^y c^' .^ o >b 4 o 'm'wiRAEir ®JF irmm aw. 'BT^: JOURNAL WANDERER; A RESIDENCE IN INDIA, SIX WEEKS IN NORTH AMERICA, Such as the records are, Which wand'iing seamen keep, Led by their hidden star Throuijh the cold deep. LONDON : SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, 14th April. The musquitocs are a never-fail- ing source of annoyance. Before I go to bed they are carefully brushed out of the bed, and as soon as I am in, the process of brushing is renewed until it appears they are aU removed. The musquito curtains, made of fine green gauze, are then tucked in all round to exclude my tor- mentors ; but, alas ! before I have lain many mi- nutes, I find a few are still left, who commence 36 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. flying about and buzzing till they alight on my face, and begin sucking at my blood. I can always tell by the noise ceasing that they have commenced their bloody repast ; they begin by lancing the part, and then suck away till they are completely gorged. I can kill them with ease when they are in this state. The people here measure time by the length of their shadow, so that when a person wishes to know the hour, he goes and stands erect in the sun, observing where his shadow terminates, and by measuring the length with his feet he is able to tell pretty correctly the time of day : this explains the passage in the 7th chapter of Job, where it is written, " as a servant earnestly desireth his shadow," meaning the time to cease from labour. 21st May. I was awakened last night at mid- night by a violent storm of thunder and lightning, and wind and rain. Half dreaming as I was, I had sense enough left to feel something moving in the bed, and, by the light from a flash of light- ning, to my unspealvable horror, I saw, crawling over the mattress, a Cobra de Capello. He reared his head when he came to my body, and slowly crawled on to my legs ; and as there was nothing (wer me but a thin cotton sheet, I could distinctly leel the cold clammy body of the venomous reptile RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 37 tlirough the sheet. The heat of my body seemed agreeable to the monster as he coiled himself up there. I lay dead still ; I knew my life depended upon my remaining motionless, for had I moved a leg or an arm, he would instantly have bitten me ; after which I could not have lived many minutes. A cold sweat ran in a stream down my back ; I was in an agony of terror. Home and friends, and all that was dear to me, rushed to my memory ; my whole life passed in review before me. I saw no way of escape, and I considered my doom sealed ; every flash of lightning shewed me my new bed-fellow in all liis loathsomeness. Well, there the reptile lay, but how long heaven knows : to me the time appeared interminable. When I had lain in one position about three hours, my legs became sore and stiff, from having been kept so long motionless ; and at this time I gave an in- voluntary shudder, which attracted the notice of the reptile. He raised his head about a foot high, thrust out his forked tongue, and looked around him as if for some living object to prey upon. I noAv thought it was all over with me. I prayed mentally, (for I dared not move my lips for fear of attracting notice,) for the forgiveness of my sins, when, Heaven be praised, the reptile unfold- ed his coils and crawled slowly away from off my C 38 RESIDEXCE IN INDIA. limbs, on to the bed, down by the bed-post to the floor, and left me. It has been said that poverty makes a man acquainted with strange bed -fellows : it might be added, so does wandering in foreign climes* 25th May. I have now been six months with- out seeing a European. My heart is yearning to behold my countrymen, and to hear the English language once more spoken. I often dream I am at home, walking in the green fields with one of Scotia's fair-haired maidens, but I soon awake again to behold the same eternal dusky faces. The strength of the love of country can be known only to those who are or have been similarly circum- stanced to myself. What would I not give at this moment to behold a bonnie Scotch lassie, and to hear the sweet tones, and the dear accents of my native land, proceeding from her lips. I do believe it would almost drive me frantic with joy. 2nd June. The jackals are becoming very bold. At 5 P. M. a jackal seized one of my goats by the throat, within a few yards of my house, and was dragging it aAvay, when I observed it, and scared the animal, who then dropped it. I found the jackal's teeth had pierced the windpipe of the goat, so I ordered it to be killed for dinner. A few days ago, a jackal bit one of my greyhounds, RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 39 and actually broke its jaw bones, which forced me to kill it. Almost every night they are doing some mischief. I set traps for them, and catch a great many ; and I kill them by stabbing them with an old bayonet fastened to a long piece of bamboo. 12th June. Close sultry weather. Lay awake tossing on my couch till near daylight. I had just dropped asleep when I was awakened by a passing thunder storm, and I heard a noise as if some person was in the adjoining room. I got up instantly, took a pistol in each hand, and opened the door, when the cause of my alarm proved to be the peristrephic movement of several bats and owls round the ceiling of the room. As I was out of bed at any rate, I thought I would see if my Cho- keedar (watchman) was awake ; so I slipt quietly to the outer door, and found the fellow sitting on the stairs fast asleep. I discharged one of my pistols close to his ear ; he awoke in an awful state of alarm, I asked him if I had missed him, and told him to beware in future, as the next time I found him sleeping on his watch I would cer- tainly " do for him." The poor creature really believed I intended to shoot him, and his fears made him keep strict watch ever afterwards. 15th June. The heat is most intense. At noon 40 KESIDENCE IN INDIA. the sun darts down his fiery rays directly perpen- dicular ; all nature seems overcome with the fer- vent heat. The labourer retires to rest for some hours at mid-day. The sun, in unclouded splen- dour, shines forth till the earth becomes heated to such a degree that eggs may be roasted on its surface. The paroquets take shelter among the leafy branches of the mangoe tree — the dove coos to its mate among the groves of sweet-scented shrubs — and the beasts of the field lie down to sleep away the time in some spot sheltered from the noon-day heat — *' O'er the sick and sultry plains, Through the dim delirious ahr. Agonizing silence reigns, And the wanness of despair." 16th June. The rainy season commences about June, and generally lasts four months. The ver- dure w^liich is spread over the face of the country almost exceeds belief. The alternate sunsliine and shower act so powerfully on vegetation, that the Indigo plant has been known to grow two inches and a-half in the course of twenty-four hours. Indigo requires a rich soil to produce it. It is sown before the rainy season commences, and is ready for cutting in about tliree or four months. Tlic plants are cut before they come into flower ; RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 41 they are steeped in a vat filled with water for twelve hours, till they become properly macerated, during which process the leaves part with the colouring matter. The liquor is then let off into another vat, into which half-a-dozen natives enter, standing up to the middle in the hquor, and beat it with bamboos for several hours, to cause the grains of Indigo to separate from the liquor, which is next allowed to settle, and the Indigo falls to the bottom, and the water is then slowly drawn off, and the colouring matter left. The Indigo is then put into a boiler, and boiled for about t'en hours, after which it is run off and strained through cotton cloths, and the water pressed out of it. It is afterwards cut into pieces about 2^ inches square, and placed in the ware- house, in a current of air, to dry ; when dry, it is packed in boxes, and sent to Calcutta. Indigo is a very precarious crop ; it is not only liable to be destroyed by hail storms, but it is often altogether lost by a sudden rise in the river, which sometimes rises several feet in the course of twenty-four hours, and entirely sweeps away the labours of the Indigo planter. 4th July. I have felt drowsy in the afternoon, after tiffin, for two or three days past, with a dull heavy pain in my forehead. To-day my appetite 42 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. is gone, and I feel very"' sick and feverish. A black Doctor has given me some medicine, and I am so ill that I have betaken myself to bed. 31st July. For the last three weeks I have been dreadfully ill with the Jungle fever, most of the time insensible. I felt a burning heat and a thirst which nothing could allay. I was attended by the black Doctor, who administered jalap, calomel, and blue ointment. About the eighteenth day the crisis of the fever came ; I felt the energies of life fast ebbing away. I thought I was dying. My extremities became deadly cold. The heat had concentrated in my head and chest, both of which felt on fire. A thick mist came over my eyes. I could see none. All was darkness. I thought it was the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death. I thought on my dear father and mother, and would have cried, but the fever in the brain had dried up the fountain whence the tears flow. I whispered for pen, ink, and j^aper, to write my father to tell him of my fate. They were brought, but it was too late — I could see none. I lay down on my back. The native ser- vants kept rubbing my legs and arms to bring back the circulation. I could hear the natives speaking at my bedside ; they were saying that I could not outlive the night. Shortly after, they RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 43 all left. I lay in this state from 4 p. M. till mid- night. Every hour one of my servants would enter the room ; come close up and put his hand to my mouth to feel whether I was breathing-. About midnight I fell into a deep sleep, or stupor, from which I awoke at six in the morning. The fever was gone, and I felt as if I had suddenly obtained a new lease of life. Chapter. IV. •'Oh, here no Sabbath bell Awakes the Sabbath morn, Nor song of reaper's heard Among tlie yellow corn." 20th August. I have seen a good many people afflicted with leprosy, which is a common disease in India. At first, wliite spots appear on the skin, which, in course of time, go on increasing till the whole body becomes as white as snow. The ap- pearance of persons labouring under the disease is most disgusting. The best rules that Europeans can adopt for preserving their health in this country, are early rising and early going to bed, riding on horseback morning and evening, temperance, great attention to cleanliness^ and to keeping up of the perspira- RESIDENCE IX INDIA. 45 tion, and to refrain from all exposure to the sUn by day, or the dew by night. 24th August. The custom of wearing nose- jewels is very common among the Hindoo women. This must be a very ancient custom, as allusion is made to it in Proverbs xi. 22 : "a jewel of gold in a swine's snout.'^ The Banian tree, of which there are abundance in this neighbom*hood, is a singular production of nature — a single tree may be mis- taken for a whole grove ; the branches from the main trunk throw down fibres to the earth, which take root, and, by a gradual process, increase in size until they actually become themselves trunks, and they in course of time throw out branches, which again take root, and thus the tree increases in size until a single Banian tree covers many acres of ground, and affords to the weary travellers a cool shade from the burning sun : " Branching so broad and long, that, in the ground, The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow About the mother root, a pillar'd shade, High over-arch'd, and echoing walks between." The Hindoos have a great veneration for this tree, and they are to be seen reclining under its shade, perusing the Shaster, and offering up prayers to their deities. Many of those trees cover 46 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. an amazing extent of ground. There is one" said to have more than three thousand trunks, and they are constantly increasing ; this tree has been known to have afforded shelter to 7000 men. The fruit resembles a fig, and is, when ripe, of a scarlet colour. 5th September. This morning, while riding over the fields, I saw a Cobra de Capella coiled round the stem of a low shrub. I called out to a Hindoo to kill it, but he told me that no consideration would tempt him to do so. I find, that besides his general aversion to talie away life, he be- lieves in transmigration, and that possibly his father, or great grandfather, may now be before him in the shape of a snake. The jungle is illu- mined at night with swarms of fire flies, which have a fine effect, as they fly around or settle on the trees and bushes ; when I kill any of them, the light which lies in the lower part of their body becomes extinct. 12th September. The Hindoos are separated into four great castes, of which the Brahmins are the highest — no other caste is admitted to the office of the Priesthood, and they alone are per- mitted to read the sacred writings of the Hindoos. The Hindoos, unlike the Christians, do not admit proselytes to their faith. A Hindoo may lose RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 47 caste, but no man, however good, can gain the privilege of admittance into their caste. The re- ligion of the Hindoos enjoins frequent ablution in the Ganges, the sacred name of which is Bahgir- athe. It is said that Bahglrathe, one of the Gods, ha\Hing his course impeded by the Ganges, and being thirsty at the time, sat down on the banks and di'ank the river dry, and it was only after the earnest prayers of other Hindoo deities that he took pity on the inhabitants of the country and disgorged the mighty river. The law is very favourable to the Brahmins, for if a man of low caste kill a Brahmin, he suffers death, but if a Brahmin kill a person of the Sooder caste, he is only fined ten cows and a bull. Indeed the sacred character of the Brahmins is so fixed in the minds of the Hindoos, that nothing can atone for the crime of being in any way accessary to their death. Knowing this principle, the Brahmin takes ad- vantage of it to gain his ends, by threatening the person he wishes to coerce, that he will commit suicide and lay his death at his door ; accordingly the Brahmin sits down at the door of the man's house, in dherna, (as it is called,) with the instru- ment of suicide in his hand, and threatens to use it if he attempts to pass him, and thus gains his 48 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. and by working on the superstitious fears of his deluded adversary. 17th September. At 1 P. m. I had a visit from a snake-charmer ; he came to offer to rid my house of snakes, of which he assured me there were a great number secreted in holes about the house. I agreed to pay him two rupees on condition that he killed some snakes. The man sat down near the door, and took four tame snakes from a black bag, and then commenced playing on a pipe. The tame snakes were much delighted with the music, moving their heads up and down. After he had played some time, to my horror I observed first two snakes, and then three more, emerge from holes under my house, and crawl towards the music. Three of them I saw, by their crests, were Cobras. My blood began to run cold, when I thought that these monsters had been living under the same roof with me. In all probability one of them was the same that had paid me a mid- night visit some time before. When the snakes approached near enough, the man seized them suddenly by the tail, and drew them through his hand till he held them firmly by the head, and then he choked them. I paid the snake-catcher double what I promised him, and was very thankful for RESIDENCE IX INDIA. 49 his visitr Snakes themselves have been long con- sidered as possessed of the power of charming, or fascinating their victims. The Cobra de Capella, and the rattle-snake of America, are generally ranked as possessing higher powers of fascination than others of their tribe. The usual victims of their powers are small birds, mice, and squirrels. The birds are said to make many unavailing efforts to escape ; they flutter round the enchanter for some time, till at length, wearied and worn-out, they drop quietly into his jaws. It has been as- serted that the charming faculty of these reptiles is capable of fascinating human beings ; but so far as the Cobra de Capella is concerned, I can bear testimony that it has not the most distant approach to fascination. Small birds may have fallen into the power of these reptiles rather than desert their young, and observers may have attributed to fas- cination what was merely the result of maternal solicitude. 10th October. I have engaged a barber by the month ; he shaved me in bed to-day for the first time ; when he had shaved one side of my face, I turned on my pillow till he finished the other. He is an expert operator. He afterwards pared my nails, cleaned my ears, and cracked the joints of my fingers. I did not feel very comfortable when 50 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. the black barber was at my throat with his razor, I kept my eyes firmly rivetted on his all the time he had me by the throat. It is related in a Sanscrit play, " that a poor ascetic made a vow to stand all liis life under the branch of a tree, and while he stood there the white ants came and commenced building, but he never budged, although their structure rose higher and higher every day, until he had not the power to move away, and was finally enclosed in the building, and died a martyr to superstition." The manner of washing the hands and face is different in India from the European practice. The Indians pour water into their hands from a brass jug, and wash their faces with the water be- fore it falls, never using the water afterwards, but always pouring on fresh till purified. 6th November. I am awakened every morning at sunrise by one of my servants, who, after making the usual number of salaams, informs me that the sun is only waiting until I rise to show his glorious orb above the horizon, I immediately hold out my legs to the servant, who commences putting on my socks and trowsers : and I then get up and allow the valet to finish dressing me. One of my horses is waiting at the door ready saddled, upon ■which I mount and ride over the Indigo planta- RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 51 tion till about 8 A. M,, when I return home to breakfast. From breakfast time until 5 P. M. I remain close confined to the house : the extreme heat rendering it almost insupportable to be expos- ed to the sun out of doors. I have uo books here except the Bible and Cowper's Poems, the latter of which I have read so often that I can repeat the greater portion of the poems from memory. Cow- per's suppositious verses by Alexander Selkirk, independent of their beauty, have peculiar charms for me, as they in a great measure embody my own feelings, living as I have been now for nearly thirteen months in a state of total seclusion from the European world, surrounded by the natives, whose manners and religion are all strange to me. I take tiffin at 1 P. m. : it consists generally of Mulligatawny soup, cold roast fowl, curried fish, cucumbers, and fruit of various kinds. After tiffin, I smoke the hookah, and rest till near 6 o'clock, when I take my evening ride over the Indigo grounds. I dine at 7 P. M., sit smoking the hookah till half-past 8 p. ii., take a glass of brandy and water, and retire to rest. This is the daily rou- tine of my existence, and I feel it very monotonous indeed. One of the greatest bounties of Providence in the East is the cocoa-nut tree. The nut furnishes 52 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. the inhabitants with a delicious milk and a sweet kernel ; the shells are manufactured into domestic utensils, and the outer husks into ropes and cor- dage ; the leaves into umbrellas, matts, &c. ; in- deed it has been said that the tree can be applied to several hundred different uses. A sweet liquor is extracted from the tree, by making an incision near the top, and applying ajar thereto — the liquor called '* toddy," oozes through the wound into it. When fresh, this liquor is very sweet, but after being kept for twelve hours, it ferments, and be- comes highly intoxicating. 15th November. The only luxury the natives seem to indulge in, is the hubble-bubble which they smoke on all occasions. The hubble-bubble is a hollow reed or cane, about a foot and a half long, with the lower end immersed in a cocoa-nut half full of water. On the upper end is a bowl made of earthen ware, which contains the tobacco. — There is a small hole in the upper part of the cocoa-nut, through which the smoke is drawn from the bowl above, and through the water below. — Having drawn in the smoke till the mouth is full, they retain it for a few seconds, and then all©w it to escape by the nostrils. 10th December. I sometimes amuse myself shooting at different species of cranes which fre- RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 58 quent the margin of the river. I whiged one of those birds this forenoon, and after I had picked it up, and while I was examining its wound, it made a stroke at one of my eyes with its long beak, and I was within half an inch of losing it. 23rd December. To day I witnessed a Suttee, In riding along the banks of the river, I observed a great assemblage of natives, and on coming up to the spot I saw a funeral-pile, and, at a short distance off, the w idow of the deceased, surround- ed by Brahmins ; she was clothed in red, and ap- peared to be about seventeen years of age, and very interesting — even beautiful. I spoke to one of the Brahmins to use his influence to make her alter her resolution, but he refused to do so. After she had been bathed in the river, and her orna- ments removed from her person, she bade an eter- nal adieu to all her relations and friends, and slowly ascending the pile, placed the head of her departed husband upon her bosom. Immediately the pile was fired, and at the same time the crowd roared out " hoore bool, hoore bool," and shouted so as completely to di'ovvn the cries of their victim. I could see her, however, raise herself half up and shake her head as if in agony ; she then fell down, and became completely enveloped in the flames — 54 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. " A cheerful victim, lo, she mounts the pile. The thickening smoke now circles o'er her head ; Her husband's bosom forms an easy bed : She will not doubt : devoted to her creed She claims the glory and demands the meed ; Courts the proud triumph of a Hindoo bride, Betrothed in life, in death to be allied," The beating of the tojii-toms, and the savage noise of the natives, combined with the cruel mur- der I had witnessed, made my blood run cold. I have just heard of a Suttee which took place a few days ago in my neighbourhood, when the poor victim leapt from the flames, dreadfully scorched, but she was seized by the Brahmins and cast into the flames again. Feeling her torments insup- portable, she once more leapt from off the pile, and ran into the water, but she was again dragged out by her murderers, and cast into the burning pile a third time. Dry faggots in great numbers were heaped upon her, and being now exhausted, she was unable to make further exertions to escape, and was soon suflbcated with the smoke. It is a melancholy fact that the Hindoos are more true to the principles of their faith than pro- fessing Christians usually are in India, where it cannot be denied thousands of Christians live. IlESIDRNCE IN INDIA. OO whose whole Uves prove that they are not at all under the influence of the Christian religion. It is this strange inconsistency that tends so much to injure the Christian religion with the natives of this countrv. 1st January. Ever since I found the watchman asleep on his post, I have been apprehensive of an attack from robbers. I have no lock to my doors ; indeed the windows and doors are left open all night for air. This morning, about 2 o'clock, hearing some slight movement in my bed-room, I at first supposed it to proceed, as usual, from the bats or owls flying about the room, but after list- ening attentively for a few moments, I heard a strange rustling under the bed. I happened to lean my head over the mattress, when, dark as it was, I saw slowly protruded from beneath the bed a frightful black face. I lay for a few seconds lost in amazement. I then cautiously felt for a pistol which lay under my pillow, but before I had time to grasp it, the black villain, who had been scared by my movement, leapt up and ran off, without even allowing me the privilege of a shot at him. Perhaps, as this was New-year's-day, the rascal came to be my first foot, but it is far more likely he came to assassinate and plunder me. 12th January. I have had a long conversation D 5(j RESIDENCE IN INDIA. with the Goremaster on the subject of oiir rule in India ; he speaks in the most flattering terms of the change we have effected in the country. For- merly, he says, they were under the caprice of a cruel despotism ; life and property were most in- secure. If a crime was committed by any one of the inhabitants of a village, the Mahometan Ruler insisted that the inhabitants should produce the culprit under pain of having the whole village burnt to the ground ; whereas, such outrages are not perpetrated under the sway of the East- India Company — if a culprit escapes the penalty of his crime, the innocent do not suffer in his stead. He further observed, that the Ryots are kept in the greatest poverty from the heavy burdens they are subjected to, which, I am sorry to say, is but too true. By the settlement system made by the Mar- quis Cornwallis, on the 22d March 1793, " All lands in the divisions of Bengal, Baliar, and Orissa, were divided into estates, and parcelled out in absolute right to the Zumeendars. In the division of the produce of these estates, it was decided, or rather estimated, that after deducting the expense of collection, one-half, or two-fifths would be left as before to the Ryot, or working farmer ; while, of the remaining half, or three-fifths, which con- stituted the rent of the estate, ten- elevenths were RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 57 taken hy the government as a tax, and one-eleventh left to the Zumeendars." As this territorial assess- ment was fixed never to be increased, so, on the other hand, remissions were declared to be totally inadmissible. *' So long," says Mr Rickard " as a Zumeendar fulfils his engagement of paying the sum stipulated, the land remains in his possession. It is only in default of payment that the estate can ever again revert to the Company, but the poor Ryot is al- most always in debt, what with the rent of his land, the exactions of the Zumeendar, fees to his servants, and the usury of the money-lender, the condition of the wretched cultivator of the soil in India is almost insupportable, and can be better imagined than described. He has neither present enjoyment nor the hope of future relief." When we consider that these Hindoos are a very ancient people, and that long before the Christian era they had attained a high degree of civilization, even when the forefathers of their present European rulers were clad in the skins of wild beasts, and dwelt in caverns, and offered up human sacrifices to their Gods, and that they had their Bazaars and Money- Changers, wrote books, and were versed in all the mysteries of buying and selling, it becomes a question, why have they not advanced in the arts 58 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. and sciences, in knowledge and in power ? The answer is simply because they are kept down by the most enslaving superstition. Let but the light of the glorious Gospel slied its benign influence over Hindoostan, and then, and not till then, will the inhabitants advance in every virtue which exalteth a nation. Chapter V. " The poor exile Feels in each action of the varied day. His doom of banishment. The very air Cools not his brow as in his native land ; The scene is strange, the food is loathly to him ; The language, nay the music, jars his ear." 17th January. The Mahometan portion of the inhabitants of the village of Munsitpore make great rejoicings at their marriages. The cere- monies often last for several days. When the ceremony of giving away the bride takes place, the bride's mother takes hold of her right hand, and, placing it in that of the bridegroom's father, says, *' hitherto has this girl's modesty, honour, and reputation been in our hands, and we now resign them over to you," when he replies, that her daughter will be well taken care of. The happy pair then go home in a palanquin, and the 60 RESIDENCE IX INDIA. bridegroom carries the bride out of the palanquin into his house, when a fowl or a sheep is sacrificed and given away in charity. Then commences the feet washing — the wife first w^ashing her husband's feet, and then the husband the wife's ; after which the happy pair retire to their bed-room. If the wife proves fruitful, it is customary, when she arrives at the end of the seventh month of her pregnancy, for her parents to invite her to their house and give her a treat. On the occasion of this visit her friends perform an experiment upon her, to find out whether she is pregnant with a boy or a girl. They press out a few drops of the woman's milk on a piece of yellow cloth, and allow it to dry. On examination afterwards, if the milk leaves a white stain, they say she is to have a girl, but if it leaves a yellow stain they say it is to be a boy. The Indian women suffer little on the occa- sion of the birth of their children. It is not un- common for them, I have been told, to be taken with labour while in the fields, and to be delivered, or rather to deliver themselves of their children at the water side, and, after washing them in the river, to walk home with them in their arms ; in- deed so short and trifling are the pains of labour, that they seldom require the assistance of a mid- wife. RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 61 20th January. I find great difficulty in recol- lecting the days of the week, as the natives work on Sunday the same as on any other day ; and I have just found out, that for some weeks past I have been keeping holy Satm'day, the Jewish, in place of Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. To avoid the recurrence of this evil, I have desired my steward to order a sheep to be killed every Sunday morning, and a portion of it prepared for my breakfast. It feels strange to me to be living in a land where the Christian Sabbath is totally un- known ; and here it may truly be said, *' The sound of the church-going bell These vallies and rocks never heard ; Never sighed at the sound of a knell, Nor smiled when a Sabbath appeared." 24th January, After breakfast, my steward told me that two of my silver spoons were amissing, and that he suspected some of the servants had stolen them. He proposed that I should adopt the tnal hy ordeal, which he assured me never failed in finding out the thief, if he was present at the ordeal. I consented, and a Priest was ser^ for, who desired all the servants to sit down in a circle round him. He then took out a pair of small brass scales, and weighed out a mouthful of 62 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. dry rice to each of the servants, and desired them to chew it. After allowing them sufficient time to masticate it, he ordered each of them to put the rice out of their mouths, that he might examine it and detect the thief. All the servants had com- pletely chewed their portion of the rice, except one, whose portion was nearly as whole as when he first put it into his mouth. The Priest immediately declared this person to be the thief. He Is a boy I had hired only about ten days ago to run mes- sages, and to fan me asleep. The yoimg rascal at once confessed the theft, and promised to return the spoons, which he has already done. I have dismissed him from my service. The reason why the thief could not chew the rice was simply be- cause he was dreadfully afraid of being discovered ; and this state of alarm acting on the nervous sys- tem, suppressed the salivary discharge wliich was necessary to enable him to masticate the di-y rice. 4th February. A party of Jugglers passed through Munsitpore to-day ; they spread their carpet in front of my house, and I witnessed their performances from the verandah. I had seen Jugglers before at Calcutta, swallowing a sword, tossing nine balls into the air, and keeping them all moving at one time, and performing many other wonderful feats ; but, at the present exhibi- RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 63 tion, I saw a mangoe stone put into the ground, and shortly afterwards a tree spring up to the height of several feet, and the mangoes appeared growing on the tree quite natiu'al. The Jugglers had several snakes with them, which they oflfered to convey into my pocket with- out my observing them, which I however de- clined. I have heard of a singular feat which is per- formed by the Indian Jugglers. They produce a chain fifty cubits in length, and throw up one end of it towards the sky, where it remains as if fast- ened. A dog is sent up the chain and disappears at the other end ; various other animals pass up by the chain, and at the upper end they all dis- appear ; and when the chain is taken down, no- thing is seen, and nobody can tell in what way the animals have disappeared. Another wonderful feat, which is well authenticated, was performed by a Brahmin, at Madras, viz. sitting on the air. A person who witnessed it thus describes it : " The only apparatus seen is a piece of plank, which, with four pegs, he forms into a kind of long stool ; upon this, in a little brass saucer or socket, he places, in a perpendicular position, a hollow bam- boo, over which he puts a kind of crutch, like that of a walking-crutch, covering that with a piece of 64 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. common hide ; these materials he carries with him in a little bag, which is shown to those who come to see him exhibit. The servants of the house hold a blanliet before him, and when it is with- drawn he is discovered poised in the air, about four feet from the ground, in a sitting attitude, the outer edge of one hand merely touching the crutch ; the fingers of that hand deUberately count- ing beads ; the other hand and arm held up in an erect posture. The blanket is then held up be- fore him, and a gurgling noise is heard, like that occasioned by wind escaping from> a bladder or tube, and when the screen is withdrawn he is again standing on terra firma'' 8th February. Mr Williams, my employer, wrote me a few days ago that he wished me' to visit him to-day at CommercoUy. I rose therefore at 3 A. M., and set off on horseback, accompanied by the ostler as a guide. I rode in the dark for more then three hours while my horse was led by the ostler. While passing under large trees, I re- marked, that it felt very warm there, although it was cold in the open air. When I was passing through a very close and thick jungle, I heard a low growling kind of noise which made my horse tremble from head to foot. I asked the ostler the cause of the horse's alarm ; he answered that the animal was RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 65 afraid of a Baug which was growling within a few yards of us. I have no doubt it was some animal of the tiger species ; however I was well pleased to find it did not attack us. I don't much fancy this night travelling through jungles full of all kinds of wild beasts. I arrived safe at Commercolly at 7 a. m. I breakfasted with Mr and Mrs Williams and family. He seems a good kind of man himself, but I un- derstand he leaves the whole management of his Indigo Factories to Mrs Williams, who is here called Beebee Saheb, which means ** the gentle- man's lady/' This lady, in his name, dictates the whole business correspondence, appoints and dis- misses the factory servants, and has full power over them. She is a lady of great ability and strong nerves, and rather good looking. She is very satirical, and said to be fond of flogging the natives. I rode out before dinner in company with Mr and Mrs Williams over one of their Indigo Plantations. Mrs Williams spoke the native lan- guages fluently, and examined the factory servants about the Indigo fields ; and M^ienever their an- swers were deemed by her unsatisfactory, she threw down her whip to the ground, which was the signal for her attendants to strip the cloth ofi" the man's back and flog him. She then galloped away, 66 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. leaving the poor native writhing in agony. She served four different men in the same way during our ride. They roared to Beebee Saheb in vain for mercy ; their backs were severely cut up, but they appeared like the eels, to be used to skinning. Mrs Williams observed to me that nothing but fear could operate to make them do their duty, and that she was obliged to order them to be flogged. This system of flogging was new to me, and it certainly spoiled my appetite for dinner. I had been ac- customed to associate with the female character tenderness and delicacy, but these feelings were sadly outraged by Mrs Williams, who seemed to- tally destitute of both. While riding over the fields in her company, she commenced asking me some questions, and for a mo- ment a thought struck me that perhaps she might order her attendants to serve me out in the same way, and I regretted I had left my pistols at home, for really I did not feel myself quite safe in her ladyship's company after what I had seen. That these Indians might not be free from blame is most likely, but that any lady should have it in her power to order the natives to be flogged at her (hscre- tion, is a clear proof that liberty is unknown at Commercolly. Whether such doings are sanctioned by the government at Calcutta, I am not prepared RESIDENCE IN INDIA. G7 to say, but that the natives suffer themselves to be flogged every day by order of Mrs Williams, is a fact well known all round this neighbourhood. If the law protects them from such usage, would they not apply for redress, and, as they do not, the natural inference is, that they would get no redress if they did complain. I dined in company with Mr and Mrs Williams. We sat down at eight o'clock to a most sumptuous dinner. Mrs Williams cautioned me an'ainst the o snakes, and when I told her of my narrow escape in bed, she seemed to take a great interest in my adventure. She told me that a few weeks ago a little boy, to whom she rode up to speak, wishing to conceal a segar he was smoking, thrust his hand with it into a hole in the wall behind him, and was bitten by a small snake of about three inches long, but of so venomous a kind that the poor boy di'opt down dead almost instantly. I stopped all night at Commercolly, intending to ride home next morning. 12th February. Notwithstanding the time I have resided here, I have never yet seen the inside of a Hindoo's house, and I suppose would not though I were to remain here all the days of my life. I hold converse daily with the Brahmins and other Hindoo castes, ou business, but they 68 RESIDEN'CE IN IXDIA. never ask me to join their domestic circle, and let me have a peep behind the scenes. Indeed my presence in their houses they would consider con- tamination ; and I believe were I to violate the sanctity of their home, my life would be the price of my temerity, and the family in the house would lose caste, of which they are dreadfully afraid ; and no wonder, for it has been observed, very justly, '* the loss of caste is the loss of the whole world. Henceforth the offender can see no more the face of father, mother, brother, or sister, or even of his Avife or children. They will fly from his presence as from one infected by some deadly distemper." The unfortunate wretch generally either commits suicide, or, like a second Cain, becomes a wanderer and outcast on the face of the earth. The native potters have a curious mode of set- ting broken limbs. The potter, after adjusting the limb in a proper position, covers it over with moist clay, and allows it to dry, which fixes the limb completely in one position. The clay is al- lowed to remain on it until the bone has had time to be perfectly knitted, when it is removed. 18tli February. For the last three months the weather has been delightfully cold and bracing, particularly in the mornings and evenings. In this country the year is divided into three seasons, RESIDENCE IN INDIA. Q9 the rainy, the cold, and the hot. The rainy sea- son extends from June to October, the cold from November to February, and the hot from March to May. The year may also be divided into healthy and vmhealthy seasons. From the month of November to the month of May is the healthy season, and the months of June, July, August, September, and October, are reckoned unhealthy. 2d March. Charapooing is a common practice here among- Hindoos and Mahometans. My bar- ber has offered to champoo me daily after tiffin, and I have allowed him to perform on me for the first time this afternoon. He rubs and kneads my body and limbs in a peculiar way with his hands, which has a very soothing effect on the nervous system ; he cracks the joints of my fingers and toes, and pulls my ears and chin ; he wished also to imll my nose, but this I declined. The opera- tion lasts from half au-hour to three quarters, and on the whole, is very pleasant and agreeable, and, is an excellent preparation for the siesta. I am told that the luxurious Brahmins, in the interior of their temples, recline at their ease on couches of the softest silk, while the beautiful Nautch girls champoo them with their soft delicate hands. 6th March. The hookah is much indulged in by the wealthy natives in this country. It is cer- 70 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. tainly the most agreeable way of smoking tobacco. I use it regularly after dinner and tiffin, and, as I mentioned before, I think it prepares me for sleep, by soothing the nervous system. The hookah consists of a glass, silver, pewter, or brass bot- tom, filled two-thirds full of water, to the mouth of which is fixed a pipe, one of the tubes of which passes through the water and enters another tube, which communicates with the snake through which the smoke is inhaled by a mouth-piece of silver, tipped with gold. The snake is generally covered with silk and gold thread, and is highly ornament- ed. It has a magnificent appearance. It is com- monly brought in after dinner, by a servant called a hookahburder, and placed on a carpet at the back of the chair. Both ladies and gentlemen smoke the hookah, and they say, with what truth I know not, that it assists the digestion after a hearty meal. 22d March. The country is greatly infested with beggars ; indeed there are more of them in India than any place in the world. It forms a part of the religious duties of a large portion of the population, and men who wish to become unu- sually sanctified, make begging the only source of gaining a livelihood. It has been asserted, " that an eighth part of the population of Bengal and RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 71 Bahar subsist in this manner." Thus they form a begging population of upwards of two millions ; and the alms received by them, supposing each to obtain only a rupee a month, will amount to three millions sterling — a sum annually extracted from the labouring classes, who in general are extreme- ly poor. CUAPTER VI. " Then the wind Unprisoned blew its trumpet loud and shrill: Out-flashed the lightnings gloriously ; the rain Came down like music, and the full-toned thunder Rolled in grand harmony throughout high heaven.' 10th April. I was present tills afternoon at | the famous festival in honour of the Goddess Kali, ] and witnessed the ceremony of swinging perform- I ed by several of the natives. A great concourse j of people were present, and I observed a larger ] proportion of fine-looking Hindoo females than ■ are usually to be seen in the village. They seem- | ed to enjoy the scene much, and were dressed in | their jewels and fine muslin ; their nails, and all [ around their eyes, were dyed with henna, which ! gave them an additional interest. The ceremony i of swinging took place in an open area, where a | RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 73 pole about forty feet high was erected, across the top of which was slung a long bamboo, and two ropes with hooks at them were attached to one end of it. These hooks were passed through the fleshy part of the victim. I was close to him when the operation was performed ; only a drop or two of blood came from the wound, and I observed that he clenched his hands and teeth firmly, but did not wince. The hooks, which were very bright, resembled those used in butcher's shops in England. So soon as he was hooked, several men commenced pulling on ropes attached to the other end of the bamboo, which raised him from the ground, and he floated in the air, his icholo weight actually hanging upon the hooks. After swinging round about fifteen minutes, during which time he employed himself throwing parched pease and flowers among the crowd, who loudly cheered him, he was lowered down, and another victim hooked on. The skin and flesh of the back sometimes give way, and the poor fanatic falls to the ground, and very frequently meets his death. 21st April. I received yesterday a letter from Mr Williams, containing instructions to plough up certain fields on which the Ilyots have sowed rice, and to sow Indigo in its place. Accordingly, at six A. M., taking men and ploughs for the purpose 74 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. along with me, I proceeded on horseback to the fields to see this order executed, but, to my astonish- ment, no sooner were the ploughmen put upon the fields, than they were attacked by a large body of the Ryots, and beaten off the fields. I rode up to inquire the cause of this conduct, when they sur- rounded my horse, and saluted me with a volley of sticks and stones, much to the endangerment of my head and chest* In particular, one of the sticks thus thrown, injured my bridle-hand so much that I was afraid I would require to drop the reins. Seeing this, the Ryots made a rush to seize the bridle, but I immediately clapped spurs to my horse, and fairly distanced them. I really thought they meditated doing me severe bodily harm. I had no idea that they had so much spirit as to attack any one. I rode home as fast as possible, and forwarded to Mr Williams an account of the whole transaction, which was the means of his sending next day a number of armed police to apprehend the Ryots, (I had almost written *' rioters.") I accompanied them to the place, but every man, woman, and child, had left the small village where they had lived. We found nothing but empty huts. All was desolation, and as to their where- abouts, we could obtain no positive information. These poor Ryots must surely have been di'iven RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 15 to desperation, for I think that nothing but the dread of famine coukl have made them rebel against Mr Williams, the Honom'able East-India Company's Commercial Resident at Commercolly, who, in addition, was on his own account a large Indigo Planter, and had many factories, three of which were under my superintendence. Whether Mr Williams had a right to these fields, I cannot say ; but he certainly adopted a harsh measure in ploughing up the rice on which they depended for subsistence. For my share in the business, I met with rather a severe handling, which might have been worse if I had not made good my retreat in time, 4th May. The sky for some days past has as- sumed a threatening appearance — " Nature faints with fervent heat ; Ah ! her pulse hath ceased to beat ; Now in deep and dreadful gloom Clouds on clouds portentous spread, Black as if the day of doom Hung o'er Nature's shrinking head." This afternoon, about half-past five, we were vi- sited with a thunder storm, which exceeded in intensity anything of the kind I ever witnessed. It commenced with a violent hurricane, which 7G RESIDENCE IN INDIA. forced open several of the doors. Before the hur- ricane reached the house, I coidd see the clouds of dust at a distance rolling onwards. During five hours it lightened almost incessantly, and the sheet, the ball, and the forked lightning, illumined the sky at one and the same time, making the room where I sat as bright as day, even after night's sable mantle had enshrouded the world. At times a peal of thunder burst on my ear with a sharp, loud, and tremendous crash, shewing that it had exjjloded close to the house. At the com- mencement of the storm a shower of hailstones had fallen, which, I can positively assert, were as large as ordinary-sized walnuts, and left a deep imprint in the earth where they fell. During the time that the storm lasted, I was a solitary pri- soner ; the servants being all in the outhouses, and although quite near, yet none of them dared venture to come to me ; tliere I sat, ** like patience on a monument," for five full hours, in total dark- ness, save when the light was reflected from the electric fluid, and with nothing to divert my at- tention from the war of elements around me. 10th May. The picturesque forms of tlie native servants, combined with their oriental costumes, and the silent and graceful way in which they glide to and fro, and the anxiety they show t€» IlESIDE^X'E IN INDIA. 77 anticipate all our wants, and the apparent devoted- ness to our interests, are peculiarly striking to strangers from Europe. In India every luxury is to be had, but as soon as the novelty ceases, they all cloy, and we lose our relish for them. The overpowering heat of the climate steeps the mind in a kind of lethargy, which reduces the body to a state of great indolence, the consequence of which is, that too little exercise is taken, and this, com- bined with rich stimulating food, soon induces functional derangement of the liver. What is singular, hogs and oxen are also subject to the same complaint ; indeed most of the livers of those animals I have seen in this country have been more or less diseased. 1st June. Provisions of most kinds are remark- ably cheap in this place. I can purchase two dozen and a- half of fowls for a rupee * : a sheep or a goat only costs half a rupee ; a milk cow and calf can be got for six rupees. Fish of excellent qua- lity are in great abundance, and very reasonable in price. I live very much on fowls. Beef I have never tasted since I came here. Were I to * A rupee is equivalent to 2o. 3d. of sterling money. 78 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. order a covv' to be killed, it might give great offence to the Brahmins ; and as it would only keep for twenty-four hours, it would be a needless waste, for one solitary individual could only eat a very small portion of it in that time ; indeed the sheep which is killed for my use on Sunday morn- ing is hardly eatable at dinner on Monday, although it is cooked the night before. I keep two cows for the sake of the milk ; several goats, and a large assortment of poultry of all kinds. There are no copper coins in circulation here ; purchases are all made with cowries, (a species of small shell,) or with silver or ^gold. One hundred cowries are equal in value to one pice, (a half- penny.) The natives carry a bag of them along with them when they go to market. Venders of goods can count them with amazing rapidity. 15th June. Since the weather became hot, the snakes are literally swarming in the fields. I can hardly ride many yards without passing several of them. There are a great many different kinds, and of all sizes, from a few inches to three or four yards long. I have noticed a few even longer, which glide along very fast among the grass ; the ostler tells me that their bite is not very danger- ous, but that they are great pests, inasmuch as RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 79 they fasten on the udders of the cows, and suck them di'y. My ostler, whose duty it is to run at my horse's side, is kept in a state of constant ahirm, lest he should chance to set his hare feet upon the carcasse of any of the snakes, who woidd not hesitate for one moment to give him *' a taste of their quali- ty." Dm'ing my ride this morning, we came upon a large Cobra de Capello. It was within four yards of my horse's head before I observed it, I instantly called out to the ostler to apprize him of the danger. The poor man was much alarmed, and kept alternately lifting his feet with great alacrity, thinking that the snake was close to his heels, until at last he cast his eyes upon it. I re- solved to kill it, but before doing so 1 wished to try what would be the effect of its bite on a fowl and a dog. I sent for a sample of those animals, and having tied them to a shrub with a rope, I left them to the tender mercies of the snake, while I looked on at a short distance. The snake crawl- ed slowly towards the dog, and bit him in the fore- paw, and afterwards bit the fowl in the leg. The dog howled very much at first, but his cries gradually became fainter and fainter, and in about fourteen minutes he was lying on the grass quite 80 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. (lead. The fowl did not survive four minutes. I killed the snake by dashing its brains out with stones. Snakes feed chiefly upon frogs, lizards, rats, young birds, and eggs. They can swallow an animal whole, although of greater circumfer- ence than their own bodies. A small Cobra de Capello which had visited my hen-house, and killed a number of the fowls, had swallowed eight new- laid eggs whole. I could count them easily through its skin. I killed it, got the eggs taken out, and had a couple of them boiled for breakfast, which astonished my Bobberchi not a little. It often happens that a snake swallows a frog alive, and afterwards is swallowed alive in its turn by a large aquatic fowl, and it is quite probable that for some time afterwards both the frog and the snake may be alive in the stomach of the fowl. iTtli June. It is a common custom in the East to conceal money and jewels in the thick walls of the houses, where the treasure is often discovered many years afterwards when the house is pulled down. The custom of Princes and Nabobs to make immense collections of gold and precious stones, led to their concealment in time of war, to prevent them falling into the hands of their ene- mies. RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 81 20tli June. I am much annoyed with the num- ber of Tattoos (native breed of horses) which infest the sides of the roads, and as the horses used for riding in this country are all entire, they are very dangerous. This morning my horse ran oif after a Tattoo — I lost all power over him. The Tattoo ran below an arch so low as barely to allow her to pass ; my horse followed ; I saw the danger, and laid myself at full length on the horse's back, in hopes that there might be room below the arch for us both to pass, but, no ! my back caught the arch, and there I stuck for some time, and was very severely crushed. The horse at last squeezed himself through, and I fell off at his tail, and was carried home much injured. A native doctor re- commended me to apply fresh-pulled tobacco leaves to the swellings, which I did, and although this application afforded me much relief, I found it had the effect of making me very sick at the time. I have given orders to the natives to remove all the Tattoos from the road sides. 4th July. Mr Williams has been visiting one of his factories in my neighbourhood, and he has been attacked by the Ryots in the same way I was. He has made a complaint to the Judge of the district; who has apprehended some of them. 82 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. The Goremaster here informs me that he is paying men to become witnesses against them. I asked him if the witnesses he spoke of had seen the at- tack ; he laughed at my simplicity, and said no, that the men were paid for swearing that they saw the Ryots attack Mr Williams, and on their false testimony these poor men will perhaps be con- demned for life to work in chains on the roads. Whether Mr Williams is aware of the nature of his evidence I do not know, but it is probable that he will be eventually, as the Goremaster will not surely fail to make a charge for the evidence thus procured. 16th July. I have often occasion to cross the river when inspecting the Indigo grounds. At five P. M. I was crossing in the ferry boat, and when half over, my horse, which was on board, suddenly gave a kick with one of his hind legs and knocked a large hole in the bottom of the boat, which was clinker built, when the water rushed in in such quantities that in about a minute the boat sunk, and we were all swimming for our lives. The accident was fortunately observed from the shore, and a boat put off immediately to our rescue. I am but a poor swimmer, and I was afraid my ctrcngth would be exhausted before the boat RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 83 reached us, so to save my strength I turned on my back and floated until the boat came and picked us all up. When the accident occurred, the natives on the shore, much to their credit, displayed the greatest promptitude and anxiety to save us. Chapter VIL »« Then wasteful, forth Walks the dire power of pestilent disease ; A thousand hideous fiends her course attend Sick nature blasting, and to heartless woe And feeble desolation casting down The towering hopes and all the pride of man.' 5th August. The natives, who live at Munsit- pore and the villages in the neighbourhood, are dying very fast of cholera and fever. It is pain- ful to ride along the river side and see so many dead bodies burned. I counted this afternoon no fewer than ten funeral piles opposite one village, and at some distance from them I saw another of larger dimensions, around which a mob were assembled making a most tumultuous noise, Avhich increased the nearer I approached towards them. I knew it was a Suttee, and that the Brahmins were at their cruel work again — my RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 8o soul sickened at the sight, and I turned my horse's head to avoid passing the spot. 10th August. The heat and the heavy rain together have caused animals of all kinds to spring up in amazing numbers. Every thing appears to be full of life ; my house is literally swarming with frogs, lizards, ants, and other animals, even my very clothes are visited by myriads of insects, who find accommodation beneath the collar of my coat, and under the band of my hat. Animals of various sorts may be seen leaping and crawling over the bed. Snakes seem as plentiful here as worms in England ; fortunately the most of them are harmless, but as I do not know the one kind from the other, I am kept in constant alarm, and I have often too much cause ; this morning, when one of the servants lifted the mat before my door to shake it, a small Cobra de Capello, which he had rolled up and lifted along with it, fell at his feet. The poor man started back, and nearly knocked me over, luckily he escaped, and the snake glided away into a hole below the house. I have adopted the practise of sitting after din- ner with my legs on the table, to prevent the snakes twining round them. This custom would not answer among ladies, but here, where I am all alone, I am not so particular, more cs- 86 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. pecially as I find it a great security against the snakes. 15th August. I have been ill for some days past ; I have a loathing at food — severe pains in my right side — and excruciating headaches. The native doctor has got me into his hands again ; he seems determined to convert me into an animated apothecary's shop, for he makes me swallow drugs in the most wholesale manner imaginable. I am in very low spirits, and I often wish I had never come to this sickly horrible place. When I en- gaged with Mr Williams, he stipulated that I was on no account to have the slightest intercourse with any of the European residents in the neigh- bourhood, for what reason I know not, but this total seclusion and comparative solitude was most irksome to me when in health, and in the state I am now in it is almost insupportable ; it must tend greatly to increase my disease, which I am told is liver complaint. IGth August. I had a letter yesterday from Mr Williams ; he writes me that from the nature of ]iiy disease he thinks that my illness may be very protracted, and it may be very long (if ever) before I am again fit to discharge my duty as his super- intendent ; and closes his letter by recommend- ing mc to resign my situation. 1 have according- RESIDENCE IX INDIA. 87 ly sent in my resignation, and am to leave in a month. The Goremaster says I may consider myself fortunate, as most of my predecessors in the office have died here. The cholera is as bad as ever, the villages are, many of them, half depo- pulated. lith September. I have been engaged all day making arrangements for removing to Calcutta. I have paid off all my servants with the exception of two, (the steward and cook,) who are to remain in my employment. I have agreed with the Manjee of a Paunchway to carry me to Calcutta, and I leave to-morrow. 15th September. I left Munsitpore at one P. M., and embarked in the boat for Calcutta ; we have a strong current in our favour, and are making rapid way. At dusk we brought the boat to the shore and stopped all night. IGth September. We started at daylight. I find that two of the Dandies (or boatmen) were taken ill last night of fever ; they are lying in the boat within two yards of my bed. They appear very distress- ed, and are constantly taking large draughts of the muddy water of the river. They have receiv- ed no medicine whatever. I proposed to give them a dose of calomel and jalap, and I asked the Manjee if he would allow me to do so ; he said^ 88 KESIDENCE IN INDIA. " if I was certain of curing tliem" I might do so, but not otherwise, On such terms I thought it most advisable not to prescribe. 17th September. The poor Dandies are evi- dently dying ; they are both insensible, and yet it is strange to see them so little altered. They drank the muddy water as long as they could open their mouths. Both of them died in the course of the day, and the remaining Dandies, being Mussul- mauns, waited till sunset, when they dug large holes on the margin of the river and buried them about a foot below the surface. Before we are long gone, the jackals will most likely have dis- interred them, as their graves have been made so shallow, and so accessible to wild beasts. This is my birth day, and a gloomy one it has been ; but to do honour to the occasion I took an extra glass of brandy panee at night, and drank to all friends round the Tron Kirk of Edinburgh. We expect to be in Calcutta early to-morrow morning. 18th September. This morning I found my appetite better than it had been, and I had some delicious Hilsee Mutchee for breakfast. I made a hearty meal, and for some time afterwards I felt a peculiarly comfortable and agreeable sensation, which was perfectly indescribable. This state lasted about ten or fifteen minutes, when I was IlESIDENCE IN INDIA. 89 taken suddenly very sick, accompanied by a feeling of great exhaustion. I was seized with the usual symptoms of cholera morbus in its most alarming aspect. I threw myself on my bed, and desired the Dandies to carry me, bed and all, to the nearest English doctor's house, for most provi- dentially we had just arrived at the shore, on the opposite side of the river to that on which Calcutta stands. Four of the Dandies lifted the bed on which I lay out of the boat, and, by making in- quiry among the Garden Houses, they found out an English, or rather Scotch Physician, who prov- ed to be Dii Brown of Calcutta, one of the most eminent men in that city. He was at home, and received me most kindly into his house. He gave me two draughts, both of which I vomited. He then said he would give me a dose that would re- lieve me if any thing would, and he placed 20 grains of calomel on the back part of my tongue, and measured out 100 drops of laudanum, which I swallowed by his orders. This dose had the de- sired effect, and I shortly afterwards fell into a stupor, in which I lay till the evening, when Dr Brown gave orders that I should be rowed over to Calcutta, and landed at Champaul Ghaut, This was accordingly done, and from Champaul Ghaut I was removed in a palanquin to a respectable 90 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. boarding'-lioiise. Dr Brown called in his carriage at night, prescribed for me, and gave the master of the house directions about me. It was fortunate that this attack of cholera was taken at the com™ mencement, for, had it seized me only a day earlier, I would have stood a bad chance of sur- viving, as I was far from medical advice. 29th September. Dr Brown has been most at- tentive in visiting me every day. I shall never forget my obligations to him. I asked him to ac- cept a fee, but he refused ; he said I may need all my money before I am well again. Dr Brown has a very large practice, and when Dr Macwhirter retires he has the prospect of suc- ceeding to his business, by which arrangement he will no doubt amass an ample fortune in a few years ; my best wishes go with him. Calcutta. I took a stroll one day in the Eng- lish burying-ground. I remarked that a very large proportion of those buried here are under twenty-five years of age. This fact speaks volumes touching the baneful effects of the climate on Euro- peans, and it should be made known to those who are proposing to leave their native land. It is a melancholy reflection to think that so many young men are cut off after a residence here of only a RESIDEyCE IN INDIA, 91 ^ear or two. Alas ! their bright hopas of future wealth are suddenly crushed by disease, and they are left to die in a land of strangers. Perhaps when they are labouring under some fatal malady, they will recal to their memory the words of poor John Lcyden, in his address to an Indian gold coin, written, it is said, while he was suffering under a coup de soleil : '* Slave of the dark and dirty mine. What vanity has brought thee here ? How can I love to see thee shine So bright, whom I have bought so dear ? The tent-ropes flapping lone I hear, For twilight's converse arm in arm ; The Jackal's shriek bursts on mine ear. When mirth and music wont to charm. By Cherical's dark wandering streams, Where cane tufts shadow ail the wild. Sweet visions haunt n\y waking dreams Of Teviot loved while yet a child ; Of castled rocks stupendous piled. By Esk or Eden's classic wave. Where loves of youth and friendship smileti, Uncurst by thee vile yellow slave." A writer on India, observes, *' strangers visit- ing our eastern territories cannot fail to be im- pressed with painful feelings, as they survey the gloomy receptacles appropriated to those Chris- F 92 RESIDENCE IN INDIA. tians who are destined to breathe their last in exile. The portion of ground consecrated and set apart as the final resting-place of the European resi- dents, is seldom sufficiently extensive to give * ample scope and verge enough' for those who seek repose within its gloomy precincts. All are over-crowded, and many exhibit the most frightful features of a charnel-house — dilapidated tombs, rank vegetation, and unburied bones whitening in the wind. The trees are infested with vultures and other hideous carrion birds ; huge vampire bats nestle in the walls, which too often present apertures for the admission of wolves and jackals crowding to their nightly resort, and tearing up the bodies interred without the expensive precau- tion necessary to secure them from such frightful desecration." I have been several times at the English church ; it is painful to look on the pale sallow counte- nances of the European worshippers, more espe- cially of the female portion, who look like so many *' sheeted ghosts," a circumstance which clearly proves the fact that few Europeans live long in this country in a state of vigorous health. European ladies are very scarce in Calcutta, but there are a great abundance of half-caste ladies. They are generally the illegitimate daughters (by RESIDENCE IN INDIA. 93 native mothers) of the higher ranks of Europeans, They go under the appellation of CheecheeSy which means in Hindostannee^eZ/e/ and is a phrase they are very fond of using. Many of those girls are extremely beautiful, indeed their symmetry is per- haps the finest in the world, and equal to that of the Quadroones, who are their offspring by European men. They are said to be very affectioucate and tender-hearted creatures, and every way calculated to make any man happy, who is inclined for con- nubial bliss, and of a sufficient domestic turn to fit him for such a pursuit. It is impossible to re- flect on the vast numbers of the half-caste popu- lation of India, which are daily increasing, without feeling alarm for the stability of our government in India. The language, habits, and religion of this class, are the same as Europeans. They are in general well educated, and in fact they comprise what may be called the citizens of the three Pre- sidences of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. They are chiefly employed as clerks, shop-keepers, and small merchants. They are unjustly looked dr. 181 had .so great a dread that she scarcely dared to walk any where except in the most frequented places for fear of encountering them. Every ef- fort was used, but without avail, to rid her of her childish fears — they haunted her continually, until at last it became the settled conviction of her mind, that she was destined to fall a victim to the fangs of a rattle-snake. The sequel will shew how soon her terrible presentiment was fulfilled. Towards the close of the day, while scores of fairy feet were keeping time in the dance to the music, and the whole company were in the full tide of enjoyment, a scream was heard from Miss Paton, followed by the most agonizing cries for help. The crowd gathered around her instantly, and beheld her standing, the very image of despair, with her hands grasping a portion of her dress with the tenacity of a vice. It was some lime before she could be rendered sufficiently calm to tell the cause of her alarm, and then they gathered from her broken exclamations that she was grasp- ing the head of a snake among the folds of her dress, and dreaded to let go her hold for fear of receiving the fatal blow ! This intelligence caused many to shrink from her, but most of the ladies, to their honour be it told, remained with her, de- termined not to leave her in her dreadful extremity. L 182 ALL IN A BUSTLE. They besought her not to relax her hold, as her safety depended upon it, until some one could be found who had the courage to seize and remove the terrible animal. There were none of the ladies, however, who had the courage to perform the act, and the condition of Miss P. was becoming more and more critical every moment. It was evident that her strength was failing very fast, and that she could not maintain her hold many minutes longer. A hasty consultation among the calmest of the ladies was held, when it was determined that Dr. Logan, who was present, should be called to their assistance. He was quickly on the spot, and being a man of imcommon courage, he was not many minutes within the circle of the weeping and half fainting females, until he had caught the tail of the snake, and wound it firmly round his hand to make sure of his hold. He then told Miss P. that she must let g® at the moment he jerked it away, and, to make the act as instantan- eous as possible, he told her he would pronounce the words " one ! two ! three \" and that, at the moment he pronounced the last word, she must let go her hold, and he doubted not that he could withdraw the snake before it could have time to strike. All stood in breathless horror, awaiting THE EMIGRANTS. 183 the act, of life or cleatli, and at the moment the word " three" was pronounced, the doctor jerked out the largest and most diabolical-looking bustle that was ever seen in Mississippi. The whole affair was at once explained. The fastenings of the machine had become loose during the dancing, and it had sliifted its position in such a way that it dangled about the lady's limbs, and induced the behef that it was a snake with an enormous head. While I staid at Lundy's Lane, in Mr Slater's National Hotel, I found the weather excessively hot, which confined me to the house for the greater part of the day. Mr Slater, liis wife, and family, had come out from England about two years be- fore. He spoke by no means favourably of his prospects in the new world. He complained of the scarcity of money, which is a universal epi- demic I believe. There was little or no money to be seen ; he said business was chiefly carried on by barter. Mrs Slater said she never felt this place as her home, till her eldest daughter, who died last summer, was buried here ; and since that her ties to the land which encloses one so dear to her, have become stronger. I saw they were both very low spirited and far from being happy. They told me that masters in this country are slaves to their ser- vants. They dare not admonish them if they do 184 DISLIKE OF THE COUNTRY. wrong ; and althoiig-h they are impertinent tliey must submit to it. This is what is called freedom ■with a vengeance. How would the whig-radicals of Britain like to be so situated? I think it would soon convince them that theory and practice are two very different things, and that liberty and equality are very fine things — to talk about. I left Mr Slater's on Monday the 9th day of June, at three P. m., for Buffalo, by the stage which runs between the two places. The road was pretty good considering the country through which it passed ; and as it stretched along the windings of the Niagara river, the cool breeze from the water was quite refreshing. In the coach there was an old country-man, who had been three years in the country, and resided at Detroit, a city in the Michigan territory. I asked him how he liked the country. " Why," says he, " I don't like it at all. I am roasted alive one part of the year with the heat, and frozen to death at another time with the cold. It was not for a person of my age (52) to come here ; but I made the sacrifice for the sake of my children. They will become na- turalized to this climate, which I never can." When the stage reached a small village called Waterloo, wc alighted, as here we were to cross BLACK ROCK. 18o over to the American side. We were taken across by a ferry-boat, propelled by two horses. The horses were made fast on deck so that they could not advance ; but the power of their limbs in the at- tempt moved round the frame on which they stood, which, being connected to the paddles of the boat, propelled her through the water. The place where we landed is called Black Rock, a village containing about 800 inhabitants. The Erie canal passes close to it. The stage was in waiting to carry us forward to Buffalo, three miles farther, where I arrived at seven p. m., and put up at the Eagle Hotel, one of the largest establishments in Buffalo. Chapter V". "^ Lo the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the Wind; His soul proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk or milky way ; Yet simple nature to his hope has given, Behind the cloud-topt hill, an humbler heaven j Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd, Some happier island in the wat'ry waste." Buffalo is perhaps the most flourishing city in the States. It has natural and artificial advantages, which point it out as likely some day to become a great city ; at present it is quite in its infancy ; but situated as it is, in the midst of the enterprise and business of this new world, where the produce of the west, coming from the shores all along Lake Erie, and the other lakes to the westward, here find an outlet by the canal to the eastward, and by Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence to the Atlantic ; it is destined to increase rapidly in size and popu- BUFFALO. 187 lation. The streets are broad and many of the shops are very splendid. Buffalo was burned by our troops during the last war, in retaliation for similar outrages com- mitted by the Americans in Canada ; and there was but one house left standing, which owed its preservation to the owner who was a widow. She, seeing the whole city in flames, and expecting every moment that her house would share the same fate, resolved to enter the British camp and beg the enemy to spare her home. Armed with a broom-stick, to which a white handkerchief was appended, she passed the sentinels and requested to speak with the commanding officer. When she received an audience, she claimed his sympathy on the ground that she was a poor \ndow ; that she had many fatherless cliildren ; and that the house was all that the father had left to them ; that it had hitherto sustained them, but that if it was destroyed, they were all utterly ruined. To the honour of the British character, her petition was granted. Buffalo was not rebuilt until the Erie canal was opened, when it arose like the Phoenix from its ashes with renewed splendour. I have met a great many of the Indians on the streets : the first I have seen. I could not but 188 INDIAN INTEMPERANCE. feel a deep sympatliy for these poor unfortunate beings, who are the original proprietors of the soil, and yet seem destined in a century or two more to be quite extinct. Poor unfortunates ! they have, like many more of their fellow-beings, fallen victims to the diabolical influence of what many are pleased to term, ^' Jire-water." I ob- served two Indian women very drunk; they were staggering about the streets, and every now and then uttering a strange savage yell, some- thing very similar to the cry of the milk-men in New York, when they arrive in their spring cart at the door of their customers. A wag has sug- gested the probability of their yell being in direct imitation of this gentleman, as he says he has no doubt that from the generous nature of their pota- tions they were both laden, at that very identical moment, with a more than ordinary supply of the milk of human kindness. And he is perhaps right, as I am credibly informed that soon after I had seen them they were observed embracing a lamp- post, and calling names to the passers-by. About nine P. M. I went to the Theatre, where I saw the worst acting I ever witnessed, not even excepting the perpetrations nightly committed in private theatres. The house was full and yet there were not above four females present. I only YANKEE TRICK, 189 remained half an hour ; and on my return to my hotel, I again met the two Indian women ; they were lying on the pavement and rolHng about in the last stage of intoxication. Well might the celebrated Black Hawk ask, " Why did the Great Spirit ever send the whites to this island, to di'ive us from our homes, and introduce among us poison» ous liquors, disease, and death V A North Ameri- can Indian considers it beneath his dignity to intermeddle with the duties of his squaw, and strife and contention are seldom known to exist between husband and wife, but, when spiritous liquors get introduced among the Indians by the white traders, their character undergoes a great change, parti- cularly when under its baneful influence ; they act then more like demons than human beings, and there is little hope of their condition being im- proved till tliis fire-water, or exiil spirit, (as it is called by the Indians) be entirely excluded from among them. The poor Indians are often sadly duped by the white persons who are in the habit of trading with them. A Yankee wished to sell them a quantity of gun-powder, but as they had been previously supplied with the article by other traders, he found it difl&cult to get rid of it ; but he succeeded by artifice. He was asked how the gun-powder was 190 GUXPOWDEK HARVEST, made, and he told them the powder was sowed iu the fields, the same as wheat, and that they by sowing a few pounds of powder would be enabled to raise large crops in a very short space of time ; indeed, almost as soon as Mr Mainzer could teach an Ourang-Outang to chaunt. The bait took, and the Yankee's gun-powder was all bought at a liigh price, and following the example of the com- mon gun-powder, he went off as fast as possible. The simple Indians followed the trader's direc- tions, and sowed the powder ; they visited it from time to time to watch its progress, and it was only after awhile, when their patience was entirely exhausted, that they began to find out that they had been duped and deceived. They therefore determined to be revenged on the first opportunity, which very soon afterwards occurred. Another Yankee paid them a visit to barter goods for skins, but no sooner had ke opened his wares before them, than they rushed upon him and took them all away by force. The Yankee complained to the chief, who archly replied, " that he would order the Indians to pay him as soon as they had collected the next gim-poivder harvest." The Indians say that the whites may do had all their lives, and then, if they are sorry for it ivhen about to die, all is well. But they say it is different SCRAMBLE FOR BREAKFAST. 191 with them ; they are taught to do what they con- ceive to be good throughout their whole lives. 10th June. I mentioned that I stopped at the Eagle Hotel, one of the largest houses of the kind in the United States. When I desired to be shown into my bed room, I was ushered by a black valet- de-chambre, into a large spacious apartment, con- taining no less than four beds, which were after- Avards occupied by as many dij0ferent gentlemen. This practice may do in the cabin of a steamer, but in a great hotel it is by no means delicate. The bell rung for breakfast at eight o'clock, and I followed in the wake of the crowd of boarders, who made for the breakfast room as speedily as their legs would allow them. They were in such a hurry to secure the best places at the table, that when they perceived it laid out as it was in apple- pie order as they trotted down the long passage, they made a sudden rush in at the door. The aperture, however, having never been intended to admit of the ingress of more than two or three human bodies at once, very naturally refused ad- mittance to ten or twelve, with nearly as many followers treading on their heels, and the conse- quence was, that the foremost men of the company stuck fast in the doorway. Then there ensued such a pushing, and driving, and squabbling, that 192 AMERICAN INDIANS. much impeded their movement, and it was some minutes before they could extricate themselves from their unpleasant ridiculous situation. They did effect it, however, at last, and you may be sure they did not lose much time in planting themselves around the breakfast table. Covers were set for about one hundred and twenty people, but there were only about eighty sat down to breakfast. The ladies presided at the upper end of the table, and what was somewhat remarkable, in a free country, they took no notice whatever of the gen- tlemen. The tea and coffee cups were filled by the waiters at side tables, and handed to the com- pany, who put in sugar and milk to suit their taste. The table was covered with a profusion of fried fish, beef- steaks, mutton chops, eggs, ra- dishes, raw onions, and cresses ; the ladies, with less artificial appetites than most of our English Misses, eat as heartily as the gentlemen, and every one seemed as if he were eating for a wager. The moment they had bolted the last morsel, the various individuals rose and left the room. I waited until they had all vanished, when the white attendants, becoming impatient at my delay, took their seats alongside of me, and began fortifying their inner- man with the remains of the repast. At ten A. M. I set off on an excursion to visit a AMERICAN INDIANS. 193 tribe of Indians, who Jirc settled at the village of ■Seneca, about three miles from Buffalo. The In- dians, with their squaws and papooses, were all quite new to me, and I took a deep interest in them. Not many years ago, the Indians were the sole possessors of the land ; the valleys and the hills re- echoed with their war-cry; the lakes and the rivers were covered with canoes, and the smoke from the birch bark wigwams ascended from the lakes to the ocean. ** The Indians," says William Penu, " are ge- nerally tall and straight, well built, and of singular proportion ; they tread strong and clever, and mostly walk with a lofty chin. They grease them- selves with bear's fat clarified. Their eye is little and black, not unlike a straight-eyed Jew. The thick lip and flat nose, so frequent with the ne- groes, are not common to them ; many of them have fine Roman noses. Their language is lofty, yet narrow, but, like the Hebrew, is in signifi- cation full. Like short-hand in Avriting, one word serveth in the place of three, and the rest are sup- plied by the understanding of the hearer. " As soon as the children ai'e born, they wash them in water ; and while very young, and in cold weather, they plunge them in the rivers to harden 194 AMERICAN INDIANS. and embolden them. The children walk very young, at nine months commonly ; if boys, they go a-fishing till ripe for the woods, which is about fifteen ; then they hunt ; and after having given some proofs of their manhood, by a good return of skins, they may marry ; else it is considered a shame to think of a wife. *' The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe the ground, plant corn, and carry burdens ; and they do well to use them to that when young, which they must do when they are old, for the wives are the true servants of the husbands ; other- wise the men are very affectionate to them. When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear something about their heads for an advertisement, but so as their faces are hardly to be seen but when they please. The age they marry at, if women, is about thirteen or fourteen ; if men, seventeen and eighteen ; they are rarely older. '' They are light of heart, strong affections but soon spent. The most merry creatures that live ; feast and dance perpetually. They never have much, nor want much. Wealth circulateth like the blood ; all parts partake ; and though none shall want what another hath, yet exact observers of property. They care for little, because they want but little ; and the reason is a little contents AMERICAN INDIANS. 195 them. In this they are sufficiently revenged on us : if they are ignorant of our pleasures, they are also free from our pains. We sweat and toil to live : their pleasures feed them. I mean their fish- ing", hunting, and fowling ; and this table is spread everywhere. They eat twice a day, morning and evening : their seats and table are the ground. In sickness, impatient to be cured, and for it give any thing, especially for their children, to whom they are extremely natural.'* Indian children are never put into cradles ; they are suspended from the bough of a tree in willow baskets beyond the reach of wild beasts, and the motion, which is a kind of circular swing, is said to be more pleasant than the rocking of a cradle. It has been observed by a late writer, that ** The education of the Indian child is an object of the most profound interest to the whole tribe. He is taught to love his country and tribe, to contemn falsehood, to reverence age, to be modest and silent, to reward a kindness, and to avenge an injury ; to aid a friend, to persecute an enemy, and to abhor theft. The Indian usually retains his mother's name until he has entitled himself, by some remarkable act of prowess, or endurance, to choose one for himself, or has been distinguished 196 AMERICAN INDIANS. by some appellation bestowed by his tribe. Some of these names are sufficiently amusing, as, for ex- ample, * the very sweet man,' ' the man of good sense,' ' no fool,' * he who strikes two at once/ &c. The names of women are not always inelegant ; take, as a specimen, ' the bending willow,' the * pure fountain,' ' the sweet-scented grass,' &c. '' Bravery, generosity, and contempt of pain, are the three principal virtues which are, even in their earliest years, inculcated in their breasts : hence the Indian, when surrounded by his deadliest enemies, can view the implements of his torture with indifference ; can bear the most excruciating tortures without complaint, and even despise death in its most terrific form. " The principal crimes among the Indians are murder, ingratitude, cowardice, adultery, stealing, and lying. They look upon cowardice as one of the greatest crimes, and even punish it with death, with a view to stimulate the young to acts of bravery ; and the greatest insult you can offer to an Indian is to call him a coward, and the next greatest is to doubt his word ; and the reason of this is, that the Indians esteem telling a lie as a mark of cowardice, and on that account "are ex- tremely guarded in always speaking the truth. ''One of their most favourite amusements is AMERICAN INDIANS. 197 (lancing. With us dancing is looked upon as a mere pastime, but with them it is very different. When they receive favours, they make a dance ; when the Great Spirit blesses their undertakings, they thank him in the dance ; but the war dance is the most solemn of all their dances. The war- riors alone take a part in it, and they are all armed with guns, hatchets, tom-a-hawks, or clubs, which they flourish in the air, and they assume such an aspect of fury and passion as to make the lookers- on to shudder ; and what adds to the frightful nature of the dance is, the dreadful howling which they make, accompanied with the most horrible gestures, as they threaten to kill each other." When a young unmarried Indian distinguishes liimself as a warrior in battle, he is, on his return home, welcomed in the most joyful manner by the young women, and receives from some of them ears of corn as an invitation for him to marry them, if he feels inclined. The women have rarely more than three children ; they suckle them two or three years ; sterility is hardly known among them, which may be accounted for from their healthy employment, and the simpHcity of their food ; and I have no doubt sterility would be as rar€ in England and Scotland, among our females, 198 AMERICAN INDIANS. if they would live as trm to nature as the Indians do. The diseases to whicli they are most subject are rheumatism, asthma, fevers, pleurisy, and bowel complaints. The prevailing opinion of all the Indian tribes is, that there is one great or Good Spirit who created all things, and no people on the face of the earth are more sincere in their gratitude to the Great Spirit for his mercies ; he is always before their eyes, and they pray to him, and offer up sacri- fices to him on all important occasions. I am told that an Indian and his wife never get drunk together ; when the one indulges more than ordinarily, the other keeps sober, and so they ar- range that this line of business be carried on by each separately and in turn. Drunkenness, un- fortunately, is not looked upon by them as sinful. It would be well if it were so, inasmuch as public opinion is a law to them. For example, if anyone among them commits a crime deserving of death, he seldom makes an attempt to escape, but gives himself up to suffer death, preferring to die rather than to live under the ban of public opinion. In 1831 three brothers lived at the Seneca Reserve, the eldest of whom was the chief over AMERICAN INDIANS. 199 the tribe. He was much esteemed by all who knew him ; yet notwithstanding he met his death by poison. Suspicion fell upon his second brother, named " Red hand," which was no sooner hinted about, than the Chiefs held a meeting- for the pur- pose of investigating into the particulars of the murder. The evidence adduced was, in their opinion, so confirmatory of " Red hand's'^ guilt, and it having also been proved to their satis- faction that he had had an accomplice in the person of a squaw, the principal Indian Chief present de- creed that both should suffer death. The surviv- ing brother of *' Red hand," who was named " Black snake," said, that if " Red hand" must die, he would be the executioner himself, to prevent feuds arising in the tribe." Accordingly, " Black snake" went into " Red hand's" hut in the even- ing, and, after having sat in silence for some time, said, " My best chiefs say you have killed my father's son — they say my brother must die." *' Red hand" merely replied, " they say so ;" and continued to smoke. After about fifteen minutes further silence, *' Black snake" said, pointing to the setting sun, '' when he appears above those trees" — moving his arm round to the opposite direction — ** I come to kill you." '* Red hand" nodded his head in the short significant style of M 200 AMERICAN INDIANS. tlie Iiidian, and said ** good/' The next morning, *' Black snake'' came, followed by two chiefs, and having entered the hut, first put out the squaw ; he then returned and stood before his brother, his eyes bent on the ground. *' Red hand" said calmly, " has my brotlier come that I may die ?" ** it is so," was the reply. " Then," exclaimed Red hand, grasping his brother's left hand with his own right hand, and dashing the shawl from his face, " strike sure !" In an instant the toma- hawk was from the girdle of " Black snake" and buried in the skull of the wretched man. He re- ceived several blows before he fell, uttering the exclamation " hugh !" each time. The scalping knife was at length passed across his throat, which terminated the tragic scene. The Indians are amazingly acute of sight. If they see a person once, they will know him always after. If you confer a favour on one of them, he will remember it with gratitude as long as he lives ; but if you do him an injury, he never for- gets or forgives it. Those Indians I saw at Seneca were rather less in stature than the Americans. Their skin was of a dark smoky copper colour ; their hair long, black, and coarse. Some of them wore large ear- rings. The young papooses were amusing them- AMERICAN INDIANS. 201 selves shooting with bows and arrows. 1 asked one of them to take aim at an orange, which I placed on a stone at a considerable distance ; he hit it at once, and seemingly almost without an effort : so expert are they. The Indian race is fast dwindling away. No doubt there is a show of justice observed towards them by the Americans, who make treaties, and who purchase their lands from them ; but as the lands reserved for the Indians become unfit for them to live upon, so soon as they are surrounded by settlers, who clear the country round about, and thereby drive away the game on which the Indians subsist, they are thus forced to relinquish their lands for what the Americans choose to give them, and to remove far away, where the white shin has not intruded. It was once their highest gratification to be accounted the white man's friend. And it ha* been truly said, none ever entered the hut of an Indian, and he gave him no meat, or cold and naked and he gave him no clothes ; but now, alas ! these generous Indians are forced to leave the home of their fathers : " Few and faint yet fearless still." They siied no tears ; they utter no cries ; they 202 AMERICAN INDIANS. heave no groans. There is something in their hearts which surpasses speech : it is courage ab- sorbed by despair. I took my leave of this interesting people about four p. M., and returned to Buffalo, Avhere I stop- ped all night. CllAPTEll VL " A lone one in a foriign land, A stranger — 1 but strangei s see i And if life s feeble chain should break, A sti anger's grave my bed shall be. 11th June. After breakfast I walked out to take a ramble through the town, nor did I stop until I came to Lake Erie, when I was aroused from my reverie by the waves breaking on the shore. The wind was blowing fresh from the west, and I could hardly be convinced that the Lake before me was not the sea. A steam-boat for Detroit (the capital of the Michigan territory) was on the point of sailing. I observed on deck about fifty emigrants, who were proceeding westward. The distance from Buffalo to Detroit is 300 miles, and the passage 204 LAKE ERIE. between the two places occupies from thirty-five to forty hours. Lake Erie is 290 miles long, and in tlie widest part is 63 broad. This lake receives into its bosom the surplus waters of the upper lakes, besides some tributary streams. Its waters appear green, and it is frozen over every winter. It lies 300 feet above the level of Lake Ontario, A canal called the Welland Canal, was made some years ago, to connect those two lakes to- gether, large enough to allow the vessels navi- gating the lake to pass through. The canal is 42 miles in length, 58 feet wide at the top, and 26 at the bottom. At eleven a. m. I set off in the canal packet-boat on my return to New York. The packet-boats are exclusively fitted up for passengers and their luggage. They carry no goods, and their pro- gress is estimated at about five miles an hour. During my w^anderings, I have experienced painful sensations in leaving the towns I had visited, arising from the reflection that I was never to see them again. It is by no means agreeable to look one's last upon a place wliereln you have passed some pleasant hours of an otherwise monotonous exis- tence, and in parting with those companions whom accident had thrown in my way in canal NOTIONS OF EQUALITY. 205 boats and steamers, and knowing that in all pro- bability I should never see one of them more, — a temporary sadness came over me, which those who have wandered over distant lands can no doubt easily understand. In the boat I found twelve passengers, four of whom were ladies. The title "lady'* is applied in America to all fe- males ; even a white servant would be affronted, if she were not styled a young lady. The master terms the servant a *' Help," and she calls her master the Boss ; servant and master being titles the Americans consider totally inconsistent with their notions of equality. I looked around among my fellow-travellers for a sociable companion to converse with, and I soon fixed upon one in whom I thought I might expect congeniality of spirit : " A right jolly old man, with a large round belly, Which shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly." I made up to him, and broke the ice by some casual remark or other. We were soon on a foot- ing of intimacy. He was an old sea-captain, and had sailed many hundred thousand miles. He had been twice round the world. Like most sailors he liked a glass of grog, and expressed his utter de- testation of Temperance Societies. He had been away in the Michigan country, with a view of 206 A GENUINE QUANDARY. purchasing an estate, intending to cast anchor there for life ; but he had not made a purchase, as he thought the country too new to admit of the comforts and the society he wished for. At one o'clock we were summoned to dinner. The ladies sat at the upper part of the table, as stiff and cold as ice. The dinner was over in ten minutes. Nothing but cold water was drank during dinner ; however, the jolly old captain and I had a glass of brandy and water on the deck, where we smoked our segars *. I gathered much information from him about America, and he told me some queer stories. The wit of the Americans has something pecu- liarly odd about it. I was much struck with the following anecdote of Colonel Crocket : — ** I never but once," said the Colonel, " was in what I call a real genuine quandary. It was during my elec- tioneering campaign for Congress ; at which I strolled about in the woods so particularly pestered with politics, that I forgot my rifle. Any person • Since the above was written, the Wanderer has become a convert to the principle of Total Abstinence from strong drink. He has now had eighteen month's experience of its beneficial tfTects, and he most cordially recommends the principle to the adoption of his readers. A GENUINE QUANDARY. 207 may forget his rifle, you know, but it is'n't every man can make amends for his forgetfulness by his inventive faculties, I guess. It chanced as I was strolling along, considerably deejD in Congression- als, the first thing that took my fancy was the snarling of some young bears, which proceeded from a hollow tree, — the entrance being more than forty feet from the ground. I mounted the tree ; but I soon found that I could not reach the cubs with my hands ; so I went feet foremost to see if I could draw them out with my toes. I hung on at the top of the hole, straining with all my might to reach them, until at last my hands slipped, and down I went more than twenty feet to the bottom of that black hole, and there I found myself almost hip- deep in a family of fine young bears. I soon found that I might as well undertake to climb up the greasiest part of a rainbow as to get back, the hole in the tree being so large, and its sides so smooth and slippery from the rain. Well, now, while I was calculating what was best to be done, I heard a kind of fumbling and grumbling overhead ; and looking up I saw the old bear coming down stem fore- most upon me; — my motto is always ** go a-head !" and as soon as she had lowered herself within my reach, I got a tight grip of her tail in my left hand, and with my little buckhorn-hafted penknife 208 A GOOD SHOT. in the other, I commenced spurring her forward. I'll be shot if ever a member of Congress rose quicker in the world than I did ! She tool^ me out in the shake of a lamb's tail." One of the greatest peculiarities of the Americans is boasting. Two passengers coming down the Mississippi in a steam-boat, were amusing them- seh es with shooting birds on shore from the deck. Some sporting conversation ensued. One remarked that he would turn his back to no man in killing racoons — that he had repeatedly shot fifty a-day. *' What of that,'' said a Kentuckian, " I make nothing of killing a hundred a-day :" " Do you know Captain Scott of our State," asked a Ten- nessian bystander, ^' he is something like a shot. A hundred 'coon ? why, he never presents at one without hitting him. He never misses, and the racoons know it. T'other day he levelled at an old one in a high tree ; the varmint looked at him a minute, and then bawled out, " Hallo ! Captain Scott, is that you ?" *' Yes," was the reply," *' Well, pray do'nt shoot, I'll come down to you." The Americans are fond of assuming titles to which they have no right. They accordingly dig- nify each other with the title of General, Colonel, and Major. This is so conmion, that the Captain of a steam-boat who was presiding at the dinner- AMERICAN TITLES. 209 table, happening to ask rather loudly, " Colonel, a little fish," was immediately answered in the affir- mative by twenty out of the thirty gentlemen pre- sent. About ten miles from Buffalo, we came to a creek called Tonnewanta, which serves for twelve miles as a natural canal, and has saved the expense of cutting. At six o'clock we arrived at Lockport, where I left the boat, and took leave of my jolly companion. Lockport, so called from its vicinity to a number of locks, is another of those mushroom villages which the Erie Canal has raised into existence. In 1821 there were only two houses at this place, now there are several hundreds. It does appear strange that a village of this size should not con- tain an inhabitant above twenty years of ago born in the country. The inhabitants are strangers from many parts of the world, who have been led by various causes to make this place their adopted home. When I landed I was accosted by a youth, wish- ing me to go to an inn only a few yards off. The landlord of this inn happened to be from Edin- burgh. He had come out, along with his wife and family, four years before. They had been wrecked on the voyage from Liverpool to Quebec, 210 .\>f EDINBURGH LASS. and escaped with only their lives, having lost their all. After working as a wright, for two years, in Upper Canada, he removed into the States, and finally settled down as an inn-keeper here. He seemed a kind-hearted man, for when I told him from whence I came, the feelings of the Scot overcame all the coldness of his adopted country, and he held out his hand, exclaiming, " O man, but I am glad to see you \" He invited me to take tea with his wife and family, and I spent a most agreeable evening. He had a daughter about twenty years of age, a most amiable good-looking girl. She had a sweet musical voice, and sang Scotch airs with much feeling. After she had sung several songs, I asked her if she would fa- vour me with " Home, sweet home ;" she com- plied ; but I was sorry afterwards that I had asked her, for when she came to the line " there's no place like home," the tears started into her eyes, and trickled down her cheeks. I saw that the poor lassie felt that she was far from home. I was really grieved for her, and being a Bachelor at the time, was almost tempted to take her back again to Auld Reekie. 12th June. At Lockport there is a double set of locks, which allow the boats passing West to go by the one, while those going East pass by the SING- SING. 211 Other, thereby saving a great deal of time. I saw nothing else worthy of remark in the village, so I took leave of mine host of the inn, and his lovely daughter, at ten a. m., and leaped on board the first line boat which passed on the canal, where, as usual, I met none of *' the old familiar faces." I was not long on board ere I observed, sitting in the forepart of the boat, a half-starved, half-clad human being. He had terror and misery strongly marked on his countenance ; all the social feelings seemed dead in him for ever. I found, on inquiry, he had lately received his dismissal from Sing- sing prison, where he had been for the last four- teen years, fulfilling the sentence of the law. I could not learn his crime. I was anxious to know some particulars of this famous prison, where 1000 convicts are kept at hard labour, and doomed to perpetual silence, du- ring the term of their confinement. I got into conversation with the poor wretch, and he certainly described the horrors and the cruelties of that prison to be such as must shock the feelings of humanity. The prisoners are wrought hard, and allowed but a scanty share of provisions. This induces a perpetual craving for food ; and yet, if any of the prisoners, by reason of indisposition, have no stomach even for the scanty meal placed 212 SlKG-SlNCi. before them, tliey dare not give it cnvay to any of their fellow-prisoners, for if they were detected in the act, they would be severely flogged, as would also the receiver. This prohibition is so strongly enforced, that my informant declares he was once flogged for picking up an old chew of tobacco which one of the keepers spat out of his mouth. No wonder that such cruel treatment breaks down the health and the spirits of those unfortunate creatures. Some of them commit suicide ; others are taken sick, and v.hen death comes to their re- lief, one would think some sympathy might be sJiewn to the dying man ; but no — with a refine- ment in cruelty peculiar to the Americans, no friend, not even a father, a brother, or a wife, is allowed to sooth his dying couch ; he sees before him the dark valley of the shadow of death, and in that awful hour, he looks around for some one he loves, to sooth the agonies of. his soul, but he looks in vain : '• The grave's dark shadow steals upon his sight ; Friendless and alone he sinks, and falls ! and Death's eternal sleep, his only, last embrace." These prisoners, who have transgressed thclawa of their countrv, arc still human beings ; thcv arc ill more or less susceptible of kind treatment ; they THE UNIVEllSALISTS. 213 have a sense of natural justice about them ; they feel that the punishment inflicted is far beyond what is due to the crimes they have committed. A spirit of revenge is first cherished in their bosoms against their keepers ; they next become dejected and almost broken-hearted under the merciless oastigations which they see inflicted every day around them ; their constitutions fail, or, if they survive the term of their imprisonment, they come out objects, fit only for the charity workhouse. While I listened to the narrative told me by this man, I had occasion to put some questions to him, and I noticed when I spoke that he gave an involuntary shudder. I asked him the cause, and he said that for fourteen long years he had never heard a human voice except his keeper's, and even his voice he had scarcely ever heard un- less it was to order him to strip and be flogged. Among the passengers there is a young lady who belongs to the sect called Universalists. This sect is very numerous in America ; they have about 600 congregations, consisting of nearly 600,000 souls in the States. The leading doctrine they inculcate is the love of God. In many churches there is the following inscription in front of the pulpit, " God is Love." The Universalists be- lieve in universal salvation. They hold " that to 214 IIYDCOPATHY, OR THE know the true God and Jesus Christ is life eternal ; and as all shall know him, from the least to the greatest, consequently that knowledge or belief will dispel, or save all from the darkness, distress, and fear, which are attendant upon guilt and un- belief ; and being perfectly holy, they shall conse- quently be perfectly and eternally happy.'* After dinner I got into conversation with a traveller from Prague, on the continent of Europe. He informed me that at one time of his life he had been a martyr to Tic-Douloureux ; all kinds of medicine had been tried in vain, till at length, hearing of the wonderful cures effected with cold water, by a humble peasant at Graefenberg, in Silesia, he went there, and put himself under his treatment, and was perfectly restored to health. This wonderful man, who performs seeming miracles by the aid of cold water alone, is named Vincent Priessnitz. He was born on the 4th October 1799, at Graefenberg, in Silesia; he is the son of the farmer who cultivated the land upon which his present establishment is placed. The education he received was very limited. He is said to have received his first ideas on the subject from an old man in his neighbourhood who was in the practice of curing cattle with <'()ld water. COLD WATER CURE. 215 M. Priessnitz maintains that a state of health is the natural condition of the body, and that all kinds of diseases are produced by foreign matters absorbed or introduced into the system, and that disease assumes an acute form when the system makes an effort to drive out the bad humours of the body. He holds that fever is caused by the system exerting itself to expel the diseased matter, and that it can only be extirpated by dissolving the diseased matter by the agency of water. The cold water treatment is the simplest of all medicines, and is in the poAver of every human being. Every curable disease incident to the human frame is said to be dispelled by the agency of cold spring water, air, and exercise alone. This is a startling an- nouncement, and the grand question comes to be, Is it true or false ? If it is false, let the faculty expose its fallacy, and put it down at once ; but if the announcement is true, and I confess, after having studied all the works on the subject, that I am a firm believer in the cold water cure — why should not the healing virtues of this inestimable beverage be made known over the whole world ? At Grae- fenberg, in Silesia, several thousand patients, la- bouring under different diseases, have been cured by M. Priessnitz. The medical faculty may laugh at the simplicity of the cure ; they may even, 216 HYDROPATHY, OR THE from mere selfishness, seeing that their craft is iu danger, refuse it a fair trial. The members of the healing art may take advantage of its mar- vellous and incredible effects to cry it down, but let them rest assured the truth will sooner or later prevail, and the Doctor and the Druggist will be left to exclaim, with Othello, " My occupation's gone \" It may be interesting to my readers to give a short sketch of M. Priessnitz's method of apply- ing his cold-water cure, as related by Captain Claridge, in his valuable work on Hydropathy : " Having at last made up my mind'' says Captain Claridge, " to become one of Priess- nitz's patients, I was prepared for his coming in the morning. The first thing he did was to request me to strip and go into the large cold bath, where I remained two or three minutes. On coming out he gave me instructions, which I pursued as follows : — At four o'clock in the morn- ing my servant folded me in a large blanket, over which he placed as many things as I could con- veniently bear, so that no external air could pene- trate. After perspiration commenced it was al- lowed to continue for an hour ; he then brought a pair of straw shoes, wound the blanket close about my body, and in this state of perspiration I COLD WAtER CURE. S17 descended to a large cold bath, in which I remain- ed three minutes, then dressed, and walked until breakfast, which was composed of milk, bread, butter, and strawberries, (the wild strawberry in this country grows in abundance from the latter end of May until late in October.) At ten o'clock I proceeded to the douche, under which I remained four minutes, returned home, and took a sitz and foot-bath, each for fifteen minutes ; dined at one o'clock." " At foui' proceeded again to the douche ; at seven repeated the sitz and foot-baths ; retired to bed at half-past nine, previously having my feet and legs bound up in cold wet bandages. I con- tinued this treatment for three months, and dur- ing that time walli;ed about 1000 miles. Whilst thus subjected to the treatment, I enjoyed more robust health than I had ever done before ; the only visible effect that I experienced was an erup- tion on both my legs, but which, on account of the bandages, produced no pain. It is to these bandages, the perspiration, and the baths, that I am indebted for the total departure of my rheu- matism.'* <* My family have all proved the beneficial effects of Mr Priessnitz's treatment. The night before our departure, the patients gave their annual ball, N 218 HYDROPATHY, OR THE in the great room of the establishment, in com- memoration of Mr Priessnitz's birth-day. The whole of the buildings belonging to him were illuminated, both inside and out, at their expense. In this assembly, consisting of about 500 persons, no stranger would have believed, had he been un- acquainted with the fact, that its members were chiefly composed of invalids. Tears were fre- quently observed to steal from the eyes of many who blessed the great man for their restoration to health ; and I do not know a more touching scene than seeing invalids, who, by his means, had re- gained the use of their limbs, approach him, throAv 'heir crutches at his feet, and join in the maze of the waltz. Monarchs might have envied him his feelings on such occasions. '* " Among the advantages of a water-cure estab- lishment,'' says Mr Wilson in his practical treatise on this interesting subject, ** are the removal of the patient from all business, care, and tempta- tion, that can interfere with the cure, and his re- turn to a healthy state. The patient goes to bed early and gets up early, and it is essential, during the cure, that the mind be left as unemployed as possible. Water has an action of its oion, and as peculiarly its own as that of mercury, quinine, or any other drug. The grand distinction of the COLD WATER CURE. 219 'water cure' from all others is, that the whole constitution is repaired, and all diseased states, however complicated, radically removed. As long as any thing remains wrong, water will not cease to produce evident effects ; when all is in a healthy- state, and working in harmony, no very evident effect can be perceived or produced." The means by which Mr Priessnitz effects his cold w^ater cures are in the first place the sweat- ing process : a blanket is placed on ihe bed, and the patient is laid upon the blanket, which is brought straight round the neck and other parts of the body ; then another blanket is rolled round the patient, and then another and another, till about seven or eight are added, and a feather-bed over all. Perspiration generally breaks out in about three quarters of an hour, when cold water is given in a tea-pot for the patient to drink, and it is necessary to drink tliree or four half-pint tumblers for the purpose of throwing out the heat and encouraging the perspiration. The length of time the patients are permitted to perspire depends entirely upon the strength of their con- stitution ; the stronger the patient the longer may he be kept in a state of perspiration. The coverings are then taken off, and the patient is washed with cold water on the face, the chest, 220 HYDROPATHY, OR THE and the shins ; and with a blanket wrapped tightly round him, he is conducted to the bath. Care should be taken to throw cold water over the head, shoulders, and chest, to prevent congestion. He is then to plunge into the cold bath, remain- ing from one to three minutes according to his strength, after which he is rubbed dry with coarse towels. The next process is the wet sheet, which acts in the same way as a tepid bath. A linen sheet is dip- ped in cold water and well rung out, then placed on the bed ; the patient lies down at full length on his back on the wet sheet, which is rolled round him above the collar bones, and over the feet ; a blanket is next rolled round him, and over all a feather bed. The patient is kept in this state for from half-an-hour to an hour, or longer according to circimistances. The sensation at first is cold and very disagreeable, but this feeling soon passes away, and is followed by a very pleasant sensation, producing a very soathing effect on the system. Gradually the body becomes cold, and the sheet warm, and after a time both the sheet and the body become warm. When this takes place the cold bath is administered to the patient, and a walk, followed by several draughts of cold water, finishes the wet sheet process. In addition to these COLB WATER CURE, 221 are the wet bandage, the douche, the fcK)t-bath, and the head-bath, a detailed account of which will be found in Mr Wilson's " Practical treatise on the cure of diseases by water, air, exercise, and diet," to which I respectfully refer my readers. In speaking of the judicious use of water, Mr Wilson observes, " There is no agent applied to the human body, externally or internally, that has such influence in awakening all the vital powers to their greatest restorative capabilities, in arresting the progress of disease, or preventing, when inevit- able, a fatal termination, as pure cold water. It is the most powerful therapeutical agent we possess, the most manageable in its application, the most easily obtained, and the most certain in its results. So varied are the modes in which it can be ap- plied, that there Is no remedy that can be made to produce so many diversified and opposite effects ; a stimulant, a sedative, a diuretic, a sudorific, a deri- vative, &c., and a cleanser and restorative in the fullest sense of the terms. Unchaining all the powers of the constitution, giving nature a genial Impetus, and leaving uncurbed her desire and efforts to heal ; and all this without the necessity of straining any individual function ; and after its most mighty results in the most acute and dreaded diseases, leaving behind no trace of its operation, 222 RULES FOR ENJOYING A no mark or after suffering to point out where or how its power hath been exercised — a conqueror without bloodshed — the giver of sound constitu- tions without levying a tribute — A divine AND UNIVERSAL REMEDY ! — universal in its application — universally dispensed for the use of all mankind .-^and, in days to come, destined to he xmiversally placed at the head of all remedies'* It is an old adage that prevention is better than cure, and I am of opinion that mankind, by adopt- ing a natm'al mode of living, might, in ordinary circumstances, enjoy a perfect state of health ; but so much the reverse of this is the case, that Aber- nethy asserted, that in all London there was not a perfectly healthy inhabitant. Let a person who is desirous of enjoying perfect health have his habi- tation in the country, or at least a short distance from a city, and where the air is pure. It is necessary that his bed-room be large and airy : let him rise every morning at six o'clock ; drink one or two tumblers of cold water as soon as he is up ; spunge his whole body well with cold water ; rub dry, and use the flesh-brush till there is a comfort- able glow over the surface of the body ; let him then take a walk of two or three miles before breakfast ; he is on no account to partake of hot tea or coffee, but let him use milk and brown bread PERFECT STATE OF HEALTH. 223 for breakfast : dine early on roast or boil, avoiding all high seasoned food and hot drinks ; abstain al- together from all intoxicating liquors; drink only cold water ; take porridge, or brown bread and milk for supper, about an hour before bed time ; read a chapter in the Bible and go to bed with a good conscience at ten o'clock. Try this method for a tivelvemonth, and I am confident that you will feel your health better than ever it was before. While on the subject of the cold water system, it may not perhaps be out of place to introduce the following hymn, which is highly popular in this country among the Members of the Total Abstinence Societies. COLD WATER HYMN. In Eden's green retreats, A water brook that play'd Between soft mossy seats, Beneath a plane«tree's shade. Whose rustling leaves Dane'd o'er its brink. Was Adam's drink, And also Eve's. Beside the parent spiring Of that young brook, the pair Their morning chaunt would sing ; And Eve to dress her hair COLD WATKR HYMN. Kneel on the grass That fring'd its side, And make its tide Her looking glass. And when the man of God From Egypt led his flock, They thirsted, and his rod Smote the Arabian rock. And forth a rill Of water gushM, And on they rush'd, And drank their fill. Would Eden thus have smil'd Had wine to Eden come ? Would Horeb's parching wild Have been refreshed with rum ? And had Eve's hair Been dress'd in gin. Would she have been Reflected fair ? Had Moses built a still, And dealt out to that host To every man his gill, And pledged him in a toast- How large a band Of Israel's sons Had laid their bones In Canaan's land ? COLD WATER HYMN. 225 ** Sweet fields beyond death's flood '■ Stand dress'd in living green/* For, from the throne of God, To freshen all the scene, A river rolls, Where all who will May come and fill Their crystal bowls. If Eden's strength and bloom Cold water thus hath given. If e'en beyond the tomb It is the drink of heav'n. Are not good xvells, And crystal springs. The very things For our Jiotels ? To return to the subject of my wanderings. At five P. M. we came in sight of Rochester, where I left the boat, and took up my lodgings at an Inn by the side of the canal. The town is si- tuated on the east and west side of the Genesee river, just seven miles distant from Lake Ontario. The falls of the Genesee river, two of which are within the limits of the town, mark this place out as peculiarly adapted for manufacturing pm-poses. 14th June. I did not leave Rochester till noon, when I recommenced my travels in the packet- boat. I slept on board. Two tier of beds were 226 RETURN TO NEW YORK. made up in the cabin, where the heat and the confined air made me pass a restless night. 15th June. We came to Syracuse about mid- day. This town has the same busy, bustling, com- mercial appearance, as we meet with generally in the States. The manufacture of salt is the chief employment of the inhabitants. 16th June. Passed Utica early this morning, and as I had already travelled between Albany and Utica, on my way to upper Canada, the country had lost its novelty, and the time hung somewhat heavily on my hands. To make it pass more merrily away, I got my gun on deck, and amused myself by shooting at the birds on the banks of the canal. The packet stopped at Schenectady, between seven and eight P. M., and I took up my abode for the night, at an Inn close to the canal. 17th June. Started at eight A. M. by the rail- way for Albany ; found a steam-boat at Albany ready to start ; took my passage in her, and by six p. M, on the following day I landed at New York, and took up my lodgings at Mr Field's boarding- house, in Pearl street. Chapter VII. *' Is there as ye sometimes tell us. Is there one who reigns on high ? Has he bid ye buy and sell us. Speaking from his throne the sky V This country is said to be the paradise of women, and indeed they have managed to assume an im- posing attitude, which has inverted the order of things. No man wishes more than I do, to see a proper respect paid to the ladies. As the weaker vessels, they are objects of our kindness and sym- pathy. Their modest demeanour commands our esteem, and their sylph-like forms, and the graces that surround them, render them the objects of our affections. The New York gentlemen, however, in the spirit of overstrained gallantry, have given them more than all this. They have bowed their 228 INFLUENCE OF THE FAIR SEX. necks beneath the female yoke. Females here, do not look up to man for his respect ; they claim it as an homage due to them. They look like beings accustomed to command, and let you be as kind as ever you will to a female, she thinks it no more than her due. If you are riding in a coach, and a female of the lowest class enters it, you must resign your seat to her. It is demanded as her right. Some of the Americans ridicule the English for allowing a Queen to reign over them, but they (poor hen- pecked creatures) are all subject to the despotism of a petticoat government. The clergy who have long seen the influence of the American ladies, have joined their cause, which has greatly strength- ened it. If a political change is to brought about in the condition of the negro population, it is the combined forces of the ladies and the clergy who effect it. If intemperance is to be arrested, they are the prime movers in it. If a Methodist minister is to be acquitted, although believed guilty of murder, they can achieve it. In fact they are omnipotent. The ladies in their persons are in general tall, thin, and lanky, with contracted chests, and little or no hustle ! Their faces, when young, are very pretty indeed. If they hav^fe any blemish at all, it ART ASSISTING NATURE. 229 is that they are too pale, but they certainly do not improve themselves by calling in art to assist nature, as they too often do, bedaubing their cheeks and necks with powdered starch, over which they occasionally put a thin coating of rouge. They are made up with hollow-breasted stays, and other nameless articles of dress, that makes it impossible for one even to guess at their shapes, so that it has been truly observed, " Thus finished in taste while on her you gaze You may take the dear charmer for life ; But never undress her, for out of her stays You'll find you have lost half your wife." There are above 20,000 coloured people in this city, chiefly employed as servants in unloading ships, and in other menial occupations. They are said to be very depraved in their morals, which is in a great measure owing to the want of education ; for although the Americans say that the negroes are inferior in intellect to themselves, yet, until the negroes receive as good an education as they do, and are allowed the privilege of mixing in so- ciety with the whites, a true estimate of their abi- lities cannot be formed. I observed very few dogs on the streets of New- York. On inquiring the cause, I learned that 230 CHEWIXa TOBACCOo some years ago, several dogs had gone mad, and a reward of a dollar was in consequence given, by order of the Mayor, for the head of every dog- taken to the police office ; and the negroes had therefore killed all they found running loose, for the sake of the reward. Whisky is very cheap. It is sold wholesale at ten pence per gallon. A man can get himself reasonably drunk for three-half-pence, and dead drunk for two-pence, with straw for a bed into the bargain. Tobacco is much used here. The chief method of consuming it is by chewing, and a great deal of spitting consequently takes place. From long habit many of the Americans cannot refrain from this filthy practice even in places where it is highly im- proper. An anecdote is told of a certain Dutch governor, who happened to visit a fine lady with a very fine drawing room, and who found, for reasons unknown to him, an elegant japanned box placed beside his chair. Seated in form, the quid began to roll, and the lady to tremble for her Brussels. The great man looked askance at the little box, and then gravely discharged his shower on the other side on the carpet. Nothing dismayed, the lady preserved her temper, and by an adroit pedes- tiian movement transferred the article to what TOTAL ABSTINENCE SOCIETIES. 231 seemed to be the favourite side. Anon the mouth of the Dutchman filled : again he looked, and per- ceiving the change so ingeniously effected, with the most perfect simplicity exclaimed, — ** Really, madam, if you don't put away that pretty hex, I guess I'll spit in it." I recommend emigrants, particularly those who have little command over themselves, to join a Total Abstinence Society on their arrival. I am convinced those societies have been the salvation of thousands. Indeed I consider it a credit to belong to such a society, and am convinced, that it is not only the duty of every Christian parent to forbid the use of intoxicating liquors in his family, but that all well - thinking people ought to use every lawful means in their power to put a stop to the causes and practises of intem- perance. Drinking ardent spirits is much more hurtful to the constitution in America than it is in Europe, and ought to be guarded against, as, after a person has indulged to excess in the use of spirits, it is very difficult indeed to reclaim him, A preacher, descanting on the impossibility of the drunkard retracing his steps, after he had gone a certain length, made use of the following strong simile : '* My brethren, it is a very easy task to 232 INCIVILITY OF SHOP-KEEPERS. ; row a boat over the falls of Niagara, but an all sufficient job to row it back again. '* j Fires are very frequent here. Hardly a night j passes without one. I was present at two great j fires, both of which took place in Pearl Street. ( At the first fire, two of the firemen lost their lives by the floor falling in unexpectedly. They were both much lamented by their fellow-citizens, ' and their remains were honoured by a funeral > procession. The fire-engine department is very \ efficient ; the services of the engine men being ; gratuitous, it is reckoned a most honourable service. The men are very daring and often risk their lives I in a reckless manner. I find the shop-keepers far from being civil, j They reckon strangers fair plunder, and as a vast i multitude of them pass through New York, bound i to all parts of the interior, who never revisit it ; again, and who have no opportunity of exposing j their roguery, the shop-keepers have it in their I power to give their visitors what they term "a ' pretty close shave." ' On the 9th, 10th, and 11th of July, the heat \ became so intense that it was almost insupportable. ' During those three days many people droj^ped down dead from the effects of it. Indeed the heat DEATHS FROM DRINKING COLD WATER, 233 here is so great, that even in the shade, and when not exposed to exertion, the body acquires so undue a temperature, that the perspiration gushes from every part of it, and, in such circumstances, per- sons ignorant of the animal economy are subjected to great risks by drinking water or other cold be- verage ; for in the instance of which I speak, it was not uncommon for a person who had partaken freely of cold water, to fall down a corpse. A number of emigrants who had just landed, expe- riencing intense thirst from the state of the atmos- phere, in passing one of the wells, drank copiously of the water, and six or eight of them dropped down dead before they had left the spot. After this, bills were posted in the streets intimating the danger of incautiously drinking cold water, headed thus, *' Beware ! why will ye drink and die." So strong is the feeling with relation to this matter, that any person entering a house, and asking for a draught of water, gets, as a matter of course along with it, a portion of spirit without any charge. In most of the churches in New York, the men and women sit apart, one portion of the church being allotted to the men, and another to the women. A jealous separation also takes place between the whites and the blacks. Even when the slightest tinge of the African is perceptible 234 SEPARATION OP ULACKS AND WHITES. "; in any one, he is restricted to the pews set a- ' part for the coloured people. It would be well if these proud Americans would keep in mind the ! precious words of the Gospel, which declare that j ** in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Gentile^ ' Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free ;" but, on the • contrary, they continue the separation, even after ! death, and coloured bodies are denied a corner in i the usual place of repose for the dead ; it has been said that they would deny their souls a place in : heaven, if they had it in their power, i Some of the shops are open on Sunday. The \ steam-boats ply that day the same as usual, and the ; taverns and bar-rooms are crowded with company ; in the evening public concerts are held, and lee- , tures are given, some of which openly profess to i teach infidelity, and I am sorry to say they are ■ very well attended by the free-born citizens of j both sexes. i I have been much amused with the cant terms I in use here, but as it would require far too great space to attempt to give all I heard, I shall merely ' note down a few of them : When they say " I \ guess," they mean '' I know.'' Instead of saying *' how do you do V they say " how do you get j along V They talk about a person having " clear- ed out," meaning that he has *' run away from his 1 LOVE OF DRESS. 235 country." A young lady talks of her " wires," meaning ** her legs," and says she is going to ** fix kerself," when she proposes dressing. " Going a head" means '* succeeding in business." " Going the whole hog" is to do any thing completely. The coloured people in New York are ridicu- lously fond of dress. The men may be seen on Sunday promenading at the Battery dressed as dandies of the first order ; their coats are so open, that their shirts are not only visible in any quan- tity at the breast, but may also be seen under their &rm-pits. They look, with their white kid gloves, coloured vests, and a cane in their hand, as if they thought themselves irresistible. This love of dress appears to be the besetting weakness of the Afri- can race ; had it been confined to the female sex it might have been overlooked, but the same excess pervades both. I am told it is not an uncommon occurrence for a negro in the United States to dispose of himself by sale. The negro agrees with the Captain of a vessel, bound perhaps to Cuba, to go out in the ship with him, and, on arrival, the Captain sells him for 500 or 600 dollars, the Captain and the negro di- viding the money equally between them. When the vessel sails, the negro is taken off the island by another vessel, as previously arranged, and ho re- o 236 SLAVERY IN AMERICA. turns to the United States with a portion of the price of himself in his pocket. The great blot on the American character is slavery. That it should be suffered to exist among men who wish to be regarded by other nations as the freest in the world, is a reproach and a disgrace, and must everywhere raise the finger of scorn to their declaration of independence. In this boasted land of liberty they declare all men are born equal, and yet no less than two millions, three hundred human beings are condemned to hopeless slavery. In this land of liberty slavery is hereditary ; even though the father be a free- horn citizen of Americaj his offspring, by a slave mother, are born to slavery ; nay, parents often sell their own children. Slavery is the plague-spot of America. Her citizens, setting at nought the precepts of our Saviour to do to others as we would wish others to do to us, send forth their ships under the stained flags of Spain and Portugal, like thieves in the night, to the coast of Africa for a freight of human beings. Men and women are bought and sold in the human shambles every hour of the day. To be a coloured person is no enviable lot in America. A poor coloured man in the district of Columbia, was taken up on suspicion of being a SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 237 slave ; he was advertised as such, but no one came forward to claim him, yet, instead of the poor man being set at liberty, he was put up to public auction, and sold to be a slave for life to pay his jail fees. A great proportion of the American clergy are slaveholders. Many of them draw part of their stipend from the labour of slaves. Those clergy- men disgrace the religion they teach by mix- ing themselves up with the ungodly traffic ; by holding slaves they virtually lend the sanction of their names to the practice of putting human beings under the hammer of an auctioneer, and knocking them down to the highest bidder. Those clergymen, whose duty it is to teach the doctrine of Christian love, are themselves the holders of slaves ; slaves whose spirits are sunk in the lowest depths of misery ; slaves whose spirits are broken and brutalised, and whose dread of the lash is only equalled by their spirit of revenge againt their oppressors. Those clergymen keep the slaves ignorant, because they know that slavery and knowledge cannot exist together ; if you teach a slave to read, he may perhaps see a copy of the famous declaration of independence that '* all men are horn equaly" and he might read, that *' resistance to tyrants is obe- 238 SLAVERY IN AMERICA. dlende to God; and that if the Americans deemed themselves justified in resisting to blood the pay- ment of a three-penny tea-tax and a stamp duty, how much more, upon the same principles, would the slave be justified, in cutting- his master's throat, to obtain deliverance from personal thraldom T* Of the depravity that must prevail where slavery exists, an example is given by M. Abdy in his Tour in the United States : — ** A black Baptist Minister of the name of Andrew Marshall, and supposed to be worth 30,000 or 40,000 dollars, was living at Savannah with his wife and children, the latter, with their mother, were his slaves. A planter in the neighbourhood solicited this man's daughter to live with him. She refused, and, when urged by her father to accept the offer, alleged, as a reason for not complying with their joint importunities, that her affections were engaged to a coloured man, whom she had promised to marry. Her plea and her entreaties were equally unavail- ing. Her father sold her to the less guilty seducer ; and she is living with her master ; having had a family of nine children by him — all slaves, destined to share the fate of their mother, and bo sold perhaps in the same way by their father." It has already been noticed by M. Abdy, " that there arc upwards of two millions and a half of SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 239 slaves in North America, and of these at least one hundred thousand change hands annually ; the slaves are driven like cattle in couples to be sold in the New Orleans Market.'* " By the laws of Maryland the child of a white woman, by a negro or mulatto, is to be put out to service till the age of twenty-one, and the mother to forfeit £10 to the State, and to be publicly whipped by thirty-nine stripes on her bare back, well laid on, at the common whipping-post, be- sides standing in the pillory for two hours. The father, in addition to the whipping, to have one ear nailed to the pillory. White men connected with negresses to be fined £20, and to receive twenty- one lashes at the common whipping-post. In some of the slave states, it is a capital offence in a coloured man to cohabit with a white woman. A man was hanged not long ago for this crime at New Orleans. The partner of his guilt — his master's daughter — endeavoured to save his life, by avowing that she alone was to blame. She died shortly after his execution ; he was a remarkably handsome quadroon." The Newspapers in the Southern States abound with advertisements of negroes for sale, and with rewards for the apprehension of run-away slaves. 240 SLAVERY IN AMERICA. \ I here insert a few of them, to shew the working of the system : i CASH FOR ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY NEGROES. We will pay the highest prices in cash for one hundred and fifty likely young negroes, of both sexes, families included. Persons wishing to sell will do well to give us a call, as we are perman- ently settled in this market. All communications will meet attention, &c. &c. NOTICE. Will be sold, at the prison of Washington, county district of Columbia, on Saturday the 12th day of April next, for her prison fees and other expenses, A Negro Girl, who calls herself Sarah Ann Robinson, committed as a run-away slave. She is of light complexion, and about five feet high. She has no particular scars, except a hair- lip. Sale to take place at Hocklock Inn, &c. &c. TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD, Run away from the subscriber, about the 25th November last, A Negro Woman, named Matilda, She is a little above the common size of women, of a brown complexion, and about twenty-five SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 241 years old. It is thought that she may be some- where up James' River, or lurking about the basin, as she was claimed as a wife by some boat- man in Goochland. The above reward will be paid on her delivery at the jail, &c. &c. A CARD. A. B. wishes to inform the owners of negroes in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, that he is not dead, as has been artfully represented by his opponents, but that he still lives to give them CASH, and the highest prices for their negroes. Persons having negroes to dispose of, will please give him a chance, &c. &c. M. Abdy observes, that " all slaves long for their freedom, and are discontented with their lot ; and forged papers of freedom are often obtained from white men, who make it a business to sell them to the slaves. Detection is impossible, as the matter is arranged through the medium of free blacks, who take care never to be seen by any other ivhite man than the scrivener. All other evidence against the latter would be rejected ; and every attempt to prevent or to punish these prac- tices, serves only to increase their number, by 242 SLAVERY IN AMERICA. binding still closer the tie that connects the of- fender with his clients/* The farmers in the neighbourhood of Wash- ington breed slaves as our graziers breed cattle for the market ; and a mother's agony for the loss of her child is no more regarded than the lowing of a cow for the calf that is carried off to be fattened bj the butcher. *' It is not sufficient for the national dishonour/' says M. Abdy, ** that the district marked out for the residence and immediate jurisdiction of the general government should be polluted by slavery. Here, under the eyes of Congress — in defiance of public opinion, and as if courting the observation of assembled multitudes, legislators, and ambassadors — a traffic, the most base and revolting, is carried on by a set of ruffians, with whom it would be the greatest injustice to compare our resurrection- men, or even the infamous Burke & Hare. They are called slave-traders, and their occupation is to kidnap every coloured stranger they can lay their hands on, no matter whether he be free or not. His papers, if he chance to have any, and they can get at them, are taken from him ; and he is hurried to jail, from whence, under pretence that the documents he has in his possession are not satisfactory, or SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 243 that he is unable to pay the expenses of his arrest and detention, he is sent off to the Southern Market. Men, women, and children, indiscriminately, who come to Washington in search of employment, or to visit their friends, are liable to be carried off by these land sharks, and it is a common belief that proprietors of slaves would be ungratefid if they did not connive at the iniquities of the kid- nappers. The net that is laid for the unfriended free coloured man is pretty sure to catch the run -away. These villains deal with the drivers and agents, and sometimes with the planters themselves." " A poor fellow, whose claims to freedom were pronounced defective, was purchased by one of them not long ago for a dollar, and sold next day for four hundred. About the same time, a coloured young woman was entering the city from the country, when she was pursued by one of these blood- hounds, and, to escape, threw herself into the river and was drowned ; no notice was taken of this horrible occurrence by the public papers, though it was a matter of notoriety. Another woman, to save her children, who would all have been doomed to slavery, if her claims to freedom had been rejected, precipitated herself from the top of a house where she was confined, 244 SLA.VERY m AMEKICA. and was so dreadfully mutilated and mangled that she was suffered to escape because she was no longer fit for sale. There was no doubt that she was a free woman ; but she knew that a whole family of young slaves was too valuable a property not to turn the scale against her." It is customary when a suflBcient number of slaves is obtained by the traffickers in this horrid business, to send them to the South under the care of the "soul-drivers" as they are called, who receive so much per head. "AH slaves," says M. Abdy, " are alive to the injustice done to them, and when irritated, tell their owners openly that they have no right to the labour they force out of them. Some will rather suffer death than be separated from the objects of their affections. Their firmness is so well known, that a resolution to this effect, when once pro- nounced, will deter any one at a sale from pur- chasing them separately. When standing at a table to be sold, they often cry out to any one who is known for his cruelty, ' you may buy me, for power is in your hands, but I will never work for you.' One woman exclaimed to a Planter noto- rious for his barbarity, * buy me if you please, but I tell you openly, if I become your slave. Twill cut your throat the first opportunity: The man SLAVERY IN AMERICA. 2io trembled with rage and fear ; the latter was the stronger — and he shrank from the bidding/' Such facts as these are very humbling to the free- born American white skins, or pale faces, as the Indians call them. The injuries and injustice that the poor sons of Africa receive from them, will not pass unpunished by an avenging God, in whose sight this great national sin is committed. It is far from improbable, that, in the event of a war, the enemies of America may arm the slaves in the South against their masters, the consequences of which, at such a time, it is fearful to contemplate. The best way to avert such a calamity is for all the States to abolish slavery, and from henceforth to treat the poor despised Africans as Christian brethren. The Americans are very averse to take away life judicially. Captain Marryat relates an instance of this which took place just before his arrival at New York : — " A young man of the name of Ro- binson, who was a clerk in an importing house, had formed a connexion with a young woman on the town of the name of Ellen Jewit. Not having the means to meet her demands upon his purse, he had for many months embezzled from the store goods to a very large amount, which she had sold to supply her wants and wishee. At last Robin- 24cQ A THOROUGH MISCREANT. son, probably no longer caring for the girl, and aware that he was in her power, determined upon murdering her. Such accumulated crime can hardly be conceived ! He went to sleep with her, made her drunk with champagne before they re- tired to bed, and then, as she lay in bed, murdered her with an axe, which he had brought with him from his master's store. The house of ill fame in which he visited her, was at that time full of other people of both sexes, who had retired to rest — it is said nearly one hundred were there on that night — so much for American morality — thought- less of the danger to which they were exposed. Fearful that the murder of the young woman would be discovered and brought home to him, the miscreant resolved to set fire to the house, and by thus sending unprepared into the next world so many of his fellow-creatures, escape the punishment which he had merited in this. He set fire to the bed upon which his unfortunate victim lay, and having satisfied himself that his work was securely done, locked the door of the room, and quitted the premises. A merciful Providence, however, direct- ed otherwise : the fire was discovered, the flames extinguished, and his crime made manifest. The evidence in an English Court would have been more than sufiicient to convict him ; but in America A BRIGHT THOUGHT. 247 such is the feeling against taking life, that, strange to say, Robinson was acquitted, and permitted to leave for Texas, where it is said he still lives under a false name." The Americans born in the New England States are nicknamed Yankees, and many of them have the character of being the greatest rogues to be met with anywhere. Instances of their trickery are told which display great ingenuity. For ex- ample, sausages have been brought to market, which, when purchased and prepared for frying, were found to be filled with chopped turnip and shreds of red flannel mixed together ; and wooden nutmegs have been sold for the genuine article. A Yankee is always " cut and dry for business." If he thinks he can make money by any specula- tion, there is nothing he will not turn his band to. When the cholera broke out in New York, one of this class of speculating geniuses, calculating that it would reach New Orleans, and, from the un- healthy nature of the place, cause there great mor- tality, immediately chartered a vessel, which he loaded with coffins. The cargo, when landed, caused considerable astonishment to the inhabi- tants, but the cholera quickly following, made dreadful ravages, and the Yankee's consignment brought high prices, and proved a profitable afiair ; 248 'tarnal glad to see you. but unfortunately for this splendid Speculator, on calling to take the measure of one of his cholera customers, he caught the disease himself, died in four hour's illness, and now lies deposited in one of his own coffins in a church-yard at New Orleans. Of all men on the face of this fair and beauti- ful world, the Yankees are the least scrupulous as to the means of getting money. ** A Yankee whose great-grandfather came from Scotland, was left several hundred dozen of boxes of ointment, celebrated for curing a disease com- mon at one time in Scotland, so he resolved on ta- king a tour through the country to dispose of his ointment. He visited many towns and offered his medicine for sale, but the disease being unknown he could get no buyers : he was puzzled what to do ; at last a bright idea struck him. He sought out, among the Scotch Emigrants lately arrived, a person labouring under the disease, and innocula- ted himself with it. After giving the disease time to be sufficiently virulent, he went round the towns again, and, taking advantage of the Ameri- can custom which is so prevalent, shook hands with every body whom he had spoken to on his former visit, declaring he was * 'tarnal (/lad to see them again ;' tlius he wont on till liis circuit was FEMALE MORAL SOCIETY. 249 completed, when he repaired to the first town again, and found that his ointment, as he expected, was now in great request ; and he continued his route as before, until he had sold all the boxes in his possession.'* The Americans would fain be thought a very moral nation. The ladies have a society called ** The New York Female Moral Society," which has been nick-named, '* The Patent Anti- Fornica- tion Society," and they have lately established a Society to regulate the conjugal relations, named " The Conjugal Temperance Privilege Society." The members are all married women, and they lord it over the hen-pecked Roosters of the half- horse and half-aligator creation, in a way that can be more easily imagined than described. tern- pora ! Moses ! What a contrast this is to the unmarried ladies here, who are so extremely delicate that they would sooner die than name some common articles of wearing apparel ; and they are so shocked at the idea of legs, that they put trowsers on the legs of even their piano-fortes, lest the sight of them might call up, by association, the idea that they themselves were gifted with such indelicate ap- pendages. If one of these supernaturally-delicate females has a pain in her abdomen, she is sure to 250 RETURN TO AULD REEKIE. call it a pain in her breast, which tends much to embarrass her medical attendant ; and as for that shocking article called a shirt, if caught in the act of making one, she sews it up at the bottom, and tells her male visitor it is a bag. I must now bid my fair friends adieu. I hope before I leave this world to visit them once more, and I trust, when I again behold the lovely crea- tures, that the wmatural false modesty which at present prevails, may have given place to that true virgin modesty which is the brightest ornament of their sex. I sailed from New York on the 15th July, on board the ship , bound for Greenock. I had a most agreeable passage of twenty-one days ; and on the 6th August landed at Greenock, and proceeded to Glasgow by the first 'steamer. I stopped at the Argyle Hotel all night, and took the coach at ten a. m. next m.orning, for Auld Reekie. 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