Chapter VIII: Part 8

I trust the good citizens of Quebec, having been afforded this opportunity, will erect a pile here worthy the site; a castellated building would perhaps be the style best adapted to this, and would come well in with the river line of defence, whose strong curtain runs parallel with the terrace, from which the windows of the Chateau look perpendicularly upon the streets two hundred feet below.

At Wolfe's Cove we approached close under the wooded heights, where we took in tow a second brig; then sheering out, began painfully to ascend the current with a dead head-breeze, and having these monsters yawing about on each quarter.

Our Titan steamer groaned, and heaved, and strained, as though but sulkily submitting to this added charge, and doing the master's work, in the spirit of Caliban, under the spell of a higher intelligence.

_Tuesday, 9th._--Find that during the night our progress continued painfully slow; indeed, only that the wind lulled, we could not have stemmed the rapids; but when above the Richelieu we made better way, arriving at Trois Rivieres about noon, with a fine fair breeze blowing up the stream.

The brigs were here cast loose to make the best of their way whilst we took in a supply of wood. Meantime, Captain W----s and I took a stroll about the town, which in itself is pretty, and agreeably situated. All this day the breeze continued favourable, and consequently our pace was tolerable. How long we should have been with a head-wind, it is impossible to say.

_Wednesday, 10th._--I was this morning on deck by four A.M. and was well repaid for my early rising. We were some thirty miles distant from Montreal, as our pilot informed me: the land on either side was low, but soft, verdant, and well wooded, with the prettiest-looking villages dotted along from point to point. At times, three or four of these, with their triple-spired churches, were at once visible as we slowly steered through groups of islets of every form and size, but all of a colour of unequalled purity.

I cannot wonder at the rapturous language used in the description of these places by the sea-wearied discoverers who viewed them for the first time in the summer season; for even I, with no such spur to imagination, find it difficult to stick to sober prose when recalling the luxuriant growth of these isles of the far North. It would appear as though Nature, aware that the possession of beauty is with them extremely limited, had resolved, by way of compensation, to render their short-lived loveliness surpassing.

At last was seen, high towering over all, the rounded top of the fairest of the hundred isles of the St. Lawrence, St. Helen's; and, shortly after, the glittering domes of the city of Montreal gave warning that our up-voyage was drawing to a happy conclusion.

_Thursday, 11th._--This morning took a farewell stroll over St. Helen's, which, on a surface of a mile in length by half a mile in breadth, has all the attractions Nature could devise scattered with a most liberal hand. It is shadowed and scented by a hundred sorts of odorous shrubs and flowers. The groves are filled with birds of beautiful plumage; the graceful blue bird, the enamelled hummer, and the cardinal, with his hood of the brightest scarlet, are for ever on the wing in pursuit of the shad-fly. The pert woodpecker climbs the trees, and along the shores sits the contemplative heron, watching the rapids flowing by, which are, during certain seasons, absolutely alive with fish.

In short, I cannot imagine a more perfect summer abode in such a climate. The aromatic air wafted into one's window on a morning here, made it a delight to open it. The chamber I occupied looked out upon the grassy rampart and over it, affording a sight of the city in its best aspect, and the noble river dividing us from it. Close opposite to my window was a winding path, completely shaded, which led from the fort to the little harbour where the island fleet lies moored; which fleet consisted at this time of an Indian canoe, the soldiers' large market-boat, and the officers' cutter. Some one or other of these were almost constantly on the wing between isle and main; and really it was worth while, once a day, to take a sniff of the fishy atmosphere of the hot city, in order fully to appreciate the advantages of the cool pure air of _la belle ile_.

At four P.M. after having taken leave of my island friends, whose attentions had rendered my stay here so delightful, I set off with my old comrade W----w, and Mr. E----r, who had decided upon accompanying me as far on my way as St. John's. We found the La Prairie steamboat quite crowded with the farmers of the continent, on their way home from the market of Montreal: amongst these were some French; but the majority was composed of lowland Scotch and Irish, with a fair proportion of Highlanders.

During our short passage I passed to and fro, below and above, amongst these various specimens of my fellow-subjects, but was at last fairly brought up by the look and gestures of a couple of men engaged in close argument.

The one was a person well stricken in years, with fine white hair straying beneath the broad leaf of his decent beaver hat; he had a keen small eye, well covered by a pair of thick grey eyebrows; with features much wrinkled, but full of intelligence: he was slightly humpbacked, and otherwise bent by the weight of years.

His antagonist was a low, square-built fellow, with a set of blunt features, quick sparkling little eyes, a ruddy complexion, and a broad low brow, over which was set, with a somewhat jaunty air, a blue bonnet. Both were evidently Scotch; the younger disputant, by his high shrill tone and peculiar pronunciation, a true Celt.

I soon discovered "the Glasgow body" was engaged in giving a lecture to the sturdy mountaineer upon the absolute folly of seeking to uphold exclusively the Gaelic tongue: the Highlander, who was head-vestryman in his parish, having, as it came out, lately advertised for a clergyman who could officiate in that ancient language. It may readily be supposed that between such disputants the argument was a warm one.

The Glasgow elder, slow, precise, and very energetic withal, insisted that the land they stood upon was no strangers' land; that they were not expected, like the Israelites of old whilst in a condition of bondage, to hold themselves a people apart; that the English tongue and English laws were lawfully theirs; and that those were the wisest men and the best subjects who learned the first in order that they might neither be ignorant nor forgetful of the last.

The hielan' man admitted, frigidly enough I thought, the present supremacy of English law and language, but insisted that the congregation upon their settlement absolutely needed a Gaelic pastor to preach the word, and no other; for, although all of them understood the Gaelic, full one half knew no word of English!

"More shame for them!" exclaimed the Glasgow man; "what for don't they learn it? Puir prejudiced bodies that they are!"

"What for no?" retorted quickly the nettled Highlander: "why, because they just prefer their ain: and I can't say I wonder at it all; for I know baith, and must aver, Mr. Dalgleish, that my preference is wholly for ta Gaelic, which is a finer language, and a petter and older language, and of a petter and an older nation by far."

"Hoot tout!" coolly responded old Glasgow; "Ye're just daft on thae points, Duncan M'Nab: why, man alive! yer' nae people at hame, much less here, where you are as the least plash flung from the paddle-wheel below us to the braid stream on which it drops to mingle with its waters; a lesson ye may tak profit by. Ye've neither country, nor laws, nor government that owns yer tongue on the whole face o' God's airth, if ever ye had either; whilst the laws and language o' England are at this time universal! ay, sir, universal, or at least mair sae than any one tongue ever yet was since the Lord made men strangers to their fellows at the confounding o' Babel."

"Ta Gaelic was spoken before tat day!" sharply bolted out M'Nab, "and was spoken since tat day by a bigger nation tan England ever was, or ever will be! Tak tat, now, Mr. Dalgleish!"

"Well now, see, Duncan M'Nab," continued the cooler Lowlander, in a tone provokingly unmoved; "that, I'm thinking, must be a matter o' doubt, rather than well-authenticated history; and before I either anger ye by contradicting it, or wrang my ain sense by allowing you the benefit o 't, I'll just seek counsel o' this gentleman, who evidently has a feelin' in our argument, although he taks no part in it by words. What say ye, sir?" he added, directly appealing to me; "shall we allow M'Nab's folk the credit o' havin' given a language to the world more universal than the English tongue?"

"I think you may, my good friend," replied I, thus engaged to speak, and in no way willing to spoil the controversy; "and this without losing any advantage by such an admission, seeing, that if the Gaelic were once so general, I don't think it a matter of credit or congratulation to its people that it is now extinguished, or only kept alive by the patriotic prejudices of a few clansmen in the Hielans and by the ignorance of my own countrymen in portions of Ireland."

"Ha!" cries Glasgow; "that's a hit, sir, and one that didna' occur to my mind! Now, M'Nab, how say ye to this? Why the deevil didna' ye keep yer ground that time ye had it all yer ain way, and no be lettin' strangers win it clean frae ye?"

"Ta' Gaelic was ta language o' Wallace and o' Bruce, and of Cyrus, who came before them," urged the Gael, hotly, "and who will say thae were easy to beat?"

"Who ever said that a Hielanman was easy to beat?" here cannily put in Glasgow: "not that I altogether allow Cyrus, or Wallace, or Bruce to ha' bin Hielanders; though I won't say that they didna' speak Gaelic: but fac's are ill to argue down, and the real fac' o' this matter is, M'Nab, that here Lowlander and Hielander are a' alike English, and it is not our duty alane, but our interest, to foregoe all thae hame prejudices, that have wrought us harm enough, and lang enough, without importing them here, to be left as an evil legacy to our children to keep them as strangers to ane anither."

"Look here, Mr. Dalgleish," demanded M'Nab, "do you admit your belief in election and free grace?"

At this I fairly bolted off the course; but in a few minutes after, whilst preparing to land at La Prairie, my old Glasgow-man sidled along by me, with an inquiry as to my pursuit and my name, in order, he added, that he might remember our pleasant argument, whispering in my ear as we separated,

"Hielanmen are aye weel enough in some particulars, sir; but they're just fairly eat up wi' pride and superstition, and fu' o' prejudices. At hame or abroad it's aye the like; they're of a race that can only be improved by amalgamation and time. I wish you a very pleasant passage hame, sir, and a good evening to you!"

Returning his civility, I was here separated from my elder. In about half an hour after I was about to quit the hotel, in the extra we had engaged for St. John's, when my Hielander, whose warm heart I had won by some honest commendation of his native country, ran up to me to shake hands, saying with a loud laugh,

"Ta old man was a good man, and a well-educated man; but a Glasgow is always a Glasgow; sell his web or his waens for ta money, and carein' as little for either kin or country as does ta cuckoo. God bless you, and if ever you should see Ben Nevis again, think on Duncan M'Nab that will see it no more."

Away ran the active Hielander, after his party, who were proceeding by the shore road, and in a few minutes my companions and myself were jolting at the rate of three miles and a half an hour over the ruts of La Prairie.

It is really surprising to observe how these sons of the Celt adhere to their native tongue, and preserve every early custom that is in any way practicable.

In the mountains of North Carolina there exists a colony of Sutherland Highlanders, two-thirds of whom speak no English, and who possess negroes who only know Gaelic; even within thirty miles of Philadelphia I stumbled upon a family in the third generation, or rather I ought to say, found the three generations together. The children tottering before the doors had, as had their fathers before them, a duck-puddle to wade in, with a dung-heap "quite convanient" to sun themselves upon in common with the pigs and fowls, and they were all lisping the Gaelic tongue with the most unsophisticated ignorance of any other whatever.

On one or two occasions I considered our present journey about to be concluded by an overturn into the canal, along whose bank we rolled most critically, as we neared our harbour; we were, however, landed in due time all safe, and procured a very good supper.

_Friday, 12th._--Left St. John's with a couple of gentlemen in canoe for Ile aux Nois, there to abide the coming of the steam-boat. The heat was intense, but our canoe-men were a pair of lusty old lads, Canadians, and they pulled us up stream merrily at the rate of six miles an hour, keeping close beneath the trees growing out of the lake, here a narrow channel merely.

We found Fort Lennox garrisoned by a party of the 32nd regiment, under the command of Major Swinburne, who was resident here with his family. The fort is regularly and well built, and the defences are in excellent order, save that the facing of the ditch, being of wood, is tumbling in at most points, to the great danger of the foundation. As this place is considered worthy a garrison, it would be as well that this ditch should be faced with stone, in a way becoming the other defences, all of which appear to be built in the best manner, and are in good preservation.

At three o'clock _P.M._ the steamer was announced in sight, and we hastened to the little wharf where the captain always lands to show his clearance; a matter of form which is strictly observed.

The inhabitants, at least the civilians, were all assembled on the wharf, for this arrival was the event of the day. The little group was composed of two or three officers' ladies, with their families. Amongst these I noticed one pretty black-eyed English girl, who I fancied looked after the boat as it left the shore, and was whirled alongside the steamer, with a mournful glance, wherein I read the word home written as plainly as I ever read it in a book.

"I wish you were returning to your home, my sweet girl," replied I, in the same language, "and that I might be your escort; you should be well and honestly guarded, at all events."

In a moment I was for ever sundered from this object of my commiseration; yet had my eyes only been as expressive as hers, all I have set down here might have been read therein.

Away we sped along the winding lake, turning from shore to shore, now visiting one pretty landing, now another; a mode of proceeding that is, amidst such scenery, perfectly delightful.

_Saturday, 13th._--Breakfasted at Whitehall, and took the middle line to Albany, traversing a wild sterile country, over bad roads and worse bridges, until we reached Sandy-hill, where the noble Hudson bursts upon the view.

From this point to Albany the river is never lost sight of; and a grateful sight the beautiful stream afforded to a sun-dried, half-smothered traveller, to turn from the dusty track and contemplate its cool waters and pleasant groves.

I sincerely pity the heart to which a drive, at such a season, through this valley of the Hudson, brings no gladness. Talk of the beauties of the river from New-York to Albany, when, after all, it is here they are to be found; here where its waters are seen flowing between banks at times richly wooded, towering high and bold; then sinking suddenly, as they sweep for miles a continuous line of natural meadows, whose rich fringe of waving grass drinks for ever of the passing stream.

In many of these places the country puts on a park-like appearance, and you travel by hill and dale and glance down trim-looking slopes, dotted with irregular clumps of ornamental trees of the finest foliage and of all kinds, from the graceful silver ash and the umbrageous butter-nut, to the tall sombre-looking pine, and the wide-spreading elm.

The river itself is as changeful in its aspect as the lovely country through which it flows; in places its whole breadth is occupied by a stony bed over which it leaps along, forming for a mile or so a gentle uniform rapid. At the next turn it is seen freed from all impediment, moving majestically and slowly through deep-cut banks, or circling round some little islet won from the neighbouring plain.

During our journey we crossed the canal which runs near the river frequently, and the Hudson itself twice, by fine covered bridges.

We also passed through several pretty towns; Schuylersville, a beautiful romantic site; Mechanicsville, a bustling thriving place, with a considerable population, and where I noticed a great number of young girls of an appearance remarkably neat. It was Saturday afternoon, labour was passed for the week, and the street and neighbourhood presented an appearance most creditable to the operatives who are here congregated in a lovely neighbourhood.

By the time we reached Waterford it was dark: here we crossed the Hudson, near the Cohoos' Falls; and at Troy were ferried over, back again, coach, horses, a waggon, and a couple of oxen, in a schow, or flat boat, by torchlight.

From our last landing-place to Albany runs a well Macadamized road of noble proportions, and on this our wearied horses appeared to gain fresh courage, for they trotted along nimbly, setting me down at the door of the Eagle shortly after midnight.

_Sunday, 14th._--Down the Hudson to New York, where I rested for a few days, intending to embark from this port; but finding the ships of every line crowded, and likely to be crowded for some time to come, I decided, in company with an excellent voyaging companion, who had resolved upon sharing my fortunes, to proceed to Philadelphia, and sail from that place, in the Algonquin packet-ship of the 20th inst. which promised equal comforts with fewer candidates; the length of the Delaware making Philadelphia less popular as a packet-station.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS

OF THE COUNTRY

AND OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

DEPARTURE.

"Nothing is more common than to hear directly opposite accounts of the same countries; the difference lies not in the reported but the reporter." This observation is strictly correct as a general application, but more especially so when directed to the United States of America, its people, and its institutions, as viewed by Englishmen, whose prejudices, strong at all times, and governing their opinions in all places, are more absolutely freed from restraint and self-suspicion when set loose upon a people directly descended from themselves, and inheriting and retaining their customs and their language.

Discrepancies are here also occasioned in many cases by circumstances over which travellers can have no control, and for whose influence they are no way accountable; hence things are very differently described, not so much from the reporters having taken opposite views of the same objects, but because objects themselves are constantly and rapidly changing their aspects.--Take the following as an instance.

I remember to have read in one of our most distinguished publications a few years back a laboured review of a book on America, wherein the writer found occasion to notice railroads; one of this kind being then in contemplation as an improved medium of communication between New York and Philadelphia.

The able reviewer--for right able he was--must have been either an American or one well acquainted with the face of the country, its trade, the people, their present condition, and future prospects. The statistics of the States in question were at his finger-ends; he produced sound evidence in support of each proposition he advanced; and the argument thus sustained went to prove, beyond all doubt, that the spirit of speculation was in this, as in many other particulars, leading the American people to the verge of madness, and their country to certain bankruptcy. That in leaving their magnificent lakes, their endless rivers, and the smooth waters of their coast,--the highways created by Providence for their use, and amply sufficient for their purposes--to waste their wealth, distract their commercial views, and agitate their politics in the projection of railroads that could never be completed, or, if completed even, would not pay, in our time, the expense of repairs, or endure the severity of the climate; to construct which the material must be imported from England, and after every severe winter would require to be renewed, was, in effect, quitting the substance for the shadow, and, if begun in folly, could not fail to end in ruin and disappointment.

I never in my life perused any article more philosophical in spirit or more conclusive in argument; the scheme was clearly shown not only to be absurd but impracticable, and the projectors proved either to be presumptuous imitators, or men profligately speculating upon the ignorant credulity of their fellow-citizens.

I closed the review, in short, admiring the clear judgment and practical farsightedness of the writer; pitying the Yankees, for whom I cherished a sneaking kindness, and inwardly hoping that this very clever exposition of the folly of their seeking to counteract the manifest designs of Providence, which had so clearly demonstrated their paths, might produce as full conviction on their minds as it had on mine.

Well, I forgot the article and its subject, and was only reminded of it by finding myself one fine day whisking along at the rate of twenty miles an hour over a well-constructed railway, one of a cargo of four hundred souls. The impossibility had, in fact, been achieved; and, in addition to the natural roads offered by Sea, Lake, and River, I found railways twining and locomotives hissing like serpents over the whole continent from Maine to Mississippi: Binding the cold North to the ever-flowing streams of Georgia and Alabama, literally, with bonds of iron, and forming, indeed, the natural roads of a country whose soil and climate would set at nought all the ingenuity of M'Adam, backed by the wealth of Croesus and the flint of Derbyshire to boot.

Now, had such a result been prognosticated only a very few years back, the man whose foresight had led to such a large view of the subject would have been mouthed at as mad all over the American continent, and written down knave or ass, or both, in every practical journal of Europe.

Such great changes constantly agitated, and reduced to practice with a promptitude of which even England, with her wealth, industry, and enterprise, has little notion, make discrepancies between the facts and opinions of rapidly succeeding travellers, for which neither the veracity nor the judgment of the parties can fairly be impugned.

Action here leaves speculation lagging far behind; the improvement once conceived is in operation by such time as the opposing theorist has satisfactorily demonstrated its impracticability; and the dream of to-day is the reality of to-morrow.

I feel, in fact, a difficulty in describing without seeming hyperbole the impressions I daily received, and beheld confirmed by facts, of the extraordinary spirit of movement that appears to impel men and things in this country; this great hive wherein there be no drones; this field in which every man finds place for his plough, and where each hand seems actually employed either "to hold or drive."

For ever wandering about as I was, and visiting, as I frequently did, the same places at intervals again and again, I had occasion to be much struck with a state of things of which I was thus afforded constant evidence: take for instance,

My first journey in Sept. 1833, between New York and Philadelphia, was by steam-boat and railway, having cars drawn by horses over thirty-five miles, which thus occupied five hours and a half. In October of the same year I did the same distance by locomotive in two hours. When first I visited Boston, the journey was performed in twenty-four hours, by steamer to Providence, thence to Boston by stage; the same distance now occupies fifteen hours, a railway having been last spring put in operation between Providence and Boston.

Again, in 1834, the traveller had but one rough route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg. You can now go a third of the distance by railroad, and, getting into a canal-boat, are dragged over the Alleghany mountains, through a series of locks not to be surpassed for strength or ingenuity of contrivance.

In 1833, the journey from Augusta, Georgia, to New York was an affair of eleven or twelve days; it is now performed in three. Steam and railroad are, in fact, annihilating time and space in this country. In proof of it, I can safely assert that if a traveller visiting the South-west, say, from Savannah to New Orleans, will be at the trouble of recollecting this book in the year 1837, he will find the account of the difficulties of my journey extremely amusing; since, in all human probability, he will perform that in five days, which took me, with hard labour, perseverance, discomfort, not to say, some peril of life or limb, just eighteen.

It is these revolutions, and such as these, that form the true wonders of this country; that stimulate curiosity, excite interest, and well repay the labour of any voyager embued with a grain of intelligence or observation, to say nothing of philosophy.

It is to these results, their causes, and their immediate and probable effects, his mind's eye will be irresistibly drawn, not to spitting-boxes, tobacco, two-pronged forks, or other conventional _bagatelles_, the particulars of each of which, as a solecism in polite manners, can be corrected and canvassed by any waiter from the London Tavern, Ludgate Street, and by every _grisette_ from America Square to Brompton Terrace, who may choose to display their acquired gentility "for the nonce;" and it is the absence of a spirit of philosophy generally in our writers, and this affectation of prating so like waiting-gentlewomen, that stings Americans, and with some show of reason, when they see the great labours of their young country with the efforts of its people passed lightly by, and trifles caught up and commented upon, whose importance they cannot comprehend, and which they have neither leisure nor example to alter or attend to.

After much and close observation, I say fearlessly, that, in all conventional points, good society in the States is equal to the best provincial circles in England. The absence of a court, together with the calls of business, necessarily preclude the possibility of any class acquiring that grace of repose, that perfection of ease, which cultivation, example, and a conscious knowledge of the world gives to the _beau-monde_ of Europe; on the other hand, in the absence of this, you are seldom pestered with the second-hand ladies'-maid airs of your pretenders to exclusive gentility, so common amongst Europeans.

The great mass of Americans are natural, therefore rarely vulgar; and if a freshness of spirits, and an entire freedom from suspicion and the many guards which ill-bred jealousy draws around the objects of its care, may be viewed, as indeed they ought to be, as proofs of high feeling and true culture, then are the men of America arrived at a point of civilization at once creditable to themselves and honourable to their women, as nothing can be more perfectly unrestrained than the freedom enjoyed in all good families here. Strangers once introduced find every house at all times open to them, and the most frequent visits neither create surprise nor give rise to suspicion.

Hospitality is inculcated and practised, and the people entertain with a liberality bordering on profuseness: the merit of this is enhanced by the great trouble the absence of good domestics entails on the mistress of even the best establishments. Ladies are here invariably their own housekeepers, yet, nowhere is the stranger more warmly welcomed, and in no country is more cheerful readiness evinced in preparing for his entertainment.

The hand of welcome is also extended and sympathy encouraged towards the persecuted, whether of fortune or despotism. The exile is sure to find shelter and security here, without encountering suspicion, whether necessity or choice induced him to abandon his country.

Honoured be the land which offers to the stranger a free participation, on equal terms, of all it holds dearest! Hallowed be the institutions which hold out to talent a free field, and where honest ambition knows no limit save the equal law!

I shall ever love America for the happy home it has proved to the provident amongst the exiles from Ireland. In almost every part of the land, they form an important portion of the freemen of the soil. If, on becoming American, they have not at all times ceased to be Irish in that full degree the political economist would desire, there are many allowances to be made for them.

Let it not be considered an unpardonable enormity that the poor Irishman runs a little riot when suddenly and wholly freed from the heavy clog by which the exhibition of his opinions has been restrained at home. It is not surprising that those who have been for life hoodwinked should fail to see clearly for themselves in all cases; or that, falling upon interested guides, they are occasionally led astray.

Wayward and wilful I will admit them sometimes to be, and in evil hands their misdirected energies may for a time become the instruments of evil. Mistaken in judgment they may often be, for such is the lot of humanity, but regardless of right and justice they seldom are, and ungrateful or ungenerous they cannot be. The evidence of their native spirit of enterprise is found in their daily braving destitution in the hope of bettering their hard lot. Their hatred of oppression is proved by their ill-directed, but constant struggles for equal rights; and, if kind-heartedness and charity cover a multitude of sins, no people on earth can justly claim a larger stock. In illustration of which I will present one proof out of the many I possess, because it will at once serve as an illustration of my assertion, and gratify those who love to contemplate the bright side of poor humanity.

The following statement was enclosed to me by an excellent Quaker, one of the partners of the house from whose books the document is extracted, with a letter which I need not insert here, but will add, that the statement is incontrovertible.

"From the 1st of January 1834, to the 1st of May 1835, Abraham
Bell and Co. of New York have received from the working classes of
Irish emigrants, that is, from common labourers, farm servants,
chambermaids, waiters, &c. to remit to their friends and kindred in
Ireland, the sum of fifty-five thousand dollars, in amount varying
from five dollars upwards. The average amount of the whole number
of drafts sent is twenty-eight and a half dollars each."
New York, May, 19th, 1835.

There is not a part of the country to which I have wandered, where I did not find that a like gentle recollection of the destitute left at home prevailed. In every large city is some one or more Irish house, which becomes the popular medium through which these offerings of the heart are transmitted to the miserables at home. When it is reflected that the donors are themselves the poorest of the poor, and that often at the close of their first summer, they are found transmitting their earnings to some mother, or aunt, or sister, without providing against or thinking of the severity of approaching winter, no eulogy can be too strong.

"Well, but look, David," remonstrated my kind friend H---- in New Orleans, to a poor fellow who, after three months' hard labour, brought him forty-five dollars to send home, "let me recommend you to keep back ten dollars of this to buy yourself a warm coat; we have a cold month coming, man, and you are ill off for covering."

"It's true for ye, sir," cried Davy, scratching his head, and glancing down at his ragged garments, "bud it's only for a month you'll be havin' cowld here, and the poor crature at home has a long winter to get over, and her as bare as myself, and less able for id. The clothes cost a heap o' money here, too, I find; and if you plase, sir, in the name o' God, send all I have home, and I'll keep off the cowld, when it comes, by workin' the harder."

Instances are constantly occurring of labourers, landing at a good season, going to work though hardly able from weakness, and at the end of their first week bringing three or four dollars to be sent home.

I will not multiply instances, as I might do, nor need I offer further comment. I confess freely that I have a pride in setting this much-enduring class of my countrymen before the English people, who, generous themselves, know how to appreciate good in others. At these times one page of fact is worth a volume of unsupported eulogium. If the present short statement contributes to promoting a kind feeling towards a little known, although much abused class, it will have accomplished the end contemplated, and in doing this, will have served all parties.

_Friday, 19th._--After passing four days with my New York friends, on this morning, at six A.M. descended from No. 1; and having bade Mr. Willard a final adieu, quitted the City Hotel, where, during many comings and goings, I had always lodged, and where I had constantly experienced the greatest attention.

Reached Philadelphia, in company with a few kind friends, and found that the Algonquin had that morning dropped down to Newcastle. Made one or two calls, and early to bed.

_Saturday_, at six A.M. went on board the steamer, and in a couple of hours after got a sight of our ship, at anchor near Newcastle, where we arrived about nine A.M.

Whilst attending upon the arrangement of my baggage on the quay here, a little boy delivered me a parcel. It was directed to me, with the donor's compliments and good wishes.

On opening it, I found it contained a roll of caricatures, together with one of the earliest journals ever printed in Pennsylvania, and a couple of copies of the latest journal started here, being the first number of a Newcastle journal that very day published.

In an hour after, we embarked; and this attention of a stranger was the last kind act of the many courtesies which I have received in this country, which I quit with the feelings of a son of the soil.

After dropping down as far as Delaware city, we anchored for the tide. As it blew fresh, our pilot determined not to weigh before daylight.

_Sunday 21st._--On coming from between decks found that we were well out in the bay, a schooner standing for us to take our pilot. I descended to the cabin to write a note or two, and found myself almost involuntarily scribbling verses. 'Tis an odd freak of my fancy, that although never addicted to poetizing, and ordinarily incapable of manufacturing a couplet that will jingle even, I am rarely agitated by any strong feeling, without having a sort of desire to rhyme; luckily the delusion is exceedingly short-lived, and unfrequent in its visitations. The reader shall, however, have all the benefit of my present attempt, as I feel bound to treat him, who may have held on with me thus far, with perfect confidence.

ADIEU.

_Written on board Packet Ship Algonquin, Captain Cheney--Bay of
Delaware--pilot about to quit the ship--two p.m.--June 21st, 1835._

Adieu, Columbia! I have mark'd thee well,
Nor yet for ever do I leave thee now;
And busy thoughts of thee my bosom swell,
And thronging recollections load my brow:
I've pierced, from North to South, thy eternal woods,
Have dream'd in fair St. Lawrence' sweetest isle;[5]
Have breasted Mississippi's hundred floods,
And woo'd, on Alleghany's top, Aurora's smile.

And now we part! The ship is flying fast,
Her pathway deck'd with whirling wreaths of foam;
And all the swelling sails that bend each mast
Obey the flag, which, fluttering, points to "Home!"
Home! home! that tender word let me retrace,
And bid each letter conjure o'er the sea
Some cherish'd wish, and every well-loved face,
To banish thought of those from whom I flee.

Yet shame I not to bear an o'er-full heart,
Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes:
'Tis from no stranger-land I now depart:
'Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs.
Welcome and home were mine within the land
Whose sons I leave, whose fading shore I see;
And cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and hand,
When, fair Columbia! they turn cold to thee.

At three P.M. our pilot quitted us; by four we had lost sight of the coast of Jersey, and, with a flowing sheet, were bounding over the Atlantic. Except a week's bad weather on the Banks of Newfoundland, this was a most delightful passage. No ship could be better found than the Algonquin, and no man more solicitous about the comfort of his passengers than the excellent Captain Cheney.

On July the 14th we made Cape Clear; and on the 16th I once more entered the Mersey, about the same hour, and on the same day of the month, in which I had left it two years before; and to make the coincidence more striking, we passed the Europe, in which I had gone out, so close, as she quitted the harbour, that our letters for America were tossed on board.

FOOTNOTE:

[5] St. Helen's.

APPENDIX.

The following extracts from Reports of the War Minister, and of the Indian Department, can hardly fail to prove interesting, as they describe correctly the condition of this people, and the care taken for their future security by the American Government. The Reports are authentic, and are taken from an excellent work, the National Calendar for the Year 1835.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

SIR, Since my last annual report, no military movement of any importance, with the exception of the expedition of the regiment of dragoons, has been rendered necessary.

It is known to you that some of the Western tribes of Indians, roaming through the extensive prairies west of Arkansas and Missouri, particularly the Camanches and Kiowas, have, for some years, interrupted the peace of that quarter, by predatory attacks upon our citizens, and upon the indigenous and emigrant Indians whom we are under obligations to protect. Their war parties have annoyed our citizens in their intercourse with the Mexican States, and have rendered the communication difficult and hazardous. It became necessary to put a stop to this state of things, either by amicable representations, or by force. Those remote tribes have little knowledge of the strength of the United States, or of their own relative weakness; and it was hoped that the display of a respectable military force for the first time in their country, would satisfy them that further hostilities would lead to their destruction. The dragoons, being peculiarly adapted to this service, were ordered to penetrate into that region, and to endeavour, by peaceable remonstrances, to establish permanent tranquillity; and, if these should fail, to repel any hostile demonstrations which might be made. Fortunately, the efforts to introduce amicable relations were successful, and the object of the expedition was obtained, without a single act of hostility. Colonel Dodge, who led the expedition, and his whole command, appear to have performed their duties in the most satisfactory manner; and they encountered with firmness the privations incident to the harassing service upon which they were ordered. It is to be regretted that the prevalence of sickness prevented the whole regiment from joining in this duty, as the same zeal for the public interest pervaded the whole. That sickness deprived the country of some valuable lives, and, among others, of Brigadier General Leavenworth. Impelled by his anxiety to forward the views of the government, he exposed himself, while yet weak, to the hardships of a border campaign, and sunk under the malady which these induced. His high personal character, his services during the late war, and his exemplary official conduct since, are too well known to you to require from me anything more than this brief allusion to his worth and fate.

The commission for the adjustment of unsettled relations with the Indians west of the Mississippi, terminated by the provisions of the act instituting it, in July last. Important benefits have resulted from the labours of the commissioners in the adjustment of difficult questions connected with the Indians of that region, and in the treaty arrangements which have been entered into by them. The country assigned for the permanent residence of the eastern Indians has been so apportioned among them, that little difficulty is anticipated from conflicting claims, or from doubtful boundaries; and, both in quality and extent, there can be no doubt but that the region allotted to them will be amply sufficient for their comfortable subsistence during an indefinite period of time.

An important council has been held at Fort Gibson, by Colonel Dodge, and by Major Armstrong, the superintendent of Indian affairs, with the chiefs of several of the tribes of that quarter, including some of the wandering bands, whose predatory operations have heretofore kept the frontier in alarm. At this council, the situation of the Indians was fully discussed, and amicable relations established. It is to be hoped that the feelings with which they separated will be permanent, and their intercourse hereafter uninterrupted.

The united tribe of Pottawatamies, Ottawas, and Chippewas, possessing the country in the vicinity of Chicago, have conditionally acceded to the alteration proposed in the boundaries of the tract assigned for them west of the Mississippi, by the treaty concluded in 1833. Should their proposition be accepted, an extensive and valuable region will be opened for settlement, and they will be removed to a district whose climate is suitable to their habits, and whose other advantages cannot fail to offer them strong inducements for moral and physical improvement.

An arrangement has been made with the Miamies for the cession of a part of their reservation in the State of Indiana. The tracts held by them are far more extensive than they require; and as they appear to be not yet prepared for removal, this relinquishment, without injuring them, will relieve the State, in some measure, from the embarrassment caused by such large reservations as they possess, embracing a most valuable part of the country, and interrupting the settlements and communication.

Instructions were given, immediately after the last session of Congress, for purchasing from the Wyandots in Ohio, if they were disposed to sell, the reservation secured to them in that state, and for their removal to the west. The commissioner, Governor Lucas, conducted the negotiation with great fairness and propriety, fully explaining to the Indians their own position, the wishes of the government, and the course of circumstances urging their removal. The matter is not yet terminated, the Indians having requested time for further consideration.

The necessary appropriations will be asked for the removal of the Seminoles, agreeably to the treaty formed with them; and arrangements have been made for the emigration of the Creeks, as fast as they are prepared for a change of residence. There has not yet been sufficient time to ascertain the result of these measures.

I am not able to submit to you any more favourable views of the condition of the Cherokees than were embraced in my last annual report. While every dictate of prudence, and, in fact, of self-preservation, urges their removal, unhappy councils and internal divisions prevent the adoption of that course. Where they are, they are declining, and must decline; while that portion of the tribe which is established in the west, is realizing the benefits which were expected to result from a change of position. The system of removal, however, by enrolment, is going on, and during this season about one thousand persons have passed to the west.

The treaty concluded the 24th of May last, with the Chickasaws, has altered the relations in which they were placed with the United States. The proceeds derivable from a portion of their present possessions have been assigned to them, and reservations have also been provided for such as choose to become citizens of the United States. Their future condition now depends upon their own views and experience, as they have a right to remain or remove, in conformity with their own judgment. The means placed at their disposal are fully adequate to their permanent comfortable establishment, and it is to be sincerely hoped that they will apply them wisely.

The acts of the last session of Congress, on the subject of Indian affairs, have introduced important changes into those relations. Many of the provisions of former laws had become inappropriate or inadequate, and not suited to the changes which time and circumstances had made. In the act regulating the intercourse with the various tribes, the principles of intercommunication with them are laid down, and the necessary details provided. In that for the re-organization of the department, the number of officers employed has been much reduced, and the current expenses diminished.

Any changes which experience may show to be necessary in these acts, can from time to time be provided, until they shall become fully adapted to the situation and condition of the Indians, and to the intercourse, both commercial and political, which ought to exist between them and our government and citizens. The system of removal has changed essentially the prospects of the emigrants, and has imposed new obligations upon the United States. A vast tract of country, containing much more than one hundred millions of acres, has been set apart for the permanent residence of these Indians, and already about thirty thousand have been removed to it. The government is under treaty stipulations to remove nearly fifty thousand others to the same region, including the Illinois and Lake Michigan Indians, with whom a conditional arrangement has been made. This extensive district, embracing a great variety of soil and climate, has been divided among the several tribes, and definite boundaries assigned to each. They will there be brought into juxta-position with one another, and also into contact, and possibly into collision, with the native tribes of that country; and it seems highly desirable that some plan should be adopted for the regulation of the intercourse among these divided communities, and for the exercise of a general power of supervision over them, so far as these objects can be effected consistently with the power of Congress, and with the various treaty stipulations existing with them. It is difficult, indeed, to conceive how peace can be preserved, and the guaranty of protection held out to the eastern Indians fulfilled, without some legislative provision upon this subject. LEW. CASS.

CONDITION OF THE ARMY.

_Extract from the Report of the Major-General of the Army._

Since my last annual report, the five companies of the regiment of dragoons, which remained to be raised, have been recruited; and, after having been organized at Jefferson barracks, they took up their march to Fort Gibson, where the head-quarters of the regiment were established, preparatory to entering the Indian country, in conformity to your instructions.

In consequence of the lateness of the arrival of these companies at Fort Gibson, and a variety of unforeseen difficulties in obtaining the proper arms and equipments for the regiment, the movement to the west was delayed until the 15th of June.

In the mean time, General Leavenworth, who had been appointed to the command of the troops on the western frontier, south of the northern boundary of the State of Missouri, detached one company of that regiment as an escort to the caravan of traders to Santa Fe, in Mexico. He also employed detachments of the third and seventh regiments of infantry in opening roads between the posts on the Arkansas and Red rivers, and in establishing new posts beyond the settlements of the emigrated Indians, for the purpose of facilitating the movements of the expedition, and covering the country occupied by those Indians, in the event of a failure to secure a friendly intercourse with the wild tribes inhabiting the country beyond them.

These arrangements having been made, the expedition, consisting of nine companies, under Colonel Dodge, was put in motion, accompanied by a deputation from the several tribes of friendly Indians, to act as guides and interpreters, and to aid in bringing about a general good understanding between the several nations; and in order that the friendly intercourse might be further promoted, two Indian girls, the one a Pawnee, and the other a Kiowa, who had been captured by the Osages, also accompanied the expedition for the purpose of being delivered to their friends.

Owing to the sickness which prevailed among the troops, the command, on reaching the river Washita, about one hundred and eighty miles west of Fort Gibson, was so much reduced as to render a re-organization of the companies necessary. Colonel Dodge accordingly, out of the effective force, formed six companies, each forty-two strong, and, under instructions from General Leavenworth, continued his march to the Pawnee village, situated on a branch of the Red river. Here Colonel Dodge held a council with the Camanches, the Pawnees, (or Toyaslas,) the Kiowas, and the deputation of Indians which accompanied him, amounting in all to about two thousand persons. He explained the object of the expedition, and was instrumental in bringing about a friendly intercourse between several hostile tribes. He also obtained the surrender of the son of a Mr. Martin, an American citizen, who had been murdered by the Indians, and of a black boy captured by them. A more particular account of the interview between Colonel Dodge and the assembled tribes will be found in the journal of the expedition, annexed to this report.

After delivering the two Indian girls to their parents, Colonel Dodge, accompanied by several of the chiefs of the Camanches, Pawnees, and Kiowas, returned with his command to Fort Gibson, whence the regiment proceeded to take up the positions previously fixed on. Four companies, under Colonel Dodge, marched to Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri; three companies, under Lieutenant-colonel Kearney, to the Des Moines; and three, under Major Mason, to a point on the Arkansas, about eighty miles above Fort Gibson. These companies have arrived at their destinations, and are engaged in preparing their winter quarters.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

_Operations under the Indian Department during the year 1834._

Measures have been adopted for the execution of the several treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Appalachicolas, Quapaws, the united bands of Otoes and Missourias of the river Platte, and the four confederated bands of Pawnees of the Platte and the Loup Fork, all of which were ratified at the last session of Congress. Preparatory steps have also been taken for the removal of the Creeks and Seminoles, and it is expected that a considerable portion of those tribes will be removed beyond the Mississippi during the ensuing season, and find a happier home in the domains set apart for their residence, under the guaranty of the United States.

In pursuance of instructions from the department, General William Marshall, Indian agent for the Miamies, opened a negotiation recently with the chiefs of that tribe, for the purchase of their land in the State of Indiana. He has succeeded in procuring from them a cession of two hundred thousand acres, on terms advantageous to themselves and the United States. It may be considered the precursor to a total cession of their remaining land in that State, and their consequent emigration to the western territory; a result desirable in many respects, especially connected with advantages to a portion of our citizens, and doubly gratifying from its being compatible with the best interests of the tribe.

The alteration proposed by a resolution of the Senate at the last session of Congress, in the boundaries of the land granted by the Chicago treaty of 1833 to the united nation of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawatamie Indians, has received their assent under certain modifications, specified in their agreement of the 1st of October last.