 
tion of several thousand acres of cotton and corn, 
and full of well-treated negroes. I went thither 
on horseback, attended by a horseman (a slave of 
Mr. Douglas) riding behind me, and remaining 
with me all night until 1 returned. Graciously 
and heartily received and entertained by the hos- 
pitable general, who was a prisoner to the British 
during the revolution, and was very rudely treated. 
He is one of the finest old fellows I have met with 



1819J IN AMERICA. 57 

in the South. " I once," said he, " told Colonel 
Rugeley that I thought we rebels should succeed." 
" What! they succeed?" rejoined the colonel, 
" Aye ! you may as well expect the sky will fall, 
to catch larks." What a miserable prophecy, my 
uncle ! How soon didst thou find thyself mistaken, 
and fly, a refugee, to the West Indies, to return 
no more, until all was peace and pure republi- 
canism. 

18tk. A splendid breakfast this morning, with 
the general, of tea and coffee, flowing from the 
most elegant urns of silver, and other vessels of 
corresponding beauty and costliness. Returned 
to Camden after viewing the plantation, on which 
I saw a small village of negro-huts well peopled, 
and, in the garden, a long and beautiful dark 
bowery walk, formed by grape-vines, laden with 
fruit. Visited Messieurs M'Caws' store, where 
I saw British broad-cloths, second quality, costing 
seven, and selling at ten dollars, or 45s. per yard. 
" A mighty fine price !" At a late hour this even- 
ing, came an invitation from Mr. Douglas, for- 
bidding my departure on the ensuing morning, and 
insisting on my company to dinner at his house, 
with General Cantey and family, and a large and 
splendid circle of friends. I, being nothing loth, 
obediently complied. 

19th. Dined, this day, at four, p. m, at the ele- 
gant and hospitable table of Mr. Douglas, where I 
met General and Captain Cantey, and ladies, and 



58 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

James S. Day, Esq. a Yankee, one of the most in- 
telligent and superior men I have ever seen in this or 
in any country. He married a daughter of the late 
Colonel Chesnut, an old friend of my late uncle, and 
received a fortune of 25,0002. with his lady. His 
attentions to me were very marked and kindly dis- 
tinguishing. I know not that I have ever met 
with in any other man, so happy a stock of ideas, 
and so appropriate and pleasant a flow of language, 
with which to express and adorn them. Our 
table was rich, and groaned with a variety of 
viands, wines, and cordials, finely coloured. Many 
fine fruits garnish the table and tempt the palate 
in Carolina. The whole of our dinner party re- 
tired to the neighbouring house of Mr. Martin, to 
tea and coffee, where the number of our ladies was 
quadrupled. The mode of spending the evening 
is here highly interesting. No cards nor any species 
of gaming are introduced; bat the ladies, as all? are 
connoisseurs in music, takein tarn the grand piano, 
and play and sing to it delightfully ; while conver- 
sation goes round in tete a t&te groups, as though 
the voice of music were not heard. At a rather 
late hour the party breaks up ; none of the ladies 
walked home, but their family chariots were thick 
in waiting round the door, and into them were all 
led with great homage and attention, yet without 
ajiy formality. Thus they meet and part, pleasing 
and well pleased with each other. 

'2Qt/t Just as I was mounting ray carriage and 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 59 

leaving Camden, Mr. Douglas called to say that 
he had engaged me to ride over the rich and 

matchless plantations of M'Cray, Esq. in 

company with the proprietor, Mr. Day and Mr. 
Weatherspoon, who all waited on me at my hotel 
for that purpose. I found from 1,000 to 2,000 acres 
planted with cotton and corn, and all in a state of 
high cultivation on a gardening system. Cotton in 
good times is worth 100 dollars, or 22/. 10s. an 
acre, and costs 25 dollars, or 51. 1 2s. 6d. This 
gentleman (M'Cray) derives a net profit of 1O,000/. 
to 12,000/. sterling a year, and is the proprietor 
of 5,000 acres of valuable land. General Cantey 
possesses 30,000 acres. Their black cattle (alias 
slaves) do not breed freely, but destroy their young 
in embryo, because they are slaves, but still they are 
considered to be the best cattle kept. Their treat- 
ment appears to be humane ; their day's work or 
task being done by one o'clock, if they labour well. 
Their condition seems in some respects better than 
that of the paupers of my native land. It is said 
that the blacks are unconscious of any degradation, 
but of the truth of this assertion I greatly doubt. 
The planters generally profess to abhor the force 
and cruelty of the task- master or overseer, but still 
think both indispensable, and that their estates 
could not be cultivated without them. 

This evening, in consequence of a polite card 
of invitation from the stewards or managers, Cap- 
tain Cantey and J. M'Caw, M. D., I attended a 



60 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

gay and glittering hymeneal ball of the gentry of 
this town and neighbourhood. Soon after the 
marriage of any couple of distinction, it is cus- 
tomary for the bachelors to give a ball to the re- 
cently wedded pair. The ladies were almost all 
interesting in person and manners, and superbly 
dressed ; and it was said, sure of large and good 
fortunes. 

2lst. Paid my bill, 16 dollars, and quitted 
Camden, where many flattering marks of respect 
constantly attended me. I wrote a few notes, ex- 
pressive of my gratitude, and of rny most sincere 
desire to return all their kindness. 

I now re-entered the wilderness, in which botE 
myself and guides were several times lost; but, at 
length, found my destination, the lone log-house 
and plantation of my cousin, Major Rowland 
Rugeley, eldest son of the late Colonel H. Ruge- 
ley. He was not at home, but his wife, a young 
thoughtful woman, with two babes, received me 
kindly, and, in a patriarchal style, found food for 
me and my guides, and provender for our beasts. 
The house has only three rooms ; no chambers nor 
any windows of glass. To my hostess I was quite 
a stranger, and kept myself so a considerable time. 
I merely said, that I supposed her quiet was 
seldom disturbed by the approach of a strange 
guest like me. " Strangers," said she, " sometimes 
call for refreshment, because this house was once 
open for their accommodation." " Where," said I, 






1819.] IN AMERICA. 61 

"is Mr. Rugeley?" She artlessly replied, " He is 
gone to the bank at Columbia, to get money if he 
can ; for he is unable to sell the crop of cotton, and 
is therefore much harassed for money." " Where 
lives Mr. Henry Rugeley?" " He, sir, lives near; 
both families have long been accustomed to drink 
at the same spring." 1 felt delighted with this pri- 
mitive simplicity ; it seemed to carry me back to 
the beginning of time. I now gave her my intro- 
ductory letter from her aunt, Mrs. S. Rugeley of 

Potton, in Old England, relict of the late 

Rugeley, Esq. high sheriff of Bedfordshire. She 
read it ; the secret was now out ; I was no longer 
a stranger; she seemed highly pleased, and said, 
" How happy will Mr. Rugeley be to see you !" 

22wd. Major Rugeley, during the last night, 
returned ; and this morning he received me, a 
welcome guest. He spread a table full of good 
things for me in the wilderness, and well garnished 
it with ingenuous kindness. I was immediately at 
home and treated as one of the family. After break- 
fast we rode to the house of his brother, Capt. H. 
Rugeley, a sprightly young planter with a young 
wife, two babes, and 14 negroes, all his own. Re- 
turned and dined with both, very patriarchally. 
Met several ladies and gentlemen of the wilderness. 

Rugeley anecdotes. Our uncle, the late Row- 
land Rugeley, Esq. the facetious poet, and inuch- 
loved companion of the ducal family of Montagu, 
married a beautiful but poor girl, and both soon 



62 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

after died of the yellow fever, within a month of 
each other. 

Before, in, and after the long revolutionary war, 
the late Colonel Rugeley lived one of the most es- 
teemed of men. Although on the British side, he 
was thought to be an American at heart; and his 
extensive influence, as a first settler at Camden, 
was generously exerted in doing good, and pro- 
curing mercy for and from both parties. His good 
opinion and favourable representation, were life 
and salvation to hundreds on both sides, often 
under confiscation and sentence of death, the fruits 
of a hasty court-martial. Many Americans when 
taken prisoners by the British, were suffered to be 
at large on their parole of honour, never to fight 
more ; but having broken their parole and being 
taken again in arms, they were hanged and shot 
instantly in great numbers. But if there were any, 
on either side, who happily knew Colonel Rugeley, 
that knowledge, and his confirmation of it, was 
complete redemption. He was a favourite, also, 
because he never suffered his soldiers to plunder, 
as others did. Being once in an extremity, he cut 
and marked some pine blocks, so as to resemble 
cannon on an intrenchment, and in consequence 
surrendered his regiment on good terms to the re- 
publicans. In the consideration even of a genera- 
tion unknown to him, his memory is precious. After 
the peace, and the establishment of independence, 
he returned home, and was prosecuted 36 times in 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 63 

the American courts by men, whom, it was alleged, 
his revolutionary troops had injured ; but he was 
victorious in his defence of all the suits, out of 
which he came, says a survivor, with honour un- 
spotted. He was the most friendly and indulgent 
of men towards neighbours and negroes, for he 
loved and served all. He would not have returned 
to die in England, but for the infidelity of his lady, 
during his flight to the mother country. Her 
guilty paramour was the colonel's confidential 
overseer, who, after the final departure of his 
master, married the lady. This affair, it is here 
thought, broke the noble heart of the colonel ; who 
soon after his return, slept, and was gathered unto 
his fathers. 

Sunday, 23<7. I dined, this day, at my cousin 
Captain Rugeley's, with Mr. Irvin and family. At 
sunset, I visited the negro-huts, in which I found 
small nests or beds, full of black babies. The 
women were cooking corn-cakes in pans over the 
fire. Oak-leaves were laid over the cakes, and 
then hot embers or ashes on them : thus they 
are speedily baked. All seemed happy, having 
kind treatment, full bellies, and little thought ; be- 
ing unconsciously degraded, to the level of the 
beasts that perish. Saw no church, nor heard 
any thing of a sabbath. Slept at the Captain's 
in a good bed, curtainless, alongside the one in 
which himself and lady and children slept; all 
in One room, the only one in the house; with 



64 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

a fine negro-wench on the floor, at our feet, as 
our body-guard, all night, in readiness, to hush the 
children. Thus patriarchally did I and my cou- 
sins dress and undress, talk and sleep. What 
lovely simplicity! It is all pure, unsophisticat- 
ed nature a shining contrast to all 1 saw at 
Camden. 

*24th. All the morning hunting deer, but killed 
none. Visited Captain Rugeley's rich plantations. 
One negro to 12 acres of land, and one horse to 
every 24 acres, are thought to be sufficient. Met 
a large and social party, including Mr. J. Rochell 

and Mr. M , two intelligent and gentlemanly 

men, brothers-in-law of the Rugeleys. All these, 
and many others, are here living in great ease and 
independence, but still they seem dissatisfied, and 
on the wing for another and better country, the 
Alibama territory, where they have made pur- 
chases of fresh land and new homes. An awful 
tempest darkened and illuminated the mountain- 
ous forest this evening, during which I noticed 
large luminous sparks of fire in the trees, which I 
found to be fire-flies, or as they are here called 
lightning-bugs. These curious insects have been 
seen in clusters, hanging on two trees on each 
side of a road, and at a distance resembling two 
lamps. 

Introduced at Mr. Rochell's to an ancient black 
woman of about 80 or 85, a favourite negro of the 
late Colonel Rugeley, and once his cook. They 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 65 

told her 1 was one of his English children. The 
good old creature shed tears, and would have 
kissed me for joy. 

2oth. Dined with Mr. Irwin, and a kind family 
party. Two gentlemen, planters, came this morn- 
ing to the major to make for them the conveyance 
of a negro, whom one had just bought of the other, 
and who was warranted to him sound wind and 
limb, and to be defended against all other claims. 
If a negro dies soon after sale, or at the end of six 
months, the physician is called in, not to restore 
life, but to open the body, and thereby ascertain 
whether the slave died from unsoundness and old 
diseases, or from recent sickness. If from the 
former cause, the purchase money is returned. 
Negroes occasionally ride their masters' horses all 
night, to the distance of many miles, on trading 
excursions, selling what they have stolen during 
the week. About three weeks since, a gentleman 
planter of this neighbourhood, had one of his 
slaves, a strong fellow, whipped to death for steal- 
ing. The party who presided over this horrid 
execution, were all, as well as the owner, drunk, 
a circumstance which is here offered as an excuse 
for murder; or rather for whipping away 1,000 
dollars, the prime cost of the victim, 

26M. Much alarmed last night, while in my 
bed in the state-room. Something jumped on my 
dressing table, drank up the water, broke the glass, 
and disappeared. It was a rascally rat. 1 was 



W> MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

awakened again by a singular rustling, rattling 
noise underneath my bed, and suspected it must 
be a huge rattle-snake. What a bed-fellow ! It 
came not however into bed, but continued to 
annoy me all night with intermitting noises. What, 
gentle reader, dost thou think it proved to be ? A 
good motherly old hen on her nest, full of hatching 
eggs, which she found it necessary to turn over 
frequently. She disturbed me no more, but re- 
mained my well-known companion. 

27 'th. Dined this day With Mr. J. RocheU, a 
fine hearty Carolinian, who promises me a hand- 
some cane of ironwood as a keepsake. Here, 
where slavery prevails in perfection, which Caroli- 
nians call their curse, it is calculated that the 
labour on a plantation costs nothing ; and that by 
breeding freely, and by the consequent increase of 
saleable slaves, the planter is even a gainer, exclu- 
sive of the costless labour. The market price of 
negroes fluctuates with the price of produce. 

Buffaloes, which herd together in vast numbers, 
are thus decoyed and taken ; but not alive. A 
man dresses himself in one of their skins, and walks 
on all fours to the brink of a stupendous precipice, 
so concealed as to be unobserved by the hurrying 
animals. The decoy steps aside, and down rush 
and tumble the herd, and break their necks or legs 
in falling. The skins and tongues are then taken 
and the carcases left. 

ZQth. Took leave of Captain Rugeley, and ac- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. (J7 

companied Major Rowland Rugeley to the seat 
and goodly plantation of his wife's venerable father, 

Mickle, Esq. to dine and spend the day and 

night ; being now on my return to the city, by 
way of Columbia. Here I found a rich patriarchal 
table, and at it, Major J. Jo. Mickle and J. Elliston 
Pea, two only sons and favorites, young gentlemen 
of fine fortunes. After dinner we went a hunting 
but caught nothing, except one of the most veno- 
mous serpents, called a Mocoson, and the rattle 
of a rattle-snake. Examined a vegetable, said to 
be efficacious as a remedy for the bite of these 
deadly serpents, and received a root of it. It is 
cultivated in gardens, but taken originally from 
the forest. It resembles a fleur-de-lis, and the flag 
which grows in English marshes, and is called 
the Rattle- snake's Master-piece. When the leg or 
hand of a man is bitten, the limb is buried in the 
earth, until a milky decoction and fomentation can 
be made from this herb, which, if promptly applied 
externally and internally, is an unfailing specific. 
The burying the parts affected,, prevents,, it is said, 
the poison from circulating through the system to 
the heart. I witnessed, at a late hour this even- 
ing, a tempest remarkably awful, during which the 
good old man prayed to the God of thunder, while 
all the family surrounded its domestic altar. This 
gentleman (Mr. Mickle, sen.) appears to me to 
be a rare example of pure and undefiled religion ; 

F 2 



68 MEMORABLE DAYS 

kind and gentle in manners, and much resembling 
good old Ingle, the Patriarch of Somersham. 

Seeing such a swarm, or rather herd, of young 
negroes, creeping and dancing about the door and 
yard of his mansion, all appearing healthy, happy, 
and frolicsome, and withal fat and decently clothed, 
both young and old, I felt induced to praise the 
economy under which they lived. " Aye," said 
he, " I have many black people, but I never 
bought nor sold any in my life. All that you see 
came to me with my estate by virtue of my father's 
will. They are all, old and young, true and faith- 
ful to my interests ; they need no task-master, no 
overseer; they will do all, and more than I expect 
them to do; and I can trust them with untold 
gold. All the adults are well instructed, and all 
are members of Christian churches in the neigh- 
bourhood ; and their conduct is becoming their 
professions. I respect them as my children, and 
they look on me as their friend and father. Were 
they to be taken from me, it would be the most un- 
happy event of their lives." This conversation 
induced me to view more attentively the faces of 
the adult slaves ; and I was astonished at the free, 
easy, sober, intelligent, and thoughtful impression, 
which such an economy as Mr. Mickle's had in- 
delibly made on their countenances. Blush, ye 
black whites of America, when ye behold these 
white blacks ! 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 69 

29tk. At nine o'clock, after receiving the bless- 
ing of this family and its venerable head, I moved 
towards Columbia, greatly regretting that I could 
stay no longer. I shall, perhaps, see him no more ; 
but wheresoever this humble page shall bear his 
honoured name, liberty, justice, and truth, shall 
bless him, and make him a blessing. 

At noon, we were overtaken in the forest by a 
tremendous storm of wind, hail, rain, thunder and 
lightning; huge trees fell around us ; houses were 
unroofed ; and we were exposed to all its fury in 
our chaise under a tree. The air seemed full of 
thunder-bolts, insomuch that I fancied myself shot 
through and through. Hail-stones, large as pigeons' 
eggs, smote us and our horse, but were not per- 
mitted to do us harm. 

About 20 miles west of Columbia, we saw a 
party of jurymen and other citizens, digging up 
the body of a slave, who had been wantonly whip- 
ped to death, and buried privately about a week 
since, and that too by the hands of his own master. 
As this is the second man thus murdered, the first 
being left unburied for dogs to eat, I hereby re- 
solve to give publicity to all the particulars of the 
last case when I reach the city. The gentleman 
who disclosed to the Coroner the secret of this 
outrageous murder, came to us, stated the case 
clearly, and invited us to go with him and behold 
what was once man, but then a mis-shapen mass 



70 MEMORABLE DAYS [May, 

of putrescence. At sunset we reached Columbia, 
and bid farewell to the kind and generous Major 
Rugeley. I promised to revisit him, but could 
not; a circumstance which I much regretted, be- 
cause he and his sire had collected a museum, 
containing many natural curiosities of the state, in 
readiness for my return to them and England. 

Sunday, 30th. Off by six o'clock. Saw a 
large field of wheat ready for the harvest, and 
white plums, dead ripe, in great abundance. Four 
young negroes were offered for sale at 1,000 dollars 
the lump, but found no customers, although they 
would some time since have sold for double and 
triple that amount. Saw a large venomous Mo- 
coson. Slept this night 68 miles from Columbia; 
a dreadful tempest, all night, almost equal to that 
of yesterday. 1 found my bed alive with bugs, 
fleas, and other vermin ; rose at two, a. m., to 
shake myself, and enjoy a sort of respite from 
these creeping, tormenting bedfellows. On open- 
ing my window, I was annoyed by frogs innume- 
rable, of two species ; some loudly whistling or 
chattering, like English sparrows at pairing-time ; 
others, bitterly lamenting, like thousands of 
chickens deserted by their mother hens ; others, 
bellowing like cows in sorrow for weaning calves. 
This confusion from within and from without, from 
above and from below, spoiled my night's rest, and 
seemed to carry me back a few scores of centuries, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 71 

into Egyptian plagues. I was not a little pleased 
and surprised to find that none of my restless bed- 
fellows accompanied me. 

3 1st. I started at three this morning. Noticing 
during the preceding day, a large number of young 
naked negroes, male and female, all very healthy 
I praised their appearance. A gentleman, standing 
,by, seemed to enjoy and take that praise to him- 
self. " They are mine, sir," said he, meaning 
that he had bred them. " I treat them well. When 
hungry, I feed them ; when sick, I send for a 
doctor for them. My care over them is money 
well spent. As to clothing, you see they want 
none." We changed horses and stopped half an 
hour at Mrs. Chandler's mail-house. At eight 
o'clock, this evening, 1 once more found myself at 
the Planter's hotel, to sleep in a bed without a 
mosquito net, and to rise, growling at my old 
negro chamberlain and landlady. Saw, during 
the day, moss hanging in large ropy lengths from 
the forest trees down to the earth ; a certain in- 
dication of rich land, but of a sickly and pestilen- 
tial situation. 

June 1st. Closetted with Judge King. This 
good and honest man deems a monarchical syste 
of government, having a limited monarchy, the 
best for all countries. The poor are kept in better 
order by it. He believes also that the republican 
system is not yet fairly tried in America; the 
people being scattered over a wide surface, and 



72 MEMORABLE DAYS [Julie 

therefore unable to concentrate or organise them- 
selves against the system yet. He thinks also 
that the national debt of England is a national 
good ! " A good," rejoined I, " from which may 
the Lord deliver both us and you!" 

2nd. Waited on Doctor Benjamin Htiger, with 
my introductory letter from Dr. Osgood. These 
gentlemen were once fellow-students at the uni- 
versity of Cambridge. I thought the doctor a 
clever and interesting man. 

3rd. Rose, this morning, stung and lamed by 
mosquitoes. As a remedy I bathed the parts af- 
fected in brandy, and then lay half an hour in a 
warm bath, at 95 by the thermometer. Two of 
my fellow-boarders, one a rich German Jew, a 
jeweller, and the other a German quack-doctor, 
came to me and requested that I would " make a 
duel" between them. They had quarrelled about 
a horse running in the Jew's curricle. " I want, 
and wish, and will," said the doctor, " throw a 
bullet into the Jew's shoulder." 1 declined com- 
mencing manufacturer of duels. Robertson, 
Esq., from Scotland, a near relative of the cele- 
brated Dr. Robertson, the historian, came to 
invite me to a dinner at Mrs. Monroe's to-morrow. 
The party to be composed of Scotch and English 
merchants only, and the dinner given by one of 
the party in honour of King George. 

4$. The birth-day of George III. Agreeable 
to engagement, we celebrated this anniversary at 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 73 

a sumptuous table, surrounded principally by 
clashing Scotchmen, at which, in a shower of cham- 
paigne, nearly all present were loyally drunk to 
the honour of Great George. As this feast was 
too highly seasoned with loyalty, no Americans 
were admitted. 

th. My resolution, made on the 29th, was 
this morning carried into effect in the following 
letter to the editor of the Courier, copies of which 
I saw printed in other papers, nearly 2,000 miles 
from this city. 

From the Charleston Courier of June 5. 

" The well taught philosophic mind, 

To all compassion gives, 
Casts round the world an equal eye, 
And feels for all that lives !" 

Mrs. Barbauld. 

" Sir, On my way to this city, from a short 
tour through the interior of this state, a few days 
ago, 20 miles west of Columbia, I was suddenly 
attracted to a spot of earth, over which a respecta- 
ble company of citizens were deeply intent on wit- 
nessing the exhumation of the body of an animal, 
costing 1,200 dollars; but which its humane 
owner, (one Kelly) and three other persons like- 
minded, had seized and tied to a tree at midnight, 
and each in turn wantonly whipped until sun-rise; 
when, from excessive lashing, its bowels gushed 
out, and it expired, and was instantly buried in a 



^74 MEMORABLE DAYS [JuilC, 

private corner on Sunday, the 23rd ult. But, on 
inquiry, the said animal proved to be of the negro, 
and by some was thought to be of the human 
species ; and stood " guilty of having a skin not 
coloured like our own." An offence for which 
these arbiters of life and death, doomed it to die! 
To their honour, it should be told, that, when 
fainting, they threw cold water on its face, and 
poured whiskey down its throat, in order to pro- 
long- the sport. It, however, for several minutes 
before it was untied, became speechless and mo- 
tionless, as the tree to which it was bound. It 
could feel and writhe and smart under the merci- 
less lash no longer. 

" Good God ! exclaimed I, where am I ? on the 
earth which thou hast created, and didst once pro- 
nounce blessed; or in the Pandemonium of the 
heathen ? Heaven, I knew it could not be, for a 
cruel task-master, his hands imbrued in human 
blood, had just crossed my path ! Is it then, 1 
continued, free America? an asylum for the dis- 
tressed and oppressed of all other lands; the land 
of my adored Washington ; the adopted country 
of my dearest friends ; the only country on this 
huge cursed earth, where liberty finds an ark, or 
rest for the sole of her pained foot ; and the coun- 
try to which I came with every fond prejudice and 
predilection ! What! free, and yet offer up human 
sacrifice! Monstrous anomaly! Go; fly these 
hasty lines through the world ! Challenge offended 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 75 

humanity to produce a spectacle so genuinely 
hellish, or so purely demoniacal ! Did, sir, ever a 
sabbath-sun dawn on a catastrophe so abhorrent 
to your feelings, or those of 

" Sir, your most obedient servant, 

" W. FAUX. 

" Planter's Hotel, Charleston, 
June 2, 1319." 

A great noise was heard as soon as the Courier 
appeared ; some approving, others disapproving, 
as interest or humanity prompted. James Gre- 
gory, Esq. first called this morning, regretting 
that I had thus written. He then introduced me 
to a noble Marquis, now the French consul here, 
with whom I dined, and who very condescendingly 
offered to introduce me to his friend the British 
consul. " I love England," said he, " in either 
peace or war; in peace she is more friendly than 
America ; and in war, she is a brave and noble 
enemy. There is much honour in beating her, 
and consequently but little disgrace in being 
beaten by her." Soon after dinner came a gentle- 
man, a candidate for legislatorial honours, Mr. 
Condy, aid-de-camp to his Excellency the Go- 
vernor, bearing a message and compliments to me 
from the Governor, begging to know when I could 
wait on the Attorney-General with Mr. Condy, to 
make an affidavit of facts, touching the case stated 
in my letter of to-day. T replied, I was engaged 



76 MEMORABLE DAYS [Julie, 

for the present, but would accompany him to the 
mansion of the Attorney-General next morning. 
He then politely took his leave, promising to re- 
visit me in the morning. 

Sunday, 6th. At ten o'clock this morning I 
went in due form with the governor's aid-de-camp 
to Colonel Haines, the young Attorney-General, 
who, when I entered, after a polite reception, ad- 
dressed me as follows : " Now, sir, will you 
please to open to me your sources of informa- 
tion, touching this alleged murder? But, sir, 
give me leave to say, that I think that you have 
acted imprudently in publishing it so hastily, 
inasmuch as it interferes with the province of a 
jury." I replied, " My motives are good, and 
they must shelter me. 1 fear not the conse- 
quences. Too little publicity, I think, is given 
to such cases : what 1 have done is calculated to 
prevent a recurrence of such enormities." " But, 
sir, you have stained the character of South Caro- 
lina, and what you have thus written will be gree- 
dily copied and extensively read to our injury, in 
the northern and eastern states, and all over Eu- 
rope. But, sir, let me tell you, further, that such 
offences rarely occur in this state, which is always 
prompt to punish the offenders. Will you or can 
you give personal evidence ?" I answered, " 1 can- 
not. 1 can do no more than I have done. My 
publication and my conversation with you, sir, are 
sufficient. From what I have said to you now, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 77 

the matter is tangible enough." "Well, sir," re- 
joined he, "if that is all that you will do and 
say, we must leave it, and 1 will write immediately 
to the district attorney, and get Kelly indicted." 
This conversation or examination occupied about 
an hour, and was politely conducted. There is 
no evidence, that the learned gentleman redeemed 
his promise here given. A well written pamphlet 
by my friend, J. Wright, reproaches Mr. Attorney- 
General with direct breach of promise in this affair. 

Dined and spent the day with Mitchel King, 
Esq., at whose table 1 met the reverend minister 
of the Scotch church, and heard him preach in 
the evening. 

The most eminent advocates in the law here, 
rarely make above 2,000/. sterling, and the salaries 
of the judges are under 1,000/. per annum. 

I thought the reverend gentleman above named, 
neither eloquent nor very interesting. Our con- 
versation turned from lawyers to divines. We all 
united in praising and admiring the Rev. Robert 
Hall, of Leicester, who through the medium of the 
press seems intimately known and highly valued, 
here. Specimens of his oratory, from some of his 
printed sermons, are given for examples to young 
students in the ministry, and may be seen in a 
work called, The American Pulpit Orator. 

7th. Met my venerable friend Nathaniel Rus- 
sell, Esq. and his son-in-law, Mr. Middleton, living 
in a nest of roses, and both regretting the cause of 



78 MEMORABLE DAYS [Julie, 

my letter respecting the negroes, because it would 
make a deep impression to their prejudice in the 
northern states. I saw and ate ripe figs, pears, ap- 
ples, and plums in abundance, the rich productions 
of this generous climate, which now fill -the mar- 
kets, as though it were Autumn instead, of June. 
Terribly stung by mosquitoes, fleas, and bugs. 
Feeling inflammatory symptoms, something like 
bilious fever, I took two grains of calomel, and a 
very warm relaxing bath, and found relief. I drank 
also less toddy and punch, which, in this country, 
are certainly bilious. 

I noticed to-day the galley-slaves all singing 
songs in chorus, regulated by the motion of their 
oars; the music was barbarously harmonious. 
Some were plaintive love-songs. The verse was 
their own, and abounding either in praise or satire, 
intended for kind or unkind masters. 

8tk. This morning, at the command of the Go- 
vernor, and under the direction of the Attorney- 
General, appeared in the Courier some vague 
paragraphs on the subject of my examination, 
before the latter gentleman on Sunday. It was 
a vain endeavour to obliterate the deep impres- 
sion made, and still making by my negro letter. 
Soon after I began my morning walk, I was met 
and rather rudely catechised by a Mr. Bee, who 
much importuned me to accompany him to the 
Times Office, and see the above reply, which ap- 
peared in both papers. This tart republican de- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 79 

fender of slavery, seemed disposed to quarrel with 
me, but I had seen the article and declined his 
invitation. " Go," said he, " and do justice to 
injured Carolina." To do that would he to make 
negroes and planters, for a few years, exchange 
places and stations. 

I dined, and spent the day and night on Sulli- 
van's healthy island, four miles in the sea, east of 
the city. On landing I found the elegant chariot 
of Mr. Gregory, with two negroes in waiting on 
the beach to take me up, and when I returned, I 
was attended in like manner. At this gentleman's 
summer seat, washed by the ocean, I met with an 
agreeable dinner in the English style. But as I, 
in the execution of the objects of my mission, had 
called on Mr. G. to give an account of his long 
stewardship, in the affairs of the Rugeley property, 
and wanted money from him, I was not a very 
welcome guest, nor he to me the most agreeable 
host. His lady seemed a superior woman. 

9th. On my return to the city, this morning, I 
found a silly and ill-natured epistle in the Times 
paper on the subject of my negro letter. It is 
certainly honourable to this state that so much 
excitement is seen, on touching its sore and 
vulnerable part. Judge King regrets that I should 
have so written, and says 1 must not answer my 
opponents in the way I wish. It will be thought 
time-serving, and be read to my prejudice on both 



80 MEMORABLE DAYS [June, 

sides of the water. -"And moreover," says he, 
" the Carolinians are chivalrous, and will pursue 
you with the most determined animosity, if you 
continue to provoke and wound them on this ten- 
der point." Such being the state of public feeling, 
in this free country, I was cautioned against being 
out late in the evening. " Take care of yourself," 
said my friends, " for dirking is the fashion.'' I 
therefore declined further controversy; merely 
saying, that though the paupers of England were 
by the planters thought to be worse off than their 
negroes, yet in England, bad as things are, not even 
a lord may kill a man without being hanged for 
it; a specific which I could recommend to all 
negro-killers in America. 

Wth. I visited the high court of justice, where 
but little talent seems necessary, and where the 
judge upon the bench and the counsel and crier 
below, all seem upon an easy, familiar footing 
of equality; consulting together, tete-a-tete, about 
the time of opening court next day. His lordship 
then left the bench, and stepping into his sulky, 
with a negro-boy behind him, drove off. No cere- 
mony, no trumpets told the multitude that he was 
a judge, and that it was judgment day. 

\\th. Thomas Ferreand, Esq., a Frenchman, 
and an eminent merchant of this city, shot himself 
on the eve of this day ; pecuniary embarrassment 
was the cause. He had endorsed bills to a large 



1819.] IN AMERICA, 

amount, for the accommodation of a friend in the 
city, who had just failed and deceived him. Fer- 
reand sent a challenge in consequence, but was 
advised to- wait three days for an answer. Before 
the end of April he shot himself in the following 
manner. Accompanied by his servant, a male 
negro, he went down to the battery hanging over 
the sea, at ten o'clock at night, taking a pair of 
loaded pistols with him. On his arrival, he took 
off his coat, and gave the negro two letters just 
written, one for his chief clerk, and the other for 
his lady. The negro, now suspecting evil, began 
to give an alarm ; when Ferreand, to hush him, 
pointed one pistol at him, and discharging the 
other into his own mouth, fell instantly dead over 
the battery into the sea. 

12th. I spent this day in the Court of Common 
Fleas, witnessing the eloquence of the American 
bar. The cause a negro wench, to whom two ci- 
tizens laid claim. Twelve witnesses on both sides 
swore to her identity. This trial, being the sixth 
on the same case, lasted four whole days. Colonel 
Haines, the young Attorney-General, displayed 
a pleasant species of eloquence, quite conversa- 
tional. Mr. Barrister Hunt was low and stormy. 
The jury, unable to come to an unanimous deci- 
sion, were locked up till midnight, when they could 
dissolve themselves, but they remained until ele- 
ven on Sunday morning. Food was furnished to 
them by stealth. The state immediately altered 



82 MEMORABLE DAYS (June, 

the law to compel juries to sit until they can de- 
cide, or be liberated by consent of parties. On 
the Monday, the jury again met, and were locked 
up again for four days, and liberated by consent 
of parties without giving a verdict. The case 
therefore remains to be tried a seventh time. 

Sunday, 13th. Accompanied Nathaniel Russell, 
Esq. (whose son-in-law was a bishop) to an excel- 
lent church, this morning, but saw, as I thought, 
little piety or devotion. 

14M. Again at court, to witness the form of 
passing sentence on a criminal, the turnkey of 
the prison, who was convicted of aiding the escape 
of a murderer. He seemed a genteel or smart 
young fellow, and with little emotion heard himself 
doomed to be branded with the letter M on the 
thick of his thumb, and imprisoned one year. The 
judge, in a black silk gown, a very judicious, kind- 
hearted man, shewed how just and reasonable was 
the sentence pronounced. 

I left the Planter's hotel, (Charleston,) where 
funerals begin to be frequent, owing to pestilential 
air, and took up my abode on Sullivan's cool, salu- 
brious isle, to which I go with an agreeable young 
Yankee, Mr. Coffin, bound to New Orleans and 
Natches. 

\6th. I find myself delightfully situated on this 
island of White Land, where not a blade of grass 
is seen; only hedges of bagonet plants and myrtles. 
It is a naked island, of about eight miles in cir- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 83 

cumference, variegated with summer mansions, 
refuges from pestilence. The sea is tumultuously 
roaring about one's ears all night, and kissing one's 
feet all day. The houses are of wood 1 , and built on 
wooden posts or pillars, so that the sea may flow 
(at high-tide in winter) underneath. 

\lth. In the city, to which I can go by steain 
four times a day, I saw large flocks of vultures, 
called turkey buzzards, because they are of the size 
and form of a turkey. At a "neighbouring city, 
Savannah, there is a law to enforce the fine of five 
dollars for every bird of this species, wantonly 
killed. They fly about like carrion-crows in Eng- 
land, but so tame that you may walk amongst 
and kill them easily. This, however, is not per- 
mitted, as they devour all filth and putrescence, 
and are considered as friends to the community 
at large. 

The judges, counsellors, senators, and repre- 
sentatives, down to the constables, in this state, 
are, it is said, the slaves of popularity. Laws are 
therefore enacted and decisions made, unfriendly to 
the public good. In the courts, the influence of 
the bench over the bar is scarcely seen or felt ; or, 
if at all used, it is done in the most gentle and 
delicate manner, both seemingly mutually obliged 
and obliging. The same conduct also exists in the 
bar, towards witnesses, who audaciously mount 
the judge's bench to give evidence. This love of 
popularity is deemed by some an enemy to the 

G 2 



84 MEMORABLE DAYS [June, 

general weal. My landlady, Mrs. Calder, a Cale- 
donian, grumbles greatly, because her billiard 
table pays a tax of 100 dollars annually. How 
hard ! 

The Scotch people, of whom there are many 
in this city and state, are the most successful 
merchants; yet they abuse America violently, 
and never become citizens. In time of war, the,y 
are therefore very properly deemed and treated as 
aliens and prisoner's, and ordered out of the sea- 
ports into the interior, where they must quietly 
continue until peace is made. 

My landlord, Mr. Calder, during his last visit 
to Scotland, was imprisoned on a charge of endea- 
vouring to force his negro back to America. The 
poor negro's chains fell off, when he reached old 
Scotland, where he now lives, a free man. 

At sunset, a few evenings since, while among 
plantations, suddenly burst upon my ear an earth- 
rending shout. It proceeded from negroes shouting 
three times three, on finishing their task. 

20th. The ladies of Carolina, it is said, prefer 
a fair effeminate kind of man to one of a robust 
habit, and swarthy dark complexion. This pre- 
ference of delicate complexions originates in their 
antipathy to any colour approaching to that of 
the negro or mulatto, or yellow man, whom it is 
sometimes difficult to distinguish from a white or 
brown person. * 

Squatters are natives who squat or settle on 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 85 

vacant, unoccupied lands in the interior of the 
country, and claim a title thereto by long undis- 
turbed possession, in which the government pro- 
tects them. The heirs of the late R. and H. 
Rugeley have lost 80,000 acres, now in the hands 
of Squatters. On the verge of barbarism, near the 
Indian territory, when a respectable settler comes 
with authority to occupy the lands, these squat- 
ters are known to dress and disguise themselves 
as Indians, and present themselves, with the rifle 
and tomahawk, to the servants of the settlers, 
whom they threaten with destruction. This is 
intended to scare away all new comers, and has, 
in some instances, had the desired effect. To 
remedy this, it was proclaimed that the first Indian 
seen, mock or real, should be shot without cere- 
mony. Hence no more sham Indians were seen. 

2lst. I sailed over to the city with his Excel- 
lency Governor Geddiss, who seems friendly, and 
generally known, shaking hands with nearly all in 
the boat. It is a pleasing feature of this people 
that all are outwardly social, bordering on some- 
thing like equality. This feature, though delu- 
sive, strikes, and is highly interesting to strangers 
from old countries, and is beneficial to America, 
to which it particularly attaches them ; and, per- 
haps, both natives and adopted citizens are thereby 
fraternised. 

In the Washington City Gazette, I saw the good 
speeches of Mr. , while chairman of the 




86 MEMORABLE DAYS 

forum. My prophecies respecting this distinguish- 
ed friend and excellent man are, I see, fast ful- 
filling. With fair play, such men as he and Mr. 
Pittiss, late of the isle of Wight, must succeed any 
where, and therefore furnish no fair criterion of 
success in emigration generally. 

22wdf. My countryman, Mr. Beaumont of 
Huntingdonshire, called, and introducing himself 
to breakfast with me this morning, continued two 
hours in conversation. He states that he came an 
unrecommended stranger to this town, only two 
years since. He advertised his wishes, and had 
immediate offers of first-rale situations on planta- 
tions. He engaged at 500 dollars the first year; 
half the profits of the dairy, all the poultry : and 
advances every year, either by an increased salary, 
or by a per centage on the produce. He saves 
money, and doubts not of being able to realize a 
competency as an overseer ; but he thinks clerk- 
ships in stores much more desirable and beneficial. 
Any young man who is steady, must, he is sure, 
do well there. Mr, Beaumont has introduced the 
English system of agriculture, so far as practica- 
ble, with success. The value of one acre of rice 
is JOO dollars, or 22Z. 105. sterling, and its cost 
about 30 dollars. 

23rd. Yesterday, as a mark of special favour, 
I received a present of a female slave from my 
hostess, Mrs. Calder. Her name is Cassandra. 
She was to be dressed as a man and pass for iuy 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 87 

body guard to England, and then to be given to 
ray neighbour George Thompson, Esq. of Somer- 
sham, who had requested me to procure a pair 
of negroes for the use of his establishment- On 
communicating the news of this transfer to the 
fair and youthful Cassandra, she wept bitterly, > 
and tore her curly wool ; the thought of leaving 
her old mistress and many young acquaintances, 
was death to all her hopes. When I heard this, I 
proceeded with her owner in due form to take pos- 
session of my fair property. She looked piteously 
at me. I told her she was mine and must accom- 
pany me to England. She sighed and cried, and 
said, "What, Massa! Go todat far off country?" 
" Yes." " O, Massa ! let me go and see, and bid 
good bye to all my dear children, and grandchil- 
dren, and great grandchildren. I do love 'em 
dearly." When J declined to accept the gift, her 
tears vanished, like dew before the sun, and joy 
lighted up her black wrinkled countenance ; for 
she was turned of 80, and her woolly head was 
white as snow. 

%4th. Broadfoot, Esq., a merchant in the 

city, informed me at dinner, that he was once on a 
jury, in a cause where a female sued a white man 
of this state for 60/., the amount of 12 years main- 
tenance of her and his natural child. She gained 
the cause, but he not being able to pay debt 
and costs, or give security, was actually sentenced 
to be sold for a term of years, until his labour 



88 MEMORABLE DAYS [June, 

had paid the demand. How equitable ! how pa- 
triarchal ! 

I am here paying 3s. 6d. a bottle for bad Lon- 
don porter, just 7001. per cent, above cost, and 
18s. 8of. a gallon; three times dearer than real 
French brandy, or any other spirits, the best of 
which is sold at a dollar and a half a gallon. 

At Charleston, no black man, though free and 
rich, and having horses and carriages to let, as for 
instance, John Jones, the landlord of the best 
house in the city, is permitted to ride them for 
pleasure as his own, nor to be seen out of his own 
house after ten at night, when the thundering 
drum and the centinels from the guard-house, go 
round to clear the streets of all men, women, or 
children, stained with negro blood. 

Sunday, 27th. It was reported this morning 
that the pestilence, called the yellow fever, had 
made its entry into this city, and that the board of 
health had, as is usual, requested all strangers and 
visitors to depart. This report was, in part, un- 
true ; one man in the hospital had just died of it, 
but he brought it with him from the Havannah. 
This disease in its nature seems at present not un- 
derstood, nor correctly defined by the faculty here. 
Disputes have arisen only to darken the subject. 
Some hold it to be contagious, others infectious. 
The houses, in which it first appears, are generally 
pulled down ; while others are fumigated and 
washed with strong lime-water, and the families 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 89 

removed from the street to the fields and kept in 
tents. This disease seems confined to the western 
world, and to have been known there, from the 
time of its discovery by Columbus ; but it prevails 
most in the southern states, cities, and swamps. 
It sometimes extends as far north as lat. 40. In 
rainy seasons, and during a long westerly wind, 
it is more fatal than common. In Charleston, it 
is said not to be contagious. Its first symptoms 
are a pain in the back and head ; then a vomiting 
of black fluid, resembling coffee grounds; a mor- 
tification next ensues, and the patient dies quickly 
and easily in about three days after its commence- 
ment. 

My friend, Mr. Kelsall, a visitor at my hotel, 
states that he lately met at the Planter's hotel a 
party of thirteen gentlemen, eleven of whom had 
each killed his man in duels. A military officer, 
living in this city, kept a mistress, who knew and 
disliked the friend of her gallant, then living at 
New Orleans, and of whom she said many evil 
things to her gallant, which he fully credited. 
The New Orleans friend was then instantly chal- 
lenged by letter, to which he answered personally, 
saying the charge against him was false, and, in 
explaining, he could prove it to be so. They met, 
and the New Orleans man, with the first shot, 
killed the accuser ; and that, says my informant, 
deservedly. The survivor went up to shake hands 
with the dying man, <r No," said he, with a bitter 



$0 MEMORABLE DAYS [June, 

oath, " Have I missed you ?" The seconds then 
asked him what were his last wishes. " I have a 
pair of pistols, given me by a brave fellow, and I 
should be sorry that they should fall into the 
hands of a coward ; put them, I pray you, into my 
coffin with me." The point of honour is main- 
tained herein high perfection. A scoundrel, who 
has cheated his creditors, if reproached with it, 
calls out his man and kills him if he can. 

28th. I quitted for ever Sullivan's pleasant isle 
of myrtles, a sure refuge from pestilential heat and 
poisonous mosquitoes, in the hot, sandy, stinking 
city of Charleston, where the elements, earth, air, 
and water, swarm with all that is noxious. At 
11, a. m., we got under weigh in the good packet 
General Wade Hampton, Captain Baker, com- 
mander. I paid 30 dollars for my passage in the 
cabin, full of genteel and agreeable passengers, 
male and female, of the first rank and quality, all 
bound to the city of Philadelphia. I left letters 
of thanks behind me for the many civilities received 
from Messrs. Prescot and Bishop, N. Russel, Esq., 
(now no more) and several other gentlemen, to 
whom may this page carry my grateful regards. 
So great was the difference in exchange between 
north and south, that I had to pay my banker 41. 
per cent, for New York paper, and 71. per cent, 
for specie, silver dollars, Southern paper is some- 
what ragged in reputation at New York. Our 
good captain, who is an honest gentlemanly man, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 91 

knows, in Carolina, a poor master-builder from 
England, who landed without money, but who in 
the course of a few weeks, by jobbing about among 
the planters, saved money enough to send over for 
his large family, now all with him, flourishing to- 
gether to all their hearts' desire. As surely as the 
sun shines, so will industry prosper in any almost 
untaxed community. 

30th. In the gulf-stream all last night, and 
passed, unseen, Cape Hatteras, having sailed 400 
miles since Monday. J. W. Ancrum, Esq. with 
his lady and family, and six black servants, are on 
board. Mr. Ancrum's lady is a branch of the 
Washington family, a niece of the late General, and 
he a senator of Carolina, to whose civilities I ac- 
knowledge myself indebted. " At a recent con- 
tested election," says he, " I saw a candidate soli- 
citing the vote of a gentleman freeholder in our 
state, where freeholders only, by the bye, have a 
vote. The answer was this : " Why, colonel, I 
always reckoned you was an independent man, 
quite above begging. I now find I was grossly 
deceived and mistaken. I came here purposely 
to give you my vote, which is now in my hand ; 
but as you have demeaned yourself so much as to 
ask me for it, I shall not give it to you but to 
your opponent." What a lesson is this to the 
old world. But think not that candidates and 
electors are, here, all incorruptible. A barbecued 



92 MEMORABLE DAYS 

hog in the woods, and plenty of whiskey, will buy 
birthrights and secure elections, even in America. 

July 1st. We were greeted with the sight and 
sound of Land a-head O ! the coast of Pennsyl- 
vania and Philadelphia light-house; thus passing 
from Charleston light-house to this, in the short 
space of 60 hours, a distance of between six and 
seven hundred miles, averaging ten miles an hour. 
At six this evening, we anchored in the spacious 
Bay of Delaware, 20 miles broad, dividing the 
two states of Jersey and Delaware. At nine we 
passed the quarantine establishment, (a noble 
asylum) with but a slight scrutiny by the doctors, 
although we expected detention, on account of 
the sickness on board and of the pestilence left 
behind us. 

%d. At six this morning we reached Newcastle, 
on the banks of the river Delaware, 40 miles from 
Philadelphia. The scenery here, on both banks, 
is enchanting. The hay and oat harvest, now 
general along these lovely banks, perfumes the 
air of the river with odours. Here, too, the con- 
trast is heightened by the recent view of parched, 
bare sands in the south ; for here all is green, gay, 
and flowery ; and fine commodious farm-houses 
and rich pastures, full of cattle and sheep, varie- 
gate the perspective in every direction, quite up 
to Philadelphia. In the south are no pastures; 
in the north, plenty, well stocked with beeves or 



1819,] IN AMERICA. 93 

bullocks of enormous size and weight. We passed 
the bare Hessian bank, a sandy bluff on the river, 
so called ; where, during the revolutionary war, 
a post of poor hireling Hessian soldiers was sur- 
prised and destroyed by the rebels. This spot, it 
is said, is haunted by spectres, and the grass, 
therefore, has never since grown upon it. We 
landed in the city, at one o'clock, p. m. having 
travelled 800 miles in four days, with a rapidity 
seldom equalled. The city, viewed from the river, 
is neither imposing nor interesting, nor does it 
present any thing striking, until you reach its 
centre. Quitting the good ship Wade Hampton, 
which is formed of a part of William Penn's noble 
tree, under which he made peace with the Indians, 
I put up and dined at Jud's good hotel, with my 
southern Irish friend, Moses Wood, Esq. an agree- 
able and kind-hearted young gentleman, of a 
good temper. In the evening, attended by a free 
negro, 1 called with my several introductory let- 
ters to Messrs. Price, whom I saw ; Krugg, 

Esq. gone to Kentucky; Jerry Wardour, out; 
Edward Wilson, at Baltimore ; Joseph Lancaster, 
at Boston ; his representative, Mr. Jones, present, 
and very attentive and polite. Such letters are of 
little value unless they come from one friend to 
another, both greatly esteeming each other, or the 
bearer has plenty of money. Letters of intro- 
duction, under other circumstances, will scarcely 
procure the stranger a gratuitous dinner. If poor, 



94 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

he will be sent up the state by other letters, and 
passed from house to house and town to town, 
for work. 

3d. In the evening, on horseback, with Mr. 
Wood, Mr. Jones, &c. I took a delightful airing to 
German's Town, along the romantic banks of the 
Schuylkill to its falls. Bridges of singular beauty, 
and roofed over, stretch across this pure, trans- 
parent river, on the banks of which birds have 
planted many cherry-trees, now of prodigious 
size, and from which we and others wantonly 
broke off large boughs, full of ripe cherries, and 
laid them across our saddles, that we might eat 
them as we rode along. In every direction, fruit 
is ready to fall into the mouths of passengers. At 
German's Town, I called upon and talked with 
an old countryman, long settled here, Mr. Pysley, 
once of my native Isle of Ely, who says that the day 
for emigration is gone by. " I," said he, " came 
here in the best of times, but I have had to work 
hard on my stall, and have known no rest, from 
the clamour of my awl, and my lapstone and 
hammer. Let those who will come, expect to 
work all their days, as I have done, and then only 
just live." He talked and thought kindly of all 
he left behind, but particularly of his dear native 
land, which he can never behold more. 

Sunday, 4th. Introduced to Mr. Maginnis, an 
Irish lecturer on elocution, and to an English gen- 
tleman, Mr. Hobson. Europeans, so far from 



1819.] IN AMERICA. ; 95 

home, meet and mix sweetly like milk md honey. 
Attended Dr. Storton's chapel, &n immense, ele- 
gant rotundity, like Rowland Hll's in the Surrey 
road. The Doctor's pulpit w:(s supplied by an 
American preacher of much saucy simplicity of 
manner. I visited a noble mansion-house in this 
city, erected purposely for and presented by the 
citizens to General Washington, which he refused, 
and which now stands a goodly monument of his 
unequalled magnanimity. 

The negroes in this state and city, are all free 
and independent. A slave, thanks be given to 
William Penn ! cannot live here. That they are 
free and happy, need not be told : it is known by 
only looking into their faces, and contemplating 
their erect statures, both of which here lose every 
thing negro-like but their colour, and acquire all 
the majesty of man. 

5th. Yesterday, being Sunday, the grand an- 
niversary of Independence is necessarily celebrated 
on this day, which is brother Jonathan's immortal 
universal festival. Roaring cannon and merrily 
ringing bells salute the morn, and, until midnight, 
all is frolic and hilarity, from one end of this 
mighty empire to the other. At night, in Vaux- 
hall Gardens, 1 saw a representation or effigy of 
the late General Washington, and heard an oration, 
in which that illustrious man was compared to 
Cincinnatus, and highly eulogized. I talked with 
citizen Fleming and Jerry Wardour, jun. Esq., 



96 MEMORABLE DAYS 

both rich^and ihe latter particularly intelligent 
and cormnunicatr-e, having great experience in all 
matters touching ; emigrants and emigration, as 
many thousands of persons and pounds are con- 
stantly passing through his office and hands to 
this country. He says that no body, who is living 
comfortably in England, should think of emigrat- 
ing. But to those who resolve to do so, he recom- 
mends British settlement in Pennsylvania and the 
eastern states, in preference to Illinois apd the 
western country; because the latter is sickly, be- 
ing exposed, in a high degree, to bilious fever; is 
supplied with only bad water; and is so far from, 
or rather altogether without a market for produce. 
He had never heard of any persons, excepting visi- 
tors, returning ; but of many, the most unfit, settling 
down comfortably there, from Bond-street an 
Holborn, London. Mr. Birkbeck still lives in a 
log cabin, doing little or no business. The Flowers 
and he are irreconcileable enemies. Grand-chil- 
dren will reap the benefits of emigration thither, 
but fathers and mothers, although they cannot 
starve, must sacrifice themselves. Two long 
years must pass before any thing can be made 
from the land, which must be cleared at a cost of 
22 dollars, or 41. 19s. an acre. It is therefore 
better to give 91. for cleared land, or uncleared, 
with house and good farm buildings on it, than 2/. 
an acre in Illinois, where there is no market, no 
house, no convenience, yet laud capable of raising 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 97 

provisions sufficient for Great Britain's great and 
many wants. New Orleans is their only mar- 
ket for produce, which, being perishable, must 
be sold, even for freight down the river, which it 
is sometimes insufficient to pay. There are several 
fine states nearer to that general market than 
Illinois and Birkbeck's settlement; of which I 
have (says Mr. Wardour) reported unfavourably, 
and thereby offended Mr. Birkbeck, who, by the 
bye, has much misrepresented and spoken un- 
justly of the eastern states, and that without ever 
having seen them. In these only, however, can 
an English farmer flourish ; for here, indeed, when 
you buy, you get either the land or the building 
on it for nothing. In order to do business well, 
a man must privately look about him ; he must 
have his eyes in his head, and see who must sell ; 
thus making a difference in the cost of 507. to 
nearly 100/. per cent. This and next year offer 
fine chances for buying, so great and pressing is 
the want of money. There are many of your 
countrymen who think of coming, and do corne, 
quite unfit for this country, bringing with them 
little variety of knowledge in different kinds of 
labour, but all their old prejudices, the worst ware 
they can bring; while the native American knows 
every thing, and hates or fears nothing. The 
Englishman thinks nothing good or right but what 
is English, both in theory and practice. He thinks 
his system and mode of farming must be best, but 

H 



98 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

V v 

he would do well to try it only on a small scale, 
and not rashly lay aside what is American, and well 
tried ; for those who have long lived on the soil, 
must certainly know what is the best. In the 
state of Ohio, though so flourishing, there are 
none born in it who are 20 years old. It is of no 
use travelling clown rivers to see and know coun- 
tries, or get information about them ; you must ride 
through them to and fro, and often stop. There 
recently came, in one of my ships, an English 
bricklayer, wife, and family, but their unfitness 
for this land was quite ludicrous. They thought 
they were to be nobles here, although sent from 
your country by their parish officers. And then, 
who would ever have thought of seeing librarians 
from Bond Street come here, to start circulating 
libraries, in the wilderness of Illinois. Your 
friend John Ingle, however, now in Indiana, is a 
good fit fellow, knowing what he is about." 

Qth. At noon I left the good city of William 
Penn. 1 am now swiftly gliding down the Dela- 
ware in a superb steam-boat, 60 yards long, 14 
broad, with 36 beds for gentlemen, and 20 for 
ladies, all in the cabin; moving from 10 to 12 
miles an hour. 

At six, p. m., we quitted the boat and river, and 
entered three coaches, which conveyed us through 
Newcastle, 40 miles to French-town, on the Chesa- 
peake bay ; where another huge boat received us 
to supper and bed, en masse. It landed us to 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 99 

breakfast at the city of Baltimore, 120 miles in 12 
hours; fare six dollars. 

1th. Jn this city, put up at Gadsby's hotel 
(the best) containing 150 beds, fine warm and cold 
baths, and a well stored reading-room, with files 
of all domestic and foreign papers. Here I saw 
my letter on negro-killing, copied into a paper, 
1,500 miles from Charleston. At breakfast I 
found meats in abundance, besides a peck of eggs, 
and huge dishes of toast and rolls soaked in 
butter, and smothered with cream, to make the 
hard crust tender, I am now again in negro- 
land, and all the comforts of slavery surround me. 
In Philadelphia I seemed a man ; but here, a god 
for negroes to worship. All is homage and black 
attention. The city, seen from the bay, might be 
mistaken for Rome, and the huge dome of the 
Exchange for that of Holy St. Peter's. 

At ten, a. m., entered Uncle Sanis mail for 
Washington city, that is to be. During this long 
journey, I saw no good land, save the marshes on 
the banks of the Delaware. All seems exhausted, 
worn-out, rusty, and hung up to dry, or rather to 
bake in the sun. 

Atfour,p. m., reached Washington, which, viewed 
from the Capitol hill, looks like a Roman village, 
for all is Roman or Grecian here. The streets 
are a mile or two in length, with houses a quarter 
of a mile apart, beautified by trees and swamps, 
and cows grazing between. At first view, a 

H 2 



100 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jly, 

stranger might suppose that some convulsion of 
nature had swept away whole streets, and laid 
waste this far-famed metropolitan city. 

At seven, p. m., T met, at a private table at the 
house of a friend and countryman, several exiles, 
to tea, or rather supper, where I was received and 
treated with all imaginable kindness. Here I was 
formally introduced to my countryman, Mr. El- 
liott, of the City Gazette. I visited Messrs. Coote 
and Dumbleton, good brewers of brown stout, on 
the banks of the great river Potowmac, late of 
Huntingdonshire, Old England. From the latter 
gentleman, I learn that nearly all the British emi- 
grants feel disappointed. " It is not sufficient," 
says he, " that an Englishman lives; he expects 
to do better than live." Mr. D. seems to have 
done nothing for himself yet, but harm ; having, 
together with his brother, spent all their money in 
mechanical pursuits. Constant work cannot be 
had, yet it is thought to be better than half a 
crown per day, constant, in England. 

8th and 9th. " Farming," say Messrs. C. and 
D., the brewers, " is more comfortable and pro- 
fitable in England than here; for large and tine 
estates in Virginia do not keep families with ne- 
cessaries. They send a little fire-wood to this 
market, for the sake of a few dollars, which some 
borrow one of another, for marketings daily. Nei- 
ther is brewing so profitable as at home, although 
less capital will suffice, there being no public-houses 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 101 

to buy here; but all the malting barley must be 
bought at once. Some, however, are not able to 
do so. Porter is cheaper here than at home." My 
now generous host, it is said, is almost the only 
successful emigrant, doing more business, and 
better too, than any other merchant; and yet 
he came hither without capital. His superior 
talents have insured success, which will, and 
must follow him. He is deemed the smartest, 
and wisest Briton in the city. Still, there are 
several hundreds of fine young men here and in 
Philadelphia, all out of employment ; men, who 
ought not to have left England's overstocked com- 
mon and glutted market. English labourers, and 
first-rate mechanics, too, are seen working, at the 
Capitol, for the low price of half a dollar per day, 
or whatever the master-builder pleases. Many 
firms, too, are lessening and disappearing, through 
want of capital ; they hold so much unnegociable 
paper, and must hold it until the indorser pleases 
to cash it. 

IQth. My host, every where the public eulogist 
of America, says, " that England is the place for 
men of fortune, but this land for the industrious 
bees who cannot live there. Fools must not come, 
for Americans are nationally cold, jealous, suspi- 
cious, and knavish, have little or no sense of ho- 
nour, believing every man a rogue, until they see 
the contrary ; thinking imposition and extortion 
fair business, and all men, fair game: kind, obliging 



102 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

conduct is lost upon them. A bold, saucy, in- 
dependent manner towards them is necessary. 
They love nobody but themselves, and seem inca- 
pable of due respect for the feelings of others. 
They have nothing original ; all that is good or 
new, is done by foreigners, and by the British, and 
yet they boast eternally." 

Such is the rough sketch of an admiring artist, 
once in a state of infatuation, but now getting sane 
and sober. The scales have left his eyes, and he 
begins to see, to his sorrow. I, too, fancy I see 
something like a strong and general feeling of dis- 
appointment, pervading almost all I meet, who 
have recently emigrated ; and, on examination, I 
find that my observation does not deceive me. 
All have over-rated America. Hope told a flat- 
tering, lying tale, and they believed her to their 
own undoing. A visit to this country will increase 
an Englishman's love for his own, whether he can 
or cannot live in it. If he cannot, he comes here, 
cursing the cause, hating the change, and hoping 
to return, on some fair future day, which fate may 
yet have in store for him. 

Sunday, \\th. To-day, I received a long epis- 
tle from Joseph Lancaster, very eulogistic on 
my letter and conduct touching negro-killing, 
but not so honorable to Carolina. " On mention- 
ing this affair," (says lie,) " in a stage, it operated 
like an explosion on all present." Met the Rev. 
John Wright, who complimented me on having 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 103 

dared to attack the beast in his temple, meaning 
slavery in Carolina. He states, that Mr. Birk- 
beck, if he had taken good advice, had never 
gone to Illinois to deceive himself and others, 
and injure many. Introduced to Messrs. Matchem 
and Shanks, 'two native citizens, one in the go- 
vernment, and both eloquent and ingenious men, 
who openly accuse the English emigrants of shew- 
ing contempt for America, by odious comparisons, 
and by not socially mixing with the natives. Both 
parties in this matter err, and alike stand in need 
of correction. The American, so called, although 
his father or grandfather was perhaps a British 
convict, despises all recent emigrants, because he 
fancies, that they who know most, must despise 
him. Fancy and jealousy then, must bear the 
blame. There seems so little here to remind me 
that it is Sunday, that I had almost forgotten it. 
Religion, however, became the theme. There is 
more intolerance here than in England. Metho- 
dists predominate, and are brimful of bigotry ; 
and the Catholics are very fiery and violent in all 
spiritual matters, but, having no power, they can- 
not injure their fellow-citizens. All sects hate my 
reverend friend, because he is an Unitarian, and 
hates slavery, and therefore nothing good can be 
in him or come out of him. 

13th. Met and talked with both Dumbletons, 
who have failed in two distinct enterprizes. The 
elder in a brewing concern in Philadelphia, through 



104 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

uniting himself to a falling firm, at the head of 
which was a thief and swindler ; and the younger 
brother in a threshing machine, in the English 
fashion, to hire out at 16 dollars per day; but he 
was seldom able to get a job, the farmer not being 
able to spare the dollars. Eight horses or oxen, 
therefore, tread out the grain, 100 bushels a. day. 
The machine was knocked to pieces, and the pro- 
prietor set off, a poor pedestrian, to New Orleans, 
walking to and fro, up and down the Ohio and 
Mississipi, and that, without spending any money 
save his earnings, of which he brought 10 dollars 
home. He thus travelled 4,000 miles, to see, hear, 
and know what he could of the western wilds, and 
their towns and cities, where he could earn only 
three dollars a week, (but slaves, six dollars,) and 
that not constantly. Slaves are preferred all over 
the west. While with his machine, he worked hard, 
many days with his shirt off, under a roasting sun. 
As I have his western journal, he may hereafter 
speak for himself. Both these young men, as 
well as the Chamberses, lived freely, and acted im- 
prudently. They dressed in stile, and would 
have dinners, which cost four dollars a week. Much 
less beer is here made from the same quantity of 
malt than in England ; about one half less. 

14th. Met Mr. Cocken, late of Lincolnshire, 
who came to this city with money, and has in- 
creased it. " As good farms and farmers as any 
in England, are," he says, " to be found in this 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 105 

state of Maryland. My son a few years ago only, 
purchased and began with 500/., and has now 
made it 5,000/. If 1 were a young man now, I 
would begin on the poor worn-out land round 
this city, which is to be bought low, and may 
soon be regenerated by plaster of Paris, one 
bushel to the acre, from the port of Alexandria, 
whence it is plentifully imported arid prepared 
for sowing. The English system is wanted. I 
have seen fine red clover, two or three tons on an 
acre, foolishly spoiled by depasturing and stock- 
ing hard, whereas it ought to have been cut and 
used after the soiling mode." I conceive, as does 
Mr. Cockeu, that English farmers, with skill and 
a little money, must do well, though not rise or 
fall so fast here as in England, things not being so 
changeable. What is here gotten is a man's own, 
it comes gradually, but surely. Dr. K Dawes, 
and lady, late of Wisbeach, in the Isle of Ely, 
with whom I dined this day, wish, but are re- 
luctant to return, seeming to stay here only to 
find fault with every thing. " No body," says he, 
" is getting, or is able to raise any money." The 
man of whom Mr. C. speaks in his letters, as 
" getting money as fast as he can count it," is un- 
able to raise 2,000 dollars for a farm, which he 
wants to buy near his own ; and, if he were so 
rich, would he, think you, come to Washington, 
six or seven miles, with three Ibs. of butter under 
his arm ? As to Mr. Long, from Lincolnshire, he 



10(5 MKMORAliLE DAYS [Jly, 

lias removed three times; is dissatisfied with all 
things, and thinks no man honest." 

The history of a great number of emigrants 
in this country shews unprincipled looseness in 
morals, and but little or no real well founded 
integrity. Public offices and government clerk- 
ships are filled by men who really could be no 
longer tolerated in trade, many having cleared 
out, or as it is more commonly called, backed 
out, four times in a few years. Yet such are 
the most esteemed citizens, taking precedence of 
tradesmen, and ranking with the aristocracy of 
the city. Dirking, says my nameless friend, is a 
common unnoticed offence ; a peccadillo which 
renders no man uncomfortable, but him whose 
body is the subject of it. We have too much li- 
berty. Ours is a fine government in theory, but its 
laws are neither respected nor enforced. Military 
schools contain the seeds of death to American 
liberty. It is the pride and pleasure of Ameri- 
cans to get into debt, and then by avoiding pay- 
ment, show how adroitly they can cheat and wrong 
each other. Few look upon knavery with dis- 
gust, but rather with a smile of approbation. It 
is indeed difficult to trade with the people in an 
old plain honest way. Knavery damns the North, 
and slavery the South. Free blacks without a 
certificate are here seized, put into our city gaol, 
advertised a month, and then sold for gaol fees, 
when they become slaves for life. Who would 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 107 

expect to find a certificate always in the pocket 
of a poor wandering African, who has become 
free ? 

16*7*. Introduced to Mr. Wm. Elliott of the 
Patent office, the contents of which constitute a 
splendid monument to the ingenuity and mecha- 
nical genius of this country. Many models ap- 
pear which have never been copied. Mr. Elliott 
is an Englishman, descended from a noble family, 
and was a neighbour of, and known to Archdeacon 
Paley. He is, too, an eminent mathematician 
and astronomer, philosopher, and public orator. 
By him I was introduced to Mr. Adams, a learned, 
highly intelligent, and honourable -Yankee. Re- 
publicans affect to be no respecters of persons 
merely, but they cannot conceal the effect and in- 
fluence of property and authority. 

I met again Mr. Adam Lyon, late of Chatteris, 
Isle of Ely, now a butcher in this city. He 
states, that farming at Honey, near his native 
town, is better than any here, although he knows 
of some farmers in Maryland who net great pro- 
fits. A dollar in trade here is said to be equal to 
a guinea in England, but business not so easily or 
respectably managed. 1 received from Mr. Edw. 
Dumbleton, an experimental brewer, a statement 
of brewing porter in this country, by which it is 
clear to him, that by a capital of 1,400/. 700/. or 
50/. per cent, is to be netted by the brewer, while 



108 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

the retailer or publican with little or no capital 
gains 100/. percent. 

Mth With Messrs. T. Coote and Dnnibleton 
1 visited the navy-yard, where 1 saw several emi- 
nent mechanics, nearly all Englishmen, some of 
whom are receiving not above J| dollar a day, 
although at home they received 3/. a week. The 
steam machinery is here "mighty fine," "superbly 
elegant," as a native would call it, and the new 
100 gun ship of war is a most noble vessel, a float- 
ing battery worked and manned by 900 men, and 
altogether as good and gallant a ship as John 
Bull ever saw. Gouging still flourishes. His 
Excellency, Mr. Monroe, while a young man, con- 
stantly kept his hair closely shorn, in order that 
his head might be less exposed to this brutal 
practice. 

Mr. J. D. is now retailing bottled porter at a 
net gain of 71. sterling per month. Mr. Thomas 
Coote, the brewer, prefers his chance to any 
which he could take in England. So cheap is 
all butcher's meat, and so dear are all vegetables, 
that for some tables the latter cost more than the 
former. A fat lamb or sheep will scarcely buy 
one bushel of new potatoes ; but four bushels of 
ripe peaches shovelled loose out of a waggon, will 
just do it, if a sixpence is added. 

Sunday, 18th. This being Sunday, I visited 
the white and black Methodist congregations at 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 109 

George town, to the latter of which (the black) 
the white mayor of the town, a rich Englishman, 
of long and high standing, is minister. At half a 
'mile distant, we could distinctly hear their devo- 
tional songs. We found a mighty assemblage of 
priests and priestesses, for all preached, prayed, 
and sung together. The pioos prayers, and sen- 
sible, cheerful singing of the poor negroes, (who 
are, however, apt to rise into wild enthusiasm), are 
very honourable to black capabilities, and exone- 
rate them from the charge of natural and moral 
inferiority. 

I9l/i. Talked with the Reverend John Wright, 
Unitarian minister, proprietor of a critical review, 
and of a store in the city, and late an object of 
Episcopal prosecution at Liverpool. In England 
he was at the head of a forum, and occupied some 
space in the public mind. What he was there, 
he is here; often fearlessly speaking, writing, and 
inditing a good matter. He generally preaches 
but to a few, although on one occasion he had the 
honour of preaching in the speaker's chair before 
the President and Congress ; a compliment for 
which he was indebted to the Honourable Thomas 
Law, the brother of the Right Reverend the Lord 
Bishop of Chester. In this matter the two bro- 
thers furnish a splendid contrast. Mr. Thomas 
Law received him in a strange land ; paid him all 
the respect in his power; and subscribed 100/. 
towards building him a conventicle. 



110 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 



Edward Wilson, an eminent merchant 
of Philadelphia, an Englishman of unspotted 
name, and a Quaker, brother to Thomas Wilson, 
of Houghton, Hunts, says, " an emigrant recently 
came to me with 5,000/. sterling, which he put into 
ray hands, and in confidence wished me to use it 
for him at my discretion. I did so, and returned 
it to him in two years, having made the 5,000/. into 
8,000/. He seemed well pleased with my steward- 
ship. He left in England a discarded son, for 
whom I prevailed on him to send. He came, and 
the old man gave him 200/. to start in business 
here, while he (the father) bought land in the wes- 
tern country. In less than three years the son 
was the richest man of the two. I said it would be 
so." 

By mail I received this morning 150 dollars from 
Lorentand Wulf, which I acknowledged to Judge 
King, but which I lent to Jew Jones of Washing- 
ton city, and which he spent at New York ; when 
I wanted it again he said he had never had it. 
He was sued for it, and, as defendant, gained his 
point, because he had not given me credit for it in 
his ledger. He is not an Israelite, indeed, in whom 
there is no guile. Two hundred and fifty emi- 
grants arrived last week at Baltimore, and were 
unable to get employment there : what disappoint- 
ment to the poor pennyless wretches ! I observed 
a venerable looking gentleman yesterday at meet- 
ing, of the name of Washington, a cousin of the late 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 11 J 

general, and much resembling him, it is said, in per- 
son. The memory of that unequalled, man seems, 
however, little revered, and his family is not more 
respected than that of any other person. Mr. Sa- 
vage, an emigrant from Downham in Norfolk, who 
married my townswoman Miss Blinkhorn, intro- 
duced himself this day to invite me clown to Marl- 
borough, where he is well settled as a shoemaker. 
His wife receives 10 dollars a year and has all the 
wood she wants for fuel or other purposes, a 
house, and four acres of land, with range for cows 
and sows ; all for instructing two or three children 
belonging to a richer neighbour. He loves the coun- 
try. The people are willing to give or lend him 
almost any thing. He states, that making shoes, 
and raising tobacco, are both good trades, a crop of 
the latter having been worth from 200 dollars to 
300 dollars an acre; and costing only about 30 
dollars ; a fine profit. 

'list. I was formally introduced to Dr. Beat- 
tie of George-town, the young sprightly eloquent 
orator at the city forum, where he shines a public 
defender of duelling. My reverend heterodox 
friend joined us, and contended that the blacks 
have no claim to a common origin from our father 
Adam ; the form and construction of their bones, 
and the difference of their colour, constituting so 
complete a contrast with all other nations, are held 
to be positive proofs that they spring from some 



112 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

other and inferior source. This doctrine is very 
palatable to America. I regret that it should be 
espoused by an Englishman. White men here sell 
their own yellow children in the ordinary course 
of business; and free blacks also sell their imme- 
diate offspring, male and female. 

Called on my townsfolk, Jack Bellcare and his 
wife ; both are disappointed ; she would not have 
left Sutton, could she have counted the cost and 
sorrow of it, although they are getting a living, and 
have disposed of their children. She keeps a little 
store; he works and drinks heartily, but has not 
yet spent all their Sutton money ; Jack left a 
comfortable home and dairy behind him, and now 
works bare-headed on the road, cursing the hot 
climate. 

Almost every private family chariot in this city 
is found daily on the stand as a hackney coach 
for hire, to either whites or blacks ; to all who can 
pay. 

22?. I heard this evening America's unequalled 
preacher, Doctor Storton of Philadelphia. He 
has one unpardonable sin ; he is an Englishman, a 
refugee from the church of the late Reverend Sa- 
muel Pearce of Birmingham. He preaches well, 
and prays earnestly and eloquently, and that too, 
for all white men, and red men, and black men in 
Africa, but not for the poor negroes of North Ame- 
rica, who are here quite forgotten by the priests, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 113 

who, would they use it, have an influence that 
might work wonders in the black man's favour. 
But this would be treason in Maryland. 

23d, It is remarkable that the cows graze loose 
all over this huge metropolis, and come and go of 
themselves, night and morning, from and to their 
owners' houses and yards for milking, after which 
they are each fed with a quarter of a peck of corn 
meal. 

Ignorance and love of animal indulgence, it is 
said, here frustrate and set at nought the system 
of representation. A good man, therefore, cannot 
get into Congress ; but a bad man, not fit for a con- 
stable, often succeeds by the means of influential 
whiskey. Flatter vice and folly, and you are po- 
pular. I was here introduced by Mr. Elliott to 
the Hon. Thomas Law, (a well known republican, 
brother of the late Lord Ellenborough, Lord 
Chief Justice of England) who received me kindly, 
and on his courteous invitation I promised to 
visit him. 

" Sun-flowers," says Mr. Elliott, " breathe 
each as much in one day as twelve men. I consi- 
der them as highly propitious to health, particu- 
larly in low and marshy situations ; and I there- 
fore surround my hermitage with them." 

Sunday, 25^. Young Rawlings, late of Chat- 
teris, called to say that three of my simple-hearted 
countrymen from Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, had 



114 MEMORABLE DAYS 

inquired for me, and represented me as a spy, but 
still thought and talked kindly of and wished to see 
me. By a spy, they did not mean a government 
spy in the common acceptation of that term. This 
young quaker is an assistant in a store at 300 dol- 
lars a year and board. He saves only 100 dollars, 
and, if he cannot become master of the concern, 
thinks of returning home, where he can do better. 
Yet he thinks 100 dollars here equal to 1001. 
sterling in England. Mrs. Stile, late of Sutton in 
the Isle, is ready to take the benefit of insolvency? 
but has disposed of her daughters in matrimony. 

Mr. Gale, a worthy, feeling, meritorious English- 
man from Yorkshire, and once dandled on the 
poetic knee of Montgomery, but now at the head 
of the government organ, The National Intelli- 
gencer, says, that British emigrants possess habits 
and prejudices which render them 1 unfit to mix 
with the natives down to the second generation. 
They, therefore, should not attempt to associate 
with North Americans, but should form distinct 
settlements like the Germans. Such a step would 
insure them success and happiness in a new coun- 
try ; on coming into which they should depute a 
confidential agent of their own to apply at the 
National Land Office at Washington, where Mr. 
Elliott and other Englishmen, forming a society to 
instruct and guide emigrants, would point out to 
them the best sections of land and climate, with 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 115 

their local description, and that without the expense 
and labour of looking and wandering all over the 
empire to their ruin. 

Mr. Cockin, an old experienced farmer from 
Lincolnshire, says, that on good land 50 bushels 
of Indian corn is raised at three quarters of a dollar, 
or one dollar per bushel; and that the English sys- 
tem, so far as is practicable, is much wanted here. 
The American mode of ploughing wears out the soil 
faster than the cropping. They just move and 
pulverize the surface, which in wet or dry weather 
either blows or washes away into the valleys. By 
the English mode, fresh soil would be raised, and 
the exhausted surface soil turned down to rest 
and replenish itself. 

26th. " A propensity to cheat and deceive," 
says a shrewd informant, " pervades all classes of 
this people, from the lowest mechanic and trades- 
man, or companies in trade, up to nearly the first 
officer of government. It is the boasted qualifica- 
tion of the smart man. Thieving is a characteris- 
tic feature of Maryland, which is peopled princi- 
pally by Catholics, who correct all evil by absolu- 
tion. The Carolinians keep and train up large 
dogs for hunting and finding runaway or con- 
cealed negroes, who are easily scented and found 
by them, if they be in the woods. The mode of 
training is thus : Set a young negro daily to strike 
a pup, and then run from it. This is dog-training. 
My cousin, Captain H. Rugeley, in my presence 

i 2 



116 MEMORABLE DAYS [July, 

ordered a young negro to strike a half-grown cur, 
which immediately seized the boy, who was wor- 
ried a little, for my amusement and instruction. 
Hence these dogs, though generally docile and 
gentle to well dressed whites, instantly seize on any 
strange black man who approaches the plantation, 
just as an English greyhound flies .upon a hare. . 

I am told that Mr. Long, late of Lincolnshire, 
wrote his puffing letters to England, under feelings 
of great disappointment, and said that he would 
give 1,000 guineas to be reinstated in his farm in 
Lincolnshire. , Letters from emigrants, 1 have 
proved to be at best but questionable and doubt- 
ful authority. Janson, author of The Stranger in 
America, it is here said, came and returned a 
stranger. Parkinson, too, the experienced farmer 
and brewer of Doncaster, returned and said, the 
land would not grow grass. This is not so great 
a misrepresentation as it at first sight appears. 
Jn many parts of Maryland and Virginia, the grass 
seems indeed dead, and all that survives is artifi- 
cial grass. 

28JA. When Mr. T. C. Wright first came to 
George-town, 17 years since, the forest approached 
his door, but now it has receded a mile and a half. 
The situation and prospect of things some years 
ago justified the statements now called Puffs. , ,1 

Certain approaches to something like equality, 
and consequent familiarity of the rich with the 
poor, both of which classes profess to be no respec- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 117 

ters of persons, generate a manner highly repelling 
to the aristocratical feelings of the well-bred Eng- 
lish. Dr. Dawes was waited on to-day by an 
American proprietor of land, offering his farm at 
six dollars an acre; the Doctor asked what had 
been its greatest produce per acre? At one time 
15 bushels of wheat, but now only eight bushels. 
He said he had lost money by farming, through 
not pursuing a proper mode; but could tell the 
Doctor of a better mode if he would buy the farm 
offered. Land is frequently bought and sold, and 
kept for many years/ but never paid for, unless an 
offer above the original cost is made and accepted. 
Interest money is paid or payable on the purchase, 
which is held like a mortgage, and in time it reverts 
to the vendor or his heirs. 

I visited the Catholic university at George-town, 
to witness the ceremony, previous to the vacation, 
something like the Commencement, at Cambridge. 
I found a large and splendid assemblage of bishops, 
doctors, priests, pupils, and spectators of all ranks 
and religions. The young gentlemen delivered 
their orations, after which they received prizes and 
degrees from the hands of the archbishop. This 
institution is said to be highly respectable, and is 
open to all sects and parties in religion or politics ; 
it is therefore a nursery of great men for all sec- 
tions of the empire. Although Catholic, it pro- 
fesses not to make proselytes ; yet many pupils 
are induced to adopt this faith, and nearly all seem 



118 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jly, 

to part and meet with their preceptors here as 
with kind and indulgent parents.' 

Friend John Steed, a poor excommunicated 
quaker, once of Earith and Wisbeach, introduced 
himself to me this day. He feels grievously dis- 
appointed, and wants temporary employment as 
an assistant in a store. He is nearly broken in 
both spirit and pocket, and finds charity cold, and 
friends few or none. He is kindly housed by the 
ever friendly Dr. Dawes, and thinks of returning 
soon if he cannot succeed. He would not have 
come here if he could have formed, on the other 
side of the water, a correct idea of the state of 
things in this country. 

The poor white, or white poor, in Maryland, it 
is said, scarcely ever work, but send their children 
to beg, and live on corn-meal and dried fish only. 
Working is disgraceful in a slave state, where 
blacks only work. " Will you work ?" "What, 
work ? I'm no negro, I guess." Thanks be given 
to slavery for all this. 

30th. His Excellency, James Monroe, Esq., 
President of the United States, when out of office, 
is poor, not more than able to maintain himself 
and family, never having had time to gain a for- 
tune. Our late President Madison," (says friend 
Jenny, to whom I was this day introduced by Dr. 
Dawes,) " was, and is a poor man. He married a 
poor quaker girl, one of a large family of girls, 
raised in a boarding-house, but now all married to 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 119 

Congress-men. While Madison was President, his 
wife, Dolly Madison, used frequently to visit our 
friend's meeting-house in George-town, though she 
was no longer a quaker." 

I rode all day with friend Jenny, and slept 
at his house. He is a shrewd land-jobber, who 
has quickly enriched himself. His eyes are in 
his head, and he sees all points of the compass at 
one view. By him I was kindly accompanied to the 
beautiful mansion and plantation of Lough- 
borough, Esq., the most intelligent agriculturist 
(except Mr. Day, of Camden,) whom I have yet 
seen. This gentleman offers his beautiful much- 
improved farm and mansion at 200 dollars, or 45/. 
sterling an acre, just two miles from the city. 
This price was thought too high. Mr. Jenny says, 
that 100 acres of land is plenty for an industrious 
family, who will net 1,000 dollars a year, exclusive 
of maintenance. Land 15 miles N. W. of George 
town, and about Rockville, is better than it ap- 
pears to be ; for, out of cultivation, it has no 
face, never having been sown with grass seeds. 
Some time since it cost 7 dollars an acre, and is 
now offered at 15 dollars, with good buildings, 
fences, and other improvements. 

Sunday, August 1st. I heard the Rev. Dr. 
Allison, a judicious Gillite,* and chaplain to Con- 
gress ; and, in the evening, I attended an interest- 

* Calvinists are here called Gillites, or disciples of the late Dr. 
John Gill. 



120 MEMORABLE .DAYS [August, 

ing. conversation at the hospitable .seat of T. C. 
Wright, where I met several native and adopted 
citizens. Emigration was the theme, it was 
agreed that emigrants should all come in the tem- 
per and spirit of the fathers, the first settlers ; that, 
ultimately, such pioneers as Birkbeck and Flower 
in the wilderness, must benefit themselves, and 
that the last twenty years' history of emigrants 
furnishes encouragement still to emigrate. " The 
English," says Mr. Wright, " who have to live 
here by their own hands, make the most dissatis- 
fied of labourers. They run all. over the land in 
quest of the highest wages; and in so doing, lose 
half the week in finding wages for the other half, 
and part with the substance for a shadow. 
. Two or three of, the English have this day and 
recently fallen dead at the city fountains, in con- 
sequence of drinking excessively of cold water, 
while they were in high perspiration, under a heat, 
by the therm. 98 and 100, in the shade. To avoid 
this danger, it is only necessary to drink a wine- 
glass half full of brandy first, and a pint of water 
immediately after. Thirst is thus safely quenched 
with much less water than would be necessary 
without the spirits. 

3rd. Previous to a heavy thunder-storm this 
morning, a hurricane came on (a common precur- 
sor) and raised dense clouds of dust, which thick- 
ened and darkened the horizon, and made all look 
like London in a dark smoky fog in November; 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 12J 

but when the rain fell, the atmosphere resumed 
its transparency. During the continuance of the 
storm, the heat was the greatest ever known here, 
being 101J in the shade. 

Unnatural prematurity is here very common. 
Boys look grave, and talk, act, and dress like 
men, and expect and exact the same treatment as 
men, though only 12 or 13 years old. 

The poet Bloomfield, Author of The Farmers 
Boy, has a sister living at Alexandria ; and in its 
vicinity live two of the ancient family of Fairfax, 
on immense estates, granted at an early period to 
a branch of their house, but which, owing to want 
of management and prudence, are found to be in- 
sufficient for the support of their several house- 
holds. 

5th. That prominent want of respect for rule 
and rulers apparent here, may I think be traced 
to the disorderly economy of private families. 
The children are rarely forbidden or punished for 
wrong doing, being only kindly solicited to do 
right; nor is strict discipline tolerated in schools. 
Hence respect and obedience to parents, guard- 
ians, masters, and governors, is never implanted, 
or soon eradicated. Authority, in consequence, 
whether public or private, civil or religious, is nei- 
ther feared, nor willingly obeyed, through any 
period of life. 

Sunday, 8th. I heard this morning a Scotch- 
man, Dr. Laurie, who at the end of every sen- 



122 MEMORABLE DAYS [August, 

tence seems to have finished his oration. He ap- 
peared to me to be a man of but little talent. The 
psalms in use here would disgrace a school-boy's 
theme. My first impressions on the subject of 
religious worship in America are not removed. 
Religion still appears to me to be a matter little un- 
derstood and much less regarded than in England. 

Doctor Dawes and Friend Steed. The former 
has bought a farm of 400 acres of poor land, and 
no buildings, seven miles from this city, at 10 
dollars an acre. The latter (Steed) might engage 
himself at 300 or 400 dollars a year and board. 
What would they have more? Both, however, are 
eternally croaking, and write home unfavourable 
reports. They yet concede to me this fact; 
namely, that in this country lives a population of 
several millions, rapidly increasing in an unprece- 
dented degree, and living (blacks excepted) as a 
whole, in a state of society and animal ease, greater 
than in any other country since the world began. 
My friend Wilson, of Houghton, Hunts, is much 
mistaken in his statements, in which he endeavours 
to prove a net annual loss of 146/. in cultivating 
200 acres of land in America. 

9th. I this day visited Alexandria. When the 
British invaded it last war, they took away and 
freighted with flour, tobacco, bacon, and other 
provisions, 21 vessels from Bermuda and the West 
Indies. In this port, four miles from Washington, 
were seen young men of the British navy, all armed 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 123 

against their own fathers and brothers, emigrants 
quietly settled here. 

John Steed's quaker brother, an emigrant in 
Pennsylvania, feels satisfied that he is away from 
England. I received this morning a pressing 
invitation by post, from John Ingle, my old 
school-fellow, settled in Indiana only 1,500 miles 
off me! He feels perfect satisfaction in a new 
and flourishing settlement. I accept it. 

11M. The attachment of goods here is com- 
mon in the absence of the body. One state is a 
refuge for the debtors of another, and this circum- 
stance constitutes a perpetual inducement to plun- 
der and migration. The British are much ad- 
dicted to these practices. They may be followed 
into other states, but so great is the expense and 
difficulty of suing such refugees, that it is rarely 
attempted. The peaches are very small this sea- 
son, but Mr. Cocker, last year, saw them weigh- 
ing from 12 to 14 oz. each. 

The Carnmucks of George-town, two brothers 
from Lincolnshire, came hither two years ago, 
unable to pay their passage: now, one is buying 
10 acres of rich land for 800 dollars, paying down 
500 dollars on account. The other began with a 
small school, and in three months was able to pay 
the captain for his passage, and keep himself well, 
and soon raised money enough to go to the West- 
ern country. Friend Steed engages himself to 
Jones and Co. and begins to repent of having 



124 MEMORABLE DAYS [August, 

written such deplorable statements against this 
country. Letters of emigrants and travellers 
should not be rashly written, because they are 
shown long after the writer becomes ashamed of 
them. An emigrant, unable at New York and 
Baltimore to get employment in his trade, and not 
to be persuaded to try the towns near, paid his 
passage this week for England, but first inquired 
at the news offices for papers stating the number 
out of employment, which amounts to 1500 fami- 
lies collected in New York city, all in distress 
seeking a refuge in Canada. Mr. Perry offered 
several stone-masons, willing and able to work, to 
the Pennsylvanian farmers at half a dollar per day, 
and to keep themselves, but none were wanted. 
There is no money to pay them with. 

llth. Dined with Mr. Eno, late of Tyd, near 
Wisbeach, a citizen of the world, a kind-hearted 
man to emigrants generally, and who preserves 
entire, for those who call at his tavern, all his 
original English feelings mixed up with American 
hospitality. He thinks that few emigrants ever 
rise above their former stations, or meet with any 
thing here which should induce them to quit their 
homes in England ; while the bulk of those who 
come, both masters and labourers, remain miser- 
ably poor. " With respect to myself, (says he) if 
I had a fortune I would live in England > as I have 
not, I am better off here." 1 gathered from the 
ground under a tree in his garden, plums half 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 125 

roasted and too hot almost to hold in the hand or 
mouth, and eating like fruit half baked. Heat 
96* in the shade. This is a demoralizing climate, 
and to it may be traced that prominent want of 
industry and good habits invariably seen and felt 
in this dissolving warmth. 

Sunday, I 6th. Killing in a duel was last month 
decided in a court at Halifax, to be no murder, 
provided the matter was fairly conducted. Thus it 
is that custom .obtains a power superior to the 
law, which deems it murder. The law then, thus 
insulted, had better be expunged from the statute 
book of British America. Four grand duels 
have been fought this week near this metropolis 
by young men of the United States' navy and 
army, who are always practising, by shooting at 
targets and other marks. The President, for 
such crimes as these, has the power to break and 
disgrace any officer of either army or navy ; but, 
such is. the power of custom, that he cannot and 
dare not do it. 

IQth. Picture of the condition of the American 
people, agricultural and otherwise. Low ease; 
a little avoidable want, but no dread of any want ; 
little or no industry ; little or no real capital, nor 
any effort to create any ; no struggling, no luxury, 
and, perhaps, nothing like satisfaction or happi- 
ness ; no real relish of life ; living like store pigs 
in a wood, or fattening pigs in a stye. All their 
knowledge is confined to a newspaper, which they 



126 MEMORABLE DAYS 

all love, and consists in knowing their natural, 
and some political rights, which rights in them- 
selves they respect individually, but often violate 
towards others, being cold, selfish, gloomy, inert, 
and with but little or no feeling. The govern- 
ment is too weak and too like-minded to support 
and make the laws respected, or to teach the peo- 
ple justly to appreciate their excellent, but af- 
fronted constitution. " There are amongst them," 
says Mr. Ferry, " no materials or seeds of ap- 
preciation for it. It was by mere accident that 
they ever had a constitution ; it came not from 
wise choice or preference. In England only, 
exists such a preference and real love of liberty. 
She must continue to be the Great Nation in spite 
of all her enemies, foreign or domestic, while 
America, you see, is retrograding and quite un- 
able of herself to achieve any thing grand. What- 
ever she does is by instruction and foreign aid, 
without which she cannot advance. If A, B, C, 
be taught her, she cannot teach herself D ; yet 
she possesses the boasting, vain-glorious egotism 
of all-knowing Europe, although of and in herself, 
knowing nothing. Almost all Americans are boys 
in every thing but vice and folly ! In their eyes 
Uncle Sam is a right slick, mighty fine, smart, big 
man." 

Great evil results to emigrants from not coup- 
ling good and evil statements relating to America. 
Not half the number would come, if they were but 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 127 

properly informed and enlightened. Under such 
impressions, those who would then come would 
be generally of the right sort. 

In October, at the fairs in Pennsylvania all is 
fine, mighty fine, and dashy flashy. The Dutch 
women then shine and look gay ; but at home are 
like slaves, living hard, and ploughing all day in 
the hot field. " More robberies and murders," 
says Mr. Perry, " are committed in Virginia, than 
in all England. Whole families are murdered at 
once, and buried in a hole in the woods, and three 
or four slaves are wantonly shot and buried at 
once, when not useful nor marketable. But all 
this seldom excites any notice, or is much known, 
in or beyond the neighbourhood. It is indeed 
good policy to conceal it, as the making it known, 
it is said, might and does increase the evil. Hu- 
man life is little valued in America." 

In conformity with my resolution to give an 
impartial account of all I meet with, I have men- 
tioned Mr. Perry's statements and impressions, 
which must, however, I am informed, be received 
with much caution and qualification; because, 
though capable of judging, he is not cool and 
sober enough for unprejudiced, patient, and cor- 
rect observation, 

19th. I visited the beautiful rural seat and 
pleasure grounds of the late poet and minister, 
Joel Barlow, on the heights of George-town. I 
made many inquiries after this celebrated author 



128 , * MEMORABLE DAYS [August* 

of the Columbiad, before 1 could learn when, 
where, and how he died and was buried ; circum- 
stances now scarcely known. He. seemed almost 
forgotten. He died while minister from this coun- 
try to the court of the Emperor Napoleon, and in 
pursuing him towards Russia, to obtain the re- 
moval of decrees against commerce. A tomb, into 
which I am now looking, was built for him on 
this estate, but it is still empty. His body was 
sought for, but, it is said, could not be found. A 
few graves mark these forlorn domains. 
- Visited Mr. Simpson, and viewed his English- 
like farm, about which I had heard much boast- 
ing, and much about his getting money as fast 
as he could count it. I saw, however, nothing in 
the English style but whitethorn quicks, or fen- 
ces in the English form ; which, though old, were 
so thin and full of gaps that stock are not kept in 
without an inner fence of posts and rails. The 
climate is thought to be unpropitious to the growth 
of these beautiful and useful ornaments. This 
estate is the only one on which I have seen the ex- 
periment tried. Here is a low mean house and a 
garden in ruins, and a small barn, surrounded by 
little heaps, (not stacks) ; 60 acres of wheat, 30 of 
oats, 20 of rye, no sheep, about 15 cow-kine; 
wheat averages 10, oats 12 to 16, rye 10 to 12 
bushels an acre. A large English' barn would 
hold all the grain in the straw, although it is all 
mowed or cradled. The straw and hay all goes 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 129 

to the city market for the horses of the President 
and Foreign Ambassador, who pay well for it, and 
therefore, as the straw is worth almost as much as 
the grain, little or no manure is made, and the 
land is of course starved. Turnips, except a 
patch, are never grown. Such a system wears out 
the land, and if introduced into England would 
soon cause famine, or make us dependant on 
other lands for bread. I saw here a fine Spring 
dairy; that is to say, a dairy of stone built over 
a spring of pure cold water continually flowing 
through, and round it, so that the milk and cream- 
vessels may stand in water to prevent the butter 
from turning to stinking oil, which it soon does 
when exposed to the common atmospheric air. 
These spring-dairies, and smoke-houses for dry- 
ing bacon, are indispensable appendages to an 
American farm. In the evening I sat and smoked 
segars till bed-time, with this good, kind-hearted 
man, in a honeysuckle bower, about which were 
buzzing several humming birds. " You see," 
said my host, " several large farms around you, 
not able to maintain even their negroes from the 
produce, so barbarous is their management ; yet 
none of the land is so poor as not to bear almost 
spontaneously, plenty of peaches, cherries, apples, 
and plums, wherever men or birds plant them.'" 

Zlst. In the navy-yard of this city is now living 
a free black man, who, together with his wife and 
a large family, all free, were stolen away from 

K 



130 MEMORABLE DAYS [AugUSt, 

their own house in -the dead of the night, and sold 
into the distant state of Georgia. He alone ma- 
naged to escape, but the rest have never since 
been seen or heard of. Such outrages on hu- 
manity and Christianity provoke no investigation, 
for Mammon, the supreme deity, must not be af- 
fronted. It is difficult to believe that a whole 
family of free-born people, living in the core of a 
free nation, the freest of the free, could thus fare in 
the nineteenth century. 

By the papers to-day, I learn that travellers to 
the west were, last week, publicly assaulted and 
plundered by hordes of labourers at work on the 
great western road, who stopped the United 
States' mail, demanding dollars and guineas from 
all the travellers, and lifting up their axes to 
strike all those who refused to deliver up their 
cash. There is no redress, because on seeking 
justice, the parties complaining must be bound 
over to prosecute. But this is inconvenient, and 
summary justice cannot be had; and therefore 
the thief escapes with complete impunity. 

The natural soil is never to be made so fruitful 
as in England, for except in river bottoms, (land, 
in the valleys of rivers,) it is water-proof, and in- 
capable of saturation. The rain never soaks in, 
but runs off as from a duck's back. Dig a spit 
or two deep, and it is dry and dusty within a few 
inches of the surface. This dryness contributes 
to increase the great superabundant heat which is 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 131 

here felt; for the soil reflects and retains the 
sun's heat, which rises all night, and makes the 
common air like the breath of an oven ; hence 
the thermometer falls not, but is stationary night 
and day in the shade ; these things are not so 
where the earth can be saturated with rain. The 
plaster of Paris so much talked of does riot en- 
rich the soil ; it only kills a destructive species of 
aninialcula, and insects which prey on the roots of 
clover and grain. 

The States of New York and Pennsylvania 
are best for an English farmer of any condition, 
who cannot live in England ; but, if he can by 
any honest means make both ends meet, he ought 
to stay at home, or if he will emigrate, let it not be 
to the western wilderness of this country, nor to 
any of the southern states. 

23rd. In a long conversation with several emi- 
grants, we decided that farms, whether small or 
great, near cities and good towns in the eastern 
states, are always to be preferred in point of inte- 
rest to any in the wilderness or elsewhere. For 
in them, society is comparatively good, and mar- 
kets for produce sure in all years, for all that can 
be raised ; whereas in the west there is no mar- 
ket, except when England and Europe, (gene- 
rally at peace with America,) are short of grain. 
No home market can be expected until they be- 
come thickly populated. The west is only fit 
for emigrants of very small means, and large work- 

K 2 



132 MEMORABLE DAYS [August, 

ing families ; all workers. Those who, like Dr. 
Dawes, come here to know that their evils at 
home were comparatively imaginary and unreal, 
cannot return too soou. 

I visited and inspected the Doctor's farm, five 
miles from the city, consisting of 400 acres all in 
a wild, neglected, exhausted, and abandoned con- 
dition, but susceptible of regeneration by good 
management. The soil is deep and of a brown 
loamy sand, which sparkles like silver ore, or 
with what the Doctor calls mica. It is so deeply 
bedded or rooted with sharp sedgy grass, that a 
yoke of six oxen seems necessary for heaving it 
the first and second time. He determines on sow- 
ing it, when fit, with grass-seeds, tares, turnips, 
and other green crops, but no corn or grain, until 
he can double the quantity per acre grown by his 
neighbours. The former proprietor was always 
unable to support himself and his negroes on this 
estate; and once, in a half-starved plight, went 
for food to his neighbour, Mr. Simpson, who sup- 
plied him with corn-meal. 

Farms and Farming in Maryland and Virginia. 

Ten bushels an acre were here deemed a living 
profit by some farmers. " For ten years," says 
Mr. Cocker, " they resisted plaster of Paris and 
good management, as an innovation by which they 
conceived the land would be spoiled. At last 
they were, convinced by starvation, and by seeing, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 133 

under a better system, 20 or 30 bushels an acre, 
where once they raised only seven, eight, or ten, 
without plaster. Mr. Worsley, an English farmer 
from Lincolnshire, now a first-rate manager in 
Virginia, has in about 15 years gained 5,0001. by 
farming, although he began with only 5001. He 
says he has not introduced the English system, 
because it is not suited to the climate, which, at 
best, is unfavourable to agriculture, as instanced 
in washing rains and forcing heats. The former 
expose the roots of grain and rob them of the soil ; 
and the latter draw the plants fast, and make 
them, particularly if thickly sown, very weak and 
long, before harvest. It is in consequence laid flat 
on the surface, and the produce and quality are 
not half so good and abundant as from a thin 
standing crop. One bushel and a half of wheat for 
seed is plenty. Three have been tried ; but far 
from being any advantage, this additional quan- 
tity rather injures the crop. Although manure is 
not so necessary, nor so capable of being used to 
the same advantage as in England, it is here too 
much despised. To sell all the hay and straw, 
when a good price can be obtained, and to buy 
plaster, is held to be better than manuring, be- 
cause the plaster is cheap, and there is no labour 
in using it, and by binding and stiffening loose, 
light, and hot soils, it protects them against the 
washing rains." Mr. W. thinks ten bushels of 
wheat per acre too little for the farmer. Even if 



134 MEMORABLE DAYS [AllgUSt, 

it sells at one dollar per bushel, it pays little more 
than the cost. " Labour," says he, " is quite as 
costly as in England, whether done by slaves, or 
by hired whites, and it is also much more trouble- 
some. Although much of it is not needed, yet 
more than is done ought to be done. It would 
pay well, and be money well spent. We give three 
quarters of a dollar per day, all the year about, ex- 
cept in harvest, when it is H dollar, or 65. 9d. ster- 
ling and board. A year in some farming States, such 
as Pennsylvania, is only of eight months duration, 
four months being lost to the labourer, who is 
turned away as an useless animal to starve on a 
bare common, if he has not laid up for this evil 
day. Mr. Worsley's land is worth 100 dollars 
per acre, but has only dead fences and no quicks, 
or green hedges ; all woven fences. The greatest 
produce of wheat and corn averages, under the 
best management, from 1(5 to 20 bushels of wheat 
20 to 30 of Indian corn Rye, 16 to '20 and 
barley less than wheat. The system of cropping 
is, Indian corn or Red Clover, before wheat. The 
clovers, both white and red, are very abundant, 
running high up to the breast of a man, but are 
laid flat by the rains and their own weight of head 
and leaf, producing in hay two tons per acre. It 
seems a highly profitable species of produce; for 
if depastured, it fattens all the cattle and pigs 
without corn, before winter. Many sheep cannot 
be kept in summer. Little mutton or wool is 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 135 

wanted, and were they generally marketable, there 
is no winter food for sheep. Turnips do not pros- 
per j they cannot be raised so as to attain any 
size, and if they could, even Swedish turnips, the 
most hardy of all, would not endure the frosts. 
All would rot, and the sheep, unless housed and 
fed, must perish." 

26th. With a large party of ladies and gentle- 
men I visited the great falls of Potowmac, 15 miles 
west of Washington. On my way thither I saw 
no good farms nor farmers, but much land in 
possession of people, who neither occupy nor 
wish in anywise to improve it. They farm on a 
swinish system, and raise from 10 to 15 bushels 
of Indian corn, and eight to ten bushels of wheat 
per acre. Poor, indolent farmers! Here I saw 
plenty of peaches wild, and planted by birds. 
About the rocky falls of this river all is wild, 
romantic, savage, and sublime, to a degree beyond 
my power to describe. Here are pits, or quarries 
of marble, an infinite supply ! When polished, it is 
beautifully veined; a dark blue grey, red and 
black. The capital here finds its majestic pillars. 

Mr. Birkbeck's letter to emigrants landing in 
the eastern ports, appeared this day in the city 
Gazette. It^contained little new; only wishing 
them to examine and judge for themselves be- 
tween his settlement in Illinois and those in 
Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. 

Mr. Worsley thinks that the west is the best 
destination for poor industrious farmers, who will 



MEMORABLE DAYS [AllgUSt, 

there live well on their own good land, and encrease 
its value, but capital is best employed near cities 
and towns, where there is a certain market. 
" But/' says Mr. Perry, in reply, " ten acres 
near New York or Philadelphia, or in such 
states, are infinitely better for a poor man than 
hundreds of acres in the west. J know of 60 
acres at Feversham, in my native Kent, which 
average 200/. a year net profit, after immense 
taxes, tithes, and poor rates, are deducted. How 
much happier must a man be there than in the 
west, with 2,000 unprofitable acres. You talk 
of your wild turkeys and your game, but they 
are not there ; game is more scarce than in Eng- 
land. No honest answer to inquiries can be had 
in the west, or elsewhere. All praise and lie, be- 
cause all wish to sell, and think the inquirer wants 
to buy." Copmodore Barney admits the truth of 
Perry's statemepts respecting the country gene- 
rally. 

30tk. Mr. Birkbeck (in this day's paper) ac- 
cuses Mr. Cobbett of lending his active pen to eas- 
tern land speculators, who wish to see Illinois set- 
tlements in ruin and utterly discarded. Mr. Dunn, 
however, of this city, says the west is the only 
country for small capitals and large families, every 
branch of which shall there fructify, and in due time 
have each a farm of its own. Surplus produce is 
marketable enough in the shape of pigs, horses, 
beeves, and whiskey. The western people can 
Jjetler afford to sell at half, than the eastern can 



1819.] JN AMERICA. 137 

at whole price, because they grow double the 
quantity per acre, and there is a rapidly encreas- 
ing population. The western market is New 
Orleans, and that only. It is 1,500 miles from 
Illinois; the produce is sent down the Ohio 
and Mississipi. A supercargo, or the owner of it, 
must go with it to sell it, or the farmer is perhaps 
cheated out of all, or at best sells at an incalcu- 
lable loss. A ship's cargo, or Yankee speculation 
to that city, is sometimes composed of iron coffins, 
or nests of coffins filled with shoes, so accommo- 
dating both the living and the dead. 

Grasshoppers, so called, but in fact a species of 
locust about the length of my little finger, swarm 
in countless millions all over this and the conti_ 
guous states, where oats and other crops are some- 
times cut unripe to prevent their being devoured 
by these almost worse than Egyptian locusts. They 
hop, jump, and fly from about six to ten feet from 
the ground, and devour every green thing above and 
below. Ahatleftin the field was devoured in a night. 
Their wings and trunks are beautifully colored. 
On their rising from the surface they frequently 
strike my nose. In all the plain round this city 
they leave scarcely a blade of grass. It now looks 
as rusty and dusty as a ploughed field, the grass 
being eaten down to the very roots. The intel- 
ligent Mr. Adams says, that when he was survey- 
ing the territory on the Michigan, and other Lakes, 
flies were seen falling in clouds, and lay dead and 



.138 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

stinking on the land nearly knee-deep. What fine 
manure! But how offensive to the Pharaohs of 
the country ! By the papers to-day, I see that 
Miss Courtney, the daughter of an emigrant in 
Mr. Birkbeck's settlement, was killed in a few 
hours by the bite of a huge spider, such as I saw in 
Carolina, scattering thousands of eggs in my path. 
It seized the unfortunate lady on her forehead ; no 
cure could be had of the Indian, or other doctors. 
Her head swelled to an enormous size, and after 
her death was livid all over. The herb called the 
Plantago is said to be a remedy, if applied in time. 
The west country mail and travellers are now 
repeatedly stopped and robbed by parties of men 
at work on the Philadelphia road, who will not 
suffer any person to proceed until plundered. 

3rd. Lord Selkirk, while here, always deemed 
it expedient and politic to travel in the disguise of 
a poor man, to prevent his becoming a daily prey 
to tavern imposition and wild outlawed thieves. 
This mode is wise in any man moving in and 
through a wild country. His Lordship's settle- 
ment, so very near his heart, is said to be in ruins, 
and a constant prey to the Indians, excited against 
it by the north-west company, although he honour- 
ably paid the barbarians for their land. Murder, 
and acts amounting to civil war, have been com- 
mitted on both sides and by all parties. 

Sunday, bth. 1 left this city on an agricultural 
tour into the states of Maryland and Virginia. I 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 139 

was accompanied by Mr. Dunn, the friendly ser- 
jeant-at-arms to Congress, who felt kindly anxious 
that I should see and know his list of friends. We 
travelled on horseback, resting the first night at 
Squire Simpson's. We visited Mr. Webb, who 26 
years since came here a London mechanic, and 
bought 500 acres of poor land, which he has but 
little improved, getting only from six to ten bushels 
of wheat per acre. He thinks plaster of Paris, 
without manure, of no real service on poor, worn- 
out land. Plaster is found to operate on land by 
attracting dew. More dew is always seen in 
plants and grain growing on plastered fields. The 
dew palpably shews where the plaster has been 
used, and the land is cooled by it. Mr. Webb, the 
father of a family, feels well satisfied that America 
is the country for a poor and industrious man. 

Farming. A gentleman of considerable pro- 
perty plastered and clovered three years succes- 
sively, without either mowing or depasturing. The 
whole produce of the land was suffered to grow 
and rot, and at the end of the third year, it was 
ploughed and sown with wheat, and yielded thirty- 
five bushels per acre. This was a novelty in 
farming, and too expensive an experiment for far- 
mers. Droves of cattle are bred in the southern 
and western back-settlements, and sold to the 
graziers on the Potowmac at one dollar per head, 
and in a year after to the butcher at from 10 to 
15 dollars, who in his turn makes 30 dollars, so 



140 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

gaining 100 per cent on the cost. I cannot but 
doubt the correctness of this statement, although it 
seems to come from good authority. It appears 
improbable to an Englishman, who never sells a 
calf at a week old, under 4 dollars or 5 dollars. 
Webb and Simpson, both Englishmen, think that 
10 bushels of wheat an acre, gives a living profit, 
and feel well assured that estates with, or near 
a market, are infinitely better than the western 
country, which they contend is without a market. 
" We saw," say they, " two men who had returned, 
preferring 100 acres of poor land, like ours, to 
500 in 'the west, where there was no market, nor 
money to be had or made. Even in the east, 
where land is far off a market, or inconveniently 
situated, it is not worth half so much as it would 
otherwise be. The produce cannot be carried io 
market, when most wanted in the winter. 

6th. I reached and slept at Harper's Ferry, 
where is Uncle Yarn's grand central depot of arms 
and ammunition. I visited the armoury, which is a 
magnificent establishment, replete with all that is 
necessary for the destruction of the human family. 
Here also is a manufactory of arms, conducted 
on the most scientific principles, and abounding 
with almost every species of ingenious machinery, 
worked by steam, and supplied by water running 
from the mountains near, and carried to the top of 
the buildings, which, together with the town on 
the banks of the river, stand in a fortification of 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 141 

rocks. The traveller enters Harper's Ferry by a 
steep declivity of two miles, so rugged, that I ex- 
pected we should all break our necks. The 
southern bank opposite to the town is perpendi- 
cularly higher than the ball of St. Paul's cathe- 
dral, and on it are growing huge forest trees, which 
are cut and tumbled down this awful precipice, 
and floated down the Potowmac. The romantic 
and stupendous scenes of nature are here unri- 
valled. No traveller should return from America 
without seeing Harper's Ferry, which is very well 
sketched by the late president Jefferson in his 
Notes on Virginia. I ought to mention, that I 
dined this day with Mr. Marlow, a kind-hearted 
sociable gentleman, living out of society between 
two huge mountains, the Chotocton and the Blue 
Mountain, and losing the sun daily three quarters 
of an hour sooner than other places in the neigh- 
bourhood. He purchased his present estate, all 
of fine land, save the mountain land, 300 acres, at 
20 dollars an acre, about three years since, and is 
now offered 60 dollars for it, but it is falling in 
value. It is all in a state of cultivation and en- 
closed, and is the third purchase on which 
he has lived awhile and improved for sale ; 
having thus gained 25,000, or 30,000 dollars, 
without a cent to begin with. He thinks highly 
of Illinois and the western states generally, but 
considers Missouri to be the best, and to be pre- 



142 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept- 

ferred, as being the richest soil, and a land of ne- 
groes. -"There," says he, " the market is good 
and certain, and produce may be taken down the 
Mississipi, to New Orleans and the eastern parts, 
as cheaply as I can get mine to Washington, Bal- 
timore, or Philadelphia, for I have to pay half a 
dollar a barrel for 80 miles only, and the farmers 
of the west can send it 2,000 miles for six dollars.' 
Mr. Mailow gains nothing by cultivation merely, 
but by making improvements, and by the en- 
creased value of land, one third of which he al- 
ways keeps ia wood, or rather uncleared, and 
deems that part the most valuable. 

7th. I visited and spent the night with Mr. 
Worsjey, a first-rate practical farmer and grazier, 
late of Lincolnshire. He owns a fine farm, 
in a Maryland valley, of 350 acres, which 13 
years ago he bought at 20 dollars an acre, but 
which is now worth 60 dollars. It has averaged 
yearly, exclusive of a good living, a net gain of 
600 dollars by cultivation only. He finds 40 
miles from a market of no importance, as the 
carrying is done when men and horses have 
nothing else to do. He is also paid for the car- 
riage, and brings in return plaster, for which he 
must otherwise have gone empty ; or if he pre- 
ferred it, he might sell his grain to a neighbouring 
miller at a city price, only allowing the miller for 
the carriage to the city : " My expenses," says 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 143 

he, " on an acre of wheat, amount to 12 dol- 
lars, and it has always averaged 22 dollars, or 
23 dollars at market, so netting near 100 per 
cent. I have always 150 acres in grain and corn, 
100 in clover, and 100 in wood, the latter of 
which is worth, to sell, 150 dollars an acre, but 
that must remain as indispensable to a farm with- 
out any green hedges. I consider green clover 
crops in value equal to grain, when fattening 
beasts and pigs pays well. This dry year, the 
four-years old beasts, which cost in, as stores, 35 
dollars a-head, will sell out only for the same 
money; a sad loss. All my time, keep, and 
labour are wasted on them." I saw his herd of 
swine, 100 in number; some fat, others only half 
fat, all fed in clover only, and generally fat 
enough for market in the autumn, but never fit for 
his own use ; corn being necessary to make them 
firm and fit for smoking into hams. This herd 
seems now just fat enough for London porkers; 
the citizens not desiring it thoroughly fat. Viewed 
and examined the threshing floor, where 50 bushels 
a day of wheat are trodden out by five or six oxen, 
and a horse amongst them, and three or four men 
to brush them up and shake off the straw, and 
keep on a supply of fresh grain. The men drink, 
and " muzzle not the ox which treadeth out the 
corn." 

Both man and beast seem to know and do their 



144 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

business well. Mr, Worsley keeps five male 
negroes all the year round, and in harvest five 
extra hands, a fortnight only. Clover sown in 
wheat or rye in March, is frequently mown in 
great abundance after the grain is off: such is the 
richness of the soil and climate, that two tons an 
acre are often thus gotten. It runs up high as the 
waist of a man, and pigs are fattened on it besides ; 
thus are two crops, one of wheat, and the other of 
clover, both gathered from the same field in the 
same year. Mr. Worsley says, " I would not 
have Dr. Dawes's land as a gift, if I must be con- 
fined to live on and out of it. Mr. Simpson has 
saved but little money, not half so much as he 
ought; on good land, with his industry and skill, 
he must have been worth ten times as much money 
as he is." But he is hospitable, and keeps open 
house to all, and he is never without visitors. 
When the British burned the city, the ladies fled 
to him. 

Mr. Worsley began with 100J. borrowed 90QL, 
had some with his wife, and is now worth 30,000 
dollars. He was always a working, economical 
man, spending nothing, selling every thing, and 
turning all to some good account. Dr. Franklin's 
theory is Worsley's practice : 

tl ./Mi! ' " I.:::; 

" Get what you can, and what you get hold ; 

That is the stone which turns lead into gold." 



1819,] IN AMERICA. 145 

Cost of one acre of Cropping on Mr. Worsley's 
good farm : 

Dollars. Cents. 

Rent .2 

Taxes 9 

Seed Wheat 1 50 

Ploughing by hire 3 

Reaping or cradling .... 2 

Carting and threshing .... 2 50 

Carting to mill near home . . 1 

1 bushel of plaster, at 60 cents 1 

13 9 

The average price and quantity 18 bushels at 
1 dollar 25 cents. 

Dollars. Cents. 

22 50 
13 9 

9 41 

Net profit on one acre of wheat which is raised 
without a year's naked fallow. 

Got 500 dollars by pigs last year, and some- 
times more. 

Proved a net gain of 1 30/. a-year, and a good 
living for family, during 13 years. 

The first cost of the farm, 360 acres, and stock- 
ing 9,300 dollars. 

Present stock and cash 6,000. 

3,000 capital for seven years. 7 

,. _ . > employed. 

3,000 ditto for six years. j 



146 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

8th. I moved on to the seat and pleasant farm- 
house of Johnson, Esq. a young gentleman 

married to a delicate young lady of taste and 
amiable manners. Mr. Johnson lives in capital 
style in a house of stone, the labour only of which 
cost 3,000 dollars, on a large estate near the Sugar- 
loaf mountain. It was left him by his father, and 
contains mines of iron and a foundry, very profit- 
able. " I travelled," said he, " through the wes- 
tern country by Kentucky, Ohio, and Tenessee, 
seven years since, but saw nothing to induce me 
to leave the eastern states. It is there impos- 
sible to turn produce into cash when wanted: 
no market but distant Orleans. Produce is sur- 
rendered to enterprizing men, as they are called, 
on the rivers, but who frequently prove to be 
thieves ; for if the boat is stove in, or markets 
are bad or dull, there are no returns; you hear 
no more of either produce or the boat-men. Com- 
panies and steam-boats' folks are safer to entrust 
it with. To go yourself to market is impossible, 
for while selling one crop, you would lose the 
time for raising another. This impediment to the 
success of capitalists in the west, is likely long to 
continue, or to remove only slowly. The west is 
only fit at present for a father who has many sons 
whom he wishes to settle on estates of their own, 
and who will be able to live there, but not in 
eastern comfort and respectability. I know many 
men of capital tempted to sell out in the east and 




1819.1 IN AMERICA. 147 



purchase largely and settle down in the west, but 
who continued there only a short time, being right 
glad to sell out with loss and re-purchase their 
old eastern estates, or others at a considerable 
advance." 

Mr. Johnson thinks these are good arguments 
in favour of the east, with which he is satisfied, 
and that satisfaction he gained by seeing the west. 
Mr. Johnson, now only 32, was then gay and 
young, and the west has been ever since improv- 
ing ; several farmers having made fortunes trebling 
and quadrupling their first capitals by purchasing. 

" West country hospitality," says Mr. Johnson, 
" is most abundant, and is well exemplified in the 
conduct of many of the most respectable settlers, 
towards a stranger who was waylaid and robbed 
of 3,000 dollars. On making it known, colonels, 
majors, captains, and lieutenants, all as one man, 
instantly armed without fee or reward, and scour- 
ing the country round for many miles, overtook 
and seized the robber, and recovered all the cash 
for the overjoyed stranger." 

[ noticed to-day, that at lone houses a little out 
of society, the children all rushed to the doors to 
gaze upon us, and with a fixed, wild, staring 
eye, seemed to say : We have never seen such 
strangers before in this world. 

Qth. Being now in the neighbourhood of his 
excellency the president's country seat, or farm- 
house, the patrimony of his family, I find that his 

L 2 



148 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept 

neighbours are rejoicing because his excellency, 
on corning here last week, was arrested three 
times in one week by neighbours whom he ought 
to have paid long ago ; the debts being money 
borrowed on his estates. He has long been under 
private pecuniary embarrassments, and offered 
all his estates for sale in order to discharge the 
demands of his creditors. 

I reached the elegant farm mansion and table 
of Colonel Thomas, to dine. Here I found many 
interesting sons and daughters, who, together 
with their sire and mother, seemed full of good- 
will and generous hospitality to me, a stranger. 
The colonel has two farms, one of 600, and the 
other of 300 acres ; bought 30 years since at two 
guineas an acre, all fine land, which averages 
from 20 to 25 bushels of wheat per acre: one 
dollar a bushel is a fair price if mechanics were 
reasonable in their charges. Some of them soon 
get fortunes: " On my farm of 300 acres,'* says 
he, " I give to my steward one sixth of the pro- 
duce raised, which to him is from 500 to 600 
dollars annually, besides land for hemp and flax, 
a cow, and all the poultry he likes to raise. I 
think fanning a slow way of getting money, except 
where the family are all workers, and live econo- 
mically on bacon, potatoes, and sour skim milk, 
as do many farmers of Dutch extraction. But 
the children so raised, when they get the property 
into their own hands, generally spend it faster than 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 149 

it was gotten. I feel myself but little richer by 
the boasted increased value of land while I keep 
it. It maintained me at first, it only does so now : 
housekeeping expenses for a genteel family have 
increased in proportion, and, indeed, more than 
either land or produce. I however prefer farm- 
ing, because it is a certain independence. I think 
highly of plaster of Paris and management, and 
plough my land more than once for wheat." 

The colonel has relatives in Illinois doing well, 
and well pleased, and who took good capitals, and 
workmen, and mechanics, and implements for 
building first-rate houses. He thinks the west 
the best country; the land there increases so fast 
in value. " My store-bill," says he, " is here 
6,000 dollars a year." 

I bade farewell to the colonel, who desired 
that I would visit his western friends, and report 
of them, and re-visit him on my return. 

10th. Supped and slept at New Town with 
Mr. M'Gill, a venerable and highly respectable 
merchant, who knows that farmers have made 
large fortunes quickly, where disposed to economy 
and industry. Still, many of the Virginians have 
spent all as fast as it came, indulging in all manner 
of luxury and excess ; giving their children most 
expensive educations, which never turned to any 
account, as they afterwards all sat down on small 
plantations. Colonel Thomas (says he) has saved 
much and spent liberally too, although he talks 



150 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

to you of money being made slowly by farming. 
Bacon, potatoe, and bonny claber fanners (Ger- 
mans) have become invariably rich by cultivating. 
On farms of 300 acres each, 100 is in wood, 100 
in corn and rye, for the support of the farm and es- 
tablishment, and 100 is in wheat, clear gain, which 
might be put into the pocket every year. Twenty- 
three thousand dollars capital is necessary for 
every farm of 300 acres in this fruitful valley, and 
about 10 per cent, profit on such capital is realized 
where good management exists. He thinks highly 
of the west, and feels anxious for the success of 
Mr. Birkbeck's settlement. He must enrich him- 
self, family, and followers by the increasing value 
of land, and that without cultivating an acre, if he 
does but retain the title-deeds in his own hands. 
He feels sure that land on the Miami of the lakes 
is fine and desirable for settlers, especially when 
the canal from New York thence shall be finished, 
and deems settlements on the Missouri flourishing 
and inviting. Mr. M'Gill is of Scotch extraction, 
and is a kind-hearted, well-informed man. 

\\th. I dined, supped, and slept with Mr. T. 
Hillery, a water-miller and planter of the most 
complete kind, occupying two large plantations, 
one rich, and the other poor, worn-out land. On 
the former he gets from 35 to 40 bushels of wheat 
an acre; on the latter poor land from two to five 
bushels : he averages 25. He is satisfied with five 
bushels for the first few years. The poor land he 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 151 

bought at six dollars an acre, but is sure of greatly 
increasing its value, although he shall gain nothing 
but rather lose by cultivation, for on 500 acres he 
could not support his family. Mr. Hillery is a 
man of large capital, enterprizing habits, and great 
industry; being always in the mill or the field, at 
work from sun-rise to sun-set. He is one of a 
large family of sons, who are all settled in a similar 
way : their father, in great agricultural riches 
and eminence, is still living. A poor man, (he 
says,) must never buy poor land ; he must go to 
the west ; but he is convinced that the east is the 
best for the present employment of capital, which 
cannot be invested with advantage in the west, 
unless the farmer is a trader also. Then he may 
succeed, but not by cultivating alone ; there being 
no market there except New Orleans, where, if 
produce can be sold, it is found not to be worth 
raising. He has seen several who have returned, 
preferring the eastern states : he never felt any 
desire to emigrate, but means to visit the west for 
the purpose of seeing and judging, and buying 
estates for each of his children, in such parts as 
are likely to become the most inviting to, and lie 
in the channel of emigration. The poor man, if 
any body, must be the pioneer in the western 
regions. He showed me what he called his fine 
large ears of wheat, which are of the white and 
red bearded species, not half the length of the 
English, nor so fine and large in the kernel and 



MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

quality. Mr. Hillery thinks well of plaster, but 
by experience proves that it will not act bene- 
ficially on poor, worn-out land without manure, 
Its good effects are evident enough in suitable 
land, so as to discover to an inch where it is 
own. On clover the cattle will eat the pasture 
bare where plaster has been sown ; but if a spot 
has been missed, they leave that untasted, and 
never touch it. It is seen to produce abundant 
dew, and is thought .to contain alum and to stiffen 
the soil, so as in time to destroy all vegetative 
power. It is suitable only for light, warm soil. 
Rethinks that ten per cent on capital or four per 
cent in addition to comniQii interest is not gene- 
rally made by cultivation, even on good land with 
good management; but if liberal housekeeping is 
taken into account on such improved soils, which 
it is not customary to do, that a profit of 15 per 
cent has been, is, or may be obtained. Wheat is 
now only 36 cents or less than eighteen pence ster- 
ling a bushel, and unsaleable at that or any other 
price at Buffalo state, New York. The distance 
from market makes it so. 

Milling and Millers. Mr. Hillery, who owns 
a most complete grist and saw-mill, worked by 
water, buys no wheat, but has more of his own 
and of his neighbours', than he can grind. He 
takes the tenth for toll. He finds it almost im- 
possible to get a careful, faithful miller at 500 
dollars, or 1 \-2.l. a year ! 



18I9.J IN AMERICA. 153 

Sunday, Vlth. Last evening 1 re-appeared in the 
Federal City, after spending a week in that beauti- 
ful fruitful vale, 40 miles long, and seven broad, 
partly in Maryland and partly in Virginia, and the 
only fertile spot, north of Carolina, which I have 
yet seen. Here I found much information, real 
hospitality, honesty, great good will, genuine ur- 
banity, and friendship, accompanied by wealth and 
independence. I was pressed to return and revisit 
these squires and farmers on some future day, and 
spend weeks with them. For this kindness 1 am 
indebted to my friend Mr. Dunn, to whom it 
would give me pleasure, if this page should bear 
my grateful remembrances. 

f I saw a fine apple-tree, full of fruit, evidently 
planted, as are many other choice trees, by the 
hand of nature. 

14/. "Aristocrats," says my friend Mr. Elliott, 
"are breeding fast in America: no men in the world 
are more aristocratical than the heads of depart- 
ments ; they spurn, and cannot even speak to, 
common men, unless it be to purchase popularity 
cheaply. Four ranks variegate this demoralizing 
country, (i. e.) the heads of departments, clerks 
in office, merchants and traders, and the lower 
orders. The third named are considered much 
below the first, yet above the second, and are 
therefore treated with more respect than the clerks 
under government, who are mere slaves, dependent 
and removable at pleasure without explanation. 



154 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

There are already nobility in existence in the 
Cincinnati society and military schools." 

" Our great orator, Randolph, is an orator of 
nature," says Mr. Jones, " and half an Indian. 
He was once sneered at in the house on account 
of his pedigree. He smartly replied, and boasted 
of being descended, by his mother's side, from an 
Indian princess and a Mr. Smith, an English 
gentleman, an early settler in Virginia, who was 
taken prisoner by the Indians, and about to be 
offered up a sacrifice to their gods ; but at the 
moment when the fatal tomahawk was raised to 
destroy him, this princess stepped forward and 
prevented the dreadful blow. He immediately 
married his preserver." 

15th. In the Michigan territory, on the borders 
of the lakes, in July last, flies, thick as swarms 
of bees on a bough, covered the face of the earth, 
and for six days darkened the sun, moon, and 
stars, making the air noisome and pestilential. 
The sides and ends of houses on which the sun 
shone not, were blackened by them. They seemed 
to lose their skin daily and die by millions every 
minute: cattle, swine, and the Indians, feed on 
them luxuriously. Their length is three inches, 
with the feelers which protrude from both head 
and tail. Corn fields and large boughs of trees 
were broken down by their weight. Mr. Adams, 
two years before, saw the same phenomenon. 
They are nondescripts in natural history, but 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 155 

called by the French settlers of the neighbour- 
hood Mosquito Hawks, as they feed upon mos- 
quitoes and drive them away. 

Intending on the morrow to leave this city, on 
a tour through some of the northern states border- 
ing on the lakes, and from thence by the falls of 
the Niagara to the western country, I advertised 
in the National Intelligencer for a travelling com- 
panion, but not finding any offers agreeable to me, 
I determined on starting unaccompanied. Two 
or three kind introductory letters were put into 
my hands by Messrs. Adams, Elliott, and Dunn, 
to his Excellency Jonathan Jennings, governor of 
the state of Indiana, Major Hooper of Hamilton, 
N. Y., and Jacob Lowndes, Esq., the prison phil- 
anthropist, the Howard of America. 

16th. At six, a. m., 1 started for Philadelphia 
and New York ; and in the Delaware river, passed 
a packet-ship from London, brimful of emigrants. 

18lh. I passed king Joseph Bonaparte's palace 
on the banks of the Delaware on the Jersey side, 
and many other delightful farms, houses, villas, 
and villages, with fruitful and extensive salt and 
fresh marshes, and meadows full of hay-stacks, 
just such as are seen in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, 
having the sea ready to burst in and over them, 
and inclosed by water ditches, as in the fens of 
England. At noon I landed for the first time at 
the beautiful and justly famed city of New York. 

Elegant hackney coaches were in attendance on 



156 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

the wharfs, and took us to the Washington Hall, 
the second best hotel in this city, where we dined 
at a long public table, groaning under the weight 
of luxuries. The company seemed of the first and 
best grade, principally boarders and visitors from 
the southern states. All seemed hungry and 
thirsty, and as if living only to eat and drink. 

After dinner I took a hasty walk about the city, 
which seemed all bustle and confusion. It was 
like Michaelmas or Lady-day in England; at 
every door, in almost every street, carts and wag- 
gons were seen lading or laden, removing furni- 
ture, merchandize, and men from the city to the 
country. Stores and offices, and firms were closed, 
or only doing business as if by stealth. But why 
all this? The yellow fever was raging and turning 
citizens out of doors into the grave ; and on dis- 
covering that one gentleman lay sick of it at our 
Hall, we determined on quitting the city and re- 
pairing to Philadelphia next morning. 

I saw the once celebrated Aaron Burr, a little 
lean, pale, withered, shabby looking, decayed, 
grey-headed old gentleman, whose name is too well 
known in transatlantic history to need my notice. 
I saw also in court, but very indistinctly, Mr. Em- 
niett, the distinguished lawyer, and long-persecut- 
ed Irish refugee, the companion of Sampson, 
whose life and sorrows have been recently written 
in this city. All our plans were disconcerted by 
this dreadful fever, and we therefore left this at 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 157 

six in the morning after a stay of only nineteen 
hours in this great mart for all America. 

20/A. This day, 1 dined at Judd's hotel, Phila- 
delphia. I talked long with friend Edward Wilson, 
a rich English quaker and one of the best men I 
have seen in Pennsylvania. He was a refugee 
from Northamptonshire, and by trading in the im- 
portation of British goods, has become opulent. I 
was twice invited to dine with him, but could not. 

" Though there is some distress here," says he, 
" there is room for all, masters and labourers, in 
agriculture ; but I cannot advise people, who are 
comfortable in England, to come here, unless they 
can appreciate the advantages arising to their 
children and posterity generally. Fathers and 
mothers should expect to sacrifice themselves for 
their children. The rage for speculation has 
ruined many, farmers not excepted, who purchased 
lands now not worth half the cost. The banks 
are the sources of that ruin ; but as they are nui- 
sances fast removing, trade, though as bad, or 
worse than in England, will soon become better. 
Those farmers and merchants who have been pru- 
dent, are either rich or well to do. There are not 
above four houses in Philadelphia able to import 
goods into it. I am declining the business myself, 
it being far better to do no business than to do it 
unsafely. As to slave states, if I were blind, I 
could tell when I was entering any of them. I 
can smell them ; the moral air is putrid. Ma- 



158 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

nagement and every thing else tells a slave state. 
The beautiful small rich favourite farms with com- 
plete houses and offices on them, all of stone, 
with the mail road and river Delaware in front, 
sold this summer at 85 dollars an acre, though 
worth 100 dollars. They average 25 bushels of 
wheat per acre, and sometimes produce 40 bushels. 
Your Mr. Long from Lincolnshire, and others, 
have bought excellent lands in Pennsylvania 
within 40 miles of this city, and nearer other mar- 
kets, with all improvements, cleared and inclosed, 
havingcomplete house and buildings, at only 1 5 and 
18 dollars an acre, the cost only of the buildings, 
or perhaps only of the fence, but which land three 
years ago sold at 60 dollars an acre. One dollar 
a bushel here is a living profit, and better than two 
in England. Mr. Long, though of an unsettled 
turn, has bought his land well and must do well. 
He has waited long, though not in vain. There 
is much fine land in and all over the eastern states, 
particularly in this state, and in New York, to be 
bought well (as much must be sold by the sheriff) 
and with a fine market for every kind of produce, 
and not in a slave state. The western-country 
labourers return here, unable to get paid in any 
way for their work, it being impossible to sell, any 
where or at any price, the wheat which they re- 
ceive in lieu of cash. One poor fellow, after thresh- 
ing a month, returned quite unable to sell his 
share or bring it away ; and if the farmer has 20 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 159 

miles to carry it to the river, it is not worth his 
while to grow it, for no money can be had for it, 
but goods only, which he must receive at the 
vendor's own price, and in like manner his pro- 
duce. All is done by barter. I know several 
whom I advised not to go westward, now repent- 
ing and unable to raise ten dollars. They have 
lost much by lending, and by the reduction of 
their lands, which are now, though much improved, 
unsaleable, or if saleable, at immense loss. My 
partner's father (an Englishman) had 17,000 dol- 
lars, when a few years since he went into the wil- 
derness, but now is lie indeed a repenting man, 
unable to raise or borrow ten dollars on or from 
his estate." 

22ftrf. " Young men in trade," says Mr. War- 
dour, " and clerks from England, had better stay 
at home, or if here, return home immediately." 
Fifty passengers returned last week from this city 
to England and Ireland. He conceives that no 
accurate calculations have yet been made to prove 
what are the profits in agriculture. He knows 
that the rent of his purchase does not net above 
three per cent, on the capital employed, though 
situated so near to Philadelphia and with a man- 
sion upon it. Both Wardour and Wilson have 
great numbers of emigrants passing through their 
hands, and establish many well. They send la- 
bourers to masters, and advise them to begin a job 
without a bargain; for, if good for any thing and 



160 MEMORABLE DAYS [Sept. 

steady, they are sure to be remunerated in the east, 
and treated with more respect and equality than 
people coming from old countries can form an idea 
of. It is true that many men labour during the 
winter for their food, lodging, washing, &c. 

I met a Pennsylvanian farmer in the steam-boat, 
who states that plenty of labourers were to be had, 
all the harvest, at half a dollar per day and board. 
There were many more than could be employed. 
Much distress is therefore expected in the coming 
winter through excess of labourers. Messieurs 
Price, Krugg, Wardour, and Wilson, all distinct 
firms and personages, agree in opinion and evi- 
dence that the eastern states are the best for the 
employment of capital; yet they partially admit 
that New Orleans will or may be a market, a grand 
emporium for the western wilderness. Ships go 
there to buy produce; but, Mr. Wardour says, 
why should men of capital go to settle there, while 
fine cleared and improved land in the east, with 
every possible advantage can be bought any where,' 
for the money it costs in fencing and enclosing. 
Western land must be enclosed and cleared, and 
at a much greater expense than the eastern, and 
then after all be without a market for surplus pro- 
duce, or purchasers for the land and its improve- 
ments. Lands, even in the old and thickly settled 
state of Kentucky, are so depressed in price and 
so unsaleable, that a dollar cannot be raised upon 
or from them. Living is uncommonly cheap ; 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 161 

fowls 9s. sterling per dozen, and every thing in 
proportion. Housekeeping is cheaper by 100 per 
cent., and 30 per cent, for a genteel family, than at 
Philadelphia. Mr. R. Flower, in a recent letter, 
says that female servants and others are much 
wanted, as well as mechanics of all sorts. The 
females 'of every description have nearly all got 
married or engaged. 

24tk. 1 returned to Washington city this day, 
after a journey of about 700 miles, during which 
I saw many situations inviting to emigrants both 
in Pennsylvania and in other states on the banks 
of rivers ; but little or no good land elsewhere. 

I feel some regret on quitting the purer air, the 
fairer scenes and better tables of Pennsylvania 
and New York, where, at almost every meal, rich 
and precious fruits garnished the ever tempting 
table, and sharpened the failing appetite. At 
Philadelphia I thought the roasted beef equal to 
that of Old England, and every thing at Judd's 
good hotel, fair, sweet, and cleanly, just what an 
Englishman loves, and deems indispensable to his 
comfort. 

I am forcibly struck every where with the pro- 
minent boldness and forwardness of American 
children, who seem unabashed, manly, and conver- 
sable, because they are always, from early life, in- 
troduced to all strangers at home or abroad. They 
fear nothing, care for nothing, and never blush, 

M 



162 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

but think themselves to be all-knowing men and 
women, never to be slighted or affronted with im- 
punity. 

Sunday, October 3rd. By mutual agreement, a 
band of philosophers, last evening, met to smoke 
me off to the western wilderness; and smoke 
we did till one o'clock this morning, when they 
escorted me to, and saw me safely packed in 
Uncle Sams western mail, and bade me a hearty 
farewell for three months. Thus, with some re- 
gret, left 1 city, summer, and civilization behind 
me, as much from a wish to be faithful to my 
promise, as to see, hear, and know. My eyes 
and ears, indeed, begin to feel something akin to 
satiety; but I had engaged, and solemnly vowed, 
to the faithful patriarch, that [ would travel 3,000 
miles to visit his well-beloved son in Indiana, if 
he, the father, would continue my steward at 
White Hall during my absence. Three thousand 
miles is nothing of a journey here ; and now seated 
and well shaken together with one of Uncle Sam's 
high sheriffs, a gentlemanly colonel, and other 
passengers, all very sociable, I move along gaily. 
At noon, we passed through Frederick-town, a 
very long promising place, quite English in its 
appearance, and well situated in a fine rich valley, 
which yields the finest Indian corn yet seen, and is 
the best wheat land in America, being a part of, 
or bordering on, the extensive fertile valley before 
mentioned, which stretches through Virginia, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 163 

Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and shows the best 
farms and fanners in the land. My agreeable 
companion, the colonel, says that no land is here 
selling by forced sales, nor any under 100 dollars 
an acre, and that few or no persons within his 
knowledge complain of hard times, but those 
whose pride or imprudent speculations have in- 
volved them. We supped and slept at Hager's- 
town, a market town, with three Dutch gothic 
churches, adorned with tall spires, and a good 
court house. This town is highly delightful, and 
almost surrounded by small mountains ; the sce- 
nery is beautiful, and both in and around an 
air of grandeur prevails; except, indeed, at our 
tavern, where, though it is Sunday, all is smoke 
and fire, and Bacchus is the god. 

4tk. Early this morning we commenced a 
perilous journey, ascending and descending the 
Allegany mountains all day. All here is wild, 
awfully precipitous, and darkly umbrageous, high 
as the heavens, or low as perdition. I almost 
resolved on not returning this way by mail, which 
carries and keeps one in constant alarm, unless 
the traveller has nerves of iron or brass. Such, 
however, is the expertness of the drivers here, 
that there is no ground for real apprehension. 

Kennedy, Esq. and the high sheriff, both 

highly intelligent men, deem the western country 
the best for the employment of capital, because, 
say they, we, if there, could send our surplus 

M 2 



164 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

produce to New Orleans, at a less expense than 
the Hager's-town people can send theirs to Bal- 
timore. We think that in time to come, when 
merchants of capital settle in Orleans, all western 
produce will find a good market there ; and that 
good land at reduced prices is not to be had 
generally in the eastern states, for when a forced 
sale is made, creditors commonly take good care 
it shall make about its value, or sufficient to cover 
the debts. Where there are no creditors, it may 
sometimes, but not often, be otherwise. 

5th. We rode this day over our English 
General Braddock's grave. To prevent the Indians* 
then in pursuit, from discovering his body, he 
ordered it to be buried in the midst of the road, at 
the foot of the Allegany mountains, in 1756. 

I slept at Cumberland, on the Monongahela, 
where are the remains of a British fort once used 
against the Indians. 

6th. Off, an hour before day-light, along the 
banks of the Monongahela. Just as we were 
starting, up came a Mr. Morgan and six negroes, 
requesting of the gentlemen passengers that he 
and his negroes might be graciously permitted to 
share the stage with us: we consented. My com- 
panions' compliance, indeed, surprised me a little, 
and in came Morgan and his black cattle. He 
had been round the country jobbing, like a pig- 
jobber in England, and had bought half a score; 
but they, feeling themselves in a free state, snuffed 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 105 

up free air, and took the liberty to escape. He 
was unable to recover more than six; four were 
lost and most reluctantly abandoned. He bought 
them, he said, for a gentleman planter, in the dis- 
tant territory of Missouri, to which they were 
going down the Ohio river. Within two miles 
east of Washington, Pennsylvania, we found that 
the strap, which confined our luggage, had given 
way, and scattered Morgan's trunks and money a 
few miles behind. We sent men and horses back, 
and to our surprise found all safe. On leaving 
Washington, several other gentlemen entered our 
stage, but would not permit Mr. Morgan and his 
negroes to enter. " What?" said they, " ride 
with negroes?" Much strife now ensued, and a 
battle was intended ; but to quiet the angry pas- 
sions of both sides, a stage was provided for the 
refusing party. Our ride, for the last three hours 
of our journey, was fearfully romantic, amongst 
huge rocks which hung over on both sides and 
seemed ready to fall upon us, the effect of which 
was greatly heightened by the moon-light. 

Between twelve and one o'clock we reached 
Wheeling, Virginia, on the Ohio, and went sup- 
perless to bed. I shared mine with a young stu- 
dent, Mr. Paul, of Washington Academy, now 
bound to his father's house at Maddison Ville, 
Indiana, who is there a Banker, or Bank Director. 

1th. We found the Ohio river nearly dry, so 
droughty has been the summer. It is now fed 



166 MEMORABLE DAYS , [Oct. 

V- 

only by mountain springs. Here I unexpectedly 
met my friend Mr. Edney and lady from the Isle 
of Wight, a branch of the Pittiss family of that 
Isle. I dined with him at his boarding-house, and 
agreed to visit his recently hired farm. I received 
an invitation from a learned Doctor to ride 800 
miles down the Ohio with him and his Excellency 
Governor Miller, just chosen king of and going to 
the Arkansaw territory. I waited five days for 
his Excellency and his aquatic suite, but lack of 
water prevented his arrival. 

Mh I crossed the Ohio with Mr. Edney, to 
view and examine his farm, on mountainous 
banks, down to the margin of the river. It con- 
sists of 500 acres, hill and dale, or river-bottom 
and mountain land, the best and richest in the 
state of Ohio, seven miles from Wheeling and 
other good markets. Two hundred acres have 
been cleared and cultivated twenty years. Two 
hundred and fifty are in wood, mountain land, too 
high and steep for the plough, and which, if 
ploughed, would all wash away. Eighty acres 
are in pasture, natural pasture, the richest, finest, 
and most luxuriant I ever saw. So thick and 
matted is it, with fine natural grass and white 
clover, that it is with difficulty I can force my foot 
through it to the soil, which is a sandy loam, and 
has been crowded with cattle all this summer, 
the dryest ever remembered. But all river-bot- 
toms are cool, rich, anrd inexhaustible. The arable 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 167 

land has been cropped fifteen years successively, 
yet still the wheat-stubble and corn-stalks are 
strong, thick, and rank, and the land on which 
the wheat grew is well laid down, or seeded with 
natural grass and white clover, a smothering plant 
of both, and aft-done by the hand of provident 
nature. So complete is it, that an English farmer 
would say, " What a fool have you been, thus 
to waste your grass seeds." It is now, two 
months after harvest, a complete fattening pas- 
ture, and, but for the stubble staring in it, might 
be mistaken for an old home-stall poisoned with 
manure, and too rich and rank, or sour, for use, 
and therefore to be broken up. This bottom 
land, however, may well be rich, for it has been 
robbing the mountains from time immemorial. 
Amongst the corn still standing, although well 
horse-hoed six weeks ago, are seen rank weeds, 
tall as the tall corn. The sun makes every inch 
a hot-bed. Ploughing seems shamefully per- 
formed, not half the land is turned over or down- 
wards. It seems, (as we say at Somersham) as 
though it was ploughed with a ram's horn, or the 
snout of a hog, hungry after grubs and roots. 

The mountain land is good, and well stored, 
and enriched with huge sugar trees, which are 
tapped every spring, and many cwts. made there- 
from; but much of this land is too steep for cattle 
to climb up it, and the timber is of little or no 
worth save for the uses of the farm and fire. Mr. 



108 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

Edney has this estate, on lease of 14 years, from 
Squire Zain, the head man of Wheeling. The rent 
for the first three years, is 400 dollars; the next 
three years, 500 dollars; the remaining eight years, 
600 dollars. Three years' notice to be given if he 
wishes, or is wished to leave before the expiration of 
the lease. The cost of necessary farm-buildings to 
be deducted from the rent. This land was, this 
year, bought by Mr. Zain, at 18 dollars an acre, 
but thought to be worth not above 12 dollars, 
because received in lieu of a debt. Mr. Edney is, 
it is thought, cheated; the good opinion of the 
neighbourhood is against his bargain. " What he 
will thus expend would have bought a better 
farm. The landlord would have been glad of 
him rent free." The farm, however, is very good, 
and susceptible of great improvement. Nature 
has here done all she can, and art little or nothing. 
9t/i. A miserably wet (and as sailors say) 
dirty day. I fell sick of Wheeling, imprisoned by 
a high and almost inaccessible mountain, to the 
top of which I climbed yesterday. I revisited 
Mr. Edney, who has wrangled and parted with 
his father-in-law, once my hospitable host at the 
Isle of Wight. He with his family have settled 
down on wood-land, all in wood, 40 miles in the 
state of Ohio. One son is to be planted there, and 
the rest, with himself, in better Missouri; but he 
is very undecided, and finds that America is not 
Neivport, in England. He lost all his horses, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 169 

cows, dogs, and men and maids brought over as 
hired servants. The animals were stolen, or they 
strayed and died, while his servants snuffed up 
free air and fled, except one female who fell in 
love, while on board, with the black steward, 
and who, on landing, went to a magistrate, at 
Baltimore, for marriage; but his worship said 
that it was contrary to custom and the law of the 
land, for a white woman to marry a negro, and 
he could not and should not allow it. 

Sunday, \0t/i. By free and frequent conversa- 
tions with intelligent residents and travellers here, 
I find that public opinion is favourable to location 
in the western country,which they say has never yet 
lacked a market for surplus produce; and as men 
of capital only can raise produce, and as their 
number is comparatively few, it is unlikely that 
the surplus produce will ever greatly exceed the 
demand. Much of what is raised will necessarily 
be consumed by those who raise none; and 
some will always be wanted at INew Orleans 
and other river towns, cities, and new settle- 
ments. This, in part, is true. Society, say they, 
in the west is almost as cheaply attainable to 
farmers as in the east, for in both he must seek 
it in towns and distant cities, save what his own 
family affords. Mellish, in a recent publication, 
says, " the flower of the east is seen moving west." 
I think so too, for what finer men can i expect to 
meet than those whom I have seen moving from 



170 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

thence westward ? I called on Mr. Yaudal, a 
gentleman whose ancestors accompanied William 
Penn to this country. He seems proud of his 
English origin ; and introduced me to an English 
brewer, who (the people here say) is to gain 100 
per cent, on his capital employed. He has bought 
a brewery from a Wheeling gentleman, who is 
fitting up another brewhouse in opposition, con- 
trary to stipulations. Mr. Edney yesterday bought 
two horses at 50 dollars, his own price, but not 
worth above 25 dollars each. All in the neigh- 
bourhood know that my green and liberal friend 
has English money, and all conspire against it. 

l\th. Waggons (not many) are daily arriving 
with goods and emigrants for the river, down 
which, when the waters rise, they are to float in 
flat boats called arks, two and two of many living 
creeping things, occasionally anchoring on the 
banks and surveying the promised land. A gen- 
tleman recently called at the Cincinnati bank for 
specie, or good negotiable paper. " No," was 
the answer, " we, sir, have neither." The paper 
of that city, the pride of the west, is negotiable 
only in the city for necessaries, and there only at 
30 and 40 per centum below par, or United States' 
paper. The best mode of dealing here is, on 
your arrival, to go to the Cincinnati broker and 
sell just so much of the United States' paper as 
will get you enough of their paper for expenses at 
the tavern or elsewhere ; all must be spent here, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 171 

none taken away, for out of the city it is mere 
waste paper. Such are banks, banking, and 
bankers ; let therefore the traveller hereafter not 
depend on them, but take with him either hard 
dollars or notes of the United States' bank or its 
branches. 

12th. I left Wheeling at eight this morning; 
the tavern bill three and a half dollars per week for 
board merely. I crossed the Ohio into the state 
so, called, and passed briskly through St. Clair's 
Ville and Morris -town, and a hilly country ; all 
fine land in grain, corn, and pasture, with a beau- 
tiful clover face, white as with a shower of sleet; 
and abundance of flourishing orchards full, above 
and below, of excellent fruit, although sixteen 
years ago all was wild, and a complete forest. In 
almost every orchard is seen a cider press, and 
under every tree large apples, so thick that at 
every step you must tread upon them, while the 
boughs above are breaking down with their over- 
laden weight. It is here no crime for either man 
or beast to rob orchards. Land is worth from 
15 to 30 dollars an acre, with all improvements 
included, and a market, as yet, for all surplus 
produce. At 30 miles' end, I rested for the night 
at a homely but comfortable stage-house on the 
road, with a young Irishman, Robert G. Ormsby, 
Esq. of Louisville, Kentucky, aged 2t, of fine 
person and manners, and a fellow student of the 
celebrated Irish orator, Charles Phillips, Esq. 



172 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

He has been four years in this country with rich 
uncles ; is a favourite with the ladies, and is now 
on his way to Pittsburgh, to marry a beautiful 
American with many thousands of dollars. " So 
general," says he, " in Kentucky is the intercourse 
between white men and black and yellow women, 
that soon it will indeed be difficult to know and 
distinguish who is who." 

13th. I started alone at three this morning, 
well pleased with Mr. Orinsby, who mounted his 
stage for the east, and I mine for the west. In 
consequence of thus meeting with this gentleman, 
I determined for the future, on always breaking 
through the custom of waiting for introductions 
before entering into conversation. 

At four this morning, on the driver getting 
down to lock the wheel, the horses started, and 
instantly struck a stump of a tree, and upset the 
mail with a crashing fall, which bruised my side, 
cut my face, and blackened my eyes ; the two 
leaders escaped into the forest, and we saw them 
no more. The driver went in pursuit of them, 
and left me to guard and sleep one hour and a 
half in the damaged vehicle, now nearly bottom 
upwards. When I awoke it was daylight, and 
I walked up to a farm log-house, the people of 
which put their heads out of the window and 
thus addressed me, " Stranger, come into the 
fire !" and I went in, without being burned. At 
five, the driver returned, and with two horses 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 173 

only, we got under weigh, and moved on through 
Cambridge and Washington to breakfast, and at 
sun-set reached our inn at Zainsville, where I 
determined on resting a few days to repair the 
damages of the past day. 

My inn is a good one, stored with newspapers, 
and full of good things, and visitors to devour > 
them ; and the town of Zainsville is very flourish- 
ing, and likely to become a city. It is now a 
county seat and a fountain of law and justice, 
situated on the banks of the fair Muskingham 
river, 84 miles from Wheeling ; eighteen years old, 
with 3,000 inhabitants; good land 20 dollars an 
acre ; plenty of coal and excellent water, being 
well supplied by springs and the river, and afford- 
ing good society; many strangers continually 
passing to and fro. Here is kept a folio register, 
in which travellers write their names, from whence 
they come, and whither they are bound, with any 
news which they bring with them. The bank 
paper of this town is 20 or 30 per cent, below par. 
The supreme court of assize is now sitting, and 
the supreme judge, Wilson, who lodges at my 
quarters, is now to be my nightly companion in 
table-talk. His lordship calls me " stranger," and 
guesses me to be an Irishman. He is surprised 
that I speak so well, and wonders how many 
" dialects," we have in England. " I saw," says 
he, " lately, a lady from your country, who won- 
dered at hearing the English language so well 



174 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

spoken here." " We seein, sir," said I, " a won- 
der unto each other! In this western country you 
see emigrants only of an uneducated class, a low 
grade, full of provincialisms in their talk." Judge 
Wilson is intimately known to and acquainted 
with several nations of Indians. " Several per- 
sons," says he, " have in my time voluntarily 
turned Indians ; one, a child taken from Virginia, 
is now a squaw, but more delicate in her conduct : 
she of course retains her original colour, and 
seems the better for her civilised origin." 

14th. Rambling round and through the town 
I saw a glass-house, and several fine mills, having 
at command all the water of the river, which might 
be made to work mills .without number, and 
machinery of an infinite variety. I wandered in 
the fields shooting pigeons, which is here fine 
sport; they fly and alight around you on every 
tree, in immense flocks, and loving to be shot. 
They are rather smaller than English pigeons, 
and have a lilac breast; but in other respects are 
blue, or blue grey. They breed in the woods, and 
seem to court death by the gun, the sound of 
which appears to call them together, instead of 
scaring them away ; a fowling-piece well charged 
with dust shot might bring down a bushel of these 
willing game dead at your feet. 

At noon, I roamed into the supreme court, 
where I saw my new friend, the supreme judge, 
Wilson, on the bench, in the inidst of three rustic, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 175 

dirty-looking associate judges, all robeless, and 
dressed in coarse drab, domestic, homespun coats, 
dark silk handkerchiefs round their necks, and 
otherwise not superior in outward appearance to 
our low fen-farmers in England. Thus they sat, 
presiding with ease and ability over a bar of plain 
talkative lawyers, all robeless, very funny and 
conversational in their speeches, manners, and 
conduct; dressed in plain box-coats, and sitting 
with their feet and knees higher than their noses, 
and pointing obliquely to the bench of judges; 
thus making their speeches, and examining and 
cross-examining evidence at a plain long table, 
with a brown earthen jug of cold water before 
them, for occasionally wetting their whistles, and 
washing their quid-stained lips : all, judges, jury, 
counsel, witnesses, and prisoners, seemed free, 
easy, and happy. The supreme judge is only 
distinguished from the rest by a shabby blue 
threadbare coat, dirty trowsers, and unblacked 
shoes. Thus sat all their lordships, freely and 
frequently chewing tobacco, and appearing as un- 
interested as could be. Judge Wilson is, how- 
ever, a smart intelligent man, rather jocular, and, 
I think, kind-hearted. 

]5th. Talked with a farmer from Pennsylvania, 
who, ten years ago, bought his land near this town 
at two dollars uncleared, and the best, he calls it, 
in Ohio. The first crop of wheat was 35 bushels per 
acre, but never so much after; it now averages 20 



176 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

to 25 bushels per acre, at 63 cents per bushel, 

about 2s. Wd. sterling; then, not half that price : 

40 bushels of oats, per acre, at 20 cents, about 9d. 

sterling; but will be worth 60 cents, or 2s. 4d. 

per bushel. He gave, this year, three dollars for 

clearing land, 50 per cent, above the cost price 

of fee simple. Clearing, means simply grubbing 

up small surface roots in the way of the plough, 

and cutting down a few large trees within about 

three feet of the ground, and deadening or girdling 

the rest, which is done by cutting out about three 

feet of bark all round the body of the bugest 

trunks, which then, root and branch, begin to die. 

What are cut down, together with the lop, are 

rolled by levers into heaps and burnt. He has 

lived on it, and can now sell his estate, with all 

improvements, at only ten dollars an acre. He 

always found a market for produce, at some 

price. He believes the land about Frederick and 

Hager's towns much better than this, because 

there it is limestone land, and therefore more 

enduring. " I would leave Ohio," says he, " if I 

could sell out well here, and return to the land of 

fish and good oysters, my dear native Pennsylvania. 

Plaster is never used here, but if the land were 

fallowed, as in some parts of the east, we could 

grow 40 bushels per acre." 

Wth. At three this morning, I left Zainsville, 
so called in honour of Mr. Zain, of Wheeling, who 
has here a large estate given him by the state, for 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 177 

cutting a road from Wheeling to this town. On 
changing horses, I spoke to a potatoe farmer, who 
raises only 100 bushels per acre on rich land, and 
sells them at half a dollar per bushel; just 300 
less in quantity per acre, and 100 per cent, more 
in price than in England. " I guess," says he, 
" that we Ohio folks do not manage potatoes so 
well as they do in Ireland and England." " No, 
sir, if I may judge by your quantity, you do not 
indeed." " No, I guess not." Quantity of acres 
of produce is here thought to be of much greater 
importance than quantity per acre. The great ob- 
ject is to have as many acres as possible cleared, 
ploughed, set, sown, planted, and managed by as 
few hands as possible ; there being little capital, 
and therefore little or none to spare for hired la- 
bour. Instead of five acres well-managed, they 
must have 20 acres badly managed. It is not how 
much corn can be raised on an acre, but how 
much from one hand or man, the land being no- 
thing in comparisou with labour. Eight hundred 
dollars per hand is, and has been made from one 
slave annually. 

I passed all this day through a fine rich landed 
country, full of the natural means of living well 
by the sweat of the brow. The poor complain of 
want of money, and others of a scarcity of it; but 
none of want of common necessaries, such as 
bread, meat, and whiskey. At my inn for the 
night, I met and spent the evening with Mr. Chi- 

N 



178 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

chester, a polished, gay, and interesting American 
gentleman, travelling together with his mother and 
sister, in their family carriage, attended by a 
negro, from Kentucky to Virginia. I found them 
very communicable and free with me on discover- 
ing that I was an Englishman, bound to their 
Illinois friends, the Flower family ; " who," they 
say, " are very happy and content in their log 
cabin, where balls and good society are often 
found." " This family," says Mr. Chichester, 
" is very popular, and of great benefit to all kinds 
of settlers in the neighbourhood, disposed to build 
and settle down. Mr. Flower must enrich him- 
self and family by the increasing value of land 
bought ; the only way now of making money any 
where. Land generally in the west is fallen 50 
per cent., and farming there is slow money-making, 
but farmers can live." " And what more," said I, 
" can they do in the east ?" He believes that rais- 
ing and grazing cattle and pigs, is here a more cer- 
tain game than agriculture, and, for a small family 
with capital, he thinks that the east is to be pre- 
ferred, especially as land improved can be now 
purchased there at a low price, with the certainty 
of a convenient market. He thinks that Ohio and 
Kentucky do not average above 20 bushels of 
wheat per acre ; nor even that, because the ma- 
nagement is so bad: " There is more fgnorance, 
sir, in the state of Ohio than in any other part of 
the union. Not many are able to write their 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 179 

names, and in the thinly settled parts of Kentucky, 
ten dollars will procure you the life and bk>od of 
any man. Negroes, you see, are here in Ohio 
equal, and placed at the same table with whites. 
1 knew a party of whites who last year in Ken- 
tucky roasted to death, before a large log fire, one 
of their friends, because he refused to drink. They 
did it thus : Three or four of them shoved and 
held him up to the fire until they themselves could 
stand it no longer ; and he died in 20 hours after. 
JNo legal inquiry took place, nor, indeed, ever 
takes place amongst Rowdies, as the Back-woods- 
men are called." 

" In America," says Mr. Chichester, " gentle- 
men seek not to marry young ladies with fortunes : 
they are too high minded to have it said that they 
marry for money; but, if the lady's father has 
money, they expect that he will give her some, 
either during his life or at his death. Children, 
though you, sir, think differently, are very kind 
and dutiful to their parents " 

Sunday, nth. At Chilicoth6 to breakfast, 
where 1 rest for the day and night. This town is 
situated on the beautiful Sciota river, in a rich 
valley of plantations. Its population is 3,000, and 
its age 20 years. Many houses and town cots are 
deserted for migration further west. The Ameri- 
can has always something better in his eye, fur- 
ther west; he therefore lives and dies on hope, a 

N 2 



180 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

mere gypsey in this particular. The land is here 
very fine, of a dark, loamy, rich soil, inexhaustible, 
and apparently alluvial. The pasture, even during 
drought, is full of clover. Jt is worth 20 dollars 
an acre generally, if improved, that is, cleared. 
It costs ten dollars an acre to clear and enclose it, 
if all the trees are cut down and burnt, or other- 
wise removed. Log heaving, that is, rolling trees 
together for burning, is done by the neighbours in 
a body, invited for the purpose, as if to a feast or 
frolic. This custom is beneficial and fraternal, 
and none refuse their laborious attentions. Nine 
tenths of the adult population here own and culti- 
vate land. A market, therefore, is not now so 
certain, nor will it be in days to come, as in the 
east, though some price is generally to be had for 
produce (says my informant), at New Orleans ; 
but when much land becomes cleared and pro- 
ductive, the market every where, without foreign 
demand, must be glutted. This evil, however, will 
check itself; less produce will be raised when it 
cannot be sold. But as the farmers have little 
capital to employ in cultivation, the surplus pro- 
duce will never be very superabundant. If, how- 
ever, they had more capital they would not em- 
ploy it in raising unmarketable commodities, but 
turn it, if possible, into other channels. 

Fat fowls are here one dollar per dozen ; pork 
and beef four cents, or two pence per pound ; ba- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 181 

con, 10 to 12 cents per pound, 50 per cent, being 
gained by smoking and drying. Two years old 
steers, fat and good, for 12 dollars each. 

The qualifications for voting at an election in 
Ohio are, that the voter must be a citizen, resident 
two years in the state, one year in the county, and 
21 years of age. Sometimes he is known to vote 
from three to six times at one and the same elec- 
tion, and sometimes strangers are brought in to 
vote. 

Corn and wheat are here prodigiously cheap ; 
the first is IQd., and the latter 2s. 3d. sterling per 
bushel. Seventy-five bushels of corn per acre cost 
only six and a quarter cents, three pence half-penny 
per bushel. Three men and three horses here 
raise 100 acres, if they will, or 30 acres commonly. 
Nothing is reckoned for land ; land is nothing ; 
labour every thing. In England it was almost 
vice versa, ten years since. 

J saw an ancient mound of huge circumference 
and great altitude, and a large bricked house (a 
rare thing here) split, and its position altered by 
the earthquake which visited Ohio in 1815. The 
buildings generally vibrated from four to five 
inches. Sugar loaves and tin vessels suspended 
from the ceilings of shops and stores, violently 
struck each other, and palpably shewed the exact 
vibration. " It shook people," says my friend, 
the Chilicothe squire, " out of their beds, knocked 
down brick chimneys, and made the old log 



182 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

houses crack and rattle and on the Ohio banks, 
the earth and trees rolled down in immense masses 
into the bed of the river. On the Mississipi too, 
the convulsive motion of the water was truly aw- 
ful, running and rising mountains high, and in one 
part of that river a stream of fire rushed from 
and divided the water, while the solid land on the 
high mountainous banks was seen in an undulat- 
ing agitation, like the waves of the sea. New Ma- 
drid sunk down several feet, without the earth 
opening her mouth to swallow. The land, how- 
ever, in many parts round this town, is covered 
with water. It is frequently visited with a shock." 

1 S/^. At nine this morning I left sweet Chilico- 
the and the squire, who called to take his leave 
of me, and who seemed to part from me with re- 
gret, and I with him, on account of his intelligent 
and communicative spirit. 

A genteel young man was boarding here and 
had a room to himself. " Who is it?" " Why, it 
is Judge Grimpe." A gentlemanly man, seeming, 
a recluse, of unsociable and steady studious ha- 
bits, with a salary of 1^000 dollars a year, which 
surely cannot compensate such a man for such 
services. 

The road from Wheeling in Virginia, through 
this town, to Louisville, Kentucky, 360 miles, was 
cut entirely by the father of the present Squire 
Zain, a rich citizen, to whom I was introduced, 
and who for such signal services had the power 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 183 

of choosing the best land all along this road. 
Hence he became very rich. Mr. Zain is friendly 
to liberty, it is said, in the best sense of the word, 
and is destined to leave behind him a town, 
Zainsville, as a monument to the Zain family 
for ever. 

My landlord at Chilicothe, the first who has de- 
meaned himself so much as to say at parting and 
paying, " I am much obliged to you, sir," states, 
tfiat he recently bought 75 acres of good land 
in Ohio, at the small price of 75 cents, or 3*. 4d. 
per acre. It was at a forced sale, and the land 
has since been privately resold at three dollars an 
acre, a profit of 350 per cent. Mr. Cowen of 
Danville, Kentucky, one of the twelve fine men 
in the stage; over the mountains, joined me again 
to-day. He states, that Indians willingly sell 
their lands and territories, as soon as white set- 
tlers begin to approach and encroach upon them, 
or when game and skins become scarce. A few 
weeks since, a party of them passing quietly 
through Ohio, from the lakes, were wantonly shot 
at by a white man, when a pregnant squaw was 
wounded and nearly killed. The offender was 

V 

instantly taken and put in jail for trial; the 
neighbourhood shewed them every kindness, and 
the civil authority lost no time in procuring them 
justice. This was good policy. But the Indians, 
if the squaw dies, insist on two white lives. An 



184 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth ; exact retali- 
ation is their law. 

Six miles west of Chilicothe, the land is re- 
markably rich. Here I met and passed General 
M'Carty, to whom my friend nodded and said, 
" How do, General." The General looks dirty 
and butcher-like, and very unlike a soldier in 
appearance, seeming half savage, and dressed as a 
back-woodsman. " Like General Jackson," says 
my friend, " he is fit only for hard knocks and 
Indian warfare." We passed his seat, very little 
bigger and no better than my kitchen at Somer- 
sham. " It is not now exactly what it was. 
During the last war it was in part burnt down, 
and he contents himself with just what the fire 
left him a mere apology for a house. It stands 
on an eminence close to the road, in the centre of 
a large, uncultivated, but rich domain. I passed 
plenty of sugar-trees, and troughs to hold the sap 
or juice, and abundance of tall iron-weed five feet 
high, in full flower; all sure indications of fine 
land, and seen throughout the western country, 
and always noted by land-hunters. I saw at 
Chilieoth, and elsewhere, to-day, many ancient 
mounds, and one regular extensive fortification 
now defaced by the plough. Many such are 
found over these wild regions. They are evi- 
dently the handiwork of an unknown and dis- 
tant age and people, whose history, and every 



1819.] IN AMERICA. J85 

relic by which they might perhaps have been 
identified, have perished. 

I had fine wild venison at dinner to-day, good 
and fat as ever fell to the lot of a lord. There is 
plenty of it in this section of the country; but 
what is strange, no mutton, nor beef that is good, 
where it ought to be the best. Every thing, 
though wild, is generally good, except beef, which 
is best tame, and fed on cultivated, instead of wild 
vegetables, which make it ill-flavoured, dark, and 
tough. Found iron-weed all day, and fine ex- 
tensive peach orchards of several acres each, hav- 
ing nearly half the trees spoiled, by hurricanes 
breaking down their boughs when heavily laden 
with fruit. These dead arms, or boughs, hang on 
from year to year, until they rot and drop of them- 
selves, and the sight is singularly desolate and 
ruinous: all this for the want of a pruning knife 
and hatchet. 

At eight, p. m. I reached a poor log-house, to 
lodge in, full of mean company, who must be 
treated with as much respect as the highest, and 
so I treat them, and receive much coarse kind- 
ness in return. Kindness begets kindness ; nor 
is it lost upon them. An Irish emigrant, said 
my landlord at Chilicothe, recently rode in the 
greatest possible haste all one night, to the land 
office here, to make an entry of a section of land 
uncleared, which pleased his eye. He foolishly 
thought there would be twenty other competitors 



186 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

for it. He bought it, began clearing and fencing 
it, by hired hands, determined to have it all in 
cultivation immediately, as though it was the 
only spot to be bought and farmed in this em- 
pire of unnumbered acres, glutted and smothered 
in superabundance. Poor Pat was mistaken ! 

IQth. 1 started this morning at four o'clock in 
frightful darkness, darkness which might be felt, 
and over a horrid road ; but with an expert driver, 
^and good horses, we move on to daylight and a 
breakfast fifteen miles off. Here we met, at break- 
fast, the high sheriff of the county, a grey-headed, 
rustic, dirty-looking old man, meaner than a vil- 
lage constable in England, but a man of good 
understanding. 

The uncle of my friend Cowen, one of the first 
settlers in Kentucky, during the Indian war, met 
a hostile Indian in the woods: both had rifles, 
and fired at each other at the same moment, but 
both missed. It was a war of extermination. 
The red man then threw his fearful tomahawk, 
which also missed. They then came to close 
quarters, rolling over each other, and struggling 
for the Indian's huge hog-knife, which had grazed 
along the throat of Mr. Cowen's uncle, who at 
length got the knife, thrust it into the belly of his 
antagonist, and leaving it in up to its hilt, set off 
to the fort for a party to despatch the dying 
warrior. To have fled from a pursuing enemy, 
like him, would have been certain death, so swift 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 187 

and sure-scented are they to track and find a 
white man. 

Three months since, a duel was agreed on in 
Lexington city, K. Y. The party challenged 
begged and obtained three months' time, for " set- 
tling his worldly affairs, and making his peace 
with God." But as the party so challenged has 
the liberty of choosing weapons, and mode of 
fighting, he fixed on muskets charged with grape- 
shot and two balls ; the distance to be five paces. 
The pert braggadocio, who had sent the challenge, 
and whom the neighbourhood wished to see killed, 
refused the mode and terms thus offered, and so 
this affair of honour ended. The barbarous base- 
ness and cruelty of public opinion, dooms young 
men, when challenged, to fight. They must fight, 
kill or be killed, and that for some petty offence 
beneath the notice of the law. Established names 
only (says Mr. Cowen) may refuse to fight, but 
that is rarely done ; to refuse is a stain and high 
dishonour. 

I now pass many farm log-houses along the 
road ; miserable holes, having one room only, and 
in that one miserable room, all cook, eat, sleep, 
breed, and die, males and females, all together. 
When 1 see and know more, J will describe a 
log-house minutely. 

We passed through pleasant Maisville, in Ken- 
tucky, on the banks of the Ohio, which we had 
first to cross on a large team-boat, worked by 



188 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

eight horses, on to which we drove, stage arid all, 
without quitting the stage. We have now tra- 
velled 220 miles from the last crossing of this 
noble river, which here runs through and waters 
a valley of fine orchards and plantations of un- 
: equalled fertility; river-bottom land, just such as 
must fascinate a Lincolnshire farmer, who seeks 
for pleasure and profit united. Here I lost my 
gay, graceful, jovial fellow-traveller, who, tired of 
his journey, wanted to luxuriate awhile in all- 
accommodating Maisville. At six o'clock, p. m., 
we stopped to rest, sup, and sleep, at Washing- 
ton, K. Y., having a population of 1,000 souls, but 
little or no good land to sell, by forced or other 
sales yet. It is generally cleared and enclosed, 
and worth, with all improvements, from 40 to 50 
dollars an acre, in a fine country. 

This is the third or fourth town of Washington 

o 

which 1 have passed since I quitted the metropolis 
of Uncle Sam. 

ZOlh. Welcomed to breakfast fifteen miles from 
Washington, by a sensible, shrewd, old rustic 
landlord, and farmer, who knows of little or no 
land to sell, by forced sales yet; the improved 
value is from 30 to 40 dollars an acre. He has 
hitherto been always able to sell produce at some 
price. The only market is Orleans, which is attend- 
ed with difficulty, some expense, and much risk 
of health, and loss of time, as some one or two of 
the farmers must go with the produce. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 189 

Here was on a sick bed a stranger farmer, out 
of funds, returning from New Orleans and Natches, 
on foot. In the dismal swamps of the Mississipi, 
he caught the bilious fever, and then the jaundice 
and ague. " I left," said he, " the folks of the 
two latter cities, dying faster than graves could 
be dug to receive them. No papers have been 
received from either city for some weeks past. 
The printing-offices and presses, it is supposed, 
are stopped, because the cities are deserted. No 
animal food is allowed to be brought in or sold." 
This sick moneyless stranger is, it appears, on his 
way back to Chilicothe, and is very humanely 
sent on by the stage, free of all expense, and is 
received and fed at every tavern with gratuitous 
kindness. Even my driver gave him, this day, a 
dollar. This humanity and hospitality seem na- 
tional in the west. 

I rode over an extent of hills, 20 miles, so flinty 
and barren, that the plough never could and never 
will touch it. The hogs that grunt and roam 
over it look lean, hungry, and starved. The few 
inhabitants live by hunting and shooting squirrels 
and good wild ducks. I saw a fresh- water turtle 
on the edge of the creek. On these stony, flinty 
hills, the first settlers of Kentucky fell, being most 
of them destroyed by battling with the Indians, 
who considered themselves invaded. They fired 
from ambushes. The bones of the unfortunate 
Kentucky ana still remain above ground, bleaching 



190 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

in considerable numbers, at the bottom of a deep 
hollow of the mountains, into which their bodies 
were thrown in heaps, for want of earth and in- 
dustry to bury them. 

Wheat, in this state, is. fine in quality, apd in 
quantity averaging about -25 bushels an acre ; but 
where the land is. fallowed, from 40 to 50 are, fre- 
quently had. Fallow means corn land, or land 
planted first with Indian corn, then with oats the 
second year, and with wheat the next, wjrich is 
generally more abundant than when sown imme- 
diately after, or amongst the corn at the last 
horse-hoeing ; for the land gets a good ploughing 
for the oats, and another for the wheat. What a 
curious idea of fallowing does this seem to an 
English farmer, who knows of no fallow, positively 
so, except a naked fallow ! 

After passing the hills of stone and human 
bones, all the land, which condqcts to the city of 
Lexington, is rich, cultivated, cleared, and well 
settled or located; and, with the exception of 
wooden worm fences, looks much like the best 
districts of Old England, only that the soil of 
Kentucky is better. Here are fair green pastures 
for cattle, and could green hawthprn fences be by 
magic thrown around them, while I slept an hour, 
I should, on awaking, fancy myself in Leicester- 
shire. At five tjhis evening I entered the city, 
the far-famed metropolis of old Kentuck. 

Rambled through and round the city of 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 191 

Lexington, seated in the fairest, richest plain of 
Kentucky. None of the streets are yet filled up ; 
the outline, is large, and resembling Philadelphia, 
particularly in the form and construction of the 
market, which is built over a small rivulet, now 
quite dry, and concealed by the market, sheds, and 
structures. Unfortunately for this city there is 
no navigable river nearer than the Kentucky river, 
ten miles distant, which empties itself into the 
Ohio. Every edifice, saving the college, a beauti- 
ful building, seems filthy, neglected, and in ruins, 
particularly the court-house, the temple of jus- 
tice, in the best square, which, with its broken 
windows, rotten window-frames, rotten broken 
doors, all ruined and spoiled for lack of paint and 
a nail, looks like an old abandoned bagnio, not fit 
to be compared with any workhouse in England. 
This city, it is here said, is retrograding, but in it 
are many comfortable abodes, and the best society 
of Kentuckyi 

Called at the seat of Squire Lidiard, a rich Eng- 
lish emigrant, who with his lady and two elegant 
daughters, came to this western country and city 
in consequence of having read and credited Birk- 
beck's notes and letters, and having known and 
visited the Flower family in England. Mr. Lidiard 
was well known on 'Change; had a counting-house 
in London, and a house at Blackheath. When I 
first called upon him, he was from home. 1 left a 
message for him, saying, that an old countryman, 



J92 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

known to his friend Wardour of Philadelphia, had 
called, and was at the stage-house. On his return 
home to dinner he soon came down to me and 
said I should accompany him to pot-luck. I did 
so. The sight of an English face was mutually 
refreshing, and a sufficient introduction to each 
other. Mr. Lidiard scarcely knows what induced 
him to emigrate, having a fortune enabling himself 
and family to live in ease any where. " One thing, 
however, which weighed with me, was the proba- 
bility of seeing my children well married in Ame- 
rica. I must, however, complain much of Ameri- 
can roguery. Hardly any body cares about poor 
honesty and punctuality. If a man can, or is dis- 
posed to pay, he pays ; if not so disposed, or not 
able, he smiles, and tells you to your face, he shall 
not pay. I saw an execution defeated lately by 
that boasted spirit, which they call liberty, or inde- 
pendence. The property, under execution, was put 
up to sale, when the eldest son appeared with a 
huge Herculean club, and said, " Gentlemen, you 
may bid for and buy these bricks and things, 
which were my father's, but, by God, no man living 
shall come on to this ground with horse and cart 
to fetch them away. The land is mine, and if the 
buyer takes any thing away, it shall be on his 
back." The father had transferred the land, and 
all on it, to the son, in order to cheat the law. No- 
body was, therefore, found to bid or buy. I, there- 
fore," continues Mr. L., " decline all transactions 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 193 

with Americans, it being impossible with safety 
to buy or sell auy thing of importance under their 
present paper system. I keep my money in the 
funds. Housekeeping is very cheap; lOOlbs. of 
fine flour costs only two dollars ; a fine fat sheep, 
two dollars; beef equally cheap, three or four 
cents, two-pence per pound, the hide and tallow 
being thought the most valuable ; one dozen of fat 
fowls from three quarters to one dollar. Land 
here gives a man no importance; store-keepers 
and clerks rank much above farmers, who are 
never seen in genteel parties and circles. Yet, 
here is the finest arable and pasture land in the 
known world, on which grass, the most luxuriant, 
is seen rotting for want of cattle. Just kill a few of 
the large trees (where there is no underwood) and 
you have a beautiful clover-field and other grass 
intermixed, as ever art elsewhere produced. There 
is no laying down here; it is all done by nature 
as if by magic. The land is full of all useful 
grass seeds, which only want sun and air to call 
them into a smothering superabundance. But 
what is land, however rich, without population to 
cultivate it or a market to consume its produce, 
which is here bought much under what either T 
or you could raise it for. Farmers are conse- 
quently men of no importance. They live, it is 
true, and will always live, but I much doubt if 
ever the important English farmer could be satis- 
fied with such living and farming. I feel great 

o 



194 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

difficulty iii advising any friends on the subject of 
emigration. I mean to wait two years longer before 
I do it. Liberty and independence, of which you 
and I thought so much and so highly, while on the 
other side of the Atlantic, sink and fade in value on 
a nearer view. Nobody here properly appreciates, 
but almost all abuse, this boasted liberty. Liberty 
here means to do each as he pleases ; to care for 
nothing and nobody, and cheat every body. If I 
buy an estate, and advance money before I get a 
title, it is ten to one but I lose it, and never get a 
title that is worth having. My garden cost me, 
this summer only, 50 dollars, and all the produce 
was stolen by boys and young men, who professed 
to think they had the liberty to do so. If you 
complain to their friends and superiors, the answer 
is, * Oh, it is only a boyish trick, not worth notice.' 
And again, I tell the gentlemen, that if I wished 
to be social and get drunk with them, I dare not ; 
for they would take the liberty to scratch me like 
a tiger, and gouge, and dirk me. I cannot part 
with my nose and eyes. The friendly equality and 
intercourse, however, which can be had with all 
ranks and grades, and the impossibility of coming 
to absolute poverty, are the finest features of this 
country. You are going to Birkbeck's settle- 
ment?" " I am, sir." " I visited both Birkbeck 
and Flower in June last. Birkbeck is a fine man, 
in a bad cause. He was worth about 10,0007. 
sterling, but has deceived himself and others. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 195 

Both his, and Flower's settlement (which are all 
one), is all a humbug. They are all in the mire 
and cannot get out ; and they, therefore, by all 
manner of means and arts, endeavour to make the 
best of it. Birkbeck tells me, the reason why he 
does not cultivate his land is, because he can buy 
produce cheaper at Harmony, much cheaper than 
he can raise it, although its price is double what I 
am giving at Lexington market. The Harmonites 
all work, and pay nothing for labour. Mr. Birk- 
beck, in June last, was the proprietor of 10,000 
acres, and forfeited his first deposit, ten cents an 
acre, on 30,000 acres, which prove to be, as is his 
settlement generally, the worst land in Illinois. 
Nobody now cares to buy of, or settle down, with 
either him or Flower. I like Flower the least ; I 
would prefer Birkbeck for a neigh hour, dressed up, 
as he is, in a little mean chip hat, and coarse domes- 
tic clothes from Harmony, living in a little log-house, 
smoking segars, and drinking bad whiskey, just 
as I found him, rough as he was. Mr. G. Flower 
is inducing mechanics to come from all parts to 
settle, although there is no employment for them, 
nor any market now, nor in future, at New Orleans 
or elsewhere, for produce, unless a war conies, 
which may require America to supply other na- 
tions in want. Sometimes I think Birkbeck is 
right. But still I think that both he and Flower 
will get rid of all their dollars, and never raise 
more ; dollars and they will part for ever. They 

o 2 



196 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

will live, but not as they did, and might have lived 
in England or in the eastern states. Labour costs 
more than double what it does in the east. The 
west is fit only for poor men, who are the only 
proper pioneers of the wilderness. 1 do not believe 
that land will improve in value, but that much 
money will be wasted in improvements. Slavery, 
sir, is not so bad as we thought it to be, provided 
the slaves are not hired out like pack-horses, but 
kept by their own proper owners. They would 
then be gentlemen-servants. You know that we 
never prize a pack-horse, nor treat it so kindly as 
one of our own." 

22nd. After breakfast this morning I visited 
the seat and pleasure-grounds of Mr. Speaker 
Clay, who concluded the peace of Ghent, now 
gone to his chair in Congress. The house is 
pleasantly situated on fine land about two miles 
from the city, but is far inferior to the old house 
of my matrimonial cousin, G. Thompson, Esq. 
of Somersham, Hants. The windows are broken, 
and the frames and doors are rotten for want of 
paint or tar; the gardens in a piggish state, full 
of weeds, the walks gullied by heavy rains; the 
grass borders and lawn, wild, dirty, and unmown, 
and every thing else inelegant; although the soil 
is rich to excess, and almost all kinds of vege- 
tables spring spontaneously and grow luxuriantly, 
and the house is brimful of negroes, who might 
keep all in the neatest order. I saw in one en- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 197 

closure near the house, the finest after-grass and 
the coarsest hay in the world. The grass is so 
tough and old before it is mown that it is little 
better than dry straw after. Mr. Clay is the pride 
and glory of Kentucky, whose inhabitants think 
their state monopolizes talent and intelligence. 
They are gay and voluptuous to a proverb, and 
seem, it is said, better abroad than they are at 
home. 

Cheap living. Visited the market. Beef, best 
cuts, six cents common cuts, three cents per lb.; 
a whole fat mutton, for two and a half dollars, one 
hundred pounds weight. Fowls, fat, three quar- 
ters of a dollar per dozen. Good nag horses fit for 
any man, from 80 to 100 dollars. No money 
is now to be had or raised on mortgage of land or 
houses, however good, nor from any thing else but 
negroes; nothing but black flesh and blood can 
command money. A fine English family from 
Lincolnshire passed yesterday through this city 
on their return from Birkbeck's settlement, witty 
which they seem quite disgusted, and fully satis- 
fied and assured that it would not, could not do. 
They were quite out of funds, pennyless strangers 
in a strange land; but they were able to borrow 
some money from the United States' branch bank 
to enable them to proceed on to Philadelphia. 

23rd. At nine this morning I left the city of 
the plains, which will continue to flourish when 
other cities fade and die. Jt has now a popu- 



198 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

lation of 6,000 white souls. How many blacks I 
know not. 

At three, p. ni., I ended this day's journey at 
Frankfort, the seat of government, and metropolis 
of Old Kentucky. This pleasant town stands in 
a fine valley, roomy enough to contain it, and but 
little to spare. Nature has fortified and shut it in 
with inaccessible rocks and hills all around, but 
the rocks are neither rough nor broken. The 
town boasts a good state, or parliament house, and 
prison, and a church or two, and altogether dis- 
plays more taste and cleanliness than Lexington 
city. It is seated on the Kentucky river, navi- 
gable to the Ohio, and has the best inn or tavern 
which I have yet seen in the state. Here is all 
the accommodation I need. The rocks and hills, 
which now hang over me, seem as perpendicular 
as walls in some parts, and as though they were 
formed by art. I ought to mention passing- 
through two neat and interesting baby towns, 
called Paris-town and George-town. The land 
hereabouts, though there are few forced sales, is 
selling at one quarter its former price and value. 

Sunday, %Uh. I left pleasant Frankfort at nine, 
a. m., and reached Shelby ville at four, p. m., a 
good-looking, youthful town, so named in honor 
of the governor of Kentucky. 

General Jackson, (says my intelligent fellow 
traveller) although thought to be irritable and 
quarrelsome, is one of the warmest of friends and 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 199 

neighbours, and to visitors most frank, generous, 
and hospitable. During his late eastern visits, his 
conduct to all persons and parties was kind and con- 
ciliating, insomuch that those who once thought 
they hated the warrior despot, were compelled to 
love the man. If private humble citizens invited 
the General to dinner, he invariably went there in 
preference to a public dinner. He is of unalter- 
able determination, but very slow, thoughtful, 
and cautious in coming to it. His manners are 
mild, simple, and plain. He lives in an old log- 
house, which, though another and better house 
is building, he determines on never quitting but 
for the grave. " 1 cannot," (says the hero of the 
wilderness) " I cannot desert an old friend." 

During the last conversation, I passed in the 
forest the lone grave of an unfortunate stranger 
and traveller. A ridge of logs or trees was laid 
over it to mark the spot where he died and was 
buried. He was found dead with a gold watch 
in his pocket, and his horse grazing at a short 
distance from him ; both horse and rider were of 
elegant appearance. He had been robbed of 3,000 
dollars, and from some unknown hand had re- 
ceived a rifle ball, which entered the back of his 
head and came through and out between his eyes; 
he evidently never saw the hand which fired, nor 
felt the ball. A fellow living near, who was seen 
to follow the traveller with a rifle, was suspected, 
apprehended, and tried for the murder, but as no- 



200 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

thing, save circumstantial evidence, could be pro- 
duced against him, (which, however strong, will 
not convict here) he was acquitted. Public 
opinion, however, condemned him, and unmer 
cifully pulled down his house about his ears, 
which we passed in ruins ; and he accordingly fled, 
blackened and blasted, to another distant refuge 
in the wilderness. 

I saw this day a party at cricket, and one man 
in a barn threshing with a flail, an odd sight here. 
Yesterday a gentleman, drunk, in the stage, drew 
his dirk, the common appendage of a Kentuckian. 
He had the stage stopped, jumped out and fought 
the other passengers, myself excepted. They dress- 
ed him soundly, disarmed him, and with the una- 
nimous consent of the screaming ladies, left him 
behind, on the road, to fight with and spit fire at 
the trees. 

25/z. A fine fat buck crossed our road this 
morning, the first 1 had yet seen. In the evening I 
reached flourishing Louisville, a grand river-town 
and port of Kentucky, on the banks of and op- 
posite the big rocky falls of the Ohio, here a mile 
broad; 700 miles by water and 360 miles by land 
from Wheeling, Virginia; and about midway 
between Washington city and New Orleans. The 
land here, and all round this town, and in the 
valley, to Shelbyville, is excessively rich and the 
finest in the state, but I fear is sickly to its inha- 
bitants. Louisville must become a place of high 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 201 

importance, if pestilence prevent not. Our hotel, 
called Union-hall, is very capacious and full of 
company, composed of polished military and mer- 
cantile gentlemen of New Orleans, many of whom 
are waiting for the troubling or rising of the 
waters, and consequent movement of the steam- 
boats. Board here, with five in a bed-room, is two 
and a quarter dollars per day, a shameful piece 
of extortion, when it is remembered that pro- 
visions of all kinds here, cost a mere trifle ; yet 
in the hall, an immense dining-table seems crowd- 
ed with good company. Notices, however, are 
posted in several rooms, by the landlord, stating, 
that unless gentlemen-boarders pay up, further 
credit will be discontinued. 

ZGtk. I rode in a hackney coach to Shipping- 
port, a sort of hamlet of Louisville, standing on 
the margin of the river, opposite to a flourishing 
new town on the other side, called Albion, in 
Indiana. Counted from twelve to sixteen elegant 
steam-boats aground, waiting for water. Boarded 
and examined the Post-boy, which cost 50,000 
dollars, and is intended only for passengers up 
and down the Ohio and Mississipi waters, con- 
taining fifty births or beds, a separate dining- 
room, a ladies' room, and state room, with a fine 
promenade at top, having three decks, with all 
necessary and elegant appurtenances. The boat 
called the United States, is much superior to the 
Post-boy, being of 700 tons burthen, a complete 



202 MEMORABLE DAYS [Get, 

floating hotel, little less than the London Tavern, 
The passage down from hence to Orleans is 75 
dollars, a price which competition, and the unne- 
cessary number of boats built, will greatly reduce. 
Entered and dined at a low (but the best) tavern 
in Shipping-port, intending, if I liked it, to board 
and wait here for the troubling of the waters ; but 
owing to the meanness of the company and pro- 
visions, I soon left, and returned to head-quarters 
at Louisville. The traveller, who must necessarily 
often mix with the very dregs of society in this 
country, should be prepared with plain clothes, or 
the dress of a mechanic ; a gentlemanly appear- 
ance only exciting unfriendly or curious feelings, 
which defeat his object, and make his superiority 
painful. 

The American, considered as an animal, is 
filthy, bordering on the beastly; as a man, he 
seems a being of superior capabilities ; his atten- 
tion to his teeth, which are generally very white, 
is a fine exception to his general habits. All his 
vices and imperfections seem natural; those of 
the semi-barbarian. He is ashamed of none of 
them. Labourers and mechanics are here rather 
scarce, although so many are said to have returned 
home to England from New York; the former 
receive one and a half dollars to two dollars a day, 
and the latter, two and a half dollars, with pro- 
visions very cheap. Emigrants, of this description, 
should never linger about eastern cities, and sup- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 203 

pose that, because there is no employment there, 
none is to be found in America. 

The new steam-ship, now at New York, cost 
120,000 dollars, is intended only for passengers, 
and to run from New York to Charleston, Sa- 
vannah, and New Orleans, twelve times a-year, 
taking, in the year, 5,000 passengers, at 200 dollars 
each, the voyage. The steam-boat, Vesuvius, from 
New Orleans to Louisville, freighted, in one trip, 
47,000 dollars, and cleared half, that is 23,500 
dollars net profit. Sixty or seventy of these fine 
boats are now on the Ohio and M ississipi rivers. 

27/a At sun-rise I left Louisville, in Colonel 
Johnson's carriage and pair, for Vincennes, in In- 
diana, well pleased to turn my back on all the spit- 
ting, gouging, dirking, duelling, swearing, and star- 
ing, of old Kentucky. 

I crossed the Ohio at Portland, and landed at 
New Albion, a young rising village, to breakfast, 
where, for the first time in America, I found fine, 
sweet, white, home-baked bread. The staff of 
life is generally sour, and, though light and 
spongy, very ill-flavoured, either from bad leaven, 
or the flour sweating and turning sour in the 
barrel. 

At eleven, a. m., I rested, and baited at a farm 
log-house, having one room only ; the farmer came 
to it ten years ago, and has settled on two quarter 
sections of land. He has a good horse-mill at 
work, night and day, to which people come with 



204 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oft. 

grist, from 10 to 15 miles, working it with their 
own horses, four in number, and leaving him (the 
miller) an eighth for his toll. " My land" (says he) 
" is good, but not like that of old Kentuck. I get 
from 40 to 60 bushels of corn, and wheat, 25 to 
30 bushels per acre, and a market at my door, 
in supplying gentlemen-travellers, and emigrants." 
The first house is, for five or six years, a miserable 
hole, with one room only, after which, rises a 
better, and the old one remains for a kitchen. 
This man seems full of money, and knows all 
things ; he damns the state government for deny- 
ing him the privilege of slavery, and of using his 
Kentucky negroes, who, in consequence, (he says) 
are hired and exposed to cruelty. " 1 was raised 
under a monarchy government, in Virginia, where 
every man did as he pleased. This Indiana a 
free state, and yet not at liberty to use its own 
property ! You tell me to quit it, I guess, if I 
do not like it." " Yes, I do." " Well then, the 
government, d n it, has the power, it seems, to 
drive me out." This strange man was very civil 
and coarsely kind to me, and whispered aside to 
my driver, that he knew I was a very large pro- 
prietor in this state. 

I travelled till sun-set, 32 miles from the Ohio, 
and slept at Mrs. Moore's farm-log-house tavern, 
with three rooms, and a broken window in. each ; 
all moderately comfortable, until the pitiless, pelt- 
ing storms of winter come, when it will snow and 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 205 

blow upon the beds. My hostess would, in Eng- 
land, pass for a witch, having a singularly long, 
yellow, haggish, dirty, face and complexion. She 
has three fine sons, but no servants. They do 
all the household work, and that on the farm, 
themselves, hiring none. They clear five or six 
acres every year, have cleared 60 acres, and mean 
that the other 60 of their quarter section should 
remain in wood. They located themselves here 
eight years since, and find good land, good crops, 
and a market at the door. Two of the young 
Moores mounted their horses, and, with five dogs, 
set off hunting at bed-time, until midnight, after 
racoons, foxes, wolves, bears, and wild cats. 1 
saw a skin of the latter animal, much like a tame 
cat, only bigger, and its tail shorter ; they live on 
partridges and young pigs, and poultry when they 
can get them ; they never mew and call out like 
the domestic cat. Here is a pet bear, which took 
an ear of Indian corn out of my hand. One of 
these pets recently broke its chain, and came into 
the house, where lay a sick and bed-ridden man, 
and an infant child on the floor, with which the 
bear, much pleased, marched off. The poor old 
man, not knowing, till then, that he was able to 
turn himself in bed, suddenly acquired super- 
natural strength, sprung out, and running after 
the bear, threw him down, rescued the screaming 
babe, unhugged and unhurt, and then jumped 
into bed again. 



206 MEMORABLE DAYS 



. Now quite out of society ; every thing 
and every body, with some few exceptions, looks 
wild, and half savage. To his honor Judge Chara- 
bers's, to breakfast. His log-tavern is comfort- 
able ; he farms two and a half quarter sections, 
and raises from 40 to 60 bushels of corn an acre. 
Nearly all the good land on this road is entered. 
" I had," says he, " hard work for the first two 
or three years." The judge is a smart man of 
about 40, and not only a judge, but a senator 
also, and what is more, the best horse-jockey in 
the state. He seems very active, prudent, cau- 
tious, and industrious, and, like all the rest of the 
people on this road, kind-hearted. He fills the 
two-fold station of waiter and ostler in part ; I say 
in part, for, as he has no servant, the drudgery 
must be done by the traveller himself, if he have 
a horse or horses. His honor left my driver to 
do all, and hastily rode off to a distant mill for 
his grist, now much wanted, and with which he 
returned in about two hours, while her honor, 
Mrs. Judge, and the six Miss Judges, prepared 
my good breakfast. These ladies do all the work 
of the house, and some of the field ; every thing 
seems comfortable and easy to them, although 
the blue sky and the broad sun stare and peep 
through cracks and crevices in the roof of their 
house. While I sat at breakfast, his honor's 
mother, a fine smart young woman of four-score, 
came briskly riding up, and alighted at the door ; 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 207 

as good a horsewoman as ever mounted a side- 
saddle. She had been to pay a distant visit, and 
seemed as though her strength and youth were 
renewed, like the eagle's. She reminded me of 
Moses, " with his eye not dim, nor his natural 
force abated." 

At noon, I stopped at another log-house, quar- 
ter-section farmer's, with two fine healthy boys, 
much civilized, who, of themselves, have cleared 
forty acres of heavily timbered land, such as is 
seldom seen, and cropped it twice in eighteen 
months. What prodigious industry ! It is, they 
say, worth ten dollars an acre clearing. It is; 
and an Englishman would, indeed, think so, and 
demand double and treble that sum, for that 
quantity of excessive labour. They, however, 
now wish to sell out their improved quarter 
section, and remove further from the road. These 
young men drink spring water, and like it better 
than whiskey, and look heartier and healthier than 
any settlers I have yet seen in the wilds. 

I rested all night at another quarter-section 
farmer's, who, together with his brother and wife, 
has cleared thirty acres in eighteen months, with- 
out hired hands, and is now rearing a second 
log-house. They find a market at their door for 
all they can raise, and ten times as much, if they 
could raise it. They burn all the logs and trees 
rolled together in immense heaps, and prefer the 
wood-land to the barrens, the latter being thinly 



"208 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

.timbered with dwarfish trees and shrubs. The 
wife, husband, brother, and three wild children, 
sleep in one room, together with three or four tra- 
vellers, all on the floor, bedless, but wrapt up in 
blankets. J, being a mighty fine man, was put into 
the new house, which, though without either doors 
or windows, was distinguished by one bed on a 
bedstead, both home-made, and as soft as straw 
and wood could be. Into this bed was I honour- 
ably put, and at midnight favoured with a bed- 
,-fellow, a stranger Yankee man whom I had seen 
on the mountains ; and at my feet, on the floor, 
slept two Irish, and one poor sick American, all 
pedestrians, who had wandered here in quest of 
employment. Thus housed and bedded, we were 
faithfully watched. and guarded by several huge 
hunting dogs, lying around the entrance of our 
bed-room, barking and growling to the howling 
wolves, bears, foxes, and wild cats, now roam- 
ing around, and seeming ready to devour us. 
Our hostess hung on the cook-all, and gave us 
fowls, ill-flavoured bacon, and wild beef, all stewed 
down to rags like hotch-potch, together with coffee 
and home-made sugar, for supper and breakfast. 
All was coarse, wild, and ill-flavoured. 

*29tk. At sunrise I passed two waggons and 
herds of cattle and people, very wild-looking and 
Indian-like, rising from camp, having camped out 
all night after the fashion of English gypsies. 
Stopped at a wretched cabin, having only one 



18ia] IN AMERICA. 209 

room, and that brimful of great dirty boys and 
girls, all very ragged and half naked; and again 
at the house of a Mr. Lewis, from Virginia, where 
every thing presented a fine contrast; clean, 
healthy, civilized children. I 

Breakfasted at an infant ville, Hindostan, on the 
falls of the White River, a broad crystal stream, 
running navigable to the Ohio, over a bed of sand 
and stone, smooth and white as a floor of marble. 
This baby ville is flourishing ; much building is in 
progress, and it promises to become a pleasant, 
healthy, large town, before I see it again. The 
land, too, is rich and inviting. I now crossed, in 
my chariot, White River, and in two hours after 
stopped at a quarter-se'ction farmer's, who has 
never cleared nor inclosed any of his land, because 
sick or idle; being, however, well enough to hunt 
daily, a sport which, as he can live by it, he likes 
better than farming ; " and besides," says he, 
" we had at first so many wild beasts about us, 
that we could not keep pigs, poultry, sheep, nor 
any thing else." Called on another quarter-sec- 
tion man, sick, and who therefore has done but 
little himself; two young boys have cleared five 
or six acres. The tavern keeps them all ; a tavern, 
with one miserable hole of a room. 

1 stopped again at a two quarter-section far- 
mer's, who said ; " I am an old man, and have 
only my boys ; we cannot hire, but we do all the 
labour, and get 60 bushels of corn per acre, but 

p 



210 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

no wheat of any consequence yet. We can always 
sell all the produce we raise from the land to tra- 
vellers like you, and others, new comers." " But," 
said' I, " what will you do when your said new 
comers and neighbours have as much to spare and 
sell as you have?" " O, then we'll give it to cat- 
tle and pigs, which can travel to a market some- 
where. I see no fear of a market in some shape 
or other." This was a shrewd old fellow. 

I met and passed five or six huge waggons laden 
with goods, chattels, and children, and families, 
attended by horsemen, cattle, and footmen, and 
many negroes, all returning from the Missouri 
territory to their native home and state of Ken- 
tucky, which they had rashly left only two months 
since. Having sold out there in good times at 30 
dollars an acre, and being now scared out of 
Missouri by sickness, they are returning to repur- 
chase their former homes in Kentucky at 15 dol- 
lars an acre; or perhaps, says my informant, they 
may return to the Missouri, when the fear of sick- 
ness subsides. They have left their father behind, 
as a pledge of returning; but still 100 acres in 
Old Kentuck are worth 300 in Missouri, except in 
river-bottoms, that is, valleys of rivers. 

Passed another Washington, a young county 
seat (or town) and several fine neighbourhoods of 
rich land, full of iron-weed, but not so rank as in 
Kentucky, yet bearing plenty of huge sugar-trees. 
Every state in this mighty Union seems emulous of 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 211 

building iowns, monumental piles of immortality 
to General Washington. 

Rested for the night at a good bricked house 
tavern on the White-river ferry, but without one 
glass window in it. It is getting old find wearing 
out before it is finished. Here I found a good 
supper of buck venison, fowls, whiskey, and coffee. 
My hostess, the owner, was lately a rich widow, 
and might have remained so, but for a Yankee 
soldier with a knapsack at his back, whose lot it 
was to call at her house. They are now married, 
and he is lord of the tavern, land and all. My 
host had a large party of distant neighbours as- 
sembled to effect a corn shucking, something like 
an English hawkey, or harvest home. All, gentle 
and simple, here work hard till eleven at night. 
Corn shucking means plucking the ears of Indian 
corn from the stalk, and then housing it in cribs, 
purposely made to keep it in, for winter use. The 
stalk is left in the field; the leaves, while half green, 
are stripped off, and tied up in bundles, as hay 
for horses and cattle, and good food it is, much 
resembling in form the flags in English marshes. 
After I had retired to bed the hawkey supper 
commenced ; alt seemed fun, created by omnipotent 
whiskey, with which they plentifully supplied me, 
although in bed. " The Doctor, the Squire, the 
Colonel," said they, rt shall drink and lack no 
good thing." I was consequently pressed to rise 
and join them, about one o'clock. I refused 

p 2 



212 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

" Then," said they, " Doctor, you shall drink in 
bed." My charioteer had foolishly called me 
Doctor, Squire, Colonel, and what not, during 
the whole of this wilderness journey ; hence, I was 
here applied to as an eminent physician. 

30th. Travelled 12 miles to breakfast on fine 
buck venison at three farthings per pound, or one 
dollar for the buck, at the house of a shrewd old 
kind-hearted Pennsylvanian, now nearly worn out 
and ready to sleep, either with or without, his fa- 
thers. " I have," says he, " lately lost my son, 
and my farms are running fast to ruin. I have 
200 acres, some of which I hire out, and I have 
just finished what my son began, a good new log- 
house. This Indiana is the best country in the 
world for young men. Were I a young man I 
would live no where else in all the universal world." 
" Although," says he, " many hundreds of wag- 
gons, with droves of men and beasts, four or five 
hundred in a drove, and at least 5,000 souls from 
Kentucky have passed my house since last har- 
vest, all bound for the Missouri." 

At eleven, p. m., I reached Old Vincennes, the 
first and oldest town in this state, situated in a fine 
woodless Prairie on the banks of the big Wabash, 
a fine broad, clear, and generally deep stream, 
running to the Ohio by Shawneese town, but when 
its waters are low, weeds rise from the bottom, and 
grow, and rot, and impregnate the air with pesti- 
lence. On passing through this place, a farmer 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 213 

said that last spring he lost seven cows, and that 
hundreds were poisoned by some unknown herb 
found growing in their pastures on river-bottom 
land. A medical botanist was here much wanted. 
An immense quantity of land in the neighbouring 
state of Illinois, is here, I see, posted up in this town 
for sale or lease, for a term of years, at one peck 
of corn per acre, per annum. But who will hire, 
when nearly all can buy ? I passed away my 20 
dollar note of the rotten bank of Harmony, Penn- 
sylvania, for five dollars only ! so losing 31. 7s. 6d. 
sterling. I was indebted five dollars to my faith- 
ful driver, who was now to leave me behind and 
press on to St. Louis, Missouri. 1 said, " Now, 
driver, which will you have ; five silver dollars, or 
the 20 dollar note; or what more than your de- 
mand will you give for the said note?" " No- 
thing." " Then take it, and bless banks and bank- 
ing for ever." Bank paper is here an especial 
nuisance, an ever fruitful source of evil, and ever 
very unfriendly to honesty, peace, and good will 
amongst hosts and travellers, who meet and part, 
cheating and cheated, cursed and cursing, conti- 
nually. My landlord here is very obliging, and 
puts me into the best room and bed in the Vin- 
cennes .hotel, where I am sleeping with a sick 
traveller from St. Louis, who states that rnahy die 
daily, and his doctor there had 150 patients to 
visit every day, or oftener. So much for the 
healthiness of the ever-tempting Missouri. 



214 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

Sunday, 3\st. The town of Vincennes is more 
than 200 years old ; older than Philadelphia ; but 
being of French origin, and in the neighbourhood 
of the Indians, ever hostile to the inhabitants and 
settlers round it, has grown but slowly, and is an 
antique lump of deformity. Although long the 
capital and mother town of the state, it looks like 
an old, worn out, dirty village of wooden frame 
houses, which a fire might much improve, for im- 
provement generally has to travel through flames. 
Here is no church, save the Catholic church, the 
inhabitants being principally French Canadians, 
and the rest the refuse of the east, whose crimes 
have driven them hither, or dissipated young men 
unable to live at home. Hence Sunday is only a 
day of frolic and recreation, which commences on 
the Saturday evening, when every preparation is 
devoutly made for the Sabbath, and off they start 
in large parties on foot and on horseback, all rifle- 
men, and cunning hunters, into the deep recesses 
of the forest, camping out all night in readiness 
for sabbath sacrifices, the bucks, the bears, the 
squirrels, and the turkeys, ready to be offered up 
by peep of day. This holy day is consequently 
ushered in by guns, which continue to roar in and 
around the town all day until sunset. The stranger 
might think it was closely besieged, or that an 
enemy was approaching. The steam flour-rnill, a 
large grinding establishment of extortion, giving 
only 301 bs. of flour for one bushel of wheat, weigh- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 215 

ing 60lbs. is in operation all this day, and on 
other days, day and night, and blacksmiths 7 shops 
are in high bustle, blazing, blowing, and hammer- 
ing in direct opposition to a law against Sunday 
business and pleasure, but which is never feared, 
because never enforced. The refuse, rather than 
the flower of the east, seems, with some excep- 
tions, to be here. But still good is coming out of 
evil. The east is thus disencumbered, and the 
west is peopled. Posterity will shew a better face. 
Such is the process of empire. 

I rambled round the town to the court-house, 
or shire-hall, really externally an elegant building, 
but decaying before finished, as though the state 
were unable to finish what it had so well begun 
before counting the cost. The State Seminary, a 
very respectable edifice, but in little better plight, 
was built by Uncle Sam, and endowed with an 
ample township in the state. It is, however, only 
a nominal seminary, because the trustees are not 
empowered to sell any of its land for raising funds, 
but must derive them from hiring and leasing it 
out in farms. But while plenty of uncleared or 
cleared farms can be bought at two dollars an 
acre, who will ever think of hiring? 

I saw two Indian graves on the eastern banks 
of the Wabash. Each hillock is carefully arched 
over with broad stripes of bark, each three feet 
wide, with logs and sticks, or bands across. The 
bodies are buried from one to two feet deep only. 



216 MEMORABLE DAYS [Oct. 

Visited the house of J. Lowndes, Esq., .the prison 
philanthropist and Howard of America, but did 
not see him. He was gone, as an Indian ambassa- 
dor, to the government in Washington city assem- 
bled, and I passed him unconsciously on Thurs- 
day last, when J saw and noted in a handspme 
chariot, a venerable, gentlemanly, dignified coun- 
tenance. It was that of this good and honourable 
man. I presented his lady, once the widow of the 
late Judge Vanderburgh, with my introductory 
letter to her husband, which I had brought from 
one of my friends at Washington city. She re- 
gretted the absence of her spouse, and received me 
graciously. This generous man is gone a third 
time to the President on behalf of the Indian chiefs 
who call him their father, having appointed and 
chosen him as the only honest American whom 
they have ever known ; all with whom they before 
had dealt or treated, tricked them out of their 
lands. Mr. Lowndes knows their language, and 
has a speech always put into his mouth by these 
barbarian grandees. " Go," said they, " go, fa- 
ther, and tell our great father, the President, how 
we are deviled and cheated, and if he does not do 
us justice, go, tell him he is a hog, and that we 
would burn up the land if we could." Mr. L. re- 
plied, " that this was an undutiful speech for chil- 
dren to send to their father ;" but in great rage 
they rejoined in their own tongue, " He is only a 
man." The chiefs, whom Mr. Lowndes represents, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 217 

are of the Delaware tribe, the posterity of those 
from whom William Perm so honourably bought 
Pennsylvania, and who traditionally revere his me- 
mory down to this day. 

November 1st. During the last month the 
weather has been cold and dry, but generally 
clear and without fogs, and in the night frosty, 
shewing ice half an inch thick. Summer and I 
parted on the last of September, at Washington 
city, where she lingers until Christmas. Late 
last evening my host returned from his Sunday 
hunt, heavily laden with his share of the game, 
namely, two wild ducks, one wild turkey, seven 
squirrels, and one fine fat buck of 130lbs. weight. 
Hunting seems the everlasting delight of this town. 
When I went to bed last night the prairie and fo- 
rest were both enveloped in a wide- spreading, 
sky-reddening blaze, which the hunters had kin- 
dled to drive out and start the game. 

I met this morning Mr. Baker of Philadelphia, 
an intelligent traveller, who knows my friend J. 
Ingle, living eighty miles further west of this place, 
and who has kindly borrowed a horse for me, and 
agrees to pilot me thither to-morrow. I saw a 
large party of Miami Indian hunters, accompa- 
nied by their ugly squaws, all on horseback, and 
all astride, with their tomahawks and frightful 
knives girdled round them, dressed in blankets 
and turbans, and painted red, green, black, and 
white; every feature having a different shade of 



218 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

colour, and all, save the squaws, apparently half 
drunk, having their bottle of fire-water, or whiskey, 
with them, which, after drinking from it them- 
selves, they stopped and handed to me and my 
friend Baker. We took it and applied it to our 
lips, it being considered the perfection of rudeness 
and barbarism, and little short of enmity, to refuse 
any thing so kindly offered. This tribe had ap- 
proached the town for the purpose of selling their 
venison. Each horse carried two or three quarters, 
fat and fine, ready skinned, and hanging down its 
sides. The price was only a quarter dollar for 
30lbs., not an English halfpenny per pound. 

Although Vincennes is an old mother town, 
abounding in rich land, it is uncultivated, and 
there is occasionally a scarcity of necessaries, 
particularly of milk and butter, which, with the 
worst tea, are dealt out very sparingly; no lump 
sugar, no brandy, no segars, no spitoons are seen 
at this hotel. 

All persons here, and all whom I have met, 
hitherto, during this western pilgrimage, whether 
they have or have not visited Birkbeck, think very 
meanly of both him and his settlement. The 

English emigrants particularly, (says Mr. ) 

deem themselves deceived and injured by his books 
and mis-statements. 

2?id. Yesterday at noon came on a heavy gale, 
which filled the atmosphere for the remainder of 
the day and night, with a strange mixture of hot 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 219 

smoke, ashes, and dusty sand, to the density and 
hue of a London fog in December. The sun was 
completely shorn of his beams, and the whole ho- 
rizon, for unknown miles in circumference, filled 
with a blinding commotion, like a gale in the great 
desert ; and at night to the N. W. the sky blazed 
and reddened over a great extent, while the big 
Wabash blushed, and the whole atmosphere be- 
came illuminated, as though it was the kindling 
up of the last universal conflagration. 

At ten this morning I left old Vincennes for 
Prince-town. The horse which my friend Baker 
had borrowed for me was mean, and mis-shapen, 
but covered with buffalo skins, which hide all 
defects. The horses here are nearly all mean, 
wild, deformed, half grown, dwarfish things, and 
much in taste and tune with their riders. The 
pigs, every where in great abundance, seem more 
than half wild, and at the approach of man fly, 
or run like deer at the sight of an Indian rifle. 
Throughout the western regions they look starved 
to death. This, however, is a bad season for them, 
there being little mast, that is, acorns, nuts, and 
other wild fruit and herbage. I passed over an 
extensive, sandy, black, burning prairie, the cause 
of yesterday's and to-day's thick hazy atmosphere, 
the sun looking more like the moon, and as if 
turned into blood. At noon, I rode through a 
large rich river-bottom valley, on the banks of the 



220 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

White River, and which, in winter, is as yet over- 
flowed, from six to ten feet of water above the sur- 
face, as the trees prove by circles round their 
trunks, and by their boughs dipping and catching 
the scum of the surf. This land, of course, is the 
finest for meadow, if it were wanted, but as the 
prairies are all meadow, it is of no value. In it 
stand such enormous trees as are seldom seen 
elsewhere, having trunks like towers. Here, too, 
flourishes, the long and far-famed, ever-green mis- 
tletoe, planted by birds, or propagated only by 
seed or berries, which are sown or deposited on 
decayed branches and arms of oak and other trees, 
to beautify the desolation of the winter forest. 
Excessive drinking seems the all-pervading, easily- 
besetting sin of this wild hunting country. Plenty 
of coal is found on the Wabash banks, and there 
are salt-springs in this state, but sad Yankee tricks 
are played off in the working and making salt from 
them. Grease and fat are used, to make it retain 
a large portion of water, which assists in filling 
the bushel with deception. Although fat is so 
abundant, yet it is sold at 20 cents, or Wd. per Ib. 
and candles at 37^ cents, or Wd. per Ib. Milk, 
too, in a land which might flow with milk and 
honey, is 12J cents, or 6d. per quart, and not a 
constant supply at that price, nor at any other 
price, unless a cow is kept. Butter, bad, at 25 
cents per Ib. Beef, six cents per Ib. by the quarter, 
which lies on the ground all day at the tavern doors, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 221 

as if brought for dog's meat. Tavern doors are 
here never closed. 

Saving two comfortable plantations, with neat 
log-houses and flourishing orchards, just planted, 
and which sprout and grow like osiers in England, 
I saw nothing between Vincennes and Princeton, 
a ride of forty miles, but miserable log holes, and 
a mean ville of eight or ten huts or cabins, sad neg- 
lected farms, and indolent, dirty, sickly, wild-look- 
ing inhabitants. Soap is no where seen or found 
in any of the taverns, east or west. Hence dirty 
hands, heads, and faces every where. Here is 
nothing clean but wild beasts and birds, nothing 
industrious generally, except pigs, which are so of 
necessity. Work or starve is the order of the day 
with them. Nothing happy but squirrels; their 
life seems all play, and that of the hogs all work. 
I reached Princeton at sun-set. 

3rd. I looked round Princeton, a four-year old 
town and county-seat. Here I found and called 
on my countryman Mr. Phillips, who canae a 
visitor from Somersetshire, but fixed on a plea- 
sant good farm of 300 acres close to the town, 
which he bought with some improvements, such 
as a small log-house, and a few acres cleared by 
art and nature, at 20 dollars an acre; " the only 
farm (says he) which I would have in this state of 
Indiana, but which I mean to improve and re-sell, 
and then return to England. I hate the prairies^ 
all of them; insomuch that I would not have any 



222 MEMORABLE DAYS [J\OV- 

of them of a gift, iff must be compelled to live on 
them. They are all without water, except what is 
too muddy and distant for use. I am much per- 
plexed with labourers; both the English and na- 
tives are good for nothing; they know nothing, 
and it is impossible to get any kind of business 
well done, either with or without money. Money 
cannot be gained by cultivation. There is no cer- 
tain good market; farm produce may, perhaps, be 
sold at some price, but you cannot get your money 
of the cheats and scum of society who live here. 
I think that Birkbeck is right in not cultivating 
his land, though wrong and mortified in having 
written so hastily and prematurely. He and 
Flower are both sinking and scattering money, 
which they will never see more or gather again. 
They cannot even hope to gain or increase their 
capital, but by the contingent increase in the value 
of their land, which is not the best of its kind. 
With hired labour and a market, I should prefer 
the western country, but here, though there is no 
visible want, yet is there poverty indeed, and but 
little or no friendship. No sharing things in 
common; idleness, poverty, and cheating, are the 
order and temper of the day." 

Mr. Phillips and his wife both looked very 
shabby, wild, and dirty. He apologized to me 
for his dishabille, and said, " Sir, if a stranger 
like you had found me in this plight in England, 
and I could have seen you coming up to my door, 



1019.] IN AMERICA. 223 

I should have hid myself. Here, however, no 
shame is felt, but pleasure, at a visit from one of 
my countrymen, whom I shall be happy to meet 
again." He keeps an housemaid only, his wife 
doing nearly all the drudgery herself, although in 
England, a lady, unaccustomed to soil her hands, 
or let her feet stray from the parlour carpet. 

I had a long and interesting conversation with 
a young lawyer, the supreme Judge Hart, living 
in this town, but proscribed and suspended for 
sending a challenge to three agents of his estates 
in Kentucky, who, after injuring him, caricatured 
him, and then refused to fight. The judge says 
that English labourers know nothing, and are 
worth nothing in agriculture here ; hewing, split- 
ting, clearing, grubbing, and ploughing among 
roots, being a business which they do not, and 
wish not, to understand. It is true that they are 
handy with the spade, and that only. They feel 
too free to work in earnest, or at all, above two 
or three days in a week. Every English body 
here is above work, except the good little farmer, 
like your friend, John Ingle, and old Phillips, 
the former of whom is likely to kill himself with 
hard work. He was sick twice in consequence, 
and once nearly unto death. Mrs. Ingle and her 
husband gain and deserve a good name, and feel 
happy and contented on a good farm, which is 
too near the road, They bought a log-house, 
town lot, pro tempore, at Princeton, at a forced 



224 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

sale, for 300 dollars ; which they now let for 
forty dollars a year, to Mr. and Miss Fordham, 
Flower's nephew and niece, who were sick of 
the prairie of Illinois, where health could not 
attend them. Your friend, J. Ingle, lost his 
horses for three weeks. He is expecting more of 
his English friends to follow him. Mr. Birkbeck 
is disappointed and unhappy ; I know him well. 
He has not cultivated nor raised, as yet, any thing 
from his land, although the Harmonites refused 
to sell him produce, because they thought it was 
his duty to raise it himself, and plainly told him 
so. He will never make a farmer, nor money by 
farming there. It is idle to attempt to import 
English labourers for the use of yourselves exclu- 
sively, for Birkbeck and Flower lost all. The 
same, says Mr. Pittiss, late of the Isle of Wight. 
Women and girls, too, are here above assisting in 
the house, at a price per day or week. Wives 
and daughters must do all themselves. The girl, 
or white servant, if one can now and then be had, 
at one dollar per week and board, is pert and 
proud as her mistress, and has her parasol at six 
dollars, and bonnet at ten or twelve dollars, 
and other articles in character, which, as dress 
generally does with all grades, seduces' them from 
a virtuous regard for their duties, says this young 
and sprightly lawyer. People here, though poor 
and idle, feel above thieving, the facility of Jiving 
without, and the certainty of exposure and sum- 



1810.] IN AMERICA. 225 

mary punishment, seem to conquer the propensity, 
where it may happen to exist. 

I feel convinced that none but working farmers, 
like John Ingle, ought to come to this western 
land. Water is bad, white, or milky, at Prince- 
ton ; but beds are good, with the bed-room doors 
next the street, unlocked all night, in order that 
ingress and egress may be free, which is the more 
necessary, as there are, as is very generally the 
case here, none of those accommodations, either 
within or without doors, which an Englishman 
looks upon as quite indispensable. 

1 met and talked with old Squire M'Intosh, 
who, although he has lived 35 years here, away 
from his dear native Scotland, still regrets it. " I 
now live," says the squire, " on the grand rapids 
of the big Wabash, a mile above the White River 
ferry; call and spend a night with me on your 
way to Birkbeck's settlement, which is the reverse 
of every thing which he has written of it, and 
described it to be. The neighbourhood, however, 
do not think he intended to misrepresent and 
deceive, but that he wrote too soon, and without 
knowing the real state of things, and understand- 
ing his subject, or knowing where to find the 
best land. He ought to have examined, in com- 
pany with one of Uncle Sam's surveyors; he 
would not then have entered land in the lump, or 
mass, a great deal of which is not good, nor ever 
can be, being wet, swampy, cold prairies, something 

Q 



226 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

t i 

like undrained marshes in England. Mr. Birk- 
beck entered much at the land-office, but sold 
little, only such half sections as he ought to have 
bought and kept for himself and friends. Mr. 
Phillips, on whom you have just called, say the 
gentlemen round me, is the slave of his own 
English notions and passions; he is, therefore, 
always hesitating and undecided ; sometimes, when 
things run crossly and crooked, he is seen and 
heard heartily execrating this country and people ; 
and, at other times, he is well pleased. He is an 
odd man, surrounded with eight fierce dogs, and 
has a fine, never-failing mill spring, running a mile 
through his farm, which, one year ago, cost 20 
dollars, but is now worth only ten dollars an 
acre, with all improvements. This is turning a 
penny quickly ! Despatch is the life and soul of 
business." 

4th. The Supreme Judge, Hart, is a gay young 
man of twenty-five, full of wit and humorous elo- 
quence, mixing with all companies at this tavern, 
where he seems neither above nor below any, dress- 
ed in an old white beaver hat, coarse threadbare 
coat and trowsers of the same cloth (domestic,) 
and yellow striped waistcoat, with his coat out at 
the elbows; yet very cleanly in his person, and re- 
fined in his language. What can be the induce- 
ment for a young man, like him, equal to all 
things, to live thus, and here? 

Judge Hart deems merchandizing to be the most 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 227 

profitable pursuit in the west, and the liberal pro- 
fessions the last and worst. 

Mr. Nicholls, a cunning Caledonian, says, that 
farming, except near the rivers, cannot answer; 
but raising and feeding cattle and pigs may. 
Store-keeping is here evidently the best of all em- 
ployments, if cents and dollars enter into the esti- 
mate. Money spent in improving land is seldom 
more than returned with interest, and often lost by 
reselling or selling out, especially if the labour is 
not all done by the farmer ; and if it is done by 
his own instead of hired hands, he is not more than 
fairly paid for his time and labour, which are both 
money. It is therefore best for the mere capitalist 
to buy rather than make all the improvements, as 
he certainly buys them much cheaper than he can 
create them. He should confine himself to the 
east. 

Mr. Phillips, the English gentleman on whom 
I called yesterday, returned my call this evening. 
He seems a mass of contradiction, and states that 
this western country is the best he knows, but 
that it costs more to live in it than in London ; that 
it is idle for a fanner to raise more produce than 
he can use himself; but that there are farmers 
making money as fast as they can count it, by rais- 
ing large quantities of farm produce in this and the 
neighbouring state of Illinois ; that others might 
do the same ; that there is now a market better 
than in the east, and that in five or seven years the 

Q 2 



228 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

market at New Orleans down the river will be 
good and great ; yet that the parties to whom you 

must sell are all d d rogues. Feeding beef 

and pork he deems a good trade, especially when 
the land shall come to be clovered and sown with 
other grass seeds. He thinks there is little or no 
good beef in the wilderness, because it is raised 
and fed on natural wild vegetables, many of which 
are ill-flavoured and poisonous. Beasts often die 
suddenly in the fall of the year in consequence of 
being confined to such food. The natural white 
clover, in the month of June, salivates cattle and 
horses, which, however, still devour it greedily, 
and seem to thrive thereon. 

Our party this evening were all agreed in this 
particular; that the western country is only fit 
for the little hard-working farmer with a small ca- 
pital. He must live, and better than he could 
elsewhere, on and from the productions of his own 
hands and lands. He can retail his produce, and 
be gardener and farmer both; vegetables every 
where being scarce and dear, because people are 
too idle to raise them. Wholesale farmers from 
England expecting to cultivate from 300 to 1,000 
acres, and sell the farm produce in lumps, will 
come here only to be disappointed. Small retail- 
ing farmers only are wanted here. Mr. Phillips 
deems that Birkbeck, Flower, and Mr. Dunlop of 
London, wfyo have bought so many thousands of 
acres, and the latter of whom pays treble tax as a 



1819.J IN AMERICA. 229 

non-resident, will greatly benefit at some future 
time by capital so employed, although they may 
never cultivate an acre, or touch the land. The 
capital seems to be idle and sleeps, but it will 
one day, he thinks, awake, and find itself giganti^ 
cally augmented. Mr. Phillips, whose opinion is 
not respected here, was never a farmer until he 
came here. His improvements do honour to his 
intuition. 

General Evans, who this day formed one of our 
circle, is in part the owner of this town of Prince- 
ton, and of Evansville, which bears his name. He 
is a pleasant, rustic, rniddle-aged man, living here 
in a little log-house, together with his lady and 
daughter, who, having no servant, do all the work 
of their establishment themselves. Servants are 
not to be had. The same may be said of all the 
rest of the inhabitants. Envy and invidious com- 
parisons have, therefore, no place at Princeton. 

General Boon, during the last war, (says the 
General) lost two sons killed ; and his favourite 
daughter and her friend were stolen by the Indians, 
who marched the fair captives two days without 
resting, and intended marrying them, but were over- 
taken by the colonel and his son, and a lover of the 
lady. The young couple, previous to this event, 
were on the point of marriage, and are now living 
as husband and wife in Kentucky. The captives 
cunningly indented the ground all the way from 
the Colonel's house with their high-heeled shoes, 



230 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

80 that they might be tracked; and when they 
saw their brave deliverers coming up full speed, 
they fell flat on the earth, while the firing of rifles 
commenced on the Indians, who tried in vain to 
kill their fair prisoners by throwing their knives 
and tomahawks at them; but the pursuers triumph- 
ed, and all were recovered and restored unhurt. 
General Boon now lives in solitude 600 miles up 
the remote Missouri. He is 80 years old, very 
active, very poor, a hunter and a recluse by choice, 
and trains up his sons in the same path, feeling 
more happiness than he possibly could in society, 
where he would have lived and died, if he had 
willed it, full of scars, and honours, and days. 
His parents were always poor ; his disposition is 
kind and hospitable ; his manners simple and gen- 
tle ; preferring to live meanly and rudely as a hardy 
hunter and squatter, wanting nothing but what na- 
ture gives him, and his own hands get him. He 
sleeps on a bear-skin, and clothes himself in dressed 
deer-skin, and though shy, is kind to intruding 
strangers. The western country is indebted to 
him, as he leads the way into the best spots of the 
wilderness. He was the first white man in Old 
Kentucky, and the wide, wild west is full of his 
licks. A flourishing settlement always rises where- 
ever he has once squatted, and whenever any set- 
tlers begin to approach near his location, he quits 
it for ever, and moves on further west ; and the 
place, which he thus abandons, is called Boon's 



18J9.] IN AMERICA. 231 

Lick. He never wants much land ; only a spot 
sufficient for the supply of his household. 

I saw a man this day with his face sadly dis- 
figured. He had lost his nose, bitten off close 
down to its root, in a fight with a nose-loving 
neighbour. 

Judge Hart deems it foolish policy in English- 
men wishing to form English settlements and 
neighbourhoods, and thereby to perpetuate Eng- 
lish distinctions and prejudices, so offensive to 
their adopted country, and so unprofitable to 
themselves. Nothing is good with them but what 
is English, whereas they should rather endeavour 
to forget the name, which ever kindles unfriendly 
feelings. 

I saw a fine fat buck, fat as a Lincolnshire 
wether sheep, and weighing, when dressed and 
with the head off, I40lbs. It sold for two dollars, 
less than three farthings per pound. 

Politeness, in manner and address, is more ne- 
cessary here than in Bond-street, for here you in- 
variably receive it, and to give it in return is justly 
due. The titles, " Sir" and " Madam," (not Ma'am) 
are pleasant to and expected by all ; for however 
mean may be the exterior of a citizen of this free, 
equal country, there is a spirit and an intelligence, 
and often sprightliness about him, which decorate 
any thing and make even rags respectable. 

Two months ago the High Sheriff of Chilicothe, 
Ohio, went to jail for want of bail. He had seized, 



232 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

\ 

personally, on the funds of the United States' 
branch bank. This was hard! 

Birkbeck, (say my companions) complained at 
first of our slovenly state of things, and the indo- 
lence of farmers and labourers, and boasted of 
what might be done, and what he should do, but 
has, at the end of four years, done nothing but 
talk of doing. The facility of a living for all, and 
the consequent difficulty of procuring labour, even 
for money, together with the sickly, relaxing 
warmth of the climate, are obstacles which over- 
whelm all industry. The principal care is how 
to live easy. Time, and not man, effectually clears 
and improves land in this country. Time here 
changes his character, and preserves and reple- 
nishes, while man destroys and wears out what he 
can. 

The reason (says Judge Hart) why Scotchmen 
always get money, in this and all other lands to 
which they wander, is, because they leave no 
means untried. 

The season, called the Indian summer, which 
here commences in October, by a dark blue hazy 
atmosphere, is caused by millions of acres, for 
thousands of miles round, being in a wide-spread- 
ing, flaming, blazing, smoking fire, rising up 
through wood and prairie, hill and dale, to the 
tops of low shrubs and high trees, which are 
kindled by the coarse, thick, long, prairie grass, 
and dying leaves, at every point of the compass, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 233 

aftd far beyond the foot of civilization, darkening 
the air, heavens and earth, over the whole extent 
of the northern and part of the southern continent, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and in neigh- 
bourhoods contiguous to the all-devouring con- 
flagration, filling the whole horizon with yellow, 
palpable, tangible smoke, ashes, and vapour, which 
affect the eyes of man and beast, and obscure the 
sun, moon, and stars, for many days, or until 
the winter rains descend to quench the fire and 
purge the thick ropy air, which is seen, tasted, 
handled, and felt. 

So much for an Indian summer, which partakes 
of the vulgar idea of the infernal. Why called 
Indian ? Because these fires seem to have origin- 
ated with the native tribes, and are now perpetu- 
ated by the White Hunters, who by these means 
start, disturb, and pen up the game, and destroy 
the dens of both man and beast, and all this with 
impunity. 

To-morrow, through floods and flames, I shall 
endeavour to make good my desperate way to 
the retreat of my good friend, John Ingle, in 
Indiana. 

6tk. At nine, a. m. I left Princeton on a horse 
carrying double, me and my guide, through the 
wilderness, to my friend John Ingle's, who had 
sent the said horse and boy twenty-five miles for 
my accommodation. The little town just quitted, 
and at which I paid the extravagant price of two 



234 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

dollars a day for board, has nineteen streets, and 
about one hundred and five houses, one prison, 
and one meeting-house, or church, all of wood ; 
one supreme judge, and four other judges; and 
in the unpeopled county are another quorum of 
judges, and three generals. It is called Princeton, 
in honour of its living founder, Judge Prince. 

We rode all day through thick smoke and fire, 
which sometimes met in pillar-like arches across 
the road, and compelled us to wait awhile, or turn 
aside. We passed only one comfortable abode, 
and three or four filthy one-room log-holes, sur- 
rounded by small patches, cleared samples of the 
bulk, which seems good land. I called at one of 
the three, a tavern, to beg for bread, but got none ; 
only some whiskey. I saw a deer-lick, at which 
I dismounted and took a lick. The earth thus 
licked and excavated by many tongues, is of the 
colour of fuller's earth, not ill-flavoured, but a 
little salt and saponaceous, always attractive to 
the beasts of the forest. 

At five o'clock, p. m., I reached the welcome 
abode of my Huntingdonshire friends, Mr. and 
Mrs. John Ingle, who, together with their English 
maid-servant, Rebecca, and six children, rushed 
out to embrace and welcome their old friend, 
school-fellow, neighbour, and fellow-countryman, 
and great was the joy of our meeting. 

Here I found good sweetbread, like the English, 
and hot corn-cake, and supped, on what I sup- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 235 

posed fine pork steaks. " This meat (said I to 
Mr. Ingle) is most delicious." " Well then, you 
like it, do you?" " I do indeed." " What do you 
think it is?" " Why, pork to be sure." " Well, 
we thought we would not tell you until after sup- 
per, lest you should fancy it was not good and 
refuse to eat Bear" " Oh," said I, " if this be 
bear, give me bear for ever." 

My friend's log-house, as a first, is one of the 
best I have seen, having one large room and a 
chamber over it, to which you climb by a ladder. 
It has, at present, no windows, but when the 
doors are shut the crevices between the rough 
logs admit light and air enough, above and be- 
low. It is five yards square and twenty feet high. 
At a little distance stand a stable for two horses, 
a corn crib, a pig-stye, and a store; for store- 
keeping is his intention, and it is a good one. Two 
beds in the room below, and one above, lodge us 
in the following manner ; myself and Mr. Ingle 
in one bed ; in the second, by our side, sleep six 
fine but dirty children ; and in the chamber, Mrs. 
Ingle and a valuable English maid. Thus, on 
my account, husband and wife are divided. It is 
not unusual for a male and female to sleep in the 
same room uncurtained, holding conversation 
while in bed. In a yard adjoining the house are 
three sows and pigs half starved, and several cows, 
calves, and horses, very poor, having no grass, 
no pasture, but with bells about their necks, 



236 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

eternally ringing. Shame, or rather what is called 
false shame, or delicacy, does not exist here. 
Males dress and undress before the females, and 
nothing is thought of it. Here is no servant. The 
maid is equal to the master. No boy, or man- 
servant. No water, but at half a mile distant. 
Mr. Ingle does all the jobs, and more than half 
the hewing, splitting, and ploughing. He is all 
economy, all dirty-handed industry. No wood 
is cut in readiness for morning fires. He and the 
axe procure it, and provender for the poor hungry 
cattle, pigs, and horses. His time is continually 
occupied, and the young boys just breeched are 
made useful in every possible way. 

Nothing is English here but friendship and 
good-will. American labourers here, as usual, 
are very villainous ; one, a preacher, took a piece 
of land to clear for my friend, and received, before 
he began, forty dollars on account, but refused 
to perform his contract. To sue him was idle 
My friend, in the presence of the fellow's son, 
called him a right reverend rascal and thief. 
" Call him so again," said the son, doubling his 
fist ready to strike. My friend repeated it, and 
taking up an axe, said. " Now strike, but if you 
do, as I was never yet afraid of a man, I'll chop 
you into rails." Money rarely procures its value 
in labour. He deems that as much money is to 
be made from 200 acres of land here, as in 
England, while here the land is made your own. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 237 

To do that in England, is the top of a farmer's 
ambition. Here, a man can make all that he 
cultivates his own. He says that he shall live and 
gain money this first year, though only sixteen 
acres are in cultivation. Mrs. Ingle, maid, and 
children, suffered much in crossing the sea and 
mountains. They slept on the floor, in a hole, with 
waggoners, and other male blackguards, where 
the stench, both by sea and land, was little short 
of pestilential. 

Sunday, 7th. More than half last night, Mr. 
and Mrs. Ingle, and maid, were out in the woods 
extinguishing the wide spreading fires, which 
threatened to consume their fences, houses, and 
corn-fields. The whole horizon was brilliantly 
illuminated. These fires, if not arrested, or watch- 
ed, sweep away houses, stacks of corn and hay, 
and every thing within reach. So fared Mr. Grant, 
late of Chatteris, who is now dead. The sound of 
the axe, splitting fire-wood, salutes the ear every 
morning, instead of the birds' song. I was smoked 
to death all night : our friends rested all day absent 
from meeting, but still the knees of all present were 
bent to the God of their good fathers. Sunday 
passes unnoticed in the English prairie, except 
by hunting and cricket matches. 

The bears, during the summer, are Jean and 
hungry, and seize the hogs and eat them alive. 
It is no uncommon thing to see hogs escape home 



238 MEMORABLE DAYS [IVoV. 

with the loss of a pound or two of living flesh. 
These creatures sleep all the winter quite fat. 
Rattle-snakes abound here. Mr. Ingle killed four 
or five beautiful snakes of this species this summer, 
and one or two vipers. 

Sth. 1 accompanied J. Ingle, and water-cart, 
to the spring, half a mile off, on the farm of Major 
Hooker, a hunter, who sold us half a fat buck at 
three cents a pound ; thus killing and selling from 
four to six per week, besides turkeys, pheasants, 
rabbits, racoons, squirrels, and bears. This half 
buck, weighing 70 pounds, Mr. Ingle carried 
home on a shoulder-stick. The major's, and other 
families here, raise cotton for domestic uses, which, 
in warm and dry seasons, flourishes well. What 
I saw in pods, and that which the women were 
spinning, seemed of excellent quality. The seed 
of this plant was, in slave states, thought nutri- 
tious enough, when boiled, for the support of 
negroes; but as many died in using it, it was 
abandoned. 

The China leaf, or tea-plant, has been propa- 
gated at Princeton, in Mr. Devan's garden, and 
at Harmony, from seed brought from China. It 
is said to grow luxuriantly, yielding more leaf 
than is used, and making a useful decoction, 
similar in flavour, though not so pleasant, as that 
procured from the imported plant. It is manu- 
factured by sweating it in an oven, and when 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 239 

taken out, it cools and curls up, and becomes fit 
for use. The indigo also is a little cultivated. 
The woods abound with medical herbs. The Ching 
Sang and Ipecacuanha are found, for emetics. The 
vine is very luxuriant, and cultivated at Harmony 
with success; while the trees are full of gum. 
The Dogwood Bark is also found as efficient as 
the Peruvian, and the Sassafras tea is in general 

7 O 

use for two or three months. 

Great idleness prevails in the Illinois; little or 
no produce is yet raised. G. Flower had con- 
tracted with the American hunters, to raise and 
cultivate 500 acres of corn and grain ; he finding 
land and seed, and they all the labour of raising 
and getting it fit for market, at nine dollars an 
acre. This bargain became void. 

9th. A doctor, of little or no skill, lives twelve 
miles distant, and this little settlement of Sanders- 
ville has no school for the children, who remain 
at home pestering their parents, and retrograding 
into barbarism. Mrs. Ingle dreads their mixing 
and associating with the race of children who 
surround them. A schoolmaster here would be 
welcomed with a salary of from 400 to 500 dol- 
lars a year, although riot one of the first grade, 
but he must be content to live in a wilderness. 

I feel, every day, more and more convinced that 
the western country is suited only to working 
families, like those of J. Ingle ; where Mrs. Ingle, 
(delicately bred) and all turn out to work, as to- 



240 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

day, and the other night to put out the approach- 
ing fires. 

The bears and wolves have devoured several 
sows while farrowing; they are then weak and 
defenceless, and therefore an easy prey. Never 
did I behold such ghostly pigs as here. Soap, 
candles, sugar, cotton, leather, and woollen clothes, 
of a good quality, are here all made from the land, 
but not without the most formidable, unremitting 
industry on the part of the females. Filth and 
rags, however, are often preferred. Imperious 
necessity alone commands extraordinary exertion. 
Yesterday, a settler passed our door with a bushel 
of corn-meal on his back, for which he had tra- 
velled twenty miles, on foot, to the nearest horse- 
mill, and carried it ten miles, paying 75 cents 
for it. This said corn is invaluable to both man 
and beast ; black and white men both profess to 
think they should starve on wheat meal without 
corn. 

The everlasting sound of falling trees, which, 
being undermined by the fires, are falling around 
almost every hour, night and day, produces a 
sound loud and jarring as the discharge of ord- 
nance, and is a relief to the dreary silence of these 
wilds, only broken by the axe, the gun, or the 
bowlings of wild beasts. 

Retrograding and barbarizing is an easy pro- 
cess. Far from the laws and restraints of society, 
and having no servants to do that for us which 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 241 

was once daily done, we become too idle in time 
to do any thing, but that which nature and neces- 
sity require; pride and all stimuli forsake us, 
for we find ourselves surrounded only by men 
of similar manners; hence, the face is seldom 
shaved, or washed, or the linen changed except 
on washing-days. The shoes are cleaned, per- 
haps, never; for if, indeed, a servant, from Eng- 
land, is kept, he, or she, is on a happy equality, 
rising up last and lying down first, and eating 
freely at the same time and table. None here 
permit themselves to have a master, but negroes. 
A voyage in the stinking steerage of a ship, and 
then a journey over the mountains in waggons, 
sometimes camping out all night, or sleeping, like 
pigs, as did Mrs. Ingle and six children and maid, 
on the dirty floor of a bar-room, amongst black- 
guards, and then floating in a little stinking ark, 
full of unclean things, will prepare the mind and 
body for barbarizing in a little log-hole, like that 
in which I dined yesterday, belonging to Mr. Fer- 
rel, who, with his family, some adults, male and 
female, in all ten souls, sleep in one room, fif- 
teen feet by ten, only half floored, and in three 
beds, standing on a dirt floor. The table, or 
thing so called, is formed by two blocks and a 
broad board laid on them, and covered with a 
cloth, and seats or forms, in like manner, on each 
side of the table, which is only knee-high. Proper 
chairs and tables, they have none. When it rains, 

R 



242 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

boards are laid over the chimney-top, (which I 
can reach with my hand) to prevent the rain put- 
ting the fires out. This good natured man has 
thus. settled and removed, eight times, from one 
degree of barbarism to another. The victuals are 
served up in a hand-bason; and thus one room 
serves for parlour, kitchen, hall, bed-room, and 
pantry. The settlers, too, here, are without im- 
plements, but such as they can patch and form 
together of themselves; they are too distant and 
expensive to buy. What they have must cost 
nothing, like their houses, which are raised in a 
day by the neighbours all meeting together, so 
going in turn to serve each other, as we did yes- 
terday. 

lOt/t. Mr. Peck, late of Chatteris, introduced 
himself to me this day. Born and bred a labourer, 
he at length became a little farmer, on the dear- 
est land in Chatteris, from which he brought a 
wife, four daughters, one son, a man, and 500/.; 
all, the perfection of British industry. Feeling 
themselves likely to lose all, they came here to 
two quarter sections, costing 145/. to be paid, in 
three years, by instalments; so leaving 3551. for 
stock, seed corn, and housekeeping, until they 
shall have cleared twenty acres, and raised pro- 
duce. He begged 1 would come and dine with 
him, so that I might hear particulars of his former 
state, present condition and prospects, and be 
able to tell his old neighbours of his comforts and 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 243 

satisfaction. " Now," says he, " I feel I can live, 
and live well, by working, and without fretting 
and working, seventeen, out of the twenty-four 
hours, all the year round, as J used to do at Chat- 
teris. And what is sweeter than all, I feel I am 
now the owner of 300 acres of land, all paid for, 
and free from all poor-rates, parsons, and tax- 
gatherers, and that I shall be able to give and 
leave each of my children, 100 acres of good land 
to work upon, instead of the highway, or Chat- 
teris work-house. No fear of their committees 
now, nor of Ely jail." 

It was pleasant to witness the boasting satis- 
faction of this good, honest fellow, and his family 
of young Pecks. 

I saw an old, dirty, stinking Irishman, very well 
to do, settled on a quarter section here, but who 
says, were it not for his family, he could do better 
in Ireland ; and therefore, for the sake of his fa- 
mily, he is content to live a little longer, and die 
here. They will be better off. He came to break- 
fast with us, and borrowed a razor to shave his 
beard, for once, instead of clipping it off. 

Meeting Mr. Hornbrook, the first settler here, 
I said to him, " How is it, that you, and others, 
can do with such houses here, when you had 
such comfortable ones in England." " Oh," said 
he, " after our voyage and journey, we are glad 
to get into any hole, although we know, that in 

R2 



244 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

England, they would think them not good enough 
for stables." 

On the eve of this day, a heavy battering rain 
came, and put out the fires, and cleared the air, 
and poured water down upon our beds. Great 
lumps of the clay, or daubing, stuffed between 
the logs, also kept falling on our heads, and into 
our beds, while it rained. We needed an um- 
brella. 

Mrs. Ingle, a woman of superior sense and feel- 
ing, states that the prospect of seeing herself, hus- 
band, and children dependant on grandfathers 
and grandmothers, and uncles and aunts, and 
thereby lessening the resources of two distinct 
and worthy families, impelled them to emigrate. 
It ceased almost to be matter of choice. Still, love 
of country, former friends and comforts, from which 
they tore themselves, is inextinguishable, and fre- 
quently a source of painful thought. Such a good, 
proud feeling is very honourable, for with fair play 
in England, it would have kept them there, and 
increased rather than diminished the resources of 
grandfathers, &c. 

\\th. By a conversation with old Ferrel, I 
find he began, thirty years ago, with nothing but 
his own hands. Striking each hand, he said, 
" This is all I had to begin with ;" and it seems, 
that excepting his children, he has little more 
now, merely a quarter section just entered, and a 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 245 

log raised on it. All seem very improvident and 
extravagant, the family sometimes eating four or 
five pounds of butter a-day, the produce of all their 
cows. Thus, with the corn-cake and bacon, a part 
of the year, (for they are almost always destitute 
of fresh meat, tea and sugar) is their table supplied. 
Ferret is a man of experience and discernment, 
and states that he would not fetch corn from 
Princeton, twenty miles off, of a gift, if he could 
grow it, nor would he carry it to the Ohio for sale, 
because it would not pay carriage and expenses. 
When (if ever) they shall have surplus produce, 
he will give it to pigs and cattle, which will walk 
to market. He always, and every where, had a 
market at the door, and he always expects it, be- 
cause of the number of idle people who do not, 
or cannot raise produce. He says, that as Mr. 
Ingle was no judge of the quality of land here, he 
has chosen that which is not lasting, namely black 
oak land. It is kind and useful, but after three 
crops, he will see and believe, though he does not 
now, that his old American neighbours know and 
have got the best land. He thinks that a slave 
state, with negroes, well chosen, is the best for 
capitalists, who need not, or cannot work them- 
selves. He still thinks that hiring when you can, 
in a free state in the west, may sometimes pay, but 
as nearly all feel themselves masters instead of 
labourers, it is impossible to be regularly sup- 



246 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

plied with hands. Kindness, equality, persuasion, 
and good pay will sometimes effect it. He says, 
that a man is seldom more than paid for improve- 
ments. 

Supped with a Mr. Maidlow, a most intelligent 
and respectable Hampshire farmer, a neighbour 
of Cobbett's, who left England and his large farm, 
at about 16*5. an acre, because, from a fair trial, he 
found it impossible to farm without losing money, 
although his wheat-land averaged six quarters an. 

acre, and his landlord, Jervis, Esq., had 

lowered the rent 20 per cent. He brought a con- 
siderable capital and English habits and feelings, 
the best in the world, into the neatest and cleanest 
log-cabin that I have seen, and is building already 
a second, larger and better, for the preservation 
of all that is comfortable and respectable in the 
English character, being determined that neither 
himself nor family shall barbarize. This is im- 
possible: all barbarize here. He has bought six 
quarter sections, and hopes not to do more than 
keep his property, get land for his family, and live 
and die comfortably. Riches he thinks out of the 
question, and it is his wish that the settlement 
should feel and act towards each other as one 
family ; the reverse of Illinois, in which he in- 
tended to settle, and to which he was attracted by 
the books of Mr. Birkbeck, who refused him land, 
except at an advanced price, although he had 



1819,] IN AMERICA. 247 

30,000 acres retained for people in England, who 
never came; while those who applied, many and 
respectable practical farmers, were denied. 

The settlers here being all out of wheat-flour 
and Indian corn- meal, Mr. Ingle, self, a boy, and 
two children began, at noon, to gather and shell 
ears of corn for grinding into meal, and finished two 
bushels by night, ready for the mill, ten miles off* 
next day; when a boy on a horse started with it 
early, expecting to return on the following Sunday 
morning, if not lost in the woods. 

12th. Visited Mr. Potts's cabin and farm, 400 
acres of good land, on which he lives, without a 
woman, but has a good man from Stockport in 
Cheshire, where they both came from, and thus they 
alone manage both the house and the field. They 
have dug a well, many feet through the solid rock, 
without finding water. I saw here an experiment 
which I little expected to see ; the eighth of an 
acre of upland rice; three quarts were sown on it 
in May, in drills, eighteen inches asunder, and the 
increase is three bushels. The straw is like barley 
straw, and the stubble rank and stout, and not to 
be known from oat stubble, on rich fen land, only 
brighter. 

Saw a poor Englishman, who some time since 
broke his leg, which from want of skill in the 
doctor, was not properly set; he is therefore now 
a cripple for life. This is an evil to which all are 
exposed. Many are now dying at Evansville of a 



248 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

bilious disorder; the doctor employed has lost 
nearly all who applied. 

River banks are here always unhealthy. A 
family from Lincolnshire, attracted by fine land, 
on one of the prairie creeks, where no American 
would live on any terms, all fell sick, one died, 
and the farmer and his wife both lay unable to 
help themselves, or get help, except from one 
of their little boys, who escaped the contagion. 
Birkbeck strongly remonstrated with them against 
settling there. 

The farmers (Americans) indebted to the store- 
keepers, are now forced to sell all their corn at 
one dollar a barrel, and buy it again for their 
spring and summer use at five dollars, a fine 
profit for the monied merchant. Forty bushels 
per acre of corn pays better (says the old farmer) 
than wheat, with only twenty to twenty-five. The 
land here, though good, is not first rate, or of the 
most durable quality. 

A pigeon roost is a singular sight in thinly set- 
tled states, particularly in Tenessee in the fall of 
the year, when the roost extends over either a 
portion of woodland or barrens, from four to six 
miles in circumference. The screaming noise they 
make when thus roosting is heard at a distance of 
six miles; and when the beech-nuts are ripe, they 
fly 200 miles to dinner, in immense flocks, hiding 
the sun and darkening the air like a thick passing 
cloud. They thus travel 400 miles daily. They 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 249 

roost on the high forest trees, which they cover in 
the same manner as bees in swarms cover a bush, 
being piled one on the other, from the lowest to 
the topmost boughs, which so laden, are seen 
continually bending and falling with their crash- 
ing weight, and presenting a scene of confusion 
and destruction, too strange to describe, and too 
dangerous to be approached by either man or 
beast. While the living birds are gone to their dis- 
tant dinner, it is common for man and animals to 
gather up or devour the dead, then found in cart- 
loads. When the roost is among the saplings, on 
which the pigeons alight without breaking them 
down, only bending them to the ground, the self- 
slaughter is not so great ; and at night, men, with 
lanterns, and poles, approach and beat them to 
death without much personal danger. But the 
grand mode of taking them is by setting fire to the 
high dead grass, leaves, and shrubs underneath, 
in a wide blazing circle, fired at different parts, at 
the same time, so as soon to meet. Then down 
rush the pigeons in immense numbers, and inde- 
scribable confusion, to be roasted alive, and ga- 
thered up dead next day from heaps two feet 
deep. 

13ih. Major Hooker frequently shoots, and 
then cooks and eats the huge wild cats, while 
Mr. Birkbeck and his family eat the rattle-snake, 
the flesh of which, says Mr. Ingle, is fine, sweet, 
and white, as an eel. Pigs also eat them 



250 MEMORABLE DA\S [Nov. 

ciously. Armstrong-, a hunting farmer, this day 
shot four deer, while he is too idle to inclose his 
corn-field, which is devoured by cattle and horses, 
save when a boy watches it to keep them off. 
This man and family then, though with plenty of 
land, must buy corn, and depend upon wild meat 
for the support of his idle family, who have either 
a feast or a famine. They keep several cows, but 
as calves are constantly with them (having no sepa- 
rate inclosure) and as the family eat 5lbs. of butter 
a day, for three days in the week, which consumes 
all the dairy at once, they go without during the 
remainder of the week. They never sell any, 
though it is 25 cents per pound. No fear of sur- 
plus produce from such farmers. 

The hope, it seemed, of preserving and increasing 
his property, was amongst Mr. Birkbeck's ruling 
motives for emigration. To those to whom he is 
known, he is very hearty and sociable. To J. Ingle 
he said, " There are so many thousand dollars in 
that drawer ; they are of no use to me : go, and 
take what you like." He is very careless and im- 
provident, like the rest of his literary fraternity, 
and unconscious of what his powerful pen and high 
reputation were effecting by exciting a strong feel- 
ing in favour of emigration, at a moment when the 
people of England were despairing ; so strong, in- 
deed, that what he did and wrote, burst in upon 
them like a discovery. Unconscious of all this, he 
left undone all which he ought in common policy to 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 251 

have done. The weakest head could see that 
after purchasing land and alluring settlers, he 
ought to have guarded against a famine by pro- 
viding for their accommodation, building a few 
log-houses, store-houses, and a tavern, and culti- 
vating corn, so that the numerous callers in this 
inhospitable waste might have found food, and a 
shelter, and a person to shew the land, which he 
had to resell. Whereas a stable, a covered wag- 
gon, and prairie-grass, formed their only shelter 
and bed ; and not having food sufficient for himself, 
there was little or none for strangers, and no per- 
son to shew the land, nor did he know himself 
where it lay. He idly thought that if they wished 
land they would find it themselves; and being 
in expectation of many such families from Eng- 
land, he thought he had no land to spare, so that the 
real practical farmers of both worlds who called, 
turned away disgusted to other and better neigh- 
bourhoods, the Kaskasky, and Missouri, and Red 
River, where more important settlements are rising. 
He, therefore, as the rich families did not come, 
has no real farmers in his settlement, and hoped J. 
Ingle, being one, would come and make one soli- 
tary farmer amongst them. Trusting too, to his 
own judgment, he has settled down on and entered 
indiscriminately good and bad land, much of 
which will never be worth any thing, being wet, 
marshy, spongy, on a stratum of unporous clay, 
over which pestilential fogs rise and hang conti- 



252 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

nually. A United States' surveyor would, for a 
few dollars, have prevented such a choice. Com- 
mon policy and prudence, too, ought to have in- 
duced him to reduce his fine farming theory into 
practice, otherwise it seemed as if intended merely 
to deceive others. Even if he should, (as he now 
says) lose by it, or could buy produce cheaper 
than he could raise it, he still ought not so to buy 
it, but set an example of farming. For of what 
use is land, if it is not worth cultivating? 

As a proof of his improvident conduct, and bad 
management, his thirteen horses were all miser- 
ably poor and unfit for use, and when any were 
wanted, he would say to a hunter, " Here's five 
dollars for you, if you find and drive up the 
horses ;" for he had no inclosure. The man knew 
where they were, and soon found them and re- 
ceived the fee; none then were fit for use. " Oh ! 
don't tease me about horses." 

This evening, J. Ingle sat down by the fire, and 
cleaned the shoes of all the family, which he does 
every week. 

Sunday, l&th. Called on a Caledonian Yankee 
farmer, busy at work in his garden, who said he 
had no Sunday in his week, but would buy one if 
he could. He is a quarter-section man, without 
wife or child, shoes or hose. 

After a meeting of 16 persons of this little settle- 
ment, in the log-house of my friend, who read a 
sermon and prayed for all present, J visited Mr, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 253 

Hornbrook's, a respectable English family from 
Devonshire, on a good quantity of land, living in 
two or three log-cabins. 

Amongst the inducements of the Flower family 
to emigrate, may be reckoned the probability of 
their wasting all their property by farming their 
own estate, about 500 or 600 acres at Marsden. 
It was badly farmed, and the Merino trade failed, 
which was Mr. Flower's hobby-horse ; and seeing 
his favourite son was determined to live in America, 
emigration now ceased to be a matter of choice. 
They intended to settle in the ^ast. G. Flower, 
who brought a letter from the celebrated Marquis 
de la Fayette to Mr. Jefferson, whom he visited, 
bought an estate of 500 acres at 10 dollars an 
acre, near Jefferson's, where they were to have 
lived ; but, as Mr. Birkbeck could not approve it, 
on account of slavery, it was abandoned. 

15th. The English settlement in Indiana, up 
to this time, contains 12,800 acres entered, and in 
possession of actual settlers, 53 families having 
capital to the amount of 80,000 dollars. 

Dolls. Cents. 

Expenses of clearing and inclosing an acre 
of land, ready for planting, 6% dollars ; 
ditto of planting, with four ploughings 
and four hoeings, and harvesting, and 
stacking for market, at your own door, 
six dollars an acre; so making, the first 
year, an acre cost . . 12 50 




254 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

Dol. Cent. Dol. Cent. 

Brought up 12 50 

Second year, wheat 1^ bushel seed 1 50 
Ploughing once, 75 cents ; clearing 
dead timber, breaking up stumps, 
and hoeing sprouts, one dollar 50 

cents 2 25 

Reaping 1.J- bushel an acre, or in cash 1 
Carting, threshing, &c 3 50 

Cost of one acre, in two years . 

Produce of an acre of Indian corn, 35 

bushels, at 50 cents, the first year . . 1 7 5Q 

Ditto, wheat, 25 bushels, at 75 cents, the 
second year 18 75 

Value of the acre, in two years . . . . 36 25 
Deduct cost 20 75 

Profit 15 50 

In the next two years, the two acres will cost 
less by 8 dollars 75 cents, which, added to 1 5 dol- 
lars 50 cents, makes the net profit on two acres 
24 dollars 25 cents, besides the increased value of 
the land. 

The proper expenses of a farmer, arriving with 
a capital of 2,000 dollars, that is to say, his ne- 
cessary expenses in establishing himself and family 
the first year : 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 255 



Dolls. 



First year. Entry of half section, or 320 

acres of land 160 

House and stable, 80 dollars; smoke-house, 

pigsty e, and hen-house, 40 dollars ... 120 
Two horses, good, 160 dollars ; two ploughs 

and harness, 40 dollars 200 

Four axes, four hoes, 16 dollars; waggon, 

100 dollars; harrows, 12 dollars ... 128 
Spades, shovels, six dollars ; two cows, 36 

dollars ; four sows in pig, 20 dollars . . 62 

Corn crib and barn 60 

Clearing 20 acres of land first year, foot and 

under, and fenced well 130 

Ploughing, planting, hoeing, and turning . 130 

990 
Twelve months' maintenance of family . . 250 

1,240 

So leaving him at harvest 800 dollars of his 
2,000 dollars for the uses of the coming year; but 
still, this money will not be wanted, as the farm 
will now maintain itself and family; the money 
then should be at use. 

" The foregoing statements," says Mr. Ingle, 
" I will swear are correct, and they are in part re- 
duced to practice this year." I think, however, 
that the money should be at command for his own 



256 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

use, as twenty acres more clearing, &c. unless he 
does most of it himself, (which he ought to do) 
wants 260 dollars the second year. All the la- 
bour, however, is to be done the first year" by 
hired hands, if they can be found, and, if possible, 
to be done at a price per acre, not by the day. 

Mr. Ingle insists on it that none of the old funds 
will be wanted the second yeai f , but that the farm 
will maintain itself and family; as the pigs will 
supply plenty of bacon to eat and some to sell, 
besides the surplus of the first crop of corn, which 
will supply some money; but the second year, the 
work upon the farm must be principally done by 
himself and family. 

He thinks that no more land should be under 
cultivation and fence, (say about forty or fifty, and 
thirty acres of grass) than the farmer can manage 
without hiring, which, at present, it is impossible 
to do with any thing like comfortable benefit and 
English regularity. He will not be so grasping as 
in England. A little will satisfy him ; he is not so 
disposed to disquiet himself in Tain. The habits 
and examples of the country will at length be 
imperceptibly followed. 

New settlers in this state, men, women, and 
children, seem all exposed to an eruption, ten 
times worse than the itch, inasmuch as it itches 
more, runs all over the body, crusting and fester- 
ing the hands and other parts, and is not to be 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 257 

cured by the common treatment for the itch, which 
has been tried without effect, and one instance has 
been known, where the sulphur and grease killed 
the patient by obstructing perspiration, and driving 
in the eruption. The doctors know of no remedy, 
and suffer it to take its tedious course. It comes 
in the spring and fall, but not to the same person, 
it is hoped, more than once. It is attributed to the 
air, soil, and climate. Mr. Ingle's family are all 
suffering severely under it. Although the climate 
seems finer here than in the east, more humid and 
temperate, yet the bite of every insect and reptile, 
however insignificant, is highly poisonous ; an evil 
not to be remedied at present. New comers and 
fresh flesh suffer most, and sometimes much in- 
flammation is caused ; but when the land becomes 
more cleared, it is hoped this scourge will be less 
afflictive. 

Fine yeast: Take a small handful, or a good nip 
of hops, and boil them ten minutes, in one quart of 
water, then strain away the hops, and pour the 
liquor into a quantity of flour, sufficient to give 
the consistency of batter well beaten ; a tea-cup, 
full, or something less than the usual quantity of 
brewer's yeast, is sufficient for a half-stone loaf; 
two spoonfuls of brewer's yeast to work the first 
making; then, ever after, a little of the last made; 
the yeast to be put to it while milk-warm, and kept 
so until it ferments, which it generally does in 
summer very soon, and in winter in a day, but it 

s 



258 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

must not be used until it does ferment. In winter 
it keeps one month, in summer (American) one 
week, two in England, and is a fine saving and a 
great convenience. 

16tk. A poor emigrant farmer from Devon- 
shire, called here in search of a home. His fa- 
mily, yet on the river, had been nine weeks hi a 
stinking ark, coming from Pittsburgh, and ever 
since April last in getting from England, by way 
of Canada, hither. I asked him if he repented 
leaving England. " I do," said he, " a good deal, 
and so does my poor wife;" and then he burst 
into tears. The tears of a man are hard-wrung 
drops. " You were getting, I suppose, a com- 
fortable living in England?" " Oh no! taxes, 
tithes, rates, &c." " What money did you bring 
away?" " But a little, and besides my passage to 
Canada, where I could have had 100 acres for no- 
thing, I have spent 50Z. in getting to this western 
country. The captain told me that Canada was 
my best way, and I have now but little left." He 
thought of going to the Prairie. I told him he had 
better settle here. They of the Prairie were proud, 
and wanted only high-bred English. I encouraged 
this poor, desponding, ill-advised, -weak man to 
hope for better times in this good land, where he 
said he was willing to labour. 

Taverns are always charitable to moneyless tra- 
vellers, if they are sure of their poverty, feeding 
them gratis as they pass along, as instanced in a 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 2->9 

moneyless female, and a sick man whom I met in the 
stage coming here. The Scots frequently plead 
poverty, and get fed gratis, while their pockets are 
full of dollars. 

Mr. J. Ingle and maid started this morning, with 
a waggon, to Princeton, for boards, though living 
in a forest full of boards when sawn. He drove 
the waggon himself, and she was to get groceries 
and butter, if she could get it under twenty-five 
cents per Ib. Thus, for two days, we were left 
without water, or an axe to hew firewood, or any 
person to milk and feed a kicking cow and pigs. 

17th. A stranger called and brushed out of the 
rain. He said he was short of money, and came 
ten miles to sell two pigs, fat, weighing 400lbs. the 
two, but was not able to sell them at more than 
four dollars a cwt. ; he could not afford to make 
pork at that price. No pigs fat this year at mast, 
only passable pork; but when quite fat they must 
have corn for two or three weeks to harden them, 
though they get no fatter, or else the bacon would 
drip all summer, and when boiled, the fat become 
oil and run out into the water. He has seventeen 
acres of corn ; a bad crop, not enough for his own 
use. Few farmers are ever able to hire labourers, 
though he thinks it would answer if they could; 
still it is best to do all the work by one's-self or 
family. 

I went to turn the grindstone for J. Ingle's 
carpenter, at Mr. Maidlow's, one mile and a half 

s 2 



260 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov 

off. Went over his fine farm, that is to be. I 
think it is the best I have seen in this settlement. 
On it I saw a lick of singular size, extending over 
nearly half an acre of land, all excavated three feet, 
that is to say, licked away, and eaten, by buf- 
faloes, deer, and other wild animals. It has the 
appearance of a large pond dried. The earth is 
soft, salt, and sulphurous, and they still resort to 
it. Mr. Maidlow thinks that Cobbett is much 
nearer the truth than Birkbeck, in his account of 
the west. Had he now the chance of choosing, 
he would purchase, in the east, improvements at 
eighteen dollars an acre, like the farm of Mr. 
Long, as he finds that making improvements in 
the west costs much money. He believes Birk- 
beck is spending money fast. He does not think 
that capital employed in farming here will answer, 
or that cultivation will pay, if done by hired labour. 
Out of 900 acres, (all he intends buying) he means 
to cultivate and graze only about 100 acres; no 
more than they can manage of themselves. He 
does not expect to increase his capital, but by the 
increase in value of land. He means to build a 
mill, and plant a large orchard ; is digging a well, 
and finds some fine good burning coal in it, and a 
vast mine of rich blue marl. The Missouri, says 
he, is full of all the rich resources of nature; land, 
very fine. Here is a large family of men, and 
Mrs. Maidlow and daughter are drudges to the 
house, cooking, scouring, and scrubbing, conti- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 261 

nually. A young lady cleaning knives! How 
horrid ! ! 

i8th. A few months since, J. Ingle agreed 
with a neighbouring Kentuckyan hunter, to build 
him a log-house, to be begun and finished in a 
given time. The fellow was procrastinating, and 
too idle to begin, yet for ever promising. At 
length Mr. Ingle told him, that unless he began on a 
certain day, at noon, at latest, the contract should 
be void, and others should begin it. He came on 
the day mentioned, but not until six in the even~ 
ing, when others had begun the job. Greatly 
enraged, he said, he had come, and would begin 
,iii spite of any body. Mr. Ingle said he should 
never touch it. He said he would, or have Mr. 
Ingle's blood ; " and to-morrow morn, I will come 
with men, and twenty rifles, and I will have your 
life, or you shall have mine." Mr. Ingle thought 
of having recourse to the civil power, which is very 
distant, insomuch that the people speak and seem 
as if they were without a government, and name it 
only as a bugbear. 

J. Ingle returned this evening with his poplar 
boards, not worth carriage, and without being 
able to buy any tea, sugar, butter, cheese, or 
apples, for his use, at Princeton, though a county 
town, having a fine store out of stock, which it 
receives only once a-year. 

19th. A parson, with his wife, and sixty 
others, about eighteen months ago, came from the 



26*2 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

east, as settlers, to the big prairie of Illinois ; in 
which, during the sickly season, last fall, an eighth 
of their number died in six weeks. Having lost 
his wife amongst the rest, he has cleared out, and 
lives by his itinerant ministrations. 

It is useless to fence much more land than is 
cleared, because, until the country is cleared round 
about, the autumnal fires would destroy the fences. 
The cattle, therefore, must range in the woods, 
until some small inclosures, for pasture, can be 
made. Through the summer, both night and day, 
but mostly in the night, the mosquitoes, both in 
Indiana and Illinois, but chiefly in the latter, were, 
in their attacks, almost sufficient to drive English 
settlers out. If a man had been lashed naked to 
a post, he must have been stung to death, or unto 
madness. At Sandersville, says J. Ingle, they 
blinded several persons. 

The Cherokee nation once wishing to war 
against the United States, sent their favourite 
chief, old Double head, to Philadelphia, to sound 
parties, and return with his opinion either for or 
against it. " Oh," said he, on his return, " we 
must not war ; I have seen more white men in 
one town, than would be sufficient to eat all the 
Indians, if made into a pie." They have never 
since thought of war, but what few remain, are 
friendly and civilized, and fight for Uncle Sam. 
Some cultivate their land, and possess negroes. 
20/A. At nine this morning, after a fortnight's 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 263 

stay at Sandersville, f mounted the neck of an ill 
mis-shapen, dull, stumbling beast, called a horse, 
the best that friendship and good-will could pro- 
cure, for conveying me, in company with J. Ingle, 
to the state of Illinois, by way of the far-famed Har- 
mony. I rode, in fear, all day, through woods and 
wilds ; sometimes almost trackless. We were lost 
twice. The people seem to know nothing of time, 
and distance of places from each other; some telling 
us it was ten, when it was two, and three, when it 
was twelve o'clock; and as to distance, twenty 
when it was twenty-seven, and fifteen, when it was 
ten miles to Harmony. I expected to camp out 
all night, with no means of getting a fire. I saw 
nothing but good land, and (where any) fine corn ; 
but no comfortable dwellings; all, miserable little 
log-holes, having neither springs nor mill-streams. 
We were very courteously shewn our way by a 
worshipful magistrate of Indiana, at work by the 
road side, hewing and splitting wood. 

We rested, twenty minutes, at the log of one 
of Cobbett's Yankee farmers, with a fine family 
of boys, big enough for men, and handsome, 
sprightly, and free-looking, as ever walked the 
earth. I would have given something for a picture 
of them, being self-taught shoemakers, butchers, 
wheelwrights, carpenters, and what not, and hav- 
ing cleared, from 320 acres, 60 acres, and cropped 
them twice in two years. The mother sat, smoking 
her pipe, fat and easy. The father is ready to sell 



264 MEMORABLE DAYS [NoV. 

out at 1,200 dollars ; a fair price, says Mr. Ingle. 
They think well of this country, but were able to 
grow more wheat per acre in Pennsylvania; there, 
thirty-four, here, twenty to twenty-four bushels an 
acre ; they can have seventy-five cents at home, or 
carrying it twenty miles or less, one dollar a 
bushel, for wheat. The old fellow says that the 
Harmonites do their business of all kinds better 
than any body else. 

I saw, on the Harmony lands and fields, of 
great size, wheat, finer and thicker, planted with 
two bushels, than in England with three and a 
half bushels per acre. The fields, however, lie in 
a vale of prodigious richness. 

I reached Harmony at dusk, and found a large 
and comfortable brick tavern, the best and cleanest 
which I have seen in Indiana, and slept in a good, 
clean bed-room, four beds in a room, one in each 
corner ; but found bad beef, though good bread, 
and high charges, one dollar, five cents, each. 

A stranger present, asked our landlord of what 
religion were the community of Harmony. In 
broken English, and rather crossly, he replied, 
" Dat's no matter ; they are all a satisfied people." 
The spell, or secret, by which these people 'are 
held in voluntary slavery, is not to be known or 
fathomed by inquiry. We asked if strangers were 
permitted to go to their church to-morrow. " No," 
was the answer. This is unprecedented in the 
civilized world. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 265 

Sunday, 21 st. At Harmony till ten o'clock, 
when we were told, " we must then depart, or 
stay until after the morning service," which com- 
mences at ten o'clock. At the moment the bells 
began chiming, the people, one and all, from every 
quarter, hurry into their fine church like frighted 
doves to their windows ; the street leading to the 
temple seems filled in a minute, and in less than 
ten minutes, all this large congregation, 1,000 men, 
women, and children, all who can walk or ride, 
are in the church, the males entering in at the 
side, the females at the tower, and separately 
seated. Then enters the old High Priest, JVIr. 
Rapp, of about eighty, straight and active as his 
adopted sou, Frederick, who walks behind him. 
The old man's wife and daughters enter with the 
crowd, from his fine house, which looks as if the 
people who built it for him, thought nothing too 
good for him. This people are never seen in idle 
groups; all is moving industry ; no kind of idling; 
no time for it. Religious service takes place three 
times every day. They must be in the chains of 
superstition, though Rapp professes to govern 
them only by the Bible, and they certainly seem 
the perfection of obedience and morality. People 
who have left them say, that Rapp preaches, that 
if they quit the society, they will be damned, for 
his way is the only way to Heaven. He does much 
by signs, and by an impressive manner, stretch- 
ing out his arm, which, he says, is the arm of God, 



266 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

and that they must obey it; and that when he dies, 
his spirit will descend unto his son Fred. The 
people appear saturnine, and neither very cleanly 
nor very dirty. They are dressed much alike, 
and look rather shabby, just as working folk in 
general look. None are genteel. The women are 
intentionally disfigured and made as ugly as it is 
possible for art to make them, having their hair 
combed straight up behind and before, so that 
the temples are bared, and a little skullcap, or 
black crape bandage, across the crown, and tied 
under the chin. This forms their only head- 
dress. 

I rode round the town, which will soon be the 
best and first in the western country. At present, 
the dwellings, with the exception of Rapp's, and 
the stores and taverns, are all log-houses, with a 
cow-house and other conveniences. One is given to 
each family, and a fine cow, and nice garden ; other 
necessaries are shared in common. Their horses, 
cattle, and sheep, are all in one stable; herds 
and flocks are folded every night, in comfortable 
sheds, particularly an immensely large flock of Me- 
rino sheep ; and so secured from the wolves. They 
have a fine vineyard in the vale, and on the hills 
around, which are as beautiful as if formed by 
art to adorn the town. Not a spot but bears the 
most luxuriant vines, from which they make ex- 
cellent wine. Their orchards, too, are of uncom- 
mon size and fertility; and in a large pleasure 



18 1&] IN AMERICA. 267 

garden is a curious labyrinth, out of which none 
but those who formed it, or are well acquainted 
with it, can find their way. 

Their granary is superb and large, and the barns 
and farm-yards are singularly capacious, as well 
as their cloth and other manufactories. It is the 
wise policy of this people to buy nothing which it 
is possible for them to make or raise, and their in- 
dustry and ingenuity are irresistible. They have 
much to sell, at their own price, of almost every 
thing domestic and foreign. They cannot make 
shoes half so fast as they could sell them. It is 
not doubted but they are immensely rich, begin- 
ning in Pennsylvania with only 4,0001., and being 
now worth 500,0002. They keep no accounts, and 
all business is done and every thing possessed in 
Frederick Rapp's name. They have been in this 
Harmony five years only ; they bought a huge ter- 
ritory of the richest land, which is all paid for, and 
keep an immense quantity in high cultivation, and 
continue to buy out bordering settlers, thus ever 
enlarging their boundaries. An American widower, 
with ten children, joined them some time ago, in 
distress for his children ; all are well off now. 

They work very gently, but constantly. At 
eleven I left Harmony, wishing to see more of this 
singular community. Rapp came hither a poor, 
unlettered weaver from Germany. 

I entered the woods again, on the banks of the 
fine river, the Big Wabash, wider than the Thames 



268 MEMORABLE DAYS {Nov. 

at London. There are no regular roads ; but, over 
creeks and swamps, and the Black River, now dry, 
we took our way, and met six bastard Indian-like 
horsemen, drinking whiskey in the woods, looking 
wild and jovial, dressed in sky-blue and scarlet. 
Crossed the Big river into Illinois, after being lost 
one hour. Started a fine buck, and rode along rich 
bottom land, ten feet deep of water, in winter, and 
passed some smoke-dried women and children. 

At four, p. m., I reached the English prairie, 
presenting a wide, rusty, black prospect, the fire 
having passed over it. 1 met Wood and Shepherd, 
the only two farmer-like men; saw no corn-fields; 
nothing done ; rode into Albion at dusk, and 
called on Speculator Pugsley and Mr. . P. Ford- 
ham, who never means to return to England, ex- 
cept rich or to be rich. If he fails here, he will 
turn hunter and live by his rifle on the frontiers. 
I supped and went to bed in a hog-stye of a room, 
containing four filthy beds and eight mean per- 
sons; the sheets stinking and dirty; scarcity of 
water is, I suppose, the cause. The beds lie on 
boards, not cords, and are so hard that I could 
not sleep. Three in one bed, all filth, no com- 
fort, and yet this is an English tavern ; no whiskey, 
no milk, and vile tea, in this land of prairies. 

22nd. At sun-rise [ rose from our filthy nest. 
Mr. Simpkins, a dirty idle wife, with sons and 
daughters, late of Baldock, Herts, are the ma- 
nagers of this prairie tavern. A better one of brick 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 269 

is building by Mr. R. Flower, who owns the 
former, from which Simpkins is about removing 
to Evansville, because he and family, though all 
poor, are above being at the beck and call of every 
body, and pleasing nobody ; and besides (says 
Simpkins) the great folks are too aristocratical for 
me, and endeavour to oppress their countrymen. 
This, I believe, is not true. Simpkins, and better 
folks than he, need not come here, if they are un- 
willing to put their shoulders to the yoke. I walk- 
ed round Albion. It contains one house only, 
and about ten or twelve log-cabins, full of dege- 
nerating English mechanics, too idle to work, and 
above every thing, but eating, drinking, brawling, 
and fighting. The streets and paths are almost 
impassable with roots and stumps, and in front of 
every door is a stinking puddle, formed by throw- 
ing out wash and dirty water. A good market- 
house, and a public library, is at the end, in which 
a kind of Unitarian worship is held on a Sunday, 
when a sermon and the church service purified is 
read by any one who pleases. The books are do- 
nations from the Flower family and their friends 
in England. By sending donations, people be- 
come honorary members, and Mrs. Flower has, 
by all legal means, secured perpetuity to this in- 
stitution, which few expect to find in this distant 
wilderness. 

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor Pugsley, late of London, 
live in the only house, which, if it had a servant, 



270 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

would boast of English comforts, politeness, and 
hospitality. She sighs to revisit England, where 
she might see her friends, and rest her delicate 
hands, now destined to all kind of drudgery. He 
has purchased land largely, on speculation, with- 
out intending to cultivate any, and offers it at 
three dollars an acre, or at a corn rent. Much of the 
land has been thus purchased by capitalists here, 
and is offered again on these terms, because the 
Kentucky speculators, it is said, would otherwise 
have bought all up and charged more for it, and 
because the profit demanded, is thought to be 
reasonable. But what is the effect? That of 
driving away good little practical farmers to other 
neighbourhoods. I was introduced to the young 
Birkbecks, riding through Albion, and was struck 
by their polished and prepossessing appearance. 
I was introduced also to R. Flower, Esq., and 
engaged to dine with him and his family, at their 
house in the prairie. This gentleman much re- 
sembles the celebrated Benjamin Flower, though 
of a finer person ; but is fast fadiog away. The 
shock which he received by the death of a favorite 
son, a victim to the climate, has, together with 
some disappointments, greatly impaired the vigor- 
ous mind and body of this noble man, and true 
fearless friend of liberty all over the world. Mr. 
G. Flower lives in the cornpletest log-cabin I have 
ever seen, near his father. It contains six or seven 
rooms, with other needful buildings, and as a log- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 271 

establishment, I will venture to say, possesses 
more comfort and elegance than any ever seen in 
America. It is a model for all future log-builders. 
This gentleman is very polite, mild, gentle, and 
unassuming; trying scenes have made him rather 
silent and sombre. His lady seems the happiest 
and most elegant female I have seen, and perfectly 
suited to her present or any situation, being nei- 
ther above the cottage nor below the palace. Well, 
indeed, might four gentlemen con tend for the prize * 

" If some few failings to her portion fall, 
Look in her face and you'll forget them all." 

The gay, graceful, modest, hearty, anticipating 
kindness of this lady, makes every guest feel him- 
self at home and loth to depart. 

This family (the Flowers) own a large and beau- 
tiful domain of prairie, containing unnumbered 
acres of fine land, beautified by British park sce- 
nery. The visitor, coming here out of the forest, 
fancies himself in England, especially if he looks 
at the country through the windows of Messrs. 
Flower's and Birkbeck's houses, during the green 
and flowery season, when the scenery presents a 
wide waste of grass, flowers, and shrubs, of every 
hue ; but the flowers have no fragrance, the birds no 
song. The sight of a flock of 500 Merino sheep, 
and a large herd of cattle, all their own, is indeed 
a novel and unexpected pleasure in these wild re- 



272 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

gions; and, added to all these, the comfort of such 
houses and harmonious families, escaped from the 
embarrassments and anxieties of England, to quiet 
rest and independence, makes it indeed a delight- 
ful spectacle. All say they have nothing to regret, 
and are full of satisfaction, except the wish that 
more friends would follow; whom, unless they 
follow, they shall see no more. They acknow- 
ledge that they have much to do here, from want 
of servants. One female, Biddy by name, recently 
came and engaged to do only what she pleased, 
and to sit at the same table. The terms were com- 
plied with, but a plan to cure Biddy was laid. 
On a certain day many visitors were invited to 
dinner, at which Biddy was not allowed to rise, 
even to help herself to any thing, but all present 
vied with each other in attending on Miss Biddy, 
who, in great confusion, left the room, fully sen- 
sible of her folly, and next day determined to be 
a servant for the future. 

Mr. Flower and family recently visited Rapp, 
the High Priest of Harmony. After dinner a band 
of musicians entered. Mr. F. thinks highly of this 
community, who, in religion and doctrine, are 
Lutherans ; in discipline, Presbyterians. He says, 
that house-keeping here is nothing compared with 
England. A fat buck, one dollar ; beef, five cents ; 
mutton, six cents, per pound; and game, fine 
prairie-hens, like grouse and turkeys, in sickening 
abundance. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 273 

J. Ingle and family, eight in number, out of bu- 
siness, lived for four dollars a week at Princeton ! 

Mr. Flower would not live on woodland as a 
gift, if prairie land could be bought. The latter 
certainly seems most adapted for an English far- 
mer ; yet it costs as much to fence, and bring it 
into cultivation as woodland ; for though less ma- 
nual, yet more horse labour is necessary than in 
.the woods. Six horses are necessary for the first 
ploughing, as the grass and shrub roots are deep 
down and uncommonly tough, having been grow- 
ing for ages. It is, therefore, worth five dollars an 
acre to effect the first ploughing, and three or four 
dollars, the second. A summer's fallow is, be- 
sides, necessary for rotting the roots, and properly 
pulverizing the soil ; and, unless so managed, it 
is badly managed. Both Flower and Birkbeck 
sowed nothing the first year, which came to any 
use. The latter planted corn, which the cattle 
destroyed, through want of a good fence, which 
must be hauled from the woodland, a considera- 
ble distance, to the prairie; the inclosing is, there- 
fore, more expensive than on the woodland* 

23rd. Spending this day with Mr. G. Flower, 
I rode from ten till five o'clock round the prairie, 
in which is their fine park-like domain, and some 
smaller estates purchased for their friends in Eng- 
land, of which there is one with a house and some 
improvements belonging to Wed Nash, Esq., of 
Royston, Herts., arid more rich and beautiful than 

T 



274 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOT. 

any he can see from the bleak, barren, chalky 
hills ofhis native town. I called at an adjoining 
farm, rented by a dirty, naked-legged French fa- 
mily, who, though born in this country, know 
nothing of the English language. Then at Mr. 
Hunt's, who is deaf and dumb, (the brother of 
Henry Hunt, the Champion of Reform), who with 
his nephew, a son of Henry, came here, about a 
year since, to three quarter sections of land ; of 
which they have cultivated only six acres. They 
live in a little one-room miserable log-cabin, doing 
all the labour of the house and land themselves, and 
without any female. We found them half-naked 
and in rags, busily greasing a cart, or mending a 
plough. They appeared only as labourers, but, on 
being introduced to them by Mr. Flower, their best 
friend, good sense and breeding shone through the 
gloom of their forlorn situation. We entered their 
cabin, and took some boiled beef on a board, and 
sat on their bed and boxes, having no chairs, 
stools, or tables, and only the mean clothes they 
then wore ; a fire having recently destroyed their 
first cabin with all its contents. Being disap- 
pointed in English remittances, and unable to get 
letters from thence, which they thought had been in- 
tercepted, they were out of funds, and their land was 
uncultivated, unsown, and selling for the payment 
of taxes. To prevent this, Mr. Flower called this 
day. Mr. Hunt has a fine, animated, rather agi- 
tated countenance. He converses in writing, with 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 275 

great ease and rapidity, on any subject interesting 
to him ; and his nephew, the orator's son, aged W, 
is a fine, tall, active, kind-hearted youth, pretty 
well reconciled to his situation. I offered to bear 
any commands, or render them any services in my 
power, on returning to England ; an offer which they 
gratefully embraced. I rode on towards the planta- 
tion of Mr. Lewis ; but losing our way, we return- 
ed without seeing him. He spent much of his 
capital idly in Philadelphia, and now, without 
cultivating an acre of his land here, he has resold 
it, intending to keep a boarding-house in Albion. 
He, like the rest of his neighbours, knows nothing 
of agriculture. The land here seems very tempting 
to a British farmer, quite ready for the plough with- 
out any hewing or cleaving, or a blade of grass to 
obstruct the plough. The fire has laid the sur- 
face black and bare as a stubble ground, burnt in 
the fens of England. But what is land with men 
ignorant of, and too idle to work it? Without any 
cultivation at all, it annually offers an infinite sup- 
ply of hay and grass, for any who choose to mow 
and gather it, or graze it ; yet few or none, saving 
Birkbeck and Flower, have done so. What is ga- 
thered, is green and fragrant, but not so sweet as 
fine English hay. It is hard, harsh, and dry. 
Beef is well fattened on the grass, during the sum- 
mer, the finest meat I ever saw ; and sheep, with 
the assistance of corn, are fattened and now killing 
from Mr. Flower's flock, which all day ranges over 

T 2 



276 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

the prairies with a shepherd, who pens them at 
night close to the farm-house, away from the 
wolves, which yesterday, in spite of the good shep- 
herd, scattered them and devoured fifty. I trem 
ble for the fate of this flock, which is now without 
grass or any substitute. The grass all dies in Octo- 
ber; hard and dry food, which would starve an 
English flock, is now and must be their lot all 
winter. They drink constantly when water is 
near, like cattle, and water must be given them in 
troughs. And thus will they fare at lambing. 
What wasting, worrying, scattering, and death 
may not be expected? Would it not have been 
better to have waited for inclosures of cultivated 
grass for the herds and flocks ? 

Yesterday one of their fat bullocks was found 
dead near the Wabash, maliciously shot by a 
hunter; for the discovery of whom they offered 
50 dollars reward. 

It is the intention of these families to plough the 
land two years, and then turn it into English pas- 
ture, a portion every year. Mrs. G. Flower, while 
in Virginia, kissed a beautiful black babe before 
the owner, a lady, who felt great disgust and in- 
dignation at the act." Oh, take it away !" 

Mr. Flower intends to form a society for freeing 
blacks, and employing free blacks. It is to be on 
the Harmony plan. He promises me the plan 
when matured. He thinks that 100/. in France is 
equal to 300/. in England for the support of a 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 277 

family, and in the former all is kindness, pleasure, 
and peace. He visited the Marquis de la Fayette, 
whose income is very small. By him he was 
furnished with a letter to the Hon. Thomas Jeffer- 
son, with whom he spent many happy days. 
This great philosopher and statesman, during the 
last 30 years, has been always up with the sun, 
noting down at sunrise the state of the mercury. 
He lives splendidly, in French style, on the top of 
the beautiful mountain M outecello, with his grand- 
children and son-in-law, Mr. Randolph (not the 
orator). His last days are spent in writing ince& 
santly a work for posterity. His patrimony is fast 
wasting, as it is in the slave states generally. 

The hunters, or Illinois Rowdies, as they are 
called, are rather troublesome. They come rudely 
with their hats on into the parlour, and, when 
drunk, threaten Mr. Flower's life ; but they are 
great cowards; firmness and a fearless resolution 
are necessary in dealing with them. One of a 
large offended party came drunk to Mr. Flower's 
house, and said, he would enter and shoot him. 
Mr. Flower got his rifle and pointed it at the fel- 
low, on which he rushed up and put his mouth 
madly to the muzzle, and said, " Fire." Mr. F. 
then laid it down, seeing the effect was not good, 
and some less drunken members of theparty dragged 
the fellow away. Law has no influence over these 
Rowdies. Violence must be opposed to violence. 
The Flower family has bought out a good many 



278 MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

of these wretches. One, however, more violent 
and lawless than any yet known, still remains, of 
the name of Jack Ellis, the son of an old and in- 
dustrious settler from Indiana, who says that he 
expects this son will some time murder his mother; 
and that if God does not take him, he, his father, 
must kill him himself. 

This rascal, with several others, in addition to 
their hunting, go round stealing free negroes, on 
pretence of being employed to find runaways, 
The poor blacks are thus cruelly taken and sold 
at New Orleans. I saw Jack with his rifle after 
a negro, in the employ of Mr. G. Flower, who had 
armed the poor fellow in defence of himself against 
Jack, whom the settlement wish to be shot. 

Mr. Flower, sen., one day found it necessary to 
have his family carriage ferried over the river in a 
flat, which had only one man to manage it, and 
get the carriage on and off. Much delay being the 
consequence, and the man unable to do alone, 
Mr. Flower complained, and said, " If you do 
not go and tell your master to send more help, I 
will fine you for detaining me." The fellow very 
rudely said, " / have no master, nor shall I go for 
more help. I am not a servant." " How is that,'* 
said Mr. F., " the proprietor hires you ; you serve 
him, and he pays you. I am not above assisting 
you ; and being your servant, and you shall pay 
me too." When landed on the other side, Mr. 
Flower had two dollars demanded. " Very well," 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 279 

said he, " 1 have done half the work, and there- 
fore I charge one dollar for my service !" The 
fellow leered and looked humbled. 

24th. Left Mr. Flower and Albion for Wan- 
borough, a village rising on the estate of Mr. 
Birkbeck, and named after the village in Surrey, 
where he last lived. Industry seems to have 
done more for this village than for Albion; 
every log-house has a cleared inclosure of a few 
acres attached, and what is done, is done by the 
occupants or owners, and not by Mr. Birkbeck ; 
whereas, in Albion, all has been done by the purse 
of Mr. Flower. Both villages are the abode only 
of the humble mechanic. The farmers live on their 
quarter-sections, and both are but scantily sup- 
plied with water at a distance. Wells, however, 
it is hoped, will soon be dug with an unfailing- 
supply. Wanborough has, 1 believe, and will have 
the advantage over Albion, as it regards water; 
but both Flower and Birkbeck have never-failing 
water in wells close to their houses, to which peo- 
ple by permission come to draw it. Springs and 
streams are found in other prairies. On stopping 
at the tavern in the ville, we were met by the 
young Birkbecks, who welcomed and conducted 
us to the seat of their celebrated father, whom we 
met near the house returning from shooting, 
dressed in the common shooting jacket, &c., of 
an English farmer, sporting over his own lands. 
Knowing my friend, he received us both very gra- 



280 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

ciously, and with a hearty welcome conducted us 
in to the ladies. He approached us at first as 
strangers, and, as is common with him, with a re- 
pelling sternness and earnestness of manner, seemed 
to say, " Who are you ?" But this manner, if he is 
pleased with appearances, soon dies away into 
smiling kindness and hospitality, which makes all 
at home. " If I am not," said he, " pleased with 
all who come, and I cannot, and will not, they go 
away abusing me and the settlement." Gentler 
: and kinder manners, perhaps, to strangers indiscri- 
minately coming from afar, would be no bad po- 
licy. Mr. Birkbeck is of a small, unformidable, 
but erect stature, and swarthy Indian complexion. 
The contour of his face, with the exception of a 
fine nose, possesses little that is striking ; and the 
face, viewed as a whole, indicates little of the ex- 
actness, ripeness, sweetness, and finished taste, 
which are known to distinguish him. Notwith- 
standing the shock his feelings recently received, 
he seems enviably happy in the bosom of his fa- 
mily, which consists of four sons and two daugh- 
ters, mistresses of the lyre and lute, and of many 
other accomplishments. Mr, B., and every branch 
of this happy family, with the exception of his son 
Richard, retire at ten every evening to their sleep- 
ing rooms, where a fire is kindled for them to read 
and study by, half the night. " I am happy," 
said he, " in my family !" His favourite son Mor- 
ns, a finished scholar, disliking a rustic life, is 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 281 

about returning to England. Mr. Birkbeck had 
not the advantages of his children, but still is 
master of the dead and several of the modern lan- 
guages. He, only a few days since, returned from 
a tour through Illinois, by way of Kascasky, where 
he was chosen President of the agricultural so- 
ciety of Illinois, one grand object of which will 
be, to rid the state of stagnant waters. He visited 
many settlements, but saw none so desirable as 
his own. On the Little Wabash, is one, of which 
he says Mr. Grant of Chatteris farms a part, very 
fine rich land, but rather sickly, and during the 
winter and spring inaccessible, by the overflowings 
of the Little Wabash, which then becomes five 
miles wide, imprisoning the settlement. Mr. Grant 
has been burnt out once, and lost cabin and all it 
contained. His daughter lives away from him at 
board. Not wishing to become prisoner to the 
Little Wabash, I declined, though I once intended, 
visiting this first-rate English farmer, late of Chat- 
teris-ferry in the Isle of Ely. This gentleman died 
shortly afterwards, a victim to the climate. 

Mr. Birkbeck says the Missouri territory par- 
takes of an European character, in some respects, 
and is preferred by some English families on 
account of slavery, or rather the facility of getting 
labour and servants. Colonel Boon now lives 
thirty miles only from St. Louis, and in that 
flourishing town, Clark, the celebrated traveller 
up the Missouri river, lives, and has a museum. 



282 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

Colonel Boon and his party, being without bread 
for six months, used wild turkey to their meat as 
a substitute. 

After this conversation within doors, we agreed 
to walk out and view the house and estate. The 
first is very capacious and convenient, furnisted 
with winter and summer apartments, piazzas, and 
balconies, and a fine library, to which you ascend 
by an outward gallery. Every comfort is found 
in this abode of the emperor of the prairies, as he 
is here called. It is situated out of the village, 
and on an elevation, having a fine view of his 
estate, and the prairies generally, in front. It is a 
pity that it is not built of brick or stone, instead 
of wood ; once on fire, it will be inextinguishable, 
and the loss of comfort and property considerable, 
and, moreover, irrecoverable. There is no lime- 
stone here for mortar, but what is made, expen- 
sively, twelve miles off, of shells from the Wabasb. 
Brick buildings are laid in muddy clay ! 

This estate, consisting of 16,000 acres, which he 
sells as customers offer, comprises some fine, and 
some wet land ; and, at present, with the exception 
of a few acres of wheat just sown, too late, it is all 
uncultivated. Many acres are, however, enclosed 
by a ditch and rail fence, formed by stakes, bands, 
and split rails, which will oftener need repairing 
than the worm fence, without being so complete a 
protection. Less timber, however, is needed in 
this mode; and timber, drawn from a distance, is 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 283 

now, and, in times to come, will, if no green 
fences are raised, become a matter of great impor- 
tance. I believe this fence will not be imitated by 
any American. Land here is of no value without 
fences, which will keep cattle in and pigs out. He 
does not intend to farm much ; " I had enough of 
farming for thirty years in England. I came here 
to rest. It ought not to be expected of me that I 
should incumber myself with much business." He 
means to plough two years, and then turn the land 
into pasture, it being not desirable to have a large 
surplus produce above what can be consumed by 
the settlement ; but of this there is little fear, as not 
above six original farmers are yet here. Mr. B. 
discovers that ditching and fencing removes the 
cause of the fogs which hang over the low prairies. 
About nine to twelve inches of surface, good soil, 
rather light, is found. Underneath is white clay, 
which an animal like a crab, but called a craw- 
fish, throws up into numerous hills, bigger than 
the large ant-hills in old English pastures. This 
white clay, thus mixed, is, by Mr. B., deemed a 
benefit. These curious creatures delve down into 
the water under the soil. They are, like moles, 
seldom seen but in their effects. 

During our pleasant morning walk, John Ingle 
said, " His father (the patriarch) wished to come, 
but found it difficult, as his daughters were marry 
ing, and giving in marriage, and therefore impeding 
the father's wishes." " What," replied Mr. Birk- 



284 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

beck, " What! stay and breed beggars in Eng- 
land! Well! with industry, we shall always have 
an asylum for them here, but not soft independ- 
ence.'' 

Mr. B. said the Rowdies had threatened him 
with assassination; but showing and convincing 
them that he would shoot them if they attempted 
to enter his house without permission, they had 
abandoned their design. This circumstance, no 
doubt, gave birth to a report of his death, which I 
saw entered in the news-book at Wheeling, and at 
Zainsville, Ohio. 

251/2. After sleeping and breakfasting at Mr. 
Birkbeck's, I called and dined with Joseph Hanks, 
Esq. and his fine Irish family of sprightly sons, and 
one little motherless daughter. They are Protest- 
ants, and lived, as long as they could keep their 
comforts, in Ireland. He was a banker, and a 
correspondent of the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, and 
George Canning, Esq. while the young sons were 
the dandies of Dublin; but here, the father is a store? 
keeper, and the sons are cooks, housemaids, car- 
penters, and drudges for all work. He brought 
considerable property away. He has bought no 
land, and professes to dislike the prairies and 
America generally. He would have bought from 
Mr. Birkbeck, but could get only a " cup," that is, 
a swamp. He says his funds are yet entire, and he 
means to leave the country, and live in England, 
in a garret, in either London or Dublin, rather 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 286 

than remain here, if he should be cast in a suit in 
which he is the plaintiff, against the magistrates 
of Illinois, who, he thinks, have unjustly taken 
Birkbeck's part against him ; he and his family 
having quarrelled with Mr. B. and family, about 
water, &c. Mr. Hanks, is a wild, hot-headed, 
sprightly Irishman, charging Mr. Birkbeck's wri- 
tings with falsehood and deception, and him as a 
deceiver, idly spending already 30,000 dollars ; no 
farmer, and now out of funds, and embarrassed. 
" I was caught," said he, " by his fascinating 
writings ; it was impossible to resist them. Who 
could? Did ever man write like him? I read his 
letters to him; he could not bear it. Persons were 
employed to buy them up in the east. I admire 
both him and his writings, and notwithstanding 
all I say against him, I love him still. Whatever 
may be his opinions, I hope and believe the 
Almighty will never let such a man slip through 
his fingers. He must, however, fail in his enter- 
prize. JNever come here, sir: here is no money, 
no labourers. The English are the most dis- 
honest." He says, Mr. Birkbeck maintained his 
father during the last six years of his life. I re- 
turned to sup and sleep at Birkbeck's, who, 
on hearing where we spent the day, said, " You 
have heard much falsehood. Hanks is a bad man, 
having quarrelled with me, and nearly all around 
him." 

Cobbett now became the theme ; I said he had 



286 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

sent the bones of Tom Paine to be enshrined at 
Botley. "He cannot be such a fool?" "His 
writings have been useful, and extensively read," 
said I. " Yes, that is true, but he sticks not to 
truth ; he is a caricaturist, and a dishonest man." 
He then showed me his manuscript reply to Mr. 
Cobbett's attack. Jn giving my opinion of it, I 
pointed out what I conceived to be a grand omis- 
sion, that of not noticing " no market for a sur- 
plus produce," and said, " he will fasten upon 
that." "Yes, he probably will, but that is a 
general question applicable to the whole western 
country." " He will," said I, " have a rejoinder 
for you." " Well, I must write again." 

His opinion of Rapp and Harmony is unfriendly 
to such a community. It is not firm as to temporals, 
and as to spirituals, it is a priestly tyranny, interest- 
ed in enslaving body and conscience, in order that 
a few may some day divide the spoil. They keep no 
accounts, and as the land is conveyed to Rapp and 
his followers, those followers, by good management, 
may become very few ; then Harmony will be 
divided. " No pleasurable feelings possess a man 
who contemplates this community." 

26tfA. At breakfast, this morning, the young 
Birkbecks said they had seen a general employed 
in pig-killing, and a judge driving his own wag- 
gon. I asked the young ladies how they relished 
the rattle-snake. They said, as it was of a pro- 
digious size and tough and old, it was scarcely eat- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 287 

abie, though it looked white and delicate, and 
tasted like a chicken. 

The term elegant is no where so little under- 
stood as in this country. One of Mr. B.'s neigh- 
bours' sons falling sick, the father applied to 
Mr. B.'s chest for medicine, and received it. Mr. 
B. next morning said to the father, " Well, sir, 
how did the medicine operate?" " Oh, sir, ele- 
gantly," was the reply. 

The hour was now come for quitting this dis- 
tinguished man and harmonious family. He wished 
me to stay longer, and to hear of and from me 
after my return to England, and that his son, 
Morris, who is coming to a mercantile concern 
at Bristol, might accompany me. 

I dined, on fine roast beef, with Dr. Pugsley, 
physician to the settlement. Here are English ele- 
gance and comfort, but no servant. What a change! 
And, as the settlement is said to be healthy, what 
a chance for a mere doctor ! In the afternoon 1 call- 
ed on Mr. Cowling, late of Spalding, Lincolnshire, 
who, with his brother, is settled on a corner of a 
quarter-section, living without any female, and fast 
barbarizing, in a most miserable log-cabin, not 
mudded, having only one room, no furniture of any 
kind, save a miserable, filthy, ragged bed for him- 
self and his brother, whois lamed, and prostrated on 
the floor, by a ploughshare, and who, though un- 
able to move, yet refuses a doctor. Both were more 
filthy, stinking, ragged, and repelling, than any 



288 "MEMORABLE DAYS [NOV. 

English stroller or beggar ever seen; garments 
rotting off, linen unwashed, face unshaven and un- 
washed, for, I should think, a month. Yet Mr. 
Cowling is a sensible, shrewd man, quite a philo- 
sopher, though filthiness is against the law of na- 
ture. " Here (says he) a man learns philosophy 
and its uses!" He expects his sisters and brothers 
into this miserable abode. What a shock will such 
a spectacle be to their feelings ! He went, during 
the summer, five miles for water, though a well 
might have been dug on his farm. He grumbles 
about having given 60L per cent, profit to Birk- 
beck for his land, for by this policy the latter has 
injured the settlement and himself; and as he does 
not farm, as was expected, he must lose his ca- 
pital as well as Mr. Flower. He says prairie 
lands cost as much getting into cultivation as the 
woodland. People coming here without fortune, 
must have industry and work, if they would live. 
He does not, however, regret emigrating, but people 
should be taught the truth, and come with no in- 
flated notions. Birkbeck has deceived himself 
and the public. Cobbett's rubs against him are 
good, but some are false. 

I rested this night at the one-room log-cabin of 
Mr. Woods and family, a real Nottinghamshire 
farmer, on 400 acres of good land. Here we found 
an excellent cleanly supper, good whiskey, se- 
gars, and a friendly welcome. The room con- 
tained four beds, for nine of us, standing on a 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 289 

dirt floor, while the chimney poured nearly all its 
smoke upon us. With a scolding wife, instead of 
his pretty, cleanly English niece, things had been 
complete. But Mr. Woods lost his wife on the 
Ohio river, where many poor English, this sum- 
mer, have either died or been drowned. He has 
brought with him four bushels of English haw- 
thorn, for green fencing; without green fencing, 
woe be to the prairies! Mr. Woods seems a plain, 
judicious, industrious man, sensible of the wisdom 
of his choice. The Woods are men either for the 
prairie or the wood country. Not far from Mr. 
Woods live a Mr. Bentley and lady, late of Lon- 
don, who, here, with a little property, have turned 
farmers, doing all the labour in the field and log- 
house themselves, and, it is said, seem very cheer- 
ful, happy, and healthy. In London he had the 
gout, and she the delicate blue devils, but here 
milking, fetching water, and all kinds of drudgery, 
in doors and out, have cured her, and ploughing, 
him. He never, he says, loved her or she him, 
half so much as in Illinois. At a distance of five 
miles from any dwelling live also two young gay 
gentlemen, late of London, of the name of Millor, 
now called children of the wood, who cultivate 
one quarter section, and shift for themselves in 
great comfort, cleanliness, and satisfaction, though 
they never saw a plough before. Here they do all. 
Mr. J. Cookson, of Bond-street, is now in Ford- 
ham's store. 

u 



290 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 



, By appointment, I revisited the Flower 
family. When it became known in England that 
they were about to emigrate, they were constantly 
assailed on the road and at home by inquiries* 
insomuch that it was necessary, for several days, 
to keep a servant posted at the anti-room door, to 
give a general answer to such inquiries, by saying 
that they neither wished nor wanted any body to 
go to America. At this time Mr. Birkbeck's notes 
appeared, after some difficulty in finding a re- 
spectable, independent bookseller, Mr. Ridgway. 
Mr. Flower read to me a manuscript letter, in- 
tended for publication, which he had recently 
written, addressed to Mr. Birkbeck, respecting 
the conduct of the latter gentleman; the object 
of which is to put him on his defence in all mat- 
ters, public and private, relating to their mys- 
terious and unfortunate quarrel. As I have heard 
both sides, from both parties, or at least as much 
of both sides as the parties, voluntarily and un- 
questioned, thought proper to give me, I shall en- 
deavour to give a faithful account of what 1 heard. 
The Flowers charge Mr. B. with an intention of 
driving their family out of Illinois, and of deceiv- 
ing the public generally, in the hope of monopo- 
lizing all the prairies to himself, so that he might 
sell, at what advanced price he pleased, to such of 
his countrymen as came hither, induced by his 
tempting publications. The second letter of that 
volume is to Mr. Flower, sen. Wishing to visit 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 291 

America, to relieve himself from domestic unhap- 
piness, Mr. G. Flower was the precursor of Mr. 
Birkbeck, who then was opposed to emigration, 
but who, soon after Flower's departure, suddenly 
changing his opinion, determined on his present 
measure, and wrote to G. Flower to that effect, who 
was so much pleased with the country, that he 
bought land in Virginia, intending to settle on it, if 
he could induce his family to follow. Mr. Birk- 
beck now met the Flower family, to persuade them 
to emigrate with him to their son George Flower, 
and make one property and share all things in com- 
mon, a measure too Utopian for Mr. Flower, sen. 
to approve. Mr. Birkbeck then reproached Mr. 
Flower with croaking; and the emigration of the 
Flower family was deferred, while Mr. Birkbeck 
prepared for his departure. The Miss Birkbecks 
seeing a young lady at Mr. Flower's, Miss An- 
drews, wished her to accompany them to America, 
a measure to which the father objected, but soon 
afterwards consented, and away they sailed to 
Norfolk, in Virginia, where they were met by 
George Flower, who agreed to accompany them 
westward. Miss Andrews and George Flower, 
unknown to Birkbeck, were agreeing to marry ; 
and on arriving at Vincennes, both parties made it 
known to Mr. Birkbeck, who, with considerable 
agitation and surprise, gave his consent and sanc- 
tion to the marriage. This consent, however, was 
wildly given, and apparently with extreme reluc- 

u 2 



MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

tance, for he also was attached to this lovely fe- 
male. Mr. Birkbeck having shewn strong feel ings 
arid emotions on this occasion, Mr. Flower and 
the Birkbeck family, in consequence, felt much 
alarm. Mr. Flower did not expect it, though he 
knew of the unfortunate attachment, for the fond- 
ness so little encouraged was but too evident; bu^ 
as he had ingenuously told Mr. Birkbeck, and 
advised with him on the measure, and he had con- 
sented and acquiesced with apparent kindness, 
Mr. G. Flower had hoped that his strong emo- 
tions would subside. He offered to leave Mr. 
Birkbeck and his family for ever, to which Mr. 
B. would not consent, but, on leaving the happy 
pair at Vincennes, went on to Princeton, where 
all, in a few days, met in friendship, and proceed- 
ing into Illinois, subsequently settled in the prai- 
ries, as one family, until Birkbeck showed symp- 
toms of violent attachment, which excited alarm 
as to consequences. It was then thought advise- 
able, as Mr. G. Flower was going to England, 
that Mrs. F. should not continue there, but go 
eastward, and remain there until her husband re- 
turned. She did so, and Mr. Birkbeck parted with 
them in friendship, promising to prepare houses 
and purchase land for them and the family before 
they returned. Mr. G. Flower was also the bearer 
of Mr. Birkbeck's celebrated letters for publica- 
tion in England and Philadelphia. All seemed 
peace, and money was sent over express from 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 293 

England to Mr. Birkbeck, for purchasing and 
building; but, when the Flower family arrived, he 
had done nothing, nor purchased any thing for them, 
and on Mr. George Flower calling on Birkbeck, 
the latter, shaking his head, turned his back, say- 
ing, " f aru sorry to see you, 1 had rather not see 
you I cannot, will not see you." " But," said 
Mr. Flower, " I must see you ; I have money for 
you, and business with you." "A third person will 
do; I name your brother." Mr. Flower then de- 
parted to his lady and brothers, now homeless 
and exposed, in a little old, ruinous, dirt-floor 
cabin, without doors or windows, or furniture, or 
food, or water; and here, thus exposed to the damp 
ground, camping out all night, in pestilential dews, 
all fell sick but Mr. and Mrs. Flower, who had to 
ride twenty miles for food, physic, and furniture, 
denied them by Mr. Birkbeck. At length Mr. 
Flower fell sick, and thus was Mrs. Flower, the 
only person in health, compelled to be servant of 
all work to all, having water to draw and carry 
herself from a distance, and wood to hew for the 
fire, and no neighbours but the barbarian hunters, 
who tendered that assistance which their dear 
friend Birkbeck refused. Mr. Flower's favorite 
son, thus exposed and sick, never recovered. The 
senior branches of the Flower family were now at 
Lexington, ignorant of these evils, until a letter 
from Mr. Birkbeck reached them, wishing they 
should settle in the east, (where he supposed them 



294 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

to be,) telling his reasons for so advising them, 
namely, because he thought that they would all 
make common cause with their son, George 
Flower, and that he had not bought them any 
land, but ordered the funds to be returned to 
their banker in Philadelphia. Mr. Flower an- 
swered with great bitterness and asperity, accus- 
ing Mr. Birkbeck of fraud, treachery, and cruelty, 
threatening summary justice, and expressing a 
determination to come and live there, to protect 
his son and family against his malice. Mr. Birk- 
beck then offered peace, at least to Mr. Flower, 
sen. ; " but," said Mr. Flower, " I could not take 
him by the hand now; it would be loss of cha- 
racter. I had done nothing to offend him, and why 
was I thus made to suffer ? I am bound up with 
my family; their lives are precious in my sight." 
This was a part of his letter to Birkbeck, which 
he read to me, but when he came to that part, he 
burst into tears, and rushed out, putting it into 
my hands. I not being able to read it, Miss 
Flower concluded it. IN either Mr. R. Flower, 
nor Mr. G. Flower, have ever since met Mr. Birk- 
beck. " I avoid seeing him," says Mr. R. 
Flower, " because, if 1 came near, I must lay 
violent hands on him ; I must knock him down. 
I will never see him, or speak to him more ; a re- 
conciliation is impossible, to me it would be a 
stain and loss of character." All the evil to both 
families, and to the settlement, they impute to Birk- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 295 

beck. They wonder why lie should have so chang- 
ed, when he had sanctioned the conduct of George 
Flower, and given him the lady in marriage. They 
deem it hypocrisy, of the first order, as well as the 
greatest impolicy; "but," say they, " he is now pu- 
nished for it, being nearly in the situation of an 
embarrassed man." Mrs. G. Flower, however, 
more charitably, imputes nothing in Mr. Birk- 
beck's conduct to vile or corrupt motives, but all 
to love, and to that kind of revenge, which such a 
disappointment was likely to generate, when the 
mind was lonely and abandoned to its own feel- 
ings. They deem the event a great evil to them- 
selves and to the settlement, because it happened at 
a time when the joint exertions of these two fa- 
milies were so necessary for its success. It de- 
ranged every thing; and all connected with, or 
who came nigh the prairies, wondered and felt the 
evil, because the secret was unknown. Mr. G. 
Flower professes not to defend his departure from 
law and custom, in this second marriage, but very 
ingenuously confesses, that having missed his 
chance of happiness in his first, he was deter- 
mined to try a second marriage, which promised 
better things; and as Mr. Birkbeck knew his situ- 
ation intimately, he would not have censured him, 
had he not wished to marry the lady himself. As 
this could not be, he and Mr. Birkbeck had, in- 
stead of consulting the good of the settlement, laid 
by to give each other mortal stabs, or rather to 



296 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

blast each other's good name. This ends one side 
of the case. 

Mr. Birkbeck in reply, takes a disinterested, 
high, moral stand, suffering nothing to escape him 
relating to his own disappointments, though in a 
letter to Mr. Mellish, he admits " that scandal is 
busy with his name and affairs." He states, that 
soon after landing in this country, and being join- 
ed by Mr. G. Flower, he began to suspect a con- 
nection was forming between Miss Andrews and 
George Flower. At length it became unequivo* 
cal, and he consented to and sanctioned their 
marriage, as the least of two unavoidable evils; for 
the parties had determined either on marriage (if 
not impracticable), or at least on cohabitation ; 
and, as he respected both as his children, he con- 
sented to the former as the least evil. The grand 
cause of a change of conduct to them (so much 
wondered at by the Flowers), and of not fulfilling 
his promises of purchasing and building for the 
reception of the families, will be seen in the follow- 
ing circumstances. He had been deceived; while 
G. Flower was gone to London, he became unde- 
ceived ; he learnt, from the best authority, that 
Miss Andrews had been the cause of all the jea- 
lousy, unhappiness, and separation in G. Flower's 
former marriage ; and that the senior branches 
had placed this young lady in his family for the 
express purpose of effecting their purposes, namely 
of marrying her to their son ; a circumstance cal- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 297 

culated to injure the honour of himself and family 
in the eyes of an uncharitable world. Seeing him- 
self, then, to have been made the innocent tool of 
such iniquitous measures, it no longer remained a 
matter of choice whether he should receive or 
abandon them ; it was impossible for him to act 
otherwise than he had done, if he intended to pre- 
serve his reputation. It was certainly not his wish 
to quarrel with Mr. R. Flower, but as father and 
son were one, it was impossible to avoid it; he 
therefore declined purchasing the promised land 
or using their money in any way. He conceives 
that Mr. Flower should not have taken part with 
his son, but rather endeavoured, by all manner of 
means, to make reparation for the indignity at- 
tempted to be put on his (Birkbeck's) family by 
their illicit conduct. 

Mr. Birkbeck rids himself of the charge of fraud 
and breach of trust, by saying, in reply to Mr. 
Flower's severe letter, that it was optional whether 
he purchased lands with the money sent ; it was 
not binding upon him to do it. And, moreover, 
he thought it for the interest of both families, under 
such circumstances, to be more distantly situated. 

Thus have I given both sides of the question, as 
completely as they could be gathered from verbal 
statements. 

The two villes of Albion and Wanborough, the 
abodes of contention, party spirit, speculation, and 
feuds, arose out of this greatly to be regretted 



298 MEAIORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

quarrel. If it had produced competition and ex- 
traordinary exertions in agriculture, and a desire 
to conciliate, accommodate, and invite settlers, it 
had been well ; but the reverse was the conse- 
quence. It is true that no man, since Columbus, 
has done so much towards peopling America as 
Mr. Birkbeck, whose publications, and the autho- 
rity of whose name, had effects truly prodigious ; 
and if all could have settled in Illinois, whom he 
had tempted to cross the Atlantic and the moun- 
tains, it had now been the most populous state in 
the Union. America, and the western country 
generally, are benefitted by and indebted to him ; 
but, not being a man of business, and therefore ill 
calculated to appreciate properly his advantages, 
the time to benefit himself is not yet come. He 
has land enough ; but what is land without popu- 
lation and cultivation ? Mr. Birkbeck declines the 
responsibility of advising people to emigrate; and 
Mr. Flower says, " Tell your countrymen to stay 
at home by all means, if they can keep their com- 
forts." 

The argument for and against speculation, so 
offensive and repelling to emigrants coming to the 
prairies, assumes the following shapes. First, It 
is necessary to keep out the Kentucky non-resi- 
dent speculators, who are capricious and extrava- 
gant in their demands and profits, and remotely 
situated. Secondly, It is reasonable and just that 
speculators of capital, living on the spot, and who 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 299 

have encountered the difficulties of first settlers, 
and smoothed the way for followers, should derive 
some remuneration from the latter, who now find 
themselves surrounded with neighbours, facilities, 
and conveniences of all kinds. Thirdly, That no 
reasonable man can come, expecting to have the 
land, under such circumstances, at the Old Con- 
gress price. Fourthly* That it is better worth four 
dollars an acre now, than it was worth two dollars, 
when they found it an inhospitable wild. Fifthly, 
That as they have bought large quantities in the 
mass, good and bad together, without knowing that 
they should ever sell an acre, and that as they per- 
mit people to pick and choose, leaving much un- 
saleable land on their hands, they are entitled to get 
all they can for what is good and saleable. Against 
it, it is said. First, It is never right to do evil that 
good may result; but, as evil is the consequence 
of speculating, it is unjust, unreasonable, and un- 
necessary; and, besides, the public would rather 
buy of native than of English speculators, if any 
must speculate, and it is better that nuisances 
should live at a distance. Secondly, That no be- 
neficial improvements being made, the owners are 
not entitled to any other remuneration than what na- 
turally results from good neighbourhood. Thirdly, 
That no reasonable honest man could desire it, 
under such circumstances. Fourthly, That it is 
foolish and impolitic to buy land in the mass, good 
and bad together, when an infinite supply of the 



300 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

good could be had separately in a better situa- 
tion. Fifthly, That as property is created gra- 
dually by population only, then land, without fol- 
lowers, must sink rather than rise in value. Sixthly, 
That as speculation had driven away settlers 
calculated to improve and cultivate land, it had 
become an evil, which should, if possible, be re- 
sisted and destroyed, and that no country affords 
greater facilities than America for resisting the 
prairie speculation. It was expected of English- 
men that they came to farm, not to speculate and 
prey upon their more needy countrymen. 

Sunday, 2Qth. At breakfast this morning, Mr. 
Flower, regretting the habit of duelling, said, that 
a lady of Lexington, finding her nephew not in- 
clined to fight a duel, encouraged him to go out; 
and immediately on his departing for the fatal 
spot, said to her black servant, " John, light up 
and get the large drawing-room ready for the re- 
ception of a corpse." This order was given with 
great sang froid; and in less than an hour, the 
room was occupied by the corpse of her nephew ! 

So severely is the want of labourers felt here, 
that Mr. Flower said he would pay to parishes in 
England half the expense of getting their surplus 
poor here. 

We were now leaving this hospitable family and 
the prairies, perhaps, for ever. We exchanged 
blessings, and received parcels, letters, and kind 
messages for friends in England ; wild flower- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 301 

seeds, and a monstrous acorn from the ladies, and 
a racoon-skin from the young gentlemen, for a 
lady at Royston. " Enjoin," said Mr. G. Flower, 
" all those of our friends, who come, not to encum- 
ber themselves with merchandize and ventures ; 
it is certain loss. When on the journey, they must 
endure with patience unto the end, or they will 
lose the reward of their toil. Tell them that I, 
whom they knew, and my father, have all our ex- 
pectations answered ; that we believe the country 
to be more healthy and suitable to Englishmen 
than any part ; that we have soil, climate, and 
market. I am sure that were Archer, Greaves, 
J. Foster, and Elias Fordham here, they would 
enjoy themselves more than in any other place. 
You will, of course, tell what you have seen, 
which will do more to give my acquaintance a 
correct impression than a hundred letters. They 
must be confounded by the contradictory state- 
ments they hear." 

We rode off on our-way to Princeton, Indiana, 
through a cold, wet, marshy prairie, over which 
hang dense fogs, and on which lies water knee- 
deep in summer. When seen at a distance, it looks 
like a large lake of water, but on coming into it, 
the green grass, four feet high, conceals the stink- 
ing, stagnant, steaming water. 

I crossed the Big Wabash, quarter of a -mile 
wide, at La Valette's ferry, where is beautiful 
land, fine young orchards, and two lonely families 



302 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

of naked-legged French settlers, from whom 1 re- 
ceived two curious ears of poss corn. I thus* 
quitted lonely Illinois, in which, this morning, I 
saw, for the first time, one running spring. The 
wild ducks on the river were very fat and fine, like 
our tame ones in England. One just shot floated 
dead to our flat. About eight miles from the 
river, we crossed a dismal swamp two miles wide, 
which, in winter, is ten feet deep of water from 
the river, and cuts off communication with Illinois, 
except by water. At the verge of this swamp, 
I stopped at a farmer's, sick and yellow with a 
bilious fever. My horse escaped from me, but 
was stopped by Judge Emberson. I rode all day 
without dinner, but reached Princeton to a good 
supper at Brown's tavern, which, but for Mr. 
Birkbeck, had been annihilated. 

Mr. Birkbeck seems to have no theory on the 
formation of the ancient mounds and fortifications 
in the western country, but thinks them to be the 
work of the present race of Indians. Nor has he 
any hypothesis on the subject of the immense 
prairies. Though but partially planted with tim- 
ber, he does not think the soil unfriendly to the 
growth of it, but deems the cause to be in the 
annual fires which run over the surface, checking 
the young plants, or destroying the seeds, or 
rather in a want of seed ; and the decaying, dwarf- 
ish appearance of the trees, he attributes to the 
same fiery cause. That the prairies have been 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 303 

lakes of water he much doubts. General Evans, 
a gentleman with whom I, this day, held an in- 
teresting conversation on the subject, and who 
has explored the prairie country generally, thinks 
that as they are contiguous to the immense lakes 
of Michigan, &c. without being intercepted by 
any hills of magnitude, they must have been 
formed by the receding of the lakes of which they 
once constituted a part, and to this day, in the 
sand, traces of surf and driving water are still 
evident on and round about the gentle hills and 
skirts of the prairies. This idea is opposed by 
some, because, of the prairie rivers, some are found 
running north into the lakes, and others south into 
the Ohio and the Mississipi. The soil and sand, 
however, of the prairies, are such as are found on 
the lake shores, and shew, upon and below the 
surface, the operations of water. 

For the general purposes of agriculture, the 
intelligent General considers the best prairie soil 
to be deeper and more lasting than the woodland, 
though at present more uncertain. It wants more 
rain, and frequently fails in droughty seasons. 
Cultivation, he conceives, will render it less porous 
and more retentive of moisture : time is necessary 
for rotting the tough, wiry grass-roots ; its richness 
and durability are proved by its having been con- 
stantly in cultivation at Vincennes, during the 
last 200 years. The best prairies known in this 
country, abounding with healthy situations, and 



304 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

fine running never-failing springs, sufficient for 
mill-streams, he saw from 70 to 100 miles above 
Birkbeck's, on the banks of the Wabash, up to 
its head waters, beyond Fort Harrison, and ex- 
tending to the lake-streams. Between the Wa- 
bash, and a lake river, is only nine miles of land 
carriage. Here is the richest land in the western 
country, though at present more distantly situated 
from market. The waters of the lakes, he thinks, 
have recently experienced no diminution. 

29M. Two years ago, a young Yankee, of 
the name of Williams, became the object of a 
malicious prosecution here, on suspicion of robbing 
a store. Circumstantial evidence of the worst 
kind only could be adduced, and he was, as is 
common in this country, acquitted. The people 
of the place, however, prejudiced against him, as 
a Yankee, deputed four persons to inform him, 
that unless he quitted the town and state imme- 
diately, he should receive Lynch's law, that is, a 
whipping in the woods. He departed, with his 
wife and child, next day, on foot; but in the 
woods, four miles from Princeton, they were over- 
taken by two men, armed with guns, dogs, and a 
whip, who said they came to whip him, unless he 
would confess and discover to them the stolen 
money, so that they might have it. He vainly 
expostulated with them; but, in consideration of 
his wife's entreaties and cries, they remitted his 
sentence to thirteen lashes. One man then bound 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 305 

him to a tree and lashed him with a cow-hide 
whip, while the other held and gagged him ; the 
alarmed wife, all the time, shrieking murder. 
He was then untied, and told to depart from the 
state immediately, or he should receive another 
whipping on the morrow, as a warning and terror 
to all future coming Yankees. 

This poor fellow was of respectable parents at 
Berlin, in the state of New York, and possessed 
a well-informed mind. He quitted the state, and 
returning, soon after, to prosecute his executioners, 
died at Evansville, before he had effected so desi- 
rable an object. Here was liberty, with a ven- 
geance ! This poor fellow, a victim to popular 
prejudice, had the liberty to travel 3,000 miles on 
foot, twice, to this state, for a settlement; and no 
sooner was he in it, than the inhabitants had the 
liberty to whip him out again. He left behind 
him an account of his journey, and of the treat 
ment he here received. In walking through Ken- 
tucky, he found the people very inhospitable to- 
wards him, because he was a walking, working 
Yankee man, on a journey, and, therefore, consi- 
dered as nothing better than, or below, a nigger. 

Thieving, it must be observed, at all times, and 
in all places, thought to be most inexcusable, is 
here deemed worse than murder, in consequence 
of the very great facility of living. 

30th. Introduced last night to, and slept at 
the farm log-house of the Rev. Mr. Devan, the 

x 



306 MEMORABLE DAYS [Nov. 

minister of a congregation, and one of the members 
of a convention tb form the government of this 
state. He is a self-taught man of considerable 
intelligence, originality, and amusing anecdote, 
living on a quarter section of the richest land I 
ever saw, bearing Indian corn, fifteen feet high, 
yielding 80 bushels an acre. He has more land 
than he occupies. His family is numerous; his hogs 
almost innumerable, 400 in the wood, many wild, 
and breeding faster in a wild, than in a tame state. 
From these, the squatters supply themselves, in 
defiance of a strict law against the act. Then the 
wolves, wild cats, and bears, destroy, annually, a 
great number. Until pigs are weaned, the wild 
animals destroy them by cunningly quarrelling 
with the sow, while a party of the wolves seize 
the pigs in their nests. Mr. Devan, this morning; 
shot a fat pig between the eyes; it fell dead instantly 
the English mode, he says, is murder. He offered 
me a fine pet deer, which follows him every where, 
leaping over ten feet fences, and giving chace to 
the fleetest dogs, which she instantly distances. 
She holds communication with the wild bucks of 
the wood, three or four of which follow her. I 
regretted that I could not transport this beautiful 
animal. 

Mr. Devan manufactures and cultivates the tea 
of China; I received from him some seed and tea for 
use. The shrub resembles young quicking, or two 
years old hawthorn. Its seed should be sown in 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 307 

the autumn, and it will vegetate in May. He states 
that flax and currants are found wild in perfection, 
1,500 miles up the Missouri territory, where also 
buffaloes are tamed for the yoke. He has a fine 
apple orchard, yielding plenty of fruit, the third 
year after being planted small from the nursery, 
and peach-trees from the seed, growing faster than 
osiers in England, being now from fifteen to 
twenty feet high, full of bearing branches. Fifteen 
years in England would not, I think, produce 
such an orchard. He has twelve children, and 
expects to leave them one quarter section each of 
improved rich land. The old gentleman tells many 
anecdotes respecting the uncommon cunning of 
the Indians. He believes that Birkbeck is sink- 
ing his capital by unskilful purchases and manage- 
ment, and by employing bad labourers, and omit- 
ting to cultivate. But the money goes, never to re- 
turn. His land may rise to 15 or 20 dollars an acre, 
if he keeps it. He believes that skilful capitalists, 
even here in Indiana, after the second or third year, 
might enrich themselves from hired labour. Some 
have done it. Riches are relative things. Capita- 
lists, however, not working themselves, would 
gain more money, in a good slave state, with good 
negroes. He thinks that J. Ingle's land is poor, 
but useful. An old settler upon it, says he, never 
got more than twenty bushels of wheat an acre, 
after corn; but, if fallowed, it would bring much 
more ; as it is, fifteen or sixteen is the average. 

x 2 



308 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

Mr. Devan, when preaching at Mr. Ingle's, 
stripped at it, taking off coat, waistcoat, and cra- 
vat, unbuttoning his shirt collar, and wildly throw- 
ing about his arms. He made the maddest gesti- 
culations, for the space of two hours, ever seen in 
a man professing sanity. At parting with this ec- 
centric, warm, true-hearted man, I said, " Tell me 
honestly whether or not we English should emi- 
grate hither?" " In the language of the apostle," 
answered he, " Be ye content with such things as 
ye have. Remain where providence has placed 
you ; but send me your travels." Be not offended, 
friend Devan ! 

December \st. Returned to Mr. Ingle's this 
evening. Till within the last five days, the last 
month has been warmer than an English summer, 
the mercury varying between 65 and 72, and with 
the exception of the all-pervading smoke, which 
vanished on the first coming rain, it has been the 
brightest and most delightful month I ever saw. 
How unlike an English .November! I met, and 
shall meet daily, at the same table, J. Pedley, a 
native of Sutton, near Ely, once my father's plough- 
boy, who, with his wife and children, has begged 
his. way to America, and all through it, 1,200 
miles, to this place. The greatly needed hospita- 
lity and kindness which they met with, in passing 
down the river, in a pennyless condition, are highly 
honourable to this good poor-man's country. Our 
neighbour, Major Hooker, has killed fourteen 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 309 

deer and one bear. The deer now killed, in such 
abundance, fine and fat, are merely skinned, and 
the hind quarters taken, while all the rest is left 
rotting on the ground. Cook also met. a fine bear, 
which after he had fired thrice at it, in great rage 
chased its destroyer, while the dogs were worry- 
ing its hind quarters; and, but for the dogs, Cook 
had been worried by the bear. Two balls more 
brought it to the ground, wondrous fat and fine, 
a daily repast, three times a-day, in steaks, for 
our table, and its skin for wigs for my host's aged 
sire, the patriarch of Slyers. This morning Mr. 
Ingle, in descending a ladder from his cock-loft 
bed-room, into which sun, moon, and stars peep, 
and all the winds and storms of heaven blow upon 
us, was left suspended by his arms to the cham- 
ber-floor, while the ladder fell from under him. 
Such are the miserable shifts to which people 
here submit without grumbling. 

2nd. Both our wooden chimneys caught fire, 
which soon would have left us in the woods with- 
out a shelter. One building so fired, containing 
3,000 dollars worth of store goods. What folly to 
build wooden chimneys, as though a wooden house 
were not hazardous enough ! But a stone chimney 
would cost a few dollars. Rather, too, than dig a 
well at the door, Mr. Ingle and others yoke out a 
horse and water-cart, bringing twelve gallons at a 
time from a mile distance, having, he states, since 
he came here, spent, in this work, 700 valuable 



310 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

hours, much more than equal to digging the well. 
I feel mad with people imposing inconveniences 
upon themselves, which they would not have sub- 
mitted to at home, though they might have gained 
by it. 

Saw twenty-two chattering parroquets on one 
bough. Mr. Ingle, this day, offered ten dollars 
an acre for cutting down all the timber, burning 
some with the grubbing, and sawing others into 
three lengths, but it was refused. 

A young man came to the door and boldly ask- 
ed if he could have a breakfast with us, and a job 
of work after. 

During the last month, three travellers in the 
state of Illinois, on the lonely road from Vin- 
cennes to St. Louis, and one in Indiana, were 
murdered ; two being shot, and two having their 
throats cut, one of whom recovered sufficiently 
to tell his tale. The unfortunate man in Indiana 
was sleeping at a lone tavern, in a room with ano- 
ther. In the morning, the landlord found that 
both were gone, but following the traces of blood 
on the floor, and along the road, into the wood, 
they found the body covered with leaves. Law 
and justice extend not thus far at present. 

I met Mr. Maidlow, jun., who has abandoned 
his wife in England. She would not come. I 
saw also a poor man, of the name of Hall, just 
come from Surrey, where he was a gardener, and 
during his last year lost 50/. Finding it impos- 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 311 

sible to live without spending all, he came away 
with money enough to enter half a quarter section. 
The gentry of Surrey, who respected him, endea- 
voured to prevent his coming. 

9th. Owing to want of pot-hooks, which are 
dispensed with, because they cost money, we lost 
our dinner. The pot, placed on the fire, became 
dried, and pudding, meat, and sauce, all took fire, 
and in the absence of all were burnt up. A black- 
smith lives close by who could make pot-hooks, 
but it is said a pair from Pittsburgh, 900 miles 
off, will cost less money; they therefore wait, 
suffering the pot to fire, or tumble off the logs. 
There are several English families living without 
bread, butter, milk, tea or coffee, for months, who, 
if deprived of one of those articles in England, 
would have cursed it and all in it, as the worst 
country under Heaven. Some three families cook 
and bake in one iron skillet, called the cook-all, 
though plenty might be bought, or ovens made of 
the stone near them. Some boast of having learnt 
to do without sugar, because it is so dear in this 
un taxed land, flowing with sugar, milk, and honey! 
It is, perhaps, wise to reduce our wants, or rather 
necessaries. 

Met Mr. Stockwell, who is intimately ac- 
quainted with Messrs. Birkbeck and Flower. He 
says that the former, though he refused purchasing 
land for his friends in England, is now turning 
over his own unsaleable land to them. He has 



312 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

done no one thing which he promised lo do. Corn 
was carried in skiffs, from Harmony, down the 
Wabash, at the enormous cost of two dollars a 
bushel, yet the settlement has plenty of labourers, 
land, and horses. Mr. Birkbeck is very much 
embarrassed, and G. Flower very short of cash. 
The flock of sheep must perish, or subject him to 
great loss. When Mr. Stockwell called, in the 
summer, on Mr. Birkbeck, the family was not up. 
He rode to the house, through watery swamps 
and wondrous fogs, insomuch that Mr. Birkbeck 
found it necessary to apologize for the weather 
and the fogs, saying, " it was the first fog seen, all 
summer." Mr. Stockwell is sure that all the 
prairies, known to him, are naturally sickly, from 
the lakes north, to the Gulf of Mexico south. 
The cause is natural, and not to be completely re- 
moved in this climate. The numerous deaths, and 
the yellow appearance of the native settlers, are 
proofs not to be disputed. Mr. Birkbeck felt sure 
of constructing a plough, (which he did) and 
ploughing up the tough prairie turf, with a very 
small horse power, but he broke his plough at the 
beginning, and instead of 100 acres of corn, had 
half an acre of potatoes ! The experienced native 
farmers have found from six to eight oxen neces- 
sary for breaking up the land in the autumn; then 
it lies till spring, and in summer is fallowed, and 
lies a second winter till spring; then, being com- 
pletely rotten, it is sown with corn. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 313 

I dined to-day with Mr. Wheeler, a mealman 
and baker, from Chelsea, who, having a wife and 
eight children, was determined on emigration, by 
soberly looking into his affairs, and finding that 
he had an increasing family and decreasing pro- 
perty, having lost, during his last year, amongst 
his tradesmen, 1,500/. He came here in expecta- 
tion of finding America a land of labour, and had 
confidence in the prospect. He is not deceived, and 
expects many to follow him, but shall advise them 
all to come in their working jackets, and do as he 
and his family do, hew and split wood, and clear 
land themselves, without hiring. He finds that a 
house here, though he grows the wood, will cost 
nearly as much as a brick-house in England, finish- 
ed both in the same style ; the finishing determines 
the expense. He gave us for dinner a fine wild tur- 
key, weighing 20lbs. The wild cat is a tiger cat; 
it kills the deer and pigs. 

Mr. Kelhorn never expected to gain money by 
farming, but only by the increased rate of land. 
He is sorry that he settled not near flourishing 
Maddison, on land, at five dollars per acre. He 
abhors the prairies, which are all sickly, being 
either without water or drowned, with skiffs mov- 
ing over swamps, covered with pestilent fogs and 
steamy heats. Birkbeck must fail, and Flower 
too! 

\th. Visited Scott's still-house, now building 
of rough logs, where corn and rye are to be turned 



314 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

into whiskey, half of which goes to the distiller; 
the grain to be brought, and the spirits to be car- 
ried away at the farmer's cost; so making the 
spirits as dear, if not dearer, than what can be 
bought of spirit-merchants. Besides, it is expected 
that Scott will take the best half for himself. 

Farmer Montgomery came 10 miles this morning 
with one of his fat bullocks to kill for the English 
here. He killed and dressed it himself, or rather 
murdered it. The animal is either shot, or knocked 
down, in any part of the yard ; then it is skinned 
and cut out immediately, not jointed, or cut into 
joints, but quartered, while hot, and drenched in 
blood, for it is not hung up to cool and dry. I 
begged for J. Pedley, the fine fat head and horns 
which the pigs had begun to devour. The farmer 
will not carry any out, but makes people come for 
it, and waits, if it is two days, or until all is sold. 
It was a fine treat to us, as we had not tasted 
tame meat for the last fortnight; nothing but lean, 
poor venison. I bought half a quarter, at four 
cents a pound, and fine beef it was. ,_,, 

Mr. Maidlow has bought several loads of corn, 
at thirty-three cents a bushel, IQd. English, and 
carted by the farmer, twelve miles, into the bargain. 
Forty bushels is a load for four horses, through 
the worst roads, taking two days, at four dollars 
a day for carriage, so leaving only 17s. sterling, 
for forty bushels, to the poor farmer! Or if bought 
at 25 cents, as it often is, only 9s. for the 40 bushels ! ! 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 315 

But surely imperious necessity only cau compel 
the farmer so to sell, because if able to keep it 
until summer, he gains from 100 to 200 per cent. ; 
but he is sued and the corn goes. And in summer 
he buys it at one dollar per bushel, for his own 
eating ! 

Fifty cents is the usual price of carriage for 
lOOlbs. for every 20 miles ; sometimes higher, 
never lower. One bushel of corn weighs 50 to 
561bs., so that if it was hauled by weight, it would 
not pay the carriage for 20 miles. 

Western labourers, some of whom are quarter- 
section farmers, very poor, dirty, and wretched, 
because idle and seini-barbarians, work about 
half the day and camp out all night, in all sea- 
sons and weathers. They surround a large fire, 
and lie on leaves under a clap-board tent, or 
wooden umbrella, wrapped in a blanket, with their 
clothes on. Their houses and families (if any) are 
perhaps, from 12 to 20 miles off, to whom they go 
when the job is done, or their shirts are rotting off 
their backs. They rarely shave, but clip off the 
beard, and their flesh is never washed ; they look 
pale, wan, yellow, and smoke-dried. They live on 
the deer which they shoot. They are high-minded, 
not suffering their children to go to service, be- 
cause it is disgraceful, but not so to live at home, 
in rags, idleness, and filth. The father is seldom 
at home, because of being sued. If he has land, 
he farms it not, because of bailiffs. He must then 



316 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

work out, until judgment is had against him; 
when he either pays or makes arrangements, or the 
property, real and personal, is sold. These la- 
bourers, though complete workmen when they like, 
are pests to the English farmers for whom they 
work, generally, at meals, haunting the fire-side, 
where they stand in pairs with their backs towards 
the fire, to the exclusion of the family, at whom 
they gaze, expecting to be asked to dinner, break- 
fast, or supper. They come too, for work, and 
brush in at meal times with their hats on, expecting 
to be fed; but they never invite themselves, nor ex- 
press thanks if invited ; and if requested to reach this 
or that to the host, they do it ungraciously, saying, 
" Why, I can, 1 guess." If the female of the fa- 
mily is in bed, they stand and see her get out and 
dress. They will not be affronted with impunity, 
and it is necessary to shew or threaten them with 
a pistol. When the English first came to Evans- 
ville settlement, these Rowdey labourers had nearly 
scared them out. Time is not property to these 
men ; they are eternal triflers. 

Visited Evansville on the bluffs of Ohio. Be- 
hind it is an almost impassable road through a 
sickly swamp, none of which near the road is 
yet cultivated. It seems too wet. Here I met a 
few English mechanics regretting they had left 
England, where they think they could do better. 
J. Pedley, though he does well, says he would not 
have come could he have known what he must 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 317 

have suffered. Apples are here selling in boats 
from Cincinnati at eight dollars per barrel, and 
flour at eight dollars. A barrel of apples is two 
bushels and a half, and the barrel of flour contains 
five bushels of wheat which, to the consumer here, 
costs eight shillings sterling per bushel, though 
wheat is only 75 cents, or 3s. 6d. a bushel. 

Cook, yesterday, shot another bear. He was 
camping out, and in the dead of the night saw 
Bruin, and with the first fire broke his neck. He 
weighed 400lbs. I bought the skin at four dol- 
lars ; worth four pounds in England. 

The wolves last night howled horribly and 
prowled into town. 

The case of first settlers here, particularly Eng- 
lish, is hard, and their characteristic selfishness 
by no means tends to soften it. Nothing is to be 
had in the shape of necessaries but with great trou- 
ble, not even butter, cheese, or meat. They think 
that these are more trouble than they are worth, 
and that it is better to do without. The Americans 
make no trouble of it. If they can have money 
or credit, and can get good things, they have them. 
The English are too selfish to be provident ; their 
boast is that they can do without such a thing, and 
the habit of doing without is esteemed a fine thing, 
and causes those who express dissatisfaction to be 
despised. Thus my countrymen barbarize. 

A skiff, last week before daylight, was seen 
floating on the Ohio, having in it one oar, a suit 



318 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

of shabby English clothes, two watches, and a 
small keg of whiskey half full. The owner, it 
was supposed, had tumbled out and was drowned, 
as have been many English before, on this excur- 
sion down the river. 

The Rowdies of Kentucky, and in thinly settled 
parts of Tenessee where they are farmers, fre- 
quently decoy travellers, supposed to have money, 
out of the road, and then shoot them. A traveller, 
some two or three years since, had taken money 
near Red Banks, and was waylaid in the above 
manner by two farmer Rowdies, who shot him and 
were detected in the act, bearing away the travel- 
ler's horse and carriage. One was hanged, and 
the other nearly whipped to death, and ordered 
out of the state by the regulators, without time to 
sell his property. At another time the regulators 
overtook and shot a murderer, and stuck his head 
on a pole in Tenessee. 

These regulators are self-appointed ministers of 
justice, to punish or destroy those whom the law 
cannot touch, such as suspected persons, persons 
acquitted through false witnesses, or lack of good 
evidence, but whom public opinion deems guilty. 
Such individuals rarely benefit by a legal acquittal. 
Whipping, death, or banishment, is inflicted by 
these regulators. The law, in itself inefficient, per- 
mits or winks at such matters. 

Judge Waggoner, who is a notorious hog-stealer, 
was recently accused, while sitting on the bench, 



1819.] IN AMEUICA. 319 

by Major Hooker, the hunter, gouger, whipper, 
and nose-biter, of stealing many hogs, and being, 
although a judge, the greatest rogue in the United 
States. This was the Major's answer to the ques- 
tion Guilty, or Not Guilty, on an indictment pre- 
sented against him. The court laughed, and the 
Judge raved, and bade Hooker go out and he 
would fight him. The Major agreed, but said, 
" Judge, you shall go six miles into the woods, 
and the longest liver shall come back to tell his 
tale!" The Judge would not go. The Major 
was now, in his turn, much enraged by the Judge 
ordering him into court to pay a fine of ten dollars 
for some former offence, the present indictment 
being suffered to drop. 

17th. I was visited this day by General John- 
son, a gentlemanly man, and Judge M'Creary, both 
of this state, the latter of whom is a preacher, and 
a shrewd, experienced, well-informed man, whom 
I promised to visit, but regret I did not. He said, 
" 1 will keep you well ; come and stay a month 
or so, and I'll find you a good horse to carry you 
whithersoever you list." His son, a fine rustic 
youth of gentle manners, presented me segars of 
his own growth and making, better than the Spa- 
nish. 

" For the appropriation of land," said the judge, 
" I prefer the western country ; but for informa- 
tion and education, the eastern states." He com- 
plains greatly of the choice of land made here by 



320 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec, 

the British. He wonders they could not better 
inform themselves, because when they came, there 
was plenty of good land to be had, if not in bodies, 
yet in sections, or half-sections. " The soil," said 
he, " is as thin as a clapboard, or a deer-skin. I 
would not give one of my quarter-sections for all 
the neighbourhood of the barrens. They must 
have been deceived by speculators. But all the 
English must herd together." He deems Birk- 
beck's land much better ; it is good land. " If the 
land, settled on by the deceived British, and thus 
near the Ohio, had been good, it would have been 
entered long ago. I gave my opinion, as above, to 
Hornbrook, the father of the settlement, whom it 
offended. I did not intend it ; I was only giving 
him a friendly opinion, the result of my long expe- 
rience in this state; but I smoothed him over a 
Jittle, and said, " the soil would, though thin, 
deepen and improve." 

20th. This day four acres of woodland, (not 
thickly wooded) were put out to clear in the fol- 
lowing manner, at ten dollars an acre, half in cash, 
half in store goods. All the wood to be cut down 
and burnt, save what is wanted for fencing the 
land with rails in the worm fashion, which rails 
they are to make and plant, and to root up the 
small roots, which is called grubbing, so as to 
render the land fit for the plough ; and the grub- 
bings are to be*burnt. Thus land at twelve dollars 
an acre is bought and made fit for the plough. 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 321 

,1 visited Mr. Canson and his agreeable wife, 
both young people, and one of the thirty-nine fami- 
lies, for whom Mr. Fearon was deputed to find 
an asylum. He brought a respectable sum, 1,500/. 
and now cares not about any business, except that 
of growing produce enough for his own consump- 
tion. He will receive Mr. Potts, a neighbour, as 
his partner in farming, not caring much about pro- 
fits. This freedom from care is a fine thing. On 
his marriage in London, where he was a school- 
master, he protested against all the absurdities of 
the marriage ceremony. When he removes from 
this settlement, it will be into the eastern states. 

%lst. Met young Delaware Armstrong, the 
handsome simple son of a hunting Rowdey farmer, 
who grew only 80 bushels of corn off his whole 
farm last year. 

This young man states his blood to be half 
Irish, half Scotch from his grandfather. He likes 
an English girl as well, or better than an Ameri- 
can, if, as a wife, she could but make his clothes. 
But at any rate she must milk; he could not ne- 
glect his business to milk. Milking is disgrace- 
ful ; or, if he agrees to do the milking, she must do 
all the washing herself, though it is common for 
him, and his father, and other farmers to assist in 
the washing. " Many a day," said he, " have I 
and father washed." I said, if he agreed to milk 
for his English wife, who certainly would not, he 
must always do it, or she would comb his hair, 

Y 



322 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

pull his ears, scratch his eyes, or take the hot 
poker to him. " 1 can't always milk, and she 
would thus act only once; but if we could not 
agree, I would go to Squire Russel's and be part- 
ed. 1 would leave her, and marry again in ano- 
ther state. But if she did scratch and poker me, 
I would knock her down, and the devil's a hog, if 
I would not kill her." Before this, he said his 
mode of courtship would be, on the first time of 
meeting, to put the question whether she would 
have him ; he should see at first sight if she liked 
him ; he would not try again if she refused him. 
I told him our ladies always refused at first, 
though they meant otherwise, and wished him to 
come again, and look silly, and say little things. 
" That," said he, " cannot be right ; she cannot 
be an honest woman who so acts." " But," said I, 
" you must get your quarter-sections, horse, cows, 
pigs, orchard, &c., before you take an English 
wife ; she likes all these things." " Aye, but I 
would not let her know that I had any thing but 
what's on my back ; she should not have me at all ; 
for all I should want her to bring from her father 
would be decent clothes, and a bed and bedding. 
You English despise a man, and leave him to 
starve in England, if he is poor. We are a hospita- 
ble people. If a fellow, sick or poor, cornes to us, 
we feed, and keep, and treat him as one of the family 
as long as he likes; and if he can work a little, give 
him half a dollar a day besides, and grumble not 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 323 

if he makes not above an hour or two a day. 
When I court, I shall go at noon and sit up all 
night with her, and go once a week." 

23rd. Met a party of Rowdey hunters, who 
state that the bear in the month of June is fierce 
and chases the hunters, and all who molest it. They 
say that it climbs the tallest tree and falls from 
the top without injury, rolled up in the form of a 
ball. 

The mode of tempering clay (which is used as 
mortar) is to confine and feed hogs upon it. Corn 
is strewed on it daily, and they tread and turn it 
all over with great industry. 

Cock and hen, or common poultry feathers, are 
made to furnish down for beds in the following 
manner, fill a barrel with these feathers, and place 
it under a shed, bottom upwards, on the earth ; 
when, in a few months, the common earth-worms 
eat up all the stalk or stem of the feather, and leave 
the remainder a well manufactured mass of down, 
fit for use. 

Mr. Maidlow states that Judge Waggoner, at 
the celebration of the 4th of June last at Evans- 
ville, was chairman, when by some gentlemen pre- 
sent it was proposed that due provision should 
be made for the coming day in the form of a sub- 
scription. This, without passing to a vote, was 
amended by another rising to say, " 1 motion, that 
as some cannot command money they should bring 
vegetables, such as beef, mutton, venison, and 

Y 2 



324 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dee. 

pork !" which amendment was put by the judge, 
and carried in the above form. 

A traveller through Illinois to Missouri was, 
while in bed, twice disturbed in one night by a 
fellow entering with an axe on his shoulder. The 
traveller pointed his pistol and told him that if he 
did not start, he would shoot him ; he retired, but 
in two hours after returned, and was repulsed 
again by the wakeful traveller. A line of houses 
on the lonely road to Missouri is, (says Mr. Birk- 
beck to Mr. Wheeler) in existence, and kept up by 
these Rowdey robbers and murderers for the re- 
ception of travellers, and villains to rob them. 
These houses are known by extravagant, unpre- 
cedented charges, such as 20 dollars a night for 
man and horse, which must be paid, or the traveller 
is exposed to robbery, and, perhaps, murder. 

24^. I was indebted to Mr. Phillips for the 
company of Mr. Wheeler, a pleasant young Eng- 
lishman from Bristol, with his wife, seeking a re- 
fuge here. 

At midnight a severe hail-storm preceded a heavy 
fall of snow. The hail fell thick through the roof 
and floor on my pillow, and into my mouth, and I 
licked in the hail-stones as a luxury. 

25th. Partridges, or quails, are here so tame, 
that, at noon-day, a man may kill them by throw- 
ing a stick into the covey ; or, by staking a large 
net, coveys are drawn into it with great ease. 

Met a Mr. Gordon, from the Isle of Ely, who 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 325 

states that the English at, and near Cincinnati, 
are much dissatisfied, and wish themselves back 
again. Many have purchased land at thirty to 
sixty dollars an acre. 

John Pedley bargained to-day with Mr. Ingle for 
one year, to receiv. thirteen dollars a month, and 
to have a house, and four acres of cleared land, 
for his use, while he continues in his service. 

Sunday, e 26tk. At noon, this day, Colonel 
M'Greary called at Mr. Canson's with Major 
Hooker, and others, and demanded whiskey, either 
to be given or sold to them. They were quite 
drunk, and armed with rifles from their camp, in 
which they had lain all night. Mr. C. refused them ; 
when they attempted to force the door, threaten- 
ing to kick Mrs. C. out, and whip and shoot 
Mr. C. who had treated them rather coarsely, and 
with great impolicy. Hooker wished to shake 
hands and forget it. Mr. C. refused. They then 
became more furious. These Rowdies do not 
always mean violence. They only want whiskey; 
and there is little to fear from them, if properly 
treated. Mr. Canson applied to Squire Russel 
for a warrant against the Rowdies for the outrage. 
Visited the Chatteris Pecks. Twelve of us sat 
down to tea and coffee without milk, sugar, or 
butter. The females and the son think of Chat- 
teris with regret, and would not have come, if 
they could have known what they now know. 
The father is an exception to this, but he regrets 



326 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

that so much untruth, in favour of America, 
should have been said. 

6 27th. I went one mile and a half, to borrow, 
from Mrs. Delight Williams, six tumblers, for the 
use of our coming Christmas party. This step was 
necessary, or our friends, the Dons of the settle- 
ment, must drink out of tin cups or pots. Mrs. 
Williams is the widow of the whipped Yankee, 
whose story I have related ; she lives in a house 
without a chimney, having only a hole in the roof 
to let out the smoke, the fire being made in any 
part. She was rather unwilling to lend these 
tumblers, because they came from England, and 
money could not replace them if broken. She 
should expect five dollars, though, in England, 
one dollar bought six. 

Mr. Hornbrook observed, this evening, that he 
did not intend to cultivate much ; he did not care 
much about business. 

28A. A young man, from the state of New 
York, near White's town, reports that the farmers 
are nearly all farming their own land, which is, 
however, deeply mortgaged. They keep no house- 
servants, and would think it ruin to do so; all 
work, and the women milk. They give no money 
in marriage with daughters, but sometimes a little 
land, or stock, or a bed. They hire but little, 
and only in harvest. People are comfortable, but 
have no money to employ him and other mecha- 
nics. Gentlemen, one or two, here and there, 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 327 

have a negro or two in the house. Wheat is one 
dollar a bushel. 

Mr. Ingle spent 200/., out of 550/., in getting 
here. He bought a house at Princeton for 300 
dollars, to let. He has seventeen acres the first 
year, and will have forty acres the second year, 
in cultivation ; his stock consists of three horses, 
one cow, eight buds, and many hogs, or small pigs. 
He bought four hogs, half fat, 600lbs. weight, for 
twenty dollars. If he had money, he could buy 
bacon at four dollars, and sell it at sixteen dollars; 
and sugar, from New Orleans, would pay fifty per 
cent.; costing ten cents, and selling at twenty-five 
cents : two and a half cents being deducted per Ib. 
for carriage. The store goods, bought at Wash- 
ington, which he is selling cheaper than his neigh- 
bours, pay twenty-five per cent, profit. He has 
640 acres of land entered, for which the first in- 
stalment is paid, and the next is to be paid in 
twelve months hence. He has entered, for G. 
Sutton, 328 acres. 

After a sound dressing of aqua-fortis and grease, 
and scrubbing and washing in strong hot lie, I 
prepared for quitting Indiana, to-morrow, and 
wrote the following epistle to T. Drakard, Esq. 
in Old England. 



328 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

" Once for all, from an inquiring Englishman in 
the United States. 

To the Editor of the Stamford News. 

Ingle's Refuge, Banks of Ohio, State 
of Indiana, 25<A December, 1819. 

Sir, 

To my esteemed friends and countrymen, 
living within the wide circuit of your paper, and 
expecting many long promised epistles, say that 
the task is impracticable, and therefore justly aban- 
doned. What they need, truth, is always difficult 
to attain; and a correct impression of things, made 
by weight of unwilling, or long concealed evidence, 
examined and cross-examined, will, perhaps, be 
found in my journal, calculated to undeceive, dis- 
appoint, and, as usual, offend, nearly all those of 
whom, and for whom I have written. 

It is, I regret to say, too true, that the writings 
of emigrants, however respectable, present a par- 
tial or unfaithful portraiture ; " shelving things as 
they should be, not as they are" Such authority, 
then, is questionable and deceptive. Each indi- 
vidual destined never to return, wants, and tempts, 
his friends to follow ; the motive, perhaps, is in- 
nocent, or venial, but the consequences are evil 
and disastrous. 

My peregrinations, visits, and visitations, to 
many points and intersections of the compass, and 



1819J IN AMERICA. 329 

to all ranks of native and adopted citizens, on this 
continent, are little short of eight thousand miles. 
Of those visited, and added to the number of my 
acquaintance, exclusive of excellencies, honour- 
ables, generals, majors, captains, judges, and 
squires, are our two distinguished expatriates, 
Birkbeck and Flower, with whom 1 have spent 
days more interesting than fall to the lot of tra- 
vellers in common. Of their success or failure, 
satisfaction or disappointment, I, at present, say 
nothing. By me, they were met with feelings of 
respect, and quitted with regret. 

My inquiries have been, as promised, directed 
to one grand object; that of ascertaining, by first- 
rate means, the past and present condition, and 
future probable prospects, of British emigrants, 
and the consequent good or evil of emigration, in 
the hope of clearly defining and exposing its 
character, so that it may no longer remain a doubt- 
ful or desperate enterprize, a journey in the dark, 
alternately praised or blamed, but a cause, attach- 
ing to it certain consequences, which, for some 
persons to embrace, or shun, is become a visible, 
tangible, matter of duty. 

To my countrymen disposed to emigrate, but 
who can, by encreased exertion, keep their un- 
equalled comforts and honour unimpaired, I 
would say, in a voice which should be heard 
from shore to shore, " Stay where you are; for 
neither America, nor the world, have any thing to 



330 MEMORABLE DAYS [Dec. 

offer you in exchange !" But to those of decreas- 
ing means, and increasing families, uprooted, wi- 
thering, and seeking a transplantation somewhere, 
full of hard, dirty-handed industry, and with means 
sufficient for location here, I would say, " Haste 
away; you have no other refuge from poverty, 
which, in England, is crime, punishable with neg- 
lect, and contempt everlasting! But, if you come, 
come one and all of you, male and female, in 
your working jackets, with axes, ploughshares, 
and pruning-hooks in your hands, prepared long to 
suffer many privations, expecting to be your own 
servants, no man's masters ; to find liberty and 
independence, any thing but soft indulgence; and 
America, a land only of everlasting, well-reward- 
ed labour. Thus, morally and physically qua- 
lified, the dark, lonely wilds and interminable 
forests, which now surround me, shall bow before 
you, yielding to your cultivation every common 
good thing, but not satisfaction, which is not of 
earthly growth ! For you, even you, escaped from 
prisons and pauperism, will, sometimes, ' hang 
your harps on the willow, and weep,' when you 
remember distant England. Very few emigrants, 
whatsoever may have been their disgusts and evils 
in the old country, or their successes in the new, 
can forget their * dear native land.' The recollec- 
tion is, indeed, an impediment to their prosperity ; 
distance only enhances her value, and, as a 
much-loved, ungrateful mistress, her charms only 



1819.] IN AMERICA. 331 

are remembered and cherished. This seems an 
indestructible feeling ; the incurable mania of the 
British exile. 

I am now living on wild bucks and bears, mix- 
ed up, and barbarizing with men almost as wild 
as they : men, systematically unprincipled, and in 
whom the moral sense seems to have no existence : 
this is the lot of all coming here. The climate is 
not good in any season, and though better here than 
east of the mountains, is yet unfriendly to industry 
every where. Summer, amidst breezy shades, 
champaigne and brandy; and winter, with two 
down beds, one over and one under you, and a hic- 
cory fire continually, are just tolerable ! The au- 
tumn is pleasant enough, but too generally pesti- 
lential. 

Having to commence in the morning, a journey 
of one thousand miles, on horseback, on my way 
to England, through the Cities of Washington and 
Charleston, and the worst roads and weather in 
the universe, the mercury being now three degrees 
below zero; riding, and not writing, presses on 
the attention of, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

W. FAUX. 

30th. I bade a long, final farewell, to this kind 
family, and the best woman in Indiana, whom I left 
in tears. In company with Mr. Ingle, I mounted 
a young colt, three years old, bought for me at 
100 dollars. My saddle was covered with a bear- 



332 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

skin ; myself dressed in three shirts, two waist- 
coats, three coats, three pair of breeches, three 
pair of hose, and a seal-cap. [ called to warm at 
Squire Russell's, who makes his own shoes, in a 
one-room log hole, where hung a wild turkey on 
the chimney-piece, for dinner. He could not find 
a man to serve the warrant, at the suit of Mr. 
Canson, on Hooker, and means to impanel a 
Rowdey jury, and try the matter before himself. 
The cold this day is two below zero. 

We reached Princeton at four o'clock ; and here 
I met Mr. R. Birkbeck, a partner with Mr. Peel 
in the store at Wanborough. 

31 st. Intense cold, three below zero, the wind 
blowing from the North Lakes ; the water on my 
head and face freezes, while I am washing, and 
much cuts my lips and face. Three suns rose 
this morning, say the astronomers of Princeton. 1 
spent the evening with Judge Hart. Fifty pounds 
per cent, profit is made on store goods in the west. 

January 1st, 1820. I left Princeton at ten 
/ o'clock, with Mr. Phillips and Mr. Wheeler; and 
here parted with my good and kind friend Ingle. 

I met and spoke, ten miles off, with two hog- 
jobbing judges, Judge Prince and Judge Daniel, 
driving home twenty fat hogs, which they had just 
bought. 

I reached, and rested at Petersburg!), consist-" 
ing of fifteen houses. I passed good farms. Our 
landlord of this infant town, though having an 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 333 

ostler, was compelled to groom, saddle, unsaddle, 
and to do all. himself. Having fifty dollars owing 
to him, from a gentleman of Evansville, he arrested 
him, when he went into the bounds ; then he sued 
one of the bondsmen, who also entered the bounds. 
The squire is next to be sued, who, it is expected, 
will do likewise. 

Sunday, 2nd. 1 rode thirty-one miles this day, 
and rested at Edmonstone, in a little cold log- 
hole, out of which I turned an officer's black cat, 
which jumped from the roof into our faces, while 
in bed ; but she soon found her way in again, 
through a hole in the roof. The cat liked our fire. 
We got no coffee nor tea, but cold milk and pork, 
and corn cake. 

3rd. Travelled all day, through the mud-holes 
formed by springs running from countless hills, 
covered with fine timber, to breakfast, at three 
o'clock, p. rn. I supped and slept at Judge Cham- 
bers's, a comfortable house, and saw again the 
judge's mother, of eighty, whose activity and su- 
perior horsemanship, I have before mentioned. I 
smoked a segar with Mrs. Judge, while she 
smoked her pipe, (the first pipe I have seen here.) 
She, as well as the old lady, is a quaker. The 
judge was gone to the metropolitan town of Co- 
ridon, being a senator, on duty. The land which 
I passed over all this day, seemed poor, but full 
of wild turkeys and bears. 

4th. I reached Miller's to supper, but found no 



334 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

coffee; cold milk only, as a substitute. The ride 
hither is interesting, through a fine rolling coun- 
try. The wolves howled around us all night. 

5th. Passed the Silver Hills, from the summit 
of which is a fine, extensive prospect of Kentucky, 
the Ohio, and of Louisville, where we breakfasted. 
I called with Mr. Flower's letter to Archer, who 
was out. I received the present of a cow-hide 
whip, from a lady, and promised to treat the beast 
kindly, for her sake. Judge Waggoner recently 
shook hands at a whiskey-shop, with a man com- 
ing before him that day, to be tried for murder. 
He drank his health, and wished him well through. 

I rode seven miles with an intelligent old Ken- 
tucky planter, having four children, who cultivate 
his farm, without negroes. He says, " Kentucky is 
morally and physically ruined. We have been 
brought up to live without labour: all are demora- 
lized. No man's word or judgment is to be taken 
for the guidance and government of another. De- 
ception is a trade, and all are rogues. The west has 
the scum of all the earth. Long ago it was said, 
when a man left other States, he is gone to hell, 
or Kentucky. The people are none the better for a 
free, good government. The oldest first settlers are 
all gone or ruined. Your colt, sir, of one hundred 
dollars, is worth only fifteen dollars. At Louis- 
ville, as good a horse can be bought at ten dollars, 
or fifteen dollars. You are therefore cheated." 

The Missouri, territory boasts the best land in 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 335 

the country, but is not watered by springs. Wells 
are, however, dug, abounding in good water, says 
our hearty landlord, just returned from viewing 
that country. 

The bottom land is the finest in the world. 
Corn, from sixty to eighty bushels, and wheat, 
from forty to sixty bushels an acre. The best 
prairies are full of fine grass, flowers, and weeds, 
not coarse, benty, sticky grass, which denotes the 
worst of prairie land. Grass, of a short fine quality, 
fit for pasture or hay, every where abounds. The 
country is full of wild honey, some houses having 
made seven and eight barrels this season, taken 
out of the trees, which are cut down without kill- 
ing the bees. These industrious insects do not 
sting, but are easily hived and made tame. Our 
landlord likes the Missouri, but not so well as 
Old Kentucky. 

Two grim, gaunt-looking men burst into our 
room, at two, this morning ; and by six, the land- 
lord disturbed us by cow-hiding his negro, threat- 
ening to squeeze the life out of him. 

6th. I rode all day through a country of fine 
plantations, and reached Frankfort to supper, with 
the legislative body, where 1 again met my gay 
fellow-traveller, Mr. Cowen. It was interesting 
to look down our table, and contemplate the 
many bright, intelligent faces around me: men who 
might honour any nation. As strangers, we were 



336 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

invited by the landlord, (the best 1 have seen) to 
the first rush for a chance at the table's head. 

7th. I travelled this day through a fine country 
of rich pasture and tillage, to Lexington City, to 
Keen's excellent tavern. I drank wine with Mr. 
Lidiard, who is removing eastward, having spent 
1,100/. in living, and travelling to and fro. Fine 
beef at three cents per Ib. Fat fowls, one dollar 
per dozen. Who would not live in old Kentucky's 
first city ? 

8th. Being a wet day, I rested all day and this 
night. Prairie flies bleed horses nearly to death. 
Smoke and fire is a refuge to these distressed ani- 
mals. The Indian summer smoke reaches to the 
Isle of Madeira. 

Visited the Athenaeum. Viewed some fine horses, 
at two hundred dollars each. 

Sunday, 9th. I quitted Lexington, and one of 
the best taverns in America, for Paris, Kentucky, 
and a good, genteel farm-house, the General Wash- 
ington, twenty- three miles from the city, belonging 
to Mr. Hit, who, though owning between four hun- 
dred and five hundred acres of the finest land in 
Kentucky, does not think it beneath him to enter- 
tain travellers and their horses, on the best fare 
and beds in the country. He has been offered 
sixty dollars, and could now have forty dollars an 
acre, for his land, which averages thirty bushels of 
wheat,. and sixty bushels of corn per acre, and, in 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 337 

natural or artificial grass, is the first in the world. 
Sheep, (fine stores) one dollar per head ;. beef, 
fine, three cents per lb., and fowls, one dollar per 
dozen. 

10th. Rode all day in the rain and mud, and 
through the worst roads in the universe, frequently 
crossing creeks, belly deep of our horses. Passed 
the creek at Blue-lick, belly deep, with sulphu- 
rous water running from a sulphur spring, once a 
salt spring. The water stinks like the putrid stag- 
nant water of an English horse-pond, full of ani- 
mal dung. This is resorted to for health. 

Five or six dirkings and stabbings took place, 
this fall, in Kentucky. 

llth. Breakfasted at Washington, (Kentucky) 
where we parted with Mr. Phillips, and met the 
Squire, and another gentleman, debating about 
law. Rested at Maysville, a good house, having 
chambers, and good beds, with curtains. The 
steam-boats pass this handsome river town, at the 
rate of fifteen to twenty miles an hour. To the 
passenger, the effect is beautiful, every minute'' 
presenting new objects of attraction. 

12th. Crossed the Ohio in a flat, submitting to 
Kentuckyan imposition of seventy-five cents a 
horse, instead of twenty-five, because we wei3 
supposed to be Yankees. " We will not," said the 
boat-man, " take you over, for less than a dollar 
each. We heard of you, yesterday. The gentle- 
man in the cap (meaning me) looks as though he 

z 



338 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

could afford to pay, and besides, he is so slick 
with his tongue. The Yankees are the smartest 
of fellows, except the Kentuckyans." Sauciness 
and impudence are characteristic of these boat- 
men, who wished I wduld commence a bridge 
over the river. 

Reached Union town, Ohio, and rested for the 
night. 

l,m -Breakfasted at Colonel Wood's. A fine 
breakfast on beef, pork-steaks, eggs, and coffee, 
and plenty for our horses, all for fifty cents each. 
Slept at Colonel Peril's, an old Virginian revolu- 
tionary soldier, living on 400 acres of fine land, 
in a good house, on an eminence, which he has 
held two years only. He now wishes to sell all at 
ten dollars an acre, less than it cost him, because 
he has a family who will all want as much land 
each, in the Missouri, at two dollars. He never 
had a negro. He knows us to be English from 
our dialect. We passed, this day, through two 
or three young villages. 

14th. Breakfasted at Bainbridge, where is 
good bottom land, at twenty to thirty dollars an 
acre, with improvements. The old Virginian com- 
plains of want of labourers. A farmer must do 
all himself. Received of our landlady a lump of 
Ohio wild sugar, of which some families make 
from six to ten barrels a-year, sweet and good 
enough. 

Reached Chilicothfc, on the Sciota river, to 



1820.] .I,N AMERICA. 339 

sup and rest at the tavern of Mr. Mad era, a sen- 
sible young man. Here I met jVfr. Randolph, a 
gentleman of Philadelphia, from Missouri anfl Il- 
linois, who thinks both sickly, and not to be pre- 
ferred to the east, or other parts of the west. I 
saw three or four good houses, in the best street, 
abandoned, and, the windows ,and doors rotting 
out for want of occupants. 

15t/i. I rode all day through a fine interesting 
country, abounding with every good thing, ,and 
full of springs and streams. Near Lancaster, I 
passed a large high ridge of rocks, which nature 
has clothed in everlasting green, being beau- 
tified with, the spruce, waving like feathers, on 
their bleak, barren tops. I reached Lancaster to 
rest; a handsome county seat, near which land is 
selling occasionally from sixteen dollars, to twenty 
dollars. A fine farm of 170 acres, 100 being 
cleared, with all improvements, was sold lately 
by the sheriff, at sixteen dollars one cent an acre, 
much less than it cost. Labour is. to be had at fifty 
cents and board, but as the produce is so Jow, it 
is thought farming, by hired hands, does not pay. 
Wheat, fifty cents; corn, 33J cents; potatoes, 33 
cents a bushel; beef, four dollars per cwt.; pork, 
three dollars; mutton none; sheep being kept only 
for the wool, and bought in common at 2*. Sd. per 
head. 

Met Judge and General , who states 

that four miilipns of acres, of land will this year 

z 2 



340 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jail. 

be offered to sale, bordering on the lakes. Why 
then should people go to the Missouri? It is not 
healthy near the lakes, on account of stagnant 
waters, made by sand bars, at the mouth of lake 
rivers. The regular periodical rising and falling 
of the lakes is not yet accounted for. There is 
no sensible diminution, or increase of the lake- 
waters. A grand canal is to be completed in five 
years, when boats will travel. 

Sunday, Wth. I left Lancaster at peep of day, 
travelling through intense cold and icy roads to 
Somerset, eighteen miles, in five hours, to break- 
fast. Warmed at an old quarter-section man, a 
Dutch American, from Pennsylvania. He came 
here eleven years since, cleared seventy acres, has 
eight children, likes his land, but says, produce 
is too low to make it worth raising. People com- 
fortably settled in the east, on good farms, should 
stay, unless their children can come and work on 
the land. He and his young family do all the 
work. Has a tine stove below, warming the first, 
and all other floors, by a pipe passing through 
them. 

I slept at a good tavern, the keeper of which is 
a farmer. All are farmers, and all the best far- 
mers are tavern-keepers. Farms, therefore, on the 
road, sell from 50 to 100 per cent more than land 
lying back, though it is no better in quality, and 
for mere farming, worth no more. But on the 
road, a farm and frequented tavern is found to be 



J820.] IN AMERICA. 341 

a very beneficial mode of using land; the produce 
selling for double and treble what it will bring at 
market, and also fetching ready money. Labour 
is not to be commanded, says our landlord. 

I7tk. Started at peep of day in a snow-storm, 
which had covered the ground six inches deep. 
Breakfasted at beautiful Zainsville, a town most 
delightfully situated amongst the hills. Twelve 
miles from this town, one Chandler, in boring for 
salt, hit upon silver; a mine, seven feet thick, 150 
feet below the surface. It is very pure ore, and 
the proprietor has given up two acres of the land 
to persons who have applied to the legislature to 
be incorporated. He is to receive one-fifth of the 
net profits. 

18th. I rode all day through a fine hilly country, 
full of springs and fountains. The land is more 
adapted for good pasture than for cultivation. 
Our landlord, Mr. Gill, states that wheat at fifty 
cents is too low ; but, even at that price, there is no 
market, nor at any other. In some former years, 
Orleans was a market, but now it gets supplied 
from countries more conveniently situated than 
Ohio, from which it costs one dollar, or one dollar 
and a quarter per barrel, to send it. Boats carrying 
from 100 to 500 barrels, sell for only 16 dollars. 

From a conversation, with an intelligent High 
Sheriff of this county, I learn that no common 
debtor has ever lain in prison longer than five 



342 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

days. None need be longer in giving security for 
the surrender of all property. 

19th. Reached Wheeling late at night, passing 
through a romantic, broken, mountainous country, 
with many fine springs and creeks. Thus I left 
Ohio, which, thirty years ago, was a frontier state, 
full of Indians, without a white man's house, be- 
tween Wheeling, Kaskasky, and St. Louis. 

*2Qth. Reached Washington, Pennsylvania, to 
sleep, and found our tavern full of thirsty classics, 
from the seminary fn this town. 

21s; Reached Pittsburgh, through a beautiful 
country of hills, fit only for pasture. I viewed 
the fine covered bridges over the two rivers Mo- 
nongahela and Allegany, which cost 10,000 dol- 
lars each. The hills around the city shut it in, 
and make the descent into it frightfully precipi- 
tous. It is most eligibly situated amidst rocks, 
or rather hills, of coal, stone, and iron , the coate 
lying up to the surface- ready for use. One of 
these hillsj' or coal banks, has been long on fire, 
and resembles a volcand. Bountiful nature hds 
done fevery thing for this rising Birmingham of 
AhSerica. 

We slejjt at Wheeling, at the good hotel of Ma- 
jor Spfiggs, otie of General Washington's revolu- 
tionary officers, riOw near 80, a chronicle of years 
departed. 

. Bought a fine buffalo robe for fivte dol- 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 343 

lars. The buffaloes, when Kentucky was first 
settled, were shot, by the settlers, merely for their 
tongues ; the carcase and skin being thought worth 
nothing, were left where the animal fell. , 

Left Pittsburgh for Greensburgh, travelling 
through a fine, cultivated, thickly settled country, 
full of neat, flourishing, and good farms, the oc- 
cupants of which are said to be rich. Land, on 
the road, is worth from fifteen to thirty dollars; 
from it, five to fifteen dollars per acre. The hills 
and mountains seem full of coal-mines and stone- 
quarries, or rather banks of coal and stone ever 
open gratuitously to all. The people about here 
are economical and intelligent; qualities charac- 
teristic of Pennsylvania. 

Sunday, 23rf. We agreed to rest here until the 
morrow; finding one of our best horses sick; and 
went to Pittsburgh church. 

2,4th. My fellow traveller finding his horse get- 
ting worse, gave him away for our tavern bill of 
two days, thus paying 175 dollars for two days 
board. While this fine animal remained ours, no 
doctor could be found, but as soon as he became 
our landlord's, one was discovered, who engaged 
to cure him in a week. Mr. Wheeler took my 
horse, and left me to come on in the stage, to 
meet again at Chambersburgh. 

The country round about here is fine, but there 
is no market, except at Baltimore, at five dollars a 
barrel for flour. The carriage costs two and half 



344 MEMORABLE DAYS [Jan. 

dollars. I saw two young ladies, Dutch farmers' 
daughters, smoking segars in our tavern, very 
freely, and made one of their party. Paid twelve 
dollars for fare to Chambersburgh. 

Invited to a sleying party often gentlemen, one 
of whom was the venerable speaker (Brady) of 
the senate of this state. They were nearly all 
drunk with apple-toddy, a large bowl of which 
was handed to every drinker.- One gentleman re- 
turned with a cracked skull. 

25/*. Left this town, at three o'clock in the 
morning, in the stage, and met again at Bedford, 
and parted, perhaps, for ever, with my agreeable 
fellow-traveller, Mr. Wheeler, who passed on to 
New York. Passed the Laurel-hill, a huge moun- 
tain, covered with everlasting green, and a refuge 
for bears, one of which was recently killed with a 
pig of J50lbs weight in his mouth. 

%6th. Again mounted my horse, passing the 
lonely Allegany mountains, all day, in a blinding 
snow-storm, rendering the air as dense as a No- 
vember fog in London. Previous to its coming 
on, 1 found my naked nose in danger. The noses 
of others were wrapped up in flannel bags, or cots, 
and masks for the eyes, which are liable to freeze 
into balls of ice. 

Passed several flourishing villages. The people 
here seem more economical and simple, than in 
other states. Rested at M'Connell's town, 100 
miles from Washington city. 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 345 



. Crossed the last of the huge Allegany 
mountains, called the North Mount, nine miles 
over, and very high. My horse was belly deep in 
snow. 

Breakfasted at Mercersburgh, at the foot of the 
above mountain, and at the commencement of that 
fine and richest valley in the eastern states, in 
which Hagar's town stands, and which extends 
through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 
from 100 to 200 miles long, and from 30 to 40 
broad. Land here, three years ago, sold at 100 
to 120 dollars, although now at a forced sale, 160 
acres sold for only 1,600 dollars, with improve- 
ments, in Pennsylvania. And if, says my in- 
formant, the state makes no law to prevent it, 
much must come into the market, without money 
to buy, except at a ruinous depreciation. 

Passed Hagar's town, to Boonsburgh, to rest 
all night, after 37 miles travel. 

The old Pennsylvanian farmer, in answer to 
** How do you do without negroes ?" said, " Bet- 
ter than with them. I occupy of my father 80 
acres in this valley, and hire all my hands, and 
sell five loads of flour, while some of the Mary- 
landers and Virginians cannot raise enough to 
maintain their negroes, who do but little work." 

28tk. Breakfasted on the road; passed Mid- 
dletown, with two fine spires, a good town; and 
also Frederick town, a noble inland town, and 
next to Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, and the first 



346 MEMORABXE DAYS [Jan. 

in the United States. It has three beautiful spires. 
It is much like a second rate English town, but 
not so cleanly; something is dirty, or in ruins. It 
stands at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in the finest, 
largest vale in the world, running from the eastern 
sea to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Rested at Windmiller's, a stage-house, thirty 
miles from Washington, distinguished only by 
infamous, ungenerous, extortion from travellers. 
Here I paid 75 cents for tea; 25 cents for a pint 
of beer, 9*. sterling for a bushel of oats and com, 
and 50 cents for hay for the night. The horses 
cost 6s. 9d. in one night. 

%Qth. Rode from seven till eleven o'clock, 
sixteen miles to breakfast, at Montgomery-court- 
house, all drenched in rain. I reached Washington 
city, at six this evening. Here, for the first time, 
I met friend Joseph Lancaster, full of vision- 
ary schemes, which are unlikely to produce him 
bread. 

Sunday, 30th. Went to Congress-hall, and 
heard grave senators wrangling abput slavery. 
Governor Barbour spoke with eloquence. 

Friend Lancaster's daily and familiar calls on 
the great, and on his Excellency, the president, 
about schooling the Indians, and his praises of 
the members, are likely to wear out all his former 
fame, already much in ruins. J was this day in- 
troduced by him to Parr, Esq., an English 

gentleman of fortune, from Boston, Lincolnshire, 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 347 

who has just returned from a pedestrian pilgrimage 
to Birkbeck arid the western Country. 

February 1st. I again went to Congress, where 
I heard Mr. Randolph's good speech on the Mis- 
souri question. This sensible orator continually 
refers to English authors and orators, insomuch 
that all seemed English. These American statesmen 
cannot open their mouths without acknowledging 
their British origin and obligations. I shall here 
insert some observations on the constitution and 
laws of this country, and on several of the most 
distinguished members of Congress, for which I am 
indebted to the pen of G. Waterstone, Esq., Con- 
gressional Librarian at Washington. 

Observations on the Constitution and Laws of the 
United States, with Sketches of some of the most 
prominent public Characters. 

Like the Minerva of the ancients, the American 
people have sprung, at once, into full and vigo- 
rous maturity, without the imbecility of infancy, 
or the tedious process of gradual progression. 
They possess none of the thoughtless liberality and 
inconsiderate confidence of youth; but are, al- 
ready, distinguished by the cold and cautious 
policy of declining life, rendered suspicious by a 
long acquaintance with the deceptions and the 
vices of the world. 

Practitioners of jurisprudence have become al- 



348 MEMORABLE DAYS [Feb. 

most innumerable, and the great end of all laws, 
the security and protection of the citizen, is in 
some degree defeated. It is to the multiplicity 
and ambiguity of the laws of his age, that Tacitus 
has ascribed most of the miseries which were then 
experienced ; and this evil will always be felt 
where they are ambiguous and too numerous. In 
vain do the Americans urge that their laws have 
been founded on those of England, the wisdom 
and excellence of which have been so highly and 
extravagantly eulogized. The difference, as Mably 
correctly observes, between the situation of this 
country and that is prodigious;* the government 
of one having been formed in an age of refinement 
and civilization, and that of the other, amidst the 
darkness and barbarism of feudal ignorance. In 
most of the states the civil and criminal code is 
defective; and the latter, like that of Draco, is 
often written in blood. Why should not each 
state form a code of laws for itself, and cast off 
this slavish dependence on Great Britain, whom 
they pretend so much to dislike? 

With a view of explaining more perfectly the na- 
ture of this constitution, I will briefly exhibit the 
points in which the British and American govern- 
ments differ. 

* Observations sur le Gouvernement et lea Lois des U. S. p. 20. 



18 4 20.] 



IN AMERICA. 



349 



In England. 

I. The king possesses im- 
perial dignity. 

II. This imperial dignity 
is hereditary and perpetual. 

III. The king has the sole 
power of making war and 
peace, and of forming trea- 
ties with foreign powers. 

IV. The king alone can 
levy troops, build fortresses, 
and equip fleets. 

V. He is the source of all 
judicial power, and the head 
of all the tribunals of the 
nation. 

VI. He is the fountain of 
all honour, office, and privi- 
lege ; can create peers, and 
distribute titles and digni- 
ties. 

VII. He is at the head of 
the national church, and has 
supreme control over*it. 

VIII. He is the superin- 
tendent of commerce ; regir- 
lates the weights and mea- 
sures, and can alone coin 
money and give currency to 
foreign coin. 

IX. He is the universal 
proprietor of the kingdom. 



In America. 

There is no king; the pre- 
sident acts as the chief ma- 
gistrate of the nation only. 

The presidency lasts only 
four years. 

The president can do nei- 
ther, without the consent of 
Congress. 

The president has no such 
power: this is vested in Con- 
gress. 

The executive has only 
the appointment of judges, 
with the consent of the se- 
nate, and is not connected 
with the judiciary. 

The president has no such 
power. There are no titles, 
and he can only appoint to 
office, by and with the con- 
sent of the senate. 

There is no established 
church. 

The president has no such 
power. 



The president has nothing 
to do with the property of 
the United States. 



MEMORABLE DAYS [Feb. 

X. The king's person is The president is nothing 
sacred and inviolate; he is more than an individual, is 
accountable to no human amenable like all civil offi- 
power, and can do no wrong, cers, and considered as ca- 
pable of doing wrong as any 
other citizen. 

XI. The British legisla- There are no nobles, and 
ture contains a house of both houses of Congress are 
lords, 300 nobles, whose elected. 

seats, honours, and privi- 
leges are hereditary. 

It may, perhaps, be unnecessary to adduce 
more points of difference to illustrate the nature 
of the American government. These are amply 
sufficient to demonstrate the entire democratic 
tendency of the constitution of the United States, 
and the error under which those persons, labour, 
who believe that but few differences, and those 
immaterial and unimportant, exist between these 
two governments. They have, indeed, in com- 
mon the Habeas Corpus and the Trial by Jury, 
the great bulwarks of civil liberty, but in almost 
every other particular they disagree. 

The second branch of this government is the 
legislature. This consists of a Senate and House of 
Representatives ; the members of the latter are 
chosen every two years by the people; and those 
of the former, every six years by the legislatures 
of the different states. Jt is in this branch that the 
American government differs from, the republics 
of ancient and modern times ; it is this which 



1820.] IN AMERICA. 351 

makes it not a pure, but a representative demo- 
cracy; and it is this which gives it such a decided 
superiority over all the governments in the world. 
Experience has demonstrated the impracticability 
of assembling a numerous collection of people to 
frame laws, and their incompetency, when assem- 
bled, for judicious deliberation and prompt and un- 
biassed decision. The passions of illiterate and 
unthinking men are easily roused: into action aud 
inflamed to madness. Artful and designing dema- 
gogues are too apt to take advantage of those im- 
becilities of our nature, and to convert them to 
the basest purposes. 

The qualifications of representatives are very 
simple. It is only required that they should be 
citizens of the United States, and have attained 
the age of twenty-five. The moment their period of 
service expires, they are again, unless re-elected, 
reduced to the rank and condition of citizens. If 
they should have acted in opposition to the wishes 
and interests of their constituents, while performing 
the functions of legislation, the people possess the 
remedy and can exercise it without endangering the 
peace and harmony of society ; the offending mem- 
ber is dropped, and his place supplied by another, 
more worthy of confidence. This consciousness 
of responsibility, on the part of the representatives, 
operates as a perpetual guarantee to the people, 
and protects and secures them in the enjoyment of 
their pol