THE
tOMES OF TIHE NEW WORLD;
-7.. -s
IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA.
BY
FREDRIKA BREMER.
TRANSLATED BY MARY HOrWITT.
"SING UNTO THE LORD A NEW SONG."-PsaIm xcvi.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PIJBLISHER'S,
329 & 331 PEARL STREET,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1853.   
THE
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
LETTER XXVI.
On the Mississippi, October 15th.
TOWARD sunset on the most lovely and glorious evening,
we came out of the narrow little winding Five River, and
entered the grand Mississippi, which flowed broad and clear
as a mirror between hills which extended into the distance,
and now looked blue beneath the mild, clear blue heavens,
in which the new moon. and the evening star ascended,
becoming brighter as the sun sank lower behind the hills.
The pure misty veil of the Indian summer was thrown
over the landscape; one might have believed that it was
the earth's smoke of sacrifice which arose in the evening
toward the gentle heavens. Not a breath of air moved,
every thing was silent and still in that grand spectacle;
it was indescribably beautiful. Just then a shot was
fired; a smoke issued from one of the small green islands,
and flocks of ducks and wild geese flew up round about,
escaping from the concealed sportsman, who I hope this
evening returned without game. All was again silent and
still, and the Menomonie advanced with a quiet, steady
course up the glorious river.
I stood on the upper deck with the captain, Mr. Smith,
and the representative from Minnesota, Mr. Sibley, who,
with his wife and child, were returning home from Washington.
Was this, then, indeed, the Mississippi, that wild giant 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of nature, which I had imagined would be so powerful, so
divine, so terrible? Here its waters were clear, of a fresh,
light-green color, and within their beautiful frame of distant violet-blue mountains, they lay like a heavenly mirror, bearing on their bosom verdant, vine-covered islands,
like islands of the blessed.  The Mississippi was here in its
youth, in its state of innocence as yet. It has not as yet
advanced very far from its fountains; no crowd of steamboats muddy its waters.  The Menomonie and one other,
a still smaller boat, are the only ones which ascend the
river above Galena; no cities cast into it their pollution;
pure rivers only flow into its waters, and aborigines and
primeval forests still surround it. Afterward, far below
and toward the world's sea, where the Mississippi comes
into the life of the states, and becomes a statesman, he has
his twelve hundred steamers, and I know not how many
thousand sailing-boats, gives himself up to cities and the
population of cities, and is married to the Missouri: then
it is quite different; then is it all over with the beauty
and innocence of the Mississippi.
But now, now it was beautiful, and the whole of that
evening on the Mississippi was to me like an enchantment.
The  Mississippi, discovered by Europeans,  has  two
epochs, and in each a romance: the one as different to
the other as day and night, as the sun-bright idyl to the
gloomy tragedy, as the Mississippi here in its youth, and
the Mississippi down at St. Louis, as Mississippi-Mlissouri.
The first belongs to the northern district, the second to
the southern; the former has its hero, the mild pastor,
Father Marquette; the latter the Spanish soldier, Ferdinand de Soto.
France and England, equally jealous competitors for
territorial acquisitions, were the first possessors of the
land of North America. The French Jesuits were the
first who penetrated into the wildernesses of Canada and
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
to the great lakes of the West. Religious enthusiasm
planted the Puritan colony on Plymouth Rock; religious
enthusiasm planted the cross, together with the lilies of
France, on the shores of the St. Lawrence, beside Niagara,
and as far as St. Marie, among the wild Indians by Lake
Superior. The noble, chivalric Champlain, full of ardor
and zeal, said, "The salvation of a soul is worth more
than the conquest of a kingdom."
That was at the time when the disciples of Loyola went
forth over the world to conquer it as a kingdom for the
Prince of Peace, and inscribed the sign of the cross in
Japan, in China, in India, in Ethiopia, among the Caffirs,
in California, in Paraguay. They invited the barbarian
to the civilization of Christianity. The priests who penetrated from Canada to the deserts of Western America
were among the noblest of their class.
"They had the faults of ascetic superstition; but the
horrors of a Canadian life in the wilderness were resisted
by an invincible, passive courage, and a deep internal
tranquillity. Away from the amenities of life, away from
the opportunities of vain-glory, they became dead to the
world, and possessed their souls in unutterable peace.
The few who lived to grow old, though bowed by the toils
of a long mission, still kindled with the fervor of apostolic
zeal. The history of their labors is connected with the
origin of every celebrated town in the annals of French
America: not a cape was turned, not a river entered, but
a Jesuit led the way."
The Jesuits, Bribeuf and Daniel, and the gentle Lallemand, accompanied a party of barefooted Hurons to their
country through dangerous forests.  They won the regard
and the love of the savages.
Bribeuf, who is said to have been the pattern of every
religious virtue, lived fifteen years among the Hurons,
baptizing them to the religion of Christ, and instructing
them in the occupations of peace. Works of love, self
5 
1HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mortification, prayers deep into the night-such was his
life.  Yet all the more increased his love for the Master
whom he served, and his desire to suffer in His service.
He thirsted after it as others thirst after the delights of
life. He made a vow never to decline the opportunity of
martyrdom, and never to receive the death-blow except
with joy.
Such was a faith to remove mountains; and it did more,
it implanted the vitalizing love of Christ -in the bloodthirsty heart of the savage. The great warrior Ahasis.
tari said," Before you came to this country, where I have
incurred the greatest perils, and have alone escaped, have
I said to myself,' Some powerful spirit has the guardianship of my days!'"  And he professed his belief in Jesus
as the good Genius and Protector, whom he had before
unconsciously adored.  After trials of his sincerity he was
baptized; and enlisting a troop of converts, savages like
himself, "Let us strive," he exclaimed, "to make the
whole world embrace the faith in Jesus." *
Further and further still advanced the missionaries toward the West; they heard of powerful and warlike In.
dian races, such as the mighty Sioux, who dwelt by the
great River Mississippi, of the Erie, and Chippewas, and
Potawatomies, and others who dwelt by the great lakes.
Dangers, fatigues, wildernesses, savages, all stood in threat.
ening array before them, but only the more to allure
them.
Hostile tribes overcame the Indians who conducted them.
The savage Mohawks took the missionary Isaac Jogues
prisoner, and with him the noble chief Ahasistari. Ahasistari had succeeded in finding a hiding-place; but when
he saw Jogues a captive, he stepped forth to him, saying,
"My brother, I made a vow to thee that I would share thy
fate, whether life or death-How am I to keep my vow?"
The savages exercised their cruelty upon them for sev
* Bancroft.
6 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
eral days and nights. When Jogues ran the gauntlet, he
consoled himself with a vision of the glory of the Queen
of Heaven.  One evening, after a day of torture, an ear
of Indian corn was thrown to the good father, and see!
upon the broad leaf there were drops of water, or of dew,
sufficient to baptize two captive Christian converts!
Ahasistari and two of his people were burned. He met
death with the pride of an Indian and the calmness of a
Christian.
Father Jogues had expected the same fate; but his life
was spared and his liberty granted to him. Roaming
through the magnificent forests of the Mohawk Valley, he
wrote the name of Jesus on the bark of trees, graved the
cross, and took possession of these countries in the name
of God.  Often lifting up his voice in thanksgiving, consoling himself in his sorrow with the thought that he
alone, in that vast region, adored the true God, the God
of heaven and of earth.
He returned safely to his own people in Canada, but
merely, two years afterward, to set out once more to seek
new perils in the same service.  "I shall go, but shall
never return," said he, on setting out; and soon afterward was taken prisoner by the Mohawks, who said that
he, by his enchantments, had blighted their harvest. -Timid by nature, yet courageous through his zeal, he received
his death-blow with calmness.
Bribeuf, Anthony, Daniel, and the mild Lallemand, all
suffered martyrdom amid such torments as only Indians
can devise; suffered it with that pious courage which only
the love of Christ can inspire.
The villages and settlements founded by the good fathers were burned, and the Christian converts perished by
fire and sword. All the many years' labor of the Jesuits
was destroyed, and the wilderness seemed once more to
grow over their traces.
Such great adversities might be supposed sufficient to
7 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
quench the ardor of the missionaries. Not at all! They
pressed forward anew.
While the savage nations were carrying on cruel wars
one with another, and converting all the paths trough
the forest of the West into paths of death, the Bishop of
Quebec, Francis de Laval, was animated by the desire of
conveying the doctrines of peace to the shores of the Great
River. He desired to go himself; but the lot fell on Ren6
Mesnard. Every personal consideration seemed to retain
him at Quebec, but powerful instincts urged him to risk
his life in the enterprise. He was already old when he
entered on the path still red with the blood of his prede cessors.  "In three or four months," wrote he to a friend,
on his journey, "and you may add my name to those of
the dead."
He went, never again to return.  Afar off in the wilderness of the West, while his attendant was one day occupied in the transport of a boat, he entered a forest and
was never more seen: his cassock and breviary were long
retained as amulets among the Sioux!  Another missionary was killed by the arrows of the Indians during a fight
between two hostile tribes.
It is a refreshment to turn from these bloody and cruel
scenes, which marked the first introduction of Christianity
by Europe into the West, to the idyllian and peaceful episode of the Jesuit missionary, Marquette, and his labors
amid those savage, warlike Indian tribes. It is like a sunbeam between thunder-clouds.
Already had the indefatigable Father Alojiez visited
most of the Indian tribes around Lake Superior, and during two residences among them had taught the Chippewas
to chant the Paternoster and Ave Maria, had been invited
by the Potawatomies, the worshipers of the sun, to their
huts; had smoked the pipe of peace with the Illinois
tribes, who told him of their great fields overgrown with
tall grass, where troops of wild deer and buffaloes grazed;
8 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
he had even met the quarrelsome and mighty Sioux, who
lived on wild rice, covered their huts with skins of animals
instead of bark, and dwelt upon the prairie near the Great
River, which they called Messipi.
Marquette determined to discover and sail down the
Great River.
He had gathered around him the remains of the Huron
nation, and settled down with them on the shores of Lake
Michigan, where there was abundance of fish. There
they built themselves huts.
It was from this place that Marquette, accompanied by
a Frenchman named Joliet, and a young Indian of the Illinois tribe as guide, set forth on his journey of discovery. The French intendant of Canada, Talon, favored
Marquette's enterprise, wishing to ascertain whether the
banner of France could be carried down the Great River as
far as the Pacific Ocean, or planted side by side with that
of-Spain on the Gulf of Mexico.
Marquette sought by his journey the honor of a higher
master than an earthly sovereign: "I shall gladly lay
down my life for the salvation of souls," said he, in answer
to a messenger of the Potawatomies, who warned him
"that these distant nations never spared strangers; that
their mutual wars filled the shores with warriors; and
that the Great River abounded with monsters which devoured both men and canoes; and that the excessive heat
was mortal." And  on hearing his reply, the children of
the wilderness united with him in prayer for his preservation.
"At the last village on Fox River ever visited by the
French," using the words of Bancroft the historian, for I
can not have a better guide, "where Kickapoos, Mascoutins, and Miamis dwelt together on a beautiful hill, in the
centre of the prairies and magnificent groves that extended as far as the eye could reach, and where Aloiiez had already raised the cross, which the savages ornamented with
A2
9 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
brilliant skins and crimson belts, a thanksgiving offering
to the great Manitou, the ancients assembled in council to
receive the pilgrims.
"'My  companion,' said Marquette,'is an envoy of
France to discover new countries, and I am embassador
from God to enlighten them with the Gospel;' and offering presents, he begged two guides for the morrow. The
wild men answered courteously, and gave in return a
mat, to serve as a couch during the long voyage.
"Behold then, in 1673, on the 10th of June, the meek,
single-hearted, unpretending, illustrious Marquette, with
Joliet for his associate, five Frenchmen as his companions,
and two Algonquins as guides, lifting their canoes on
their backs, and walking across the narrow portage that
divides the Fox River from the Wisconsin. They reach
the water-shed; uttering a special prayer to the immaculate Virgin, they leave the streams that, flowing onward,
could have borne their greetings to the castle of Quebec;
already they stand by the Wisconsin.'The guides returned,' says the gentle Marquette,'leaving us alone, in
this unknown land, in the hands of Providence.'
"France and Christianity stood in the valley of the
Mississippi.
"Embarking on the broad Wisconsin, the discoverers
as they sailed west went solitarily down the stream, between alternate prairies and hill-sides, beholding neither
man nor the wonted beasts of the forests. No sound broke
the appalling silence, but the ripple of their canoe and
the lowing of the buffalo. In seven days'they entered
happily the Great River with a joy that could not be expressed;' and the two birch-bark canoes, raising their
happy sails under new skies and to unknown breezes,
floated down the calm magnificence of the ocean stream
over the broad, clear sand-bars, the resort of innumerable
water-fowl; gliding past islets that swelled from the bosom
of the stream, with their tufts of massive thickets, and
to 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
between the wide plains of Illinois and Iowa, all garlanded
with majestic forests, or checkered by island groves and
the open vastness of the prairie.
"About sixty leagues below the mouth of the Wisconsin, the western bank of the Mississippi bore on its sands
the trail of men; a little foot-path was discerned leading
into a beautiful prairie, and, leaving the canoes, Joliet
and Marquette resolved alone to brave a meeting with the
savages. After walking six miles they beheld a village
on the banks of a river, and two others on a slope at a
distance of a mile and a half from the first.  The river
was the Meu-in-gou-e-na, or Moingona, of which we have
corrupted the name into Des Moines. Marquette and
Joliet were the first white men who trod the soil of Iowa.
Commending themselves to God, they uttered a loud cry.
The Indians hear; four old men advance slowly to meet
them, bearing the peace-pipe, brilliant with many-colored
plumes.
"'We are Illinois,' said they; that is, when translated,
'we are men;' and they offered the calumet.  An aged
chief received them at his cabin with upraised hands, exclaiming,' How beautiful is the sun, Frenchman, when
thou comest to visit us! Our whole village awaits thee;
thou shalt enter in peace into all our dwellings.'
"At the great council, Marquette published to them
the one true God, their Creator. He spoke also of the
great captain of the French, the governor of Canada, who
had chastised the Five Nations and commanded peace;
and he questioned them respecting the Mississippi, and
the tribes that possessed its banks. For the messengers
who announced the subjection of the Iroquois, a magnificent festival was prepared of hominy and fish, and the
choicest viands from the prairies.
"After six days' festivities among these wild people,
the little band proceeded onward.'I did not fear death,'
said Marquette;'I should have esteemed it the greatest
happiness to have died for the glory of God.'
11 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
" They passed the perpendicular rocks, which wore the
appearance of monsters; they heard at a distance the noise
of the waters of the Missouri, known to them by its Algonquin name of Pekitanoni; and when they came to the
most beautiful confluence of rivers in the world, where
the swifter Missouri rushes like a conqueror into the
calmer Mississippi, dragging it, as it were, hastily to the
sea, the good Marquette resolved in his heart one day to
ascend the mighty river to its source; to cross the ridge
that divides the oceans, and, descending a westerly flowing stream, to publish the Gospel to all the people of this
New World.
"In a little less than forty leagues the canoes floated
past the Ohio, which was then and long afterward called
the Wabash. Its banks were tenanted by numerous villages of the peaceful Shawnees, who quailed under the
incursions of the Iroquois.
"The thick canes began to appear so close and strong
that the buffalo could not break through them, and the
insects became intolerable.  The prairies vanished, and
forests of white wood, admirable for their vastness and
height, crowded even to the skirts of the pebbly shore.
It was also observed that, in the land of the Chickasaws,
the Indians had guns.
"They reached the village of Mitchigamea, in a region
which had not been visited by Europeans since the days
of De Soto.'Now,' thought Marquette,'we must indeed
ask the aid of the Virgin. Armed with bows and arrows,
with clubs, axes, and bucklers, amid continual whoops,
the natives, bent on war, embarked in vast canoes made
out of the trunks of hollow trees; but at the sight of the
mnysterious peace-pipe held aloft, God touched the hearts
of the old men; who checked the impetuosity of the
young; and, throwing their bows and quivers into the
canoes as a token of peace, they prepared a hospitable
welcome.'
12 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"Thus had the travelers descended below the entrance
of the Arkansas to the genial climes which have scarcely
any winter but rains, to the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, and to tribes of Indians who had obtained arms by
traffic with the Spaniards or with Virginia.
"So, having spoken of God, and the mysteries of the
Catholic faith-having become certain that the Father
of Rivers went not to the ocean, east of Florida, nor yet
to the Gulf of California, Marquette and Joliet left Arkansea and ascended the Mississippi.
"At the thirty-eighth degree of latitude they entered
the River Illinois, and discovered a country without its
equal for the fertility of its beautiful prairies, covered with
buffaloes and stags-for the loveliness of its rivulets, and
the prodigal abundance of wild ducks and swans, and of
a species of parrot and wild turkeys. The tribe of Indians that tenanted its banks entreated MVarquette to come
and reside among them. One of their chiefs, with their
young men, conducted the party by way of Chicago to
Lake Michigan; and before the end of September all were
safe in Green Bay.
"Joliet returned to Quebec to announce the discovery,
the fame of which, through Talon, quickened the ambition of Colbert. The unaspiring Marquette remained to
preach the Gospel to the Miamis, who dwelt in the north
of Illinois, round Chicago. Two years afterward, sailing
from Chicago to Mackinaw, he entered a little river in
Michigan. Erecting an altar, he said mass according to
the ritual of the Catholic Church, and then desired the
men who had conducted his canoe to leave him alone for
half an hour.
"At the end of the time they went to seek him, but he
was no more. The good missionary-discoverer of a world
had fallen asleep on the margin of the stream that bears
his name.  Near its mouth the canoe-men dug his grave
in the sand. Ever after, the forest-rangers, if in danger
13 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
on Lake Michigan, would invoke his name. The people
of the West will build his monument."
Thus much of Father Marquette; a short human life;
but how full, how beautiful, how complete and perfect!
Do you not see a ray of heavenly light shine through that
misty, blood-stained valley of the Mississippi? Lower
down on the Mississippi I shall tell you of Ferdinand do
Soto.
Mississippi,.October 16th.
Cold and chilly; but those stately hills, which rise
higher and higher on each side the river, covered with
forests of oak now brilliant in their golden-brown array
beneath the autumnal heaven, and those prairies with
their infinite stretches of view, afford a spectacle forever
changing and forever beautiful. And then all is so
young, so new, all as yet virgin soil!  Here and there,
at the foot of the hills, on the banks of the river, has the
settler built his little log-house, plowed up a little, field
in which he has now just reaped his maize. The air is
gray, but altogether calm. We proceed very leisurely,
because the water is low at this time of the year, and has
many shallows; at times it is narrow, and then again it
is of great width, dotted over with many islands, both
large and small.  These islands are full of wild vines,
which have thrown themselves in festoons among the
trees, now for the most part leafless, though the wild vines
are yet green.
We are sailing between Wisconsin on the right and
Iowa on the left. We have just passed the mouth of the
Wisconsin River, by which Father Marquette entered the
Mississippi. How well I understand his feelings on the
discovery of the Great River!  I feel myself here, two
hundred years later, almost as happy as he was, because
I too am alone, and am on a journey of discovery, although
of another kind. The Wisconsin flows into the Mississippi
between shores overgrown with wood, and presents a beautiful idyllian scene.
14 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We  shall to-morrow enter upon a wilder region and
among the Indians. If the weather is only not too cold!
Evening. It seems as if it would clear up; the sun
has set and the moon risen, and the moon seems to dissipate the clouds.  At sunset the Menomonie put to land
to take in fuel.  It was on the Iowa bank of the river.  I
went on shore with Mr. Sibley. A newly-erected loghouse stood at the foot of the hill, about fifty paces from
the river; we went into the house, and were met by a
handsome young wife, with a nice little plump lad, a
baby, in her arms; her husband was out in the forest.
They had been at the place merely a few months, but were
satisfied, and hopeful of doing well there. Two fat cows
with bells were grazing in the meadow, without any
tether. Every thing within the house was neat and in
order, and indicated a degree of comfort. I saw some
books on a shelf; these were the Bible, prayer-books,
and American reading-books, containing selections from
English and American literature, both verse and prose.
The young wife talked sensibly and calmly about their
life and condition as settlers in the West. When we left
the house, and I saw her standing in the door-way with
her beautiful child in her arms, she presented a picture
in the soft glow of the Western heaven, a lovely picture
of the new life of the West. 
That young, strong, earnest mother, with her child on
her arm, that little dwelling, protected by the husband,
who cherished in himself the noblest treasures of thought
and of love-behold in these the germ which, by degrees,
will occupy the wilderness, and cause it to blossom as the
rose.
16th. A glorious morning, as warm as summer! It
rained in the night, but cleared up in the morning; those
dense, dark masses of cloud were penetrated, rent asunder
by the flashing sunbeams; and bold, abrupt shadows,
and heavenly lights played among the yet bolder, more
16 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
craggy, and more picturesque hills. What an animated
scene it was! and I was once more alone with America,
with my beloved, my great and beautiful sister, with the
sibyl at whose knee I sat listening and glancing up to
her with looks full of love.   Oh what did she not communicate to nme that day, that morning full of inspiration,
as amid her tears she drank in the heavenly light, and
flung those dark shadows, like a veil, back from her countenance, that it might be only the more fully illumined
by the Divine light! Never shall I forget that morning!
They came again and again, during the morning, those
dark clouds, spreading night over those deep abysses; but
again they yielded, again they gave place to the sun, which
finally prevailed, alone, triumphant, and shone over the
Mississippi and its world in the most beautiful summer
splendor; and the inner light in my soul conversed with
the outward light.  It was glorious!
The further we advanced, the more strangely and fantastically were the cliffs on the shore splintered and riven,
representing the most astonishing imagery.   Half way up,
probably four or five hundred feet above the river, these
hills were covered with wood now golden with the hue of
autumn, and above that, rising, as if directly out of it,
naked, ruin-like crags, of rich red brown, representing
fortificationas, towers, half-demolished walls, as of ancient,
magnificent strongholds and castles. The castle ruins of
the Rhine are small things in comparison with these gigantic remains of primeval ages; when men were not, but
the Titans of primeval nature, Megatheriums, Mastodons,
and Ichthyosaurians rose up from the waters, and wandered alone over the earth.
It was difficult to persuade one's self that many of these
bold pyramids and broken temple-fagades had not really
been the work of human hands, so symmetrical, so architectural were these colossal erections. I saw in two places
human dwellings, built upon a height; they looked like
16 
HOMES OF T1HE NEW WORLD.
birds'.-nests upon a lofty roof; but I was glad to see them,
because they predicted that this magnificent region will
soon have inhabitants, and this temple of nature worshipers in thankful and intelligent human hearts. The country on the other side of these precipitous crags is highland,
glorious country, bordering the prairie-land-land for many
millions of human beings! Americans will build upon
these hills beautiful, hospitable homes, and will here labor,
pray, love, and enjoy. An ennobled humanity will live
upon these heights.
Below, in the river, at the feet of the hill-giants, the little green islands become more and more numerous. All
were of the same character; all were lovely islands, all one
tangle of wild vine. The wild grapes are small and sour,
but are said to become sweet after they have been frosted.
It is extraordinary that the wild vine is every where indigenous to America. America is of a truth Vineland.
I have heard the prophecy of a time and a land where
every man shall sit under his own vine, and none shall
make him afraid; when the wolf and the lamb shall sport
together, and the desert shall blossom as the rose, and all
in the name of the Prince of Peace.
These hills, spite of their varieties of form and of their
ruin-like-crags, have a general resemblance; they are nearly all of the same height, not exceeding eight or nine hundred feet.  Good republicans, every one of them!
Last evening, just at sunset, I saw the first trace of the
Indians in an Indian grave.  It was a chest of bark laid
upon a couple of planks supported by four posts, standing
underneath a tree golden with autumnal tints. It is thus
that the Indians dispose of their dead, till the flesh is dried
off the bones, when these are interred either in the earth
or in caves, with funeral rites, dances, and songs. Thus
a coffin beneath an autumnal tree, in the light of the pale
evening sun, was the first token which I perceived of this
poor, decaying people.
17 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Soon after we saw Indian huts on the banks of the river.  They are called by themselves "tepees" (dwellings),
and by the English " lodges;" they resemble a tent in
form, and are covered with buffalo hides, which are wrap.
ped round long stakes, planted in the ground in a circle,
and united at the top, where the smoke passes out through
an opening something like our Laplander's huts, only on
a larger scale. There is a low opening in the form of a
door to each hut, and over which a piece of buffalo hide
can be let down at pleasure. I saw through the open
doors the fire burning on the floor in many of the huts;
it had a pleasant, kindly appearance. Little savage children were leaping about the shore. It was the most beautiful moonlight evening.
17th. Sunshiny, but cold.  We have Indian territory
through the whole of our course on the right; it is the
territory of Minnesota, and we now see Indians encamped
on the banks in larger or smaller numbers. The men,
standing or walking, wrapped in their red or yellow-gray
blankets; the women, busied at the fires either within
or without the tents, or carrying their children on their
backs in the yellow blankets in which they themselves
are-wrapped. All are bareheaded, with their black locks
hanging down like horses' tails, or sometimes plaited. A
great number of children, boys especially, leap about shouting on the shores. We proceeded very slowly, and stuck
fast -on the shallows continually as we wound among the
islands. In the mean time, little canoes of Indians glided
quickly, and, as it were, shyly hither and thither along
the shores and the islands, the people seeming to be looking for something among the bushes. They appeared,
for the most part, to be women in the boats; but it is not
easy to distinguish a man from a woman, as they sit there
wrapped in their blankets, with their bare, unkemped
hair. They were seeking for wild berries and herbs,
which they collect among the bushes. How savage and
18 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
like wild beasts they looked! And yet it is very entertaining to see human beings so unlike the people one sees every day, so unlike our own selves!
The Indians we see here are of the Sioux or Dacotah
nation, still one of the most powerful tribes in the coun.
try, and who, together with the Chippewas, inhabit the
district around the springs of the Mississippi (Minnesota).
Each nation is said to amount to twenty-five thousand
souls. The two tribes live in hostility with each other;
but have lately held, after some bloody encounters, a
peace congress at Fort Snelling, where the Amerioan authorities compelled these vengeful people, although unwillingly, to offer each other the hand of reconciliation.
Mr. Sibley, who has lived many years among the Sioux,
participating in their hunting and their daily life, has related to me many characteristic traits of this people's life
and disposition. There is a certain grandeur about them,
but it is founded on immense pride; and their passion for
revenge is carried to a savage and cruel extreme. Mr.
Sibley is also very fond of the Indians, and is said to be
a very great favorite with them.  Sometimes, when we
sail past Indian villages, he utters a kind of wild cry,
which receives an exulting response from the shore.
Sometimes we see a little log-house, with two or three
Indian lodges beside it. Such houses belong to half-blood
Indians, that is to say, one whose father was a white man
and mother an Indian, and these are his relations by the
mother's side, or the relatives of his Indian wife, who have
come to dwell near him.  He is commonly engaged in
trade, and is a link between the Indian and European.
We have now also some Indians on board, a family of
the Winnebagoes, husband, wife, and daughter, a young
girl of seventeen, and two young warriors of the Sioux
tribe, adorned with fine feathers, and painted with red and
yellow, and all colors, I fancy, so that they are splendid.
They remain on the upper deck, where I also remain, on
l9 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
account of the view being so much more extensive.  The
Winnebago man is also painted, and lies on deck, generally on his stomach, propped on his elbows, and wrapped in
his blanket.   The wife looks old and worn out, but is
cheerful and talkative. The girl is tall and good-looking,
but has heavy features, and broad, round shoulders; she
is very shy, and turns away if any one looks at her. I
saw the three have their dinner: they took a piece of darkcolored meat, which I supposed to have been smoke-dried,
out of a bag, and alternately tore a piece from it with
their teeth. I offered them cakes and fruit, which I had
with me; the wife laughed, and almost snatched them
from me. They were well pleased to receive them, but
expressed no thanks.  The young Sioux warriors look like
some kind of great cock.  They strut about now and then,
and look proud, and then they squat themselves down on
their hams, like apes, and chatter away as volubly as any
two old gossips ever did. All the men have noses like a
hawk's bill, and the corners of their mouths are drawn
down, which gives a disagreeable, scornful expression to
the countenance.   Nothing, however, about them has
struck me so much as their eyes, which have a certain
hard, inhuman expression. They seem to me like those
of wild beasts, cold, clear, with a steady, hard, and almost
cruel glance. One could fancy that they had caught
sight of some object, some prey a long way off in the forest. The glance is not deficient in intelligence or acuteness, but it is deficient in feeling. There is an immense
difference between their eyes and those of the negroes.
The former are a cold day, the latter a warm night.
Last night we passed through Lake Pepin in the moonlight. It is an extension of the Mississippi, large enough
to constitute a lake, surrounded by magnificent hills, which
seem to inclose it with their almost perpendicular cliffs,
one among which is particularly prominent, and is called
Wenona's Cliff, from a young Indian girl who here sang
20 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
her death-song and then threw herself into the waters
below, preferring death to marriage with a young man
whom she did not love.
Late last evening I noticed a tallIndian who was standing with his arms crossed, wrapped in his blanket, under
a large tree. He stood as immovable as if he had grown
into the tree against the boll of which he leaned. He
looked very stately. All at once he gave a leap forward,
and, uttering a shrill cry, bounded down to the shore; and
then I saw, at no great distance, an encampment of about
twenty huts in the forest near'the river, where fires were
burning, and there seemed to be a throng of people. Along
the shore lay a considerable number of small canoes, and
I imagined that the warning cry of the man had reference
to these, for when our steamer swung past the place, for
it was at a bend of the river where the camp stood, it occasioned a sort of earthquake to those little boats, which
were hurled like nut-shells one against another, and on
toward the shore.  The people who were seated in the
boats leaped upon the shore, others came running from the
huts down to the boats; the whole encampment was in
motion; there was a yelling and a barking both of men
and dogs, and shrill cries which were heard long after the
Menomonie had shot past on her foaming career.  The
camp, with its fires, its huts, and its people, was a most
wild and animated scene.
At another place, during the day, we saw a large, pale
red stone standing on a plain near the river. I was told
that this stone, and all large stones of this kind, are regarded as sacred by the Indians, who swear by them, and
around which they hold their councils, believing that they
are the abiding-place of a divinity.
In the afternoon we shall reach St. Paul's, the goal of
our journey, and the most northern town on the Mississippi. I am sorry to reach it so soon; I should have liked
this voyage up the Mississippi to have lasted eight days
21 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
at least. It amuses and interests me indescribably. These
new shores, so new in every way, with their perpetually
varying scenes; that wild people, with their camps, their
fires, boats, their peculiar manners and cries-it is a continual refreshment to me. And to this must be added
that I am able to enjoy it in peace and freedom, from the
excellent arrangement of the American steam-boats for
their passengers. They are commonly three-decked-the
middle deck being principally occupied by the passengers
who like to be comfortable. Round this deck runs a broad
gallery or piazza, roofed in by the upper deck, within
which are ranged the passengers' cabins, side by side, all
round the vessel. Each cabin has a door, in which is a
window opening into the gallery, so that one can either
enter the gallery this way, or enjoy the scenery of the
shore from the cabin itself; it has also another door, which
opens into the saloon.   The saloon aft is always appropriated to the ladies, and around this are their cabins; the
second great saloon also, used for meals, is the assemblingplace of the gentlemen.  Each little apartment, called a
state-room, has commonly two berths in it, the one above
the other; but if the steamer is not much crowded, one
can easily obtain a cabin entirely to one's self. These
apartments are always painted white, and are neat, light,
and charming; one could remain in them for days with
the utmost pleasure. The table is generally well and amply supplied; and the fares, comparatively speaking, are
low. Thus, for instance, I pay for the voyage from Galena to St. Paul's only six dollars, which seems to me quite
too little in comparison with all the good things that I
enjoy.  I have a charming little "state-room" to myself,
and the few upper-class passengers are not of the catechising order. One of them, Mr. Sibley, is a clever, kind
man, and extremely interesting to me from his knowledge
of the people of this region, and their circumstances. There
are also some emigrant families who are on their way to
22 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
settle on the banks of the River St. Croix and Stillwater,
who do not belong to what are called the "better class,"
although they rank with such-a couple of ladies who
smoke meerschaum-pipes now and then-and, in particular, there are two half-grown girls, who are considerably
in my way sometimes-especially one of them, a tall,
awkward girl in a fiery-red, brick-colored dress, with fiery.
red hair as rough as a besom, and eyes that squint, and
who, when she comes out, sets herself to stare at me with
her arms crossed, her mouth and eyes wide open, as if I
were some strange Scandinavian animal, and every now
and then she rushes up to me with some unnecessary, witless question. I regard these girls as belonging to-the
mythological monsters of the Great West, as daughters of
its giants, and did not scruple to cut them rather short!
Ah! people may come to this hemisphere as democratic
as they will, but when they have traveled about a little
they will become aristocratic to a certain extent.  To a
certain extent-but beyond that I shall never go, even
though the daughters of the giants become so numerous
as to shut out my view. And this brick-colored, foolhardy girl would-of this I am certain-with a few kind
and intelligent words, assume a different mode of behavior, and, if I were to be any length of time with her, she
and I should become good friends. And there is in one
of these emigrant families an old grandmother, and yet
not so very old after all, who is so full of anxiety, so quietly active, and so thoughtful for every one who belongs
to her, and who is evidently so kind and motherly in dis.
position, that one must willingly take in good part all her
questions and her ignorance of geography, if one has any
thing good in one's self. And that one has not when one
gets out of temper with the manners of the giants' daughter, and wills to be at peace.
The captain of the steamer, Mr. Smith, is an extremely
agreeable and polite man, who is my cavalier on board,
and in whose vessel the utmost order prevails.
23 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We see no longer any traces of European cultivation on
shore, nothing but Indian huts and encampments. The
shores have become flatter since we left Lake Pepin, and
the scenery tamer.
LETTER XXVII.
St. Paul's, Minnesota, October 25th.
AT about three miles from St. Paul's we saw a large
Indian village, consisting of about twenty hide-covered
wigwams, with their ascending columns of smoke. In
the midst of these stood a neat log-house. This was the
home which a Christian missionary had built for himself
among the savages, and here he had established a school
for the children. Upon a hill beyond the village, a number of stages were placed in a half circle, upon which rested coffins of bark. Small white flags distinguished those
among the departed who had been most recently brought
there. The village, which is called Kaposia, and is one of
the established Indian villages, looked animated from its
women, children, and dogs. We sped rapidly past it, for
the Mississippi was here as clear and deep as our own
River Gotha, and the next moment, taking an abrupt turn
to the left, St. Paul's was before us, standing upon a high
bluff on the eastern bank of the Mississippi; behind it the
blue arch of heaven, and far below it the Great River, and
before it, extending right and left, beautiful valleys, with
their verdant hill-sides scattered with wood-a really grand
and commanding situation-affording the most beautiful
views.
We lay to at the lower part of the town, whence the
upper is reached by successive flights of steps, exactly
as with us on the South Hill by Mose-back in Stockholm.
Indians were sitting or walking along the street which
runs by the shore. Wrapped in their long blankets, they
24 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
marched on, with a proud step, and were some of them
stately figures.  Just opposite the steamer, and at the foot
of the steps, sat some young Indians, splendidly adorned
with feathers and ribbons, and smoking from a long pipe
which they handed from one to the other, so that they
merely smoked a few whiffs each.
Scarcely had we touched the shore when the governor
of Minnesota, Mr. Alexander Ramsay, and his pretty young
wife, came on board, and invited me to take up my quarters at their house.  And:there I am  now; happy with
these kind people, and with them I make excursions into
the neighborhood.   The town is one of the youngest infants of the Great-West,-scarcely eighteen months old, and
yet it has in' this short time increased to a popul-ation of
two thousand persons, and in a very few years it will certainly be possessed of twenty-two thousand, for its situation is as rem'arkable'or' beauty and'healthiness" as it is
advantageous for trade- Here the Indians come with their
furs from that immense  country lying —between the Mississippi and the Missouri, the western boundary of Minnesota, and:the forests still undespoiled iof their pritmeval
wealth, and the rivers and lakes —abounding in fish,- offer
their inexhaustible resources, while the great Mississippi
offords the means of their conveyance to the commercial
markets of the world, flowing, as it does, through the whole
of Central America  down to New  Orleans.  Hence it is
that several traders here have already acquired consider-i
able wealth, while others are coming hitherr moe''and
more, and they are building houses as fast as they can.
As yet, however, the town  is but in its infancy, and
people manage with such dwellings as they can get.  TVhe
drawing-room at Governor Ramsay's house is also his
office, and Indians and work-people,  and ladies and gen.
tliemen, are all alike admitted.,  In:the mean time, Mr.
Ramsay is building himself a handsome, spacious house,upon a hii',, a: liitLe out;of the city, with beautiful trees
VOL. II.-B
25 
HIOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
around it, and commanding a grand view over the river.
If I were to live on the Mississippi, I would live here.  It
is a hilly region, and on all hands extend beautiful and
varying landscapes; and all abounds with such youthful
and fresh life.
The city is thronged with Indiana. The men, for the
most part, go about grandly ornamented, and with naked
hatchets, the shafts of which serve them as pipes. They
paint themselves so utterly without any taste- that it is
incredible. Sometimes one half of the countenance will
be painted of a cinnamon-red, striped and in blotches, and
the other half with yellow ditto, as well as all other sorts
of fancies, in green, and blue, and black, without the
slightest regard to beauty that I can discover: Here comes
an Indian who has painted a great-red spot in the middle
of his nose; here another who has painted the whole of
his forehead in small lines of yellow and black; there a
third with coal-black rings round his eyes. All have eagles' or cocks' feathers in their hair, for the most part
colored, or with scarlet tassels of worsted at the ends.
The hair is cut short on the forehead, and for the rest
hangs in elf-locks or in plaits on the shoulders, both of
men and women.  The women are less painted, and with
better taste than the men, generally with merely one
deep red little spot in the' middle of the cheeks, and the
parting of the hair on the forehead is died purple.   I like
their appearance better than that of the men. They have
a kind smile, and often a very kind expression;  as- well
as a something in the glance which is much more human;
but- they are evidently merely their husbands' beasts of
burden.  There goes an Indian with his proud step, bear
ing aloft his plumed head.  He carries only his pipe, and
when he is on a journey, perhaps a long staff in his hand.
After him, with bowed head and stooping shoulders, follows his wife, bending under the burden which she bears
on her back, and which a band, passing over the forehead,
26 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
enables her to support. Above the burden peeps forth a
little round-faced child, with beautiful dark eyes: it is
her "papoose," as these -children are called.  Its little
body is fastened by swaddling-clothes upon its back on a
board, which is to keep its body straight; and it lives,
and is fed, and sleeps, and grows, always fastened to the
board. When the child can walk it is still carried for a
long time on the mother's back in the folds of her blanket.
Nearly all the Indians which I have seen are of the Sioux
tribe.
Governor Ramsay drove me yesterday to the Falls of
St. Anthony.   They  are some  miles from  St. Paul's.
These falls close the Mississippi to steam-boats and other
vessels.  From these falls to New Orleans the distance is
two thousand two hundred miles.  A little above the falls
the river is again navigable for two hundred miles, but
merely for small vessels, and that not without danger.
The Falls of St. Anthony have no considerable height,
and strike me merely as the cascade of a great mill-dam.
They fall abruptly over a stratum of a tufa rock, which
they sometimes break and wash down in great masses.
The  country around is neither grand, nor particularly
picturesque; yet the river here is very broad, and probably from that cause the fall and the hills appear more inconsiderable. The shore is bordered by a rich luxuriance
of trees and shrubs, springing up wildly from among
pieces of rock, and the craggy tufa walls with their ruinlike forms, which, however, have nothing grand about
them. River, falls, country, views, every thing here has
more breadth than grandeur.
It was Father Hennepin, the French Jesuit, who first
came to these falls, brought hither captive by the Indians.
The Indians called the falls "Irrara," or the Laughing
Water; he christened them St. Anthony's. I prefer the
first name, as being characteristic of the fall, which has
rather a cheerful than a dangerous appearance, and the
27 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
roar of which has nothing terrific in it. The Mississippi
is a river of a joyful temperament. I have a painting of
its springs-a present from Mr. Schooleraft-the little lake,
Itaska, in the northern part of Minnesota.   The little lake
looks like a- serene heavenly mirror set in a frame of primeval forest.  Northern firs and pines, maples and elms,
and other beautiful American trees, surround the waters
of this lake like a leafy tabernacle above the cradle of the
infant river. Afar up in the distant background lies that
elevated range of country, called by the French " Hauteur
des terres," resembling a lofty plateau, covered with dense
forest, scattered over with  blocks of granite, and interspersed with a hundred springs: five of these throw themselves from different heights into the little lake.
When the infant Mississippi springs forth from the bosom                       of Itaska, it  is a rapid and clear    little stream, sixteen
feet broad, and four inches deep. Leaping forward over
stocks and stones, it expands itself ninety miles below its
spring into Lake Pemideji-a l           ake t he waters of which
a       re clear as crystal, and which is free fromn islands.  Here
it is met by the River La Place, from Assawa Lake.
Forty-five miles lower down it pours itself down into Lake
Cass, the terminal point of Governor Cass's expedition in
1820. When the Mississippi emerges from this lake, it
is                      one hundred and seventy-t wO feet broad, and eight feet
deep. Thus continues it increasing in width and depth,
receiving richer and richer tribute from springs and rivers, now reposing in clear lakes, abounding in innumerable                      species of fish, then speeding onward, between banks
covered with wild roses, elders, hawthorns, wild rice, wild
plums, and  all kind of wood fruit, strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, through forests of white cedar, pine,
b i rch, and  sugar- maple, abounding         in game of many
kinds, such as bears, elks, foxes, raccoons, martens, beavers, and such like; through the prairie country, the higher and lower full of bubbling f        oun tains-the so-called Un
e
'28 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dine region; through tracts of country, the fertile soil of
which would produce luxuriant harvests of corn, of wheat,
potatoes, etc., through an extent of three or four hundred
miles, during which it is navigable for a considerable distance, till it reaches St. Anthony. Just above this point,
however, it has greatly extended itself, has embraced
many greater and smaller islands, overgrown with trees
and wild vines. Immediately above the falls, it runs so
shallow over a vast level surface of rock that people may
cross it in carriages, as we did to my astonishment. At
no great distance below the falls the river becomes again
navigable, and steamers go up as far as Mendota, a village at the outlet of the St. Peter's River into the Mississippi, somewhat above St. Paul's. From St, Paul's there
is a free course down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. The Falls of St. Anthony are the last youthful adventure of the Mississippi. For nine hundred miles the
river flows along the territory of Minnesota, a great part
of which is wild and alnost unknown country.
But to return to the falls and to the day  I spent
there.
Immediately below the largest of the falls, and enveloped in its spray, as if by shapes of mist, lies a little island of picturesque, ruin-like masses of stone, crowned
with rich wood-the most beautiful and the most striking
feature of the whole scene. It is called the Cataract Island of the laughing water-fall.  It is also called "Spirit
Island," from an incident which occurred here sonme years
since, and which I must relate to you, because it is characteristic of the life of the Indian woman.
"Some years ago, a young hunter, of the Sioux tribe,
set up his wigwam on the bank of the Mississippi, a little
above St. Anthony's Fall. He had only one wife, which
is an unusual thing with these gentlemen, who sometimes
are possessed of as many as twenty; and she was called
Ampato Sapa.  They lived happily together for many years,
29 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and had two children, who played around their fire, and
whom they were glad to call their children.
"The husband was a successful hunter, and many families, by degrees, assembled around him, and erected their
wigwams near his. Wishing to become still more closely
connected with him, they represented to him that he ought
to have several wives, as by that means he would become
of more importance, and might, before long, be elected
chief of the tribe.
"He was well pleased with this counsel, and privately
took a new wife; but, in order to bring her into his wigwamrn without displeasing his first wife, the mother of his
children, he said to her,
"'Thou knowest that I never can love any other woman so tenderly as I love thee; but I have seen that the
labor of taking care of me and the children is too great
for thee, and I have therefore determined to take another
wife, who shall be thy servant; but thou shalt be the
principal one in the dwelling.'
"The wife was very much distressed when she heard
these words. She prayed him to reflect on their former
affection-their happiness during many years-their children.  She besought of him not to bring this second wife
into their dwelling.
"In vain.  The next evening the husband-brought the
new wife into his wigwam.
"In the early dawn of the following morning a deathsong was heard on the Mississippi.  A young Indian woman sat in a little canoe with her two small children, and
rowed it out into the river in the direction of the falls. It
was Ampato Sapa. She sang in lamenting tones the sorrow of her heart, of her husband's infidelity, and her determination to die.  Her friends heard the song, and saw
her intention, but too late to prevent it.
"Her voice was soon silenced in the roar of the fall.
The boat paused for a moment on the brink of the preci
30 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pice, and the next was carried over it and vanished in the
foaming deep. The mother and her children were seen
no more."
The Indians still believe that in the early dawn may
be heard the lamenting song deploring the infidelity of
the husband; and they fancy that at times may be seen
the mother, with the children clasped to her breast, in the
misty shapes which arise from the fall around the Spirit
Island..
This incident is only one among many of the same kind
which occur every year among the Indians. Suicide is
by no means rare among their women.
A gentleman who wished to contest this point with me,
said,-that during the two years which he had lived in this
region, he had only heard of eleven or twelve such occurrences. And quite enough too, I think! The occasion of
suicide is, with the Indian woman generally, either that
her father will marry her against her wishes and inclination, or, when she is married, that the husband takes a
new wife. Suicide, a fact so opposed to the impulses of
a living creature, seems to me to bear strong evidence in
favor of the pure feminine nature of these poor women,
and shows that they are deserving of a better lot. As
young girls, their choice is seldom consulted with regard
to marriage.  The wooer spreads out before the girl's father his buffalo and beaver skins, he carries to the mother
some showy pieces of cloth and trinkets, and the girl is
-sold. If she makes any opposition, the father threatens to cut off her ears and her nose; and she, equally obstinate with him, cuts the matter short by-hanging herself; for this is the mode of death which is generally selected. It is true that the desire for revenge may be the
mainspring of suicide, and it is well known that the Indian women emulate the men in cruelty to their enemies
and war-captives; still, their hard lives as women are not
the less to be deplored; and their strength to die, rather
31 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
than degrade themselves, proves that these children of
nature are more high-minded than many a woman in the
higher ranks of civilization. The beauties of the forest
are prouder and nobler than are frequently they of the
saloon. But true it is that their world is a weary one,
and affords them nothing but the husband whom they
must serve, and the circumscribed dwelling of which he
is the master
We drank tea on a considerable island in the Mississippi,
above the falls, at a beautiful home, where I saw comforts
and cultivation, where I heard music, saw books and pictures-such life, in short, as might be met with on the
banks of the Hudson; and how charming it was to me!
Here, too, I found friends in its inhabitants, even as I had
there. The dwelling had not been long on the island;
and the island, in its autumnal attire, looked like a little
paradise, although still in its half-wild state.
As to describing how we traveled about, how we walked over the river on broken trunks of trees which were
jammed together by the stream in chaotic masses, how
we climbed and clambered up and down, among, over,
and upon stocks, and stones, and precipices, and sheer descents-all this I shall not attempt to describe, because it
is indescribable. I considered many a passage wholly and
altogether impracticable, until my conductors, both gentlemen and ladies, convinced me that it was to them a
simple and every-day path.  Ugh!
The day was cold and chilly, and for that reason the
excursion was more fatiguing to me than pleasant.
I have had several rambles in the immediate neighborhood, sometimes alone and sometimes in company with
the agreeable Governor Ramsay, or with a kind clergyman
of this place. In this way I have visited several small
farmers, most of them French, who have come hither from
Canada. They all praise the excellence of the soil and
its fertility; they were capital people to talk with; seem
32 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed to be in a prosperous condition, had many children, but
that neatness and general comfort which distinguish the
homes of the Anglo-Americans I did not find in their
dwellings, but rather the contrary. On all sides the grass
waved over hills and fields, tall and of an autumnal yellow. There are not hands enough here to mow it. The soil
is a rich black mould, which is superb for the growth of
potatoes and grain, but not so agreeable for pedestrians in
white stockings and petticoats. A fine black dust soils
every thing.  The most lovely little lakes lie among the
hills, like clear mirrors in romantic peace and beauty. It
is a perfectly Arcadian landscape; but there yet lack the
shepherds and shepherdesses. The eastern shore of the
Mississippi, within Minnesota only, belongs to the whites,
and their number here does not as yet amount to more
than seven thousand souls. The whole western portion
of Minnesota is still Indian territory, inhabited principally
by two great nations, Sioux or Dacotahs, and Chippewas,
who live in a continual state of hostility, as well as by
some of the lesser Indian tribes. It is said that the government is intending shortly to purchase the whole of this
country; and that the Indian tribes are willing to treat,
and to withdraw themselves to the other side of the Missouri River, to the steppland of Nebraska and the Rocky
Mountains. These Indian tribes have already become so
degraded by their intercourse with the whites, that they
value money and brandy higher than their native soil, and
are ready, like Esau, to sell their birth-right for a mess of
pottage. But that cruel race which scalps children and
old people, and which degrades women to beasts of burden, m-ay as well move off into the wilderness, and leave
room for a nobler race. There is, in reality, only a higher
justice in it.
October 26th. I went yesterday with my kind entertainers into the Indian territory, by Fort Snelling, a fortress built by the Americans here, and where military are
B 2
33 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
stationed, both infantry and cavalry, to keep the Indians
in check. The Indians are terribly afraid of the Americans, whom they call "the Long Knives," and now the
white settlers are no longer in danger. The Indian tribes,
spite of the American intervention, continue their bloody
and cruel hostilities among-themselves.  Not long since a
number of Sioux warriors surprised a Chippewa village
while the men were away on their hunting, and killed
and scalped sixteen persons, principally women and children. Governor Ramsay ordered the ringleaders of this
attack to be seized and taken to prison. They went with
a proud step and the demeanor of martyrs for some noble
cause.
I was extremely curious to see the inside of one of
those tepees or wigwams, the smoke and fires of which I
had so often seen already; and as we chanced to see,
soon after entering the Indian territory, four very respectable Indian huts, I hastened to visit them. Governor
Ramsay, and an interpreter whose house was just by, accompanied me.   I directed my steps to the largest wigwam; to the opening of which two lean dogs were fastened with cords. The Indians eat their dogs when other
food fails. We opened the curtain of hide which represents a door, but instead of the dirt and poverty which I
expected to find, I was greatly surprised to see a kind of
rude Oriental luxury and splendor.
The fire burned in the middle of the hut, which was
large and well covered with buffalo skins. Two men,
whose faces were painted with red stripes and devices,
sat by the fire carving pipes from a blood-red kind of
stone. Round the walls of the hut sat the women and
children, upon cushions very showily embroidered, and
laid upon white blankets.  Some of them were painted
with a brilliant red spot in the middle of their cheeks,
the parting of their hair being painted red also. They
looked really handsome and full of animation, with their
34 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
bright black eyes and disheveled hair, thus seen in the
light of the flickering fire.  B3&ides this, they were friendly, and seemed amused by my visit.   They made room
for me to sit down beside them. The old women laughed
and chattered, and seemed very much at their ease. The
younger ones were more grave and bashful. The men
did not look up after their first glance at our entrance,
but continued- silently to work away at their pipes. A
great kettle, suspended by a rope from the poles at the
top of the hut, hung over the fire. It was dinner-tinae.
A young woman who sat on my right fed her little papoose, which seemed to be about three years old, and
which had also a grand red spot on each of its fat round
cheeks.
"Hoxidan?" said I, pointing to the child, that word
signifying boy.
"Winnona," replied she, in a low, melodious voice,
that word signifying girl.
And with that my stock of Indian words was exhausted.
I requested by signs to taste the soup of which she and
the child were eating, and she cheerfully handed to me
her bowl and spoon. It was a kind of thin soup, in which
beans were boiled, without salt, and without the slightest
flavor which I ceould perceive. She then offered me a
cake which was just baked, of a golden brown, and which
looked quite delicious. It was, I believe, made of wheaten flour, and without salt also, but very excellent nevertheless.
The interpreter was gone out.  Gov. Ramsay had also
seated himself.  The Indians filed on at their pipes; the
flames flickered merrily; the kettle boiled; the women ate
or looked at me, half reclining or sitting carelessly by the
fire-light. And I-looked at them. With inward wonder
I regarded these beings, women like myself, with the spirit
and the feelings of women, yet so unlike myself in their
purpose of life, in daily,life, in the whole of their world!
35 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
I thought of hard, gray, domestic life, in the civilized
world, a home without love, hedged in by conventional
opinion, with social duties, the duty of seeking for the
daughters of the family suitable husbands, otherwise they
would never leave the family; and with every prospect of
independence, liberty, activity, joy closed, more rigidly
closed by invisible barriers, than these wigwams by their
buffalo hides; a Northern domestic life-such an one as
exists in a vast number of Northern homes-and I thought
tha  that Indian hut and that Indian woman's life was
better, happier as earthly life.
Thus had I thought in the gas-lighted drawing-rooms
of New York and Boston, in the heat and the labor of being polite'or agreeable; of conversation and congratulation; of endeavoring to look well, to please and to be
pleased, and-I thought that the wigwam of an Indian
was a better and a happier world than that of the drawing-room. There they sat at their ease, without stays, or
the anxiety to charm, without constraint or effort, those
daughters of the forest! They knew not the fret and the
disquiet, the ennui and the fatigue, which is the consequence of a brief hour's social worry; they knew not the
disgust and the bitterness which is produced by little
things, little vexations, which one is ashamed to feel, but
which one must feel nevertheless. Their world might be
monotonous, but in comparison it was calm and fresh
within the narrow wigwam, while without there was free
space, and the rustling forest open to them with all its
fresh winds and odors. Ah!
But again I bethought myself of the Indian womenbethought me of their life and condition; with no other
purpose and no other prospect in life than to serve a husband whom they have seldom chosen themselves, who
merely regards them as servants, or as a cock regards the
hens around him. I saw the wife and the mother humiliated by the entrance of the new wife into the husband's
36 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dwelling, and his affection being turned to the stranger in
her sight, and in the same home, and in the fire-light of
that same hearth which had been kindled on her marriage
day, saw her despised or neglected by the man who constituted her whole world. Ah! the wigwam, the free
space of the forest, had no longer peace or breathing room
for the anguish of such a condition; alleviation of its agony or its misery is found merely in degradation or death.
Winnona's death-song on the rock by Lake Pepin; Am.
pato Sapa's death-song on the waters of the Mississippi,
when she and her children sought for the peace of forgetfulness in their foaming depths; and many other of their
sisters, who yet to this day prefer death to life, all testify
how deeply tragical is the fate of the Indian woman.
And again I bethought myself of love-warmed homes in
the cultivated world, in the North as well as in the South;
homes such as are frequent, and which become still more
and more so among a free and Christian people, where the
noble woman is the noble man's equal in every thing, in
pleasure and in need; where good parents prepare even
the daughters of the house for a life of independent activ
ity and happiness, for the possession of a world, an object
which is beyond the circumscribed boundary of the dwelling-house, no longer a buffalo-hide-enveloped wigwam. I
bethought me of her right, and the possibility of her acquiring a sphere of action in the intellectual world which
would make the torments of civilized life, whether small
or great, seem like cloudlets in a heaven otherwise bright;
bethought me of my own Swedish home, of my good mother, my quiet room, my peace and freedom there, as on the
maternal bosom, with space and view limitless as infinity.
And I thanked God for my lot!
But these poor women here! Three families resided in
this wigwam; there were only three husbands, but there
were certainly twelve or thirteen women. How many
bitter, jealous feelings must burn in many a bosom as
137 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
sembled here, day and night, around the same fire, partaking of the same meal, and with the same object in life!
I visited the other wigwams also. Each one presented
the same scene with but little variation.- Two or three
men by the fire, several women sitting or lying upon blankets or embroidered cushions round the walls of the hut,
and occupied with nothing for the moment. The men
carved red-stone pipes, which they sell to the whites at
very high prices; the work, however, in this hard stone is
not easy. This red stone is obtained from quarries situated
far up the Missouri. I can not but admire the hands of
these men; they are remarkably beautiful and well formed,
and are evidently, even as regards the nails, kept with great
care; they are delicate and slender, resembling rather the
hands of women than men.
I saw in one wigwam a young woman, who, as she sat
with her rich, unbound hair falling over her shoulders,
seemed to me so unusually handsome that I wished to
make a sketch of her. I also wished to take the portraits
of a couple of Indians, and requested Governor Ramsay
to prefer my request. He therefore, by means of the interpreter, Mr. Prescott, stated to an old chief named Mozah-hotah (Gray Iron) that I wished to take the likenesses
of all great men in this country, to show to the people on
the other side of the great water, and therefore that I requested him to sit to me a short time for that purpose.
The old chief, who is said to be a good and respectable
man, looked very grave, listened to the proposal attentively, and gave a sort of grunting assent. He then accompanied us to the house of the interpreter, from the doors
and windows of which peeped forth many little faces with
their Indian features and complexion, for Mr. Prescott has
an Indian wife, and many children by her.
I was soon seated in the house with the old chief before
me, who expressed some annoyance because he was not
in grand attire, having merely a couple of eagle's feath
38 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.,
ers in his hair, and not being so splendidly painted as he
ought to have been. He wore under his white woolen
blanket a blue European surtout, which he appeared anxious to have also included in the portrait. He evidently
considered this as something out of the common way. He
seemed a little uneasy to sit, and not at all comfortable
when the interpreter was out of the room. The Indians
universally believe that a likeness on paper takes away
from the life of the person represented, and on that account many Indians will not allow their portraits to be
taken.
The young Indian woman followed the old chief; she
came attired in her wedding-dress of embroidered scarlet
woolen stuff, and with actual cascades of silver rings,
linked one within another, and hanging in clusters from her
ears, round which the whole cluster was fastened; down
to her shoulders, her neck and breast were covered with
masses of coral, pearls, and other ornaments. The head
was bare and devoid of ornament. She was so brilliant
and of such unusual beauty that she literally seemed to
light up the whole room as she entered.  Her shoulders
were broad and round, and her carriage drooping, as is
usual with Indian women, who are early accustomed to
carry burdens on their back; but the beauty of the countenance was so extraordinary that I can not but think that
if such a face were to be seen in one of the drawing-rooms
of the fashionable world, it would there be regarded as
the type of a beauty hitherto unknown. It was the wild
beauty of the forest, at the same time melancholy and
splendid. The bashful gloom in those large, magnificent
eyes, shaded by unusually long, dark eyelashes, can not
be described, nor yet the glance, nor the splendid light of
the smile which at times lit up the countenance like a
flash, showing the loveliest white teeth.   She was remarkably light-complexioned for an Indian; the round of
the chin was somewhat prominent, which gave rather too
39 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
much breadth to her face, but her profile was perfect. She
was quite young, and had been married two years to a
brave young warrior, who, I was told, was so fond of her
that he would not take another wife, and that he would
not allow her to carry heavy burdens, but always got a
horse for her when she went to the town. She is called
.Mochpedaga - Wen, or Feather-cloud-woman. A young
Indian girl who came with her was more painted, but not
so handsome, and had those heavy features and that heavy
expression which characterize the Indian women, at least
those of this tribe.
I made a sketch of Mochpedaga-Wen in her bridal
attire.  She was bashful, with downcast eyes.  It was
with a pleasure mingled with emotion that I penetrated
into the mysteries of this countenance. A whole nocturn.
al worlds lay in those eyes, the dark fringes of which cast
a shadow upon the cheek.  Those eyes glanced downward
into a depth, dreamy, calm, without gloom, but at the same
time without joy and without a future.  The sunlight
of the smile was like a sunbeam of a cloudy day.  The
Feather-cloud had no light within itself. It was lit up
from without, and was splendidly tinted only for a moment.
After this gentle and beautiful, but melancholy image,
I must introduce to you the brave young warrior, and
the great Sprude-bosse, or Dandy —" Skonka Shaw," or
"White Dog," the husband of the "Feather-cloud," who
entered duly painted and in great pomp of attire, with a
huge tuft of feathers helmet-wise falling backward from
the head, and with three dark eagles' feathers, with tufts
of scarlet wool, stuck aloft in his hair, and with the marks
of five green fingers on his cheeks, to indicate that he was
a brave warrior and had killed many enemies. He was
tall and flexible of form, and he entered with a gay, animated aspect, amid a torrent of words, equally fluent with
what I had heard in the House of Representatives at Wash
40 
HOMES OF TH NEW WORLT.
ington, and of which I understood-about as much.   His
countenance had the same characteristics that I had already observed among the Indians, the hawk nose, broad at
the base, clear, acute, but cold eyes, which opened square,
with a wild-beast-like glance; the mouth unpleasing, and
for the rest, the features regular and keen. I made a
sketch also of him; his countenance was much painted
with red, and yellow, and green; there was nothing shy
about it, and it looked very warlike. But that which won
for him favor in my eyes was that he was a good husband
and loved his beautiful Feather-cloud.
Mrs. Ramsay, in the mean time, had gone out with her,
and put on her costume. And as she was very prettyof the pure Quaker style of beauty - she appeared really splendidly handsome in that showy costume, and the
Feather-cloud seemed to have great pleasure in seeing her
in it. But the handsome young white lady had not, after
all, the wonderful, mystic beauty of Feather-cloud. There
was between them the difference of the primeval forest
and the drawing-room.
I observed in the conversations of these Indians many
of those sounds and intonations which struck me as peculiar among the American people; in particular, there
were those nasal tones, and that piping, singing, or lamenting sound which has often annoyed me in the ladies
Probably these sounds may have been acquired by the
earliest colonists during their intercourse with the Indians,
and thus have been continued.
While I am with the Indians I must tell you of a custom among them which appears to me singular; it refers
to their peculiar names and their mode of acquiring them.
When the Indians, either man or woman, arrive at maturity, they go out into some solitary place, and remain
there fasting for several days. They believe that the
Spirit which has especial guardianship over them will
then reveal itself; and that which during these days
41 
IHOME OF THE NEW WORLD.
strongly attracts their sight or affects their imagination,
is regarded as the image or token by means of which their
guardian angel reveals itself to them, and they adopt a
name derived from that object or token. When they have
obtained the wished-for revelation, they return to their
family, but under a kind of higher guidance, and with a
greater right of self-government.
From a list of Indian names I select the following:
Horn-point; Round-wind;  Stand - and- look -out; The
Cloud- that-goes - aside; Iron-toe; Seek-the - sun; Ironflash; Red-bottle; White-spindle; Black-dog; Two-feathers-of-honor; Gray-grass; Bushy-tail; Thunder-face; Goon-the-burning-sod; Spirits-of-the-dead.
And among the female names, these:
Keep-the-fire; Spiritual-woman; Second- daughter- ofthe-house; Blue-bird, and so on.
Feather-cloud must have looked especially toward heaven to find her guardian angel.  May it conduct her lightly along her earthly pilgrimage, and preserve her from
the fate of Winnona and Ampota Sapa!  But-those deep
eyes, full of the spirit of night, seem to me prophetic of
the death-song.
The death-song consists of unmusical tones, almost devoid of melody, by which the Indians, male or female, relate the cause of their death, accuse their enemies, or
praise themselves.
They believe that the spirit after death still lingers for
a time near those earthly precincts which they have just
left, and that they continue to be still, in a certain manner, akin to earth. Therefore are maize and other provisions placed at the foot of the corpse during the time that
it lies on its elevated scaffold, exposed to the influence of
light and air. - The deceased has not as yet entered into
the realm of spirits; but when the flesh is withered from
the bones, these are buried with songs and dances. Then
has the departed spirit arrived in the land of spirits.
42 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"We believe," said a celebrated Indian chief to one of
my friends, "that when the soul leaves the body, it lingers for some time before it can be separated from its former circumstances, during which it wanders over vast
plains in the clear, cold moonlight.  Finally, it arrives at
a great chasm in the earth, on the other side of which
lies the land of the blessed, where there is eternal spring,
and rich hunting-grounds abundantly supplied with game.
There is, however, no other means of crossing this gulf
excepting by a barked pine-tree, which is smooth and
slippery. Over this the spirits must pass if they would
reach the land of bliss. Such spirits as have lived purely
and well in this world are able to pass this narrow bridge
safely, and safely to reach those regions of the blessed.
Such, however, as have not done so can not pass over
this smooth tree-stem, but lose their footing and fall into
the abyss."
This, for savages, is not so very bad an idea of retribution after death. The Indians' estimate, however, of good
and evil is, in other respects, very imperfect and circumscribed; and their idea of reward and punishment after
death is merely the reflex of their earthly joys and misfortunes.
They believe, as we do, in a Spirit of spirits, a supreme
God, who rules over every thing and all things, and the
Indians of the Northwest call himn the "Great Manitou."
He appears to be a power without the peculiar moral attributes.  They also believe in a number of lesser Manitous, or divinities, and it seems to me that, as regards
their theology, they are rather Pantheists than Monotheists.
They behold a transformed divinity in the forest, in stones,
in animals, in every thing which lives or which evinces
an in-dwelling power.   Manitou is in the bear and the
beaver, in the stone which emits the spark of fire, but
above all, in the forest which whispers and affords protection to man.
43 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It seems to me worthy of observation that these Indians
believe that every animal has a great original prototype
or type from which it is descended; hence all beavers
are descended from the great beaver, which lives some where forever under the water; all bluebirds from the
great bluebird, which flies invisibly above the clouds in
the immeasurable heights of space. The great beaver is
the great brother of all beavers, the great bluebird is the
brother and protector of all bluebirds.
They seek to propitiate Manitou by gifts and sacrifices,
which are often bloody and cruel. The mediators between
themselves and Manitou are their so-called medicine-men;
men who, by means of the knowledge of the mysteries of
nature and the power of magic, are considered able to invoke spirits, to avert misfortune, to heal sickness, and
obtain the fulfillment of human wishes. These men are
highly esteemed among the Indians, and are both their
priests and physicians.
You behold at the fall of night fires flaming upon the
prairie-hills on the banks of the Mississippi, and a crowd
of Indians, men and women, assembled around them,
making the most extraordinary gestures. Let us approach
nearer. Copper-colored men and women, to the number
of about one hundred, are dancing around, or rather hopping, with their feet close together and their arms hanging straight down, to the unmelodious music of a couple
of small drums and some dried gourds, which, being filled
with small stones, make a rattling noise when they are
shaken. The musicians are seated upon the green-sward.
The dancing men are painted in their grandest, but yet
most hideous manner, tawdry and horrible; and several
women, also, are plentifully covered with silver rings, and
with little silver bells hanging to their ears and to their
moccasins, and which they shake with all their might as
they hop along.
Every one has a little medicine-bag made of skin.
44 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
These are all medicine-men and women;  and  around
them is a ring of spectators, men, women, and children.
After a couple of old men have seated themselves in
the ring and talked for a little while, a march commences,
in which the whole circle is included, during which first
one and then another individual steps out of the procession, and takes his stand a little apart from the circle. A
medicine-man then, having blown into his mediocine-bag,
springs forward with a shrill resounding cry, and holds it
before the mouth of one of the patients standing in the
outer circle, who on that falls down insensible, and lies on
the ground for a time with quivering limbs. Thus falls
one after another of the assembly. An old Indian stands
smiling with a cunning expression, as if he would say,
" They'll not so soon catch me!" At the first application
of the medicine-bag, therefore, he merely staggers forward a few paces; after the second, bursts into an hysterical laugh, and it is not until the third mystical draught
that he falls down with convulsed limbs. In a little
while the fallen again rise and reunite themselves to the
procession, which is continued until all its members have
gone through the medicine-process, the unmelodious music
sounding without intermission. The old men seem more
amused by this scene than the young.
The medicine-dance is one of the chief festivities of the
Indians of Minnesota, and lasts for several days.  They
have also other dances, among which the war-dance is
most known. Men alone take part in this. They paint
their faces and bodies in the most horrible manner, and
their dance consists of the wild gestures and threatening
demonstrations which they make against each other.  I
have seen a painting of the scalp-dance of the women,
which is danced when the men return from war with the
scalps of their enemies.   These scalps, being placed on
tall poles, are held by women, who, with their female compeers, dance, or rather hop round, very much in the man.
45 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ner of geese with their feet tied, and with about as much
grace. The beating of drums, songs, and wild cries ac company the dance. The men stand round with eagles'
feathers in their hair contemplating this dance, which is
a greater delight, both to their eyes and their ears, than
probably any which the genius of Bournonville could create, or the skill of Taglioni or Elsler perform.
But I must yet add a few facts regarding the past and
present state of this savage people, which Lobtained from
trustworthy sources, partly from books, partly from oral
communications, as well as from my own observations.
When the Europeans first penetrated that portion of
America lying east of the Mississippi, a great deal was
said about vast stretches of desolate country; and since a
more accurate knowledge has been obtained of the Indian
tribes from Canada in the North, to Florida and Louisiana
in the South, and their population has been estimated, it
appears that the whole Indian race, east of the Great River, amounts to about 180,000 souls.  The tribes or families into which they are divided all greatly resemble each
other in physiognomy and manners, although some of
them are more warlike and cruel, and others more peacefully disposed. The principal tribes have lived, for the
most part, in a state of bloody hostility with each other
from time immemorial.
Research into the languages of the various Indian tribes
has proved that, however numerous the tribes may be,
there exist but eight radically distinct languages; and of
these five only are now spoken by tribes of eminence, the
other three having died out, and the languages of the remainder of the tribes appear to be dialects of some one or
other of the principal languages. These languages have
a definite form and construction; they are affluent in definitions, and the definitions of individual beings, but are
deficient in terms for the general idea. They indicate a
popular mind which has not advanced beyond the realm
46 
:IOES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of experience into that of reflection. Thus, for example,
they have names for the various kinds of oak, but not for
the genus oak; they speak of a holy man, but they have
no word for holiness; they could say our father, mine or
thy father, but they have no word for father. There is
nothing in their language which indicates a higher degree of cultivation among them as a people than they are
at present in possession of.  They love to speak in a symbolical manner, all their symbols being derived from the
realm of nature; and their writings and their art speak
also by means of such. I have seen a buffalo-hide covered with figures, in the style of children's drawings, which
represented battles, treaties of peace, and other such events;
the sun and the moon, trees, and mountains, and rivers,
fish and birds, and all kinds of animals, having their part
in the delineations; men and horses, however, in the most
distorted proportions, being the principal actors.  I have
also seen Indian songs inscribed upon trees and bark in
similar hieroglyphics.
The religious culture of the Indian has adopted the
same symbolic characters derived from natural objects.
They constitute a living hieroglyphic writing. They have
no sense of the worship of God in spirit and in truth, or
in the influence of love. But they have many religious
festivals; the Indians of Minnesota more than ten, at which
they offer sacrifices to the sun and the mool, trees, rivers,
stones, serpents-nay, indeed, to all things and all animals, to propitiate their spirits or their divinities. The
festival of the sun is celebrated by day, that of the moon
by night.  One festival is for their weapons of war, which
they regard as sacred, or as being possessed of an innate
divine power. At all these festivals they have dancing
and the beating of drums, as well as singing and many
ceremonies. The principal transaction on these occasions,
however, seems to be feasting; and as the Indians appear
to consider it a duty to eat every thing which is set before
47 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
them, frequently more than they are able, they are some times obliged to take medicine that it may be possible for
them to pursue their eating. At the Feast of the Spirits,
if the guest fails to eat all that is placed before him, he
must redeem himself by the forfeit of a buffalo or beaver
skin. Great quantities of provisions, especially of venison,
are collected for these festivities. In the mean time they
are often famished with hunger.
Their medical knowledge, even if classed with superstitious usages, is not to be despised, and they have large
acquaintance with healing herbs and the powers of nature.
A lady of Philadelphia, who resided many years among
the Indians, in order to gain a knowledge of their various
remedies, drew up, on her return, an Indian materia-medica, which became much celebrated, and many new curative means have thus enriched the American pharmacop(eia. Women are also, among the Indians, esteemed as
physicians and interpreters of dreams; and the Winnebago Indians, who dwell by Lake Superior, in the north.
eastern part of Minnesota, have now, singularly enough,
two queens whom they.obey-the one for her wisdom, the
other for her courage and bravery. OtherWise, women
among the Indians are, as is well known, servants who
do all the hard work, as well without as within the house.
They dig the fields (pieces of land without form or regularity), sow dhd reap, gather wild rice, berries, roots, and
make sugar from the juice of the sugar-maple.  When
the man kills a deer, he throws it down for the woman,
who must prepare it for household use.
" What estimate may be given of the morals and character of the Indian women in this neighborhood?" inquired I from a lady of St. Paul's, who had resided a considerable time at this place.
"l%any are immoral, and can not be much commended; but others, again, there are who are as virtuous and
blameless as any of us."
48 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I have also heard incidents cited which prove that the
Indian woman will sometimes assume, in the wigwam, the
privilege of the husband, bring him under the rule of the
moccasin, and chastise him soundly if he offend her.  He
never strikes again, but patiently lets himself be beaten
b)lack and blue. He knows, however, that his turn will
come, and he knows well enough that he can then have
his revenge.
When an Indian dies, the women assemble round the
corpse, make a howling lament, tear their hair, and cut
themselves with sharp stones. A missionary in Minnesota saw a young Indian woman slash and cut her flesh
over her brother's corpse in the most terrific manner,
while other women around her sung songs of vengeance
against the murderer of the dead. The god of revenge is
the ideal of the savage.
The virtues of the Indian man are universally known.
His fidelity in keeping a promise, his hospitality, and his
strength of mind under sorrow and suffering, have often
been praised. It strikes me, however, that these his virtues have their principal root in an immense pride. The
virtue of the Indian is selfish.  That dignity of which
we have heard so much seems to me more like the conceit of a cock than the natural dignity of a noble, manly
being. Now they raise themselves up, and stand or walk
proudly. Now they squat all in a heap, sitting on their
hams like dogs or baboons. Now they talk with proud
words and gestures; now prate and jabber like a flock of
magpies. There is a deal of parade in their pride and
silence.  Occasionally beautiful exceptions have been met
with, and still exist, where the dignity is genuine, and
the nobility genuine also.  These exceptions are met
with among the old chiefs in particular. But the principal features among the Indians are, after all, idolatry,
pride, cruelty, thirst of vengeance, and the degradation of'
woman.
VOL. II.-C
49 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
They have no other government nor governors but
through their chiefs and medicine-men. The former have
but little power and respect, excepting in their own individual character, and they seem greatly to fear the loss
of their popularity in their tribe.
Such, with little variation, are the manners, the faith,
and the condition of the North American Indians.
A great deal has been said, and conjectured, and written, and much inquiry has been made on the question of
whence came these people?  And it now seems to be an
established idea that they are of the Mongolian race, from
the northern part of Asia,-a resemblance having been discovered between them and this people, both in their appearance and mode of life, and also because Asia and
America approach each other so nearly at this point, that
the passage from one hemisphere to the other does not
appear an improbable undertaking for bold coasting voy.
agers.
The Peruvians of South America, and those noble- Az.
tees, who possessed a splendid, though short-lived power,
and whose noblest ruler spake words as wise and poetry
as rich as that of King Solomon; these Indians, and those
whose devastated cities have lately been discovered in
Central America, were evidently of a higher race than
the people of North America, -and their remains, as well
as all that is known of their manners and customs, prove
them to be kindred to the noblest Asiatic races.
The zealous upholders of the doctrine that all mankind
have descended from one single human pair, and who
placed them in Asia, are reduced to great straits to explain the emigration of these various people from the
mother country.  I can not understand why each hemisphere should not be considered as the mother country of
its own people. The same power-of nature, and the same
creative power, are able to produce a human pair in more
than one place. And when God is the father, and nature
.50 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the mother, then must indeed, in any case, the whole human race be brethren. And the Adamite pair may very
well consider themselves as the elected human pair, sent
to instruct and emancipate those young kindred pairs
which were still more in bondage than themselves to the
life of earth.  God forgive us for the manner in which we
have most frequently fulfilled our mission.
But North America is not altogether to blame with regard to her Indians. If the Indian had been more susceptible of a higher culture, violence and arms would not
have been used against him, as is now the case. And
although the earlier missionaries, strong in faith, and
filled with zealous ardor, succeeded in gathering around
them small, faithful companies of Indian proselytes, yet it
was evidently rather through the effect of their individual
character than from any inherent power in the doctrines
which they preached. When they died their flocks dispersed.
Sometimes white men of peculiar character have taken
to themselves Indian wives, and haye endeavored to make
cultivated women of them; but in vain.  The squaw continued to be the squaw; uncleanly, with unkemmed hair,
loving the dimnness of the kitchen more than the light of
the drawing-room, the ample envelopment of the woolen
blanket rather than tight lacing and silken garments.
The faithful wife and tender mother she may become,
steadfast to home and the care of her family as long as
her husband lives and the children are snmall; but when
the children are grown up, and if the husband be dead,
then will she vanish from her home.  When  the birds
warble of spring and the forest, and the streams murmur
of renovated life, she will return to the wigwams of- her
people in the forest or by the river, to seek by their fires
for freedom and peace.   This wild life must assuredly
have a great fascination.
Of all the tribes of North American Indians now exist
a
51 
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ing, the Cherokees and Choctaws are the only ones which
have received Christianity and civilization.  When  the
Europeans first visited these tribes, they were living in
small villages in the highland district of Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama; they were peaceful, and pursued agriculture. They were drawn from their homes by fair
means and foul, and obtained land west of the Mississippi, in the western part of the State of Missouri, and there
it is said they have become a large and flourishing community, greatly augmenting in number, and assimilating
to the manners and customs of Europeans. They are
employed in agriculture and the breeding of cattle; they
build regular houses, and have of late years reduced their
language to writing, and have established a printingpress. I have, among my American curiosities, a Cherokee newspaper, printed in the Cherokee language.
The wild Indians, who for the most part sustain themselves by fishing and hunting, are becoming more  and
more eradicated, in part by mutual wars, and in part by
the small-pox, as well as by brandy, which, adulterated
by pernicious inflammatory ingredients, is sold to them
by the white traders. The American government has
strictly interdicted the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians, but they are so covetous of intoxicating drinks, and
mean souls are every where so covetous of gain, that the
prohibition is of very-little avail. Spirituous liquors are
smuggled in with other merchandise among the Indians
of this district. The American government buys land
from the Indians, and with the money which is annually
distributed among them as payment they purchase "firewater," as well as the means of life, for which they pay
an exorbitant price. Thus they are impoverished by degrees, and fall into utter penury. Thus they become
more and more degraded, both morally and physically,
nor have their medicine-men either remedy or magic art
against the poisoned contact of the whites.
52 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Noble men among the Indians have spoken strong and
bitter words against these whites, and against their own
people falling under their influence.
"If the Great Spirit," said a Sioux chief to a Christian
missionary, "had intended your religion for the red man,
he would have given it to him. We do not understand
what you tell us; and the light which you wish to give
us darkens that clear, straight path upon which our fathers walked!"
As he lay dying he said to his people,
"Dig my grave yourselves, and do not let the white
man follow me there!"
Ah! over his grave the white man is advancing in the
name of light and civilization, and the "people of the twilight" give way before him, dying away by degrees in the
wilderness, and in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains.
It can not be otherwise.
And whatever interest I may feel in high-minded characters among the Indians, still I can not possibly wish for
a prolonged existence to that people, who reckon cruelty
among their virtues, and who reduce the weak to beasts
of burden.
The people who subject them, and who deprive them of
their niative land, are-whatever faults they may havea nobler and more humane people. They have a higher
consciousness of good and evil. They seek after perfection; they wish to cast aside the weapons of barbarism,
and not to establish on the new earth any other abiding
fortress than that of the Church of Christ, and not to bear
any other banner than that of the Prince of Peace. And
in latter times especially have they proved, even in their
transactions with the Indians, that they are earnest in this
desire.
The Indians, like the Greenlanders, look down upon the
white race with a proud contempt, at the same time that
they fear them; and their legend of what happened at the
53
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
creation of the various races proves naively how they view
the relationship between them.
"The first man which Manitou baked," say they, " was
not thoroughly done, and he came white out of the oven;
the second was overdone, was burned in the baking, and
he was black.   Manitou now  tried a third time, and
with much better success, this -third man was thoroughly
baked, and came out of the oven of a fine red brownthis was the Indian."
The learned of Europe divide the three principal races
of the earth into People of the Day-the Whites; People
of the Night-the Negroes; and People of the Twilightthe Indians of the Eastern and Western hemispheres.
What the negroes say about themselves and the other
races I know not; but this appears to me certain, that they
stand in closer proximity to the people of the day than to
the people of the twilight in their capacity for spiritual
development; that they have a grander future before them
than the latter, and less self-love than either.
Fort Snelling lies on the western bank of the Mississippi, where the St. Peter's flows into that river; and at this
point the view is glorious over the broad St. Peter's River,
called by the Indians the Minnesota, and of the beautiful
and extensive valley through which it runs. Further up
it flows through a highland district, and amid magnificent
scenery inland five hundred miles westward.  "There is
no doubt," writes a young American, in his travels through
Minnesota, "but that these banks of the St. Peter's will
some time become the residence of the aristocracy of the
country."
This must be a far-sighted glance, one would imagine;
but things advance rapidly in this country.
We visited, on our way to Fort Snelling, a waterfall,
called the Little Falls. It is small, but so infinitely beautiful that it deserves its own picture, song, and saga.  The
whitest of foam, the blackest of crags, the most graceful,
94 
HOMES OF- THE NEW WORLD. -
and, at the same time, wild and gentle fall! Small things
may become great through their perfection.
Later. I have to-day visited, in company with a kind
young clergyman, the so-called Fountain Cave, at a short
distance from the city. It is a subterranean cavern with
many passages and halls, similar probably to the celebrated
Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.   Many such subterranean
palaces are said to be found in Minnesota, although they
have not yet been explored; neither has this grotto been
thoroughly penetrated. I enjoyed myself sitting under its
magnificent arched portico, drinking of its crystalline fountain, and listening to the song of its falling water in the
far interior of the grotto. The grotto is reached by an
abrupt and deep descent, resembling a gigantic pit; within this one finds one's self surrounded by lofty walls of
sandstone, one of which expands if tselinto a gigantic port.
al, and all beyond is dark. The whole circle of the inclosing walls is perforated with innumerable small round
holes, in which small birdIs have their nests.
To reach the grotto, we passed through extensive meadows lying along the Mississippi.  The grass stood tall and
yellow.  The air was as warm as a summer's day.  It
was the Indian summer. The meadows looked most pleasant, m6st fertile and inviting.  We met a milk-maid also
coming with her milk-pails; she was handsome, but had
artificial curls, and did not look like a regular milk-maid,
not as a true milk-maid in a pastoral ought to look.
But this Minnesota is a glorious country, and just the
country for Northern emigrants-just the country for a
new Scandinavia. It is four times as large as England;
its soil is of the richest description, with extensive wooded
tracts; great numbers of rivers and lakes abounding in
fish, and a healthy, invigorating climate. The winters
are cold and clear; the summers -not so hot as in those
states lying lower on the Mississippi. The frosts seldom
commence beforethe middle of September.
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Lake Itaski, the cradle of the Mississippi, lies one thou sand five hundred and seventy-five feet above the Mexican
Gulf; and the highland district which surrounds Itaska
in a half circle on the north, that gigantic terrace, Haz teur des terres, where the springs of those mighty rivers,
the Mississippi, the St. Louis, the St. Lawrence, the Red
River, and many others have their source, lies still two
hundred feet higher. The whole of Minnesota is hilly.
Minnesota is bounded on the east by Lake Superior (the
Mediterranean Sea of America), and is brought by this into
connection with the Eastern States, with the St. Lawrence,
and the Hudson, and the Atlantic Ocean. It has Canada
on the north, on the west the wild Missouri, navigable
through almost the whole of its extent, and flowing at the
feet of the Rocky Mountains, rich in metals and precious
stones, and with prairies where graze wild herds of buf faloes, elks, and antelopes. On the other side of Missouri
lies that mystical Indian Nebraska, where, beyond the
'Rocky Mountains, and for the most part still unknown,
lies Oregon, an immense territory, with immense resources
in natural productions, vast stretches of valley and vast
rivers, the Columbus and the Oregon, which empty themselves into the Pacific Ocean, and in whose cascades salnon leap in shoals, as in the rapid rivers of Norway and
Sweden. On the south of Minnesota lies the fertile Iowa,
a young state, with beautiful rivers, the Iowa, Cedar, and
Des Moines; extensive stretches of valley and rich pasture-lands; and through the very heart of Minnesota flows
that great artery, the Mississippi, the birth of which it witnesses, and upon whose waters it can convey all the produce of the North to the South, and obtain all the produce
of the South both for the North and for itself.
What a glorious new Scandinavia might not Minnesota
become! Here would the Swede find again his clear, romantic lakes, the plains of Scania rich in corn, and the
valleys of Norrland; here would the Norwegian find his
66 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
rapid rivers, his lofty-mountains, for I include the Rocky
Mountains and Oregon in the new kingdom; and both na tions their hunting-fields and their fisheries. The Danes
might here pasture their flocks and herds, and lay out their
farms on richer and less misty coasts than those of Denmark. The Rocky Mountains are a new Seveberg with
mythological monsters, giants and witches enough to feed
the legendary mind and the warlike temperament. The
gods must yet combat here with the Hrimthursar and the
giants; Balder must have a fresh warfare with Loke, in
which Balder will be victorious, and the serpent of Midgaerd be laid at rest in the Pacific Ocean- at least till
the great Ragnarok.
Neither would the joys of Valhalla be wanting in the
New Vineland of the vine-crowned islands of the Mississippi, and the great divine hog Schrimmer has nowhere
such multitudes of descendants as in the New World. But
the Scandinavians must not rest satisfied with the heathenish life of festivity.  They must seek after nobler enjoyments.
But seriously, Scandinavians who are well off in the
Old Country ought not to leave it. But such as are too
much contracted at home, and who desire to emigrate,
should come to Minnesota. The climate, the situation,
the character of the scenery agrees with our people better
than that of any other of the American States, and none
of them appear to me to have a greater or a more beautiful future before them than Minnesota.
Add to this that the rich soil of Minnesota is not yet
bought up by speculators, but may every where be purchased at government prices, one dollar and a quarter per
acre.  I have been told that the Norwegian pastor in Luther's Dale, Mr. Clausen, is intending to remove hither
with a number of Norwegians, in order to establish a settlement. Good. There are here already a considerable
number both of Norwegians and Danes. I have become
C, 2
57
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
acquainted with a Danish merchant, resident here, who
has made a considerable fortune in a few years in the fur
trade with the Indians, and who has built himself a large
and handsome country house at some little distance from
the city.   His wife, who is the -daughter of an Indian
woman by a white man, has the dark Indian eye, and
features not unlike those of the Feather-cloud woman,
and in other respects is as much like a gentlewoman as
any agreeable white lady. I promised this kind Dane,
who retains the perfect Danish characteristics in the midst
of Americans, that I would, on my return, in passing
through Copenhagen, pay a visit to his old mother, and
convey to her his greeting.
And here I may as well remark, en passant, that the
children of Indian women by white men commonly attach
themselves to the white race.  They are most frequently
fine specimens of humanity, although not of a remarkably
elevated kind. They are praised for their acuteness of
eye, and the keenness of their perceptive faculties generally. I have heard that the greater number of the steersmen of the Mississippi boats belong to this half-blood race.
A young Norwegian woman lives as cook with Governor Ramsay; she is not above twenty, and is not remarkably clever as a cook, and yet she receives eleven dollars
per month wages.  This is an excellent country for young
servants.
I shall to-morrow commence my voyage down the Mis.
sissippi as far as Galena; thence to St. Louis, at which
place I shal proceed up the Ohio to Cincinnati, and thence
to New Orleans, and, advancing onward, shall proceed from
some one of-the southern sea-port towns to Cuba, where I
intend to winter.
I am not quite satisfied about leaving this part of the
country.  I wish to see more of the Indians and their way
of life, and feel something like a hungry person who is
obliged to leave a meal which he has just commenced.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I wish to see more of the country and the aborigines, but
do not exactly see how and in what manner. Neither
roads nor means of conveyance are to be met with here,
as in the more- cultivated states. Besides which, I must
not any longer remain in this family, which has so hospi tably provided me a chamber by sending.the only child
of the family, a beautiful little infant, and its nurse, into
a cold room. The child must return into its warm chamber, for the nights are getting cold. I long for the South,
and dread these cold nights on the Mississippi; and it is
too far, and the roads are too difficult for me to go to another family, residing at some distance, who have kindly
invited me to their house, and-the inward light does not
afford me any illumination, and the inward voice is silent.
I shall therefore commence my journey, but someway I
have a presentiment that I shall have to repent it.
I shall part from my cheerful and kind hostess with
regret.  I shall take with me a pair of Indian moccasins
for your little feet, and another pair for Charlotte's, and
a bell-purse of Indian work for mamma. The work of
the Indian women is ornamental and neat, although deficient in taste and knowledge of design.  Scarlet and
fine colors predominate in their embroidery as well as in
the festal attire of their people. Scarlet seems to be a
favorite color with all children of nature.
I have gained some information from the young Pres.
byterian missionary here regarding the effect of missionary labors among the Indians, which seems to promise a
brighter future for them than I had hitherto imagined.
Since the Gospels have been translated into the language
of the principal tribes and have been studied by them,
Christianity has made considerable advances among  the
savage people, and with each succeeding year have the
results of missionary labors been more and more striking.
When, in 1828, "a revival" in the religious life occasioned a reanimation and a new organization of mission
59 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ary labor, there were only-thirty-one missionaries among
the Indians, with a revenue of only 2400 dollars for carrying out the work of instruction.
At this time (1850) there are 570 missionaries-more
than half of whom are women, among the Indians, with
a revenue of 79,000 dollars yearly; to these missionaries
must be added 2000 preachers and helpers among the
natives themselves. A thousand churches of various
Christian denominations have been erected, and the number of professing Christians of the Indian tribes amounts
at this time to 40,537. A great number of schools have
been established, and are increasing daily, where the Indian children may receive instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as in handcraft trades. The
women easily acquire these latter. The boys learn to
read and write with greater.ffacility than the girls; but
it is very difficult to accustom them to order and punctuality. It is not until after religious conversion that it
is possible to impart moral and physical cultivation to
them, before which they will have nothing to do- -with it.
The number of schools has already increased to between
four and five hundred, and the number of scholars, both
boys and girls, is more than 30,000.   Seminaries for boys
and girls have also been established.   Printing-presses
have been introduced, and printed works in thirty different languages have been produced.   Mr. Williamson, the
missionary of Kaposia, considers the ignorance of the Indians to be the greatest impediment to their cultivation.
The women are the most accessible to religious impressions; the men, in particular those of the warlike tribes,
as the Sioux, for instance, are more difficult to influence,
and they will not listen to a doctrine which is diametrically opposed to that which constitutes their heathenish
virtueand happiness. The missionaries, therefore, have
as yet made but little way among the Sioux, nor indeed
have they yet advanced among the savage tribes lying
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
between Minnesota and the Rocky Mountains.   It will
not be long, however, before they do so.
From the annual report of the American Board of Missions for the year 1850, from which I have taken many
of the above facts, I extract the following words:
"How long will it be before we establish a synod on
the shores of the Pacific Ocean? Already are our missionaries scattered over the whole of the United States
east of the Mississippi, with the exception of one little
valley in the northeast. They have crossed that river,
and are now beginning zealously to occupy that immense
country which extends westward of it, from the Mexican
Gulf to the -British colonies of the North. Nay, more
still; they have wandered over the whole continent, and
in that new world of the West have begun to found a
kingdom of God. What will our progress be ultimately?
The spires of our churches along the shores of the Atlantic are illumined by the light of the morning sun.  Advancing over the country, it shines upon them through
the whole day; and when it sets, its last rays still rest
upon these as they rise upward along the shores of the
Pacific Ocean. Yes, we have done something, with God's
aid; but we have yet infinitely more to do before we have
fulfilled the measure of our duty."
That is a good little specimen of the labor and the eloquence of the West.
Thus a little flock even of the red men have on earth
entered the kingdom of Christ.  And if, out of those
40,000 who publicly acknowledge themselves of the
Church of Christ, 10,000 only, nay if only 1000 be really Christians, there is still enough for an infinite future.
In those " happy lands" where the red children of God
will one day be at home, beyond the dark abyss, will they
labor for the liberation of their brethren, "the children of
the twilight," who remain in the realm of shadows.
The kingdom of theSavior and the work of salvation
61 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
are not circumscribed to this little space and to this short
time. Their space and their time are eternal as the heart
of God. I know that the missionaries here promulgate
another doctrine; and it is inconmprehensible how they by
that means are able to make any progress, incomprehens ible how they can have any satisfaction in so doing. But
a light, stronger, mightier, than that of these circumscribed
doctrines must proceed from the Word of Christ to the
heart of the heathen, and attract it to His cross and His
crown, from the hunting-grounds and the wild dances of
earth to His heaven. I can not believe otherwise.
It is evening, and the bright glow of fires lights up the
western heaven, as it has done every evening since I came
here.  It is the glow of the Indian prairie fires, which they
kindle to compel the deer to assemble at certain points,
as it is now their hunting season.  In this manner they
take a vast number of deer, but at the same time destroy
the chase, and by that means occasion still greater want,
or are compelled to go still further westward into the wilderness.
But the West is brilliant, and all the saints-St. Peter,
St. Paul, St. Charles, a settlement still higher up, St. Anthony, who is beginning to build a city-who have taken
up their abode on the Northern Mississippi, and who now
are lit up by the fires of the Indians, will give a new dawn
to the wilderness and anew light to life.
The West is brilliant from the burning prairies, from
the wild chase. I love that glow, because it has a poetical splendor; it shines over the moon-dances, and the
councils, and the feasts of the spirits.  But it is, after all,
rather brightness than light.
When homes such as those of Andrew Downing and
Marcus S., and of my good friend Mrs. W. H., which is
almost a Swedish home, stand upon the heights of the
Mississippi and St. Peter's; when church spires shine out
and scalp-ances are no longer danced there; when voices
62 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
such as those of Channing, and Emerson, and Beecher,
and Bellows, lift themselves in the councils, and when
Lucretia Motts speak there also for freedom, peace, and
the rights of woman; when the Christian Indian States,
Nebraska, &c., stand peacefully side hy side of Minnesota,
then-it may be in a hundred years-then will I return
to Minnesota and celebrate a new feast of the spirits; and
I will return thither in-the spirit!
LETTER ~XVIII.
On the Mississippi, Oct. 24.
FLOATING down the Great River, "the Father of Rivers,"
between Indian camps, fires, boats, Indians standing or
leaping, and shouting, or rather yelling, upon the shores;
funeral erections on the heights; between vine-clad islands, and Indian canoes paddling among them! I would
yet retain these strange foreign scenes; but I proceed onward, passing them by. We leave this poetical wilderness, the region of the youthful Mississippi, and advance
toward that of civilization.  The weather is mild, the sun
and the shade sport among the mountains-a poetical, romantic life!
Oct. 25th. Sunbright, but cold. The Indians have vanished.  We have passed the " Prairie du Chien-;" the idolstone of the red Indian; the Indian graves under the autumnally yellow trees.  The hills shine out, of a splendid
yellow-brown.   The ruins and the pyramids of primeval
ages stand forth gloomy and magnificent amid the brilliant forests. With every bend of the river new and astonishing prospects present themselves. I contemplate
them, read Emerson's Essays, and live as at a festival.
We  approach the commencement of two towns on the
shore of Iowa, Gottenborg, a descendant, as I imagine, of
our Gotheborg, and Dubuque.
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Oct. 27th. Again at Galena, among the lead mines, for
a couple of days. It is Sunday, and I am returned fromn
church, where I have heard a young Presbyterian minister,
of the Presbyterian Church, Mr Magoon. A true disciple
of the Great West! No narrow evangelical views. No,
an evangelical consciousness as wide as the Western prai ries, as vast as the arch of heaven which spans them, and
with breathing-room for the fresh winds of infinity.
The young minister's theme was the relationship which
exists between a cultivated and a religious life.
The importance of a true philosophy in the doctrines
of religion, in order the better to understand and to develop
them.
The importance of the development of physical life in
promoting the advance of spiritual life.
God's guiding hand in the awakening of all this, both
in society and the Church, was shown by him in an an imated and earnest manner.
Job said, "He says to the lightning, go! And it goeth!"
The electric telegraph is the lightning of God's finger,
made subservient to man.
Philosophy is God's light in reason, illumining the darkness both of reason and of the Scriptures.
"It is thus that a metaphysical distinction may save a
soul."
I could but think, on hearing this, of H. Martensen's
dialectical gifts of God!
Lastly; the union of the highest life of the head and the
heart, operating in and explanatory of all spheres of life,
as they exist in the Church of the Millennium. These were
the principal topics in the sermon of this young minister.
An earnest prayer, full of purport, on the prayer "Thy
- Kingdom Come," completed the whole service; one of the
most liberal and comprehensive, one of the freshest and
most refreshing which I have heard from the pulpit of any
country.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
A tirade against Catholicism was the only feature in it
to be regretted, because it does not become the Great
West to exclude any form of the divine life. And what,
indeed, are all the various Christian communities other
than various pews in the same church, dividing the whole
into groups of families or relations?
The old Pilgrim Church seems to me now to be the one
which exhibits most indwelling life, which grows and expands itself to embrace the whole of human life, and to
baptize it to the kingdom of God.
Oct. 29th. I have established myself excellently at the
American Hotel, and I do not intend, during the few days
that I shall remain here, to accept the kind invitation
which I have received to a beautiful private home. I
have here my nice little Irish maid, Margaret, and have
every thing exactly as I wish-among the rest, potatoes,
morning, noon, and night, quite as good as our Aersta potatoes. I enjoy-my freedom and my solitary rambles over
the hills round the town during these fine days.
Yesterday, the agreeable, liberal-minded young minister, Mr. Magoon, drove me and a lady, a friend of his, to
a height-Pilot IKob, I thiak it is called —by the Mississippi, from which we were to see the sun set. Arrived
there, we clambered up among bushes, and long grass,
and stones-difficult enough; and obtained, when we had
gained the summit, one of those ocean-like land views
which the Great West only presents. And through that
infinite billowy plain rolled the Mississippi, like a vein of
silver, far, far away into the immeasurable distance; and
over land and river reposed the misty veil of the Indian
summer, and its inexpressible, gentle peace.  The On
had just set; but a roseate glow lay like a joyful benediction over that vast fertile region. It was indescribably
grand and pleasant.
I thought how a year ago, at this season, my spirit had
been depressed at New York; how, later, it darkened still
6,5 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
more for me at Boston, and how I then thought, "Shall
I be able to endure it?"  And now I stood serene and
vigorous by the Mississippi, with the Great West open be fore me, with a rich future, and the whole world bright!
I thanked God!
On our return to Galena, the carriage broke down.
The young clergyman sprang out, pulled forth some rope
and a knife, and began to work in good earnest, as he
said, merrily,
"You must know, Miss Bremer, that,coach-building belongs, here in the West, to our theology."
The emigrants to the West must, to a certain degree,
experience the trouble and the renunciation of the early
Pilgrim Fathers. And in order to succeed, they require
their courage and perseverance.
But people pass through these necessary stages much
more quickly now than they did then.  The beautiful,
excellent American homes, with verandas, and trees, and
gardens, which begin to adorn the hills round Five River,
prove this.  The good home, and the church, and the labors of Christian love, encroach daily more and more upon
the fields and the life of heathenism. I do not now mean
of the Indian, but of the white man.
I shall to-day go on board the good steam-boat Minnesota, to descend the Mississippi as far as St. Louis. Perhaps I may make a pause by the way, at the town of Rock
Island, to visit the Swedish settlement of Eric Jansen, at
Bishop's Hill, a few miles from the town.
Among the agreeable memories of my stay at Galena,
I shall long retain that of a banker, Mr. H., who showed
r   so much kindness, such brotherly or fatherly consideration and care for me, that I shall ever think of him
and of his city with gratitude.
The newspapers of the West are making themselves
merry over the rapturous reception which the people of
New York have given Jenny Lind. In one newspaper
article I read:
66 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"Our correspondent has been fortunate enough to hear
Jenny Lind-sneeze.   The first sneezing was a mezzotinto soprano, &c., &c.;" here follow many absurd musical and art terms; "the second was, &c., &c.;" here follow the same; "' the third he did not hear, as he fainted."
I can promise the good Western people that they will
become as insane with rapture as their brethren of the
East, if Jenny Lind should come hither. They now talk
like the Fox about the Grapes, but with better temper.
One of the inhabitants of St. Paul's, who had been at
New York, returned there before I left.  He had some
business with Governor Ramsay, but his first words to
this gentlemen were, "Governor! I have heard Jenny
Lind!"
Jenny Lind, the new Slave Bill, and the protests against
it in the North, Eastern, and Western States, are, as well
as the Spiritual Rappings or Knockings, the standing topics of the newspapers.
While people in the Northern States hold meetings and
agitate against this bill, which allows the recapture of
fugitive slaves in the free states, various of the Southern
States, especially the Palmetto State and Mississippi, raise
an indignant cry against the infringement of the rights of
the South, and threaten to dissolve the Union.  And the
states compliment each other in their newspapers in any
thing but a polite manner. A Kentucky journal writes
thus of South Carolina:
"Why has she not mnarched out of the Union before
now? The Union would be glad to be rid of such a baggage!"
On the Mississippi, November 2d.
We are lying before Rock Island. Some kind and
agreeable gentlemen have just been on board, with a proposal to convey me to the Swedish settlement. I can not
be other than grateful to them for their kindness and
good-will; but the nights are becoming cold; I am not
-k
67 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
quite well, and —what should I do there?  We, my countrymen and myself, should not understand one another,
although we might speak the same language.  But I was
well pleased to gain intelligence from these gentlemen,
merchants of Rock Island, regarding the present conditioin
of the Swedes in the colony.
Since the death of the bishop, as they called Eric Jansen, they have gone on more prosperously. He, however,
by his bad management, left them burdened by a large
debt of ten or eleven thousand dollars, and some of them
are now gone to California to get gold, to endeavor by that
means to liquidate it. Some of the Swedes at Bishop's
Hill have unremittingly proved themselves to be honest,
pious, and industrious people, and as such they have the
confidence of the inhabitants of the town (Rock Island),
and obtain on credit the goods for which they are at present unable to pay. They have built several handsome
brick houses for themselves, and manage their land well.
They have begun to grow and to spin flax, and they derive an income from the linen thread they have thus to
sell. They continue steadfast in their religious usages,
their prayers, and their faith in Eric Jansen, who seems
to have had almost a demoniacal power over their minds.
When they were ill and did not recover by the remedies
and prayers of Eric Jansen, he told them that it was owing to their want of faith in him, and because they were
reprobate sinners.  Many died victims to the diseases of
the climate, and for want of proper carp.
The respectable and agreeable man, who was well acquainted with the Swedish colony, would not say any thing
decidedly against Eric Jansen, nevertheless he doubted
him; on the contrary, he praised Eric Jansen's wife as
being very excellent and agreeable. She also had died
of one of those fevers which raged in the colony; and four
days afterward, Eric Jansen stood up during divine service in the church, and declared that "the Spirit had
68 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
commanded him to take a new -wife!" Anct a woman
present stood up also and said, that "the Spirit had made
known to her that she must become his wife!" This
was four days after the death of the first excellent wife.
Such a proceeding elucidates the spirit which guided
Eric Jansen.
His murderer, the Swede Rooth, will be tried in the
morning. It is believed that he will be acquitted, as the
occasion of the deed was such as might well drive a man
mad. Rooth had married a girl in the Swedish colony,
contrary to the wishes of Eric Jansen. Persecuted by the
enmity of Jansen, it was Rooth's intention to leave the
place, and accordingly he had privately sent off his wife
and child, a little boy, in the night.  They were pursued
by order of Jansen, captured, and conveyed in a boat down
the Mississippi, no one knew where; it is said to St. Louis.
Captain Schneidan saw Rooth on the very morning when
the intelligence of this reached him. He was pale and
scarcely in his right senses. In this excited state of mind
he hastened to Eric Jansen, whom he met just setting off
to church in the midst of his followers. He thus addressed him:
"You have had my wife and child carried off, I know
not where. They are perhaps dead, and I may never see
them more! I do not care to live any longer myself, but
you shall die first!" And, so saying, he drew forth a pistol and shot him in the breast. Eric Jansen died almost
in a moment. Rooth made no attempt to fly, but allowed
himself to be seized by the exasperated people.
The little colony amounts to between seven and eight
hundred persons, and is now under the government of two
men whom they have selected, and they continue to hold
the same religious faith in freedom from sin as during the
life of their first leader. Taken abstractedly, their faith
is not erroneous.  The new man does not sin; but then
they overlook the fact that sin is never perfectly eradicated
69
t 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
from the human heart here on earth, and that, therefore,
we must always remain sinful creatures till the time of
our conversion arrives. The principal error of the Swedish emigrants consists in their faith in the sinner Eric
Jansen, and in sinners such as themselves.
The weather is wAt and chilly.   The scenery of the
banks is still of a highland character, but decreases in
magnificence and beauty. The hills are -broken up, as it
were, and lie scattered over the prairies, which terminate
with the river. White towns and churches shine out here
and there along the shores. We are here on the shore of
Illinois. Rock Island is situated at the outlet of the Illinois into the Mississippi. On the opposite side lies the
State of Iowa, and there shines out white and lovely the
little city of Davenport, which derives its name from its
founder, and its celebrity from a horrible murder committed there on the person of an old man, one Sunday morning, by four young men, for his money. *It is not long
since.  Bloody deeds have happened and still happen on
the banks of the Mississippi.
November 3d. We steam down the Mississippi but slowly.  The steamer drags along with her two huge barks or
flat-boats, laden probably with lead from Galena, one on
each side of the vessel. They say that these are a means
of safety in case any accident should befall the steamer,
and her passengers thus be in danger;  they might then
save themselves in the flat-boats.   But they make the
voyage very slow, and in the night I hear such extraordi,
nary noises, thunderings and grindings in the vessel, as if
it were panting, bellowing, and groaning under its heavy.
labor, and were ready to give up the ghost. These are
probably occasioned by its hard work with the flat-boats.
But it is not agreeable, and the sound is so dreadful at
night that I always lie down dressed, ready to show myself in public in case of an explosion. Such misadventures are of every-day occurrence on the Mississippi, and
70 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
one hears frequently of such also on other rivers and on
the lakes of this country. Several of the passengers on
board have with them life-preservers, belts or girdles
of caoutchouc, to save them in case of danger. I have
none; I have here neither an intimate acquaintance nor
friend, who would put forth his hand to me in a moment
of danger.  But I know not how it is; I feel as if there
were no need for fear. Only I am always prepared for a
nocturnal "start."'
The captain of the steamer is evidently a prudent general, and all goes on calmly and well. The table is
abundant and excellent. The only thing that I feel the
want of is milk for coffee and tea; cream is a thing not
to be thought of, and is seldom met with any where in
this country. One must learn to dispense with milk on
one's river voyages in the West and South. I can manage to swallow coffee without milk; but it is almost impossible for me to take tea without it. I made a little
complaint about it at tea last evening.
"Well!" said a Colonel Baxter, an excellent man, opposite to me, " we flquently"did not taste milk for many
weeks together during the Mexican war!"
"Oh!"  said I, "but then you had glory to console
yourselves with. What can not people dispense with *
when they have that! But here in a steam-boat, without
glory and without milk! it is too much!"
They laughed, and this morning we had plenty of milk
to breakfast.                         
The  greater number of the attendants are negroes.
The stewardess is a mulatto, neither agreeable nor good
tempered.  There are not many passengers in the better
part of the vessel, and by no means disagreeable.  The
gentlemen's side is rather full; two thirds of these have
a, somewhat common appearance; they are "businessmen"' from head to foot.
I spend most of my time in my pleasant little state
0
71
I& 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
room, or in walking backward and forward under the
piazza in front of it, where I amuse myself by the spec tacle of the river and its shores. The waters of the Mis sissippi still retain their bright yellow-green color, though
they are beginning to be turbid. Three-decked steamers,
large and small, with their pair of chimneys, puffing out
vehemently under the influence of "high pressure" as
they advance up the stream, speed past us; vast timber floats, upon which people both build and cook, row down
the stream with gigantic oars; covered barks, vessels,
and boats of every description and size are seen upon the
river. It becomes more animated and broader, but still
continues to flow on with a majestic calmness.
On our right lies the State of Iowa Illinois on the left.
The views are grand and extensive; broad stretches of
valley expand; the hills become lower; the land, to a
great distance, slopes gradually down to the river in gen tle, billowy meadows, with a background of wood. It
has a beautiful and fertile appearance, but is not much
cultivated., We are now in the corn-regions of the Mis sissippi Valley; rich in all kinds of grain, but principally
in the rich golden-yellow maize.
Along the Mississippi, through its whole extent, from
* Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, lies a pearl-band of
states. There are on the eastern side of the river Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and
Louisiana; and on the western side, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, for, like Minnesota, Louisiana
embraces both banks of the Mississippi; Minnesota at its
commencement among the hills, Louisiana at its outlet
into the sea. Between these two states, Minnesota in the
north, and Louisiana in the south, flows the Mississippi,
through a variety of regions distinguished by dissimilar
climates and natural productions. Minnesota is its north,
with the pine forests of the North, and Northern winters,
with bears and elks, with the wild roses and the berries
0
72 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the North, with primeval forests and Indians.  Wiscon'
sin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee in the east, Iowa and
Missouri, and a part of Arkansas in the west, are situated
within the temperate zone. Agriculture and civilization
are extending there. These states, like their neighboring
states in the East, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, consti tute the great corn magazine of America, and the central
portion of the Mississippi Valley. Beyond these, to the
east, extend the Alleghany Mountains, and the Eastern
or Atlantic States. Beyond the Mississippi States, to-the
west, extends the Indian wilderness, Nebraska, and the
Rocky Mountains. With Tennessee on the east, and
Arkansas on the west, we enter the region of cotton; with
Louisiana, the region of sugar, the south, and summer
life.
Illinois and Iowa are still free states; to the south of
these lie the Slave States. In Illinois and Iowa there are
Swedish and Norwegian settlements, but further south
they have not yet advanced.   The central Mississippi
States are occupied more by Germans and Irish; and
more southern still, by French and Spaniards. All these
are governed by the laws and manners of the Anglo-Nor
man race. It is the same with the Jews, who are very
numerous in America, especially in the West. But they
also enjoy all civil rights like natives of the country, and
are much less distinguished from the European popular
tion here than they are in Europe; so little, indeed, that
I have scarcely ever thought- "that is a Jew," it being
hardly possible to distinguish a Jew in this country from
a dark-complexioned American.
We are now within sight of Nauvoo, formerly the capital of the Mormon district, and the magnificent ruin of
their former temple is seen standing on its elevated site.
One of my friends, who some years ago was traveling on
the Mississippi, went on shore at Nauvoo, a few days aft,
er the Mormon prophet, Joe Smith, was killed by the peo  VOL. II. —D
73 
HOMES OF THE, NEW WORLD.
pie of Illinois. He saw the people of the town and the
district, a population of about twenty thousand, come
forth from their dwellings to the singing of psalms; saw
them advance westward into the wilderness to seek there
for that promised land which their prophet had foretold to
them. After a wandering of three thousand miles through
wildernesses, amid-manifold dangers and difficulties, and
the endurance of much suffering, they arrived at the Great
Salt Lake, and its fertile shores. There they have within a few years so greatly increased and multiplied, that
they are now in a fair way to become a powerful state.
Faith can, even in these days, remove mountains-nay,
more, can remove great cities. N-auvoo is now purchased
by the French communist, Cabet, who will there establish a society of " Egalitaire."
Yes, in this Great West, on the shores of the Great
River, exist very various scenes and peoples. There are
Indians; there are squatters; there are Scandinavians,
with gentle manners and cheerful songs; there are Mormons, Christian in manners, but fanatics in their faith in
one man (and Eric Jansenists are in this respect similar
to the Mormons); there are desperate adventurers, with
neither faith nor law', excepting in Mammon and clublaw; gamblers, murderers, and thieves, who are without
conscience, and their number and their exploits increase
along the banks of the Mississippi the further we advance
south.  There are giants, who are neither good nor evil,
but who perform great deeds through the force of their
will, and their great physical powers, and their passion
for enterprise. There are worshipers of freedom and communists; there are slave-owners and slaves. There are
communities who build, as bees and beavers do, from instinct and natural necessity. There are also, clear-headed strong, and pious men, worthy to be leaders, who know
what they are about, and who have laid their strong hand
to the work of cultivation. There are great cities which
74 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
develop the highest luxury of civilization, and its highest
crimes; who build altars to Mammon, and would make
the whole world subservient. There are also small corn munities which possess themselves of land in the power
of the peace principle, and in the name of the Prince of
Peace.  Lydia Maria Child tells us of such an one, either
in Indiana or Illinois. It is a short story, and so beautiful that I must repeat it in her own living and earnest
words.
"The highest gifts my soul has received, during its wild
pilgrimage, have often been bestowed by those who were
poor, both in money and intellectual cultivation.' Among
these donors, I particularly remember a hard-working, uneducated mechanic from Indiana or Illinois. He told me
that he was one of the thirty or forty New Englanders
who, twelve years before, had gone out to settle in the
Western wilderness. They were mostly neighbors, and
had been drawn to unite together in emigration from a
general unity of opinion on various subjects. For some
years previous, they had been in the habit of meeting occasionally at each other's houses to talk over their duties
to God and man in all simplicity of heart.  Their library
was the Gospel, their priesthood the inward light. There
were then no anti-slavery societies; but thus taught, and
reverently willing to learn, they had no need of such agency to discover that it was wicked to enslave. The efforts
of peace societies had reached this secluded band only in
broken echoes, and non-resistance societies had no existence.  But with the volume of the Prince of Peace, and
hearts open to his influence, what need had they of preambles and resolutions?
"Rich in spiritual culture, this little band started for
the Far West.  Their inward homes were blooming gardens; they made their outward a wilderness. They were
industrious and frugal, and all things prospered under their
hand.  But soon wolves came near the fold, in the shape
76 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of reckless, unprincipled adventurers; believers in force
and cunning, who acted according to their creed. The
colony of practical Christians spoke of their depredations
in terms of gentlest remonstrance, and repaid them with
unvarying kindness. They went further-they openly
announced,' You may do us what evil you choose, we
will return nothing but good.' Lawyers came into the
neighborhood, and offered their services to settle disputes.
They answered,' We have no need of you. As neighbors,
we receive you in the most friendly spirit; but for us, your
occupation has ceased to exist.''What will you do if
rascals burn your barns and steal your harvests?''We
will return good for evil. We believe this is the highest
truth, therefore the best expediency.'
"When the rascals heard this, they considered it a marvelous good joke, and said and did many provoking things
which seemed to them witty. Bars were taken down in
the night, and cows let into corn-fields. The Christians
repaired the damage as well as they could, put the cows
in the barn, and at twilight drove them gently home, saying,'Neighbor, your cows have been in my field. I have
fed them well during the day, but I would not keep them
all night, lest the children should suffer for their milk.'
"If this was fun, they who planned the joke had no
heart to laugh at it. By degrees, a visible change came
over these troublesome neighbors. They ceased to cut off
horses' tails, and break the legs of poultry. Brute boys
would say to a younger brother,' Don't throw that stone,
Bill! When I killed the chicken last week, didn't they
send it. to mother, because they thought chicken broth
would be good for poor Mary? I should think you'd be
ashamed to throw stones at thezr chickens.' Thus was
evil overcome with good, till not one was found to do them
willful injury.  Years passed on, and saw them thriving
in worldly substance beyond their neighbors, yet beloved
by all. From them the lawyer and the constable obtained
7 C) 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
no fees. The sheriff stammered and apologized when he
took their hard-earned goods in payment for the war-tax.
They mildly replied, "Tis a bad trade, friend. Examine
it in the light of conscience, and see if it be not so.' But
while they refused to pay such fees and taxes, they. were
liberal to a proverb in their contributions for all- useful
and benevolent purposes.
"At the end of ten years, the public lands, which they
had chosen for their farms, were advertised for sale by
auction. According to custom, those who had settled and
cultivated the soil were considered to have a right to bid
it in at the government price, which at that time was
1-256 dollars per acre. But the fever of land speculation
then chanced to run unusually high. Adventurers from
all parts of the country were flocking to the auction; and
capitalists in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston were sending agents to buy Western lands. No one
supposed that custom or equity would be regarded. The
first day's sale showed that speculation ran to the verge
of insanity. Land was eagerly bought in at seventeen,
twenty-five, and thirty dollars an acre. The Christian
colony had small hope of retaining their farms.  As first
settlers, they had chosen the best land, and persevering
industry had brought it into the highest cultivation. Its
market value was much greater than the acres already
sold at exorbitant prices. In view of these facts, they had
prepared their minds for another remove into the wilderness, perhaps to be again ejected by a similar process.
But the morning their lot was offered for sale, they observed with grateful surprise that their neighbors were
every where busy among the crowd begging and expostulating:'Don't bid on these lands! these men have been
working hard on them for ten years.  During all that
time, they never did harm to man or brute. They were
always ready to do good for evil. They are a blessing to
any neighborhood. It would be a sin and shame to bid
77 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
on their lands. Let them go at the government price.'
The sale came on; the cultivators of the soil offered 1'25
dollars, intending to bid higher if necessary.  But among
all that crowd of selfish, reckless speculators, not one bid
over them!  Without an opposing voice, the fair acres
returned to them!  I do not know a more remarkable instance of evil overcome with good. The wisest political
economy lies folded up in the maxims of Christ.
"With delighted reverence I listened to this unlttered
backwoodsman, as he explained his philosophy of universal love.'What would you do,' said I,'if an idle, thieving vagabond came among you, resolved to stay, but determined not to work?''We would give him food when
hungry, shelter him when cold, and always treat him as
a brother.''Would not this process attract such characters?  How  would you avoid being overrun by them?'
' Such characters would either reform or not remain with
us. We should never speak an angry word, or refuse to
minister to their necessities, but we should invariably regard them with the deepest sadness, as we would a guilty
or beloved son. This is harder for the human soul to bear
than whips or prisons. They would not stand it; I am
sure they could not. It would either melt them or drive
them away. In nine cases out of ten, I believe, it would
melt them.'"
Lydia Maria Child adds, "This, the wisest doctrine of
political economy, is included in the doctrines of Christ."
As for me, these words run in my mind, "Blessed are the
peace-makers, for they shall possess the earth." And
when I look around me in these regions for that which is
the most triumphant and the most overpowering element
in the Mississippi States,-and among the freebooters of
California at the present time, I see clearly that it is the
power and dominion of the peace-maker.
78 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
On the Mississippi, near the Rapids, November 3d.
We have lain still for several hours. The river has
here a dangerous, sharp, rocky bottom, and, as the water
is low, the passage is dangerous. They wait for the wind
becoming perfectly still, that they may discern the places
where the stream is rippled by the rocks.  It is already
so calm that I can scarcely imagine how it can be calmer.
The Mississippi glances like a mirror in the sunshine,
merely here and there furrowed by the stream.  It is now
quite as warm as summer, and I am impatient at lying
quiet in the heat and the strong sunshine. The bed of
the Mississippi has not been cleared, and it is a sign that
the government of the United States has its deficiencies
and its shallows, when they can tolerate such impediments on a great river where there is such constant traffic. But it is not agreed as to whether the government
or the people ought to do the work, and therefore it remains undone, to the great detriment of the traffic of the
river.
I have made two agreeable acquaintances on board, in
two gentlemen from Connecticut, strong, downright Yankees; and the young daughter of one, a most charming
girl of twenty-a fresh flower, both body and soul-a
splendid specimen of the daughters of New England. We
have also now a pair of giant women on board, such as
belong to the old mythological population of Utgaerd; and
I have been particularly amused by the conflict between
the wild and the cultivated races in the persons of one of
these ladies and my lovely flower of New England. The
former, in a steel-gray dress, with a gray, fierce countenance, stiff and middle-aged, sat smoking her pipe in the
ladies' saloon when we entered it from the dining-hall in
the afternoon. She sat in the middle of the room, and
puffed out the smoke vehemently, and looked as if she
would set the whole world at defiance. The ladies looked at her, looked at each other, were silent, and endured
79 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
it for a while; the smoke, however, became at length intolerable, and one whispered to another that something
must be done to put a stop to this unallowable smoking.
Miss S. called the stewardess: "You must tell that lady
that it is not permitted to smoke in this room."
' I have told her so, Missis, but she takes no notice.  It
is of no use talking to her."
Again they waited a while to see whether the smoking
lady would not pay attention to silent, but very evident
signs of displeasure. But no, she sat as unmoved as ever,
and filled the room with smoke.
The lovely young Miss S. now summoned courage, advanced toward the smoker, and said, in a very polite, but,
at the same time, firm and dignified manner, "I don't
know whether you have observed that your cabin has a
door which opens on the piazza, and-it would be much
more agreeable for you, and for all of us, if you would
smoke your pipe there."
"No.  I prefer smoking here in this room."
"But it is forbidden to smoke here."
"It is forbidden for gentlemen, but not for ladies."
"It is forbidden to smoke here, as well for you as for
any one else; and I must beg of you, in the nanme of all
the ladies present, that you will desist from so doing."
This was said with so much earnestness, and so much
grace at the same time, that the giant woman seemed
struck by it.
"4 No, well! wait a bit!" said she, angrily; and, after
she had vehemently blown out a great puff of tobaccosmoke by way of a parting token, she rose up and went
into her own apartment. The power of cultivation had
gained the victory over rudeness; the gods had conquered
the giants.
We shall now proceed on our way, but by land, and not
by water.  Our heavily-laden vessel can not pass the shallows. It must be unloaded here. The passengers must
so 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
proceed by carriages about fifteen or sixteen miles along
the Iowa shore to a little city where they may take a fresh
steamer, and where there are no longer any impediments
in the river. My new friends from Connecticut will take
me under their wing.
St. Louis, November 8th.
I am now at St. Louis, on the western bank of the river,
deliberating whether or not to go to a bridal party to which
I am invited, and where I should see a very lovely bride
and "the cream of society " in this great Mississippi city,
the second after New Orleans. I saw the bridegroom this
forenoon, as well as the bride's mother; he is a very rich
planter from Florida, and very much of a gentleman, an
agreeable man.   The bride's mother is a young-elderly
beauty, polite but artificial; somewhat above fifty, with
bare neck, bare arms, rouged cheeks, perfumed, and with
a fan in her hand; a lady of fashion and French politeness.
They have invited me for the evening.  An agreeable and
kind acquaintance of Mr. Downing's, to whom I had a letter, would conduct me thither in company with his wife,
but-but-I have a cold, and I feel myself too old for
such festivals, at which I am, besides, half killed with
questions; so that the nearer it approaches the hour of
dressing, the clearer becomes it to my own mind that I
must remain quietly in my own room. I like to see handsome ladies and beautiful toilets, but-I can have sufficient descriptions of these, and I have seen enough of the
beat monde in the Eastern States to be able to imagine
how it is in the West.
I am now at an hotel, but shall remove, either to-morrow or the day after, to the house of Senator Allen, a little
way out of the city.
I came here yesterday with my friends from Connecticut. The journey across the Iowa prairie in a half-covered wagon was very pleasant.  The weather was as warm
as a summer's day, and the sun shone above a fertile,
D2
81 
HOMIES OF THE NEW WORLD.
billowy plain, which extended far, far into the distance.
Three fourths of the land of Iowa are said to be of this
billowy prairie-land. The country did not appear to be
cultivated, but looked extremely beautiful and home-like,
an immense pasture-meadow. The scenery of the.Mississippi is of a bright, cheerful character.
In the afternoon we reached the little town of Keokuk,
en a high bank by the river. We ate a good dinner at a
good inn; tea was served for soup, which-is a general
practice at dinners in the Western inns. It was not till
late in the evening that the vessel came by which we were
to continue our journey, and in the mean time I set off
alone on a journey of dis6overy.   I left behind me the
young city of the Mississippi, which has a good situation,
and followed a path which led up the hill along the river
side. The sun was descending, and clouds of a pale
crimson tint covered the western heavens. The air was
mild and calm, the whole scene expansive, bright, and
calm, and idy]lian landscape on a large scale.
Small houses, at short distances from each other, studded this hill by the river side; they were neatly built of
wood, of good proportions, and with that appropriateness
and cleverness which distinguishes the work of the Americans.  They were each one like the other, and seemed to
be the habitations of work-people.   Most of the doors
stood open, probably to admit the mild evening air. I
availed myself of this circumstance to gain a sight of the
interior, and fell into discourse with two of the good women of the houses. They were, as I had imagined, the
dwellings of artisans who had work in the town. There
was no luxury in these small habitations, but every thing
was so neat and orderly, so ornamental, and there was
such a holiday calm over every thing, from the mistress of
the family down to the very furniture, that it did one good
to see it. It was also Sunday evening, and the peace of
the Sabbath rested within the home as well as over tho
country.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
When I returned to my herberg in the town it was quite
dusk; but it had, in the mean time, been noised abroad
that some sort of Scandinavian animal was to be seen at
the inn, and it was now requested to come and show itself.
I went down, accordingly, into the large saloon, and
found a great number of people there, principally of the
male sex, who increased more and more until there was a
regular throng, and I had to shake hands with many most
extraordinary figures. But one often sees such here in the
West. The men work hard, and are careless regarding
their toilet; they do not give themselves time to attend to
it; but their unkemmed outsides are no type of that which
is within, as I frequently observed this evening. I also
made a somewhat closer acquaintance, to my real pleasure, with a little company of more refined people; I say
refined intentionally, not better, because those phrases,
better and worse, are always indefinite, and less suitable
in this country than in any other; I mean well-bred and
well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, the aristocracy of Keokuk. Not being myself of a reserved disposition, I like
the American open, frank, and friendly manner. It is easy
to become acquainted, and it is very soon evident whether
there is reciprocity of feeling or not.
We went on board between ten and eleven at night,
and the next morning were in the waters of the Missouri,
which rush into those of the Mississippi, about eighteen
miles north of St. Louis, with such vehemence, and with
such a volume of water, that it altogether changes the
character of the Mississippi. There is an end now to its
calmness and its bright tint. It now flows onward restless and turbid, and stocks and trees, and every kind of
lumber which can float, are whirled along upon its waves,
all carried hither by the Missouri, which, during its impetuous career of more than three thousand miles through
the wilderness of the West, bears along with it every thing
which it finds on its way. Missouri is a sort of Xantippe,
3, 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
but Mississippi is no Socrates, because he evidently allows
himself to be disturbed by the influence of his ill-tempered spouse.
Opposite St. Louis boys were rowing about in little
boats, endeavoring to fish up planks and branches of trees
which were floating on the'river
The first view of St. Louis -waswery peculiar.  The
city looks as if it were besieged from the side of the river
by a number of immense Mississippi beasts, resembling a
sort of colossal white sea-bears. And so they were; they
were those large, three-decked, white-painted steamers,
which lined the shore, lying closely side by side to the
number of above a hundred; their streamers, with names
from all the countries on the face of the earth, fluttering
in the wind above their chimneys, which seemed to nme
like immense nostrils; for every steam-boat on the Mississippi has two such apparatus, which send forth huge volumes of smoke under the influence of "high pressure."
When we reached S. Louis it was as warm as the middle of summer, and many of the trees in the streets yet
bore verdant foliage. I recognize the tree of the South,
the "pride of India," which bears clusters of flowers like
lilac during the time of flowering, and afterward clusters
of red, poisonous berries; and the beautiful acacia, alanthus, and sycamore.
November 7th. Scarcely had I reached St. Louis when
I was obliged to take to my bed in consequence of violent
headache. My charming young friend from New England attended me as a young sister might have done.
When she was obliged to leave me to proceed forward
with her father, I found here an Irish servant-girl, who
looked after me excellently during my short indisposition.
I was better, and then went to pay a morning visit to the
bridal pair, who are now residing at the hotel. It was in
the forenoon; but the room in which the bride sat was
darkened, and was only faintly lighted up by the blaze
B4 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the fire.  The bride was tall and delicately formed,
but too thin, but for all this lovely, and with a blooming
complexion. She was quite young, and struck me like a
rare hot-house plant, scarcely able to endure the free winds
of the open air. Her long, taper fingers played with a
number of little valuables fastened to a gold chain, which,
hanging round her neck, reached to her waist. Her dress
was costly and tasteful. She looked, however, more like
an article of luxury than a young woman meant to be
the mother of a family. The faint light of the room, the
warmth of the fire, the soft, perfumed atmosphere-every
thing, in short, around this young bride, seemed to speak
of effeminacy. The bridegroom, however, was evidently
no effeminate person, but a man and a gentleman. He
was apparently very much enamored of his young bride,
whom he was now about to take, first to Cincinnati, and
then to Florida and its perpetual summer. We were regaled with bride-cake and sweet wine.
When I left that perfumed apartment, with its hothouse atmosphere and its half daylight, in which was
carefully tended a beautiful human flower, I was met by
a heaven as blue as that of spring, and by a fresh, vernal
air, by sunshine and the song of birds among the whispering trees. The contrast was delightful. Ah, said I
to myself, this is a difbferent life! After all, it is not good;
no, it is not good, it has not the freshness of Nature, that
life which so many ladies lead in this country; that life
of twilight in comfortable rooms, rocking themselves by
the fireside from one year's end to another; that life of
effeminate warmth and inactivity, by which means they
exclude themselves from the fresh air, from fresh invigor.
ating life! And the physical weakness of the ladies of
this country must, in great measure, be ascribed to their
effeminate education. It is a sort of harem-life, although
with this difference, that they, unlike the Oriental women, are here in the Western country regarded as sultan
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
esses, and the men as their subjects. It has, nevertheless, the tendency to circumscribe their development, and
to divert them from their highest and noblest purpose.
The harems of the West, no less than those of the East,
degrade the life and the consciousness of woman.
After my visit to the bride, I visited various Catholic
asylums and religious institutions, under the care of nuns.
It was another aspect of female development which I beheld here. I saw, in two large asylums for poor orphan
children, and in an institution for the restoration of fallen
women (the Good Herder's Asylum), as well as at the hospital for the sick, the women who call themselves " Sisters,"
living a true and grand life as mothers of the orphan, as
sisters and nurses of the fallen and the suffering. That
was a refreshing, that was a strengthening sight!
I must observe that Catholicism seemns to me at this
time to go beyond Protestantism in the living imitation
of Christ in good works.   The Catholic Church of the
New World has commenced a new life. It has cast off
the old cloak of superstition and fanaticism, and it steps
forth rich in mercy. Convents are established in the New
World in a renovated spirit.   They are freed from their
unmeaning existence, and are effectual in labors of love.
These convents here have large, light halls instead of
gloomy cells; they have nothing gloomy or mysterious
about them; every thing is calculated to give life and
light free course. And how lovely they were, these conventual sisters, in their noble, worthy costume, with their
quiet, fresh demeanor and activity! They seemed to me
lovelier, fresher, happier, than the greater number of women living in the world whom I have seen. I must also
remark that their nuns' costume-in particular the headdress-was, with all its simplicity, remarkably becoming
and in good taste; and that gave me much pleasure. I
do not know why beauty and piety should not thrive well
together. Those horrible bonnets, or poke-caps, which are
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
worn by the Sisters of Mercy in Savannah, would, if I
were ill, frighten me from their hospital. On the contrary, the sight of these sisters here would assuredly make
a sick person well.
During one of those prophetic visions with which our
Geijer closed his earthly career, he remarked, on a visit
to me, "Convents must be re-established anew; not in
the old form, but as free societies of women and men for
the carrying out works of love!"  I see them coming into
operation in this country.   And they must have yet a
freer and milder form within the evangelical Church. The
deaconess institutions of Europe are their commencement.
The excess in the number of women in all countries
on the face of the earth shows that God has an intention
in this which man would do well to attend to more and
more. The human race needs spiritual mothers and sisters.  Women acquire in these holy sisterhoods a power
for the accomplishment of such duty, which in their isolated state they could only obtain in exceptional cases.
As the brides and handmaidens of Christ, they attain to
a higher life, a more expansive consciousness, a greater
power.   Whether similar religious societies of men are
alike necessary and natural as those of women, I will not
inquire into, but it seems to me that they are not. Men,
it appears to me, are called to an activity of another kind,
although for the same ultimate object-the extension of
the kingdom of God upon earth.
Last evening and the evening before I made my solitary journeys of discovery both within and without the city.
St. Louis is built on a series of wave-like terraces, considerably elevated above the Mississippi. It seems likely
to become an immense city, and has begun to build suburbs on the plain at great distances apart; but already
roads are formed, and even a rail-road and streets from
one place to another. These commencements of suburbs
are generally on high ground, which commands glorious
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views over the river and the country. Thick columns of
coal-black smoke ascend, curling upward in the calm air
from various distances, betokening the existence of manufactories. It has a fine effect seen against the golden
sky of evening, but those black columns send down showers of smuts and ashes over the city, which has not a fine
effect. They are building in the city lofty and vast warehouses, immense shops and houses of business. The position oqf the city near the junction of the -Missouri and
the Mississippi, its traffic on the formner river, with the
whole of the Great West, and by the latter with the Northern, Southern, and Eastern States, give to St. Louis the
means of an almost unlimited increase. Probably a railroad will connect St. Louis with the Pacific Ocean.   It
is an undertaking which is warmly promoted by a number of active Western men, and this would give a still
higher importance to the city.   Emigration hither also
increases every year, and especially from Germany. How
large this increase is may be shown by the fact that in
1845 its population amounted to thirty-five thousand souls,
and that in 1849 it was nearly double that number. The
State of Missouri has now about two millions of inhabitants, and is yet, as a state, not above thirty years old.
As I wandered through the streets in the twilight I saw
various figures, both of men and animals, which gave me
any thing but pleasure. Such I had often seen and
grieved ovr at New York; just such people, with the look
half of savageness and half of misery-just such poor wornout horses. Ah! we need still to pray the Lord of all perfection, "Thy kingdom come!"   I returned to my hotel
with a melancholy and heavy heart.
One of the peculiarities which I observed was the
number of physicians, especially dentists, which seemed
to abound. Every third or fourth house had its inscription of "physician."  What could be the use of all their
remedies here?
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Among the persons who have visited me here were some
of the so-called "New Church," that is, Swedenborgians,
who, in consequence of my confession of Faith in "Morgon Vakter," had the opinion that I belonged to the "New
Church." I could not, however, acknowledge that I did
belong to the New Church; for I find in the old, in its
later development through the great thinkers of Germany
and Scandinavia, a richer and a diviner life. Swedenborg's
doctrine of the Law of Correspondence has for.its foundation the belief and teaching of all profoundly-thinking
people, from the Egyptians to the Scandinavians; but
Swedenborg's application of his doctrine appears to me
not sufficiently grand and spiritual.
Every where in North America one meets with Swedenborgians.  That which seems to be most generally accepted among them is the doctrines of Christ's divinity, and
of the resemblance which the world of spirits bears to the
earth, and its nearness to it.
In their church-yards, one often finds upon a white marble stone beautiful inscriptions, such as,
He (or she) entered the spiritual world on such and
such a day.
This is beautiful and true; for I say with Tholuck,
"Why say that our form is dead?  Dead! that word is
so heavy, so lifeless, so gloomy, so unmeaning.   Say that
our friend has departed; that he has left us for a short
time. That is better, and more true."
Crystal Springs, Nov. 10.
Since I last wrote I have removed to the beautiful
home, and into the beautiful family of Senator A. A
pretty young girl, the sister of the master of the house, has
given me her room, with its splendid view over the Mississippi and Missouri Valley. But the beautiful weather
has now changed into cold and autumnal fog, so that I can
see nothing of all the glory. The air is very thick. But
such days are of rare occurrence in this sunbright Amer
89 
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ica, and the sun will soon make a way for itself again.
Mr. A. has calculated the number of sunny days in a year
for three several years, and he has found them to be about
three hundred and fifteen; the remainder were thunderstorms and rainy days, and of the latter the number was
the smaller.
Mr. A. is an interesting and well-informed young man,
well acquainted with every movement in the state, of
which he is a senator, as well as an active participator in
its development. Thus, during the past summer, he has
delivered no less than five hundred " stump-speeches"*
(I hope I have not made a mistake of a couple of hundred
in the number), traveling about in Missouri advocating
the laying down of a rail-way from St. Louis through Missouri to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and. exhorting
them to give in their adherence to the scheme. And he
has been extremely successful. In St. Louis alone names
are given in to the amount of two millions of dollars for
the carrying out of the undertaking. It is true that they
will have to tunnel through and to blast the solid walls of
the Rocky Mountains, but what does that signify to an
American?
The city of St. Louis was founded by rich traders.
Dealers in furs and Catholic priests were the first who
penetrated the wildernesses of the West, and ventured
life to win, the former wealth, the latter souls.
Trade and religion are still, at this moment, the pioneers of civilization in the Western country.
One of the most important branches of speculation and
* Such is the name given to occasional speeches, which are delivered
with the intention of agitating for or advancing any object, by men who
travel about for that purpose, and assemble an audience here and there,
often in the fields or the woods, when they mount a tree-stump or any
other improvised platform, and thence address the people, the more vehemently the better. Short but highly-seasoned speeches, which go at
once to the point in question, have the greatest success. Stump-speeches
and stump-orators belong to the characteristic scenes of the Great West.
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trade in and around St. Louis is, at the present time, the
sale of land. The earlier emigrants hither who purchased
land, now sell it by the foot at several thousand dollars a
square foot. The exorbitant prices at which I have been
told land sells here seem almost incredible to me. Cer tain it is that many people are now making great fortunes
merely by the sale of their plots of ground. One German,
formerly in low circumstances, has lately sold his plot, and
has now returned to his native land with wealth to the
amount of one hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. A., who is one of the "self-made men" of the Great
West, and who began his career at Morton by publishing
a Penny Magazine, is now a land proprietor, and sells also
plots or pieces of ground for large sums.   He, like Mr.
Downing (with whom he has also, in appearance, a certain
resemblance), unite at the same time the practical man
and the poetical temperament, in particular for natural
objects. 
There are a great number of Germans in St. Louis.
They have music and dancing parties, which are zealously
attended. There are also here both French and Spaniards.
At the hotels all is in French style, with French names
for dishes and wines. The Irish here, as every where else
throughout the United States, constitute the laboring population; excepting negro slaves, the greater portion of servants are Irish.
Spite of the greatly increasing trade of the city, it is
still extremely difficult, nay, almost impossible for a young
emigrant to obtain a situation in any place of business.
If, on the contrary, however, he will begin by doing coarse
hand-labor, as a miller's man, for instance, or a worker in
a manufactory, he can easily find employment and get
good wages. And if he lives carefully, he may soon gain
sufficient to undertake higher employment. Better still
are his prospects if he can superintend some handeraft
trade; he is then in a fair way to become the artificer of
his own fortune.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
November 11th. Again summer and sunshine, and a
glorious view over the Mississippi and the expanse of country! The heavens are light blue, the earth is light green,
every thing is bathed in light. I have walked with my
young friend over the hills around this place, and Mr. A.
has driven me out to see the whole neighborhood. That
which always strikes me most in the Great West is the
vast extent of landscape. It produces upon rme a peculiarly cheerful and expansive feeling.  I can not but
involuntarily smile as I seem to long to stretch out my
arms and fly over the earth. It feels to me very stupid
and strange not being able to do so. Mr. A. drove me to
part of the neighborhood where the wealthy citizens of
St. Louis built their villas. There are already upon the
hills (though they can hardly be called hills, but merely
terraces or plateaux) and in the valleys whole streets
and groups of pretty country houses, many of them really
splendid, surrounded by trees, and flowers, and vines, and
other creepers. How life increases here, how rapidly and
how joyously!  But do not tares spring up with the
wheat?  I have still hope, although I have lost my faith
in the Millennium of the Great West.
The State of Missouri seems to be one of the richest
states of the Union as regards natural beauty and natural resources, as well as one of the largest. They speak
of its northern portion as of the natural garden of the
West; it possesses, westward, lofty mountains, rich in metals, interspersed with immense prairies and forest; southward, toward Arkansas, it becomes boggy, and abounds in
morasses. To the west of the state lies the Indian Territory, the people of which have embraced Christianity
and civilization. The Cherokees are the principal, but
many other tribes have united themselves to this in smaller associations, as the family of Choctaws, Chickasaws,
Fox, and Sac Indians. Whether this Indian territory
stands in the same relationship to the government of the
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United States as other territory during its period of gra  dation and preparation, and whether at some future time
it will become an independent Indian state in the great
Union, I do not know decidedly, though I regard it as
probable.
Missouri is a slave state. But it seems at this moment
to maintain the institution of slavery rather out of brava do than from any belief in its necessity. It has no prod ucts which might not be cultivated by white laborers, as
its climate does not belong to the hot South. Missouri
also sells its slaves assiduously "down South."
"Are you a Christian?" inquired I from a young hand some mulatto woman who waited on me here.
"No, Missis, I am not." 
"Have you not been baptized? Have you not been
taught about Christ?"
"Yes, Missis, I have a godmother, a negro woman, who
was very religious, and who instructed me."
"Do you not believe what she told you about Christ?"
"Yes, Missis; but I don't feel it here, Missis," and she
laid her hand on her breast.
"Where were you brought up?"
"A long way from here, up the Missouri, Missis; a long
way off!"
"Were your owners good to you?"
"Yes, Missis; they never gave me a bad word."
"Are you married?"
"Yes, Missis; but my husband is a long way off with
his master."
"Have yoln any children?"'
"I have had six, Missis, but have not a single one left.
Three are dead, and they have sold the other three away
from me. When they took from me the last little girl,
oh, I believed I never should have got over it! It almost
broke my heart!"
And they were so-called Christians who did that!  It
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
was not wonderful that she, the negro slave, had a difficulty in feeling Christianity, that she could not feel herself a Christian. What a life! Bereaved of husband,
children, of all that she had, without any prospect of an
independent existence; possessed of nothing on the face of
the earth; condemned to toil, toil, toil, without hope of
reward or day of rest; why should it be strange if she
became stupid or indifferent, nay, even hostile and bitter
in her feelings toward those in whose power she is-they
who call themselves her protectors, and yet who robbed
her of her all? Even of that last little girl, that youngest, dearest, only child!
This pagan institution of slavery leads to transactions
so inconsistent, so inhuman, that sometimes in this country, this Christian, liberal America, it is a difficult thing
for me to believe them possible, difficult to comprehend
how it can be a reality, and not a dream! it is so difficult for me to realize it.
The topic of interest at this moment in St. Louis is the
return of Senator Benton from Washington, and his great
speech in the State House, to give an account of his conduct in Congress as regards the great and momentous
question between the Northern and the Southern States.
Such speeches, explanatory or in justification of their line
of conduct, are customary in all the states on the return
of the senator to the state which he represents in Congress.  I read Colonel Benton's speech last evening.  The
bold representative of the slave state, who alike openly
vindicated its rights as such, while he condemned slavery;
is here also like himself bold, candid, unabashed, half
man and half beast of prey, rending to pieces with beak
and claws, and full of enjoyment in so doing.
I remember the last words of his speech, which are
really manly and excellent.
"I value a good popularity, that is to say, the applause
of good men.   That of all others I shall ever disregard;
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and t shall welcome censure which is hurled at me by the
illiberal and the mean."
Missouri, as well-as Arkansas, has a deal of heathenism,
and a deal of wild, uncultivated land still. Civilization
is as yet at its commencement in these states, and slavery retards its progress as with strong fetters. Fights
and bloody duels are of frequent occurrence among the
white population. Bowie-knives and pistols belong to the
wardrobe of a man, especially when traveling in the state.
Besides, he must be continually prepared to meet with
those unprincipled fortune-hunters who hasten from Europe and the Eastern States (the prodigal sons of those
countries) into the West to find there a freer scope for
their savage passions.
To-morrow, or the day after, I steer my course to Cincinnati, whence I shall write to you again.
LETTER XXIX.
Cincinnati, Nov. 30th.
ONLY a kiss in spirit and a few lines to-day, because
I have so many irons in the fire that I am, as it were, a
little bewildered in my head, but that is with sweet wine!
I have been located since last Tuesday in the most
agreeable and the most kind of homes, where those most
agreeable of human beings and married people, Mr. and
Mrs. S., middle-aged, that is to say, about fifty, wealthy
and without children, find their happiness in gathering
around them friends and relations, and in making them
happy. I am occupying one of the many guest-chambers
of their handsome and spacious house, and am treated
with as much kindness as if I were a member of the
family. A pale, gentle, and grave young clergyman (a
mourning widower), and two unmarried ladies, relations
of my entertainers, compose the family. My host, a giant
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in stature, and his little wife, have a good deal of humor,
so that there is no lack of savory salt for the every day
nieal.
A word now about the journey hither from St. Louis.
It was made in six days, by the Asia, safely and quietly,
spite of the uneasy companionship of four-and-twenty little children from ten years to a few months old. One
could not but think one's self well off if only a third of the
number were not crying at once. There were also some
passengers of the second or third sort, ladies who smoked
their pipes and blew their noses in their fingers, and then
came and asked how one liked America.   Ugh!  There
are no greater contrasts than exist between the cultivated
and the uncultivated ladies of this country.
- One mother with her daughter pleased me, nevertheless,
by their appearance and their evident mutual affection.
But just as I was about to make some advances to the
mother, she began with the question whether the United
States answered my expectations. And that operated
upon me like a bomb.
I spent my time, for the most part, quietly in my own
cabin, finding companionship in my books, and in the
spectacle presented by the banks of the river. When
evening came, and with it candles, I had the amusement
of the children's going to bed in the saloon, for there
were not berths for them all. There was among the passengers one young mother, not above thirty years old,
with eight children, the youngest still at the breast. She
had gone with her husband and children to settle in the
Far West, in some one of the Mississippi States, but the
husband had fallen ill of cholera on the way, and died
within four-and-twenty-hours.  And now the young mother is returning with all her fatherless little ones to her paternal home. She is still very pretty, and her figure is
delicate. Although now and then a tear may be seen
trickling down her cheek as she sits of an evening nurs
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ing her little baby, yet she does not seem overcome by
her loss, or greatly cast down. Seven of the children,
four boys and three girls, are laid each evening in one
large bed, made upon a long mattress, exactly in front of
my door, without any other bedding than this mattress
and a coverlit thrown over them.  I have been  much
amused by a little lad of three years old, a regular Cupid
both in head and figure, whose little shirt scarcely reach ed to his middle. He could not manage to be comforta ble in the general bed, and longed probably for the warm
mother's bosom; and therefore continually crept out of
the former, and stole softly and resolutely, in his Adamic
innocence, into the circle of ladies, who were sitting round
the room talking or sewing by lamp-light. Here he was
snapped up by his mother in his short shirt (much in the
same way as our dairy-maids may snap up by their wings
a chicken which they will put into a pen, or into the pot),
and thus carried through the room back to his bed, where
he was thrust in, a la chicken, with a couple of slaps
upon that portion of his body which his little shirt did
not defend, and then covered in with the quilt. In vain.
He was soon seen again, white and round, above the quilt,
spite of the hands of brothers and sisters, which let fall
upon him a shower of blows: higher and higher he rose,
raised himself on hands and feet, and the next minute
my curly-headed Cupid stood on his two bare feet, and
walked in among the circle of ladies, lovely, determined,
and untroubled by the plague of clothes, or by bashfulness, where he was received by a burst of laughter, to be
snapped up again by his mother, and again thrust under
the quilt with an extra whipping, but too gentle to make
any very deep impression. Again the same scene was
renewed, to my great amusement, certainly six or seven
times during an hour or two each evening.  A little crying, it is true, always accompanied it; but the perseverance and the calrrm good humor of the little Cupid were
VOL. II.-E
*-ee
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as remarkable as his beauty, worthy of an Albano's pencil. But pardon me! such tableaux are not exactly of
your kind. But this you should have seen!
Now for the scenery by the way. A little below St.
Louis, we saw on the Mississippi the magnificent threedecked steamer the St. Louis, run aground in the middle
of the river. We steamed past without troubling ourselves about it. -It was a beautiful and sunny day.  The
landscape on the banks presented, for some time, nothing
remarkable. Presently, however, on the Missouri bank
rose up, close to the river, perpendicular cliffs, the walls
of which presented the most remarkable imagery in bassrelief, sometimes also in high relief, of altars, urns, columns and pyramids, porticoes and statues, which it is
difficult to persuade one's self are chiseled by the hand
of Nature and not of art.  These remarkable rocky walls
occur at various places, but detached, and only along the
Missouri shore.
Thus, still proceeding southward down the Mississippi,
we arrived at the embouchure of the Ohio. The scenery
here is expansive and flat.  The clear blue Ohio, "the
beautiful river," flows calmly and confidingly into the turbid Mississippi-Missouri, as the serene soul of one friend
into the disquieted mind of another. The banks of both
rivers are overgrown with brushwood. The whole region
has a mild and cheerful appearance.   A little deserted
and desolate settlement lay, with its ruinous houses, upon
the point between the two rivers. It was called Cairo.
It was intended for a great trading town, but had been
found so unhealthy that, after several unsuccessful attempts, it had been finally abandoned.
The Asia turned her course majestically eastward, from
the Mississippi up the Ohio, between the two states of Ohio
and Kentucky.   The Ohio River is considerably smaller
than the Mississippi;  the shores are higher, and more
wood - covered.   The river is clear and beautiful.  One
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FOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
sees first along the banks trees being felled and log-huts,
then come farms, and, lastly, beautiful country houses upon
the hills, which increase in height and in degree of cultiva  tion. The trees become tall and beautiful on each side the
river, and in their leafy branches may be observed green
knots and clusters, which, in the distance, look not unlike
birds' nests.  These are mistletoe, which here grows lux uriantly. The views now expand, the trees become more
scattered, the hills retire backward, and upon the shore of
the beautiful Ohio rises, with glittering church-spires, and
surrounded by vineyards and ornamental villas, with a
background of a semi-circle of two hills, a large city: it
is Cincinnati, the Queen of the West.
Sixty years since this city was not in existence. Its first
founder was living here only two years since.  Now it has
one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. That one
may call growth.
Before I leave the Asia, I must cast a parting glance at
Mehala, the good old negro woman who was the stewardess of the vessel. She was one of those good-tempered,
excellent creatures, which one can not help growing fond
of, and with a great deal of that tact and prudence which
belong to the negro race.  She had had fourteen children,
but had lost them all by death and slave.dealing.  She
knew only for a certainty where three of them were to
be found, but that was at a great distance. She spoke
sorrowfully, but without bitterness. She now belonged to
a German family, who had, at her own desire, hired her
out for service on the vessel, "because," she said, "they
did not understand how to treat their servants." All her
aim and endeavor was to save sufficient to purchase her
own freedom; then she could, she knew, go to her married
daughter in Kentucky, and there maintain herself by
washing. She had already saved a little sumn. On taking leave, the excellent old woman embraced me so cordially that it did my very heart good. As a contrast to
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this woman was another, the laundress on board, as cross
and ill-tempered as the other was amiable.
The Asia had not long reached Cincinnati when a mrnild,
pale gentleman came on board,and conveyed me in a carriage to the new home whither I had been invited.  This
was the clergyman and friend, the guest of the family,
and of whom I have already spoken. When the door of
the house opened I was mnet by a young middle-aged
lady, whose charming countenance bore such a speaking
impression of goodness and benevolence that I felt myself
involuntarily attracted to her, and glad to be in her house;
and the attraction and the pleasure have increased ever
since.
I have heard Cincinnati variously called "The Queen
of the West," " The City of Roses," and  " The City of
Hogs."  It deserves all three names.   It is a handsome,
nay, a magnificent city, with the most beautiful situation
among vineyard-hills, green heights adorned with beautiful villas, and that beautiful river, Ohio, with its rich life
and its clear water.  It has, in the time of roses, it is
said, really an exuberant splendor from these flowers, and
I see roses still shining forth pleasantly among the evergreen arbor vite, on the terraces, before the beautiful
houses. But the predominant character at this moment
is as " the City of Hogs." This is, namely, the season
when the great droves of these respectable four-footed citizens come from the western farms and villages to Cincinnati, there to be slaughtered in a large establishment
solely appropriated to this purpose, after which they are
salted and sent to the Eastern and Southern States.   I
have many times met in the streets whole regiments of
swine, before which I made a hasty retreat, partly because they entirely fill up the whole street, partly because
their stench fills the air and poisons it.  I called them
respectable (aktinness wartd), because I in every way
guard (akta) myself against them.   I have a salutary
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HOMES OF THE NEW'WORLD.
abhorrence of the whole of their race in this country, and
if I could but impart the same to many others, then -would
there be many healthier and happier people than there
are. I now see that Mohammed was a much wiser man
and legislator than I imagined. If he could come back,
be made President of the United States, and prohibit the
eating of swine's flesh, and enforce the prohibition, and
drive all swine out of the country,- then would the Union
be saved from the greatest evil after civil war, from Dyspepsy!
But among so much that is beautiful and so much that
is good, I ought not any longer to detain myself with pigs!
I have had some beautiful rambles here and there in
the neighborhood, and have mnade many interesting ac quaintance also out of the house. Foremost among these
must I mention the phrenologist, Dr. Buchanan, an intellectual, eccentric little man, full of life and human love,
who greatly interests me by his personal character and by
the larcge views which he takes in his Neurology and Analysis of the human brain, " of the immense possibilities of
man," allowing at the same time wide scope to the freedom of the human will.  Buchanan is, in a high degree,
a spiritualist, and he regards spiritual powers too as the
most potent agents of all formation-regards the immaterial life as the determiner of the material. Thus he considers the will in man as determining the inner being, as
influencing the development of the ductile brain, for good
or for evil, and the ductile brain operates upon, elevates
or depresses the skull.
Further, I am cheered in a high degree by the views
current here on the subject of slavery and its possible
eradication, and in the future of the negroes, as well as
of Africa, through its colonization by Christian negroes
from Amierica, settled on the coast of Africa, and by the
products of free labor in a wholly tropical'climate being
superior to that of slave labor in a half-tropical climate.
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IlOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I read in the African Repository, a periodical which
is published here by Mr. D. Christy, agent of the Colonization Society in Ohio, some interesting papers on the
subject of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the increase of
the colonies on the coast of Africa. The State of Ohio
has lately taken a decided step by the purchase of a large
district of country on the Afirican coast called Gallinas,
several hundred miles in extent, and where the slave-trade
was hitherto greatly carried on. Some wealthy men in
Cincinnati have appropriated several thousands of dollars
to this purpose; and, in consequence of this circumrnstance,
and the new country being colonized by free negroes from
Ohio, it is called Ohio in Africa. An essential barrier has
thus been placed against the carrying on of the slavetrade on the African coast.
A  State Convention is at the present moment being
held here, which consists of one hundred and eight citizens, to change, or, to speak more correctly, to develop
the Constitution of the State, which is now probably fifty
years old.  I was present yesterday at one of the sittings,
and shook hands with a considerable number of the wise
fathers, most of whom are handsome, middle-aged men,
with open countenances, and broad, clever foreheads. A
great portion of the members are lawyers; there are, however, several farmers, merchants, and men of different
trades.  Two only of the members were unmarried men.
The object which the Convention has in view is to extend
the power of the people, as, for example, in the appoint —
ment of judges and other official persons.
Other interesting objects there are, besides, which are
refreshing to my inmost being. There is really in Ohio
a movement of central life as well in thought as in action, which I have not met with in any other state of
America; and, however it may be, I seem to be living
here in the very centre of the New World.
In short, my little heart, I live. I embrace in my spirit
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the present and the future in various developments, in various parts of the earth, near and afar; and I feel that
much is developing itself within my own soul which formerly lay bound, or merely lived with a half existence;
and I thank God!
December. I have now resided nearly three weeks in
this good home, with these kind and good S.'s, and seen
a good deal of people and of the town, as well as of the
beautiful region around this place. The country is of the
most beautiful and of the most attractive character that
any one can imagine; lovely villas are scattered over the
fertile hills, and commanding the most glorious views over
the river and the whole country. The people-yes, they
are even here of all sorts, the good and the bad, the agreeable and the disagreeable; some most amiable, with whom
one would wish to remain long, to remain always, and
others whom one would wish-where the pepper grows.
Yet the greater number whom I have seen belong to the
good and charming, and I have enjoyed much happiness
with them.
I saw three young brides at a bridal party the other
day, all of them very handsome, one remarkably so, for a
beautiful soul beamed in her countenance. I said to her
with my whole heart, "God bless you!"  I saw on this
occasion many beautiful toilets and many beautiful faces.
The American ladies dress well and with good taste. And
here, indeed, one seems to meet nothing but handsome
faces, scarcely a countenance which may be called ugly.
Yet, nevertheless, I think it would be a refreshment to
see such a one, if in it I found that beauty which seems
to me generally, not always, to be deficient in these truly
lovely human roses, and which I may compare to the
dewy rose-bud in its morning hour. There is a deficiency of shadow, of repose, of the mystery of being, of that
nameless, innermost depth, which attracts the mind with
a silent power in the consciousness of hidden and noble
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treasure. There is a deficiency of that quiet grace of being, which in itself alone is beauty. Am I unjust? Is
it the glitter of the drawing-room and the chandelier which
bewilders me?
One observation I considered as well founded.  Artifice
and vanity exercise no less power over our sex in this
country than they do in the great cities of Europe, and
far more than in our good Sweden. Some proofs of this
fact have almost confounded me. The luxurious habits
and passion for pleasure of young married- ladies have
not unfrequently driven their husbands to despair and to
drunkenness. I once heard a young and handsome lady
say," I think that ladies, after they are married, are too
little among gentlemen. When I go to a ball I always
make it a duty to forget my children."
A scandalous lawsuit is now pending here between a
young couple who have been married a few years. It
was a most magnificent wedding; the establishment, furniture, every thing, was as expensive and splendid as possible; every thing was silk, and velvet, and jewels. Soon,
however, discord arose between the married pair, in consequence, it is said, of the young wife's obstinacy in rouging against the wish of her husband. Her vain and foolish mother appears to have taken the side of the daughter
against the husband, and now the two are parted, and a
correspondence is published which redounds to the honor
of none of the family.
On the other hand, the besetting sins of the men in the
Great West are gambling and drunkenness; it may be
summed up in that state of feeling which is called recklessness.
"For what do people marry here in the West; for love
or for money?" inquired I of an elderly, clever, and intellectual gentlernan, one of my friends.
"For money," replied he, shortly.
His wife objected to that severe judgment; but ho
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
would not retract it, and she was obliged to concede that
money had a great influence, after all, in the decision of
a match.
That marriages, in spite of this, should often turn out
happy, must be attributed to our Lord's mercy, and to
the firm moral principles which are instilled into this
generation by nature and education, and supported by
the influence of general moral opinions. Nor is it other
than natural that under such circumstances many mar  riages are also unhappy, and that the number of divorces
is large in a portion of the American States where the
law does not lay any very momentous impediment in the
way. The frequency of divorce here may also be caused
by the circumstance of the Americans having less patience
than other people with imperfection, and preferring to cut
the Gordian knot asunder, than labor through a course
of years in unloosening it.  " Life is short!" say they.
Yet in the mean time have I nowhere seen more per fectly happy marriages than in America; but these were
not entered into for the sake of money.
" What is there better here in the Western States than
in those of the East that makes you prefer living here?"
inquired I of my excellent hostess.
"More freedom and less prejudice," replied she; "more
regard to the man than to his dress and his external circumstances; a freer scope for thought and enterprise, and
more leisure for social life."
And yet I seem here to have remarked that shortness
of temper, impatience, misunderstandings, and envyings,
all the petty feuds of social life, no less take up their
quarters here than in other great cities of the New World.
The good seed and the tares spring up together every
where in the fields of the earth, whether in the West or
whether in the East.
The climate of Cincinnati is not good; the air is keen,
and the rapid alternations in the weather may have some
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IIUIMEIS OF' T'HE NEW WORLD.
effect in producing that irritability of temperament which
I seemed to observe.
It has been a pleasure to me while here to attend various lectures, and foremost among them I must mention
Dr. Buchanan's animated and really intellectual extempore address in the Medical College on the activity of the
brain and its relationship to human free-will. Another
also, on Lord Bacon of Verulam, by the young Unitarian
minister, Mr. Livermore, which was interesting from its
impartiality and its profound pshychological glance. A
third was by a planter and quondam slaveholder, Mr. Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky, who emancipated the slaves
upon his plantation, and now, having come forward as the
opponent of slavery, a hostile feeling has been excited
against him in the slave states. Hence it happened that
during a public lecture given by him on the slavery question a year ago at a city of Kentucky (Louisville, I believe), he was attacked by a ferocious man and his adherents, who beat and cut him dreadfully, while he, unprepared for such an onslaught, had no weapon wherewith
to defend himself. Already severely wounded by many
bowie-knives, he would probably have perished had not
his little son of thirteen bravely thrust his way through
the crowd to his father, and given him a bowie-knife for
his defense. Clay could now stand on the defensive, and
he did that with so much effect that he gave his opponent his death-wound. He himself lay sick of the wounds
which he had received for nearly twelve months, and
this was now the first time after his recovery that he
had given a public lecture, but not now in Kentucky, in
Ohio.
The large hall in which he was to speak was full to
overflowing. I had already become acquainted with him
at the bridal party, and he had since then paid me a visit,
and I was pleased with his manly, determined demeanor,
and the deep gleam in his dark blue eye, as well as by
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the view he took of the necessarily rude and low condition
of a state in which slavery is a "domestic institution," of
its corrupting influence on the morals and tone of mind,
and, as a consequence thereof, the dominion of the pistol
and the bowie-knife. His belief was that negro slaves
might and ought to be transformed into free laborers. I
inquired from him how his own slaves conducted themselves as freemen.
"Excellently!" replied he; "but there were not many
of them, and they had, by degrees, been prepared for freedom."
He inveighed boldly and earnestly in his speech this
evening against an institution which loosened all family
bonds and degraded women, and he uttered a violent tirade against the new Fugitive Slave Bill, as well as against
Daniel Webster, who had supported it.   He recalled to
his recollection a painting, which he had seen as a child,
in which the fires of Purgatory were represented.  There
might be seen various poor sinners who were endeavoring
to come forth from the devouring flames, but a superintendent devil stood by with horns and claws, and a huge
hay-fork in his hand, ever ready to seize each poor soul
about to escape from the fire, to take him on the prongs
of his fork and hurl him back again.   This superintendent devil he recognized as Daniel Webster.
That was the brilliant point in the speech, which
throughout was conventional, and which passed over from
the Slave Bill and Webster to the Bible and Christianity.
The clever combatant was not successful on this ground,
and proved himself to be a poor theologian, inasmuch as
he mistook Christianity for that contracted Church which
lays sole claim to the appellation, and measured the words
of the Bible according to their abuse or their irrational
misapplication.  But this abuse of Scripture is so common among the defenders of slavery, even among the
clergy, that I am not surprised at many persons being
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
provoked by it, and being led to suspect the wells of
truth, from which men will draw up lies.
The numerous assembly, however, had a keen sense;
they perceived the error and preserved silence. The
speaker, who had been received with demonstrations of
great enthusiasm, found his audience much cooled at the
close.
Ohio is, as you know, a free state, and exactly on the
opposite side of the beautiful river which bears its name
lies'the slave-, ate of Kentucky, and slaves flying across
the river to reach a free shore were heard of formerly as
an every-day occurrence.  Now such a flight avails nothing to the poor slaves.  They are pursued and recaptured
as well in a free as in a slave state.
I have heard histories of the flight of slaves which are
full of the most intense interest, and I can not conceive
why these incidents do not become the subjects of romances and novels in the literature of this country. I know
no subject which could -furnish opportunities for more
heart-rending or more picturesque descriptions and scenes.
The slaves, for example, who fly "the way of the North
Star," as it is called, who know no other road to liberty
than the road toward the North, who wander on by night
when it shines, and conceal themselves by day in the deep
forests, where sometimes gentle Friends (Quakers) carry
out food to them, without which they would probably perish: this journey, with its dangers and its anticipations,
its natural scenery and its nocturnal guiding star-what
subjects are here for the pen of genius! Add to this the
converse, the agony or the joy of warm, loving, suffering
human hearts-in short, here are subjects of a higher romantic interest than are found in Chateaubriand's "Atala." I can not understand why, in particular, nobleminded American women, American mothers who have
hearts and genius, do not take up the subject, and treat it
with a power which should pierce through bone and mar
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
row, should reduce all the prudential maxims of states men to dust and ashes, and produce a revolution even in
the old widely-praised Constitution itself. It is the priv ilege of the woman and the mother which suffers most
severely through slavery. And if the heart of the woman,
and the woman would heave warmly and strongly with
maternal life's blood, I am convinced that the earth, the
spiritual earth of the United States, must quake thereby
and overthrow slavery!
Often when I have heard the adventures of fugitive
slaves, their successful escape or their destruction, and
have thought of the natural scenery of America, and of
those scenes which naturally suggest themselves on' the
way of the North Star," I have had a wish and a longing
desire to write the history of a fugitive pair, so as it seems
to me it ought to be written, and I have been inclined to
collect materials for that purpose. And if I lived by this
river and amid these scenes, I know for what object I
should then live. But as it is, I am deficient in local
knowledge. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the
particular detail of circumstances, which would be indispensable for such a delineation, which ought to be true,
and to take a strong hold upon the reader. That office
belongs to others besides myself. I will hope for and expect-the American mother.
Ohio is called "the Buckeye State," from the brown
fruit of a kind of chestnut called the buckeye, which is
very general throughout the state. The state is said to
possess a fertile soil, good for grain and the rearing of
cattle, and pastorally beautiful scenery, although not of a
magnificent character. Both this state and Kentucky are
renowned for their fine trees. I regret that the season of
the year does not permit seeing more of their beauty and
of the country; of that rich country which could maintain eight or ten millions of inhabitants beyond its present
number.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
All within doors is good, peaceful, and charming. A
new guest, a friend of the family, has enlivened the social
circle for the last few days. He is a Mr. D., from New
England, but not at all. a Yankee in disposition; on the
contrary, he seems quite refined, very dapper, and highly
perfumed, as if he had just stepped out of Madame De
S6vigne's drawing-room circle into ours. He interests
himself principally for social life and literature, for friends
and acquaintance, for agreeable objects and the pleasures
of the hour; is an amateur of handsome ladies, bonmots,
and bonne chere; is acquainted with the minutest niceties of Shakspeare; and is able to see great things in a
little billet of four lines written by a lady's hand; for the
rest, he is an honorable man, a devoted friend, a good
companion, and one who talks well on every-day subjects.
He has given a new turn to our observations of the
Great West, regarding it from a mythological point of
view, and as a new Jothunhun with Thor and Loke, the
Krimthursar and Giants. And the comparisons which he
makes between the- Scandinavian Jothunhun, its heroes
and their adventures, which he reads from a translation
of Sturleson's Edda, by the poet Longfellow, and that of
the New World's now existing Jothunhun and its giants,
furnish occasion for many amusing narratives and relations. Thus the extreme West becomes the new Utgaerd, full of monsters and witches; the mammoth grotto is the glove of Skyenin; the divine hog, Schrimmer,
lives here a thousand-fold, and the achievements of Thor
and Starkotter are renewed in those of the giants of the
giant river and the states of the Mississippi. Of these
we have a great number of anecdotes, which season our
meals, and our host, Mr. S. (whom Mr. D. and I call "'the
good Jothun," and who seems to like the title very well),
contributes many a racy and amusing addition to this
mythology of the West. See here two specimens.
A man, one of the men of the West, was standing on
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the shore of the Mississippi, when a steamer blew up in
the air, on which he exclaimed, "By God! the Americans
are a great people!" A common exclamation in the
Great West on every occasion.
Another man, a Viking on the Mississippi, struck his
boat upon a snag in the river, and as he himself hung
upon this, he exclaimed, while his boat was dashed to
pieces,
"Hail, Columbia, happy land!
If I'm -not lost, I'll be d    d!"
Another man, a passenger in one of the Mississippi
steamers, lately got into a quarrel with another passenger. They went upon the upper deck and exchanged a
few shots, and then came down again as if they had only
been playing at ball. One of these gentlemen looked
rather pale and went into his cabin, but came out morning, noon, and evening regularly to his meals for two
days; on the third, however, he was found dead in his
bed, with five bullets in his body.
One must confess that this was taking the matter
coolly.
A certain humorous exaggeration seems to be characteristic of the inhabitants of the West, as well in their
combatant disposition as in expression. Kentucky is particularly accused of this, and gives occasion for many
amusing stories. Thus it is told of a Kentucky man that
he boasted of the fertility of the soil of Kentucky in the
following words: " If we manure well, and sow corn
(maize), we shall get about on.e hundred and fifty grains
for each one; if we sow without manure, we get one
hundred; and if we neither manure nor sow, we get
about fifty."
The Jothun histories belong now to our daily bread,
and new ones come up every day. With Mr. S., the pale
minister, I do not, however, talk about such things, but,
on the contrary, of theology and Swedenborgology. We
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dispute a little; but I find so much to learn from the
crystally-pure truth and beauty of his soul, that I have
more pleasure in listening to its quiet expression than in
maintaining my own arguments. He is one of the quiet
in the land, whose lives are their best teaching.  He still
sorrows deeply for his departed wife.
" People do not know how sufficiently to value the
blessings of matrimony," said he to me on one occasion.
" We do not live in marriage up to the height of that happiness and that life which we, nevertheless, hold in our
own hand."
Miss Harriet, the eldest sister of Mrs. S., an excellent,
stout, grave, elderly lady, near upon sixty, does not make
her appearance till dinner, and but very seldom in the
drawing-room. On the contrary, I often found that she
had some employment in my room, and in my drawers,
and about my wash-stand, and that it was done stealthily, which appeared to me a little extraordinary, until I
put in connection with it another extraordinary thing, and
thus, by means of the latter, was able to explain the former. I discovered, namely, in my drawers, that a collar
or a pair of muslin sleeves, which I had laid aside because
they had become somewhat too gray for wear, had reassumed, by some inexplicable means, their pure white'color, and lay there fresh washed and ironed as if of themselves. In the same way I found that the old collar had
been mended, and still more, a new collar exhibited itself
trimmed with real lace, and a new pair of muslin sleeves
which had never been there before, but which were exactly of the kind that I wore-and for all that, Miss Harriet, when'I met her, looked as grave as ever, and just as
if she would say that she never concerned herself with
other people's affairs, and wished that neither would others trouble themselves about hers. It was some time before I, in real earnest, began to suspect that Miss Harriet
had taken upon herself the charge of the getting up and
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
repairing of my fine linen, and supplying such new as I
seemed to stand in need of. And when at length I charged
her with it, she tried to look a little cross, but that good,
roguish smile betrayed her; but the good, kind, sisterly
soul has since then not been able to keep me at a dis tance by her somewhat harsh voice and grave manner.
But that this voice never spoke other than in truth, and
that under that apparently cold demeanor there dwelt a
good, honest heart, a clear and sound understanding, a
somewhat jocose and excellent temper and powers of con versation-all this I discovered by degrees, and this also
had I been assured of by Mr. H.
And who is Mr. H.?  He is one of the gentleman friends
of the house, a man whom I would very gladly have for
a friend. More-of him you will probably know hereafter,
as we are to be fellow-travelers to New Orleans.
Miss V., the second and younger friend and inmate of
the family, is so silent and quiet, and it is merely from
the lofty, intellectual forehead, and the repose of the whole
noble figure, that one is led to suppose that she is the possessor of more than ordinary talent.  True, however, it is,
that now and then an observation is made, or some play
of words is quietly and carelessly uttered, which makes
one turn one's head, at once amused and surprised, toward the unpretending Miss V., because one seldom hears
any where any thing so good as what she has said.
Thus, to-day at dinner, when they were talkling of the
excitement which Jenny Lind had produced in the United
States, somebody said that they had seen an announcement offering "Jenny Lind herrings" for sale, and Miss
V. immediately remarked that it was a selfish idea. And
when we began to laugh, and some one said, "Oh, Miss
V., do you make such puns?" our good Jothun returned,
a la Kentuckian, "Yes, certainly-yes, certainly, she does
nothing else. She it is who furnishes all our newspapers
with puns."
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
But she does other things also for the pleasure of the
family, and among these is the manipulation of delicate
sponge-cake, the best cake which is made in this country,
and of which I have here an abundance, as a reminder
of the giant character of the Great West.
You thus may see a little of our every-day life; but
the pearl of all to me in social life and conversation is my
charming little, sensible, and kind hostess.
I have also here the pleasure of frequently hearing
pieces by Beethoven played by a young girl, Miss K. G.,
one of the most intimate friends of the family; and played with so much fidelity, with such an inward comprehension, that not a tone nor intention of the great master
is lost. This is a source to me of the greatest enjoyment.
This young lady has in her appearance a great deal of
that inward, beaming beauty, which I value beyond the
mere exterior beauty, which is more common in the youthful countenances of this country. At my request she has
carefully studied Beethoven's second adagio in the fourth
symphony, which so much charmed me at Boston. Among
the people who have given me pleasure here, I must mention a young poetess, Mrs. L., handsome, highly gifted,
and amiable. It is a real musical delight to hear her read
poetry.
Many Swedes are resident at this place, and among
them several who, after having been unsuccessful in the
Old World, have succeeded in the New, and are now in
comfortable circumstances. One of these has- made his
fortune by exhibiting "Hell," a youthful production of
the American sculptor, Hiram Powers, who was born in
Cincinnati, worked here at a watchmaker's, and here
commenced various works of art. Among these was a
mechanical, moving representation of Hell.  The Swede
purchased it, set it up in a kind of museum, invited people
to come and see how things went on in Hell, passed some
violent electric shocks among them, accompanied by thun
114 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
der and lightning, and is now a rich man, with wife,
children, and country house, all acquired by his representation of Hell.
There are some American homes in Cincinnati into
which I will introduce you. First to the home where a
young widowed mother lives for the education and development of her five beautiful little boys into good Christians
and fellow-citizens; then to the home where married
couples without children make life rich to one another,
through kindness and intelligence, dispelling ennui from
their fireside, and causing sickness to become a means of
deeper union between heart and heart, between heaven
and earth. This is, in particular, a home where I know
you would feel as I did; for it is beautiful to see people
live well, but still more beautiful and still more rare to
see them die so. And in this home there is one dying;
quite a young girl, lovely as a rose-bud, and with such a
fresh rose-tint on her cheek that no stranger could believe
that death was at her heart. But she must die, and her
mother knows it too. She suffers from a fatal disease of
the heart; and the heart, which is becoming too large for
the narrow chest, will cease to beat in a few weeks. Both
mother and daughter know this, and prepare themselves,
during the days and nights of suffering which they spend
together, for their approaching separation, and this with
heavenly light and calm. They speak of it to each other
as of something beautiful for the younger one, and she
prepares herself for the companionship of angels by becoming beneath the cross of suffering more patient, more
affectionate to all-more like an angel still. There is
nothing gloomy in this sick-room; friends come thither
with presents and with love, still more to gladden the
young girl while she lingers on the brink of the grave,
and to obtain from her a word or a glance from that
heaven with which she is already in communion.
This serenity as regards death, and this preparation for
115 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
its approach, are of more general occurrence among the
people of England and North America than in any other
country that I am acquainted with. People there regard
it as one of their human privileges, that, as it must occur,
to become acquainted with its state, and their own pilgrimage of death; to approach the hour of their change
with an open glance and a vigilant mind, and with a full
consciousness of the importance of their transit, to prepare
themselves for it.
December 16th. A day of supreme life from a great
number of living interests and thoughts. Thoughts regarding the human brain and the central point of view
in which man stands with regard to the whole universe;
glimpses of prevision from this sun and point of sight
through an infinite expanse into the realms of all life, are
predominant in my soul. Shall I ever be in full possession
of myself, ever fully possess the world of thought which
flashes through my soul?
I can not write much more to you to-day, because I
must write many letters, and, above all, one to B6klin,
which I shall inclose in this, and which you can read if
you so incline. It will complete various things in my letter to you. Spite of all the interests which detain me
here, and all the charms of my home, I long to proceed
southward. I am afraid of the winter in the keen air of
Cincinnati, and of the American mode of heating rooms,
which is horrible. It is unquestionably the cause of much
of that disease which seems more and more on the increase
among the class of people who live most comfortably and
most within doors. I long also to reach the South before
Christmas, that I may, if possible, have an opportunity of
seeing those dances and festivities of which I have heard
are common among the negroes of the plantations at
Christmas. I have heard much said about the happiness
of the negroes in America, of their songs and dances, and
I wish, therefore, for once to see this happiness and their
116 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
festivals. In South Carolina and Georgia the preachers
have done away with dancing and the singing of songs.
In Louisiana there is no preaching to the slaves; perhaps
they may there sing and dance.
17th. A large and excellent steamer leaves this evening
for New Orleans, and with it I shall proceed thither with
my cavalier, Mr. H.
I must still say a few words to you about two very
pleasant parties which have been given by my, friends.
My objection to small familiar evening parties in America
is that they occupy themselves so little by reading aloud,
or by any other means of drawing the little circle toward
one common point of interest.
In large parties, however, many of the elements are met
with which make social intercourse perfect, among which
may be reckoned as foremost that the two sexes are properly intermingled. One never sees the gentlemen here all
crowding into one room, and the ladies into another, or the
former in one corner of the drawing-roomrn and the latter
in another, just as if they were afraid of each other. The
gentlemen who  come into society-and they seem very
fond of drawing-room society in an evening-consider it
as a duty, and, as it seems to me, often also a pleasure,
to entertain the ladies, and this evident good-will on their
part awakes in them, perhaps, not a greater desire, but
certainly a greater power of being agreeable and enfertaining, more ability to impart to men of good taste and
noble mind something much better than cigar smoke and
punch. A gentleman will commonly occupy himself for
a long time, frequently the whole evening, with one lady.
People sit on lounges, or on small sofas of all sorts, in
pairs, conversing together; or the gentleman gives the
lady his arm, and they take a promenade through the
room.  Sometimes two ladies will sit conversing together
for a long time; but the rule is for the two who associate
together to be man and woman.   Nor is it always the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
handsomest nor the most elegant lady who wins the most
attention.  I have seen Mr. H., a young and very agreeable man, occupy himself for whole hours in animated
conversation with Miss Harriet. True it is that he has a
great esteem for her, and in this he shows his good taste.
I do not know that I have ever seen card-playing in any
parties, large or small, in this country.
I shall always remember with feelings of affection some
young girls with whom I have lately become acquainted,
one among whom has lately met with a bitter trial; but,
instead of allowing it to embitter her own heart, it has
only the more caused it to expand with sympathy to all
who suffer. God's peace rest upon that young girl! She
would become very dear to me.   Some sisters also there
were, who in preasure and in pain live together as sisters
seldom do live. And that K. G., with her beaming soul
and her music, she will always remain near my heart;
but now I must proceed on my journey, and for this I
must get ready.
"Belle Key," the steamer by which I shall travel, so
called from the beautiful daughter of its proprietor, a belle
of Louisville, is a sort of giant vessel, which, laded with
every kind of product of the Great West, goes as a Christmas-envoy to New Orleans.
It is now cold at Cincinnati: the Queen of the West
rains  down soot and ashes, so that one becomes quite
grimy.   I long to be with that great Christmas-beast
once more on the Mississippi.
P.S.-It is said that there is especially fine wooing in
the Great West; a young girl has at least three or four
suitors to choose from. Certainly, the number of men
considerably predominates over that of women. In the
Eastern States it seems to me that the women are in excess.  The men go out thence into the West on the search
for occupation and wealth.   The preponderance of men
over women increases the further you advance westward.
118 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It was said at Cincinnati that at a ball at San Francisco
there were fifty gentlemen for one lady.  It is also said
that in the gold district, where there are great numbers
of men and no women, that they hung up in some kind
of museum a lady's dress, which was contemplated as a
sort of fabulous thing. But I suspect that this belongs to
the mythological legends of the Great West.
In the same category may be placed that of the Garden of Eden near Cincinnati, which I am invited to visit.
It is said to be a large vineyard; but the beauty of the
views from the heights of the Ohio may justify the name.
LETTER XXX.
TO THE REV. P. J. BOKLIN.
Cincinnati, November 27th.
I HAVE now spent more than a year in the New World
without-having fulfilled my promise of writing to you, my
friend and teacher; without having told you what I think
of it, and what I hope from it. And yet, at the same
time, I knew that you wished to know it.
My good friend, I have not hitherto been able to write
to you.  I wished not to give you my crude thoughts and
descriptions, and it was long before I could give other
than such. The effect produced upon me, and the daily
occurrences of my life in this country, were in the first
instance overpowering, as well for soul as for body; and,
to a certain degree, I was really borne down by them.
The violent torrent of new, and, for the most part, rapturous impressions, the incessant labor with new objects,
new people, together with the effects of a hot climate, and
food to which I was unaccustomed, reduced me to that
state of feverish, nervous excitement, that for months I
was unable to read, or even to think on any subject which
required the slightest exertion of mind.
119 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The mercy of God, however, the care of good people,
the healing powers of nature and of art, enabled me, by
degrees, to rise above this state of wearkness.  I was able
once more to live and learn.
But, during that daily labor, to make myself master of
those subjects which pressed upon me on all sides during
my wanderings, and the endeavor to arrange my thoughts,
it became more and more clear to me that, in order to arrive at any just conclusion with regard to the moral, intellectual, and religious culture, as it existed in the states
of North America, I must see more of its various forms
and developments; I must become acquainted with life,
as well in the Northeastern as in the Southern and the
Western States of the Union; I must see the life of America, both where it had established and perfected itself, and
where it Was yet endeavoring to break the clod of the
earth's surface, to build new homes, to conquer new life
and new lands.
"When I shall have seen the Great West, the valley
of the Mississippi, Cincinnati, the Queen of the West, I
will write to Boklin. Then I shall better understand,
shall be better able to speak of the New World, and of
that future for humanity which it bears in its bosom!"
Thus said I to myself.
Now I am at Cincinnati. I have seen and I see before
me the Great West, the central region of North America.
I have traveled through the valley of the Mississippi, the
future home of more than two hundred and seventy-five
millions of people; on the great river, the banks of which
already swarm with multitudes of European people; from
Minnesota, still the wild abode of the Indian tribes; from
the Falls of St. Anthony, where commences the career of
the river in the North, to its midmost region by the Missouri and the Ohio; and am now about to follow its course
to its outlet into the Mexican Gulf, the realm of the sugarcane and perpetual summer.                         -
120 
fIOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
And while I am resting here on the banks of the beau tiful River Ohio, like the wearied dove on the olive-branch,
in one of those beautiful, peaceful homes which every
where on my journeying through America have opened
themselves to me, and afforded me the repose of a mother's home-repose, peace, love, cheerfulness, and renewed
strength-I will converse with you-you, my spirit's and
my mind's best friend, found late but for eternity. Ah!
but even now I can merely speak a few words to you,
give you a few fragments of that which I have experienced and learned, and which I still experience and learn
in this New World. But you will understand what I can
merely imperfectly indicate; you will follow still further
through the labyrinth the thread which I lay in your hand.
You know that I did not come to America to seek for
a new object, but to establish a new hope. While one
portion of the people of Europe, after a struggle for light
and freedom, which in part mistook its own purpose, and
not clearly knowing that which it desired, seemed (perhaps merely seemed) to sink back again under a despotism
which knew better what it aimed at, obtaining for a time
the power of might; in that gloomy season my soul raised
itself in deep faith and love toward that distant land,
where the people erected the banner of human freedom,
declared the human right and ability to govern themselves, and on this right founded a monarchy of statesthe commencement of the world's greatest governmental
culture.
That which I sought for there was the new human be- 
ing and his world; the few humanity and the sight of its
future on the soil of the New World.
I will tell you what I have so far seen and found.
I spent the last autumn and winter in the northeastern
states of the Union, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut-. the mother states from which the swarm of people
have gone forth, and still go forth to populate the Americaa
IoL. II.-F
l21
I 
HOMES OF THt NEW WORLD.
continent, and to give it laws and manners.   That which
is most admirable in these mother states is the number of
great institutions for the education of youth and in aid of
the unfortunate, schools and asylums.  These are the offspring of a large heart, and they have a broad basis. It
is a joy to see and hear the children taught in these public schools, which are all free schools, in large and airy
halls. One can see that they are all awake and full of
life; one can hear that they understand that which they
read and learn. The great reformation which has taken
place in the conduct of schools, and the impulse which has
been given toward a universal popular education in America, are the result, in great measure, of the enthusiasm
perseverance, and determined resolution of a single individual, Horace Mann; and this fact is, without question,
one of the most beautiful and the most significant phenomena of this national cultivation, especially as it embraces womrnan as well as man, and places her side by side
with him as the teachers of the rising generation.*
I have traced this from the East to the West, from those
magnificent academnies where five hundred students, boys
or girls, study and take degrees preparatory to public life,
as teachers and teacheresses, to the log-huts of the Western wilderness, where school-books lie open before the ragged children, which convey the mind over the whole world,
and where the noblest pearls of American and English
literature are to be found. I have talked with lloraoe
fann-the man of immeasurable hope, and I have thence
derived great hope for the intellectual and moral perfecting of the human race, and for its fulture in this portion of
the world; for that which is in the Northeastern States,
in the oldest homes of the Pilgrims, the same will be soon
* Young girls learn. in the high schools, Latin, Greek, mathematics,
algebra, the physical sciences, and, it is said, have the greatest facility in
acquiring a knowledge of these subjects, which are considered with us So
difficult, if not incomprehensible, to the female intellect.
~
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HOMES OF AT   AsEW WORLD.
er or later in the South and the West.  A great and liv  ing initelligence in- the popular mind mixes itself up more
and more in the great question of popular education, and
goes -onward conquering like a subtle power of nature, a
stream of spiritual life forcing a way for itself through all
impediment. Would you hear how it speaks through its
most powerful representative in the New World?  Thus
writes Horace Mann in his invitation to the National Con vention of the friends of Education, in August; 1850:
"A few considerations will serve to show that there
never has been a period in the history of man when uni versal education was so imperative a duty as at the pres ent moment.  I mean education in its most comprehens ive and philosophic sense, as including the education of
the body, the education of the mind, and the education of
the heart.
"In regard to the first topic, it is well known that phys ical qualities are hereditary. Disease and weakness de scend from parent to offspring by a law of nature, as names
descend by a law of custom.   God still ordains that the
bodily iniquities of the fathers shall be visited upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation. When we
look backward and see how the numbers of our ancestors
is doubled at each remove in the ascending scale, it affrights us to reflect how many confluent streams from vicious fountains may have been poured- into the physical
system of a single individual  Where, for many generations, this horrid entailment of maladies has not been broken by a single obedient and virtuous life, who can conceive of the animal debaseme t- and depravities that may
centre in a single person? At every descent, the worst
may become worse; and the possible series of deterioration is infinite.  Before the human race, or any part of it,
becomes more diseased, or physically more vile, is it not
time to arrest and restore?  This can be done through
education or through miracles, and it Would require more
123 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
than three hundred and sixty-five miracles every year to
preserve health and strength under our present vicious social habits. Those who do not expect the intervention of
miracles are false to their families, to the community, and
to God, if they do not urge forward the workl of physical
education as the only means of rescuing the race from
an infinity of sicknesses, weaknesses, and pains. Public
schools are the only instrumentality for inculcating upon
the community at large a knowledge of the great laws of
health and life.
"There never was such a necessity of imparting power
to the human intellect, and of replenishing it with knowledge, as at the present time; and in no country is this
necessity so imperative as in our own. The common affairs of life require a hundred times more knowledge now
than they did a century ago.  New forms, and kinds of
business too, are daily emerging into practice, which must
be conducted with intelligence and skill, or they will ruin
their conductors. How much more knowledge and art
are requisite t' make a cotton or woolen factory, with all
its nice and numerous appendages, than to manage a spinning-wheel or a distaff; to manage a locomotive on a railroad, than to drive a team on a highway; to manage a
telegraph, than to send a courier, &c. The profoundest
sciences are working their way into the every-day business of life, and carrying power, and beauty, and multiplication of products wherever they go, and whosoever
can not rise upon the benefits they confer will be left in
poverty, misery, and contempt.
"Not only in all the departments of business are there
every where more life, energy, and compass, but the masses of the people are investing themselves, or are becoming
invested, with new social and political prerogatives. The
freeman, who may go where he pleases, and select whatever occupation he pleases, needs vastly more judgment
and intelligence than the subject of a despotism who is
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
born in some niche of labor, and must stay where he is
born. The citizen, who manages not only his own personal affairs, but those of his municipality; who governs
himself in all his political relations through representatives chosen by himself; whose vote may determine not
only who shall be the rulers, but what measures of national or international policy shall be established or annulled, on whose will peace or war, national honor or national infamy may depend-such a citizen, in capacity,
in knowledge, and in wisdom, should be as a god in comparison with a Russian serf or a Hindoo pariah. At this
time, I say, there is vastly more for the mind of man to do
and to understand than there ever was before, and therefore that mind must'be proportionably strengthened and
illumined.
"There never was a time when the moral nature of
man needed culture and purification more than it needs
them at the present hour. What we call civilization and
progress have increased temptations a thousand-fold-in
this country ten thousand-fold.   The race for wealth, luxury, ambition, and pride is open to all. With our multiplied privileges have come not only multiplied obligations, which we may contemn, but multiplied dangers
into which we may fall.  Where oppression and despotism reign, all the nobler faculties of man are dwarfed,
stunted, and shorn of their power. But oppression and
despotism dwarfs and stunts, and despoils of their power,
all the evil passions of men, not less than their nobler impulses. In this country, all that is base and depraved in
the human heart has such full liberty and wide compass,
and hot stimulus of action, as has never been known before.  Wickedness not less than virtue-diabolism not less
than utilitarianism, has its steam-engines, and its powerpresses, and its lightning telegraphs. Those external restraints of blind reverence for authority, and superstitious
dread of religious guides, and fiery penal codes, which
126 
HOMES OF THE: NEW WORLD.
once repressed the passions of man, and paralyzed all en.
ergy, are now lifted of.  If internal and moral restraints
be. not substituted for the external and arbitrary o,'nes that
are removed, the people, instead of being conquerors and
sovereigns over their passions, will be their victims and
their slaves. Even the clearest revelations from heaven,
and the sanctifying influences firom God, unless vouch safed to us so daily and momently as to supersede all volition and conscience of ours, would not preclude a virtuous training as an indispensable prerequisite to a happy
and honorable life.  He takes but a limited view of the
influences and the efficacy of Christian ethics who does
not strive to incorporate and mould them into the habits
and sentiments of youth; who, as fast as the juvenile
mind opens to the perception of wonder, and beauty, and
of truth, has not exhaustless store of moral wonders, and
beauties, and truths, ready for the transfiusion into) it."
Thus speaks the President of the National Convention
of the Friends of Education, the man of Education par
excellence in North America.   He is a Masachusetts
man, and is, at the present time, representative of the
Pilgrim State in Congress.
You see the ground-that he takes.  The enlightenment
of the moral and intellectual being by means of a school
education, common to all, such is the foundation upon
which the New World would erect its dominion, such the
means by which the new human being is to be brought
forth. Thus far has the popular consciousness advanced
in the New Worldno further, at least, with a perfect
conwiousness.
The consciousness has arisen most clearly and with
most strength in the States of New England, the oldest
home of the Pilgrims.   Unwearied and fearless endeavors
for the development of the life of the state, and the elevation of the more indigent classes of society, the endeavor
to oroduce a perfectly harmonious human community,
126 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORtLD.
characterize the life of these states.  The idea of a Christian state, a Christian community, evidently forms the
basis of all this. The doctrines of Christ; thp honor of
labor; the right of all, and the well-being of all; every
thing for all! are the battle-cries which one hears.-  The
harps of the poets have called forth the moral ideal of
man and of society!
From these states I proceeded in the month of March,
while frost and snow covered the ground, to the Southern
States of North America, and spent about three months in
the Palmetto States, South Carolina and Georgia. There
the sun was warm.  And though I found slavery there,
and saw its dark shadow on the sun-bright earth, saw its
fetters contract the moral and political development of
these states, I still enjoyed nay life as I had not done in
those intellectual, upward - striving, restlessly - laboring
Northern States. I had more repose, and I was better in
health. The soft beauty of the air and the climate at
this season, the luxuriance of the vegetation, the beautiful new flowers, the odors, the fruits, the magnificence of
the primeval forest along the banks of the Red River; the
glow of the fire-flies in the dusk, warm nights; my rambles beneath the Gothic arcades of the live-oaks, hung
with their long, swaying masses of moss, a spectacle at
once novel and enchanting to a European eye; a certain
romantic picturesqueness of life, caused by the contact of
the black and the white races on this beautiful, fragrant
soil; the peculiar life and temperament of the negroes,
their songs, and religious festivals-will you forgive me
for being enchanted with these, and for allowing myself
to forget, or to see less strongly the darkness of slavery,
than these images of light which the beauty of the South
called forth in natural objects and individual man. No
poet here has sung the moral ideal of society, but the
hundred-tongued bird (Turdus polyglottos), the nightingale of North America, sings in those fragrant forests, and
127 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
earth, with its human beings and its flowers, seems bathed
in light. Yet, that I was not blinded to the night-side,
and to the great lie in the life of the South, is proved by
my letters home.
The most beautiful moral phenomenon which I saw,
however, was the inbreaking light of Christianity among
the children of Africa, the endeavors which true Christians,
especially in Georgia, are making for the religious instruction of the slaves, and their emancipation and colonization
in Liberia, on the African coast. A vessel goes annually
from Savannah to Liberia, laden with emancipated slaves,
together with the means for their establishment in that,
the'original mother country. But this phenomenon is no
more than a little point of light in the gloomy picture of
slavery in these states. It is a work of private individuals. The laws of the states are deficient in light and
justice as regards the slave, and are unworthy of a free
country and people!
In the month of May I hastened from the glowing South
and traveled northward to Pennsylvania, and afterward
to Delaware.
Amid the greatest heats of summer, I found myself in
the hot cities of Philadelphia and Washington. I interested myself in Philadelphia by becoming acquainted
with the Quakers, and the life of the inward light in good
and benevolent institutions.  I read the Declaration of
Independence, the great charter of liberty of the American
people, and proceeded onward to Washington, to watch
the combat in Congress on the subject of the great contested question between the free and the slave states, between the North and the South, about the admission of
California and New Mexico as free states into the Union.
It was carried on with great violence, and the stability of
the Union was threatened every day. You know already,
through the newspapers, the compromise which was made,
and which pacified the strife for a time; for the strife and
128 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the danger still exists, secretly or openly, so long as slavery
and slaves are to be found within the American Union;
and the stronger grows the human and the political consciousness of this country, the more keen will become the
struggle to concentrate itself on this point, the fiercer Will
become the warfare.
I saw great statesmen and heard great speeches in
Washington, andI believe that no country on earth can
at this time present an assembly of greater talent or of
more remarkable men than may be met with in the Senate of the United States.,, Political injustice and political
bitterness I found here, as every where on the political
battle-field.
That which struck me most in the Congress of the
United States was the mode of representation. You know
something of it from books and newspapers; each state,
small or large, in the Union sends two senators to Congress.  These constitute the Senate, or Upper House.
The representatives, who constitute the second chamber,
or Lower House, are sent by each separate state, according to the number of its population; the larger the population, the more representatives to Congress. Each individual state of the Union governs itself in the same mnanner by two chambers, a Senate and House of Representatives, the numbers of which are elected in the state by the
citizens of the state; and each state has its own Capitol:.
This mode of representation brings forth much nationality, and much that is picturesque in the living, peculiar
life of each state. The Granite State and the Palmetto
State, "Old Virginny" and new Wisconsin, Minnesota and
Louisiana, each so separate and so peculiar in situation,
scenery, climate, products, population, stand forth in Congress as individuals, and take part in the treatment of
public questions, which are interesting to the whole human race, according to characteristics which are peculiar
to the mselves and common to all.
F2
129 
flOMES Or TM WiM  WORL.D.
I could no,t help thinking, during all this, of the representation of Sweden, and its much-talked of construe.
tion.  It occurred to me that there could not be any form
more suitable or more calculated to awaken national life
and consciousness than one resembling this of the Unitd
States. I saw Norrland and Scania, Dalecarlia and Ble.
king, East GSothland and West Gothland, and all our provinees, peculiar in people, scenery, products, stand forth in
the Diet of Sweden, and by means of its senators cast new
light upon the condition of the country, its wants, and its
hitherto hidden or unavailing sources of prosperity. I
saw the noath, the south, and the central parts of Sweden,
its east and its west, illumined by rays of light which till
then had not penetrated them, and the popular consciousness and popular life under the guidance of representatives, worthy, through their knowledge and their personal
character, to represent that individual province in its peculiarities and its life, as a portion of a great whole, of a
country, a people with an inheritance as great as the former history of Sweden, a future which may emulate in
human greatness that of the greatest people on the earth.
In the oldest times of Sweden, when the judges (Lagmil.
ennen) of each province appeared at the Allshirjarthing,
and there, as the wisest and best of the land, conveyed the
speech of the common people to the King of Sweden (Svealand), the most ancient representation of our country was
in idea similar to that now existing in North America.
Such a representation of country and of people seems
to me in a high degree conformable to nature and nationality. And what a field is hereby opened to talent and to
the orator!
President Taylor died during my stay at Washington,
and I was present at the installation of his legal successor,
President Fillmore, into his offie —-the highest in the
United States.  Nothing could be simpler, or more destitute of pomp and show, or more unlike our royal corona
ISO 
AcM'ES            OFTMw WALd.
{ion*.  But-I have nothing to say against these.  They
present beautiful and picturesque spectacles; and without
spectacle people can not very well live, not even in this
country, as is seen by the eagerness with which they every
where  rush to see any thing new.   What a beautiful
spectacle did we not behold in Sweden on the coronation
of King Carl Johan and King Oscar!  I remember, in par.
titular at the latter, those young princes, the three sons of
Oscar, in their princely attire, when they came lorward to
take the oath to their royal father -no one could have
seen more beautiful forms, hardly a more lovely sight!
After having bathed in the foaming sea on theeastern
coast, I betook myself into the West.   I had seen the
North and the South of the Union, now I would see:the
Great West.   I longed for it greatly.  I had heard much
in the Eastern States, and in the North and in the South
also, of that Great West, of its wonderful growth and progress.  In what did these consist?  I had a great desire to
know.
On my journey westward I made  acquaintance with
the giants of nature, Trenton and Niagara, sailed across
the great lakes, Ontario, Erie, Michigan, to visit the Swedish and Norwegian settlements on the Mississippi, partook
of Swedish hospitality, and saw Swedish roses bloom fresh
ly in the new soil, and behelda new Scandinavia arising
in the wilderness of the West.  After that I advanced up
the Mississippi, to the region where lie the sources of the
Great River, saw glorious mountainous scenery, ruin-like
crags, ascending above oak-crowded hills, ruins of the primeval ages where the first-born Titans of nature, the Me.
gatherium, the Mastodon, the Ichthyosaurian, wandered
alone over the earth, and man as yet did not exist. And
he is still an unfrequent guest in these immense wildernesses where it is yet silent and desolate.  It is true that
here and there a little log-hut is erected at the foot of
the hills A  the banks of the Mississippi, and that bewide
I-Si 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
it is seen a little field of Indian corn; that is the first trace
of civilization in these regions. But it is like the print
of the one human foot on Robinson Crusoe's uninhabited island. Close beside it are the primeval forests of the
wilderness, where only the wild beasts and Indians, in
perpetual warfare with each other, have their dwelling.
Close beside it are those immense prairies, the flowery des.
erts of the Mississippi Valley, where the grass waves like
heavy billows, far, far away toward the distant horizon,
untouched by human hands, because here there are no
human hands to mow, not one thousandth part. And that
which made a deeper impression upon me than Niagara,
than any thing which I have seen in this hemisphere or
in Europe, are these immeasurable prairie views which
belong to the valley of the Mississippi, and which increase
in extent the nearer one approaches the Great River. It
is glorious to behold these ocean-lilke views, with their
waves of sunflowers, and their lofty, heaving billows of
grass beneath the heaven of America, clear and resplendent with sunshine, or through bright expanses of which
float masses of cloud. The soul expands itself, and, as it
were, opens itself to the gentle, free wind which soughs
over the plain, and sounding melodiously as it passes by
the wires of the electric telegraph which are stretched
across it. Each day of my journey westward was a festival, as I sped along on wings of steam over the plain,
ever and ever toward the golden setting sun, as if speeding
into his realms of light!
The valley of the Mississippi, from Minnesota in the
north to Louisiana in the south, between the Alleghany
Mountains on the east and the Rocky Mountains on the
west, is throughout an immense "rolling prairie," with
ridgy heights and hills of the most fertile soil, richly watered by rivers and lakes. This meadow-land, occupying
a high level in the north, and producing northern pines and
birches, gradually sinks lower and lower as it approaches
ii32 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the south, until in Louisiana it becomes a swampy morass,
where the alligator paddles in the mud, but where also the
sugar-cane and the palmetto spring up in the warm air,
and orange-groves shed their perfume around. It embraces much variety in soil, climate, and production. But
I will hear what a resident in this great valley, and one
well acquainted with it, says of
"That great central valley of the continent of North
America-a valley extending through twenty-one- degrees
of latitude and fifteen degrees of longitude-a valley just
beginning to smile under the hand of cultivation, and
which already invites to its large bosom those masses of
people who are pouring out from the overstocked communities of the Old World, and which promises to requite the
hand of cultivation by a provision for yet uncounted millions of the human race.
"Nature has gifted the soil in a remarkable degree with
vegetable and mineral wealth, has bestowed upon it an
exterior suited to every taste, and to the requirements of
all, and has intersected it with rivers which are available
to every species of industry, and for unlimited commercial
transactions, embracing every production of the temperate
zone within its northern and southern boundaries.
"This vast meadow, this rich and fertile valley, lying
between the sources of the Mississippi on the north and
the Gulf of Mexico in the south, the Rocky Mountains on
the west, and the Alleghany chain on the east, although
but a short time since a wilderness, embraces already eleven entire states, portions of two others, as well as two
territories; it is full of the active spirit of labor, and is
capable of sustaining half the population of the United
States.  Embracing within its limits 1,200,000 square
miles, or 768,000,000 bf acres, its importance  and its
power can as little be estimated as that of the Union itself.
Its influence must become coextensive with that of the
habitable globe, the garden and corn-magazine of which
133 
lKOES OF HE NEW WORLD.
it will become; it must extend its dominion beyond that
of the United States, and become the kernel of its empire,
the source of its vital power, the diadem of its pride, the
basis of the pyramid of its greatness. The Creator of the
world has nowhere on the face of the earth diffused more
affluent elements of human prosperity, nor more visibly
made a beautiful and suitable provision for the requirements of humanity. Visit it not with the curse of a feeble government; do not throw impediments in the way of
its improvement; keep not back the tide of emigration
which is pouring into its bosom; let its broad arms receive the overpopulation which oppresses the fields of
Europe, and the All-good Giver of every good gift will
smile from his heaven upon a happy family of more than
275,000,000 of human beings."
If you should be tempted to smrnile at this pecimen of
the great views of the Great West as regards this great
Mississippi Valley and its great future, still you will not
fail to recognize in all a great mind —a great heart; and
for the rest, that here the subject is not exactly a —small
thing.
Mr. Allen, the senator of Missouri, from whose writings
on the Trade and Navigation of the Mississippi Valley in
the year 1850 1 have extracted the above, proceeds to give
the statistics of the various Mississippi State-s, and the
trade and increase of their cities, a perfectly practical and
statistical treatise, but which produces a certain poetical
impression, not only by the wealth of the products which
he enumerates, but also by the almost fairy-tale'like increase of cultivation and population of cities, and traffic
on the rivers, by the wealth Iof the whole of this region.
The senator sent to Congress by Missouri, Colonel Benton, as well as Mr. Allen, who is eminently a practical
man, becomes a poet when he glances at this subject, and
exclaims,  The river navigation  in the -Great West is the
mo,st wonderful in the world, and possesses, by means of
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YS or THE: W WOLD.
steam, all the properties of ocean navigation - rapidity,
immense distance, low prices, and large- freightage, all is
there. The steam-boat is the ship of the river, and finds
on the Mississippi  and its tributaries the  most perfect
theatre for its application and its powers.   Wonderful
river! United to vast seas at its source and at its mouth
-extending its arms toward the Atlantic and the Pacific
Ocemans-flowing through a stretch of valley which extends from the Mexican Gulf to Hudson's Bay, deriving
its earliest waters, not from sterile mountains, but from a
plateau of lakes in the centre of the continent, and in con.
necti'on with the sources of the St. Lawrence, and those
rivers which take their course northward to Hudson's Bay,
flowing the greater part of its way through the richest
meadow-land, conveying on its bosom the productions of
every climate, even ice from the frigid zone, which it transports to the great market of the sunny South. Hither are
brought the product of the whole world. Such is the
Mississippi!  And who can calculate the total of its advantages, and the greatness of its future commercial engagements!"  But enough of Mississippi eloquence.
And now I must tell you of the growth and progress of
the Great West, as they have  appeared to me.   This
growth is principally material as yet, but the spiritual
growth follows in its footsteps. rwherever Americans establii-h themselves, the first. buildings that they erect, after their dwelling-houses and places of business, are schools
and churches;  then follow hotels and asylums.  The
West repeats the cities, the institutions, and the cultivation of the Rast, and their course is rapid and safe.  First
you see in the wilderness some log-houses, then neat
frame and  small stone houses, then elegant villas and
cottages; and before many years are over, there stands, as
if by magic, a town with its Capitol or State House, its
handsome churches, splendid hotels, academies, and institutions of all kinds; and lectures are delivered,- large
iSI6 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
newspapers printed, government-men are elected, public
meetings are convened, and resolutions passed on the subject of popular education or intercourse with the whole
world; their rail-roads are made, canals dug, ships built,
rivers are traversed, forests are penetrated, mountains are
leveled, and, amid all this, husbands build beautiful homes
for their wives, plant trees and flowers around them, and
woman rules as a monarch in the sacred world of home
-thus does the country increase, thus is society arranged,
and thus is a state prepared to take its place as an independent member of the great family-group of states. And
although two thirds of the population of the Mississippi
Valley consists of Scandinavians, Germans, Irish, and
French, yet there too is the legislative and the formative
spirit of the Anglo-Norman.
In certain respects, the character of the Western States
is different from that of the Eastern. It has more breadth
and cosmopolitanism; its people are a people of many nations, and it is asserted that this character betrays itself
in a mrore liberal form of state government, as well as
more unprejudiced views, and an easier mode of social
life. The various religions sects become more and more
amalgamated; the clergy prophesy the advent of a Millennian Church, which shall gather all sects into its embrace; and maintain the necessity of secular education,
of science, and of polite literature, for the full developmeat of the religious life.
The cities of the West are all of them pre-eminently
cosmopolitan cities. The Germans have their quarters
there-somletimes half the city, their newspapers, and
their clubs; the Irish have theirs; and the French theirs.
The Mississippi River is the great cosmopolitan which
unites all people, which gives a definite purpose to their
activity, and determines their abode, and which enables
the life of every one, the inhabitants themselves and their
products, to circulate from the one end to the other of this
great central valley.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORL-D.
But here ends my admiration and my oration about
greatness and growth, for the cities of the West appear to
me in no respect larger or better than those of the East.
St. Louis is only another New York placed on the western
bank of the Mississippi; and San Francisco, on the shores
of the Pacific Ocean, is merely a third repetition of the
first city.  The western state which glances forth beautifully in Wisconsin, sinks again in Missouri and Arkansas.  The western portion of the American continent is
no better than the eastern.  Will it ever become so?
Will there be any thing different in development,. in
character-will it become higher and nobler, and more,
will it approach somewhat nearer to perfection? That
kingdom of the Millennium where the lion shall lie down
with the lamb; where every man shall sit in the shadow
of his own vine and fig-tree; where all people shall meet
together in peace, and heaven shall smile over a happy
family of 275,000,000 of human beings? is that kingdom of peace, and love, and prosperity to have its place
here?
Ah! it has been very painful to me to give up that
beautiful dream which gladdened me as I traveled westward, and saw the golden sun advance before me onward
into that promised land of the West, into whose realms I
seemed to be journeying.  I no longer have any faith in
it. It is gone!
The western land of the New World will not produce
any thing essentially different from the eastern. The New
Paradise is nowhere to be met with on earth. It will
probably never be obtained in this world, and upon this
earth!
There will, however, be no deficiency of enlightenment
among the people of North America.  But it will be merely obtained through the diffusion of general popular education, that great diffusion among all classes of cheap
newspapers, in which all subjects are discussed, and which
137 
-OMES; OF THE NEW WORLD.
bring every vital question of life fully investigated, and
all human thoughts, to the mind of every man. Life it.
self in this country, with its States' institutions, constitutes a great public educational establishment, demanding light and knowledge, and in the combat between light
and darkness, between God and Mammon, which is going
forward here, as well as in the great world's battle, the
combat becomes more profound and more inward than it
ever has been before on the earth; it concentrates itself
more than ever upon the innermost ground of the will and
the conscience, for no one can here henceforth excuse himself by saying
"I did not know!"
Hence it becomes to me more and more evident that
that which we have to expect from this world's cultivation is not a Utopia, but-a judgment-day; that is to say,
a more determined separation between the children of
light and the children of darkness, between good and evil
-a more rapid approach toward the last crisis.
The new man of the New World stands amid upon the
line of separation between the powers of this world, but
upon a higher platform, and with increased knowledge,
and with a clearer consciousness he is again called upon
to choose between them.
The whirl of life rolls with accelerated speed; all the
powers of nature and of matter are made subservient to a
mighty will. The roads to hell, as well as those to heaven, are now traveled with the speed of the rail-road and
steam. The business of earthly life is hastening on to its
close, and I seem to hear those prophetic words on the last
page of the Book of Life,
"The time is at hand.
"He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that
is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous,
let himt be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be
holy still.  -
iss 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
X
"And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with
me, to give every man according as his work shall be."
What can give preponderance to the scae of the good,
and double the number of the righteous and the holy?
In the salutation of that New Year which the hosts of
heaven conveyed to earth, upon that great New Year's
day firom which the earth dates her centuries-it was
sung,
"Good-will to man!"
What is it that can give force to this good-wilt to man?
The statesman of America has answered,
"The Constitution of the State; free political institu.
tions."
But the Constitution of the United States has received
slavery as a "domestic institution," and defends it on the
ground of the right of these free states.
The learned men and the teachers of America have re
plied,
"Schools, and the education of the people in these
schools."
But the popular education of schools speaks merely to
the understanding, and can not do otherwise.
Both constitution and schools are alike perfect in their
insufficiency.
They can not give new life to this good-will. T'hey
can not bring the kingdom of God into the innermost life
of every human being.
The power to do this lies in an institution anterior on
earth, and in human life, to constitutions or to schools.
Behold there on the banks of the river, amid that open
field, or on that green hill, a small human habitation.
It is neither large nor splendid, but its style of architecture is ornamental; it speaks of taste and convenience; a
veranda or piazza formed of lovely trellis-work, up which
clamber vines and the fragrant clematis, roses and honeysuckle, surround the house; beautiful trees, the natives
139 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of all zones, are planted around; you see the maple, the
elm, and the linden-tree, the oak and the chestnut, the
walnut and the robinia, the alanthus and the sycamore,
the cedar and the magnolia, the cypress and the myrtle,
and a great number of beautiful, odoriferous flowers:
these are so grouped around the house as to give it a
sheltered appearance, without impeding the views, which
are always kept open to allow the inhabitants to behold a
beautiful or extensive landscape.
You see the home of North America —-the home, with
its characteristic features, as it is found in all the states,
as well on the heights of Massachusetts and Minnesota,
as in the fragrant forest-meadows of South Carolina, and
on the prairie-land of the Far West. And that home firequently deserved the appellation which the home obtained in our old North, the appellation of a sacred room.
The fire of the domestic hearth burns in no country
brighter, or is tended by purer hands than in the home
of the United States.  It is a pleasure to me to be able
to say this with knowledge and conviction.  Nor have I
in any country seen the home so generally beautiful in
its exterior, so guarded as the apple of the human eye.
Neither have I ever seen people who know better how to
follow the hint which the Creator gave, when he, having
created Adam, placed him, not in a city, but in a garden.
Even the American cities seem to have uneasy consciences when they begin to cluster themselves into closely-built masses of houses, and one might say that the
houses there hastened to get apart from each other, and
though they stand in rows forming streets and markets,
they soon make open spaces, and surround themselves
with a green-sward, and trees, and flowers. And the
larger this verdant, shady, flowery plot, the more cheerful seems the American home. This is what it enjoys,
but it likes to enjoy it in company, and wishes others to
be as well off as itself. Order, comfort, embellishment,
14Q 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and an actual luxury of trees and flowers, distinguish the
home of the New World. And this home is the earliest
world of the child, of the new man.
It is to the home, it is-to the heart of the home, to the
guardian of the sacred fire upon its hearth, that I look
for the entrance of the new man upon the theatre of the
world, for the obtaining of the victory in the combat
which is going on between the two powers of the world.
Thle important thing is to obtain many and brave cham pions for the good cause; to win the heart, and to give
the will a right and strong bias toward the good, that is
the chief thing.
I have set my hope upon the weak, upon them who in
their weakness are strong.  I am certain that it depends
upon them.  And if they hesitate, or if they are not equal
to the greatness of their vocation, then all is lost; for nev er was their influence of so much importance as in this
land of free-will.  See what Horace  Mann says of the
power of this influence on the unlimited development of
the United States.
Can the home, can the American mother give the life,
the power which is required?
I must answer the question with No, they can not do
so in their present state of cultivation.   And whatever
value we may give to exceptional cases, still it is certain
that the Home in the New World, as well as in the Old,
has not yet come up to its requirements, and that woman
still stands as hitherto almost isolated in the home and in
social life, with no plae in the life of fellow-citizenship,
without any higher consciousness of the connection which
exists between this and the life of home, or of the connection between moral and religious (or the-higher political) questions, and social questions and political life;
without consciousness of her own vocation, of her responsibility as a citizen of the great Christian Commonwealth.
How, then, can she educate citizens; how can she kindle
141 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in the heart of the child a sacred zeal for the well-being
of the native land; how so enlighten it that it may bring
into exercise the same conscientious integrity, the same
lofty piety for the conduct, worldly business, and political
questions, as within the sacred world of home?.
The women of the community of Quakers are the only
women who are more generally alive to the consciousness
of citizenship; but they are merely a small number.
How the great mass may ascend, and by that means
enlighten the whole rising generation; how the home may
become the greatest and the most beautiful school of society-life's high-school; of all this I have my own thoughts,
but I shall not now give them utterance.
It is a joy X me to hear and to see that a presentiment
of this is beginning to find its way into the universal
mind of this country, both among men and women; and
I expect that this higher development will be accomplished
on American soil; and I will now conclude this subject
with the words of an American  author: "!The darkneMss
of the mothers casts its shadow over their children; and
cloud and darkness must rest upon their descendants until their day begins to dawn over the hills."
And now let me speak of the American people.   The
traveler who finds in the United States a great uniformity and resemblance among the people there, has looked
merely on the exterior.  There is really a great, a too
great uniformity in speech, manners, and dress (for a little costume, delicately expressive of individuality, belongs
to a fully developed character); one travels from one end
of the Union to the other, and hears the same questions
about Jenny Lind; the same phraseology at the commence
ment of conversation; the same "last thoughts of Weber"
on the piano.  After this, however, an attentive observer
soon remarks that there is no lack of character and indi.
viduality; and I have nowhere felt, as-here, the distance
between one human being and another, nor have en any
142 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
where so great a difference between man and man, whol ly irrespective of caste, rank, unifornm, outward circum stances.   Here is the Transcendentalist, who treads the
earth as though he were a god, who calls upon men to be come gods, and from the beauty of his demeanor and his
character, we are induced to think more highly of human
nature; and here is the ClIay-eater, who lives in the for est, without school or church, sometimes without a hornme,
and who, impelled by a morbid appetite, eats olay until,
demoniacally dragged downward by its oppressive power,
he finds in it his grave; here is the Spiritualist, who lives
on bread, and water, anl fruit-who is nourished by the
light, that he may preserve himself pure from the taint
of any thing earthly-and who, not finding Christianity
pure enough for his diluted moral atmosphere, adopts that
noble socialism which exists merely to communicate benefits and blessings; and beside him is the worshiper- of
Mammon, who tramples every thing spiritual under his
feet, and who acknowledges nothing holy, nothing which
he can not and will not sacrifice to his idol-self. Every
contrast of temperament, character, disposition, endeavor,
which can be imagined to exist in human nature, may
here be met with, and may here express itself with a more
decided spiritual life.
I have frequently in the New World, and that in very
various classes of society, heard it remarked of people
that they belonged to "the best men" or "lthe best wom.
en;" and it has struck me how well people in general
seem to understand the phrase, and how much they are
agreed upon it. I have found also that these best men
and women are commonly distinguished by intelligence,
kindness, and active human-love; and I do not believe
that so much is done in any country by private individuals
for the public as in this, in particular in the free states.
The feeling for the public weal, for the improvement of
the country and the people at large, for the elevation of
143 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
humanity, can scarcely be more living and active any
where fthan it is here.  The people of the Ijnited States
have a warm heart, and that which gives this people their
eternal prerogative of progress is their imitation of Christ
I say the people of the United States, and I maintain the
assertion. Remove slavery from its Southern States (and
it will be removed one of these days; already it is under mined by Christianity and by emigration from the North),
and you will find there the same heart andthe same spirit.
The right of the people of North America to be consid ered as one people, and as a peculiar people among the
nations of the earth, is founded upon the character of its
first emigrant colonies, they who  were peculiarly the
creators of the society of the New World, and who infused
their spirit into it. They were in part heroes of the faith,
as Puritans, Huguenots, and Hernhutters, in part warm hearted souls, such as Fox, Penn, Oglethorpe, who had
found their places in the Old World too circumscribed for
them, and who passed over to the New World, there to
establish their fraternal associations, and to create a more
beautiful humanity. The first settlers of America belong ed to the strongest and the best portions of the European
population.
I will now tell yqu something about those best men
and women of America with whom  I have become ac quainted-during my pilgrimage through the land; about
those men so simple, so gentle, but yet so strong without
any pretension, so manly  in their activity-as citizens,
husbands, fathers, friends; of those women, so kind, so
motherly, so -gentle in manner, so steadfast in principle,
resting in the truth like flowers in-the sunshine; of those
homtes, those happy, beautiful homes, in which I have been
a happy guest for days, and weeks, and months; for my
life in America has been, and is, a journey of familiar
visits to homes which- have opened themselves to me -in
every state throughout America, and where I have lived,
144 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLI,D.
not as a sranger, but as a sister with brothers and sisters,
conversing openly with them on all subjects, as people
may converse in heaven. I there met with more than I
have words to tell, of true Christian life, of the love of
truth, of kindness, of minds earnest for and receptive of
every thing which is great and good in humanity; while
my acquaintance with some beautiful, peculiar characters
will serve as a guide to my soul forever. Nor have I
any where met with more hospitality, or with a more
abounding cordiality. And if I were to seek for one expression which would portray the peculiar character of
the people of the New World, I could not find any other
than that of beautiful htman beings.
When I imagine to myself a Millennium in the valley
of the Mississippi, a resting-point in the history of the
earth, where Satan is bound, and love, beauty, and joy,
and the fullness of love, becomes the portion of all, I then
behold there men and women, such as my friends; homes
such as their homes, and see these mighty rivers bearing
from these flowery prairies, with their ocean-like views,
and from these golden fields of maize, all the treasures of
earth to all mankind, and mild, fresh winds blow over it,
and the clear sun shines.  Such were the glorious home
of the Hesperides!
It is not at all difficult to predict that the valley of the
Mississippi, in consequence of the variety of nations by
which it is populated, and from the variety in its scenery
and climate, will at a future time produce a popular life
of a totally new kind, with infinite varieties of life and
temperament, a wholly new aspect of human society on
earth. But what appearance will the apex of the pyramid
present, the basis of which is now being formed? One
thing appears to me certain: the inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley must become citizens of the world-the
universal mankind, par excellence.
Let me attempt to delineate some features of that oem  VOL. II.-C
145 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mon theatre of the great drama of which the performance
has now commenced (a drama which embraces a thousand
years in one act), and the dramatis personae, the groups
of which fill the stage; for they who in the life of the
United States have seen merely uniformity or confusion,
have not looked into it, or have seen it merely with a dull
vision. Nothing strikes me so much in this world's and
states' formation as its broad dramatic character.
First behold its theatre! You see two immense stretches
of valley between three chains of mountains, running from
the snowy North to the glowing South, the Alleghany, the
Rocky Mountains, and Sierra Nevada, or the Snowy Mountains, which last chain is continued into Central America,
and into the Cordilleras and Andes of South America;
east and west of these the land descends toward the two
great seas of the world.
The country lying between the mountains and toward
the seas is every where remarkable for its fertility, and is
intersected by navigable rivers and lakes. No country is
so well watered as North America, or affords more available opportunity for the circulation of life; nor does any
country afford such free access to the beauties, the climates, and productions of every zone.
I beheld advancing on this great stage various distinct
groups of states, of various temperaments aid conditions
of life, united by community of customs, language, and
states' government, as well as by outward and inboard vital
circulation.  Here are the States of New England with
their Puritan descendants, legislating, educating, restless
Vikings and heroes of peace. The natural scenery of these
states reminds me of our Scandinavian north. Massachusetts has the romantic lakes and broken landscape of
Sweden; New Hampshire, the rocky valley and White
Mountains of Norway.
New  York and Pennsylvania, the Empire  and the
Quaker States, with its milder climate, imitate each other
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in wealth of population and in beauties of nature. Rivers and valleys become wider; commercial life grows like
a giant.
Virginia and the Carolinas, as well as Georgia and Florida, in the South, each form another group of states, peopled by the sons of the Cavaliers, with their planters and
slaves, with a strong conservative life, and much peculiar
beauty, but devoid of higher social aspiration. These
Northern and Southern States lie between the Alleghany
Mountains, which are contained within them, and the
ocean on the east. On the other side of the mountains you
find the valley of the Mississippi and the Mississippi States;
to the north the young and vigorous Northwestern States,
with free institutions, and an increasing population of
Germans and Scandinavians, increasing still more in light
and the life of freedom; to the south, the slave states,
with two large cities, and in these a showy civilization,
but for the rest much wilderness and much rudeness still,
which all their cotton and all their sugar is not able to
conceal. West of the Mississippi still is continued the
distinction between the Northern and Southern States.
The labor of the cultivator has here just commenced. You
meet with the fires and the wigwams of the Indians still
around the sources of the Mississippi in the North; and
along the Red River in Arkansas and Louisiana, morasses
and heathenism.
Westward of these Mississippi States is Texas, with the
Rio Grande or Rio Bravo as its boundary on the west,
and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, an immense territory, upon the fertile banks of whose rivers the flood of
emigration is now beginning to settle. The upper portion
of Texas elevates itself by degrees into a mountain range,
and unites itself on the northeast to the latest conquest
of the United States, New Mexico, which has beautiful
terminal valleys on the east, but which extends itself
westward into the Rocky Mountains, and becomes petrified in their arms.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Between these states and the Mississippi States lies
the great hunting-ground of the Indians, that mystio
Nebraska, a great portion of which, according to what I
have heard, is a monotonous steppe-land, which extends
northward as far as Canada. The wild Missouri whirls
through it with a thousand angular windings; there are
also great prairies and great rivers, herds of buffaloes, and
tribes of warlike Indians. In one portion of this immense
region, between Missouri and Texas, has sprung up a
peaceful, flourishing Indian community, which ought at
some future time to be admitted into the Great Union as
an independent Christian Indian State. This would be a
more beautiful conquest for the people of North America
than their acquisition of New Mexico!
We have now reached the Rocky Mountains, an irregular, bold rock-formation, more remarkable for their fantastic shapes and masses than for their height. West.
ward of these extend the so-called Pacific States, Oregon,
as yet merely an immense territory; and California:, in
the highest boundaries of which, or the Upper California,
the Mormon State, Deseret or Utah, flourishes upon the
fertile banks of the Great Salt Lake, Christian in faith
and confession, hierarchical in their form of government,
and in certain respects a mystery to their contemporaries.
These states, lying along the coast of the Pacific Ocean,
and broken up by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, are possessed of every climate, and of every natural production
which can be found from the region of snow to the heat
of the tropics. Oregon, in particular, abounds in salmon
and forests; California, as all the world knows, in gold.
And now we are on the shores of the Pacific Ocean,
and here let us rest a while, for I confess to being weary
r
with our long ramble.   The North Americans will not
rest till they have possessed themselves of the Southern
portion of their hemisphere) already have they reached
Panama with their rail-roads, canals, warehouses, homes~
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churches, and schools. And they say quite calmly, when
speaking of the country between Panama and the Rio
Grande, that is to say, the whole of Ceitral Mexico,
"When this is ours, then," &c.
I shall not tell you any thing about the Constitution of
these states, nor of their institutions as individual, inde pendent states, nor of their relation to one Federal gov errment. You have long known, much better than I can
describe it, that wonderful states' government, which af fords such a boundless field and so strong an impulse to
free competition and development, not merely for individ uals, but for society and states. This constitutional form
of government seems to me, more than any thing else, to
prove that the destiny of a people is preordained by the
hand of Providence before they themselves comprehend it.
They must accomplish his plans, and the question as regards them is merely the doing it well or ill.
It is evident that the founders of the American republic, Washington and his men, did not take a philosophical
review of the work which they had accomplished in it;
that they had no presentiment of the future of which they
had laid the foundation; they followed the beckoning hand
of necessity; they did that which they must do; but they
did not know what it was which they had done; and for
a long time the states grew as the lilies of the field in
God's sunshine, without knowing how or for what purpose!
It was not urn ong afterward that a portion of them
awoke to a consciousness ofhe sublime mission which
they are called upon to perform-the emancipation of humanity socially and politically.
The violent movement and r~ation in public life, the
perpetual appointment of officers to every department of
government, and their deposition again in a short time, at
most in four years, has made all Europe shake its head;
and I suppose that all Asia would, if it could, shrug its
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shoulders in such a way as to cause the wall of China -to
quake. And it is not without reason that many wise men
in this countey have shook their heads thoughtfully at
some application of the rotation principle which has occurred here and there: thus, for example, I heard serious
complaints made in the young Mississippi States of the
facility with which a right to vote was obtained by the
emigrants who came there, even though they may be from
the rudest and most ignorant population of Europe. A
year's residence in a state gives a right to vote at the
election of the officers of the state, which occurs annually; hence the election of low and truthless agitators, men
every way unfit for their office; and the difficulty for the
best men to get into the government, because the best
men scorn to avail themselves of the means which men
of low principles will condescend to in order to become
the popular candidate, or to maintain themselves in a post
which they have once obtained.
It is, however, difficult for me to regard this otherwise
than as a transition-point in the great popular education
which is now going on; and Wisconsin, in particular, seems
to have dearly and strongly comprehended the right mode
of meeting the danger, and by means of large and excellent educational institutions, both for boys and girls, to
be preparing a bright future for the state.
I was traveling in the Northwestern Mississippi States
just at the time when the annual election of state officers was going on.  These elections,  d the scenes to
which they gave rise, struk  me as a sort of political
game or race; and the spirit which impels these gamblers
and wrestlers on this scene of action is often little better
than that of the ordinary gambling houses. The gambling and rival parties, Whigs and Democrats, are very
little ashamed of puffing their candidate, or depreciating
that of the opposite party. Newspapers are full of abuse
and lies; outcries of treachery and of danger to the father
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land; flags are displayed, and great placards are posted
in the streets with words of warning or exhortation, "Be ware of the Whigs!" "The Democrats are Incendiaries!"
"Vote for the Whigs, the true friends of our country!"
"Vote for the Democrats, the preservers of popular rights!"
and so on.  The nearer the day of election approaches,
the stronger becomes the agitation, the more violent the
cry, the personal abuse, and the threats. One might imagine that the torch of discord was about to be lighted in
every city, that the Union was at the point of being torn to
shreds, and that every citizen was in danger of being attackIed by his neighbor. During all this I could not but
think of two men whom I had seen on the banks of the
Hudson, each enlisting passengers for his steam-boat, and
abusing that of his rival, hurling angry words and threatening glances at each other, while their lips often seemed
to curl into a smile when they had said any thing magnificently bad of the other. I remember my asking Mr.
Downing, as I witnessed this scene, what was the meaning of it? and he replied with a smile, "It means nothing.   Here is an opposition between two steamers, and
these men act-this part every day."
Mluch of the great political agitation here, during the
time of the elections, has much the same meanings the
candidates and their soldiers fix bayonets in their glances
and their words; the ballot-box is put in motion; every
thing becomes silent; the votes are thrown in amid the
utmost order; a pause ensues; the ballot-box is emptied,
the votes are read aloud and counted; the election is declared. The men of office are elected for one year or for
two; the governor of some states is elected for four years,
as is the case with the President of the United States; in
others merely for two, in others again for one, and all is
at an end; nobody makes any objection, but all go quietly to their own homes, ready to obey the new magistracy,
and to console themselves, as Jacob Faithful did, with
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"better luck another time!"  Rockets ascend in the quiet
evening in honor of the successful candidate, and the whole
city goes to bed and sleeps soundly.
It has occurred to me that this electioneering agitation,
in which people exercise their minds and their oratorical
powers-or, at all events, their ability to talk and to write,
are like a safety-valve in the steam-boat, by which means
any excess of steam may escape to fill the air with vapor;
there is not a doubt, in the mean time, but that the steampower within the state's machine might be applied to a
better purpose; and it is difficult for me to believe that
the people of the United States will not henceforth endeavor to obtain a little more stability in their mode of
government, will not give their rulers a longer period, in
which each can attend to his own business more thoroughly, and thus afford an ampler sphere for real talent and
less for demagogues.
But even as it is, it will be seen that no talent or character of eminence runs any risk in the United States of
not finding an opportunity for the exercise of all its powers. The best proof of this is, indeed, the number of distinguished statesmen, judges, or clergymen who year after year continue to adorn the Senate of the country, the
judges' seat, and the pulpit, and of whom the people are
as proud as monarchical realms of their kings and heroes.
It is generally mediocre, or talent of an imperfect kind,
which rushes into this violent rotation, and which goes
up and down until it has acquired sufficient strength and
completeness to remain stable at some one point.
There is one principle of movement in the United States
which seems to me like a creative, or, at all events, a power of organization: this is the movement of association.
The association, founded already in the Federal government of the states-an association of states, governed by
a general principle or Constitution-exists as a fundamental feature of popular life. This people associate ag
easily as they breathe.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Whenever any subject or question of interest arises in
society which demands public sympathy or co-operation,
a "Convention" is immediately called to take it into con sideration, and immediately, from all ends of the city or
the state, or from every state in the Union, all who feel
an interest in the subject or question fly upon the wings
of steam to the appointed place of meeting and the ap pointed hour. The hotels and boarding-houses of the city
are rapidly filled; they come together in the great hall
of assembly, they shake hands, they become acquainted
with one another, they make speeches, they vote, they
carry their resolutions. And forth upon the wings of a
thousand daily papers flies that which the meeting or the
Convention has resolved. These resolutions may some.
times also be merely the expression of opinion —as, for
example, they hold "Indignation meetings" on occasions
when they wish to express their strong disapprobation
either of public men or of public transactions.  It is always admirable with what readiness, with what savoir
faire this people advances onward in self-government,
and how determinedly and rapidly it proceeds from "proposed" to "resolved."*
In the populous free states, the meetings of the members of different trades and professions, as well as of agricuture, belong to the ordinary occurrences of the day.
Thus one now hears of Industrial Congresses in New
York State, where the trades-brethren of certain kindred
* A splendid proof of the savoirfaire in self-government is given at
this moment in the states' organization of California.  During a couple
of years have the wildest adventurers from all nations of the earth rushed thither in the delirium of the gold-fever.  But the best of the people
have banded together, organized, and maintained the observance of law
and civil order, and California, rapidly advanced to a population of two
hundred thousand souls, now takes its place as a fully competent state
in the great circle of the free states of the Union. Even the Chinese,
who hastened to California by thousands, settle themselves down and
live in peaceful communion under the powerful hand of the AngloAmerican.
G2
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
occupations meet every month; and "agricultural fairs'
are already held in the young states of Michigan and
Illinois, where the agriculturists of the state exhibit the
rich products of the country. Cincinnati as well as New
York, and the great trading towns which lie between them,
Pittsburg, Harrisburg, and many others, have their mechanical  and  mercantile  associations, their  mneetinghouses, libraries, assembly-rooms, and guilds on a large
scale. And these kindred associations are all in connection with each other. As, for instance, an artisan who
can not get work in the Eastern States is passed on by
means of these associations to their members in the
Western States, where there is abundance of work for all
hands.
Life in this country need never stand still or stagnate.
The dangers lie in another direction. But this flee association is evidently an organizing and conservative principle of life, called forth to give law and centralization to
the floating atoms, to the disintegrated elements.
Among the various dramatic assemblies and scenes in
which human nature and popular life exhibit themselves
on the soil of the New World, I may mention those small
communities of social wits who aim at producing a regenerated world (but who are all in a dwindling condition
excepting the Shaker community, who have no children),
those dancing Shakers, those silent Quaker  meetings,
those mar y-tongued anti-slavery meetings, those religious
festivals, camp-meetings at night in the woods, and
scenes of baptism by the rivers, beautiful and affecting,
especially where they have reference to the children of
Africa. At the Conventions for the Rights of Women, in
which women as well as men stand forth and speak for
the civil rights of woman, I have not as yet been present,
but I intend to embrace the first opportunity of being so.
These first originated in Ohio, but are just now being
held in the States of New England-abused and calumni.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
e ted by many, attended and supported by many also.
These furnish and afford a striking scene in the great
drama which is now being performed; for all that lives
fettered in Europe is brought forward in America, acquires
form, builds a church, combines in union, takes a name,
speaks out, and obtains a hearing, a time of trial, an ex amination, and-judgment is passed, that is to say, time
and opportunity to rise or to fall, according to its measure
and its power.
Scenes also of the life of the Indians and the negroes in
this country belong to the dramatic and picturesque life
of America. The wild dances of the former on the prairies of the West, the gentle songs of the latter in the fragrant forests, belong to the theatre of the New World.:
The government of America has not a little to reproach
herself with as regards her treatment of the Indians.
Latterly, however, this treatment has become more just
and mild. The land is purchased from the Indians:  they
are subjected by gentle means and by money; prohibitions
are made against the introduction of intoxicating liquors
among them, and the missionary is encouraged in his labor of introducing Christianity and civilization. But this
does not do much. The red men, who consider themselves the most successful creation of the Great Spirit, retire backward into the desert and die.. Merely a small
number of them have passed over to the faith, the manners, and the mode of government of the whites.
The progress of Christianity is much more considerable
among the negro race. The doctrine of the Savior comes
to the negro slaves as their most inward need, and as the
accomplishment of the wishes of their souls. They themselves enunciate it with the purest joy. Their ardent,
sensitive being obtains from this its most beautifu transfiguration. The ability of these people for prayer is something peculiar, and quite unusual.  Their prayers burst
forth into flame as they ascend to heaven.   The children
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the warm sun will yet teach us by their prayers the
might of prayer.
During the conflict which is going forward in the free
states for the abolition of slavery, the friends of the slave
have divided themselves into two camps.   The one de  mands immediate emancipation and their general educa  tion; the other, gradual emancipation and the coloniza  tion on the coast of Africa.  The State of Ohio has adopt  ed this latter mode, and has lately rmade an important
purchase of land on the coast of Africa, in order to colo nize there an African Ohio of free negroes.
Not a little is done in the free states for the instruction
and elevation of the negroes; but still I can not convince
myself that the Americans are doing this in the best way.
They endeavor to form this human race so different to
themselves, according to their own methods and institu tions. When I see those frolicsome negro children in their
school sit down like white children on benches and before
desks, I am quite distressed. I am convinced that these
children ought to learn their lessons standing, or dancing
amid games and songs, and that their divine worship
ought to be conducted with singing and dancing; and I
will answer for it, that their songs and dances would have
more life, beauty, and intelligence in them than those of
the Shaker community. But who shall teach them thus?
None but a negro can teach the negroes, and only one of
their own people can become the deliverer of the people in
the highest sense. - But this captive Israel yet waits for
its Moses.
That, however, which very much prevents the redemp.
tion of this people from captivity, is their own want of
national spirit. Already split into tribes in Africa, where
they were at war, and where they enslaved one another,
it is difficult to take hold of any more widely extended;
interests than those of family and local society. I have
spoken with many freemen of this people in good circum
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
stances here, also with some young mulattoes who have
studied and taken degrees at the Oberlin Institution in
this state, and I have found them particularly lukewarm
toward the interests of their captive brethren, and especially so as regards colonization in Liberia. Frederick
Douglas is as yet the only strong champion among them
for their own people.
But if any thing can awake within them a more comprehensive feeling for the whole people, it is assuredly
that common slavery on the soil of America, and perhaps,
more than any thing else at this moment, the bill which
allows the recapture of fugitive slaves. I awoke to this
thought to-day during a visit to a firee negro church,
where I had no occasion to lament any want of interest in
the national affairs, either in the negro preacher or the
congregation.
I had in the forenoon visited a negro Baptist Church
belonging to the Episcopal creed. There were but few
present, and they of the negro aristocracy of the city.
The mode of conducting the divine service was quiet, very
proper, and a little tedious. The hymns were beautifully and exquisitely sung. The sermon, which treated of
"Love without dissimulation; how hard to win, how impossible without the influence of God and the communication of his power," was excellent. The preacher was a
fair mulatto, with the features and demeanor of the white
race, a man of very good intellect and conversational
power, with whom I had become already acquainted in
my Cincinnati home.
In the afternoon I went to the African Methodist Church
in Cincinnati, which is situated in the African quarter.
In this district live the greater number of the free colored
people of the city; and the quarter bears the traces thereof. The streets and the houses have, it is true, the AngloAmerican regularity; but broken windows and rags hanging from them, a: certain neglected, disorderly aspect, both
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of houses and streets, testified of negro management. I
found in the African Church African ardor and African
life. The church was full to overflowing, and the congregation sang their own hymns. The singing ascended
and poured forth like a melodious torrent, and the.heads,
feet, and elbows, of the congregation moved all in unison
with it, amid evident enchantment and delight in the
singing, which was in itself exquisitely pure and full of
melodious life..
The hymns and psalmns which the negroes have themselves composed have a peculiar naive character, childlike,
full of imagery and life. Here is a specimen of one of
their popular church hymns:
"'What ship is this that's landed at the shore?
Oh, glory halleluiah!
It's the old ship of Zion, halleluiah,
It's the old ship of Zion, halleluiah,
Is the mast all sure, and the timber all sound?
Oh, glory halleluiah!
She's built of gospel timber, hallelujah,
She's built, &C.
"What kind of men does she have on board?
Oh, glory halleluiah!
They're all true-hearted soldiers, halleluiah,
They're all, &c.
"What kind of Captain does she have on board?
Oh, glory halleluiah!
King Jesus is the Captain, halleluiah,
King Jesus, &c.
'Do you think she will be able to land us on the shore?
Oh, glory halleluiah!
I think she will be able, halleluiah,
I think, &c.
"She has landed over thousands, and can land as many more.
Oh, glory, halleluiah!" &c., &c.
After the singing of the hymns, which was not led by
any organ or musical instrument whatever, but which
arose like burning melodious sighs from the breasts of the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
congregation, the preacher mounted the pulpit. He was
a very black negro, young, with a very retreating forehead, and the lower portion of the countenance protruding; upon the whole, not at all good-looking. But when
he began to speak, the congregation hung upon his words,
and I could not but admire his flowing eloquence.   He
admonished the assembly to reflect on the present need of
their brethren; to pray for the fugitive slaves, who must
now, in great multitudes, leave their acquired homes, and
seek a shelter out of the country against legal violence
and legal injustice. He exhorted them also to pray for
that nation which, in its blindness, would pass such laws
and oppress the innocent! This exhortation was received
with deep groans and lamenting cries.
After this the preacher drew a picture of the death of
"Sister Bryant," and related the history of her beautiful
Christian devotion, and applied to her the words of the
Book of Revelation, of those " who come out of great afflictions." The intention of suffering on earth, the glorious group of the children of suffering in their release,
and thanksgiving-song as represented in so divine and
grand a manner in the pages of Scripture, were placed by
the negro preacher in the light as of noonday, and as I
had never before heard from the lips of any ordinary ministers. After this the preacher nearly lost himself in the
prayer for the sorrowing widower and his children, and
their "little blossomrning souls." Then came the sermon
proper.
The preacher proposed to the congregation the question,
"Is God with us?"  "I speak of our nation, my brethren," said he; "I regard our nationality. Let us examine
the matter." And with this he drew a very ingenious
parallel between the captivity of the Israelites in Egypt
and the negroes in America, and those trials by which
Providence evinced His especial solicitude about the chosen people.  After having represented the fate of the Is
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
raelites under Pharaoh and Moses, he went on to contem plate the fate of the negro people.
"How shall we know that God is with us? Let us
look at the question thus."
He then boldly sketched out a picture of an enslaved
people as oppressed in every way, but not the less "in creasing in numbers and improving themselves, purchas ing their own freedom from slavery (cries of' Yes! yes!'
'Oh, glory!' throughout the church); purchasing land
(shouts of joy); ever more and more land (increasing
shouts); buying houses, large houses, larger and still lar ger houses (increasing jubilation and stamping of feet);
building churches (still louder cries); still more and lar ger churches (louder and still louder cries, movement,
stamping of feet, and clapping of hands); the people in creasing still in number, in property, in prosperity, and
in understanding, so that the rulers of the land began to
be terrified, and to say,'They are becoming too strong
for us; let us send them over to Liberia!' (Violent fermentation and excitement.)   This, then, will show us,
my brethren, that God is with us. Let us not forsake
Him; for He will lead us out of captivity, and make of
us a great people!" (extreme delight and joy, with the
cry of'Amen!''Yes, yes!''Oh, glory," and so on).  The
whole congregation was for several minutes like a stormy
sea. The preacher's address had been a rushing tempest
of natural eloquence. I doubt, however, whether his patriotism extended much beyond the moment of inspiration
and of his pulpit; he was not a new Moses.  Old Moses
was slow of speech; he was a man of action.
This preacher was, however, the first negro from whom
I had heard any distinct sentiment of nationality. The
bill against fugitive slaves must mind what it is about,
and what it may lead to.
With regard to the negro preacher's last outbreak against
Liberia, it may be remarked, that the negroes of Ohio are
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in general opposed to colonization in Africa, and look with
suspicion upon the endeavors of the whites in this direction. Unfortunately, the climate of Liberia is said to be
so unhealthy from the constant rains that there seems to
be some ground for the suspicion. It is a real misfortune
for the youthful colony, which otherwise is favored by the
unbounded fertility of the country around, and by its affluence in valuable tropical growth.   The colony of Liberia, however, increases, although not rapidly,-in population and trade, governed by rulers of its own election,
and with churches, school-houses, printing-presses, warehouses, and shops. Three cities are already founded there.
Commodore Perry, in his account of the condition of
the American-African colony, describes the settlement at
Monrovia as especially promising for trade, and that at
Cape Palmas for agriculture. For the rest, he describes
the negroes of the colony as devoted to small trade rather
than to agriculture. And this seems to be the bias of
the negroes in all the native colonies along the coast.
"Some of the colonists," says he, "have become wealthy
through this small trade, while others, again, obtain merely a sufficient maintenance."
"But," adds the commodore, "it is pleasant to see the
comforts with which a great number of these people have
surrounded themselves; many of them enjoy conveniences
of life which were unknown to the first settlers in North
America. Want seems not to exist among them. If
some of them suffer, it must be in consequence of their
own laziness.
"I had at Cape Palmas an opportunity of seeing the
small farms  or clearings of the colonists.  These exhibited considerable labor, and were beginning, by degrees, to
assume the appearance of well - cultivated fields.  The
roads through the whole of this settlement were remarkably good, when the youth of the colony and its small
means were taken into consideration.
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HOMES OF THE NIEW WORLD.
"At all the various settlements the laws were faithful ly observed; the morals of the people were good, and the
community seemed to be animated by a strong religious
sentiment.
"Governor Roberts, of Liberia, a fair mulatto, and
Russwarm, of Cape Palmas, are clever and estimable
men, and we have in these two men unanswerable proofs
of the capacity of the colored people for self-government.
"The climate of Western Africa can not,be considered
as unwholesome to colored colonists. Every one must
pass through the acclimating fever; but, now that more
convenient dwellings are erected, so that the sick may be
properly attended to, -the mortality has considerably decreased.  Once well through this sickness, the colonist
finds the climate and the air suitable to his constitution;
not so the white man. The residence of a few years on
this coast is certain death to him.
"The experiment of the United States to found a colony upon this coast for the free colored people has succeeded beyond expectation, and I venture to predict that
the descendants of the present colonists are destined to
become a wise and powerful people."
A white American physician, who spent six years in
Liberia, states that the imports of the young negro state
amount to 120,000 dollars annually, and their exports to
nearly the same sum.   "The trade of our country with
Africa," writes an American this year (1850), "is becoming daily of more importance."
The colony of Liberia is said to number at the present
time upward of ten thousand persons. The English colony at Sierra Leone, older and more important, upward
of forty thousand.
It thus appears as if Liberia and Sierra Leone would
become the nurseries from which the new civilization
and the more beautiful future of Africa would proceed:
I can not believe but that these plants from a foreign land
162 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
must before that time undergo a metamorphosis-must
become more African.
If I had time and money enough, I would go over to
Liberia for twelve months. But where would I not go to,
and what would I not see, which is significant in nature
or in popular life over the whole world? I would make
the whole earth my own.  Why is life so short?
Cincinnati, November 29th.
I yesterday celebrated Thanksgiving Day, one of the few
national festivals of the New World, a festival which ought
to be observed by all nations as one of the most worthy
of a noble and clear-eyed humanity. The festival was celebrated on a week day, and converted it into a Sabbath.
I attended in the forenoon in a Baptist church. The minister, a man of talent, took as the subject of his discourse,
after thanksgiving for both public and private benefits
which were enumerated, the subject of slavery in the
United States. He had been upbraided as timid in expressing himself on this subject; he now, therefore, wished
to clear himself from suspicion, and to show that he had
no fear. He condemned slavery, and lamented its introduction into America, but he condemned also the proceedings of the Abolitionists. They had involved the affair,
they had rendered emancipation impossible in America.
The  preacher considered that slavery in America had
never less prospect of abolition than at the present time.
"Never had the Southern States grasped the chain of slavery with a firmer hand.  Threats and defiance have been
the offspring of threats and defiance." The hope of the
speaker lay in the devotion of the African people to America, and in the colonization of Christianized negro slaves
on the coast of Africa, and these he considered to be the
only available means for the gradual abolition of slavery.
After some interesting statements regarding the products
of Africa and the advantage which free African labor must
have over slave labor, together with the increasing re
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
sources of Liberia, he presented a poetically beautiful view
of the possible future of the Ethiopic race in its mother country, this hot, mystic Africa.
I had followed the preacher with the deepest interest.
His concluding remarks awoke a vision within mny soul.
I believe that "hot, mystic Africa," with its Mountains
of the Moon, its Nile, its pyramids, and its tropical forests
swarming with animal life and the luxuriance of the vegetable kingdom, awake to a new existerice. I beheld
Asia, with its old, primeval wisdom, its old, half-petrified
kingdoms; Europe, with its manifold kingdoms and people
stamped with their living peculiarities of character; I beheld America, the youngest, but ere long the most powerful, of earth's own daughters, with her new men born from
the morning dew of a new life; I beheld Australia, with
its colonies of prodigal but forgiven sons again received
into the father's house: I beheld them all raise themselves
anew in the name of the Prince of Peace, and all unite as
never before on the face of the earth, in songs of praise at
the Divine Nativity, "Glory to God in the highest; on
earth peace, and good-will to man!"
A stream of melodious sound burst through the church,
bearing with it the words of the song of praise. I recognized that mighty, magnificent chorus. I had heard it
before, but I knew not where. But it seemed to me that
it was the soul of every song of praise on earth.
It was that Swedish Mass, "Praise and thank the
Lord," &c., which is sung by the choir of the church.   I
had to thank a countryman of mine, the director of the
choir of this church, for this pleasure. When the congregation arose and sang Halleluiah in the song of my native
land, sang it for my people, and for all people on earth, it
was glorious! But I then could not sing.
I can never celebrate a more beautiful thanksgiving
festival; and never shall I forget this moment.
I must yet add a few words about the state and the
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1OMES OF Tru  NEW WORLD.
city in which I am a happy guest. The wealthy, beau tiful Ohio is placed like the heart in that great group of
states between the Eastern Ocean and the Mississippi.
And although this state is one of the youngest in the
Union, I feel that a more central life stirs here than in
any of the states which I have hitherto visited.  It seems
to me as if people here wished with unprejudiced minds
to do justice to all powers and tendencies of humanity,
and to allow every one his proper share of the heart's life
and blood. Among the facts of this class I place the Medical College here, under the direction of an intellectual
young man, Dr. J. Buchanan, and in which Allopathy
and Homeopathy, Hydropathy, and the so-called Botanical Medicine are admitted and studied as natural methods
in nature's sanitary code, and all as serviceable in certain
diseases and circumstances, all as necessary in a comprehensive system of study of health and disease. Buchanan
makes man the measure of the universe and its centre.
He sees the centre of man in the human brain, and from
that point strikes out an infinite, glorious future, in which
all those infinite possibilities now slumbering within it
will develop themselves into life and harmony on earth
and in the universe. Amid severe daily labor and many
anxieties, he reposes in this view as in the Sabbath-festival of his spirit.
Among the facts of this class I place Oberlin College,
where the youth of colored as well as white people, both
boys and  girls, study and  take degrees in all those
branches of knowledge which are taught in the American
academies.
Among these I place the works and opinions of many
distinguished men, who are occupied in organizing a more
complete  and  comprehensive scheme  of education for
women as well as for men.
Cincinnati, the  Queen  of the  West, which has her
throne upon the banks of the beautiful river (Ohio), with
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD. 
a background of encircling hills, like a queen surrounded
by her court ladies, is a cosmopolitan city, and embraces
in her bosom peoples of all nations and all religious sects.
Germans constitute a considerable portion of the population of the city, which now amounts to 120,000 souls.
The Germans live here as in their old Germany. They
are gemiitthlich, drink beer, practice music, and still ponder here "fiber die Weltgeschichte."   I have lately read
a little book with this title by a Dr. Patte, who resides
here. The Queen of the West allows all her subjects to
ponder, talk, and write as best pleases them. She is the
most liberal queen in the world.
Schools, however, in Ohio are not equal to those of the
Northeastern States; but there is an earnest endeavor at
work for their improvement. When I visited one of the
district boys' schools of Cincinnati, it was said to me, as
I entered one of the halls of the school, "This is our bestregulated room; here it is never necessary to use corporal
punishment."
I entered, and found a pale young Woman, of a mild
aspect, standing in the teacher's seat, controlling with
gentle power from thirty to forty wild young republicans.
The elementary schools for boys, as well as for girls, are
under the management of women. They are considered
as more skillful than men in the training of early youth.
They receive a salary of from three to five hundred dollars
annually, according to the ability which they show for
employment. It was with great pleasure that I heard a
lesson by which these lesser children were taught to treat
animals with justice and kindness.   They repeated from
memory stories in which cruelty to animals had been
punished in some striking manner. I am not aware
whether we have such lessons in our schools, but I know
well enough that they are needed.
Among the scientific institutions of Cincinnati, I perceive that the Observatory owes its existence to the gen
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ins and zeal of a private man, Professor O. M. Mitchell.
The history of the origin of this beautiful observatory,
which is one of the highest class, deserves to be known,
in order to show in its true light what the determination
and enthusiasm of an individual may achieve in the New
World, and-in what way he can interest the mass of the
people for a science which he desires to make popular.
It is the triumph of genius, and, at the same time, of patience and of persevering determination.   It is a great
commendation of the man, and of the masses also. But
the history of all this would be too long.
The arts have also began to reveal themselves in Cincinnati; but, as yet, it is only a beginning. The city
itself is hardly sixty years old. There is an Art Union
here, the exhibition of which I visited twice. There were
some good pictures. None, however, took so much hold
on my memory as a humorous little painting representing
three huge swine very naturally. They were sitting upon
their hamns, below a rock, on which was inscribed "lard
oil;" and they were gazing very attentively at one of
their brethren, who was attacking a dead whale, which
had been cast upon the shore hard by. Beyond lay the
great ocean. This little humorously-conceived and wellpainted piece hung between two pictures, the subjects of
which were the "Loves of the Angels"-ethereal figures
floating forth over clear lakes, and meeting each other on
verdant flowery shores. A greater contrast than between
those poetical pictures and the prose of the former could
scarcely have been imagined. Pity only that the execution of these did not equal that of the other. Our S6dermark would have given the prize to the latter. So should
I; but yet I would not have had the picture in my room, nor
yet the angel-poems, with all their bright anticipations.
The fine arts have hitherto received but little attention
in the United States; it may be that there is but little
distinguished talent, or, which I suspect is the case, that
167
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I:: ".':''!'.' -
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the people in general are deficient in artistic feeling. I
have heard a deal said of an American painter named
Alston, who is considered one of the greatest painters, and
I have heard his works very highly praised and admired;
yet, nevertheless, I read in one of the letters of the noble
old Channing these words: "As long as I see such men
as Alston in want of the necessaries of life, I feel that I
have no right to possess its superfluities."
And I have heard my friends, the S.'s, of New York,
speak of a young landscape painter of that city, who was
possessed of unmistakable talent, and a man of estimable
character, who, not long since, consulting with his young
wife as to the best mode of managing for themselves and
their two little ones, came to the agreement that the best
mode of all would be for them to die!  Good God!  And
this in this young,wealthy New World!  And yet the pictures of this young artist are of the class which I would
gladly see in every American home. And, thus encouraged, he would soon become for America what our Fahlkranz is to us, a poet in colors of the peculiar natural scenery of his country.
Sculpture has in the United States a much greater hope
of successful progress; and in Hiram Powers they have
produced an artist of the highest class, not so much as a
creative genius as for feeling and execution. His Proserpine, his listening Fisher Boy, his Greek Slave, have been
admired in old Italy. The expression, so refined and so
full of soul, is as admirable in his works as the perfected
beauty of the form. His creations seem to live.
Hiram Powers was born in Cincinnati, and worked
there as a poor boy in the shop of a watchmaker. Here
he even then showed his peculiar genius. Some of the
affluent men of the city took charge of the promising boy,
and furnished him with the means of studying and of
traveling. Foremost among these was Mr. Longworth,
and to him Powers sent, as a token of gratitude, his first
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
original creation in marble. I say creation, because there
is nothing in this work which speaks of labor. It is a
figure so complete, so living and beautiful, that it is not
to be described. It is the bust of a woman the size of life.
They have called it Genevra, but why I know not. It
ought to be called Galathea, because Pygmalian Powers
has infused into her a vitality which requires only a divine
indication to breathe; or, rather, it ought to be called the
American, because the peculiar beauty of the features,
the form and action of the head and neck, are those of the
American woman. There is none of the Greek stiffness
in it; it is a regularity of beauty full of life and grace, and
the expression-yes, thus ought she to look, the woman
of the New World, she who, sustained by a public spirit
full of benevolence, may without struggle and without
protest develop the fullness and the earnestness of her being; thus ought she to smile, to glance, to move, reposing
in this as in a world of truth, goodness, and beauty; thus
ought she to be firm, and yet pleasing; thus divinely wise;
thus angelically harmonious and kind; thus ought she to
work! And then, then shall ascend the new day of the
New World!
Mr. Longworth had jocularly prepared me, before he
conducted me into his cabinet of art, where his bust
stands, "for the rudeness of the first work of a young
artist," and requested me to overlook this. I gazed at
the figure, and contemplated it till my heart swelled with
emotion and my eyes overflowed with tears.  I wept before the ideal of the new beauty, not because I was myself so far removed from it-no, but in admiration, in joy,
in hope, in the consciousness that I here beheld that woman of the New World, that Galathea, which now slumbers
in marble, but who will one day receive life from the Divine touch. And have I not already seen her features,
her life among some of the young women of this beautiful country?  I see them, and I mention beloved names!
VOL. II.-H
169 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
From this time forth I shall look for these features,
this expression in the countenance of every young woman; she will become dear or indifferent to me according as
she more or less resembles the image of the Galathea of
the New World.
Casts of this bust ought to be in the possession of every
American home, and every young girl should grow up
under its observation, like as Hawthorn's youth grew up
gazing upon that " great stone countenance," until his
countenance acquired its beauty.
Have I told you that I here live in the vine-district of
North America? The vine, which grows luxuriantly wild
throughout the whole of NorthAmerica, has been cultivated on the heights which border the Ohio River with
great attention, principally by Mr. Longworth, and here
is made American Sherry and Champagne.   The Catawba and Isabella grapes are the kinds generally cultivated
in this country, but they do not ripen here as regularly as
on the Rhine and the Seine; the inequality of the climate
is the cause of this.
Farewell! I must make an end. When I shall next
converse with you I know not; but have we not commenced an intercourse and formed a friendship which esteems but lightly time and space, and the visible sign?
Our place of communion is —Eternity.  Yet, nevertheless,
a visible sign is precious; and if you would give me one
in this distant land, how welcome it would be!
Your words are ever with me like a silent communion:
"I believe in a sun, an organizing power, of which every
bright thought, all suggestive life, is an outpouring!"
That was one of the first observations you made to me.
This sun has become my sun. In this light I go forth
seeking and reflecting, and that which I see in this light
you also shall see, for that which is mine is yours.
I embrace your wife, and kiss the little ones around
her, and expect to be embraced and kissed by them again
-in Sweden!
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HOMES OF- THE NEW WORLD.
P.S.' —-My letter terrifies me; it has grown to such a
length and breadth, that mny friends in Cincinnati must
regard it as one of the shapeless giant productions of the
Great West, a sort of Rhine muse from the Mississippi
Utgaerd.   It strikes me like some sort of witch with
many feet, and many eyes peeping out on all sides.  And
now it shall run off to Sweden! Off with it! and what
the thing has of head and heart I will trust you for finding out.
In a few days I shall set off for New Orleans, and from
thence to Cuba for the winter months. I wish to see the
face of the earth under a tropical sun and under the dominion of the Spaniard.   I wish to see the Southern
Cross and the great star Argo in the heavens. Then I
will turn back toward the Pole-star, and our silent North,
my dear, quiet home!
LETT-ER XXXI.
Noah's Ark, on the Mississippi, Dec. 18th.
THE day before yesterday, the 16th, I left Cincinnati;
my kind, excellent host and hostess accompanied me on
board the steamer, and overwhelmed me at the last mo.
ment with proofs of their good-will, all light and agreeable to bear away with me, because they were bestowed
with a warm heart, and they were to accompany me to
Sweden, and there remind me of the beautiful Ohio and
my Cincinnati home. The good Jothim, Mr. S., presented me with a collection of shells from the Ohio River,
some of which are extremely beautiful.
It was a lovely sunny day, that on which I commenced
my journey, and Cincinnati, its vine-covered hills, its
lovely villas, and the River Ohio were brilliant in the sunshine. There was a sunny warmth in my soul likewise,
and the proofs of kindness which I received from many
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
friends in the city during the last few days were to me
like the soft summer wind; but I was very weary after
a violent headache and the excitement of departure. I
longed for rest and silence.
The giant steamer Belle Key moved slowly along, thundering down the clear blue river, the lofty shores of which,
with their ever-changing scenes, glided past cheerful and
lovely. The river became broader, the hills sank lower,
the villas disappeared, farm-houses and log-houses recurred
at more and more distant intervals, the banks became
more wooded and desolate.   We  approached the Missis.
sippi.
What is going on? Why do the people rush out from
the fields?  A chase upon the water?
A stag with branching antlers swims across the river
from the Kentucky to the Ohio shore.  He is not far from
the free shore; but two boats are after him from the
slave shore. His proud antlers raise themselves high above
the water. He swims rapidly; perhaps he may save himself!  He is just at the shore.  Ah! and now a boat puts
out from the free shore toward him. Woe betide the poor
fugitive! He turns round. The two boats from Kentucky
meet him. Now he is surrounded. I see the oars lifted
from all the three boats to give him his death-blow. That
beautiful head is still seen above the water.   Now fall
the oars! I turn my head away. The steamer rounds a
point. We have lost sight of the wild chase. The defenseless fugitive is in the power of his pursuers.
I am weary and dejected. The air is pleasant, the water bright and blue; heaven also is bright. Does the deer
find no peaceful meadows beyond the river of death, where
he may rest after the wild chase?
The steamer Belle Key is of the family of the river
giants. I call it Noah's Ark, because it has more than a
thousand animals on board, on the deck below us and
above us. Immense oxen, really mammoth oxen, so fat
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
that they can scarcely walk-cows, calves, horses, mules,
sheep, pigs, whole herds of them, send forth the sound of
their gruntings from the lower deck, and send up to us
between times any thing but agreeable odors; and on the
deck above us turkeys gobble- geese, ducks, hens, and
cocks crow and fight, and little pigs go rushing wildly
about, and among the poultry pens.
On the middle deck, where we, the sons and daughters
of Adam are bestowed, every thing, in the mean time, is
remarkably comfortable. The ladies' saloon is large and
handsome, and the passengers few, and of an excellent
class. I have my state-room to myself. I am like a prin cess in a fairy-tale.   My cavalier for the journey, Mr.
Lerner H., is one of that energetic and warm-hearted class
of American men, and add to this a very agreeable fel low also, who in his behavior to "a lady intrusted to his
care" has that blending of brotherly cordiality and chival ric politeness which makes the man of the New World the
most agreeable companion that a lady can desire. No
screaming children disturb the quietness on board; and
the grunting of the swine and other animal sounds in our
Noah's Ark we do not allow to trouble us.   All these
animals are destined to the Christmas market of New
Orleans.
December 17th. The Mississippi-Missouri flows turbidly
and broad with its increasing waters, full of drift-wood,
trees, branches, and stumps, which give us sometimes no
inconsiderable bumps. The shores are low and swampy,
covered with the now leafless woods of a kind of poplar called cotton-wood. It is horribly monotonous. The
weather is gray and cold, and every thing looks gray
around us. We have now Missouri on our right, and Kentucky on our left. I am sorry not to have had time to see
more of Kentucky and Kentucky people. They are peculiar in appearance and in disposition. They are tall,
very'limber in their joints, and dexterous, generous, free.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
spoken, good-natured, cordial, droll people, whom I should
have become very fond of.  And then "Skyrnir's Glove,"
the mammoth cave, and the little green river which flows
there~-I ought to have seen them!   Lerner H. talks
about that cave till I almost fany I have seen it. 
I must tell you of a pleasure which he prepared for me
one evening on the Ohio. He asked me whether I should
like to hear the negroes of the ship sing, and led me for
this purpose to the lowest deck, where I beheld a strange
scene.  The immense engine-fires are all on this deck,
eight or nine apertures all in a row; they are like yawn.
ing fiery throats, and beside each throat stood a negro
naked to his middle, who flung in fire-wood. Pieces of
wood were passed onward to these feeders by other negroes, who stood up aloft on a large open place between
them and a negro, who, standing on al lofty stack of firewood, threw down with vigorous arms food for the monsters on deck. Lerner H. encouraged the negroes to sing;
and the negro -up aloft on the pile of fire-wood began immediately an improvised song in stanzas, and at the close
of each the negroes down below joined in vigorous chorus.
It was a fantastic and grand sight to see these energetic
black athletes lit up by the wildly flashing flames from
the fiery throats, while they, amid their equally fantastic
song, keeping time most exquisitely, hurled one piece of
fire-wood after another into the yawning fiery gulf. Every
thing went on with so much life, and so methodically, and
the whole scene was so accordant and well arranged, that
it would have produced a fine effect upon any theatre
whatever. The improvisation was brought finally to a
close with a hint that the singing would become doubly
merry, and would sing twice as well, if they could have a
little brandy when they reached Louisville, and that they
could buy brandy if they could have a little money, and
so on.
Nor did Mr. H. allow them to be mistaken in their anticipations.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We are still in the grain-district of the Mississippi, but
we shall soon reach the region of cotton.  We have now
Arkansas on our right hand, and Tennessee on our left,
slave states rich in natural beauty, but still rude in spirit.
ual and material culture.
December 20th. We  are now in the region of cotton.
The shores on both sides are low and swampy, covered by
forests of cotton-wood-trees, now leafless. Here and there,
however, are interspersed cotton plantations, with  the
white slave villages and the habitations of the planters;
and one sees swarthy figures moving about on the gray
soil, gathering the cotton-pods that still remain upon the
blackening shrubs. I went on shore to-day with Mr. H.
at a cotton plantation, and broke off some branches, with
tufts of cotton still hanging upon them, from shrubs which
grew round a slave-hut. The tufts of cotton are extremely beautiful as they come forth from the opening capsules
of the seed-pod.  Every seed is imbedded in a pillow of
cotton. Cotton is the envelope of the seed. You shall
see it when I return.
We have now Arkansas on our right, and the State-of
Mississippi on our left. Along the river lie the canebrake, thick reed-like canes, which stand up as impenetrable as a wall between the water and the land.
Thus far came Father Marquette upon his sun-bright
Mississippi journey from the North; thus far, also, from
the South advanced the first European discoverer, the
Spaniard, Ferdinand de Soto.
The discovery of the Mississippi is two poems; the one
beautiful and sun-bright as its idyllian islands and its
clear waters in the North, the other as melancholy, as
tragically gloomy as the tint and the scenery of the river
in its southern portion, through which I am now journeying. The hero of the former is the mild, unpretending
Father Marquette.   The hero of the latter is the proud
warrior, Ferdinand de Soto.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Soto had been the favorite companion of Pizarro in the
conquest of Peru; he had distinguished himself at the
storming of Cusco, and was favored by Charles V. in
Spain, and rewarded both with honor and wealth, and
finally appointed by him Governor of Cuba. But his
proud, ambitious mind desired more. Fooled by false
prophets, and most of all by his own heart, he desired to
fit out an expedition at his own cost, which should advance from Florida into North America, and there conquer
for the Spaniards richer treasures and more beautiful lands
than those of Mexico and Peru; and his own belief possessed so great a power of influencing the mind of the
Spaniards, that vast numbers of young men of noble birth
and good fortune enlisted under his command. They
sold their vineyards, their houses, and valuables to purchase expensive arms, equipments, and horses.   Out of
multitudes who offered themselves as volunteers on this
new expedition of discovery, he selected six hundred young
men, all adventurers, wealthy, and proud as himself.
A more magnificent spectacle was never beheld than
that of the landing of these proud cavaliers on the shore
of the New World; their banners and standards floating
in the air, in the soft air of Florida, full, as it were, of
youthful vitality, of the intoxicating elixir of life. Thus
galloped they onward in burnished armor, " very gallant,
with silk upon silk," along the shore between the sea and
the unknown land which they believed to be full of gold
and great cities.
Ferdinand de Soto, who wished to prevent all possibility, either for himself or his troop, of retreat, which might
be desired by fickleness or by fear, sent back all his vessels to Cuba, and advanced with his warriors into the
wildernesses of the New World. They took with them
weapons of all kinds, work-tools, as well as chains and
bloodhounds for the subjection of the natives.
It was in the month of May, 1539.
176 
IOMPS OF THE NEW WORLD.
And ever as they advanced onward through the wilderness, mass was punctually performed by priests with all
the pomp of Catholic observance, and ever as they advanced onward they practiced cruelty against the natives,
while in their own camp they occupied themselves with
the excitement of desperate gaming.
The wanderings of the first year were westward, thence
into Georgia, which was then, like all the rest of the undetermined southeastern continent, called Florida. Their
journeyings were difficult, and often dangerous, from the
hostility of the Indians. They found abundance of maize,
but no gold and no cities, only small Indian villages. Nor
could the natives inform them of any land in which gold
was to be found. Some of the adventurers now desired
that their leader should turn back; but he replied,
"I will not turn back till I have seen the poverty of
the country with my own eyes."
And he ordered the Indians to be burned or mutilated,
whom he believed had intentionally misled him. Other
captive Indians,,alarmed at this, assured him that gold
might be found further toward the northwest. And De
Soto and his men journeyed on still further, plundering
and desolating as they went.
The second year brought them into the highlands of
Georgia, where they fell in with the peaceful and gentle
Cherokee Indians. A number of De Soto's people wished
to settle themselves down here in the midst of this beautiful region, to till the soil and enjoy the good things of
the earth. But De Soto had promised Spain gold and
great cities, and the proud Spaniard would not rest until
he had found them. He was an obstinate man, of few
words and strong will, and all his attendants yielded themselves to him.
They wandered still further; advanced into Alabama,
where there was a large town called Mavilla (afterward
Mobile).    Here t    he Indians rose up against him.  A bat                           H2
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
tle ensued —the Spanish cavalry overcame the enemy: a
more bloody Indian battle was never fought on American
soil; the town was set on fire; two thousand five hundred Indians are said to have been slain, suffocated, or
burned; the Spaniards lost a few of their number, and
most of their baggage, which perished in the flames with
the Indian town.
Spanish ships had, however, in the mean time, arrived
from Cuba at Pensacola Bay, near Mavilla. But De Soto
had not yet found either silver or gold; the flames of Mavilla had destroyed the curious collections which he had
made, and, too proud to acknowledge his hopes defeated,
he resolved to send no news of himself until he had obtained that for which he sought. He turned away from
the sea-coast and proceeded northwestward, in the State
of Mississippi. His little band was now diminished to
five hundred men.
In the northern parts of Mississippi they were surprised
by winter, with severe frost and snow. But maize was
still standing in the fields, and the Spaniards were able
to obtain a supply of food and shelter for the winter also
in the deserted huts of the Chickasaw Indians.  But they
had not yet found gold; neither had the Indians golden
ornaments. They were poor, but loved freedom. When
spring came, and De Soto demanded. from them an escort to carry the baggage of his soldiers, the Indians set
fire to his camp, and their fierce war-whoop rang through
the night and amid the flames.
The Spaniards lost here the clothing and the stores
which had been saved from the fires of Mavilla. They
were now as naked as their Indian enemies, and they
suffered from cold and hunger; but with his difficulties
increased the pride and obstinacy of De Soto. Was it
for him, who had promised to conquer the treasures of
the world, to return with half-naked men despoiled of
their all?
'178 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
He ordered the chains to be taken from the limbs of
the captives, and new weapons to be forged; he clothed
his troops in garments of skins and mnats of ivy-leaves, and
advanced still further west in search of the land of gold.
For seven days they wandered through a wilderness of
forests and morasses. They then reached the Indian settlements on the banks of the Mississippi.
Ferdinand de Soto was the first European who beheld
the mighty river.
The lapse of three centuries has not changed its character. It was then described as broad and turbid, flowing on with a powerful current, and with a quantity of
trees and timber always floating on its stream.
In May, 1541, the Spaniards crossed the river in large
boats which they themselves had built.   De Soto proceeded into Arkansas. Here the Spaniards were saluted
by the natives as children of the Sun, and the blind were
brought to them that they might receive their sight from
the children of the Light.
"Pray only to God who dwells in heaven," replied De
Soto, "and He will give you what you need."
Following his dark impulse, De Soto advanced still further toward the northwest, and finally reached the highlands of the White River, two hundred miles from the
Mississippi. But neither did these mountains yield gold
nor precious stones!
De Soto and his people took up their winter quarters in
an Indian town on the banks of the White River, Washita, among a peaceful Indian tribe, who were employed in
agriculture, and who had fixed towns. The young cavaliers practiced upon the unoffending natives every cruelty
which their unbridled caprice suggested. De S6to, it is
said, had no pleasure in cruelty; but the lives and rights
of the Indians were counted as nothing by him.
In the following spring De Soto determined t6 descend
the Washita to its junction, and to obtain tidings of the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
sea. He bewildered himself among the morasses which
border the Red River and its tributaries. In one province, called Guachoya, he inquired from the chief how
far it was thence to the sea? The chief could not tell.
Were there settlements through the country from that
point to the junction of the river? He was told that the
whole country there was an uninhabitable swamp. De
Soto, unwilling to credit such discouraging intelligence,
sent men on horseback to examine the land southward
along the Mississippi. In eight days they were not able
to advance further than thirty miles, they were so constantly impeded by morasses, by the denseness of the forests, and the impenetrable cane-brakes.
The governor heard their report in gloomy silence.
Horses and men were dying around him, and the Indians
were becoming more and more dangerous.   He attempted
to overawe a tribe of Indians near Natchez by saying
that he was of supernatural descent, and therefore demanded of them obedience and tribute.
"You say that you are the child of the Sun," replied
the chief: "dry up this river, and I will believe you!"
Ferdinand de Soto could no longer overawe or punish.
His arrogance and his stubborn pride were now subdued
by a gloomy melancholy, and his health began to decline
under the conflict with adversity and suffering. He was
attacked by a malignant fever, during which he was
neither cared for nor visited as his state required. His
little company had now melted away to three hundred
men.
When he felt his death approach, he called around him
the remnant of his faithful followers, who obeyed him to
the last, and named his successor.
The following day he died. His soldiers pronounced
his eulogy by sorrowing for his loss. The priests chanted
over his body the first requiem which was ever heard by
the waters of the Mississippi. In order to conceal his
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death, they wrapped his body in a mantle, and in the
depth of night bore it out upon the Mississippi, and sank
it silently in the middle of the stream.
It was now again May, and the spring burst forth glo rious over the Mississippi, but De Soto rose up no more
to meet it.
"The discoverer of the Mississippi," adds the historian,
to whom I am much indebted for the above, "slept be neath its waters. For four years he had wandered to and
fro over a great portion of the continent in search of gold,
but had found nothing so remarkable as the place of his
burial."
Father Marquette slumbered at the foot of the altar,
without sickness and sorrow, after a life of peaceful con quest and uninterrupted success; and Ferdinand de Soto,
slowly dying amid morasses and adversities, that proud
heart the prey of anxiety and of humiliation-what pic tures they present! Has poetry any thing brighter than
the former, any thing more gloomy than the latter?
December 21st. The Mississippi flows gray, turbid, and
broad; still broader and still more turbid it seems to me
under this gray, chilly, wintery sky. Its waters become
more and more swollen every day, and the shores become
still more flat and swampy, bordered with cotton-wood and
cane-brake.   Great blocks of timber, trees, and all kind
of things float along'the Mississippi, all telling of wreck
and desolation. This great river seems to me like the
waters of the Deluge, and they bear along with them a
vast register of sin. Our magnificent Noah's Ark, however, more cosmopolitan than its ancient predecessor, floats
upon the great cosmopolitan waters with an easy conscience, and is such a capital place altogether, that, though
I sometimes think of the Deluge and the Mississippi register of sin, and of De Soto's fate in these regions, and
see the impression of his spirit stamped upon the gloomy
landscape, upon the gray earth and sky yet so musing, I
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
can not but feel cheerful of mood. I seem to see myself
here, like a citizeness of the world, conveyed along by the
great citizen of the world; and thus I know that I shall
now become acquainted with its geographical history to
its very close, and that I shall see that beautiful Cuba
and the life of the tropics; and thus I think-many
thoughts.
Every thing on board is quiet, and all goes on with
order and propriety. I spend the forenoons by myself,
read a little American history, and in Buchanan's "Journal of Man," and let my thoughts flow with the stream
forth into the ocean. The afternoons and evenings are
passed in company with some agreeable passengers on
board. At meal-times Mr. H. always stands ready in the
saloon to conduct me to table, and in the morning extends
to me his hand with a brotherly salutation. Hle sits beside me at table, mentions the various dishes to me, and
tells me what I may eat, and always is right; is charming and agreeable in every way; reminds me often in his
manner of our Captain G., and resembles him also, inasmuch as he abuses his own head for being badly furnished, while he is possessed of a very excellent, acute, and
sound intellect.  How it may be with regard to his acquired knowledge I can not say, but this I know, that
these strong practical characters, when they are united to
a warm heart and a noble disposition, are to me at the
same time especially a repose and-a refreshment. A man
who, from his own acquired property, purchases and furnishes a house for his father and sister, is one whom I
should like to have for a brother; but not for the sake of
the house.
The animals, who are both below us and above us, amuse
me also, all except the pigs, which I would were all of
them drowned together in the Mississippi, because they
send such repulsive odors up to our piazza every now and
then.  The great variety of animal cries are not at all
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
unpleasing to hear at a distance, and they all look in such
good condition, and are so well off, that I generally once a
day make a round of salutation among them. The oxen
are so fat that they can hardly get up when they have
laid themselves down; and they are obliged to be roused
to that every morning by the keen caresses of the whip.
I must now tell you about some new acquaintance
whom I have made on board. First, two young sisters
from Vermont. real rose-buds in their exterior, and with
souls of the purest crystal, genuine daughters of New
England even in this, that though they might live in ease
in their own home, they prefer as teachers to earn their
own bread, and thus obtain an independent life for themselves. You would be as much fascinated with them as
I am.   The eldest sister is twenty-five, and is now on her
way to undertake the management of a ladies' seminary
in the State of Mississippi. The younger is only seventeen, and is going as a pupil in the school where her sister
is teacher. Both are most charming girls, and both have
each their favorite brother, of whom they can not say
enough in praise, and whose portraits they have shown
me. Their parents are dead. They are here quite alone
on the vessel. Sometimes they stand together on the
piazza, and sing duets together very sweetly.
The eldest is the loveliest type of the young teacher of
the New World, that young woman, who, although delicate
and slender in figure, and gifted with every feminine
grace, stands more steadfastly upon her ground than the
Alps or the pyramids of the earth; who understand Euclid
and Algebra as well as any master of arts, and who understands better than any how to manage a school of unmanageable boys.
" I love to rule little boys," said Miss G., with a smile,
which had a good deal of conscious power mingled with
its amiability.  And with this power of goodness and
beautiful womanliness, she goes calmly to assume her vo
I
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
cation of teacher; but not merely as the teacher, but with
the sentiment of being one of the young mothers of hu manity.
And I do not know any image more beautiful.  Such
young women are the true heroines of romance of our day.
When I inquired whence that amiable young girl had
derived both her strength and her gentle grace, her lofty
view of the nobility of life, and the purpose of man, I was
presented with a sweet and gravely beautiful image of her
deceased mother.
"I remember," said she, as we sat together one even ing in the twilight, "I remember how she used to go out
with me in the morning when I was a little girl, and wander over the green hills while the dew was yet on the
grass; and how she would show me the little clover-flowers on the field-turf which my foot trod, and let me see
their perfect beauty, and taste how sweet they were with
their honeyed juice!"
Bright tears shone in the beautiful eyes of the speaker.
The little clover-flower has raised its head. It had become human.
I saw once more Hiram Powers' American, but not
merely in marble, in living reality.
My other agreeable acquaintance on board is a gentleman between forty and fifty, with one of those pure,
handsome countenances which one can not do otherwise
than put one's entire trust in, and which remind me of
that of our king, Gustavus Adolphus II., from its frankness and manliness, although it has less of the warlike in
expression. My new friend is somewhat phlegmatic and
contemplative. His conversation gives me especial pleasure. Do not be afraid if I tell you that he has lived long
in the Southern States as a planter and a slave owner;
you may see immediately, by his beautiful deep blue
eyes, that he was the best of masters in the world. Are
you afraid that I am in love with him, and in spirit do
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
you see me give him my hand, and settle down on a cotton plantation on the Mississippi, in the midst of negro
slaves?
Yes, if I were younger, and if my life's purpose were
less decided than it now is, I confess that there is here
and there one of these American gentlemen, with their
energy, their cordiality, and chivalric spirit, who might
be dangerous to my heart. But as it now is, I receive
every sentiment of cordial liking which is evinced toward
me, by man or by woman, with calm gratitude, as a cream
on the good food of life, as the sunbeam and the springbreeze, which makes the day beautiful. I seek not for
them, but when they come, I enjoy them as flowers given
by the hand of the all-good Father.
But now, as particularly regards this agreeable gentleman, he is already married, and is traveling with his family to Cuba, where, on account of the health of his wife,
they will spend the winter, and after that to Europe. His
wife is an invalid, but has the same character of seriousness and gentleness as himself. Both husband and wife
appear to be sincerely attached to each other. Why should
such people be slave-owners? or, rather, why could not all
slave-owners be such people?
The planter's wife told me-that her husband never was
able to enjoy real peace of mind on the plantations, for
that the thought of his slaves, and the wish to do them
justice, and to treat them well, disturbed him day and
night; he was always afraid of not doing enough for them.
We are now near Vicksburg, a city of bad reputation
on the Mississippi, but a city also which shows the ability
of the North Americans for self-government.  A few years
since a band of desperate gamblers and adventurers settled themselves down there. They set up a gamblingclub, and decoyed young men thither, purposely excited
quarrels, and fought with pistols in the streets, and even
in houses, and committed every kind of outrage. The
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wise men of the city assembled, and announced to the
gamblers that they must either vacate the city within
eight days, or that they would be seized and hanged.
The gamblers treated the announcement with scorn, and
gambled and quarreled, and had their pistol-fights as before.  When the eight days of grace were past, the friends
of order in the city assembled, seized them, and hanged
the one who was the worst of the set, and then, putting
the rest in a boat, they turned them adrift on the Mississippi. Such summary treatment is called Lynch-law,
and is the self-assumed administration of law, by a sense
of justice, where there exists no ordinary executive power
able to administer the law according to its usual forms.
After this execution, which I believe occurred last year,
Vicksburg became a creditable place.
We shall soon leave the region of cotton for that of
sugar.  But when shall we arrive at the region of summer? It is constantly cold and cheerless.
December 22d. Now we are there!  Now we are there!
and summer breezes and sunshine surround us! Butbut I must tell you consecutively that which has formed
a turning-point in my whole state of feeling.
This is the seventh day of my journey down the Mississippi. When I came out on the piazza in the morning,
I felt as if I were in an enchanted world. The sweetest
summer breezes caressed me; the softest blue heaven lay
over the Mississippi, and airy, open, cultivated fields on
its banks; snowy masses of summer-cloud were chased by
the warm breeze; and upon the verdant meadows which
covered the shores shone out lovely habitations, standing
in groves of orange-trees, shrubberies of roses, cypresses,
and cedars. An indescribably mild and delicious life of
beauty breathed in every thing and over every thing.
Every thing was changed. We had, below Memphis, entered the region of sugar, or the country in which the
sugar-cane is cultivated, as well as cotton and maize. We
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HOMES O0 THE NEW WORLD.
had passed Natchez, where formerly a powerful Indian
tribe had worshiped the sun, and maintained a perpetual
fire, a place with bloody memories.  We had left the city
of the bloody memories behind us, we had left behind us
the States of Mississippi and Arkansas. We were now in
Louisiana, the limits of which embraced both shores of the
river. We were speeding into the bosom of the South,
and it received us with a warm heart.  So I felt it, and
my own heart expanded itself to every gentle power of
life and of nature. I sat silently aft on the piazza the
whole forenoon, in a sort of quiet intoxication of enjoyment, inhaling the delicious atmosphere and the southern
landscape, thrilled with the enchanting aspect of heaven
and earth, and the indescribable soft mild air which was
diffused through the infinite between them.
It was noon. The air became more and more delicious,
and more and more animated became the scenes on the
river-banks.  Caravans of black men  and women were
seen driving out from the planter's house to the fields.
After them came one or two buggies or cabriolets, in which
were probably the overseers or the masters themselves. I
gazed on the whole scene in that spirit of human love, in
which to keep one's self, one believes, in good humor, the
best of all men, and in which one endeavors to see every
thing and all circumstances on the sunny side.
Two hours later I still sat aft on the piazza, and inhaled
the same mild, delicious atmosphere, still beheld the same
scene of southern beauty, but gazed upon it with a heart
full of bitterness. Yes, for a dark picture had been unfolded before my gaze-a picture which I never shall forget; which perpetually, like a spectre of the abyss, will
step between me and the memory of that enchanting veil
which one moment captivated and darkened my vision.
I sat and gazed upon that beautiful scene as one looks
at the scene of a theatre.  I enjoyed with childish delight
the decorations. Then came my new friend, the planter,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and seated himself in an arm-chair on the piazza. Ale
spoke a few words about the deliciousness of the air, which
he enjoyed as much as I did. Then we sat silently contemplating the scenery of the shores. We saw the caravans of slaves and their overseers proceeding over the
fields. I said to my neighbor in that spirit of human love
which I have mentioned,
"There is a great deal more happiness and comfort in
this life (the slaves' life) than one commonly imagines."
The planter turned to me his beautiful head with a
glance which I shall never forget; there was  astonishment, almost reproach in it, and a profound melancholy.
"Oh!" said he, in a low voice, "you know nothing of
that which occurs on these shores; if you did, you would
not think so. Here is much violence and much suffering!
At this season in particular, and from the time when the
cotton is ready to pluck, a great deal of cruelty is practiced
on the plantations around here. There are plantations
here where the whip.:,ever rests during all these months.
You can have no idea of such flogging."
I will not repeat those scenes which the planter related
to me, scenes which he himself had witnessed of violence,
cruelty, and suffering during more than fourteen years,
abominations which finally drove him thence, which drove
him to sell his plantation, and leave the slave states forever. I will merely introduce some of this excellent
man's words.*
"I have known men and women who were actual devils toward their slaves-whose pleasure it was to torment
them.
"People can flog a negro almost to death, and yet not
let a drop of blood flow. The strip of cowhide which is
* I should not, however, now publish them if I did not know that he
is now safe from all the unpleasantness which his integrity possibly
might have drawn upon him, did I not consider that by communicating
them I am performing his last will and-a higher will also.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
used in doors can cause the most horrible torture without
any mark being left.
"Women are not unfrequently the most horrible tor mentors of the house-slaves, and I would rather be one
of the field-hands than the house-slave of a passionate
woman. The institution of slavery seems to change the
very nature of woman.
"Slavery is destructive of the white.  I have known
young men and women, amiable in all respects, of the
most attractive manners and dispositions, but toward their
slaves they were unjust and severe.
"There are naturally exceptions.  There are good and
tender masters and mistresses, but they are few. The
rule is, that slavery blinds and hardens the mind of the
slave-owner from childhood upward.
"The state of things is considerably improved of late
years, and still is improving. Light is beginning to en ter this country; people are no longer afraid of speaking.
A few years ago, if a person had published a seventh part
of what I have now told you, he would have been shot
without any further process. The slave-owner now acknowledges that the eye of the public is directed to him.
It makes him more careful. Slaves, for the last ten or
twelve years, have been better clothed and fed in this
part of the country than they used to be; but sadly too
much injustice and sadly too much cruelty exists still,
and must always exist, so long as this institution lasts.
And it is my conviction that it will soon become "tthe
question"- the question of life and death within the
American Union.
"Even now a man makes no demur about shooting
down a negro whom he suspects of intending to run away,
and the law is silent on all such acts of violence. I have
seen many slaves severely wounded from having been shot
at under such circumstances, but one only killed.
"Passion and insanity in the treatment of slaves are
common.
189 
HOMES OF THE NEW- WORLD.
"The law is no protection to the slave.  It is nominal.
ly so, but it is not any actual defense. The slave suffers
from his master; the lawyers shut their eyes to the affair
as long as they can; and the negro can not be a witness
in a court of justice.
"They talk of public opinion; but public opinion is
here, as yet, for the most part the product of demagogues.
And the cotton interest is the only conscience. Many
people see all this as very wrong, and deplore it, but
they are silent, from the fear of involving themselves in
trouble.
"The festivals of the slaves are for the most part a fiction. On some plantations they are allowed to dance at
Christmas, if the cotton is picked and the sugar is ground;
but when the harvest is late, as it is this year, the festival is put off to eternity, and for the greater number it
always remains there. If the harvest has been good and
the work is done, then the negroes may sometimes dance.
"Hitherto no religious instruction has been allowed to
the slave on the plantations, nor is it even to this hour.
But God knows how it has happened, some of these poor
creatures have, notwithstanding, got hold of some of the
truths of the Gospel, and you can scarcely imagine the
eagerness with which they listen to every word.  I know
two plantations where the slaves have regular Christian
instruction, and it is very probable that this may spread
and produce a change in the relationship between slave
and master.
"The time is perhaps not far distant when public opinion will become a real defense to the slave, and more so
than law can ever be.
"People are becoming compelled to more justice and
gentleness toward their slaves, for their own safety.  I
have known times here when there was not a single planter who had a calm night's rest; at that time they never
lay down to sleep without a brace of loaded pistols at
their side.
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.HOMES- OF THE NEW WORLD.
"If people would only attempt to treat the slave with
justice and with reason, they would be astonished at the
results of these methods. The negro is in a high degree
susceptible of kindness and justice.  He is disposed to
subordination under any real superior, and if the whites
would avail themselves of such means, they would be
able to govern the negro, or, at all events, he would work
for him without the whip.
"I never allowed the whip to be used on my plantation
to drive them to work; there was no need of it.  Justice,
regularity, reason, sufficed with them; and they worked
well. I only allowed the whip to be used (and one can
not, in the present uncultivated condition of the negroes,
do without the whip on the plantations) as a punishment
for theft and quarrels; but for driving them to their work
it is not at all necessary.
"I am convinced that slaves might become free servants, and, as such, would work very well. All those
dangers which are predicted in emancipation are, in my
opinion, mere dreams. If emancipation were to take
place gradually and wisely, it would then proceed without danger or difficulty.  The experiments which some
persons, and among these Mr. Macdonald and Mr. Henderson, have tried with their slaves has proved this.
"Education, accompanied by a prospect of emancipation, would be the right means.
"But a great many things must be changed here before such a thought as this becomes general. I know
men of high religious professions who have been the most
cruel of slave-owners.
"And if I were to divulge all that I have seen, and
know has taken place, and still takes place in these states,
it would be enough to make the hair stand on end on the
head of every right-minded person.
"The histories of fugitive slaves, some of which I have
read, are not always to be relied upon.   I often see that
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
they fabulate, and there is no need of fabulation to make
the condition of the slave horrible.  The reality is worse
than any fiction. And if I were a slave, I should-oh, I
should certainly- leap into the river, and put an end to
my life!"
These words, and the narratives with which they were
interspersed of fearful things which have occurred, and
are still of daily occurrence on these shores, mingled themselves like a poisoned wind with the summer breezes
which still caressed me. I beheld the old slave hunted
to death because he dared to visit his wife-beheld him
mangled, beaten, recaptured, fling himself into the water
of the Black River, over which he was retaken into the
power of his hard master. And the law was silent.
I beheld a young woman struck, for a hasty word, upon
the temples, so that she dropped down dead! And the
law was silent.
I heard the law, through its jury, adjudicate between a
white man and a black, and sentence the latter to be
flogged when the former only was guilty. And they who
were honest among the jurymen in vain opposed the verdict!
I beheld here, on the shore of the Mississippi, only a
few months since, a young negro girl fly from the maltreatment of her master, and he a professor of religion,
and fling herself into the river.
I saw multitudes of captives, men and women, condemned to labor early and late, deprived of every ray of
that light which could give hope to captivity, and prevented from hearing the voice of the Savior, which says,
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,"
debarred from all this by men who call themselves Christians. But forgive me, my Agatha! Why should your
eyes be tormented with these gloomy pictures? I would
that I could avoid seeing them. But the effect of them will
never leave me.  There Was an end of all my enjoyment
192 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the air and the beauty of the South. I seemed to hate
my own kind who could perpetrate such cruelties and
such injustice. I hated those who could gloss all this
over for the interests of trade. I was indignant with myself for having wished to spare myself, to blind myself, to
what I must have known would be the inevitable consequences of the institution of slavery. Yes, I ought to have
known it; but I thought that it now no longer could be so!
Georgia and Carolina have, however, allowed the introduction of Christianity among the slaves. -I had heard
in Georgia and Carolina the children of Africa burst forth
in songs of praise of their Redeemer!
But here, in the beautiful southern land of the Mississippi Valley, it was worse then heathenism! Mississippi,
thou great Noah's flood, now do I know thy history to
the end.
But in the midst of its darkest career, I have seen the
conscience of the South glance brightly upward in a pure
eye, directed toward heaven in a warm and honest heart;
and this is my consolation and my hope. The sunshine
on the Mississippi is no mere lie. " Darkness was upon
the face of the deep, but the Spirit of God moved over the
waters."
On the Mississippi
We have passed Baton Rouge, as the political capital
of Louisiana is called, situated upon a high bluff, upon
the lofty shore of the Mississippi. A fine Capitol commands the little city, and a magnificent state prison, just
completed, stands with its foundations in the waters of
the Noah's flood.
The Mississippi is at this point very broad. There are
in the river sand-banks and verdant islands. Its waters
are now clearer; the sun shines; the scenery of the shores
is pleasing and quiet: plantations, orange groves, white
slave villages amid the green fields, extensive views beneath the mild heavens of summer.   The river is full of
VOL. II.-I
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
vessels, steamers, boats, and barges. We are approaching
the gay city of New Orleans.
I had some conversation to-day with our stewardess, a
pretty, well-disposed mulatto-girl. I found her in her little cabin busily studying a large alphabet. I had seen
her twice before so employed.   "The steward," she said,
"had promised to teach her to read in secret. He could
read, that he could." She longed so much to be able to
read. I found her one day in our saloon, standing before
the open Bible, which always lies upon the table there. I
asked her what she was doing.   "Oh, this book," said
she; "I turn and I turn over its leaves, and wish I understood what is on them. I try and try; I should be so
happy if I could read, but I can not."
We are approaching New Orleans, "that gay city." In
a couple of hours we shall be there.  All the animals in
Noah's Ark make themselves heard.
New Orleans, La Fayette Square, Dec. 25th.
Far in the South, but without sun, at least for the
present.   But it shone brightly-as we  arrived at the
Crescent City, which in the form of a half moon stands
upon a broad tongue of land between the Mississippi and
Lake Pontchartrain, into which great inland sea the waters of the Gulf of Mexico enter.
No less than three steamers had been blown up a short
time before our arrival; one of them was quite new, and
was out on an expedition of pleasure, with several of the
most wealthy people of New Orleans on board. Many of
these were very severely hurt, and two killed.
Our Noah's Ark, however, has borne us and all the animals safely to land.
The harbor which we entered was beautiful and invit.
ing in its crescent form, but the roadstead was bad, and
the quay of wood, and ill built.
On the arm -)f my faithful cavalier, Lerner -H., I went
on shore, and up to a magnificent building resembling the
194 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Pantheon at Rome, shining out white with its splendid
columns, not of marble, but of stucco. This was the Ho  tel St. Charles, and here we at first took up our quarters.
But when I f)ound that for a cold little room, with an
immense bed, up three flights of stairs, with the privilege
of the great saloon, where I would not go if I could help
it, and the privilege of eating a variety of meals, which I
could not eat without making myself ill, and at hours that
did not suit me-when I found that for all this magnifi  cence I must pay three dollars per day, without being
able with it all to enjoy one pleasant hour, I became anx ious to find another home.
And another home I soon found, through the kind care
of my kind countryman, Mr. Charles Schmidt, brother to
the Justitierraed. And this morning Lerner H. brought
me hither in a carriage, amid rain and cold. I am now
living in a private boarding-house, with a respectable
widow. I have a large, handsome room, carpeted, and
with a fire-place, and two large windows looking out into
a market-place planted with young trees still green, and
with a grass-plot in the centre.   This is La Fayette
Square.  It is a beautiful and very quiet place.  I esteem myself quite happy in my dwelling, for which I pay,
together with my board, only ten dollars per week, which
is low for New Orleans.
I became acquainted in St. Charles's Hotel with two
persons who may hereafter become more to me than mere
acquaintance; these are Mr. and Mrs. G. They are from
Cincinnati, but are residing, like Mr. H., through the winter in New Orleans, where both gentlemen have business.
Lerner H. had prepared me to like Mrs. G. very much.
When, on the morning after my arrival, I went down
to breakfast in the great eating-hall, no one was as yet
there, and I set myself to guess my new friends' friend
from those who entered.
I beheld ladies enter one after another, all with dresses
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made high to the throat, little collars, without caps, and
all dressed as much alike as if they had been modeled
from one block; all were delicate, thin, or rather dried
up, and looked, it seemed to me, dried up inwardly as
well as outwardly. But in this I might be mistaken.
Certain it is, I thirsted for a little life, a little individuality in the exterior as well as the interior. The Quakeresses are also all alike in costume. But what a clearly
impressed individuality one reads in their countenances!
Here, again, it was uniformity devoid of character; the
simplicity was monotonous and tiresome. I had not discovered Mrs. G.
I said so to Lerner H. as he sat beside me atbreakfast.
" Turn round," said he; " she sits at the table behind
you!"  (N.B.-We ate at long, narrow tables.)
I turned round, and met a gentle, oval, somewhat pale
countenance, and a pair of deep, beautiful eyes, a clear
forehead, over which the dark brown hair lay smooth on
the temples in bands. That was Mrs. G. She was dressed like all the rest of the ladies, but in black silk; her
hair was put up in the same style as the others, but still
there was a great difference. She seemed to me a little
stiff, but not dry; mild and noble.
I made a closer acquaintance with her on Christmas
Eve, and on the afternoon of Christmas Day, which I spent
in company in the great saloon with a portion of the population of St. Charles's Hotel, and she cordially pleased
me. She has those refined, regular features which belong
to American female beauty, and besides this, there is a
quiet demeanor, that modest, dignified grace which one
often does not meet with among the beauties of the New
World.  Mr. G., who is a good deal older than his handsome wife, has an animated, strongly-marked countenance; he is a warm Swedenborgian, and I foresee that
we shall have some little contentions on this subject; but
all in good part, for he is evidently a good Swedenborgian.
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There was dancing in the great saloon. A young, handsome, and evidently consumptive girl waltzed with as
much zeal as if she would make an end of herself; and
her partner and lover helped her most loyally. I could
not feel gay. I thought of Christmas in Sweden and at
home. Here they did not understand how to celebrate
Christmas. In Sweden, however, we do understand this
festival.
I went to church on Christmas Day, to a grand church,
the darkly-painted windows of which deprived it of all
light, and heard a dry, soulless sermon. I was not edified,
and felt as if New Orleans was a dry and wearisome place.
I thought of the Christmas early morning service in our
country churches, of the sledgings thither in the gay morning twilight, through pine woods, along the fresh snow;
I thought of the little cottages in the woods, shining out
with their Christmas candles; of the train of small peasant sledges, with their bells ringing merrily by the way;
of the beautiful church, with its dark background of wood
beaming with all its lighted meadows; of the cheerful
scene of light and purple within it; those good country
folk in their warm costume; I saw the representative of
the Diet of Thyreste enter in his wolf-skin cloak at the
church door; I saw the children with their beaming
glances; I heard the animated, powerful hymn, "Hail to
thee, lovely morning hour!" Yes, that was Christmas life
and Christmas joy!
In New Orleans, Christmas is no Christmas. I felt as
if I were in a heathen country.
On the evening of Christmas Day I was amused by a
fine-speaking, original, elderly lady-a somewhat unusual
personage among the women of the New World.   Mrs. D.
is worldly, but witty and peculiar with a vengeance; does
not bend to the world, but has the courage to do what she
likes even in dress. And her red velvet blowse, which,
without a girdle, inwrapped her like a mantle, whether
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it is becoming or not in company, is very becoming to her
tall, strong figure, which had quite a regal appearance,
and was a refreshing sight to me. Thanks, Mrs. D.
If it clears up in the afternoon or in the morning, Mr.
H. will take me to see the slave-market, which is one of
the great sights of "the gay city."  I begin now to have
a presentiment of why I must go down the Mississippi,
and why I must visit New Orleans.
December 27th. Three days' rain and bad weather in
New Orleans-each day worse than the preceding, with
sleet and cold. But I am quite well, my little heart,
amuse myself in my excellent, cheerful room, and have
to-day again one of those inward spring days which sometimes, in the midst of winter, astonish me with overflowing life, when every thing within my soul lives and grows
in an infinite sunshine; when every thought bursts forth
into blossom, and, as it were, produces abundant harvests,
in a manner which astonishes and enchants me; when
the head and breast feel too narrow for the emotions and
the presentiments which are agitating within, and will,
as it were, burst forth; when I feel myself to be a citizen
of the world, and am ready to embrace the whole world;
when I live-live-live!  But enough of this.  I can not,
nevertheless, describe the animating impulse within me.
I embrace you and mamma in the fullness of my heart,
and now close and send off this letter, for I believe it is
long since I last wrote home.
P.S.-December 28th. At length a bright and beautiful
day, after three days of incessant bad weather. And now
one must be up and doing- visit asylums, schools, prisons, and drive out to plantations. I was yesterday, in the
midst of the rain, surprised by a visit from unknown
friends in New Orleans, warm, cordial people, so that it
made  me  very happy.   The heartfelt kindness of one
young, amiable girl affected me to tears.
My new friends came with violets and invitations to go
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out with them to a plantation up the Mississippi, where
they would show me "what slavery really is;" thus speak
they who merely see it, or choose to see it, as it is in one
or two cases under good masters. But I now know enough
not to let myself be beguiled even by good people to believe what a young, handsome gentleman (either stupid
or false) assured me last evening, that the slaves in America are "as happy as can be!"  My new friends were evidently kind and warm-hearted people, and forgot how often others are different.
When I write next I shall tell you more about the free
people, and the slave people, and slavery in the gay city
of New Orleans.
LETTER XXXI.
New Orleans, Louisiana, Jan. 1, 1851.
GOOD-MORNING! A good new year, my sweet sister, my
sweet friend!  May the morning of the new year shine
brighter on you than it does on me, and the far North afford you a clear sun above the snowy, gleaming earth.
Ah! a quiet sun-bright winter's day with us, when all
the trees are white over with snow, and every thing shines
and gleams kindly and cheerfully in that pure air-that
air which is so light and invigorating to breathe-then to
ramble forth, as I so often have done at this season, across
the fiords and fields of the park, how glorious it was! But
here, in this glorious South, it now rains and pours with
rain incessantly!  The beautiful day on which I last
wrote had no successor. To-day we have sleet, and altogether bad weather. The young trees on the La Fayette
Market look quite melancholy. The leaves hang on them
like tatters.  But I am very comfortable in my warm,
light, excellent room, and there shines upon my chimneypiece a large boug h full of the very sweetest- sweet in
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every way-little oranges; and beside them stand two
large bottles of the genuine Louisiana grape-juice-Newyear's gifts from kind new friends, who have brought summer and warmth into room and heart. I have sun enough
on this new year, yes, and even a little more, to give away
in case any body wanted it,
But I must tell you something about Bushkiton! Bushkiton is a festival which was celebrated annually by the
Indians of the Mississippi in these southern regions, when
the Europeans first intruded themselves here. It appears
to rme the most remarkable of all the festivals of the North
American Indians, and some of its spiritual meaning might
have been ingrafted beneficially upon the white race,
which has now seized upon the soil of the red man.
This festival occurred at the close of the year, and continued eight days. Each day had its separate ceremony;
but the principal features of the whole ceremonial were
fasting, purification, and self-contemplation. It is said,
in the narrative describing it, "that on these days (the
third, fifth, and seventh, if I recollect right) the men sat
silent in the market-place." Ashes played a principal
part in the purifications; and it appears to me worthy of
remark, that these ashes were to be conveyed to the warriors by young maidens who were still half children. The
food, also, of which they partook during their fasts, was
to be presented to them by these childish hands. The
men-for the women are not mentioned at all-held also
nocturnal dances by the light of the fire, during which
they washed themselves with warm water, in which certain herbs and roots of a medicinal quality had been boiled. The seventh night's dance appears most symbolical
and significant.  On the seventh day the men again "sit
silent in the market-place." The eighth is the last great
day of purification. The men then ascend a bank by the
river, and throw themselves headlong into it, diving down
many times. After this they come out and reassume their
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every-day garments, manners, and occupations. It is re markable, however, that after this time every thing which
occurred before it is regarded as not having been. All
neglect, all quarrels, great or small, between individuals
of the nation, are to be forgotten, and life is regarded as
if new born. Any one who, after this time, calls to remembrance any annoyance which occurred before it, or
evinces any grudge, or cherishes ill will, must pay a fine.
Bushkiton returns every year as a festival of reconciliation
and renovation. How excellent, if all bitter memories
whatever could be washed away by this Indian Lethe.t
And who shall deny but that Bushkiton, with its inward
desire and outward labor, might not be a good help for
such purpose.
We civilized people should do well by adopting the
Bushkiton of the savages. And there is a custom in the
United States, especially in their large cities, and it is said
to flourish in New York and New Orleans, which probably may have its origin in the Indians' feast of reconciliation. In these cities, New-year's day is regarded, in some
sort, as a day of renovation and reconciliation.   Newyear's visits are the means made use of. If any quarrel
has arisen during the past year between two individuals
or between two families, and if they have ceased to see
one another or to speak to one another, a visit paid on
New-year's day is sufficient, without any further explanation, to make all amicable again between them. And
both sides are silently agreed to forget all that is past, and
to let life begin anew.
The ladies of "la haute volee" do not go out on this
day, but sit at home, splendidly dressed in their drawingrooms, which are decorated for the occasion, to receive
gentlemen, who pay complimentary visits; and I have
heard it said that many a gentleman who is blessed with
a numerous acquaintance in good families makes himself
quite ill by incessantly driving about on this day from one
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house to another, rushing up steps and down steps many
hundred times, from morning till late at night.
One kind family among my new friends at New Orleans invited me to spend this day with them, that I might
see the cheerful scene. But it would have wearied me,
without affording me what I need on New-year's day. If
however, there were here any genuine Indian Bushkiton,
then would I gladly be present, that I might endeavor to
forget. For this I would willingly plunge into the Mississippi, if I could only be certain of-coming up again!
God's deep mercy shall be my Bushkiton!
And now, while the weather is bad, and the great world
is paying visits and compliments, and polite gentlemen are
sunning themselves in the beautiful smiles of elegant ladies, in gas-lighted drawing-rooms, I will, at my ease, converse withyou about the occurrences of the last few days,
about the slave-market and a slave-auction at which I
have been present.
I saw nothing especially repulsive in these places excepting the whole thing; and I can not help feeling a sort
of astonishment that such a thing and such scenes are
possible in a community calling itself Christian. It seems
to me sometimes as if it could not be reality-as if it
were a dream.
The great slave-market is held in several houses situated in a particular part, of the city. One is soon aware
of their neighborhood from the groups of colored men and
women, of all shades between black and light yellow,
which stand or sit unemployed at the doors. Accompanied by my kind doctor, I visited some of these houses. We
saw at one of them the slave-keeper or owner-a kind,
good-tempered man, who boasted of the good appearance
of his people.  Thewslaves were summoned into a large
hall, and arranged in two rows. They were well fed and
clothed, but I have heard it said by the people here that
they have a very different appearance when they are
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brought hither, chained together two and two, in long
rows, after many days' fatiguing marches.
I observed among the men some really athletic figures,
with good countenances and remarkably good foreheads,
broad and high. The slightest kind word or joke called
forth a sunny smile, full of good humor, on their countenances, and revealed a shining row of beautiful pearl-like
teeth. There was one negro in particular-his price was
two thousand dollars-to whom I took a great fancy, and
I said aloud that "I liked that boy, and I was sure we
should be good friends."
"Oh yes, Missis!" with a good, cordial laugh.
Among the women, who were few in number in comparison with the mel (there might be from seventy to
eighty of them), there were some very pretty light mnulattoes. A gentleman took one of the prettiest of them
by the chin, and opened her mouth to see the state of
her gums and teeth, with no more ceremony than if she
had been a horse. Had I been in her place, I believe that
I should have bitten his thumb, so much did I feel myself
irritated by his behavior, in which he evidently, no more
than she, found any thing offensive. Such is the custom
of the place.
My inquiries from these poor human chattels confined
themselves to the question of whence they came. Most
of them came from Missouri and Kentucky. As I was
constantly attended by the slave-keeper, I could not ask
for any biographical information, nor could I, in any case,
have been certain that what I here received was to be
relied upon.
In another of these slave-houses I saw a gentleman
whose exterior and expression I shall never forget.  He
seemed to be the owner of the slaves there, and my companion requested permission for himself and me to see
them. He consented, but with an air, and a glance at
me, as if he would annihilate me.   He was a man of
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unusual size, and singularly handsome. His figure was
Herculean, and the head had the features of a Jupiter;
but majesty and gentleness were there converted into a
hardness which was really horrible. One might just as
well have talked about justice and humanity to a block
of stone as to that man. One could see by the cold expression of that dark blue eye, by those firmly-closed lips,
that he had set his foot upon his own conscience, made
an end of all hesitation and doubt, and bade defiance both
to heaven and hell. He would have money. If he could,
by crushing the whole human race in his hand, have converted them into money, he would have done it with pleasure. The whole world was to him nothing excepting as
a means of making money. The whole world might go
to rack and ruin so that he could but rise above it-a rich
man, as the only rich and powerful man in the world.
If I wanted to portray the image of perfected, hardened
selfishness, I would paint that beautiful head. That perfectly dark expression of countenance, the absence of light,
life, joy, was only the more striking because the complexion was fair; and the cheeks, although somewhat sunken,
had a beautiful bloom. He seemed to be about fifty.'
After having visited three slave-houses or camps, and
seen some of the rooms in which the slaves were lodged
for the night, and which were great garrets without beds,
chairs, or tables, I proceeded to the hospital of New Orleans. It is a large institution, and appears to me well
managed. There were some cholera patients in it. One
young man and a young girl lay dying. I laid my hand
upon their foreheads, but they felt it not. They had already sunk into the last sleep.
I dined on this day, the 30th of December, at the house
of my countryman, Mr. S., who wished to give me a real
New Orleans dinner; and, in particular, a favorite soup
in Louisiana, called gumbo, prepared from a kind of groat
somewhat resembling sago.
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Mr. S. is a lively little man, with a Creole grace of demeanor, very loquacious and kind.   He is married-a
second marriage-to a French Creole of New Orleans, and
has by her several most beautiful little boys, with dark
eyes, and dark, flowing locks, like little French children.
The wife was also lovely, an excellent, simple creature,
who never before had seen an authoress, and now seemed
somewhat astonished to find her like other people, able to
talk like them also.  She seemed to have an idea that a
person who wrote a book must talk like a book.
The New Orleans dinner was remarkably good, and
gumbo is the crown of all the savory and remarkable
soups in the world-a regular elixir of life of the substantial kind. He who has once eaten gumbo may look down
disdainfutly upon the most genuine turtle soup. After
dinner, my hostess, her sister, and myself had a charming
g,)ssip over the fire. It was a real refreshment both for
tongue and ear to listen to, and to talk French after that
unmelodious and confused English language.
In the evening I drank tea with a family of the name
of C., planters of Louisiana.   Deep sorrow for the loss
of two promising children seemed to have depressed the
father, and almost crushed the heart of the mother. One
daughter, Julia, still remains. When I behold the dance
of the moon-beams on the waves; when I perceive the
scent of violets and the glance of the mild forget-me-not;
when I, see any thing which is lovely and full of life, full
of innocence and the joy of existence, but which, at the
same time, looks as if it would not long linger on earth,
I shall think, Julia, of thee, and long to clasp thee once
more to my heart, thou pale, lovely, beaming child of the
South, and to hold thee yet on earth, that thy mother's
heart may not break, and that thy father and thy home
may yet have some light!
On the 31st of December I went with my kind and
estimable physician to witness a slave-auction, which took
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place not far from my abode. It was held at one of the
small auction-rooms which are found in various parts of
New Orleans. The principal scene of slave-auctions is a
splendid rotunda, the magnificent dome of which is wor thy to resound with songs of freedom. I once went there
with Mr. Lerner H., to be present at a great slave-auc tion; but we arrived too late.
Dr. D. and I entered a large and somewhat cold and
dirty hall, on the basement story of a house, and where
a great number of people were assembled. About twenty
gentlemenlike men stood in a half circle around a dirty
wooden platform, which for the moment was unoccupied.
On each side, by the wall, stood a number of black men
and women, silent and serious. The whole assembly was
silent, and it seemed to me as if a heavy gray cloud rested
upon it. One heard through the open door the rain falling heavily in the street. The gentlemen looked askance
at me with a gloomy expression, and probably wished that
they could send me to the North Pole.
Two gentlemen hastily entered; one of them, a tall,
stout man, with a gay and good-tempered aspect, evidently a bon vivant, ascended the auction platform. I
was told that he was an Englishman, and I can believe
it from his blooming complexion, which was not American. He came apparently from a good breakfast, and he
seemed to be actively employed in swallowing his last
mouthful. He took the auctioneer's hammer in his hand,
and addressed the assembly much as follows:
" The slaves which I have now to sell, for what price
I can get, are a few home-slaves, all the property of one
master.   This gentleman having given his bond for a
friend who afterward became bankrupt, has been obliged
to meet his responsibilities by parting witlh his faithful
servants. These slaves are thus sold, not in consequence
of any faults which they possess, or for any deficiencies.
They are all faithful and excellent servants, and nothing
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but hard necessity would have compelled their master to
part with them. They are worth the highest price, and
he who purchases them may be sure that he increases the
prosperity of his family."
After this he beckoned to a woman among the blacks
to come forward, and he gave her his hand to mount upon
the platform, where she remained standing beside him.
She was a tall, well-grown mulatto, with a handsome but
sorrowful countenance, and a remarkably modest, noble
demeanor. She bore on her arm a young sleeping child,
upon which, during the whole auction ceremonial, she kept
her eyes immovably riveted, with her head cast down.
She wore a gray dress made to the throat, and a pale yellow handkerchief, checked with brown, was tied round
her head.
The auctioneer now began to laud this woman's good
qualities, her skill, and her abilities, to the assembly.
He praised her character, her good  disposition,' order,
fidelity; her uncommon  qualifications for taking care of
a house; her piety, her talents, and remarked that the
child which she bore at her breast, and which was to be
sold with her, also increased her value. After this he
shouted with a loud voice, "Now, gentlemen, how much
for this very superior woman, this remarkable, &c., &c.,
and her child?"
He pointed with his outstretched arm and fore-finger
from one to another of the gentlemen who stood around,
and first one and then another replied to his appeal with
a short silent nod, and all the while he continued in this
style:
"Do you offer me five hundred dollars?  Gentlemen,
I am offered five hundred dollars for this superior woman
and her child. It is a sum not to be thought of! She,
with her child, is worth double that money. Five hundred and fifty, six hundred, six hundred and fifty, six hundred and sixty, six hundred and seventy. My good gen
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
tlemen, why do you not at once say seven hundred dollars
for this uncommonly superior woman and her child? Sev en hundred dollars-it is downright robbery!  She would
never have been sold at that price if her master had not
been so unfortunate," &c., &c.
The hammer fell heavily; the woman and her child
were sold for seven hundred dollars to one of those dark,
silent figures before her. Who he was; whether he was
good or bad; whether he would lead her inta tolerable or
intolerable slavery-of all this, the bought and sold woman and mother knew as little as I did, neither to what
part of the world he would take her. And the father of
her child-where was he?
With eyes still riveted upon that sleeping child, with
dejected but yet submissive mien, the handsome mulatto
stepped down from the auction-platform to take her stand
beside the wall, but on the opposite sile of the room.
Next, a very dark young negro girl stepped upon the
platform.   She wore a bright yellow handkerchief tied
very daintily round her head, so that the two ends stood
out like little wings, one on each side. Her figure was
remarkably trim and neat, and her eyes glanced round
the assembly both boldly and inquiringly.
The auctioneer exalted her merits likewise, and then
exclaimed,
" How much for this very likely young girl?"
She was soon sold, and, if I recollect rightly, for three
hundred and fifty dollars.
After her a young man took his place on the platform.
" He was a mulatto, and had a remarkably good countenance, expressive of gentleness and refinement. He had
been servant in his former master's family, had been
brought up by him, was greatly beloved by him, and deserved to be so-a most excellent young man!"
He sold for six hundred dollars.
After this came an elderly woman, who had also one
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of those good-natured, excellent countenances so common
among the black population, and whose demeanor and
general appearance showed that she too had been in the
service of a good master, and, having been accustomed to
gentle treatment, had become gentle and happy. All
these slaves, as well as the young girl, who looked pert
rather than good, bore the impression of having been accustomed to an affectionate family life.
And now, what was to be their future fate? How bitterly, if they fell into the hands of the wicked, would they
feel the difference between then and now-how horrible
would be their lot! The mother in particular, whose
whole soul was centered in her child, and who, perhaps,
would have soon to see that child sold away, far away
from her-what would then be her state of mind!
No sermon, no anti-slavery oration could speak so powerfully against the institution of slavery as this slave-auction itself!
The master had been good, the servants good also, attached, and faithful, and yet they were sold to whoever
would buy them-sold like brute beasts!
In the evening. New-year's day is at an end. I too
have had visits from polite gentlemen, hitherto strangers
to me. Among them I shall remember, with especial
pleasure, two brothers of the name of D., bankers of the
city, earnest and cordial men, who are said to be remarkable for their brotherly affection and public spirit.  My
countryman, Herr Charles S., has sat and talked with me
this evening.  He has lived long in New Orleans, and
knows many circumstances of great interest; is frank
and agreeable, so that his society is extremely pleasant
to me.
I am as comfortable in this house as I can desire. I
have even enjoyed_ the bad weather, because it has enabled me to read a little, and to draw, and the latter is a
necessary repose and refreshment to me. I have sketch
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed the portraits of some of my friends, and painted that
of my little attendant here, a pretty dark mulatto, with
lovely eyes, and a grand yellow handkerchief around her
brow, tied in a manner peculiar to the negroes of Louisiana. She has hitherto been, comparatively speaking, a
happy slave.
"Have your owners been kind to you?" inquired I.
"I have never had a bad word from them, Missis!" replied she.
But- there are slave-owners of another kind in New
Orleans.
Sunday, January 5th. Hastily and shortly a fevowords
about many things which have occupied me during the
last few days, especially yesterday and to-day.
Yesterday forenoon I visited the prisons of the city, accompanied by the superintendents and two distinguished
lawyers. The outward management of the prisons seems
to rne excellent. Order and cleanliness prevail throughout, as is always the case wherever the Anglo-American
legi,4ates.  I preserve the following features of the internal mranagement.
I visited some rooms where women accused of capital
offenses were confined.  Their dress spoke of circumstances far removed from poverty, but their countenances
of the prevalence of violent and evil passion. Among
them I remarked one in particular, a lady charged with
the murder of her husband from jealousy, whose whole
bearing denoted boldness and pride.
All these women declared their innocence, and complained of injustice. Each one had her own apartment,
but might avail herself of companionship in the piazza
which surrounded the building within a court. There
sat under this piazza a group of negro women, apparently
enjoying the sun, which was then shining warmly.  They
looked so good and quiet, and they all, especially two
young girls, bore so evidently the stamp of innocence and
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of good disposition, that I asked, with no small degree, of
astonishment,                           r
"Why are these here?  What crimes have they com mitted?"
"They have committed no offense whatever," was the
reply.  "But their master having given security for a
person who is now bankrupt, they are brought in here to
prevent their being seized and sold by auction to cover the
demand, and here they will remain till their master finds
an-opportunity of recovering them."
"You see," said one of the lawyers, "that it is to defend
them; it is for their advantage that they are here."
"How long will they probably remain here?" inquired
I, cogitating within myself as to what particular advantage could be derived by the innocent from that daily association with these white ladies accused of the darkest
crimes.
"Oh, at furthest, two or three weeks-quite a short
time," replied the lawyer.
One of the young negro girls smiled, half sadly, half bitterly.  "Two weeks!" said she; "we have already been
here two years!"
I looked at the lawyer. He seemed a little confounded.
"Ah!" said he, "it is extraordinary; something quite
unusual-very unusual; altogether an exceptional casevery rare!"  And he hurried away from the place.
Again, and always this injustice against human beings
whose sole crime is-a dark skin.
Immediately after dinner I paid a visit to the Catholic
Orphan Asylum, where two hundred little girls are placed
under the care of fifteen Sisters of Mercy-a beautiful and
well-managed institution.
Scarcely had I returned thence, when I wa' taken by
some of my acquaintances to the French opera, where I
saw "Jerusalem," by Verdi, which was very well given.
The prima donna, Mademoiselle D., is a great favorite with
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the public, and deserves to be so, from her lovely figure,
the nobility of her demeanor, and her exquisitely beautiful
and melodious singing, although her voice in itself is not
remarkable. Her hands and arms are of rare beauty, and
their movement was in exquisite harmony with her singing.
The most interesting scene to me, however, was not on
the stage, but in the theatre itself, where the ladies of
New Orleans, seated in their boxes, presented the appearance of a parterre of white roses. They were all dressed in
white, gauze-like dresses, with bare necks and arms, some
of them very bare indeed, and some of them with flowers
in their hair.  All were very pale, but not unhealthy-looking; many of the young were quite pretty, with delicate
features, and round, child-like countenances. Beauty is
scarce here, as it is all over the world. The white pearlpowder, which the ladies here commonly use, gives to the
complexion a great softness, in which, however, the art is
too frequently apparent. I do not object to people in social life endeavoring to make themselves as beautiful as
possible, but it should be done in the most delicate manner, and well done, otherwise the effect is coarse, and produces an unpleasing effect.
I sat in a box of the amphitheatre (which is divided into
boxes) with an agreeable and musical gentleman, Mr. D.,
an acquaintance of my friend Lerner H.; and I had placed
a beautiful white camellia which I received from him in
Mrs. G.'s beautiful dark-brown hair, and had the pleasure
of seeing it shining out on her beautiful noble head as she
sat in her box in the front row. For the rest, I suffered
from headache, owing to the heat and exertions of the day,
but was so anxious to be quite well by the morrow, when
I was to vsit the French Market with Mr. Lerner H., that,
by means of strong determination and strong coffee, I succeeded; and accordingly, at six o'clock in the early dawn,
I and my cavalier took our way to the French portion of
the city.
212 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The French Market is in full bloom on Sunday morning each week, and this also shows the difference between
the French popular feeling and that of the Anglo-Norman, who would regard such a circumstance as Sabbathbreaking.
The French Market is one of the most lively and picturesque scenes of New Orleans. One feels as if transported at once to a great Paris marchle, with this difference,
that one here meets with various races of people, hears
many different languages spoken, and sees the productions
of various zones. Here are English, Irish, Germans,
French, Spaniards, Mexicans. Here are negroes and Indians. Most of those who offer articles for sale are black
Creoles, or natives, who have the French animation and
gayety, who speak French fluently, and " Bon jour, madame! bon jour, madame!" was addressed to me from
many lips with the most cheerful smiles, revealing the
whitest of teeth, as I wandered among the stalls, which
were piled up with game, and fruit, and flowers, bread
and confectionery, grain and vegetables, and innumerable
good things all nicely arranged, and showing that abundance in the productions of the earth which involuntarily
excited the feeling of a sheer impossibility that there could
be any want on the earth, if all was as it should be. The
fruit-stalls were really a magnificent sight; they were
gorgeous with the splendid fruits of every zone, among
which were many tropical ones quite new to me. Between two and three thousand persons, partly purchasers
and partly sellers, were here in movement, but through
all there prevailed so much good order and so much sunny,
amiable vivacity, that one could not help being heartily
amused. People breakfasted, and talked, and laughed
just as in the markets at Paris, and were vociferous and
jocular, especially the blacks-the children of the tropics
beaning with life and mirth.   The whole was a real
sunny Southern scene, full of sunshine, cheerful life, and
good humor.
213 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
On the outskirts of the market you found Indians. Lit tle Indian girls were seated on the ground, wrapped in
their blankets, with their serious, uniform, stiff countenances, and downcast eyes riveted upon an outspread
cloth before them, on which were laid out wild roots and
herbs which they had brought hither for sale. Behind
them, and outside the market-place, Indian boys were
shooting with bows and arrows to induce young white
gentlemen to purchase their toy weapons. These red bovs
were adorned with some kind of brilliant ribbon round
their brows, and with feathers, forming here also a strong
contrast to those pale, modest, and unadorned girls. These
Indians were of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, many
families of which may still be met with in Western Louisiana.
In the light of the ascending sun, for the sun was also
at this market festival, and sucking the juice of delicious
oranges, Lerner H. and I left the cheerful scene, and returned leisurely home by the harbor, where immense sugar hogsheads were stored.
Late in the forenoon I went to church. The minister,
who is said to be " a genius," preached of human love in
a heathenish way, by introducing the words of a celebrated romance:
" If a man does not trouble himself more about his
neighbors than about his cattle and his slaves, he does
not deserve the name of a good man."
This will suffice for the sermon and the preacher, who
was not devoid of talent, especially in delivery, although
that was accompanied by too much gesticulation.
Mr. G. took me in the afternoon to see the French
burial-ground.  It is really "a city of the dead;" whole
streets and squares of tombs and graves, all standing
above ground, from the fear of the waters below, as the
whole ground here is very dropsical; and among these no
trees, no grass-plots, nothing green, with the exception of
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
two single graves; no flowers, nothing which testifies of
life, of memory, or of love. All was dead; all stony, all
desolate; for neither were there here any living beings
beside ourselves. Wherever we walked, we walked between walled graves and tombs; wherever we turned,
the eye encountered tombs and bare'walls, with nothing
over them, with no background except the clear blue
heaven, for it was bright above the city of the dead. I
thus wandered through these immense grave-yards: it
was the greatest contrast which could be imagined to the
scene of the morning.
To-morrow I shall accompany Mr. and Mrs. G. to Mobile in Alabama, whither I am invited by Mrs. W. le V.,
whom I have often heard spoken of as a very charming
and much celebrated "belle" both in the North and South
of the United States.  We  shall travel by steam-boat
across Lake Pontchartrain and into the Gulf of Mexico,
on the banks of which Mavilla, now Mobile, is situated.
Mobile, Alabama, Jan. 8th.
Summer, summer, perfect midsummer weather, my
little Agatha!  Oh! that I could by some magical power
transport you to this air, or this air to you, for it would
make you strong and happy, as happy as it has made me
for the last few days. Ever since the 4th of January,
when the weather changed from horrible to enchanting,
and yet it had begun to clear up two days before, I have
been in a sort of astonishment at such air, and such a
delicious sensation as it occasions; and if I only had you
here to enjoy it, I should want nothing more.
I left New Orleans on Monday afternoon, in company
with the estimable Swedenborgian, Mr. G., and his amiable and truly agreeable lady. It was the most beautiful evening, and the sunset was glorious on Lake Pontchartrain, a large lake which empties itself into the Mexican Gulf, and upon the flat shores of which the planters
of Lousiana have their beautiful, luxurious villas and
215
0 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
gardens. The steam-boat "Florida," which conveyed us
across the quiet, clear lake, was a flower among steamboats, so ornamental and so pretty, and as yet in all its
first freshness.  Mr. G., one of the proprietors of the vessel, would not allow me to pay my passage. We inhaled
the pleasant air, contemplated the magnificent evening
sky, ate, drank, and slept well, and saw, the next morning, the sun rise bright above Mobile.
Mrs. Le V. came to meet me with her carriage. I
found her a short, handsome lady, remarkably like Mrs.
L. in appearance, bearing, and manner of speaking, but
without her coldness of temperament. I had heard so
much of Mrs. Le V.'s vivacity and grace that I was surprised to find evident traces of deep sorrow in her countenance.   She had suffered, two years ago, blow after
blow in the death of her brother and two of her children,
since which she has altogether withdrawn herself from
society, the ornament of which she had hitherto been.
She shut herself within her own room for several months,
which were spent in incessant weeping.  The visit of
Lady Emeline Stuart Wortley to Mobile, her intellectual
society, and warm, womanly sympathy, drew the mourner somewhat out of her deep melancholy and she is recovering by degrees.  But all is still a burden to her, and
she is, as it were, dead to the pleasures of the world. She
believes that she can never overcome that sense of sorrow
which seemed to have crushed her. Nevertheless, she is
cheerful, and even sometimes laughs heartily-but her
eyes show that they have shed many tears.
Yesterday she drove me to a beautiful promenade
through a magnolia forest, along the shore of the Mexican
Gulf. The magnolia is a laurel with evergreen foliage
of a dark but clear color; it is irregular in its form, but
tall, and its head, for the most part, round and rich.
Thick masses of moss, the Tillandsia usnoides, hang like
veils over its strong, knotted branches, amid alcoves of
21-6 
HOMIES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dark foliage. It is not a beautiful, but an extremely po  etical tree, and when it shoots forth its snow-white fra  grant flowers, it seems to recall some beautiful poem of
Lord Byroul's.
The air was pleasant.  The waves of the Mexican Gulf
broke softly and broadly against the shore, with a loud but
soothing sound.  The woods were silent, fresh, and green.
I rested, breathed, enjoyed, in deep harmony with the scene
around me and the young, amiable lady at my side.
In the evening I went to the theatre, to which I was
invited by the theatrical manager, who had the politeness
to place a box at my disposal during my stay in the city.
I saw an amusing little piece called "Jenny Lind in Hei delberg," which was performed with much humor; and
I was greatly pleased by another, piece, "The Daughters
of the Stars," in which a very young and highly gifted
actress, Miss Julia D., caused me, to my surprise, to shed
tears. I have never seen any acting in which so much pa thos was combined with so much freshness and truth to
nature since I saw Jenny Lind at the theatre in Stockholm.
From 7th to 12th July.  Beautiful quiet days!  I like
Mobile, and the people of Mobile, and the weather of Mobile, and every thing in Mobile; I flourish in Mobile. My
home here is with Mrs. W., the mother of Mr. Le V., a
good old lady, the widow of the former Governor of Florida.  The home is sunny and peaceful, and the appearance and demeanor of the negro slaves is sunny and peaceful also. I go out every morning to a camp of Choctaw
Indians just outside the city, for it amuses me to see the
life and manners of these wild people.  In order to reach
this camp, I must walk up Government Street, the principal street of the city, a broad, straight alley of beautiful
villas, surrounded by trees and garden-plots; the most
beautiful young orange-trees, covered with fruit, shine in
the sun, and the sun, that beautiful, beneficent southern
sun, shines here all day long!
VOL. II.-lK
-217 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The Indian camp consists of thirteen bark huts, something like our booths at fairs, but always open on one
side, at least during the day. Within, the huts have a
very poverty-stricken appearance. The whole business
and anxiety of the inmates seem to be catering for the
stomach.  I have been there at various times of the day,
and have found them always occupied in eating or in preparing food. - This morning they breakfasted on oranges,
which, piled up in great heaps, seemed to have been lately fetched to the camp. I suspect that they were not of
the very best quality; but it was a very lively scene, those
red people eating that splendid fruit on the edge of the
splendid sunbright forest. Fire is always burning in front
of the bark huts, and old, shriveled, gray-haired women
sit by the fire, looking like real witches, sometimes stirring the contents of a kettle over the fire, and sometimes
warming their skinny hands, and seeming as if they desired, as much as possible, to envelop themselves in the
smoke. The children, who sit in groups around the fire,
or leap about the green-sward playing at ball, are handsome, full of animation, and have beautiful dark eyes.
The young women are sometimes very much ornamented
with armlets and necklaces, and have a deal of painted
finery on their cheeks. One meets continually Indian
women on their way to the city, carrying on their backs
large baskets of light-wood billets, which they are taking
thither for sale. These baskets are supported by a broad
belt, which they fasten round the forehead, like the Indian
women of Minnesota. The men at this season are out
hunting in the higher mountain district of Alabama. A
couple of them, who are still lingering here, have made
themselves a screen of boughs and leaves among the trees,
behind which they dress, paint, and adorn themselves.
They have rings in their noses, and they attire themselves
very showily. One of these Indians is an unusually hand
some young man, and wears his hair in long locks falling
218 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
on his shoulders.  I have sketched a couple of the young
girls; they look very plump and merry, and in featurps
are not unlike Jewesses, that is to say, such as have broad
and flat noses.
These Indians are praised for their integrity, and the
exactness with which they keep a promise. Further up
the Alabama River, great numbers of Indians are still
met with in a savage condition; but a great portion of
the State of Alabama is still in a savage condition, not
only as regards the country itself, but the manners of its
white inhabitants. The state is young, having only obtained its Constitution in 1817, and it has the institution
of slavery-the institution of all others least conducive to
spiritual and temporal advancement.  The fetters of slavery bind the white masters as well as the black servants.
Even Mobile has its slave-market, which I visited, but
found there merely a few mulatto girls who remained
unsold, and who looked stupid and indifferent, and who
proposed to me that I should purchase them.
I have been repeatedly to the theatre, and always
amused and interested by the young and promising actress, Miss D. I met her one evening, with a number of
others of the theatrical company, at Mrs. Le V.'s. They
all appeared agreeable and well-bred people, and young
Miss D. was more beautiful in a room than on the stage,
and as modest in dress and demeanor as any of the young
Puritans of New England. She is accompanied by, or
rather she accompanies, her father, who also is an actor
of merit. It is evident that actors in the New World take
a higher position ir educated society than they have yet
done in Europe.  They do not here form a caste.
I have also seen at Mrs. LecV.'s a great number of the
grandees of Mobile, and more lovely young ladies I have
never met with.  Some of these were from the Northern
States, and exhibited that intelligence and life which especially belongs to these states. And again I am com
219 
hO Mg  OF'O-IE NEW WORLD.
pelled to.feel that.any thing more agreeable than a love.
-ly, -refiaed American woman is scarcely to be found on
fthe aoe of the arth.
Nor can I remember otherwise than with pleasure some,
elderly gentlempn, men of office min the states, who were
wise and clear on all questions with the exception of
slavery.  And among  the young  men, I must have the
pleasure.ofin,trodueg to you, as my e.peoial good friend,
the young, gifted poet and dramatic author,- Mr. Reynolds,
who has accompanied me on many of my rambles, and
.whohas afforded me many anagreeable hour' by his excellent heart and genuine conversation.  He has prepared for
the z.,ge some national historical pieces, and one of his
dramas, "Alfred and Inez, or the Siege of St. Augustine,"
I shall take with me to read on my journey.
Lastly, I must tell you something of my little friend,
fMrs. Le V.  I mention her last, because she has nestled
into the inmost of my heart.
How pleasant it is to be fond of and to love some one!
That you know, my Agatha! And it is so strange that
that-little worldly lady, whom I had heard spoken of as a
"belle," and as the most splendid ornament of society
wherever she went, has yet become almost -as dear to me
as a young sister!  But she has become so from being, so
very excellent, because she has suflfred much, and because
under a worldly exterior there is an unusually sound and
pure intellect,,and a heart full of affeotion,  which -can
east aside all the-vanities of the world for the power of
gratifying those whom she loves.  And with this -young
lady -have.I-conveorsed of Transcendentalists,,nd practical
Christians, of Mormonism and- Christianity, and have found
it a ple-asure to converse with her, a pleasure to,her also
which I little expected.   We -have been involuntarily and
naturally attracted'to each other, so that we feel as.if we
had been always acquainted.  She says that I have given
.to:her that spiritual food, of which she stood,in need, and
I"giN 
1(ME oF THiE NEW' w'oRL'            2
she has given me a pleasure, a gratification which is nourishing to my heart.  Octavia le V. will be always united
in- my soul with the remembrance of the most delicious
breezes and odors of the South, with the verdure of magnolia forests, with the fresh roar of the Mexican Gulf,
with the sun and the song of bitrds in the orange groves
of Mobile.
This fair daughter of beautiful Florida- forr she. was
born in Florid-a, and there she spent her youth- is surrounded by a circle of re-latives who seem to- regard her
as the apple of their eye; and if you would see the ideal
of the relationship between a lady and her female slave,
you should see Octavia le V. and her clever, handsome
mulatto attendant, Betsy.  Betsy seems really not to live
for any thing else fan or her Mistress Oetavia;-  to dress
her hair, a la Mary Stuart, every day, and to see her handsome, gay, and admired, that is Betsy's life and happiness.
She has traveled with Octavia in the United Stateis; and
when she gets on this subject, and can tell how captivating, how much admired and worshiped was her lady, then
is Betsy in her element.
"-But ah!" said Betsy, "she is now no longer like her.
self. Formerly she had such beautiful roses-you should
have seen her!  No, she has never been like herself since
her great sorrow!" And Betsy's eyes fill with tears.
Spite of Betsy's devoted affections-spite of Octavia's
seeing in her own and her mother's house none but happy
slaves, she still belongs to those whose excellent hearts
and understandings do not confuse good and evi-l.  Whenever an opportunity occurs, she simply and earnestly expresses her conviction that slavery is a curse, and on this
subject we are perfectly harmonious.
Octavia le V. and I have agreed to go, together to Cuba.
In the morning, therefore, we set off to New Orleans, in
order early the following Say, the 14th, to go on board the
steamer' "Pacific," which proeeds  thither at that timo
2 -2-' t 
2HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The palms of Cuba shall fan Octavia's dejected countenance, and call fresh roses into her cheeks; her beautiful,
kind eyes shall grow brighter as they raise themselves to
that cloudless heaven; and there will I calmly talk to her
of those subjects which can make her happy when I am
no longer near her. Such is my dream and my hope.
And now, before I leave Alabama, and the pretty little
city in which I have enjoyed so much kindness, I will
merely tell you that Alabama is a cotton-growing state,
and has in the south plantations, sandy tracts, and appar.
ently thick forests, and in the north beautiful highlands;
the Alleghany Mountains become  more  depressed, and
cease, and the prairies also; the scenery along its navigable rivers is celebrated, in particular on the River Mobile,
on which Montgomery, the capital of the state, is situated.
I have been greatly tempted to make a journey thither.
But time! time!  Rail-roads, steam-boats, schools, academies have begun, during the later years, to diffuse light
and vigorous life within the slave state, the white lady
citizens of which, it is said, have, here and there, still a
custom of seeking for a higher life's enjoyment by rubbing
their gums with snuff, which produces a sort of intoxication very stimulating to the feelings, and to the conversation likewise.
The fascinating ladies of Mavilla must bear the same
relation to the snuff-taking ones that the magnolia flower
does to the flower of the henbane.
Adieu, beautiful, kind Mobile!
Adieu, my Agatha, my own sister friend. More from
Cuba. *
New Orleans, January 15th.
Ah no! there is no journey to Cuba this time!  The
journey from Mobile began under the most promising
auspices. Octavia was gay and full of hope; she was
now for - the first time, after her sorrow, about to leave
home and see new 6bjects, End she was pleased to be
222 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with me, and I was pleased to be with her. The good
Doctor Le V. had presented his little wife with a hand some sum of money, that she might be able thoroughly to
enjoy herself in Cuba. Octavia's mother, and her two
pretty little girls, had taken an affectionate leave of her,
in the hope of seeing her return happy. Betsy was to
travel with us, for Betsy spoke Spanish almost as well as
Octavia; and Octavia could not dispense with Betsy, nor
could Betsy live without Octavia; and Betsy was full of
cheerful zeal, and managed cleverly and expeditiously all
the business of the journey.
We went on board, and the morning sun arose gloriously over Lake Pontchartrain. We advanced the whole day
calmly and in sunshine. We sat in Octavia's spacious
cabin-,I beg pardon, state-room-amid bouquets of flowers, inhaling the balmy atmosphere through the open window, and reading aloud, or conversing tranquilly with
heartfelt, calm emotion.  The moon shone- gloriously in
the evening. We sat on deck. Some gentlemen made
our acquaintance; introduced themselves, or were introduced by others, and soon formed a circle around Octavia,
whose naturally easy and agreeable style of conversation
always exercises a captivating power. It was late when
we retired to rest. - I perceived in the middle of the night
that our course was suddenly checked.  I rose and looked
out of the window; the moon shone bright over the mirror-like lake, and-we had run aground.  It was about
one in the morning. The next morning at six o'clock we
were to have been at New Orleans, to go on board the
" Pacific" at nine! Such had been our plan. But now
we must remain where we were until one o'clock the next
day, when high water would carry us off. We had run
aground on a sand-bank.
The next day was as beautiful as its predecessor; and
when certain dark presentiments of our not being able to
have any dinner were dissipated by the endeavors of some
C*
223 
HOME OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the gentlemen, who had themselves rowed fo laid  anid
there purchased provisions, and a  most delicate  and
abundant dinner was the result, there was nothing disagreeable in our little misadventure, except that the
journey to Cuba was delayed to an indefinite time, and
that I probably should have to make the journey by myself, as Octavia could not remain so long from home.
It was nbt' until ten o'clock at' night that we reached
land, and no rail-road train was then running which
would convey us to New Orleans. Betsy, who was never without resources, looked after our effects, and took
charge of every thing; and two polite gentlemen, who in
genuine Anglo-American fashion' constituted themselves
ouir cavaliers, conducted us to a country house near the
rail-way, where, though the family was absent, a fire was
soon' lighted for us in a large drawing-room.
It was the most beautiful night.  There  wa  a large
garden around, which was full of half-tropical plants, of
a palm-like growth, such as I had never seen before.  I
spent a part of the night in wandering about among the
beautiful rare plants, all the more rare and beautiful from
the moonlight which threw over them its mystical romantic light.
6ur polite gentlemen, who had ordered a carriage, finally conveyed us safe and sound to New Orleans.  At half
past twelve we were at St. Charles's Hotel.  It was quite
full, and it was with difficulty that we obtained rooms up
four flights of stairs.  When I entered Octavia's room, I
found her bathed in tears, lying with her face downward
on a chair, and Betsy standing in the middle of the room,
in a state of c'onsernati6on, with her eyes riveted on her
mistress.
" It was here, in this very room," whispered Betsy to
me, "that she (casting a glance on Octavia) lived two
years ago, with those two little girls, and here she dressed
them for a children's ball "
'4' 
HOEG t   OFHE NEW WORLD.
I raised gently the head of the weeping Octavia.  She
said mildly,
"Will you change rooms with me?" 
"Most willingly!" replied I.
Betsy and I removed Octavia into my room, nor did I
leave her until I saw her somewhat calmer.
Our rooms were nearly under the roof, and I coild iio
prevent myself measuring, with my  eye, the distance
from my window down to the court below, thinking what
sort of leap I should have to inake in case of fire breaking
out in the hotel during the night-for people must always
keep themselves prepared for such emergencies ii the great
cities of America.  I started with the conviction that such
a leap as that would be —my very last.
The next morning I was glad and thankful to find myself calmly in my bed. I found my poor Octavia still
sadly out of spirits, but I was so tender of her in her sorrow that i succeeded in drawing her away from images
of death and corruption.
I shall this afternoon leave this hotel and remove to a
private family, to which I am invited by young Miss W.,
from Massachusetts, in the name of her cousin.  There
was something so agreeable to me in her whole person
and manner, and even in her mode of inviting me, that I
immediately felt an inclination to accept the invitation,
and gave a half promise. I had done that before I came
to Mobile, and now this forenoon Miss W. called on me,
and said, with her refined and somewhat arch smile, and
her calm, resolute bearing,
"I consider myself, Miss Bremer, to have a right to inquire why you are at this place?"
I could not do other than consent to be taken to Annunciation Street, and to the house of lAir. C., this Very afternoon. Miss W. obviated all my but's and if's; she is a true
descendant of the Pilgrims in her steadfastness of purpose,
to Which is added that charm which makes it irresistible.
K2
tg.g 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I here find myself once more among friends, Mr. Lerner
H., Mr. and Mrs. G., with whom  I shall, in about an
hour's time, drive out upon a road, about six miles long,
made of cockle-shells, which runs along the shore. It is
one of the remarkable things of New Orleans. Mr. G.
resides at Cincinnati, but has business at New Orleans,
and he and his wife will remain at an hotel here during
the winter months, together with their two children, two
magnificent boys, the youngest still quite young, and their
nurse, a stout, capital negro woman, a free negro, but
bound by the silken bonds of attachment, stronger than
the iron fetters of slavery. Many families take up their
abode thus at hotels for several months, and many young
couples live in the same way also during the first months
of their marriage. That, however, is not so much because
they relish hotel life, as because it is very expensive to
establish themselves in their own houses in America, and
a family generally will have a house wholly to themselves.
A young couple will frequently not wait to be married
until they are wealthy enough "to keep house," as it is
termed. That, however, in the mean time, is the object
after which they strive. I have heard many ladies complain of the emptiness and weariness of life in an hotel,
and deplore its influence on young girls, who have in it
only too many temptations to live merely for pleasure,
admiration, and vanity.
Later. I have seen Octavia once more the ornament of
society, although still pale and her eyes red with weeping, dressed in grand costume, in a black satin dress,
which, from its many points and adornments, I call Yucca gloriosa, surrounded by a little court of gentlemen,
"faire la belle conversation," in one of the splendid
drawing-rooms of the hotel. Friends and admirers will
soon make Octavia lively here, and I can now leave her
comfortably, and go to a quieter home and to my amiable North Americans.   Octavia is a - rose, Anne W. is a
226 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
diamond, Mrs. G. a genuine pearl, and you-you are my
Agatha!
Annunciation Street, January 19th.
My dear Heart!         *       *        *
January 20th. I began to write, but was interrupted,
on the second day after my removal to this good, quiet
home, the home of a young couple, gentle and quiet peo.
ple, who seem to live wholly and entirely for each other
and their two little children, the youngest still a baby,
just now beginning to open his little rosy mouth, and
smile and coo. It was the most glorious weather on the
afternoon and evening of the day on which I removed
here; I can not describe the deliciousness of the air, the
serenity of the heavens, the enchanting beauty of the sun,
the clouds, the moon, and the stars on this day, when
merely to live, to see, and to breathe sufficed to give a
fullness to life. Miss W. and I sat out on the piazza with
oleanders and magnolias around us, and enjoyed this affluence of nature.   Tall aloes, the Yucca gloriosa, and
many rare trees and plants, shone out verdantly from the
little flower-beds of the garden which surround the lovely
house. I enjoyed, besides this, her conversation, which
is distinguished by its freshness and originality, its perfectly independent and earnest mode of feeling and judging. I again perceived that imprisoned fire which I had
before seen glimmering in her clear, dark-brown eyes,
diamond-like and still. It warmed me. We talked about
Jane Eyre, and I for the first time heard any one openly
express my own secret wishes with regard to Jane's behavior to Rochester. I love that virtue which is above
conventional morality, and which knows something better
than to be merely-free from blame.
But I ought to tell you the cause of the interruption in
my letter yesterday.  First it was the cold, and then it
was the fire. I will explain. The day which succeeded
that beautiful summer-day of which I have spoken was
227 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wretched weather, so cold that it shook both soul and
body, and made me so irritable and so out of humor, that
I thanked my good fortune not to have slaves, and that I
thus should not be excited to wreak my bad temper on
them.  Never, until I came into America, had I any experience of the power which the feelings of the body can
have over the soul.  God help the slave-owner and the
slave in this variable climate, the penetrative atmosphere
of which causes both body and soul to vibrate according
to its temperature.
Well, I was frozen, but-: I had a fire in my large, handsome room.  Octavia le V. came, and Mrs. G., for I had
begun to sketch their portraits in my album, and they
were to sit to me.
I enjoyed the contemplation and the drawing of these
two amiable ladies, the noble, earnest, regular profile of
Mrs. G., and the round, child-like, piquant countenance
of Octavia le V., with its little turned-up nose, which I
imagine resembles Cleopatra's, and its fantastic arrangement of the hair, the artistic labor of Betsy's hands.  We
were very comfortable; Mrs. G. sat before the fire, Octavia
before me, and we were talking earnestly and cheerfully
about love, when a messenger came to Mrs. G. from her
husband requesting her to send her keys.  St. Charles's
Hotel was on fire.
Mrs. G. could not be easy to remain; she knew that
her husband and her children were at the burning hotel,
and thither she hastened.
Octavia le V. had, before she c'ame to me, given Betsy
leave to go out, and had locked her room door. There was
no one at the hotel who would take charge of her room or
her effects.  Her beautiful wardrobe, her casket containinag several hundred dollars, destined to defray the expenses of her journey to Cuba, all would probably becoime
the prey of the flames.
' Ah! it is quite certain every thing will be destroyed,"
228 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
said Octavia, and sat tranquilly before me, an image of
unexampled equanimity.   The heart which had bled with
the deepest sorrow could not agitate itself by the loss of
earthly possessions; the eye which had wept so long over
a beloved brother and those dear children, had no tears for
worldly adversity.  I saw this evidently, while Octavia
calmly reckoned up every thing which her room contained, and which Would now be c             dnsuimed.  She" said that
early that morning she had seen a volume of black smoke
issue from under her bed.   She gave the alarm, and sent
,a message to the master of the hotel, who replied that
there was no danger; that the Smoke had merely found
its way thither through a defect in one of the chimneyflues, and that all would soon be put to rights.  An hour
afterward smoke was again in the room; buit it seemed
perfectly to have subsided when she left the hotel.
I had seen so much of Betsy's precaution and alertness,
as well as affection for her mistress, that I could n6ot but
hope for and rely upon her help on this occasion.
" She will soon," said I," hear of the fire, and then She
will immediately hasten to the plac'e, and find some meaiis
of saving your property."
She Will not hear of it," said Octavia; " she has gone
'a long Way out of the city.  The hotel is built of wood,
and the fire w'ill consume it in a few hours; besides, I am
certain that the fire has broke out near my room.   Oh,
no! all the things will be destroyed."
The loss seemed as nothing to Octavia.  She was rmunch
mnore uneasy on account of the distress which her husband
and her motr  r would feel if they should hear of the circumnstance before she wrote.
In the mean time, as hour after hour went on, and we
received no tidings either from Betsy or from St. Charles's,
Octavia determined to go to one of her friends, who dwelt
not far from the great hotel, that she might there gain
Some information, or even still go to the place itself.
925 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
When she had been gone about an hour, there was a
hasty ring at the gate which leads from the garden into
the street. I recognized Betsy, and rushed down to speak
to her.
"IHow is it, Betsy?" cried I.
"All safe!" said she, so out of breath that she could
hardly speak, but with a beaming countenance.  "I have
all the money with me!" and she laid her hand upon her
breast.  "Where is my Missis?"
"I believe that she is gone to St. Charles's," said I.
"There is no longer a St. Charles's," said Betsy.  "It
is burned to the ground!"
And so it was. In less than three hours' time that
splendid building was a heap of ashes, and its population
of nearly four hundred persons were houseless.
I went out with Betsy to seek for Mrs. Le V.
On our way, that faithful creature told me how the
rumor of the fire had reached her, how she had hastened
to the hotel, how one of the gentlemen there, a friend of
Mrs. Le V., had broken open the doorvof her room, and
how he and Betsy had saved all Octavia's property. Not
an article was lost. Betsy told me still more as we went
along, of how much she loved her mistress; of how she
might have been married more than once, and how there
was still a free man in the North who would gladly have
her, but she could not think of leaving Mrs. Le V.  "She
was so fond of her, she should never leave her."
But who would not be fond of Octavia?
When we reached the residence of Mrs. Le V.'s friend,
we found that she had been taken thence to a small hotel
in the neighborhood of St. Charles, and thither Betsy hastened to seek for her.
With the thought of Mrs. G. I went to the scene of
conflagration, in the hope of hearing some tidings of her
there, and was fortunate enough, when near the place, to
meet her eldest son, and to hear from him that she, his
230 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
father, and little brother were all well lodged in the house
of a friend at no great distance.  I passed St. Charles's;
merely a small number of people were now busied about
the fire. It had done its work, and the flames were now
consuming the lower portion of the beautiful colonnades,
and ravaging the remains of the basement story.  The
burning ruins produced a very picturesque effect. Not a
trace of tumult or disorder appeared on the open space in
front..Every thing had been already disposed of and
housed elsewhere; every thing was tranquil. It was now
only about four hours from the outbreak of the fire, and
I have heard to-day that a subscription is already on foot
to erect another St. Charles's. American expedition!
A few persons have been injured by the fire, and many
have lost their effects. The fire broke out just by Octa via's room, which was very near mine. How fortunate
that it did not happen in the night!
I do not grieve about St. Charles's.  It was, in my opin ion, a dear, uncomfortable, splendid hotel, and worthy of
such a death! I was obliged to pay four dollars and a
quarter for a residence there of one night and half a day
in a dark room, four stories high. But Louisiana is a very
dear place, the dearest in the United States.
From 20th to 27th January. Quiet days, but disagreeable weather! Since the day when I last wrote, and when
the weather had changed from warm to bitterly cold, it
has rained incessantly, and been cold and cheerless with
a perseverance such as I scarcely ever saw before. Not a
blue speck in the heavens, not a sunbeam-perpetual fog,
sleet, and gray cold. To-day, for the first time, it has
cleared up, and seems as if it would again become pleasant. This weather has caused many excursions, both
within and out of the city, to be deferred.  But how
thankful I am for my quiet and pleasant home during this
time! Mr. and Mrs. C. are kind, gentle, and very quiet
people, and that order and comfort, which is a distinguish
231 
A2oME'S OF T  NE NEW WORLD.
ing feature of American homes, prevails in their house.
Anne W. is full of life and quiet fire, imprisoned within
her, as in the diamond; she is an intellectual and interesting being, who affords me great pleasure, from the originality of her Chatacter, and her reading aloud in the evening.  In this way she has made me acquainted with various English p'bts hithe to arlmost unknown to me.  It
has been a great pleasure to me to hear her read Shelley's
magnificent poem, " Prometheus Unbound," which would
be the most glorious poem of the age if its conclusion had
been equal to its opening scenes.  But this is stranded on
a threadbare morality.  I have also enjoyed the reading
of Browning's poems and dramatic pieces, as well as some
by Elizabeth Barrett, the wife of Browning.   Browning
does not appear to me great as an artist.  There is a deficiency of strength and coherence in his compositions.
But a something singularly grand and pure in feeling and
tiendency gladdens and warms the heart.  A spirit of noble, self-sufficing heroism permeates his poems.  One feels
one's self refreshed as by the waftings of a something divinely great.
I spent one eve ning with Mr. and Mrs. D., friends of
Mr. Lerner H., and heard good music, well played by
amateur musicians, gentlemen and ladies of the Northern
States.  Another evening I attended the opera, where I
heard Mebyerbeer's "'Prophete."   The piece is unpoetical
and meagre in its conception, but it affords grand spectacle, and the music of Meyerbeer has, in all cases, some
dramatic, characteristically beautiful parts. Mrs. D., who
performed the part of the mother of the prophet, played
and sang nobly and well.  The prophet was a wearisome
person, so was his beloved. If the piece, instead of being
founded on a poor love intrigue, had been sustained by religious fanaticism and spiritual pride, such as we meet
with in the historical prophet, John of Leyden, the opera
would have had a true interest.  As it is, there is no food
232 
Sii-t Of'igi- lEW WORLD.233
for thought, and it excited my nerves to that degree with
its continual startling effects, that it was with difficulty I
could keep my eyes open.  The last scene was monstrous
ly magnificent, and woke me up a little.  The sight of
the white-garmented, lovely yoiiug Creoles in the pit and
boxes charmed my eyes as before.  But I discovered some
pearl-powdered noses on the faces of some of th~ elderly
ladies.
I have also visited asylums and schobls in consequence
of invitations.  New Orleans is divided into thiee' itiinicipalities; the schools are said to have greatly improved
within the last few years.  Teacherst, both male andfemale,
come hither from the Northern States, and wherever they
come, they bring with them that  energetic educational
life which distinguishes those states.  A  female teachbr
in one of the schools of New Orleans can obtain a salary
of one thousand dollars annually; but the living, on the
other hand, costs three times as much  ast in the- 6ther
states of the UJnion.
I heard the boys in the great boys' school singing boldly
the praise 6of their native land, as
The land of the brave and the land- of the free!
This is sung in the slave states without any one perceiving the satir'e of the domest'ic- iinstitution which such
praise implies.
Thus, from childhood upward, is the natural sense of
right, and the pure glance' of youth, falsified- by the istitution of slavery.
And it does not operate injuriously merely upo  the
upright mind of the chilld, so thiat it does not perceive the
lie, but also upon its heart and its character.   A  noble
lady of New Orleans, who has resided here some  years,
told me a great deal of the unhappy effects of slavery upon
the education of the child, and its influence in making the
young disposition stubborn and intractable.   The child,
surrounded by slaves from the cradle, accustoms himrself
9'3 —3 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
to command them, to have all his caprices gratified, or to
see the refusal punished, often with cruelty.  Hence results that violence of temper, and those ferocious and
bloody scenes which are of such frequent occurrence in
the slave states. And how can it be otherwise? Even
I have seen a few examples of the behavior of children
to slaves, which has shown how much this institution tends
to develop the naturally despotic disposition of the child.
I visited a school for young girls, where I could not but
admire their capacity for making intellectual salto mortales.
During the examination which the superintendent
caused them to pass through, and which they passed
through with remarkable ability, the questions were proposed something in this style:
"What is snow?  How large is the standing army of
the Emperor of Russia?  Where is Lapland?  Who was
Napoleon? What is saltpetre? How far is the earth
from the sun?  When  did Shakspeare live?  In what
year did Washington die? What is the amount of the
population of France?  What is the moon?" and so on.
The girls answered in chorus, very quickly, and for the
most part quite correctly. The whole examination was
a succession of surprises to me, and I can not do other
than admire the kind of order which must be obtained in
those young souls, from their contact with snow, the
standing army of Russia, Lapland, Napoleon, saltpetre,
Washington, the population of France, and the moon!
I must now tell you about a real African tornado which
Anne W. and I witnessed last Sunday afternoon. It was
in the African Church, for even here, in this gay, light
hearted city of New Orleans, has Christianity commenced
its work of renovated life; and they have Sunday-schools
for negro children, where they receive instruction about
the Savior; and the negro slaves are able to serve God
in their own church.
234 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We came too late to hear the sermon in this African
Church, whither we had betaken ourselves.  But at the
close of the service, a so-called class-meeting was held.
I do not know whether I have already said that the Methodists form, within their community, certain divisions or
classes, which elect their own leaders or exhorters. These
exhorters go round at the class-meeting to such of the
members of their class as they deem to stand in need of
consolation or encouragement, talk to them, aloud or in an
under voice, receive their confessions, impart advice to
them, and so on.  I had seen.such a class-meeting at
Washington, and knew, therefore, what was the kind of
scene which we might expect. But my expectations
were quite exceeded here. Here we were nearer the
tropical sun than at Washington.
The exhorters went round, and began to converse here
and there with the people who sat on the benches. Scarcely, however, had they talked for a minute before the person addressed came into a state of exaltation, and began
to speak and to perorate more loudly and more vehemently than the exhorter himself, and so to overpower him.
There was one exhorter in particular, whose black, goodnatured countenance was illumined by so great a degree
of the inward light, by so much good-humor and joy, that
it was a pleasure to see him, and to hear him too; for,
although his phrases were pretty much the same, and
the same over again, yet they were words full of Christian
pith and marrow, and they were uttered with so much
cordiality, that they could not do other than go straight
to the heart with enlivening power. Sometimes his ideas
seemed to come to an end, and he stood, as it were, seeking for a moment; but then he would begin again with
what he had just now said, and his words always brought
with them the same warmth and faithfulness, and he
looked like a life-infusing sunbeam. And it was only as
the messenger of the joy in Christ that he preached:
235 
Ace 0 TH AnW WORLDTH
"Hold fast by Christ! He is the Lord!  He  is the
mighty One!  He will help!  He will do every thing
well!  Trust in him, my sister, my brother.  Call upo-n
him.  Yes.   Yes.,Hold, fast by  Christ! He is the
Lord!" &c., &c.
By: degrees the noise increasesd inn the church, and be came a stormof voices alid cries   The words were heard,
"Yes, come Lord Jesus!   Come, oh Come, oh glory!"
and they who thus cried aloud  began to lea:leaped
aloft with a motiont as of a' cork flying u6t 6f a bottle,
While- they waved their arms and their handkerchiefs in
the air, as if they were endeavoring to bring something
down, and all the while crying aloud, "Comne, oh come!
And as they leaped, they twisted their bodies round in a
sort of cork-screw fashion, and were evidently in a state
of convulsion; sometimes they fell down and rolled in the
aisle, amid loud, lamenting cries and groans   I s    our
tropical exhorter, the man with the sun-bright countenance, talking to a young negro with a crooked nose and
eyes that squinted, and he too very soon began to talk
and to preach, as he sprung high into the air, leaping up
and down- with incredible elasticity.  Whichever way we
looked in the church, we saw somebody leaping up a"nd
fanning the air; the whole church seemed transformedf
into a regular Bedlam, and the noise and the tumult was
horrible.  Still, however, the exhorters made their rounds
with beaming countenances, as if they were in their right
element, and as if every thing were going on as it ought
to do.  Presently we saw our hearty exhorter address a few
words to a tall, handsome mulatto woman, who sat before
us, and while he was preaching to her she began to preach
to him; both talked for some time with evident enchantment, till she also got into motion, and sprang aloft with
such vehemence, that three other women took hold of her
by the skirts, as if to hold her still on the earth.   Two of
these lau'ghed quietly, while they continued to hold her
28fy 
-HXRS OF THE NEW WORLD.
down, and she to leap up and throw her arms around.  At
length she fell and rolled about amid con-vulsive groans.
After that. she rose up and began to walk about, up and
down the church, with outspread arms, ejaculating every
now and then, "Halleluiah!'  Her appearance-was now
calm, earnest, a-nd really beautiful.  Amid all the wild
tumult of crying and leaping, on the right hand and the
left, she continued to-walk up and down the church, in
all directions, with outspread arms, eyes cast upward,
exclaiming, in a low voice, "Halleluiah! Halleluiah!"
At length she sank adown upon her kneeson the platform
by -the altar, and there she became still.
After the crying and the leaping had continued for a
good quarter of an hour longer, several negroes raised the
mulatto -woman,-.who was lying prostrate by the altar.
She was now quite rigid.  They bore her to a bench in
front of us, and laid her down upon it.
" What has happened to-her?" inquired Anne W. from
a young negro girl whom she knew.
"Converted!" said she laconically, and joined those
who were softly rubbing the pulses of the converted.
I laid my hand upon her brow.   It was quite cold, so
also were her hands.
When, by degrees, she had recovered consciousness,,her
glance was still fixed, but it seemed to me that it.
directed rather inwardly than outwardly; she talked to
herself in- a low voice, and such a beautiful, blissful expression was portrayed in her countenance, that:I would
willingly experience that which she then experienced, saw,
,or perceived.  It was no ordinary, no earthly scene.  Her
[countenance was as it were -transfigured.   As soo,,n 4s,
after deep sighs, she had returned to her usual state, her
appearance became usual also.   But her demeanor was
changed; she wept much, but calmly and silently.
The tornado gradually subsided in the church; shrieking and leaping, admonishing and preaching, all became
112-3-7 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
hushed; and now people shook hands with each other,
talked, laughed, congratulated one another so heartily, so
cheerfully, with such cordial warmth and good-will, that
it was a pleasure to behold. Of the whole raging, exciting scene there remained merely a feeling of satisfaction
and pleasure, as if they had been together at some joyful
feast.
I confess, however, to having been thoroughly amused
by the frolic. Not so Anne W., who regarded that disorderly, wild worship with a feeling of astonishment, almost of indignation; and when our warm-hearted exhorter
came up to us, and, turning especially to her, apologized
for not having observed us before, that it was with no intention to neglect us, and so on, I saw her lovely coralred upper lip curl with a bitter scorn as she replied, "I
can not see in what respect you have neglected us."  The
man looked as if he would have been glad, with all his
heart, to have preached to us, and, for my own part, I
would gladly have listened to his Christian exhortation,
given with its -African ardor.  We shook hands, however,
in the name of our common Lord and Master.
And spite of all the irrationality and the want of good
taste which may be felt in such scenes, I am certain that
there is in them, although as yet in a chaotic state, the
element of true African worship. Give only intelligence,
order, system to this outbreak of the warm emotions,
longings, and presentiments of life, and then that which
now appears hideous will become beautiful,' that which
is discordant will become harmonious.   The  children: of
Africa may yet give us a form of divine worship in which
invocation, supplication, and songs of praise may respond
to the inner life of the fervent soul!
How many there are, even in our cold North, who in
their youthful years have felt an Africa of religious life,
and who might have produced glorious flowers and fruits
if it only could have existed-if it had not been smothered
I
238 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
by the snow and the gray coldness 6f conventionalityhad not been imprisoned in the stone church of custom.
I have visited some other churches in New Orleans, a
Unitarian, an Episcopalian, and a Catholic Church, the
last with the name dear to me, that of St. Theresa. But
the heavenly spirit of St. Theresa was not there. An Irishman jabbered an unintelligible jargon, and in not one of
these houses of God could I observe or obtain that which
I sought for-edifijcation. There was, at all events, life
and ardor in the church of the negro assembly.
What more have I to tell you about New Orleans?
That-it is a large city of one hundred thousand inhabitants, and the commercial capital of the southern portion
of the Mississippi Valley, you can learn from books. The
crescent-formed site of the city on the Mississippi is beautiful, and it has some handsome streets and markets, and
splendid houses surrounded with trees and shrubs, like
other American cities. The French and older portions of
the city have a more bald and business-like character;
but New Orleans is beyond every thing else a business
and trading city, and it is far behind the other large cities
of the United States as regards institutions for a higher
intellectual and moral culture. It does not possess any
means of artistic enjoyment, excepting at the theatres,
and these, especially as regards dramatic scenes, do not
take a very elevated stand.
At the present moment, people here are occupied with
the prosecution of several of the gentlemen who accompanied Lopez as leaders on his robber expedition to Cuba.
Lopez has been released on his finding surety to a considerable amount-15,000 dollars, I believe-but a certain
Colonel Henderson, and others, have yet to be tried, and
are to plead their own cause, as they are said to be pos.sessed of great ability in-making speeches.  The New
Orleans gentlemen laugh, and call the whole thing "a
farce," which will not result in any thing but-long
239 
'HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
speeches!. There is no earnestness in the prosecution, and
this gives rise to somewhat more  than a suspicion that
certain slave states have an interest in the expedition.
I have Trmbled about the city during the few fine days
which *have occurred while I have been here, but have
found few objects of interest for the eye, excepting those
lovely,'colored Creole women, who,  with their delicate
features, fine eyes, and pretty heads, adorned with showy
-handkerchiefs, tastefully arranged, according to the custom of New Orleans, produce a very piquante apperance;
.and I have seen in the streets young servant-girls, quadroons, whose beauty was perfect.  Their figures also are
generally slender, and remarkably well-propoQrtioned.
New Orleans has long been known as a "very gay city,"
but has not so good a reputation for its morality, into
which French levity is strongly infused.  This, however,
it is said, decreases in proportion as the Anglo-American
people obtain sway in the city. And their influence grows
.even here rapidly.  The French population, on the con,trary, does not increase, and their influence is on the decline.  Nor have I heard the most favorable testimony
given to the commercial morality of New Orleans.  On
one occasion I heard a merchant, a friend of mine, say, as
he stood among the sugar-hogsheads on one of the great
wharves of the city, "There has been more rascality practiced on this very place than would be sufficient to sink
the whole city!"
Nevertheless, there is a good public spirit at twrk to
make the city worthy to maintain its place on the earth.
One excellent institution now in progress of erection here
is a large sailQrs' home, in which it is intended to board
,and lodge in an excellent manner, and at a reasonable rate,
sailors whose vessels are lying in the harbor either to land
or to take in cargo. Hitherto, mariners arriving at the city
have had no other abode than in ale-houses, which were
regular nests of thieves. The large and magnificent house
24O 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
which is now being erected by good men of the eity, will
henceforth provide a comfortable and safe haven for the
mariner.  Two of my gentlemen friends, who are working
for this cause, hope to interest Jenny Lind in it, who is
shortly expected hither from Cuba; and as the house is
intended for the benefit of the Swedish as well as any oth   er seamen it is probable that this patriotic and generous
Swede will interest herself in its behalf.
I read to-day —in a New Orleans paper, " The DailyPic  ayune" (picayune is the name of a little Spanish silver
coin which is current: here, value sixpence) a beautiful
and earnest address to the inhabitants of New Orleans,
beseeching them to leave the celebrated Swedish singer at
full liberty in the exercise of- her well-known beneficence,
and not to fail in proper respect to a stranger by their ob  trusiveness or exhortations, etc.
And it must be confessed, that although Jenny Lind has
often had just cause to complain of the Americans' well meant, but frequently thoughtless and childish obtrusive ness, yet I have often had opportunities of knowing and
admiring the beautiful and magnanimous manner in which
people here have felt for her.  How many there are who
have satisfied themselves by a silent benediction rather than
cause her a moment's annoyance; how many who would
not allow themselves to approach her, because they knew
that they could notgive her pleasure by so doing, nor would
venture to invite her to their homes for the same reason.
I remember hearing an estimable old gentleman, a judge
at Cincinnati-a magnificent old man he was!-say that
he accompanied her, in the newspapers, every step of her
journey, with that interest and solicitude which a- father
might have for his daughter; and that he felt real distress
that she should, in any degree, compromise her beautiful
reputation by any unadvised step.  And I have heard so
'much said about Jenny Lind in America, that I know that
while people love in her the singer and the giver Qf money,
Vol. II.-L
241 
24AMF_ OF THE NEW WORmL.
they love still- moe the ymng womba, in her beautiful
role and.reputation-the ideal Jenny Lind.
But I must now speak of Louisiana and New'Orleans.
Louisiana, as you know, was first discovered by the Spaniards and French.  The French were the first who attempted to colonize Louisiana. They began And left off,
and then began afresh.   It would not -succeed.  But a
great deal was said in France and England about Louisiana as a promised land, an E1 Dorado, with immeasurable internal wealth ready to be broight- to light, and
faith in this gave rise to the gigantic financial speculation
of John Law, based upon the fabulous, delusive wealth
of Lonuisiana, and afterward to the great bankruptcey of all
who had taken part in that wild speculation.  Louisiana,
or that vast country embracing the southern part of the
Mississippi, and which at that time included Arkansas,
passed afterward from the dominion of the French to that
of the Spaniards, then back to that of the French, until,
in the year 1803, Louisiana was purchased by the government of the United States, and nunited to them as an iudependent state.  In the mean time, Lounisiana had been
cultivated and peopled by the French, Spaniards, English,
Germans, and other nations, and New Orleans had slowly
grown up  amid inundations and hurricanes, and with
small prospect of ever becoming that "drescent eity"
which it now is.
The population of Louisiana did not exceed fifty thousand souls, not reckoning the Indians, when it was incorporated with the United States.  Seven years later the
amount of its population was three-fold.  The new epoch,
and new life, however, of both Louisiana and New Orleans, first commenced when, in the year 1812, the first
steam-boat came thither upon the Great PRiver.  This was
soon followed by hundreds of other steam-boats, and New
Orleans rTapidly increased to a city of the first rank among
the'cities of the South.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The whole of Louisiana is flat, in part swampy and
under water, and in part rich and fertile country; sugar,
cotton, maize, rice, indigo, are the products of Louisiana.
In the northern portion, where the sand elevates itself into
little hills, are forests, which abound in many kinds of
trees —oak, chestnut, walnut, sassafras, magnolia, and
poplar.  In the south the palmetto, mrulberxry, live-oak,
cedar, and pine, and every where an abundant growth of
the wild vine.  There are  aso many navigable rivers,
tributaries of the Mississipi, which, as well as bogs and
;small lakes, abound in alligators. These alligators, though
they do not venture to attack full-grown men, not unfrequently carry off little;egro children. Louisiana is said
to produce many poisonous plants, serpents, and other
noxious creatures  It Aes to me an undesirable place
in every way. I would not live in it for all its sugar and
cotton.
I must now tell so,ething of thie internal history of
New  Orleans, or, rather, a story which has struck me.
That noble.minded Mr. Poinsett, the old ex-min.ter oi
South Carolin', $oWd me that slavery seemed to operate
still more prejudicially on womeji than on men, and that
women not unfrequenitly were found to be the cruelest
slave-owners.  And, whether it was a mere accident or a
confirmation of the truth of this assertion, the most terrible instances wkhich I heard mentioned in South Carolina of the maltre.twe  of slves were of women, and of
women belonging to the higher grades of society.  I believe I already have told you of the two ladies i Charleston who were publicly aeused for the murder of their
slaves, the one by hunger, the other by flogging,  and who,
although they were acquitted by cowardly laws and lawyers, yet fell under'the ban of public opprobrium, and
were left to a dishonorable solitude and to-the judgment
af God.
IMy friend of te Misaissipp, the pure conscien  of
,243 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Louisiana, had asserted the same fact as Mr. Poinsett,
and, as if it were in substantiation thereof, New Orleans
has not in its chronicle of crime a more bloody or a more
detested name than that of-a woman, Mrs. Lallorue, born
Macarthy. It is to the honor of New Orleans that this
wealthy lady has been obliged to fly from the fury of its
hatred. But how long before that time had she tormented her victims?
It appears that the behavior of her brother to his mistresses of the colored race excited her hatred toward them.
Other slave-owners maltreat their slaves in the irritation
of the moment or the excess of temper, but Madame Lallorue maltreated hers because she enjoyed and relished
their sufferings. She was the possessor of a large plantation, and indulged upon it her arbitrary sway in such a
manner as roused  her neighbors in arms against her.
They announced to her that they would no longer hear of
such transactions;, and that in case they did, she should
become amenable to law.
On this, Madame Lallorue fled to New Orleans, where,
less under observation, she could devote herself to her own
private pleasure.  She here derived an income by hiring
out her slaves, who every week were compelled to bripg
home their earnings to her. If, however, they did not return to the time, or if their earnings were less than she
thought proper-woe to them!  Her own house-slaves had
no better fate; on the slightest occasion-which never
fails for those who desire it-she confined them in the
cellar, fettered with iron chains, where she visited them
only to practice her cruelty on them. I will not tell you
the means which she used to indulge her lust of cruelty
-the chronicles of heathenism and fanaticism know nothing worse.  Enough-the doleful cries of her victims
found their way above ground, through stone walls and
bolted door, and made themselves heard. It was noised
abroad in the city. The heart of the people swelled with
244
I
I 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
indignation.  They gathered in crowds round the house
in which she lived; they vowed to release the victims, to
pull down the house, and take vengeance on this monster
in the shape of woman.   The business was in rapid prog
ress; the walls of the house were beginning to fall, when
-the mayor appeared with an armed force. Madame
Lallorue's house was preserved, and an opportunity was
afforded her to escape through a back gate. She fled,
half dressed, out of New Orleans; and, somewhat later,
left America.
She afterward lived in Paris, and received there the in come of an immense property acquired in Louisiana, by
what means we know. She died, it is said, only a short
time since. Who can doubt a hell after death when they
see the life and pleasure of such persons on earth! Madame Lallorue's husband, a Frenchman, still resides in
New Orleans, and is said to be a man of good character.
He must at that time have lived separate from his wife.
This circumstance occurred ten or twelve years since.
If it really be true that women are the worst of slaveowners, it must proceed from their temperament being in
general more excitable, and from the climate having an
unusually irritating effect upon the nervous system by its
stimulating character; besides which, women generally
exceed men in their extremes either of good or evil; they
are by nature more eccentric, more spiritual, nearer the
spirits, whether they be angels or devils.
In Sweden also-in the highest circles of Stockholmwe have known ladies whose domestics bore bloody marks,
and whom the police were obliged to take in charge.
Countess L. was amiable, kind, agreeable to every body
except her domestics, and she was not able to keep a servant in her house beyond six weeks We have had the
ladies of two foreign ministers-both English-both of
whom, from their treatment of their servants, deserved
the Christmas gift which one of them receiyed from an
245 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
acquaintance of the family-a bloody medal of bravery!
A good thing is it that the servants of these ladies could
leave them, thanks to the laws of a free country!  But
here, in this free country, people can, in the face of such
facts, still defend slavery as a patriarchal institution, quite
compatible with the laws of a free people, and with human rights and happines.
I have had here several contests with a lady who defends these opinions, and who, in order to prove the justice and equity of slavery, and the happiness of the negro
slaves under this excellent institution, avails herself of argunlents and sophisms, backward and forward, with such
an amazing contempt of logic and all sound reason, that
I have sometimes become dumb from sheer astonishment.
I avoid, in a general way, as much as possible, conversation on this subject. The question of slavery is a sore
eye which winches at the slightest touch. It is painful
to the good, and it irritates those who are not good, while
it serves no purpose one way or the other. I am therefore silent when I can be so.with an easy conscience; but
for all that, it is evident that the question can not rest;
that the work of light has commenced for the release of
the children of Africa, and that their condition, even here,
is improving with every passing year.
I would gladly tell you of some good female slave-owner who might be placed as a counterbalance to Mrs. Lallorue, but -I do not know any; such, however, must
exist. The very bad make a great noise, and the good
but very little. But I must tell you of a gentleman, a
slave-owner, who seems to me to stand in the slave states
as an opened door to the house of bondage.
Two years ago there died in New Orleans a gentleman
named Macdonald, who left behind him a property'of
many millions of dollars, the whole of which he bequeathed for purposes of public benevolence in Louisiana. This
singular man, who lived in the most miserly manner, ex
246 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pended next to nothing upon himself, and never gave
away any thing, not even to his near relatives, who were
almost perishing of want; his one thought was how to
save, to accumulate, and by the increase of each day to
double his capital, and to this end all his activity anl in dustry were applied, even in the smallest thing. He was
parsimonious even of his words, and parted with nothing
unnecessarily.
Nevertheless, he had great thoughts and plans.   He
considered himself as destined by Providence to acquire
an immense property, by means of which to achieve great
things for the good of the state of which he was a native.
He regarded himself, therefore, as the steward of his
wealth, and maintained that he had no right to give even
the smallest portion thereof for the most trifling object.
These, at least, were the pretexts with which he gilded
his parsimony and his hardness of heart.
He said, "If I, year after year, double my  capital in
this (a certain given) proportion, I shall in the end become
the richest man in Louisiana; I might, continuing in this
way, ultimately purchase the whole of Louisiana, and then
— " Then he would do great things, which would make
Louisiana the finest and the happiest state in the Union.
And Macdonald had views for this purpose, and plans
which prove him to have been possessed of a deeply thinking mind. But the poor man forgot that he was mortal,
and, although he attained to an extreme old age, yet he
had not nearly acquired the wealth after which he strove
when he was surprised by- death. His magnificent
plans will die with him, and effect little or nothing for
Louisiana, except possibly in one respect, and that is the
one of which I spoke, as-the opening of the prison-door.
Macdonald was a planter and the owner of slaves. - He
determined to emancipate his slaves, and that in a mode
by which they should gain, and he lose nothings
He said to them,
247 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"You shall work yourselves free, and purchase your
own release from slavery for the same sum which I paid
for you. I will give you the means of doing this. You
shall work for me five days in each week, as heretofore,
for food, clothing, and habitation; you shall work for me
also on the sixth day, but I will pay you wages for that,
and give you credit for the money thus earned, which I
will employ for you. Thus the first year. During the
second year you shall be paid for two days' labor in the
week, provided that you work industriously and well; the
following year three, and so on, till the sum is acquired
which is requisite for my reimbursement, and for you to
have a little over, so that you may possess enough to begin life with in Liberia, whither I shall send you when
you are free."
The slaves knew that Macdonald would keep his word.
They began to labor with new heart, because they now
labored for their own freedom and their future well-being.
Some accomplished it more rapidly, others more slowly,
but within two years all the slaves on the plantation had
worked themselves free. Macdonald fulfilled his part to
them as he had promised, and they could now become free
without detriment either to themselves or others. They
had become accustomed to work, to forethought, and selfgovernment, at least so far as regarded their own affairs.
In the mean time, Macdonald's plantation had been unusually well cultivated, and the slaves had repaid their
original purchase-money.
I do not know whether it was Macdonald's intention to
have his plantation afterward cultivated by white laborers or by free blacks; but one thing appears to me certain, and that is, that Macdonald's mode of effecting the
emancipation of slaves is deserving of consideration and
imitation, as one of the wisest which can be devised for
the gradual and general release of both the blacks and the
whites ofMorth America from the fetters of slavery.
248 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I know many estimable and thinking men of New Or leans who consider that such a mode of emancipation, as
would, by degrees, convert the negro slaves into free la borers, might be put into operation without much diffi culty, and that all those dangerous results which people
imagine are, in great measure, only fears and fancies.
I have been told that the severest slave-owners in this
neighborhood are French, and I can credit it from the
French popular temperament; the Scotch and the Dutch
take the second place. Slaves of small and poor proprie tors often suffer very much from hunger, as do also cattle.
I heard to-day of one place where a considerable number
of cattle had literally perished for want of food.
I have made inquiries after the Christmas dances and
festivities of the negro slaves, of which I heard so much,
but the sugar-harvest was late last year, and the sugargrinding was not over till after New-year's day; the cotton
is still being plucked on the plantations, and the dances axe
deferred. I have now traveled in search of these negro festivities from one end of the slave states to the other, without having been lucky enough to meet with, to see, nay,
nor even to hear of one such occasion. I believe, nevertheless, that they do occur here and there on the plantations.
For the rest, I have experienced so much kindness, have
met with so many good and warm-hearted friends, that I
have been both astonished and affected.   I had always
heard New Orleans mentioned as a very lively but not
very literary city, and Mr. Lerner H. had prepared me to
find that the people of New Orleans liked to see that which
was beautiful. It was clear, therefore, that for that very
reason they would not like to look at me; and yet they
have come and come again to me, have overwhelmed me
with kindness and presents, as well men as women, and
made my days pleasant in many ways. For my own
part, I have no other memories of New Orleans but those
of pleasure and gratitude.
L2
249 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Octavia le Y. returned home a few days ago.  Those
eyes, which remained dry and bright when she was in
danger of losing all her ornaments and her money, overflowed with tears when she had to part from her newlyfound friend. I kissed away the tears from those pale
cheeks. I feel that I am heartily attached to her.
Mrs. G. has been an incomparable friend to me at this
time when I had to prepare my wardrobe for Cuba-somewhat elegant, and of a light summer texture at the same
time-and when I had divers little misfortunes, partly
caused by the dress-maker, but principally through my
own blunders.  You know how annoying all such business is to me; but you can scarcely imagine how I have
felt it here, where weariness both of body and mind, as
well as ignorance of prices and persons in the dress-making and miltinery world, rendered all my difficulties tenfold. Neither can you at all imagine how kind and amiable Mrs. G. has been during all these great little troubles
-her patience, her good temper; nor, lastly, how well she
has helped me with every thing.  Yes-I am ashamed
when I compare myself with her; but then she is one of
the most amiable people I ever met with.
In the evening. I have now had my last drive with
Anne W. along the beautiful cockle-shell road to Lake
Pontchartrain.   The air was delicious, and the sky once
more gazed upon us with -blue eyes from between the
clouds, which parted more and more.   The road, for the
most part, runs through flat and still unreclaimed forestland. One does not here see our beautiful moss and lichen-covered mountains and hills, but thickets of the primeval forest, from which, on all sides, look forth those beautiful palmetto-trees, with their large, fan-like leaves waving in the air, and the regular and gracefill form of many
half-tropical plants, which, indicating a new phase of
earth's vegetable productions, have a wonderful fascination for me.
260 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
In the morning, in the morning, my Agatha,- I shall
go on board the great steamer, "The Philadelphia," and
in three days I shall be at Cuba. I shall be very glad to
get there, both because I shall see some new beauties of
nature, and because I shall breathe a milder air, and shall
escape during the winter months this variable Amnerican
climate, which is so trying to my strength both of body
and mind. I have become physically ten years older dur ing this twelve months' journey in North America.
But be not afraid for me, nay dear heart, but trust, as
I do, that my traveling fairy, your little friend, which
has hitherto conducted me safely through all perils which conducted me without any misadventure down the
whole extent of the Mississippi to New Orleans, at the
very time when four steamers, with their passengers, were
blown into the air upon its waters, and caused ne to remove from St. Charles's Hotel to this good home the day
before the hotel became the prey of flames-the same will
conduct me safe and sound once more to my own sisterfriend, to You.
P.S.-I have been gladdened here by letters from my
friends in the North, the Downings, the Springs, and the
Lowells. These friends accompany me like good spirits,
and I must tell you so, because you must love my friends.
Maria Lowell writes:, the little traveling companion who
went with us every where, and to Niagara, and yet which
never spoke, and remained so quiet, was-a little boy,
who now, large, and stout, and rosy, is little Mabel's oracle.  She listens to every sound he utters, and says to it
all, "What does little brother mean?"   Beloved, happy
Maria!
Jenny Lind is now in Havana, and people speak differently of the success of her concerts. I believe, nevertheless, that she will gain the victory over her adversaries,
who in reality belong to the French party in the country,
and who contest her rank as a great singer. She will be
251 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
received here in New Orleans with enthusiasm; every
heart is warm, every ear open to her. She will leave Havana just when I am arriving, and it is doubtful whether
I shall see her.
I am well, my beloved child, and in good spirits. God
grant that you are so too! And you must be so, with the
help of homeopathy. May 2sculapius enlighten you and
those concerned.
I shall soon write again from Cuba!
LETTER XXXII.
Havana, Cuba, Feb. 5.
SWEET CHILD! I am sitting beneath the warm, bright
heavens, and the beautiful palms of the tropics, and it is
lovely and wonderful! The glorious, delicious air, the
beautiful palm-trees are paradisaical; the rest, I suspect,
affords pleasure rather through its novelty, its dissimilarity with any thing that I have already seen, than by its
own great intrinsic beauty. But the unusual and the
novel are amusing and full of refreshment; so I feel it in
this case, and I am delighted to be here.
I left New Orleans early in the morning of the 28th of
January. It was a beautiful, sunshiny morning, and as
warm as summer. My friends accompanied me on board
' The Philadelphia."   Lerner H. came to take leave of
me, and gave me a red camellia still in bud. His frank,
cordial countenance, and that of Anne W., with its pure
features, and the quiet fire in the dark eyes, were the last
which I saw in the saloon below deck.
When I went on deck, the Crescent city stood bathed
in morning sunlight, and the water of the harbor lay like
a clear mirror in its light. I stood and enjoyed the delightful air and the expansive scene, but when the ladies
came with their "How do you like America?" &c., my
252 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
morning joy was disturbed; but I placed them among
the goats.
We proceeded on our way, and I seated myself with a
book in my hand on the piazza aft, and contemplated the
shores and lived-high life.  For there I could be alone,
and the scenery of the shores was like a beautiful Southern fairy scene. We advanced down the Mississippi upon
that arm which falls into Atchafalaya Bay, and thence into
the Mexican Gulf. One plantation after another shone
out upon the shore with its white houses inclosed in thickets of orange and cedar trees, flowering oleanders, aloes,
and palmettoes. By degrees they were more scattered;
the land descended more and more till it became one vast
swamp, overgrown with grass and reeds, and without trees,
shrubs, or human dwellings, yet still maintaining itself at
a smooth level above the water, till finally it sunk below,
but still forming within it that singular, uniform figure
which is called the delta of the Mississippi, from its resemblance to the Greek letter of that name. Stems of
grass still waved above the water, swayed to and fro by
the waves and the wind. Then they too disappeared; the
waves alone prevailed.  And now  the land, the vast continent of North America, lay behind me, and before me
the great Gulf of Mexico, with its unfathomable depth,
the Southern Sea, with its islands.
The dark blue, almost black blue color of the water
struck me greatly. I was told that it is occasioned by
the extreme depth. The heavens, with their soft white
summer clouds, arched themselves light blue over the
dark blue sea, which heaved and roared joyfully before
the fresh, warm summer wind. Oh, how beautiful it was!
I inhaled the breeze, and life, and rested from thought,
and talk, and every thing which was not a portion of the
beautiful life of the moment. The sea! the sea has in itself an inexpressibly rest-giving, healing, and regenerating power. If thou wilt commence within thyself and
253 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
without a new life-cross the sea.  Let the air and the
life of the sea bathe thy soul for days and weeks. Every
thing becomes new and fresh upon the sea.
Thus did I live the first day on the sea; thus did I
live the second also.  Now, however, I enjoyed a book at
-the same time, Browning's tragedy, "The Return of the
Druses," the lofty thought and the life-warm spirit of
which was in harmony with the spectacle around me; I
inhaled from both the boundless, the great, and the profound; and if, during all this, there came one and another
gentleman with the inquiry, "How do you like America?"
or with a request for an autograph, it was only like a fly
buzzing past ear and thought.
There was, however, one gentleman on board who was
more agreeable and attentive to me than the others were
disturbing. The same polite gentleman who had constituted himself my cavalier at the time of our disaster on
Lake Pontchartrain, who conducted me to the beautiful
garden at night, and afterward to New Orleans, was now
on board on his way to Cuba, seeking for a milder climate than that of the United States during winter. This
gentleman, Mr. V.,.is middle aged, with a noble and good
countenance, refined and gentle'manners, and during long
journeys into the East and West he has become acquainted with many subjects of interest. Now, again, is he my
cavalier; as a matter of course, gives me his arm to and
from meals, sits at table beside me, and makes his attentions to me agreeable by his interesting and agreeable demeanor and conversation.
This vessel was not like the other splendid and convenient steamers to which I had become accustomed in
America.  All below deck was crowded and dark-abins, passages, eating-rooms.  In order to be alone, I had
chosen my cabin quite aft, where the motion of the vessel
was most perceptible; here, however, I could have a little
solitary three-cornered cell, with a round window opening
254 
HOMES Or THE NEW WO1tLD.
out on the sea. Of sea-sickness I was not afraid, and here
I could be alone.
Among the passengers of interest on board was an elderly man, one of the richest planters of Louisiana, and
his only child, a young girl. Her mother' had died of
consumption, and the father, ever since the childhood of
his daughter, had endeavored so to bring her up that she
might be preserved from the dangerous inheritance. She
had lived in great freedom in the country, spent much of
her time in the open air, and did not wear stays.  Thus
she grew up a handsome, blooming girl, and, as such,
made her appearance in society. After merely one season
of tight lacing and dancing in the social circles of New
Orleans, the lovely flower was broken, and symptoms of
the disease whica had earried off the mother showed themselves in the daughter. The brightness of the eye, the
flush of the cheek, its hollowness, the bearing of the tall,
slender figure, all testified of danger.
It was affecting to see the old father stand and gaze
silently at his daughter, with eyes that grew dim with
tears-there was such a speechless sorrow, such a deep
feeling of helplessness in his expression. Then she would
look up at him and smile sweetly, like a sunbeam; but it
was evident that the cloud was there-was in the ascendant, and that all the gold of the millionaire could not purchase life for his child and heiress.
The journey which they were now making was, however, an attempt at this; they were intending first to visit
Cuba, and then Europe. A handsome and blooming young
girl, a cousin of the invalid, was her companion.
There were two Swedes-also on board, on their way to
Chagres, whence they would proceed to California.  One
of them, named Horlin, the nephew of Bishop H., was an
agreeable-looking young man, of cultivated mind, and was
now making his second journey to the land of gold, where
he already, as a merchant, had made a considerable sum.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
On the afternoon of the second day the sky became
overcast, and the wind rose. I scarcely believed my eyes
when I beheld, rising up to the clouds before us, lofty
mountains and craggy peaks, not unlike a fortress with
walls and towers, seen in the hazy distance, and was told
that that was Cuba! And yet we could not arrive there
before the morning of the following day. I had not yet
seen such lofty and bold mountain peaks in this western
land.
The night was stormy but very warm, and I opened my
window for the admission of air.  I could see from my
bed, which was directly below the window, the cloudy sky
and the stormy sea when the motion of the vessel sank it
to the edge of the water on my side. The billows foamed
and hissed close to my window, and soon came into my
bed. But the water was so warm that I did not observe
it at first; and afterward, when I had to choose between
closing my window and breathing the suffocating air of
the cabin, or to breathe the soft sea air, and now and then
be embraced by the salt sea waves, I chose the latter. I
only got a little wet, but was calm and happy; I felt on
the most familiar and affectionate terms with the waves
and the great sea. I lay there like a child in its comfortable cradle; it could not hurt me.
The following morning we were in Havana harbor.
The surf rose high, and broke with violence against
the projecting rocky point on which stands the fortress
of Moro, with its walls and towers, one of which is very
lofty, to defend the narrow entrance of the harbor. But
we lay tranquil in that beautiful almost circular harbor,
as if in the stillest lake, and the sun shone upon a world
of new objects around me.
There lay the large city, Havana, along the shore to the
right: of the entrance to the harbor, with its low houses
of all colors, blue, yellow, green, orange, like an immense
mass of showy articles of porcelain and glass on a stall of
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
fancy-wares; and no smoke, not the slightest column of
smoke, to give any intimation of the atmosphere of a city
with its cooking and manufacturing life, such as I had
been accustomed to in the American cities. Groups of
palm-trees rose up among the houses. One height to the
left of us was covered by a great number of tall and extraordinary plants, resembling lofty green  candelabra,
with many pairs of arms. Between the verdant hills
which surrounded the harbor stood groups of country
houses and groves of cocoa palms and other'palm-like
trees, and over all this rested the clearest, softest heaven,
and the most delicious air. The water of the harbor
seemed as clear as crystal, and, above all, atmosphere and
color seemed to be of the most diaphonous clearness and
serenity. Among the objects which caught my sight
were the fortress in which the state prisoners are kept, a
second prison, and a-gallows. But those beautiful waving palms and those verdant hills enchanted my eyes.
Small, half-covered boats, rowed by men with Spanish
physiognomies, surrounded our vessel, to convey the passengers on shore. But the passengers could not go on
shore.  News had reached the Spanish authorities of the
island that a certain Colonel White, one of the leaders in
Lopez's robber-expedition against Cuba, was on board
our steamer, and a message now came from them to prohibit the landing of any of the passengers till further intimation was received from them.  This was not quite
right. Some of the gentlemen were greatly displeased,
and wished any thing but good to Colonel White, who,
big and bony, with a red face and an Irish nose, and an
untroubled and careless expression, now made his appearance on deck, walking up and down, smoking a cigar, in
the midst of the wrathful glances of the passengers. He
merely intended, he said, to go to Chagres, on his way to
California.
We lay for six hours in the harbor, awaiting our per
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mission to land.  For my part, it did not appear lon-g, the
view of the shores and the objects around were so en
chanting to me. The weather was divine, and we had
taken on board great clusters of beautiful golden bananas.
They were presented by polite gentlemen, and I breakfasted with delight upon my favorite fruit, which is as
delicious and beneficial to me as this tropical atmosphere.
Sugar-cane was also added to the entertainment, and enjoyed by many. It was a regular tropical breakfast, eat
en in the sunshine amid the harbor.
At length a boat approached, bearing the Spanish flag
and Several officers.  They came  on board our vessel.
Colonel White was taken aside, and required to give his
word of honor not to land on the island, but to proceed
on his way to Chagres without leaving the vessel. I saw
several of the officers (handsome men, with refined features) cast such glances at the robber leader! There
were Spanish daggers in them!
The Spanish gentlemen retired, and after that, we innocent passengers prepared to go on shore.  Polite gentle
men took charge of my landing, and it was necessary,
for I have never experienced greater difficulty in landing
than here.  I was finally intrusted to an American hotelkeeper in Havana (a Mr. Woolcott), who conveyed me
and my effects on shore, and then through the customhouse to his hotel, where he promised our respectable catain of "The Philadelphia" to make me comfortable. And
before long I was seated in a large hall with a marble
floor, and at a well-filled table, amid a numerous company,
while the beautiful air and light poured in through the
open doors and windows, for in Cuba people are not afraid
of sunshine.
Here I ascertained that Jenny Lind was still at Havana, and Would not yet leave for a couple of days. I
wrote, therefore, a few lines to her, and dispatched them
by our young countrvman, Horlin, who was glad to be
26sr 
HOMES OF THlE NEW WORLD.
the bearer of my letter.  It was in the evening, and after
that I took my light and went up stairs to my chamber
to go to rest. But scarcely had I reached the top of the
stairs, when I heard a voice below mention my name. I
looked round astonished, and there, at the foot of the
stairs, stood a lady holding by the balustrade, and looking up to me with a kind and beaming countenance.  It
was Jenny Lind-Jenny Lind here, and with that beaming, fresh, joyous expression of countenance which, when
once seen, can never be forgotten!  There is the whole
Swedish spring in it. I was glad. All was forgotten in
a moment which had formerly come between her and me.
I could not but instantly go down, bend over the balustrade, and kiss her. That agreeable young man, Max
Hjortsberg, was with her.  I shook hands with him, but
I took Jenny Lind with me into my chamber. We had
never met since that time at Stockholm when I predicted
for her an European reputation. She had now attained
it in a higher degree than any other artist, because the
praise and the laurels which she won every where had
not reference alone to her gifts as a singer.
I spent with her the greater part of the two days while
she yet remained in Havana, partly with her in her own
apartments, and partly in driving with her on the beautiful promenades around the city, and partly in my own
room, where I sketched her portrait; and I could not help
once more loving her intensely. Beneath the palm-trees
of Cuba We talked only of Sweden and our mutual friends
there, and shed bitter tears together over the painful loss
of others.' We talked much about old friends and old
connections in Sweden-nay, truly speaking, we talked
of nothing else, because every thing else-honor, reputation, wealth, all which she had obtained out of Swedendid not seem to have struck the least root in her soul.  I
should have liked to have heard something about them,
but she had neither inclination nor pleasure in speaking
2.69 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of them. Sweden alone, and those old friends, as well as
religious subjects, lay uppermost in her soul, and of these
merely had she any wish to converse.  In certain respects
I could not entirely agree with her; but she was always
an unusual and superior character, and so fresh, so Swedish! Jenny Lind is kindred with Trollhatan and Niagara, and with every vigorous and decided power of nature,
and the effects which she produces resemble theirs.
The Americans are enchanted with her beneficence. I
can not admire her for this; I can only congratulate her
in being able to follow the impulse of her heart.  But
that Jenny Lind, with all the power she feels herself possessed of, with all the sway she exercises, amid all the
praise and homage which is poured upon her, and the
multitudes of people whom she sees at her feet, still looks
up to something higher than all this, higher than herself,
and in comparison with which she esteems herself and all
this to be mean-that glance, that thirst after the holy
and the highest, which during many changes always
again returns and shows itself to be a- dominant feature
in Jenny Lind-this is, in my eyes, her most unusual
and her noblest characteristic.
She was very amiable and affectionate to me; yes, so
much so that it affected me. Little did I expect that beneath the palms of the tropics we should come so near to
each other!
I met at dinner at her house the whole of her traveling
party-Belletti, Mademoiselle Aehrstr6m, Mr. Barnum and
his daughter, and many others. The best understanding
seems t     o  prevail between her and them.  She praised them
all, and praised highly the behavior of Mr. Barnum to her.
She was not now giving any concerts at Cuba, and was
enjoying the repose, and the beautiful tropical scenery
and air. She sang for me unasked (for I would not ask
her to sing) one of Lindblad's songs               " Talar jag sae h6r du mig"
260 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and her voice seemed to me as fresh and youthful as
ever.
One day she drove me to the Bishop's Garden, which
was "beautiful, beautiful!" she said; beautiful park-like
grounds, near Havana, where she was anxious to show
me the bread-fruit-tree, and many other tropical plants,
which proves her fresh taste for nature. In the evening
we drove along the magnificent promenade, el Passeo di
Isabella seconda, which extends for certainly upward of
three English miles between broad avenues of palm and
other tropical trees, beds of flowers, marble statues and
fountains, and which is the finest promenade any one can
imagine, to say nothing of its being under the clear heaven of Cuba. The moon was in her first quarter, and floated like a little boat above the western horizon.   Jenny
Lind made me observe its different position here to what
it has with us, where the new moon is always upright,
or merely in a slanting direction to the earth.  The entire circle of the moon appeared unusually clear.
That soft young moonlight above the verdant, billowy
fields, with their groups of palm-trees, was indescribably
beautiful.
I fancied that Jenny Lind was tired of her wandering
life and her role of singer. She evidently wished for a
life of quieter and profounder character. We talked ofmarriage and domestic life.
Of a certainty a change of this kind is approaching for
Jenny Lind. But will it satisfy her soul, and be enough
for her? I doubt.
She left that evening for New Orleans, out of spirits,
and not happy in her own mind. The vessel by which
she sailed was crowded with Californian adventurers, four
hundred it was said, who were returning to New Orleans;
and Jenny Lind had just heard a rumor that Captain
West, who had brought her over from England to America, had perished in a disastrous voyage at sea. All this
261 
2HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
depressed her miid, and neither my encouragement-I
went on board the vessel to take leave of her, to give her
my good wishs and a bouquet of roses-nor the captain's
offer of lhis cabin and Moon, where, above deck, she
might have remained undisturbed by the Californians be low, were able to cheer her. She was pale, and said little.
She scarcely looked at my poor roses, although they were
the most beautiful I could get in Havana; when, how ever, I again was seated in my little gondola, and was
already at some distance from the vessel, I saw Jenny
Lind lean over the railing toward me.
And all the beautiful, regular countenances of the West
paled below the beaming, living beauty of expression in
the countenance which I then saw, bathed in tears, kiss ing the roses, kissing her hands to me, glancing, beaming
a whole summer of afluent, changing, enchanting, warm
inward life.  She felt that she had been cold to me, and
she would now make amends for it.
And if I should never again see Jenny Lind, I shall always henceforth see her thus, as at this moment, always
love her thus.
I have now been six days in this very good buit very
expensive hotel.   I pay five dollars a day for a small
chamber, which one can hardly imagine more scantily
furnished, and in a couple more days shall be obliged to
pay six dollars, or admit some unknown  guest into my
room; for in two more days a steam-boat comes in, and
new guests om  New 0Oileans.  I -have, therefore, been
inquiring after a new lodging, but it is not here as in
America.  -n the mean time, kind, amttiable people, partly
Germans, partly Englishaad Americans, desirous of making the place& as ageeable to me as possible, have interested themselves about my affairs, and, in consequence of
their kindness, I shall to-morow remove -for a few days
to a country house just by the Bishop's beautiful garden,
where I can, in freedom,,make acquaintance with the trees
262 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and flowers of Cuba.  Is not that charming?  Is not my
little traveling fairy careful of me?
I have hitherto spent my day as follows. At half past
seven in the morning Mrs. Mary enters my chamber with
a cup of coffee and a little wheaten bread, which looks
very enticing.  And Mrs. Mary is an Irish woman, one of
the most excellent, nicest, most thoughtful, and goodhearted beings one can imagine, and the greatest treasure
of this hotel, to me at least. Mrs. Mary's good temper
and kind solicitude give to this hotel a feeling of home,
and I should get on infinitely well here if the place were
not so terribly dear.
After I have drank my coffee and eaten my bread, I go
out, first to La Plaza des Armas, where the governor, the
intendant, and the great admiral, the three great dignitaries of the island, have their palaces, occupying three
sides of the square, the fourth of which is an inclosed
plantation, between the iron railing of which is seen a
marble bust standing on its pedestal, and beyond this a
chapel. This is the place where Catholic mass was first
performedi by order of Columbus.   The bust is his, and it
and the chapel have been erected there in memory of the
first divine service on the island.  A large white marble
statue, that of Charles V., I believe, stands in the middle of
the square, surrounded by lofty, magnificent king-palms,
regular kings among trees, and around these small plantations of other trees and shrubs.  Among these I have
observed one tree, wich has foliage and a -head very like
our lime-tree, although not so large, with fire-oolored flowers not unlike our Indian cross-flower, but darker in color;
and shrubs too, whieh have the same kind of flowers, and
upon the stems of-wlioh small, splendid green lizards dart
about and gaze quite calmly at mne, while I Hgze at them.
A number of white mrnarble seats are placed here, where
people may destain the shade of the palm-trees.  But they
do not cast much shade, and one has to keep watsh for
263 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the moment, and for the spot where their proud crowns
afford a shelter from the sun. - But it is a pleasure to see
their branches move, rustling in the wind, for their motion is majestic, and graceful at the same time!
Hence I go to an esplanade, or lofty terrace, called La
Cortine de Valdez, raised along the harbor on the opposite side to the -Moro.  It is a short promenade, but has the
most beautiful view. And here I wander, to inhale the
sea air and to watch the waves, if it be calms break in lofty
white-crested surf against the rocks of the Moro, which
exclude the tumult of the ocean, and leave the harbor
calm; watch, through the mouth of the harbor, white sails
skimming over the vast blue sea; watch little lizards dart
out and in, or lie gently basking in the sun on the low
walls which run along the esplanade, and white doves fly
down to drink at a white marble basin below a lovely
monument in honor of Valdez, which terminates the promenade.  From the white wall of this monument a jet of
clear-water js thrown, which falls into a basin.
At ten o'clock I am again at home, and eating a second
breakfast, with a large company, in the light marble hall,
at an abundant table, but where I take merelycoffee, my
beloved Carolina rice, and an egg. After that I go to my
room, write letters, and draw or paint till dinner. After
dinner, one or another of my new friends here call in their
volante, such being the name of the carriages of Cuba, to
drive me out upon one of the beautiful and magnificent
public roads beyond the city. In the evening, after tea, I
go up to the roof of the house, which is-flat, as are all the
roofs here, and is called azoteon, surrounded by a low
parapet, upon which stand urns, which are generally gray,
with raised green ornaments, and little gilt flames at
the top. Here I walk alone till late into the night, contemplating the starry heavens above me, and the city below my feet. The Moro-light, as the lofty beacon-fire in
the Moro fortress is called, is kindled, and beams like a
264 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
large, steadily-gleaming star, with the most resplendent
light over the ocean and city.  The air is delicious and
calm, or breathes merely like a slumbering child; and
around me I hear on all sides the sweetest, most serene
little twitter, not unlike that of sparrows with us, but more
serene, or with a softer sound.   I am told that is the lit  tle lizards, which are here found in such abundance, and
which have the gift of voice.
The city has a most peculiar aspect.  The houses are
low, and for the most part of but one story, never above
two; the streets are narrow, so that in many cases the lin en cloth, which serves as a shade to the shops, is stretched
over the street from one side to the other.   The walls  of
houses, palaces, or towers are colored blue, yellow, green,
or orange, and frequently adorned with fresco-painting.
The glare of the sunlight on white walls is feared, as in jurious to the sight, and hence they are all tinted. No
smoke is visible, nor yet a single chimney. Flat roofs are
universal, with their parapets of stone or iron, and their
urns with bronze flames. I can not understand where the
fires are, nor what becomes of the smoke. The atmos phere of the city is as clear as crystal.   The narrow
streets are not paved, and when it rains, as it has done in
torrents for a couple of days, immense puddles and holes
are the consequence, and when it dries again, a great deal
of dust.   Narrow causeways, scarcely wide enough for
two persons to pass, line each side of the street, and along
the streets rush about in all directions, and wind in and
out, a sort of huge insect, with immense hind legs and a
long proboscis, upon which stands a tall black horn, or
tower-like elevation —so at least appeared to me at first
the Cuban equipages or volantes, which constitute the
only kind of Havana carriage. If, however, you wish to
take a clear survey, you will find that they resemble a
species of cabriolet, but the two immense wheels are placed
behind the body of the carriage, which rests upon springs
VOL. II. —-M
266 
HOMAES OFTHE NEW WORLD.
between the wheels and the horses, and for the most part,
is supported by them.  A postillion, who is always a negro in large, projecting riding-boots, is mounted upon the
horse, which is considerably in advance of the carriage itself. This driver is called calashero, and both he and the
horse are sometimes richly caparisoned with silver, often
to the value of several thousand dollars.  The whole equipage is of an unusual length, and reminds me of some
queer kind of harry-long-legs.
When the volante is in great state, or prepared for a
longer journey, it has two horses, or even three.  The second horse is guided by the hand of the calashero, and runs
a little ahead of the first.
When the volante is in great state, you will see two or
three signoras seated in it, always without bonnets, and
sometimes with flowers in their hair; bare arms and neck,
and white dresses, as if attired for a ball. When they are
three in number, the youngest sits in the middle, a little
in advance of the other two.  (4ne sees such often on the
public drives in the afternoon, or in the evening on LaPlaza des Armas, where there is music and a great concourse.  It is only seldom that a veil is seen worn over
the head and shoulders, and scarcely ever a bonnet, which
seems to belong to the foreigner.
When I first saw the rockag motion of the volante as
it drove along the streets, I thought "that must be an
extremely disagreeable carriage!" but when I was seated
in one, I seemed to myself rocked on a cloud-.  I hIave
never felt an easier motion.
The Creole ladies, that is, the native ladies of the isl and —do not make use of any defense from sun or wind,
neither do they need it.  After the hour of noon, when
the breeze comes in from the sea, the air is not hot, nei ther does the sun burn here as on the Continent.  The
complexion of the Creoles is pale, but perfectly health,
and has asoft, light olive tint, which, together with theiir
266 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
beautiful dark, but, at the same time, soft eyes, gives a
piquancy to their appearance. The priests, in their long
cloaks and queer, large hats, go about on foot.  The
greater number of the people in the streets are negroes
and mulattoes; even in the shops one sees mulattoes, especially in the cigar-shops. Cigars are smoked universally, especially a small kind called cigaritos.  The colored population seem to intoxicate themselves with tobacco-smoke.  I frequently see negroes and mulattoes sitting
dozing before the shops with cigars in their mouths. The
calashero, when he waits before a house, alights, seats
himself by the carriage, smokes, and shuts his eyes in the
sunshine. But where goes all the smoke? How can it
be? - It must be absorbed by the sea-air.
I must, however, make an end of my day. After I have
walked about or sat upon the azoteon till toward midnight, enjoying the air, which, it seems to me, is possessed
of a peculiarly sanative, beneficial life, and a banana, W-hich
has the same qualities, and my own solitary thoughts, I
retire to my chamber, and go to rest in a bed without any
bedding excepting a pillow and a coverlet, but on which I
repose excellently, and sleep to the fanning of the wind,
which enters playfully, as it were, through the iron grating of the door and window, to which there is neither
glass nor shutter.
My chamber, and a row of the other chambers also, have
each an- outlet to the roof, which is very agreeable to me,
as I can thus have air at any time, and I have, from my
roof, merely to ascend a little flight of steps to arrive at
the azoteon proper.  The azoteon is the principal place of
assembly for the Cuban families when in the evening they
wish to enjoy la brise.  I must now tell you something about the family which
has received me with so much kindness.  They are, in
thI first place, an English family of the name of F., a
highly-esteemed commercial house in the city, and-  a
267' 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
young married couple, Mr. and Mrs. S., the son-in-law
and daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. Mr. F. was formerly
the agent in Cuba for the house of Rothschild in London,
but he has resigned his business in favor of his son-inlaw, Mr. S., who is a German.
Mr. F. is a young-elderly man, with a countenance and
demeanor full of benevolence and good humor, lively and
witty in society. His wife is of Danish descent, a native
of the Danish island St. Croix, and has been a celebrated
beauty, and even still, when about fifty, is a very handsome lady, with delicate features, and an expression of
goodness which fascinates me. The house is full of handsome children, four sons and five daughters; the daughters, in particular, are handsome, and the two eldest married daughters are infinitely charming. The youngest of
these is ablonde, and lovely, like a northern maiden of the
old ballads. The eldest son of the family has returned
home from England with his wife, a young beauty, with
roses on her cheeks, such as only the daughters of Europe
can show.' The whole house is full of beauty, love, and
gladness, with the newly-married, newly-betrothed, lovetokens, and glances in every corner.  The family has, besides, a cheerful circle-of acquaintance, where gentlemen
from Europe, Germans, Englishmen, Scotch, or French,
come with unstinted music and merrimnent.
Good Mrs. F. drove me last evening in her volante to
the villa of her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. S.,
at a village two miles distant from Havana.   There we
found a company of handsome people assembled, not invited, but because it was the reception evening of the
family. They amused themselves with tableaux vivans,
music, and dancing. Those remarkably handsome ladies
(regularly enchanting in the costumes of the tableaux),
those well-bred, cheerful gentlemen, that excellent music
-the young sisters F. sing extremely well-that Cuban
contra-dance, and its musio so peculiar, so delineative of
268 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the Creole temperament, inasmuch as it expresses an
effeminate, playful, pleasure-loving, and yet half melan choly life, in which the breezes seem to waft, and the
palm branches to rustle; that cheerful, free tone of social
intercourse, the many languages which are spoken, the
beautiful evenings, the soft winds and  stars of night
which glance in at open doors and windows-all these
made this evening one of the most beautiful, the most
perfectly festal occasions that I ever witnessed. Nothing
was tiresome, nothing contracted; one rested, and enjoyed, and amused one's self at the same time.
I have seen mass performed twice in the early morning
at the Cathedral church here; I have seen there such
great priestly show and priestly magnificence in full
bloom, that one might fancy one's self removed two or
three centuries backward in time; I scarcely saw any
praying in the church, and the priests marched hither
and thither, and swung smoking censers, and lighted candles, and busied themselves with divers ecclesiastical ceremonies, evidently without any devotion at all. But
there was supplication in the music; the music was beautiful, and replete with heartfelt prayer. A pious and inspired spirit had breathed its soul into it, and I prayed in
unison with it. The Cathedral is handsome and light,
although not large.  It contains some pictures which gave
me pleasure. Ohe of these represents the spirits in Purgatory; above the flames float the Madonna and Child,
glancing down with compassionate eyes. Some of the
souls, becoming aware of them, are captivated by their
beauty, and while they gaze upon them with involuntary
prayer, they are raised out of the flames, without themselves being conscious of it.
Another picture represents the Holy Virgin standing
upon the globe. Her glance is in heaven; her prayers,
her whole soul lives there, and without apparent intention
she treads upon the serpent, which glides away over the
269 
0  HOM: OF THE NW WORLD.
earth.  These'-pictures are evidently the work of an age
of profound spiritual inspiration.
The bones of Columbus rest in the Cathedral. A white
marble tablet in the wall near the chancel points out the
spot.  This tablet presents also his head in bass-relieT,
below which are some symbols of a very common  character, and below  these, again, a poor, ill-constructed inscription, abounding in platitude, the purport of which is
that his dust reposes here, but his fame'shall live for
many centuries.
One day, when I visited the church in company with
Mr. V., we were attended by a youth who seemed to be
one of the young neophytes. When he heard that Mr. V.
had been at Jerusalem, he was delighted, and so anxious
to hear about the holy grave and the holy places near the
city, and then was so zealous to show us every remarkable thing about the church, that it was a pleasure to see
him. This youth had evidently, as yet, an uncorrupted
mind and a firm faith.
Yesterday, during a great procession in the church, and
a great kissing of the hand of the bishop, who was a handsome prelate, with fat white hands, covered with sparkling jewels, I saw one of the great gentlemen-I fancy it
was the Admniral-laugh as he knelt down before the holy
father, and make pretense of kissing his hand; and, of a
truth, the Bishop smiled too. They both knew that it
was merely a great show. The costume of the priests and
the official corps, as they sat together in arm-chairs in the
church, produced as picturesque and imposing an effect as
any costume can nowadays, and I am quite willing to feel
its full effect, so long, at least, as I do not see a deceitful
mask in it.
I have heard many complaints of the government of the
island, complaints of monopolies, injustice, and official
robbery of all kinds, as well among government officials
as lawyers.  They are said literally to devour the portions
I 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the widow and the fatherless.  I have heard almost in.
credible stories of this kind.  People are now hoping great
things from the new Governor-general Concha, who arrived here from Spain two months since. The last deposed
governor distinguished himself by the peculation through
whichohe became a rich man. The clergy are said to be
quite uncletical, the greater number living in open defiance of their vows; and religion here is, I am told-dead.
Traffic in slaves is also carried on in secret. The government is cognizant of the fact, but winks at it —nay, indeed, it is said that it derives a gain from it.
Ah! that this earthly paradise should be so poisoned by
the old serpent!
Serro, Feb. 10th.
I have lived for the last three days at a rural abode in
the little rural village, or small town of Serro, two miles
from Havana, with a German-American family of the
name of S., who have kindly invited me to spend a few
days with them, to know something of life in the country,
which I greatly wished, and to make a closer acquaintance
with the Bishop's beautiful garden, which liesf very near
their home. I have a little newly-built house to myself,
consisting of two airy rooms. Below the window of my
sleeping-room stands a little clump of banana-trees laden
with their beautiful fruit, and the light green ell-broad
leaves, which are as soft as velvet, are wafted by the wind,
and immediately beyond them roars a little mountain
stream. Beyond our little garden, and just opposite to it,
I see, within a blue-painted inclosure of a little hill, a
group of glorious cocoa palms, poplars, and bamboo-trees,
beneath which a fountain falls into a magnificent marble
basin.  The whole village is composed of gardens-with
their little dwellings, and beyond them the extensive plain
is scattered over with king and cocoa palms, and trees,
the names of which I am yet unacquainted with.
The first night that I slept here on my cool camp-beds
271 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
stead, I heard the stream roaring along, and the banana
leaves whispering outside my window, and felt the delicious night-winds around me like the wings of angels;
it was to me enchantingly beautifulso beautiful that I
could scarcely sleep.  I was obliged to get up many times
to contemplate the liavens and the earth. I thus beheld
a constellation of incomparable magnificence and brilliancy
ascend above the hill of the cocoa palms. Could it be the
ship Argo or the constellation Sagittarius?  I do not as
yet know. I am still ignorant what constellations of the
southern hemisphere may be seen here.  I have not yet
met with any one who can tell me. People here think a
deal more about trade and pleasure than about the stars.
When the blush of morning appeared, amid beautiful gold
and rosy clouds, I saw the morning star standing above
the earth, wonderfully bright and large. I do not know
why, but it produced in me a melancholy effect. It seemed to me like an eye full of a bright but sorrowful consciousness, gazing calmly, with deep earnestness, down
upon earth, as if it knew of the sin and the sorrow of earth.
That bright star stood above the beautiful island like its
clear, accusing conscience.
There had been for the last two days cold weather,
with rain in torrents; but the morning was bright and
beautiful, and I wished after breakfast to visit the Bishop's garden, which lies only a few minutes' walk from
our Serro.  Mrs. S. said, " You will not be able to get
there; you will stick fast in the mud after all this rain."'
I would not believe her, and persisted in going. But
she was right. I actually could not get along; at every
step my feet stuck fast in the thick mud, the quality of
which I had never before had any conception of.  I was
obliged to return, and wait till the sun had dried the
earth, which it is not very long in doing. These torrents
of rain which have met me in Cuba, and which are a little inconvenient to me, are, it is said, the parting saluta
27q 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
tions of the rainy season, which is now just at an end,
and which gives place —to the dry season, la Secca, which
extends from the present time into May. Both yesterday
and to-day there has been unremitting sunshine, so that
I have to-day been to the Bishop's garden; and wander ing under palms, bamboos, and many kinds of beautiful
tropical trees, among splendid unusual flowers and butterflies, have celebrated alone the most glorious morning,
a spirit of thanksgiving among the silent spirits of nature.
Ah! when the Creator allows us heYe on earth to behold
such beauty, allows us to experience such joy, what treasures of His kingdom has He not in store for His children,
risen again and enfranchised from dust on the other side
the grave!
The beauty of these trees and flowers, and of this air,
give me a foretaste of a glory of creation, a fullness of
existence in the consciousness of natural life, which exceeds all that I have hitherto imagined. When nature,
in a perfected world, becomes a thanksgiving song of
beauty, harmonious delight, and magnificence, what will
not life become, what praises shall we not sing? We are
not bold enough, we are not rich enough in imagination,
as we glance toward the kingdom of heaven beyond the
grave; we are too poor in faith to conceive of the power
and affluence of the Creator.                        -
Palms, laurel-trees, groves of bamboos, yellow jasmines,
which fling their fragrant branches from stem to stem;
the beautiful air filled with the purest life, all these whispered to me words and thoughts of that morning Which
is to be. And I walked alone through these magnificent
avenues, amid those silent groves, where hundreds of
splendid butterflies, all unknown to me, fluttered up out
of the moist grasses, and I praised God in the name of
all existence! How happy I was that morning!
"But the slaves-the slavery which surrounds this
Eden!" you will say. Yes, I know; but slavery must
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273 
HOMES OF -Tftl NEW WORLD.
cease, and the fetters of the slave fall from him; but the
goodness and magnificence of God will remain forever.
I lived here in the contemplation of this, and a day will
come when the slave shall do so too.
The garden, or, more correctly speaking, the park, is
much neglected since the death of the old bishop, and
since a terrible hurricane in 1848, which entirely dstroyed the -house, of which merely a ruin now remains,
and injured many trees and statues; but I am pleased
with the less trim condition of the park, because it all
the more resembles, from that very cause, a beautiful
natural scene.
I dined yesterday at the villa of Mr. and Mrs. S. with
a select party.   The dinner was served in the veranda
opening into the garden, which afforded us a glorious
view beyond it  over:the island.  This garden was, like
other ornamental gardens which I have seen here, very
ornamental, but stiff. Palms of many kinds, splendid
flowers in beds, bordering well-graveled or flagged paths,
marble basins with gold fish, &.  A beautiful little boy
of two years old is the best treasure of the house.
In the evening I was once more with the F. family;
saw amiable and cheerful young people dancing in the
joy of their hearts, and heard again that enchanting Cuban dance-music. It has a broken, strange, but extremely animated movement.  My kind, agreeable host, Mr.
S., plays it on the piano-forte with the musical genius of
a German.
Feb. 11th. Yesterday was Sunday, and although our
little village of Serro did not go to church-because there
is no church there-it still had quite a holiday appearance. At noon I heard from various distances the living
cadence of the African drum, not unlike the sound of the
flail in the barns around us at threshing time, only that
here it has a much more animated life.  This was the
sign that the dances of the free negroes were now cornm
274 
kiOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mencing at their assemblingplaces in the neighborhood.
My host had the kindness to accompany me to one of
these, very near our Serro. I found a large room, very
like those of public houses among us, in which I saw these
negroes naked to the waist, wild, energetic figures. and
countenances, who were beating drums with energetic
animation. These drums were hollowed tree stems, over
the openings of which was stretched a parchment skin,
on which the negroes drummed, in part with sticks and
in part with their hands, with their thumbs, with their
fists, with wonderful agility and skill, a wild, artistic perfection, or, I should rather say, a perfected natural artthey drummed as bees hum and beavers build.  The
time and measure, which-sometimes varied, was lexquisitely true; no one can imagine a more natural, perfect,
lively precision in that irregular regular time. The drum
was held between the knees; they held in their fists a
large ball filled with stones or some other noisy things
and ornamented outside with a tuft of cock's feathers.
They seem to me to create as much noise as possible.
Some dancing couples assembled; ladies of various shades
of color, dressed in ragged finery; men (negroes) without
any finery, almost without any attire at all on the upper
part of the body. A man took a woman by the hand, and
then began to dance, she turning round on-one spot with
downcast eyes, he surrounding her with a vast many gambols, among which are most astounding summersets and
leaps, remarkable for their boldness and agility.  Other
negroes, in the mean time, set up, every now and then,
wild cries, and strike with sticks upon the walls and doors.
The sweat pours from the drumming negroes, who look
desperately in earnest. When the hall began to be crowded, I would not any longer detain my friend and his little
daughter; but I shall do all in my power to witness again
and again these African dances, with their peculiar wild
life, at the same time so irregular and yet so rhythmicall
976 
276            HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
On our return we heard,. both near and afar, the wild
sound of the drums.  It is only, however, the free ne groes of the island who hold their dances at this season.
During the whole time of la Secca the grinding of the
sugar-cane is going forward on the plantations, and the
negro slaves can not then dance, scarcely have time to
sleep. There are, however, in Cuba a considerable num ber of free negroes.
As we entered the village, we met two young men who
were playing a lively air on the guitar, and who were ac companied by several other young men. They were celle brating the birth or name-day of some of their friends a beautiful poetical custom!
I have rambled about a good deal in this neighborhood,
and have become acquainted with some of the beautiful
trees of the island. Among these I must introduce to you
the ceiba-tree, one of the loftiest and most lovely trees of
Cuba. It shoots aloft, a strong and softly undulating
stem, to a height exceeding that of the palm, and without
any branches, until, all at once, it spreads out in a horizontal direction three or four arms, sinuous like those of
the oak, but less abrupt; these subdivide themselves into
lesser branches, and bear aloft the most beautiful crown
of palmated. rich green leaves. It is one of the most lovely trees I ever saw, and I know nothing to which I can
compare it. But this beautiful tree has its grudging enemy, and upon the small, thorn-like excrescences with
which its stem is covered a parasite is apt to fix itself,
which by degrees embraces, and finally kills the tree. I
observed also the beautiful dark green trees, Mamay Colorado and Mamay Santa Domingo, now covered with
fruit, gray-brown outside, and within filled with a reddishyellow flesh, very sweet, but to my taste insipid; and
the sapota-tree, also with dark green leaves and brown
fruit, about the size of small oranges, and, like these, consisting of juicy segments, very sweet, and  extremely 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.                277
agreeable to my taste. The mango-tree has a thick, leafy
head, which reminds me, both in form and compactness,
of our chestnut-tree. The mango fruit is yet green, and
hangs in long racemes, several upon a stalk, like colossal
almonds in form. They are said to be of a beautiful golden yellow when ripe; they are called the apples of Cuba,
and are much liked on the island.  The mango-tree affords a thick, impenetrable shadow; the tamarind-tree,
on the other hand, spreads out above your head like a
fine, transparent, embroidered green veil, through which
you see the blue sky. It bears pods with small beans in
them, which have an acid, but very agreeabte and fresh
flavor.
The gourd, or calabash-tree-(N.B. —I  tell you the
names of the trees as I hear them called here, for I have
no access to any botanical work)-resembles an appletree in its growth, has its branches overgrown with thick.
set leaves, and bears fruit round as a ball, without any
stem. This fruit, which will grow as large as a man's
head, and which has a very hard rind, furnishes the poorer people with their - most useful domestic utensils, and
becomes, when cut in two, their bowl, dish, plate, drinking vessel, water cask, dipper, ladle, their all in all. The
calabash, or gourd, is especially the negro's house furniture, and it is the calabash also which adorns his fists,
and which occasions pleasure and noise at their dances. I
might mention other trees, and many there are, of which
as yet I do not know the names; but I must tell you how
my beloved banana-tree blossoms and sets its fruit -; for it
is a peculiar story, which for a long time has puzzled me
when I saw it from a distance, and -now I have studied it
near.
You see the banana-tree-you shall see it in my album
-a tree of low growth, with a palm-like crown not much
above your head in height. The stem shoots up straight,
surrounded by leaves, which fall off as the stem increases
4 
HOMES OF TH- NEW WORLD.
in height, and which leave it somewhat rugged, and with
rather a withered appearance. When the tree has attained the height of four or five ells, it ceases to grow, but
unfolds and expands a crown of broad light green leaves,
as soft as velvet, and from two to four ells long, and which
bend and are swayed gracefully by the wind. The wind,
however, is not quite gracious to them, but slits the leaves
on each side of the strong leaf-fibre into many parts, so
that it often looks tattered, but still preserves, even amid
its tatters, its soft grace and its beautiful movement.
From amid the crown of leaves shoots forth a bud upon a
stalk, and resembling a large green  flower-bud.  This
shoots up rapidly, and becomes as rapidly too heavy for
its stalk, which bends under its weight. The bud now
bends down to the stem, and grows as large probably as a
cocoa-nut, its form being like that of a Provence rose-bud,
and of a dark violet color. I saw upon almost all bananatrees, even on those which bore rich clusters of ripe fruit,
this immense violet-colored bud hanging, and was not a
little curious to know all about it.  And now you shall
know!  One of the outer leaves or envelopments of the
bud loosens itself, or opens itself gently at the top, and
you now perceive that its innermost side glows with the
most splendid vermilion red; and within its depth you
see peeping forth, closely laid together side by side, six or
seven little light yellow figures, not unlike little chickens,
and very like the woolly seed-vessels in the single peonyflower.  The leaf encasements open more and more to the
light and the air, and those little light yellow fruit-chickens peep forth more and more. - By degrees the leaf, with
its little family, separates itself altogether from the bud,
and a length of bare stem grows between them. The
little chickens now gape with pale yellow flower-beaks,
and put out their tongues (they are of the didynamia order) to drink in the sun and the air; but still the beautiful leaf bends itself over their heads like a screen, like a
VI 8 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
protecting wing, like a shadowy roof.  The sun would as
yet be too hot for the little ones. But they grow more
and more. They begin to develop themselves, to plump
out their breasts, and to raise their heads more and more.
They will become independent;  they will see the.sun;
they need no longer the old leaf. The leaf now disengages
itself-the beautiful maternal leaf-and falls to the- earth.
I have frequently seen these leaf-screens lying on the
ground beneath the tree, and taken them up and contemplated them with admiration, not only for the part they
act, but for the rare beauty and clearness of the crimson
color on their inner side; one might say that a warm drop
of blood from a young mother's heart had infused itself
there.   The young chickens, -which are cocks and hens at
the same time, plume themselves now proudly, and with
projecting breasts, and beautifully curved backs and heads,
and beaks raised aloft, range themselves  garland-like
around the stem, and thus, in about two weeks'  time,
they ripen into delicious bananas, and are cut off in
bunches.
The whole of that dark, purple-tinted bud-head is a
thick cluster of such leaf-envelopes, each inclosing such
an offspring. Thus releases itself one leaf after another,
and falls off; thus grows to maturity one cluster of fruit
after another, until the thick stalk is as full as it can hold
of their garlands; but, nevertheless, there always remains
a good deal of the bud-head, which is never able to develop the whole of its internal wealth during the year in
which the banana-tree lives; for it lives and bears fruit
only one year, and then dies. But, before that happens,
it has given life to a large family of young descendants
who grow up at its feet, and the eldest of which are ready
to blossom and bear fruit when the mother-tree dies.
Such is the history of the banana-tree, Musa paradisiaca, as it is called in the Tropical Flora.. And of a certainty it was at home in the first paradise, where all wan
good.
-279 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
One can-scarcely imagine any thing prettier or more
perfect than these young descendants, the banana chil dren; they are the perfect image in miniature of the
mother-tree, but the wind has no power upon their young
leaves: they stand under the wing of the mother-tree in
paradisiacal peace and beauty.
It has been attempted to transplant the banana-tree
into the southern portion of North America, where so
many trees from foreign climates flourish; buat the bana.
na-tree will not flourish there; its fruit will not ripen; it
requires a more equal, more delicious warmth; it will not
grow without the paradisiacal life of the tropics.
Roasted banana is as common a dish at the breakfasts
of the Creoles as bread and coffee; but I like it only in its
natural state.
The ladies in this country have very light house-keeping cares. The cook, always a negro woman, and if a
man-cook, a negro also, receives a certain sum of money
weekly with which to provide the family dinners. She
goes to market and makes purchases, and selects that
which seems best to her, or what she likes. The lady of
the house frequently does not know what the family will
have for dinner until it is on the table; and I can only
wonder that the mistress can, with such perfect security,
leave these matters to her cooks, and that all should succeed so well; but the faculty for, and the pleasure in all
that concerns serving the table, is said to be universal
among the negroes, and they compromise their honor if
they do not serve up a good dinner.
Mrs. S. sits during the morning and reads with her two
little girls in a hall, the doors of which open upon the
piazza, and thence to the street or high road, and as the
country people (Monteros, as they are here called, and
'who are always men) pass with their little horses heavily
laden with vegetables, fruit, or poultry, now and then
one of them will stop at the d6or and call to -la signora,
280 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
inquiring whether she will purchase this or that, and she
says a couple of words in reply in that melodious Spanish
tongue, and the whole is done in few words, without her
needing to rise from her seat. Life might be very easy
here. In the evening, after tea, we sit in rocking-chairs
in- the piazza, dressed as lightly as propriety will allow,
and enjoy the air and the dolce far niente. All is then
quiet in the little village; to breathe here is to live and
enjoy! 
My kind friends have taken me to the beautiful gardens of some of the aristocracy of the neighborhoodthey are splendid, but formal. - Every thing is set in rows
along the graveled walks; and the tropical trees, the
forms of which are regular by nature, add to the formality, when they are not grouped with some artistic and p0etical feeling. In the lovely garden, for instance, of El
Conti Hernandinos, it was this feeling which led to the
planting of a circle of king-palms. In this way the most
beautiful columned rotunda was formed which can be
imagined; the crowns being all at the same height, locked their branches into each other, and formed a gigantic
verdant garland, which waved and rustled in the wind,
while the blue vault of heaven shone brightly through it.
I have take4 a walk every morning into the Bishop's
garden; but I was one morning persecuted there by a
couple of half-naked, horrible-looking negroes, who probably said witty things while they begged, although I did
not understand them, and they disturbed my comfort.
Another morning I was so very unwell from something
which I had taken, though I knew not what, that the joys
of Paradise could not have pleased me; a third morning
I was free and at peace, and again enjoyed life, but not as
I did on the first morning. But neither was that needful; I was happy and thankful: one single morning such
as that is enough for an immortal memory.
I have every night again saluted that large, magnifi'
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HOME OF THE NEW WORLD.
cent constellation above the palm-tree mound, and have
seen the quiet, melancholy, clear glance of the morning
star over the earth. These nights, with the roar of the
mountain stream and the rustling of the banana-trees, I
shall never forget.
This morning Mrs. S. and myself went into the park.  I
observed some verses in Spanish inscribed upon a bambootree, and asked her to read them to me. She could not
do it, because their meaning was of the grossest kind.
Again the old serpent!
One sees in the country around here small farrms, on
all of which are houses built of palm-trees, and thatched
with tawny palm-leaves; the roofs are all pointed, and
frequently taller than the cottages themselves. But all
the dwelling-houses of the island are low, on account of
the hurricanes, which otherwise  would destroy them.
Many small cottages are built of bark or of woven brushwood. The palm-tree, however, is the principal tree of
the poor; it supplies them with material for their houses,
and the calabash furnishes them with household wares.
The little farms have a peculiar, although not ornamental appearance; still, they adorn the landscape with their
own - character.
I have heard a good deal of what occurred during the
last hurricane. One spot was pointed out to me, near
here, where stood a little peasant farm.  The whole family were assembled in the house, twelve in number. The
tempest shook the dwelling; the father admonished them
all to pray; they threw themselves on their knees around
him; he stood upright in the middle of the room, and
prayed in the name of all. The tempest tore open a hole
in the roof, and in the same moment overturned the house,
leaving the father standing upright, but burying his wife,
his children, and servants. Not a single one escaped exceptinig himself!
I shall, in the morning, return to Havana.  If I could
:-g 2 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
but some time give pleasure to the excellent, kind people
who have, —by their hospitality, given so much to me!   I
am sorry to leave them, and,- in particular, the youngest,
most charming little girl, the dark-eyed little Ellen!
Havana, Feb. 15.
Again I am here! Heat is a good thing, but too much
is-too much!  And this heat is too stimulating both for
soul arid body. It may be possible to keep in health, but
to keep in spirits is an impossibility; one becomes quite
enervated.  A fine sand-dust enters through the jalousies
from the streets, and fills the air of the room, and covers
every thing. Evening is the only time of the day in
which one can breathe at all freely, partly in the open air,
partly in the airy galleries within the house, openinginto
the court.
I am now staying with the F. family in Calle (street)
de Obra Pia.  Good Mrs. F. has arranged a room fr my
accommodation, and seems to have my comfort at heart
in every possible way.   She is one of those beautiful, maternal natures who make life so rich, and all in the house
love her.  I should love her if it were for no other reason
than because she likes the negroes; is a motherly protector of the slaves; and openly takes the part of the negro
character on all occasions, and can relate many beautiful
traits of their nobility of mind, their faithfulness and good
disposition. She spends one portion of the forenoon quite
patriarchally in sitting and sewing among her female slaves,
as well as in reading to the younger children in one of the
long, open galleries, where she also receives visits, and
gives orders for the business of the kitchen or the toilet.
In the evening the large,family party and their circle of
friends gather around her in the galleries or the drawingroom.   Then  come the two young,  lovely ladies, her
daughters, with their husbands, both Germans, and one
of whom is very musical; then come the English consul,
Mr. C., with his lovely young wife, a daughter also of
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Mrs. F., though by a former marriage; and there are the
enamored pair, the eldest son of the house, and his blooming wife; and there are the betrothed couple, Louisa F.,
still almost a child, and her lover, a young Scotch gentleman, who is desperately in love, and very agreeable; there
are the younger sons and daughters of the house, the
youngest of these my grave little Maestro in the Spanish
tongue, the thirteen-year-old Gulio and Emily, as pretty
and graceful as one imagines a good fairy; then also
come other friends of the family, and there is music, singing, and dancing; but the enamored bridegrooms, married or betrothed, sit beside their young brides and gaze
at them, and will not let them dance or leave their sides.
The construction of houses in Havana is very peculiar,
and one must get accustomed to them to like it. Every
thing is arranged so as to- produce as much air and as
much circulation as possible. Long galleries, with wide
semicircular arcades, open into the court (this house has
them on four sides); in these galleries the whole household may be found, all busy, and leading a sort of public
life; dinner is eaten, visits are received, the lady of the
house sews surrounded by her female slaves, or instructs
her children; her domestics wash, or perform their other
respective household duties; every thing is done all in
these open galleries, in which people and air circulate
alike unimpeded. Within these galleries, which generally have marble floors, lie the sleeping rooms, separated
from the gallery by Venetian shutters, the windows opening to the street, and which, in the upper story of the
house, are inclosed in the same manner. On the ground
floor, however, the windows have iron bars or gratings,
and behind this grating a curtain which is drawn at night.
During the day no curtain is seen, and these grated windows, with their upright iron bars, give a dismal, prisonlike appearance to the story nearest to the street. In the
more elegant houses, however, this window-grating is much
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ornamented, and frequently handsome ladies, rocking them.
selves in rocking-chairs, and fanning themselves with splen did fans, may be seen sitting behind the grating. Glass
is never used. This construction of houses and arrange ment of rooms gives free and general circulation to the
air, and the air of Cuba can not be other than welcome,
but with it comes, here in Havana, a vast deal of dust,
which is detrimental both to neatness and comfort.
If one goes into the city-and I have rambled about a
great deal by myself in tlie evening —-one gets glimpses
on all hands, through arcades and half-dusky passages,
into homes and amid households, the figures of which are
seen in a charming clair-obscur. They pass by and vanish into shade.   On all sides you see new vistas open,
new pictures in dusky arcades and beneath porticoes, ornamrnented with fresco-painting of fruits and flowers; but
all is seen in a half light. Publicity has here a mystery,
a shadowy depth; and in front of the open windows of
the houses is iron grating.   There is in the building of
the city a great mixture of regularity and irregularity, of
old and new, of the splendid and the dilapidated. Close
beside the elegant arched arcade, with its gayly painted
walls, stands a half-ruinous wall, the fresco-paintings of
which are half obliterated or have pealed off with the
mortar.  And this old wall is not repaired, nor the old
painting restored. All this-the countenances and life
of the colored population; the silent, wedge-like way in
which the volantes insinuate themselves between the rows
of houses, give to Havana a peculiar character, and a romantic life which is unlike that of any other city which
I have seen, and especially unlike those of England and
North America.
We have now moonlight, and I can not but admire its
brightness and transparency.  Our moonlight in Sweden
is tolerably bright, but has a colder, more blue tinge;
here it is light yellow, and seems to me almost rose-tint
286 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed. Moonlight here is considered dangerous, and people
do not venture into it with uncovered heads.
I have been two evenings to La Plaza des Armas, to
hear the music, with my good friends Mr. and Mrs. F.
Elegant signoras with light mantillas over their heads,
which are adorned with flowers, walk about with polite
caballeros under the magnificent king-palms, or sit on
marble benches talking, while the music plays Cuban
dances or marches, and pieces from favorite operas. A
more beautiful festal hall than this place, with its palms
and palaces, seen beneath the moonlight, and the beaming heaven of Cuba, can not be conceived. I have also
seen here lovely poetical forms, and poetically lovely costumes. That transparent Spanish veil is like moonlight,
a talisman which conceals deformity, and enhances beauty by its mystic, shadowy half light.
My amiable entertainers drove me one day to a village
or small town, called Guanabacoa, which is said to be the
oldest on the island, and which still preserves some memories of the aborigines, the mild, peaceful Indians who inhabited Cuba when the Spaniards discovered this beautiful island. And it is one of the peculiarities of Cuba that
its aborigines were as mild as its climate, which even to
this day exercises its delicious influence upon those who
are born in the island.  The Creoles are mild and of good
disposition. There exist on the island neither poisonous
plants nor venomous creatures. The native bee of Cuba
has not even poison in its sting. The barbarities of the
Spaniards in the island have not been able to poison its
natural character; the blood of its massacred, inoffensive
aborigines cries still from the earth, but its cry is a beautiful melody; it has baptized the most beautiful valley of
Cuba with the name of Yurnori!
Among the memories which the Indians have left in
Guanabacoa is a kind of earthen vessel made from a sort of
porous clay, peculiar to the place, and which is still made
286 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
there. These earthen vessels are universal in Cuba for
the keeping drinking-water cool in the house. The water evaporates through the porous vessel, around which la
cloth is bound, which is thus always moist, and the water
which is drawn off is fresh, if not always cool enough for
my taste. The want of good drinking-water is a great
want in Cuba. Ice is not as yet used there for the cool.
ing of water, except in the large hotels of Havana.
The day was beautiful on which we drove to Guanabacoa, and the drive was beautiful also; but I was not
able fully to enjoy it. I was worn out, from the want of
rest for two nights, owing to the heat and the musquitoes,
and I saw every thing in a half-slumbering state. The
little town reminded me of a miniature picture of Havana,
the houses built and painted in the same style, with the
same flat roofs, and even ornamented azoteons, but all less
and lower.  The country exhibits still the same expanse
of billowy plain scattered with palms and small farms, and
with a background of that lofty mountain chain which
runs from east to west, and which is every where a fine,
prominent feature of its landscape. The highest peaks of
these mountains, Patullo and Cobre, are said to be upward
of 3000 feet.
The natural fortresses and strong-holds of the island
have their own gloomy, romantic significance.  Fugitive
slaves live in these mountains, and have fortified themselves in- their innumerable grottoes and caves, so that any
pursuit of them is impossible.  They have there built
dwellings for themselves and obtained fire-arms, and at one
time amounted to so large a number-it is said many thousands-that the government of Cuba entertained serious
apprehensions from them.  The difficulty, however, of obtaining food for themselves in these remote fastnesses have
caused them of late greatly to decrease in number. Nevertheless, they prefer to live free, amid those free, stern mounttains, than to come down and live amid still sterner men.
287 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The palm always constitutes an important feature in
the landscape, especially when it stands singly or scattered in small groups. It strikes me as being the noblest
and most human-like of all trees. On our homeward drive
from Guanabacoa, I observed, in the clear moonlight, two
palm-trees standing solitary in a large field. They stood
a little apart, but the stems had more and more inclined
toward each other, and their crowns met. Thus they
stood, embracing each other with whispering branches,
beneath that beautiful vault of heaven, themselves forming below it a lofty Gothic arch. Thus sometimes will
two noble-minded adversaries approach each other and
grow together the nearer they grow toward heaven.
Our road through the whole drive lay between quick
hedges, consisting, for the most part, of immense aloes,
the pointed, thorny leaves of which forbade any approach.
I saw in the middle of these plants tall white and pink
spikes of flowers not yet fully blown, and Mr. F. had the
kindness to gather two of them for me.   They resembled
at a distance an immense hyacinth stem; they were the
beautiful spikes of the aloe flower, and which afterward
produce a pleasant juicy fruit, with a pine-apple flavor.
Here and there an orange-tree shot up in the hedge, as
well as that strange candelabra-like plant or tree which I
had already observed on the heights around Havana harbor, but have not learned either its name or genus. Very
unlike were these quick hedges to those of our country
fields; they are, however, mnore odd-looking than really
beautiful. We drove home in that clear, gold, and rosetinted moonlight. I understand that there are many beautiful flowers which bloom only in this light, among which
is the night-blowing cereus.
Among the miracles which the sun performs here, that
which it performs in the depth of the sea is perhaps the
most remarkable. The sun casts his prismatic bow into
the deep, and colors the fish therewith. I yesterday paid
288 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
a visit to the fish-market of Havana, and no stranger in
Havana should fail of seeing this remarkable sight.
The fish glow with all the colors of the rainbow, with
the most splendid clearness and distinctness; they are
blue, yellow, red; they are edged with gold and violet,
gold-tinted, and so on-it is the most magnificent fish splendor that any one can imagine. The most beautiful
algae and corals are gathered from the sea around Cuba.
Good Mrs. F. has frequently invited me to accompany
her to the opera, but I am so covetous of the air and the
moonlight here, that I prefer spending my evenings  on
La Plaza des Armas.  Nature here is to me No. 1; people
and their fine shows, No. 2; I shall, however, go to-morrow to a large soiree at the house of the English consul,
and see there the Spanish beauties. And then farewell
to Havana for a time.
I have received two invitations which have greatly
pleased me: the one to Matanzas, to the house of an
American merchant there; the other to a plantation at a
few miles' distance, from a Mrs. De C., whose friendly letter was a real refreshment-to me;  for there I shall be able
to get out into the country, and to become acquainted
with palms, and coffee-shrubs, and sugar-cane, and other
tropical growths. I am greatly delighted. I wished to
leave Havana, where the oppressive heat and the unusual
mode of living have caused me to suffer from an intolerable headache, which I have now had for three days, and
which I can not get rid of, although I am as much in the
air as possible. To-morrow I shall go by rail-way to Matanzas, which is not quite a day's journey.
Before I close my letter, I must tell you the arrangement which the Swedish consul here, Mr. N., and Mr. S.,
wish to make for me.   Mr. N. has a small country-house
which he does not occupy, in the beautiful garden region
close by the S.'s. This he wishes to furnish for me, and
there I am to live in rural peace and freedom, attended by
VOL. II.-N
989 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
a respectable duenna, and to take my meals with the S.'s,
who also invite me to take up my quarters with them as
Goon as their guest- chamber, which is now occupied, shall
be at liberty. Is not this charming?.7 I shall not probably avail myself of this proffered kindness, but I am
grateful with all my heart for such hospitality. The good
F.'s are, however, at the bottom of it all. God bless them!
You have now frost and snow, and cold, cold air, cold
all around you! and here it is too hot for me; and heat
is not much better than cold, particularly when one has a
headache. But heart and soul are sound, and with them
I embrace you in all love!
LETTER XXXIV.
Matanzas, Feb. 23d.
How beautiful it is here, my little heart; how good it
is to be here!  In this glorious air, fanned by balmy
zephyrs, in this light, excellent, and, in every respect,
comfortable home-the house of Mr. and Mrs. B.-where
I am now staying, I feel myself, as it were, living anew.
I have now been here for a whole week, which has passed
like one bright, beautiful day.
It seemed to me pleasant to leave that hot, dusty Havana early on the morning of Monday the 16th, and there
also I left my headache. I parted with it the night before, when I went to bed, and had a sound sleep. That
kind, cordially good Mrs. F. was up with me at five o'clock
the next morning, and had coffee brought for me and herself from a Restaurateur's, because she would not disturb
her slaves so early; and after having taken a heartfelt
leave of her and her husband, I seated myself in their
volante, accompanied by one of the youngest sons of the
house, and my favorite Frank. The calashero cracked
his whip in the air, and we rapidly swung away to the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLI
rail-way station. I was glad when I, with the help of
my young conductor, had got safely through all the diffi.
culties and impediments of the rail-way, and was seated
quietly in a spacious carriage.  The carriages are built
in the American fashion, because Americans constructed
the rail-way and built the carriages at Cuba. All the
windows were down, to allow the glorious morning air
free ingress; and although all the gentlemen who were
in the carriage-from forty to fifty in number-smoked
cigars or cigaritos, there was no smell of smoke, and
scarcely any to be perceived. The air of Cuba seems to
have the power of annihilating smoke.  I was the only
lady in the carriage, and sat solitarily on my sofa, and
nearly solitarily in my portion of the carriage; but all the
more uninterruptedly could I see around me, and-ah!
that morning, when I flew over the new earth, beautiful
as a paradise, through a paradisiacal atmosphere, and saw
around me new and enchanting scenes and objects-it
was only by inward and deep thanksgiving that so much
enjoyment could be sanctified.
There had beeif rain in the night, and splendid clouds
piled themselves in masses along the horizon, and grouped
themselves in fantastic shapes above the blue mountains.
Now they lifted themselves in heavy draperies above them,
to flee from the ascending sun; then formed a magnificent portal, with a frame of gold; and beyond it shone a
sea of soft, rose-colored light; it lightened above the tops
of the mountains, and-the sun rose. The fantastic little
blue and yellow villas, with their splendid gardens full of
splendid flowers and strange plants; the palm-thatched
cottages in the fields, the lofty, green  palm-trees above
their yellow-gray roofs; groves of mango, plantain, orange,
and cocoa-trees, the verdant hedges and fields, all shone
fresh and beautiful amid the gushing sunshine in the
moist, mild morning.
Along the whole course of the way new- and lovely ob
29l 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
jects met my eye; flowers, plants, gardens, dwellings,
all bade me good-morning as we sped past them.. But a
potato-field and a large cabbage-ground greeted me as
fellow-countrymen and old friends. The whole country
looked like an immense garden; beautiful palms presented
themselves at all distances, waving their crowns in the
morning wind, and along the edge of the horizon before
me arose a chain of dark blue mountains, the heights of
Camerioca.
I was quite well; no human being could be better; both
body and soul had wings, and I flew over the beautiful,
brilliant earth.
The villas disappeared by degrees, and plantations of.
sugar-cane, and other vegetable growths which were unknown to me, took their places. We traveled through
whole forests of planted banana-trees.  After that the
landscape became wilder, and parasite plants showed
themselves on tree and meadow. Presently those got the
upper hand, and seemed to choke vegetation. The crowns
of many trees bore whole gardens of orchids and aloes on
their branches. The appearance was'queer rather than
beautiful, although various of these parasitic plants had
very lovely flowers, but the whole looked heavy and unnatural.  In one field not far from the road I noticed
a lofty, half-dead ceiba-tree, around the gigantic stem of
which the parasite Yag'uay embra, a female fig-tree, had
flung its hundred-fold arms in an immense embrace, entwining the tree from root to head, until it had nearly destroyed its life. This death-struggle between the ceibatree and the female parasite, which grows and nourishes
itself with its life, and finally destroys it, is a frequent
sight in Cuba, and it is a very remarkable and really unpleasant spectacle. There is a complete tragedy in the
picture, which reminds one of Hercules and Dejanira, of
King Agne and Aslog.
The first part of the day and the journey were full of
292 
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pleasures, among which -I must reckon some excellent
sandwiches and bananas which good Mrs. F. provided me
with, and as I ate them I thought of her, so motherly, so
kind, so thoughtful for me and for all who belong to her.
Gratitude and joy in human beings is the best food of the
soul. In a while the day became too warm, and the whole
of nature too much overrun with parasitic growths. It
oppressed me, and made me drowsy.
Some ladies with Spanish physiognomies entered the
carriage at one of the rail-way stations. They seemed to
be country people, but were well dressed, and wore no
covering on the head. Two of them were very handsome,
were stout, and bore themselves proudly and with great
hauteur and ungraciousness to a couple of gentlemen,
evidently their admirers, who attended them, and who, at
the last moment, presented bouquets with an air which
did not look despairing, but rather full of roguishness, as
they withdrew, without obtaining a glance from the proud
beauties. This woke me up a little. And I was wide
awake when we, in the afternoon, left behind us that region of ensnarement, and the landscape suddenly expanding itself, the city of Matanzas was before us, its glorious
bay now blue-clearly, brightly blue-and in the background the lofty mountain ridge, Pan de Matanzas, so
called from its form, and the opening to Yumori Valley.
The freshest, the most delicious breezes met us here; and
at the rail-way station I was met by two gentlemen, with
mild, agreeable countenances, who bade me welcome. It
was my countryman, Mr. F., from Gotheberg, now resident at Matanzas, and Mr. J. B., who conveyed me in his
volante to his handsome house.  Here I was received most
kindly by his handsome young wife, a Creole, but with
such a fair, fresh Northern appearance, that she needed
merely a helmet on her brow to have served as a model
for a Valkyria.
With this agreeable young couple I am spending my
98 
IHOMES OF' THE NEW WORLD.
time quietly and pleasantly, and invigorating myself, both
soul and body, partly in their fresh pleasant home-(my
young hostess is the daughter of an Anglo-American, and
every thing in the house bears the impress of that cleanliness, order, and excellent management which distinguish the housewives of that race)-and partly by my
solitary rambles in the neighborhood of the city, although
it is so unusual for a lady out of doors-especially with
a bonnet on her head-to make use of her own means of
promenade, instead of those of the horse or volante, that
little negro boys and girls run after me shouting and
laughing, and grown-up people stand and stare, and horses
and oxen are sometimes frightened. People are, however,
beginning now to be used to me, and to seeing me go out;
and I will not, without very good reasons, give up my solitary rambles of discovery.
Will you accompany me on one of them, the first, the
most charming which I have yet made, and when I, early
in the morning, visited alone the valley of Yumori? As
a matter of course, you must understand that the morning
was beautiful; but how beautiful nobody can understand
who has not experienced the early morning hour, and the
caresses of the spirit of the sea from Matanzas Bay. The
valley of Yumori lies about two hundred paces from Matanzas. You see a gorge between two lofty crags, and
through the gorge a bright little river, which flows between verdant banks to unite itself to the sea-I do not
say throw itself into it, because it is too tranquil for that.
It is clear and calm as a mirror. Let us follow the little
stream through the rocky portals, outside of which is open
meadow, and the broad blue Bay of Matanzas, with ships
from all the nations of the world sailing in, or lying at
anchor far, far into the distance.
We walk along the banks of the Yumori River, and
pass the mountain portals; and within, a wonderfully
beautiful valley expands, the green-sward overgrown with
294 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.                26
palms and verdurous shrubs, and inclosed on each side by
lofty mountain ridges. The shadows of the hills lie cool
and dusk upon that portion of the valley along which our
path runs.  How beautiful it is here in the cool shadow!
On our left is the mirror-like river, which begins to withdraw, under our gaze, into a wood of mangrove-a species of shrub which grows in the water, and increases by
throwing its twigs down to the bottom, where they take
root and spring up afresh into green shrubs.   On the
opposite side of the river rises abruptly, but with a soft,
waving outline, Pan de Matanzas, and on our side run
sloping upward the heights of Combre. The rock shoots
out on the hillsides in bold basaltic colonnades, scoops
itself into grottoes, mysterious porticoes, and arches which
are alone visited by the birds of heaven. The bold heights
are here and there crested with palms, and heavy trails
of creeping plants hang around them. Lower down, and
at their feet, the vegetation be-comes still more luxuriant;
it is one rich mass of beautiful trees, shrubs, and flowers,
among which I lost myself in delight and ignorance. I
know the popular names, however, of some of the flowers.
There glows the fever - flower, in gold and flame, inde.
scribably brilliant; there is the wild heliotrope, luxuriant
in growth, but as modest in color and form as our northern hot-house heliotrope; there is the beautiful white blossom of the mangrove, with a chalice half of the convolvulus and half of the lily form, and diffusing a delicious
fragrance; and there, along our path, at our very feet, see
that little shrub, full of small, splendidly crimson flowers,
with hundreds of little mouths or bills gaping on its stalk,
upward when they are young, and downward toward the
earth, upon which they fall, still quite crimson and fresh,
as they become older; and see how little velvet green
humming-birds flutter around them-how enamored they
are of them, how little afraid of us; how they dip, hovering on the wing, their long bills into the open bills of the 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
flowers-animal life and vegetable life here meet and kiss
-— it is most beautiful!  This plant, with its crimson, fall ing flowers, is Cupid's tears, Lacrymos cupido.  But Lac rymos cupido are not the pale tears of sorrow.  They are
the glowing tears of an overflowing, blissful heart. They
are wept by the heart of Nature, and winged lovers sip
their sweetness.
The valley still lies before us, but its extent is hidden.
The bend of the hills closes the view. Now) however, our
path suddenly turns to the right, and the valley reveals
itself.  Before us on the right lies, in the bosom of the
hills, and amid the most beautiful grove of palms, a little
farm, a Cuban farm, with palm-leaf-thatched roof, and
our path leads through groups of cocoa-palms, laden with
fruit.  Now we descend a little hill, and now on the right
of thle descent, at a short distance from the path, we find
the ruins of a stone wall and a well. All around grow,
in picturesque confusion, cocoa-palms, mamay, and mango-trees, cypresses, ceibas, and many other species of trees.
We advance down the little hill, and *toward the farm;
but just below it the path winds round to the left, and
now proceeds more straightforward up the valley. The
valley opens to.s  like a vast and beautiful palm-grove,
inclosed by an elliptical frame of hilltops. We still advance for a little distance; the valley becomes broader,
with softly undulating ground; and, whichever way we
turn, we see only palms-palms. Beneath such trees,
such groves, beautiful, immortal beings might wander!
Here again lies a little farm not far from the path, with
its straw-thatched house and brushwood cottage, between
which shines out a large blossoming oleander. We enter
to look around; we must beg a draught of water.   La
fermiere, a thin, shriveled, brown-eyed woman, looks as
if she would give us every thing which she possesses; but
she does not understand us, and we do not understand her.
But we obtain water for all that, and a great bunch of
996 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
blossoming oleander, which she breaks off for us with a
hearty good-will. The sun is now beginning to be hot,
let us therefore return; we will come hither again, for
we must become still better acquainted with the valley of
Yumori.
And see, here come Monteros, with their heavily-laden
horses, the packages being laid straight across their backs.
They salute us kindly with melodious voices, halt, and
inquire good-humoredly where goes la signora) and what
she wants. La signora says that she comes from Svecia.
The Monteros look at her perplexed, and then at one an other. They do not know such a place as Svecia, and can
not understand the wanderer.   She tells them that she is
from un paeso sotto la estreja del Norte! And'now they
believe she says that she comes from the north star, and
they say, " Oh!" and look at one another, and smile sig nificantly, and wrinkle their brows; they now comprehend
that la signora is somewhat wrong in the head, and, corn passionately shaking their heads, they drive on their horses.
I can not tell you how gentle and good-hearted they seem;
and, slowly following them, we pursue the road back to
Matanzas. Still the lofty mountain wall casts its shadow
over the cocoa palm grove by the well. We seat ourselves
on the broken stone wall, and breakfast on bananas, which
we have taken with us; an incomparable breakfast, in that
delicious morning air, in that wonderfully beautiful valley!  Gentle and happy people ought to live at the farm
among the palm-trees, up among the hills. Amid such
beautiful, joy-giving objects in that delicious air, human
beings should become gentle and good.
The sun climbs over the hills, and it is quite hot before
we reach Matanzas; but we have thus spent a beautiful
morning in the valley of Yumori.
I have made some acquaintance in the city of Matanzas,
and, through one of these, have been able to visit a large
coffee and sugar plantation in the neighborhood of the city
N2
297 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
There I saw avenues of many rare tropical trees and
plants; a kind of palm-tree, which twists its gigantically
strong branches like cork-screws, and bears gigantic fruit;
a kind of citron-tree, which bears immense citron-like fruit,
but which are not valued as such. I was most interested
by making acquaintance with the sago and date palms,
with arrow-root, with the guava-tree and its pleasant fruit,
as well as with the wonderfully beautiful hibiscus flowers; and nothing delighted me more than to be surrounded
with little fluttering humming-birds, which are, on the
island, so remarkably fearless of man, and continually
hover around the splendid red flowers with which Cuba
seems to adorn herself rather than with flowers of any
other col6r.  Their rapid, arrow-like flight hither and
thither, the fluttering movement of their.wings while they
are sipping from the flowers, are a perpetual astonishment
and delight to me. They correspond with nothing which
I have seen of animal or human life, and they seem to me
not to be made of this earth's dust. A favorite place of
resort for their building seems to be on the banks of lovely
little purling brooks, shaded by thick masses of foliage,
where the nests are concealed among the trees. Among
the curiosities of the place, I observed many orchideous
parasites hanging from the trees, as well as a large ceiba
tree, encircled by its hostile mistress, Yaguay embra, and
killed by its dangerous embrace.
The plantation, for the rest, had a very forlorn appear.
ance, in consequence of the two last tornadoes, which
came in rapid succession, and left it in perfect desolation;
besides which the cholera had carried off a great portion
of the negro slaves.
"The Lord punishes our sins, punishes our sins!" said
the owner of the plantation, with an expression half of
levity, half of repentance and acknowledgment of the
justice of the punishment. Hie was an elderly man, with
French manners and nervous excitability, but a very po
298 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
lite host.  I would very willingly be his guest, but not
his slave. The slave-rooms, in a low wall or building,
were no better than dark pig-styes with us. There was
also a hospital. It was a large, dark room, in which
stood some wooden bedsteads, but without coverlets or
pillows, nor was there a ray of light in the room. He
was himself, he said, the only physician of the sick: he
could himself let blood, &c. I could not help shuddering.
The plantation seemed almost a desert.  I saw a shriveled old negro cripple steal past us, with a shy, submissive
look. A little sharp lad waited at table with an unconcerned air, and who seemed not to trouble himself in the
least about his master's violent exclamations and movements.
This gentleman was at one time very wealthy, but he
has during the last few years suffered great losses, which
he is said to bear with great equanimity.
Matanzas is built in the same style as Havana, but has
a more open and cheerful appearance; the streets are
considerably wider, although not paved. The house of
my friends here is two stories high; a piazza runs round
the upper story opening into the street, and here I walk
in the evenings inhaling the air, while my hostess in the
drawing-room plays Cuban contra-dances in exquisite
time, and full of abounding life.  One hears these dances
ounding at all distances from the houses of the city.
Wherever one may be, or wherever one goes in Matanzas,
this dance-music may be heard. The time and measure
are derived from the children of Africa, the peculiar music
from the Spanish Creoles of Cuba, and one hears in it
Spanish seguidillas, national songs, and marches.  Both
Mr. and Mrs. B. are musical, and it is a pleasure to me to
hear him play, on the organ notes of the piano, the Catholie anthem, Adeste Fideles, and to hear him play the Spanish dances, Hauta Arragonesa, El Sabbatheo, &c. The
most sparkling Champagne of life exists in these national
299 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dances. It is amusing to compare with these our polkas
and other popular dances; they are not deficient in this
abounding, sparkling life, but they want refinement and
grace. These dissimilar national dances stand in the
same relationship as Champagne, and ale, and mead.
Matanzas, March 1st.
If there be one place on earth where the spirit of life
has a separate individual existence, as pure, as pleasant,
as full of vitality as when it first was breathed forth by
the Lord of life and love, it is-here. The atmosphere
here has a kind of vitalizing life, which is a perpetual
marvel to me and a perpetual delight.  It is especially in
the afternoons, after two or three o'clock, that this peculiar, wonderful life arises. It is one constant pleasant
wafting, not from any particular distance, but every where,
and from all points, which makes every light and movable
thing around you waft, and, as it were, breathe and live.
That indescribable, but, at the same time, pleasant and
life-giving wafting caresses your brow, your cheeklightly lifts your dress, your ribbons-surrounds you, goes
through you, as it were, bathes you in an atmosphere of
salutary, regenerating life. I feel its influence in both
soul and body; I drink that wind, that air, as one might
dank a renovating elixir of life, and I am ready to look
round to see whether any angel is near, whether any heavenly presence sits on the crowns of the palms, which produces this wonderful life. I call it the breath of God, as
I softly walk to and fro on the piazza, or lean over the
iron railing and give myself up to its caresses, and until
late at night inhale its salutary life. Oh my Agatha! it
whispers to me wonderful emotions and anticipations of
the Creator's wealth-of those hidden glories which "no
eye hath seen, no ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive, but which God hath prepared
for those who love Him." This wonderful spirit of life is
to me the greatest marvel of Cuba; and I can not deseribe how beneficial its influence seems to me.
300: 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Since I last wrote I have spent more deliciously tranquil days at Matanzas, the beautiful, healthy situation of
which is not subject to oppressive heats, and where I feel
so wonderfully well. Early in the mornings I set forth
on my solitary expeditions of discovery, and in the afternoon drive out in a volante with my kind hostess, and
breathe the soft sea-breeze as we drive along la pleja.
I have spent one whole day in Yumori Valley, partly
to sketch some trees and cottages, and partly to see how
the country people live Mere. For this purpose I determined to take up my quarters at the little peasant farm
with the oleander-trees; and the good B.'s allowed me to
drive there in their volante, and take with me one of their
female negroes as a servant and interpreter. Cecilia, the
negro woman, has the most beautiful dark eyes I ever
saw in a dark countenance-although such have generally
beautiful eyes-teeth like Oriental pearls, and a quiet,
gentle, and unusually serious demeanor. My poor Cecilia
is ill, and probably incurably so, of consumption, and Mrs.
B. wishes her now to enjoy a little country air and life.
Cecilia is only lately married to a youfing man of her own
color; she is happy in her marriage, and happy as the
slave of good owners, and would gladly live.
When we reached the peasant farm, Cecilia preferred
my request to la fermiere, who, with animated gestures,
immediately declared that the whole house was at my
disposizion. I installed myself in the most airy of the
small houses, which was furnished likewise with a rustic
piazza, shaded by the palm-leaf-thatched roof. The floors
were of bare earth, but the rooms were in other respects
comfortable, and had well-furnished beds, and were tolerably clean. A little colored picture on paper was pasted
on the wall of the bed-room proper, representing the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus, with an inscription in Spanish. I inquired from the good housewife what was the
purport of it, and she replied, with an aspect of devotion,
301
4m 
HOMES OF THE NEW WO]LD.
that "it was written there that whoever bought such a
picture obtained forgiveness of sin for forty days." It was
also printed upon the picture that such an indulgence
was granted a todos los fideles, as owned una salve a
nuestra Sennora del Rosario. C'est imprime.
Below the picture stood the following verse:
Fragranti rosa es Maria
En el jardin celestiel,
Y el amparo maternel
Del peccador cada die.
This indulgence for the sins of forty days might be
bought for a quarter of a pesos (about a fourth of a dollar).  It is remarkable that in a country where such permissions for sin are openly prepared, and bought and sold,
that the people should still continue pious and inoffens.
ive; but so it is.  The poor country people of Cuba are
said to be remarkable for their good and quiet disposition.
It is certainly owing to the delicious air! - The people of
my rural abode were from the Canary Islands, where it
is more difficult for the indigent to provide for themselves
than in Cuba. For this reason, a great number of poor
people, whose occupation is agriculture, come hither.
At about ten o'clockay hostess went up to some high
ground, and blew upon a shell, which produced a shrill
but not inharmonious sound, calculated to reach to a great
distance.  This was the signal for the men, who were out
at work in the valle.y, to assemble for breakfast.  The
breakfast was prepared for seven or eight persons in the
piazza under the straw roof of the little house which
contained the kitchen.  A parrot (una cotorera) sat below
it also, in its- cage of iron-wire.  Violet-blue doves flew
arouand us hither and thither, and cocks and hens promenaded round us with the queerest twisted necks, which
gave them  a deformed look.  The men, both old and
young, with gloomy, cheerless countenances, assembled
or breakfast, which consisted of stock-fish and yams,
go
a 
ROMES OF THE-SNEW WORLD.
maize-bread, roasted plantains (a coarse kind of bananas),
and flesh-meat, besides which was a sort of light yellow
meal, served in a large bowl, but the name of which I
could not learn, because Cecilia spoke but imperfect English. The breakfast was abundant, but badly set out and
badly cooked.
The dinner consisted of boiled meat, brown beans, and
boiled rice; but all so insufficiently boiled, so hard and
insipid, that I could not eat any thing which the kindheartedfermniere heaped up on a plate for me, and if
Cecilia had not brought for herself some rice and potatoes (I would not bring more with us), which she cooked
and she and I ate with fresh butter, also from my Matanzas home, I must have suffered that day from hunger.
Now, however, I lived like a shepherdess in a story, and
crowned my meal with bananas and delicate sugar-cake.
I talked about many things with my good Cecilia. She
had been stolen as a child from Africa; she was only
eight years old when she was taken from her mother, and
this mother remained lovingly impressed on her memory.
She remembered how her mother had loved her, how tender she had been toward h, and Cecilia wished to return to Africa that she might see her once more.  She
made no complaints of her master and mistress; they had
always been kind to her, she said, and now especially was
she happy in her situation; but she longed to see her
mother once more.
And Cecilia will see her mother before long, but not
on this earth.
Two little dark-eyed children, Joannito and Annit,, were
my play-fellows in the cottage, especially the little boy,
who was full of merriment, and yet in a quiet and agreeable way.
I drew a little, sitting in the piazza, under the straw
roof, and when the heat of the day was over I set-out with
Cecilia to explore the valley to its full extent. We did
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
so, although the ramble was a long one, and Cecilia was
so fatigued that I became very anxious about her. But,
by resting at various places by the way, we at length
reached the cottage in safety, though not until after the
sun had set, when the stars shone brightly down into the
valley. We did not meet with any one, excepting some
Monteros in the twilight, who saluted us in their melodi ous voices with a "Buona tardi" or "Adios!"
The valley retained to its close very much the same
features; a succession of beautiful palm-groves, here and
there a little group of palm-leaf-thatched houses; and to ward the end of the valley, which was there also inclosed
by hills, although not equal in height to Pan de Matanzas and Combre, lay a sugar plantation, with a sugarmill, negro slaves, a slave village, &c., belonging to it.
The beautiful valley even has its share in the old curse.
The crimson glow of sunset, seen above the verdant
heights, and the calm splendor of heaven through the
palm-trees, were indescribably beautiful, and when the
stars shone forth they appeared to me larger and brighter
than I had ever seen them before.
This beautiful valley has, however, no memories worthy of the pure glances of heaven. It derives its name,
it is said, from the death-cry of its Indian aborigines, "Io
mnore," when they, in order to escape being massacred by
the Spaniards, flung themselves from the heights down
into the river which divides one portion of the valley. And
of the little farm in the palm-grove imbosomed in the
hills, the loveliness of which enchanted me the first morning I was here, nothing is related excepting a bloody family-quarrel. A father dwelt there with several sons. They
were to divide the farm, but a quarrel arose about the
boundaries of the property, and every night one landmark
or another was removed. One morning-one of those
beautiful tropical mornings!-the brothers, who had quarreled about the landmarks, came to blows; other mem
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
bers of the family rushed in to take one side or the other,
and the result of the combat was eleven dead bodies.
Such is the story which was told me. It occurred not
so long since, and the farm is now possessed by one of the
sons who remained.
Such are the traditions of Yumori Valley; and Matan zas-Matanzas, where the wafting breath of life plays
round you with such enchanting vitality-Matanzas is
the name for "the field of blood," or "the battle-field,"
and is so called from a bloody battle which was fought
here many hundred years ago by the Indian aborigines.
It is sorrowful to think of it. It is not, however, without
pleasure that I feel the breath of God in the wind pass
over the formerly bloody field. It seems to say, when all
scenes of murder and violence cease on the earth, He is
still the same, and His life the same, eternally efficacious, eternally salutary, regenerating; and these beautiful palms, Cupid's tears, and humming-birds, and all the
beautiful existences and shapes of life, shall appear with
it, and-remain.
Mrs. B.'s volante came to fetch me and Cecilia in the
deep twilight. We took with us sugar-cane from the
plantation, which Cecilia desired for the little girls at
home; and, as a token of her hearty good-will, my good
fermiere gave me as a parting gift her indulgence for for.
ty days' sins, and which I shall taklie with me to Sweden
and present to Bishop Fahlcrantz.
I returned home, half roasted in my rural abode, and
for three days afterward had to work hard in freeing myself from swarms of fleas, which I brought back with me
from my Arcadian excursion.
The number of small insects of various kinds is really
one of the torments of this country, and I found this
plague also in South Carolina and Georgia. If one left
a little piece of cake or bread lying in the rooms, it was
immediately surrounded by a swarm of little worms and
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
creeping things.  Here in Cuba it is the ants which are
especially troublesome, one small kind of which will, it is
said, undermine a large house.
During the days that I amused myself by drawing my
little memorials of the valley of Yumori, and among other
lovely things, the Cupid's tears kissed by the little humming-birds, I had laid some of those flowers upon the table
beside me-that is to say, some of the small red blossoms
which had fallen-that I might examine at my leisure
their form and veining. To my surprise, however, I observed that one after another of these blossoms disappeared
from the table.  I laid somne fresh ones there, but it was
not long before they too had vanished. I could not understand how it was. By chance, however, casting my
eyes toward one of the walls of the room, I there, to my
astonishment, beheld my flowers advancing in a long row
up it to the very ceiling. Very, very small light-colored
ants were dragging them up, and had made a regular line
from my table up to the ceiling, where they disappeared.
They were so small and light that I at first had not noticed them. One single ant dragged in this way up the
wall a blossom which was twelve times larger than itself.
I was one evening one of the spectators of a great ball
given by the free negroes of Matanzas for La Casa de
Beneficienza in the city, to which the white public were
invited by the black.   The ball took place in the theatre,
and the gazing public occupied the boxes.  Mr. B., and
my young and agreeable countryman, Mr. F., accompanied me; and one of my unknown benefactors, who, I believe, was a Spaniard, hastened forward at the entrance
to the theatre and paid the admission fee for the foreign
signora. And speaking of this, I may as well mention
what I have here heard of the politeness of Spaniards to
ladies, which exceeds any thing that I have experienced
among other nations; even the chivalry of the Americans
is not to be compared to it. It is true, at times it seems
306 
HOMES OF THE NEW WOltD.
to be more than necessary, and it may be mere sham and
hollowness; but there is, nevertheless, something beautiful and noble at the bottom, in its usages and forms.  As,
for instance, ladies, and even gentlemen who are strangers, will not be allowed to pay for their own purchases
at fancy-shops, in eating-houses, confectioners' shops, and
such like, or for their tickets at the theatres; and yet neither the lady nor the stranger-gentlemati will have any
idea to whom it is that he is obliged for this politeness.
Suppose, now, that you go to a perfumer's to purchase a
bottle of eau de rose, or to a confectioner's for un libro de
dulces (Cuba dulces, or sweetmeats, are very celebrated),
and you are about to pay for them. You take out your
pesos, but they are returned to you with a polite bow, and
"It costs you nothing, signora!"  And it will do no good
though you should remonstrate, neither is it worth while.
Some gentleman has been, or is then among the purchasers, perhaps unknown to you, but well known to the people of the shop, and he has given a secret sign or nod,
which has expressed, "I shall pay for her!" and then has
left the shop, or goes on reading his newspaper, and you
never know to whom you are obliged for this polite at.
tention. Two of my lady acquaintances at Havana told
me that they were annoyed and distressed by continual
politeness of this kind, and which laid them under silent
obligations which they had no means of discharging; and
I can very well understand that the thing may have its
annoyances, but it is very polite nevertheless; and toward a foreigner and a stranger, it is a politeness which
is both beautiful and noble, when it declines the possibility of thanks.
But to return to the negro banquet and ball.
A banquet, arranged with flowers, lamps, and ornaments, occupied the lower part of the dancing hall. The
dancers amounted to between two and three hundred
versons. The black ladies were, for the most part, well
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dressed, after the French mode, and many of them vegy
fine. Some couples danced, with great dignity and pre.
cision, some exceedingly tiresome minuets. What a foolish dance it is when it is not danced with beauty by beautiful or charming people! The principal lady.in this case
was so ugly, spite of her really magnificent apparel and
fine carriage, as to remind me of a dressed-up ape, and
the movements of the cavaliers were deficient in natural
elasticity, which the negroes in general seemed to want.
But the great dance of the ball, a kind of wreathdance, in which the whole company took part, amid innumerable artistic entanglements and disentanglements
-the grouping and inwreathing themselves, in an infinite variety of ways, with chains of artificial roses-all
this was really lovely and picturesque, and was executed
with exquisite precision; and if there had been a little
less formality, and more natural animation, I could have
believed that I beheld in it a type of civilized negro life.
Those beautiful dark eyes, those splendid white teeth, in
some pretty young girls especially, shone out joyously
while they bent their heads and then rose from beneath
the arches of rose-garlands.
Many of the negroes were wealthy, and one young negro was pointed out to me in the company as being possessed of property to the amount of 20,000 dollars.
The Spanish law for the West Indian colonies, los lejes
de los Indios, has some excellent and just enactments, as
regards the rights and the emancipation of negro slaves,
which those of the American states are still deficient in,
to their shame be it spoken! Their laws are purely opposed to the slave's acquisition of freedom and independence. The laws of the Spaniards favor the slaves in these
respects. Here the slave is able to purchase his own freedom for the stipulated legal sum of five hundred dollars,
and the judges (syndics) are commanded to watch over
the rights of the slave. Here a mother may purchase the
308 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD,
freedom of her child, before its birth, for fifteen dollars,
and after its birth for double that sum. She may eman cipate her child.
Slaves here, at all events in the cities, have a much bet ter chance of acquiring money than in the American slave
states; and, as free negroes, they are able to carry on
trade, to rent land, to pursue agriculture and other occupations; and many free negroes have acquired property
by trade. On the other hand, the condition of the slaves
on the plantations here is, in general, much worse; they
are worked much harder, and they lack all religious instruction. They are regarded altogether as cattle, and the
slave-trade with Africa is still carried on actively, although
privately. A few days ago a cargo of seven hundred negroes was secretly conveyed from Africa to Havana.*. The
government of the island received fifty dollars for each
slave as " hush-money," and was silent. Pleasant and
honorable!
The negroes in the cities look cheerful and healthy.
One sees many handsome, well-grown, and not unfrequently splendidly dressed mulatto women on the promenades and in the churches. The fair mulattoes so nearly
resemble the Spaniards in complexion and feature that it
is difficult to distinguish them. The Spaniards are said
to be, in general, very kind to their domestic slaves, and
not unfrequently indulgent to their weaknesses.
March 2. Good-morning, my little heart! I have just
returned from mass in Matanzas church, for Matanzas has
only one church, although it has a population of above
thirty thousand souls. I heard there thundering music
from the Spanish soldiery of the city, which greatly resembled the music of the dance; saw great parade of those
* These poor creatures are not sold here publicly, but in secret. They
are said to be emaciated in a high degree, and look miserable when they
are first landed, after the voyage from Africa, which is a three weeks'
martyrdom for them; and they require to be fed up and brought into
condition before they can tempt purchasers.
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HOME OF THE NEW WORLD
occupying the centre aisle of the church; group,of ladies
on their knees on splendid mats, many of them handsome,
and all in grand array of silk and velvet, jewels or flowers, with bare necks and arms; all with transparent veils,
black or white, thrown over the gayly-attired form, and
evidently more occupied with their appearance than with
their prayer-books; around them stood rows of well-dressed gentlemen, evidently more occupied with gazing at the
ladies than with-any thing else; divine service and devotion existed not, excepting in the hearts of two persons
at least judging from appearance-the one an'elderly man,
and a Spaniard, the other a mulatto woman. The rest
was a grand show of priests and ceremonial. The choir
of the church was in a gallery near the roof, covered with
palm-branches, banners, and holy pictures. Palm-leaves
were blessed and distributed.  The Spanish soldiers took
part in the solemnity, standing in line in the church;
most of them appeared to be young men of slender figure,
and refined and handsome features. Slaves, both male
and female, after they had rolled out the mats for their
mistresses and their daughters, withdrew themselves into
the background of the church, where they knelt upon the
bare floor. A stranger and a Protestant knelt there among
them and prayed-for them as well as for herself and her
beloved ones. But her prayer here for herself is thanksgiving. She also received some of the blessed palm-leaves,
and will convey them to her home in the remote North,
in memory of this morning hour. It was a beautiful,
warm, sunny morning. Life looked delicious and easy
for all.  Oh! if the inner life here only corresponded to the
outer, how easy it would be to live and to crown one's
self with garlands!
The costume of those beautiful ladies gave me pleasure,
although I can not approve of it for a church, and that
Spanish mantilla, which, however, is said to be going
more and more out of use, produces an infinitely pictur
sio, 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
esque effect. The negro and mulatto women use it most ly as a long shawl and of thicker material, to screen them
from the sun when they are out in the middle of the day.
Sometimes, and even to-day, I have seen ladies, evidently
not of the lower class, dressed in garments of coarse gray
sackcloth, and with this scarf of the same cloth over the
head. I have been told that this is in fulfillment of some
vow or prayer, made in time of need, or of sickness for
themselves or their friends.
I shall to-day leave Matanzas to accompany my kind
friends to a sugar-plantation belonging to Mrs. B.'s parents, at a place called Limonar, about fifteen miles off. I
shall there study trees and flowers, and the Lord knows
what else. After a stay of a few days at Limonar, I shall
go to Madame De C.'s, who resides on a large sugar.plan.
tation situated between Matanzas and the city of Cardinas. Kind and hospitable people provide me here also
with opportunities of seeing the country and the people,
and I can not say how thankful I am for this kindness.
Ariadne Inhegno, March 7th.
I have now been here for more than a week in the very
lap of slavery, and during the first few days of my visit I
was so depressed that I was not able to do much.  Close
before my window-the residence of'the planter is a large
one-storied house-I could not avoid seeing the whole day
a group of negro women working under the whip, the
cracking of which (in the air, however) above their heads,
and the driver's (a negro) impatiently-repeated cry of
"Arrea! Arrea!' be quick! get on! kept them working on without any intermission. And through the night
-the whole night-I heard their weary footsteps, as they
spread out to dry upon the flagged pavement, outside my
window, the crushed sugar-cane which they carried from
the sugar-mill. In the daytime it is their work to rake
up together the sun-dried canes, la bagaza, and carry
them in baskets again to the sugar-mill, where they servo
31,1 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
as fuel to heat the furnaces in which the sugar is boiled.
The work on a sugar-plantation must go on incessantly,
night and day, during the whole time of the sugar-harvest, which is, in Cuba, during the whole season called la
Secca, which is probably half the year. It is true that I
frequently heard the women chattering and laughing during their incessant labor, untroubled by the cracking of
the whip, and that during'the night I often heard African
songs and merry shouts, but which-sounding from the
sugar-mill-lacked all melody and music. I know also
that the laborers on this plantation were changed every
seven hours, so that they always have six hours in every
four-and-twenty for rest and refreshment; and that during two nights in the week the sugar-mill rests, and they
are able to sleep; but still I could not reconcile myself to
it. Neither can I now, but I can bear it better, since I
have seen the cheerfulness of the slaves at their work,
and their good, pleasant, and even joyous appearance, as
a general rule, on this plantation.
I have several times visited the Negro-Slaves' Bohea,
which is a kind of low fortress-like wall, built on the
four sides of t large, square court-yard, with a large gateway on one side, which is locked at night. The slaves'
dwellings are within the wall-one room for each family
-and open into the court.  Nothing is to be seen on the
outside of the wall but a row of small openings, secured
with iron-bars, one to each room, and so high in the wall
that the slaves can not look out from within. In the
middle of the large court-yard is a building which serves
as a cooking-kitchen, wash-house, &c. I have been present in this bohea more than once at the slaves' mealtimes, and seen them fetch their calabash bowls full of
snow-white rice, which had been boiled for them in an
immense kettle, and which the black cook dealt out with
a ladle, and with what seemed to me unreserved liberal
ity.  I have seen the slaves' white teeth shine out, and
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
heard them chattering and laughing as they devoured the
white rice grains, of which they are very fond (many
times helping themselves to them with their fingers).
They have, besides, salt fish and smoked meat; I saw
also, in some of their rooms, bunches of bananas and to matoes. According to law, a planter must furnish each
slave with a certain measure of dried fish or salted meat
per week, together with a certain number of bananas.
But the slave-master, of course, does just as he pleases,
for what law will call him to account? The appearance,
however, of the slaves on this plantation testifies evi dently of their being well fed and well contented.
I often made the inquiry as I pointed to their food,
E buono? and always received in reply the words Si e
buono! with a contented and ready smile.
I have already heard it said in America that the French
were considered the most judicious of slaveholders; and
my host here, Mr. C., who is of French origin, born in
St. Domingo, is a proof to me of the truth of this assertion. He works his slaves very hard; but he feeds them
well, and takes good care of them, and they do their work
cheerfully and quickly.
Mr. C. is a courteous, lively, and loquacious Frenchman, with a good deal of acuteness and sagacity of mind;
and I have to thank him for much valuable information
-among other things, on the various negro tribes of Africa, their character, life, and social state on the coast,
from which the greater number of slaves are brought
hither-for the most part purchased from African chiefs,
according to agreement with the white slave-dealerMr. C. having himself been there, and being therefore
good authority on the subject. I have also learned from
him how to distinguish the different tribes by their characteristic features, and their various modes of tattooing
themselves.
The Congo negroes, called the Frenchmen of Africa, are
VoL. II.-O
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
a vivacious, gay, but vain people; they have depressed
noses, wide mouths, thick lips, splendid teeth, and high
cheek-bones; they are strong and broad built, but not tall
of stature. The Gangas negroes are kindred to the Congoes. The Luccomees and Mandingoes, on the contrary,
the noblest of these coast tribes, are tall of stature, with
handsome and often remarkably regular, and even noble
features, the expression of which is grave. The negro
preachers and fortune-tellers are principally of the Mandingo tribes. The Luccomees are a proud and contentious
people; they are difficult to manage in the commencement
of their life of slavery; they are lovers of freedom, and
easily excited to violence; but if they are well and justly
treated-(such just treatment as they can receive when
they are held as slaves!)-they become in a few years
the best and the most confidential laborers on the plantation. The Callavalis, or Caraballis negroes, are also a
good people, although more lazy and careless. I have
seen among them some magnificent figures. They have
flatter noses and broader countenances than the Luccomees, and the expression is not so grave. All the negroes here are tattooed in the face; some around the eyes,
others on the cheek-bones, and so on, according to the
custom of the nation to which they belong. The greater
number-even of the men-wear necklaces of red or of
blue beads-the red, the coral-like seed of a kind of tree
on the island; and the greater number, men as well as
women, wear striped cotton handkerchiefs bound around
the head.  There is here a negro of the Fellah tribe, a
little man, with delicate features, and the long, black,
shining hair which is said to be peculiar to this tribe.
Such are the principal of the negro tribes and characteristics with which I have become acquainted.
But I must tell you about one negro, whose history is
closely connected with the family on this plantation, and
which has been related to me. It is a beautiful instance
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the peculiar nobility of the negro character when this
approaches its proper development. This man is called
Samedi, or Saturday, and was the servant of Mr. C.'s parents in St. Domingo when the celebrated massacre took
place there, and from which he saved, at the peril of his
own life, the two sons, then boys, of his master, my host
being one of them. He carried them on his shoulders in
the night, through all dangers, down to the harbor, where
he had secured for himself and the boys a passage in a
small vessel to Charleston, in South Carolina. Safely arrived here, he placed the two boys at school, and hired
himself out as a servant. He and the boys also had lost
every thing they possessed in the horrible night at St. Domingo. He had been alone able to save their lives. He
now maintained and clothed them and himself by his labor. Each week he took to the boys each three dollars
of his wages, and-this he continued till the boys grew into
young men, and he an old man.
My host went to sea, and acquired wealth by his ability
and good fortune. Afterward, when he was possessed of
a plantation in Cuba, and had married, he took old Saturday to live with him; and now he took care of him in
his turn, and every week gave to him three dollars as
pocket-money in return for those which he had received
from this magnanimous negro in his boyish years. Old
Saturday lived here long and happily, and free from care,
beloved and esteemed by all. Hie died two years since in
extreme old age. He was an upright Christian, and very
pious. It was, therefore, a surprise to his master after his
death to find that he wore upon his breast an African
amulet, a piece of folded paper printed very small, with
letters and words in an African tongue, and to which the
negroes appear to ascribe a supernatural power. But
good Christianity does not trouble herself about such little
heathenish superstition, the remains of twilight after the
old night. Our good Christian peasantry of Sweden can
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
not help still believing in fairies and witchcraft, in wise
men and women, and I myself believe in them to a certain degree. There is still witchcraft enough prevailing,
but
The good can say our dear Lord's prayer,
And fear neither witch nor devil!
Still, nevertheless,
It is so dark, far, far away in the forest!
What do you now say to this negro slave-?  Ought, indeed, a race of people which can show such heroes, ever
to have been enslaved? But this conduct of Saturday's
is by no means a solitary instance of its kind in that bloody
night of St. Domingo. Many slaves saved, or endeavored
to save, their masters or their children, and many lost their
lives in the attempt.
My visit to the slaves' bohea was not so consolatory to
me as two visits which I paid to the cottages of the free
negroes in the village of Limonar, which is very near this
plantation. Early one beautiful morning I set off thither
on an expedition of discovery. The small houses there,
some of bark, others of woven brushwood, were all built
in the form of cones, with palm-leaf roofs, and surrounded
with cocoa-nut, palm, and other tropical trees, so that the
whole village had an African appearance, at least according to what I have read and heard of African huts and
cities.  There was a certain picturesque disorder in every
thing-a beauty in the beautiful trees, which was refreshingafter the Anglo-American regularity.   The huts seemed built by guess, and with as little trouble as possible,
and the trees had sprung up of themselves out of the warm
earth to overshadow them. Each little homestead stood
in the morning sun like an earthly paradise. And they
were earthly paradises, these little farms with their bark
huts and palrns; they were, the greater number of them,
the abodes of free negroes. I was not sure of this, as yet,
this morning, but I had a presentiment of it as I wander
131.6 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed through the village. Some unusual-looking trees and
fruit in a little inclosure to the right attracted me, and
there I determined to make a morning visit. The little
gate was the most rickety gate in the world, but the most
willing to allow ingress. I passed through it, and, advancing along a little sanded path, which wound round to
the left, arrived at a palm-thatched bark hut, under some
cocoa palms. A little below lay a shadowy grove of banana and mango trees, and trees with a kind of white,
round fruit hanging from their flexile branches; near the
hut grew the tall trees, like some kind of palm, which had
particularly attracted my attention; they were, I found,
cactus plants and flowers. I was here struck, beyond every thing else, with a general appearance of order and at.
tention, which it is very unusual to find in and about the
houses of the children of Africa. The hut was well built
and kept up, and the numerous tropical trees around it
had evidently been planted con amore. The little hut had
also its piazza under the palm-leaf roof, and some sugarcane was lying on the table.
The door stood open; fire burned on the floor-a certain
sign that it was inhabited by an African! The morning
sun shone in through the door, and I also looked in. The
interior was spacious, neat, and clean. On the left sat
an old negro on his low bed, dressed in a blue shirt and
woolen cap; he sat with his elbows propped on his knees,
and his face resting on his hands, turned toward the fire,
and evidently half asleep. He did not see me, and I therefore could look around me undisturbed. An iron pot with
a plate over it stood on the fire, and before the fire sat a
tortoise-shell cat, and by her, on one leg, stood a white
chicken.   Fire, iron pot, cat, and chicken, every thing
seemed half asleep in the sunshine which streamed in
upon them. The cat just looked at me, then winked her
eyes again, and gazed at the fire. It was a picture of real
tropical still-life. Golden ears of maize-corn, fruit, and
317 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dried meat, and garden-tools hung upon the brown walls
of the cottage.
In a little while the old man rose up, and, without observing me, turned himself round and began to lay together his bed-clothes, very little of which, however, the
bed possessed.   He folded up sheets and coverlid, and
finally rolled up a small, closely woven, and handsome
mat, which served as a mattress. When he had laid them
aside very carefully, he again seated himself on his little
bedstead, which was merely a few boards, and gazed again
sleepily at the fire.  Presently, however, he looked up,
and became aware of me. He gave me a friendly look,
as if in salutation, and said " Cafe!" but I did not know
whether he invited me to take coffee with him, or asked
for some from me. The cat and the chicken seemed to
smell breakfast, and began to move, and as I supposed
that the breakfast hour might be at hand and the breakfast over the fire, I bade the old man, the cat, and the
chicken "Buon dios! Retornero!" and leaving them to
understand that as they might, I proceeded onward around
the little plantation.
I found in the banana grove two little brushwood cottages, in each of which there dwelt a large pig, which
was just now enjoying its breakfast of large banana leaves.
Swine are the principal wealth of the negro husbandman,
and even of the plantation-slaves. They are fattened without difficulty on banana leaves and the fruits of the earth,
and are sold when fat for about fifteen dollars each. Beyond the fruit tree and swine grove lay a field in which
maize and some kind of root were cultivated, but very indifferently. A negro man and woman were here at work,
but the work was evidently ad libitum.  We greeted one
another, and made an attempt to converse, but it ended
in laughter.   They burst into peals of laughter at my
words and at my want of understanding, and I laughed
at their capital hearty laughter, really tropical, luxuriant
318 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
laughter. It cheers the very soul to see negroes chattering and laughing.
This little homestead, which seemed to be about two
acres, was inclosed with a fence, in part paling, in part a
stone wall, and in part a quick hedge. After I had seen
all there was to see, had laughed and shaken hands with
the negroes, I returned to the sugar plantation to breakfast. 
I learned from Mr. C. that the tall, palm - like trees,
which were hung with bunches of fruit resembling small
cocoa-nuts, are called papaya, and those which bear white
fruits caimetos; that the old negro whom I visited is
named Pedro; that he was born of a free mother, and has
always been known as a remarkably good and honest
man. He himself built his house and planted the trees
on the little plot of ground, which he rented from the
church for five pesos yearly. The village of Limonar was,
as I imagined, principally built and inhabited by negro
slaves who have purchased their own freedom, and who
rent land in the village; many, however, he said, were
not as creditable as old Pedro; many were lazy, and maintained themselves rather by stealing sugar-cane, fruit, &c.,
than by producing it.
At my request Mrs. C. accompanied mc one afternoon
on another visit to the negroes at Limonar, to act as interpreter in my conversation with them. This lady is as
quiet and gentle in her demeanor as her husband is active and vivacious; she is musical, and has a voice which
is real music to hear, in particular when she speaks the
beautiful Spanish tongue. We visited various negro houses,
most of which were inferior in all respects to that of Pedro. The negroes hold their.plots of ground by the tenure of a small yearly payment, or by yielding up a portion of the produce to some Spanish Creole. I asked them
if they wished to return to Africa; to which they replied,
laughing, "No; they were very well off here!"  Most of
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themrn had, nevertheless, been stolen from Africa after they
had passed the years of childhood. We met with one
woman whose arm had been injured, and on Mrs. C. asking her the cause of this, she related in Spanish, with animated gestures, the story of cruel treatment which she,
the defenseless slave, had received at the hands of her
master or his agent. Lastly, we went to old Pedro's. I
had furnished myself with some coffee for him, and with
some Spanish phrases for the people who had charge of
him-the man and woman whom I had seen in the field.
They were now in the cottage, and old Pedro was sitting
there, just as before.
The man's right arm had been crushed in the sugarmill, which had obliged it to be amputated above the elbow, after which he purchased his freedom for two hundred pesos; and the woman had also purchased her freedom
for the same sum, if I remember correctly. I asked them
whether they would like to return to Africa. They answered, with a merry laugh, " No; what should they do
there?  They were very happy here!"  They were thoroughly contented and happy. I besought them to be kind
to old Pedro, and God would recompense them!  Again
they laughed loudly, and replied, " Yes! yes!"  Never
before had I discovered how amusing I could be.
It had become dark while we were standing in the cottage under the cocoa and papaya trees; and the stars
came forth, gleaming softly from the deep blue sky. We
saw from the place where we stood, and which was considerably elevated ground, the red fires shining from the
furnaces of Mr. C.'s sugar-mill, and heard the wild songs
and shout:s which proceeded thence. There was slavelabor; life without rest; the d6minion of the whip; the
glowing furnace of slavery; here freedom, peace, and rest
beneath this beautiful tropical heaven, in the bosom of its
affluent fruit-garden. The contrast was striking.
Cuba is at once the hell and the paradise of the ne
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groes. The slave has severer labor on the plantation, but
a better future, a better prospect of freedom and happiness than the slave of the United States. The slave
standing by the hot furnace of the sugar-mill can look to
those heights where the palm-trees are waving, and think
to himself-" I too can take my rest beneath them one
of these days!"
And when he does so, when he lives like old Pedro, or
the mrhan with only one arm and his wife, who can be
happier than he? The sun gives him clothing, the earth
yields him, with the least possible labor, abundant fare,
the trees drop for him their beautiful fruits, and give him
their leaves to roof his dwelling and to feed his creatures;
each day, as it passes, is beautiful and free from careeach day, as it passes, affords him its enjoyment-sun,
rest, fruits, existence in an atmosphere which, merely to
breathe, is happiness; the negro desires nothing more.
And when in the evening or the night he sees the red
fires shining from the sugar-mill, and hears the cracking
of the whip, and the shouts which resound thence, he can
raise his eyes to the mild stars which glance through the
palm-trees above his head, and bless the Lord of Heaven,
who has prepared for the slave a way from captivity to
paradise, even on earth. For he too was there by the
blazing furnace, and beneath the lash of the driver, and
now he is here in freedom and peace beneath his own
palm-tree; and his heavily-laden brother may ere long be
the same! What matters it to him that his arm was
crushed; his heart is as sound as ever!  He is free and
happy, and none can take from him his freedom. The
negro, under the dominion of the Spaniard, is possessed of
a hope, and can lift up a song of thanksgiving which he
can not do under the free Eagle of the American Union.
To-day is Sunday, and Mr. C. has done me the favor of
allowing me to see the negroes of the plantation dance for
an hour in the forenoon. In an ordinary way, they nev.
02
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er dance during the dry season, la Secca; they are, how.
ever, very glad to do it, if they can only get the opportunity, spite of their laborious work both night and day. I
already hear the African drum beating its peculiar, distinct, and lively measures, and after the baptism of a little
negro child the dancing is to begin.
I enjoy myself very much with the kind family here, in
which there seems to prevail a great deal of mutual affection, and somewhat of that cheerfulness which existed
among us when we were so large a family altogether at
home. Here are four sons and three daughters, who play
and quarrel playfully one with another at all hours of the
day, and the youngest, a pretty lad, is so childishly full
of fun that he befools me to play with him.
In the morning and the evening I go out on my solitary rambles in the neighborhood, generally accompanied
by three large blood-hounds, which I can not get rid of,
but which are gentle as lambs, and lie down perfectly
quiet around me whenever I sit down to sketch a tree or
any remarkable object which takes my fancy; and it is
perhaps as well for me that I have them with me, because there are said to be runaway negro slaves roving
about on the island, and the dogs guard me from any
surprise of this sort. These animals are so trained that,
while they are perfectly gentle toward white people, they
are dangerous to the blacks, and the blacks are afraid of
them.
I have here sketched two remarkable trees, the one a
beautiful ceiba in perfect health and magnificence, and a
magnificent tree it really is; the other a ceiba in the arms
of its terrible murderess or mistress, or both in one. In
this tree one may see the parasite grasping the trunk with
two gigantic hands, and, as it were, strangling it in its
embrace. I have here also greatly enjoyed the balmy air,
and the wonderful beauty and novelty of the vegetation.
There are some beautiful avenues-g-uadarajahs, as they
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are called in Spanish-on this plantation, one of kingpalms, another of mango-trees, and so on. In the evenings we have music-for the whole family is musicaland sit with open doors, while the delicious zephyrs sport
round the room.
I could go through the whole process of sugar-making,
from its very commencement to its close; that is to say,
if I had sugar-cane and a sugar-mill.   The process is
so simple and so agreeable to witness, that I think you
will not be displeased to see it here on paper as I have
seen it in Mr. C.'s well-kept sugar-mill. We must first,
however, see the cutting of the sugar-cane.
The sugar-cane is waving there in the field like a compact, tall green reed; the stems, about as thick as a stout
walking-stick, are yellow, some with flame-colored stripes
or spots, or with various characteristics of the cane, such
as longer or shorter distances between the joints, each
according to its species, for there are here many species
of sugar-cane, as the Otaheitan-cane, ribbon- cane, and
so on.
The cane is cut off near the root with a sharp reapinghook, or short, crooked scythe, one or two canes at a time;
the green top is cut off, and the cane cast to one side.
The negroes perform this operation with great speed and
dexterity, and, as it seems, con amore. It is said that
they like to destroy, and I could almost believe that it was
so; there is a crashing and crackling among the vigorous
canes; it is cheerful work, and those black figures, with
their broad chests and sinewy arms, look well so employed.
The shorn canes are loaded upon wagons drawn by oxen
and conveyed away to the sugar-mill, where, as soon as
it reaches the open door, it is unloaded by women, who
throw the canes'into a broad, raised, long trough, which
extends into the building, where upon an elevation are
placed two broad mill-stones, turning in opposite directions,
the one raised a little above the other. By the side of
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
this trough stand women, who pass the canes onward and
up to the grinding mill-stones (I have seen a couple of
young women at work here who really were splendidly
beautiful, with their dark glancing eyes, their white teeth,
their coral necklaces round their throats, and the pink
handkerchiefs bound round their heads), where stands a
negro on a landing-place, who is called the feeder, his
business being to see that all the canes pass regularly
between the mill-stones. The juice is pressed out with
every half revolution of the stones, and the canes which
enter between them from above fall down, crushed dry,
into another trough below, whence  they are conveyed
away by an opposite door, and then heaped up into another wagon drawn by oxen, which, as soon as it is loaded, moves off and gives place to another.   This wagon,
loaded with la bagaza, goes to the flagged pavement,
where women unload it into baskets, and lay it out to dry,
as we have already seen. On one side of the building in
which the sugar-cane is ground stands a house containing
the machinery which sets the wheels in motion, and which
is worked principally by oxen, which are driven as the
oxen with us in the operation of thrashing. There is a
driver to each pair of oxen, and it is from these that the
shouts and the kind of stamping sound proceed which are
heard at night. A negro shouts aloud words which he
invents for the occasion, and which are often entirely
without meaning, and the others respond in chorus, repeating with some variation the given words. The shouts
and the noises are unmelodious, but the negroes enliven
themselves in this manner during their nocturnal labor.
The juice which flows from the crushed canes flows between the mill-stones into a porcelain trough, placed in a
transverse direction to the great trough extending between
the two doors, and through this it flows into a porcelain
tank, where it is purified; after which it is again passed
by another trough into the boiling-house, where it is boil
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed and skimmed in immense boilers or pans, fixed in the
earth by masonry. By the side of each pan stands a negro, naked to the waist, who, with an immense ladle, as
tall as himself, stirs and skims the boiling juice. The
juice, when it flows from the cane, is a thin liquid, of a
pale green color; it is now boiled in the pans to a thick
sirup of a grayish tint; and this process being complete,
it is allowed to flow into large, flat, long pans, where it is
left to harden; after which it is broken up, packed into
hogsheads, and sent out into the world.
Sugar is in no instance refined in Cuba; there is, therefore, no really white sugar there. The boilers are heated
by furnaces, the mouths of which are in the walls, and
which are continually fed by la bagaza, which, when
dried, makes excellent fuel.
And this is the history of the sugar-cane before it comes
into your coffee-cup.* Alas! that its sweetness can not,
as yet, be obtained without much bitterness, and that human enjoyment costs so much human suffering; for I
know very well that what I see at this place is not the
darkest side of sugar cultivation. There is a far darker,
of which I shall not now speak.
I will now go to the dance.
After the dance. There stands in the grass, at the back
of the house, a large Otaheitan almond-tree, the leafy head
of which casts a broad shadow. In the shade of this tree
were assembled between forty and fifty negroes, men and
women, all in clean attire, the tnen mostly in shirts or
blouses, the women in long, plain dresses. I here saw
representatives of the various African nations - Congoes,
Mandingoes, Luccomees, Caraballis, and others dancing in
the African fashion. Each nation has some variations of
* It is planted by placing the cane lengthwise in the ground, when it
shoots up from the joints. The flower is not unlike that of the reed with
us, and consists of a number of such minute florets that they can not be
discerned by the naked eye. But it is extremely seldom that the sugarcane is seen here to flower. Even Mr. C. has not yet seen it.
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its own, but the principal features of the dance are in all
essentially the same. The dance always requires a man
and a woman, and always represents a series of courtship
and coquetry; during which the lover expresses his feelings, partly by tremor in all his joints, so that he seems
ready to fall to pieces as he turns round and round his
fair one, like the planet around its sun, and partly by wonderful leaps and evolutions, often enfolding the lady with
both his arms, but without touching her; yet still, as I said,
this mode varied with the various nations. One negro, a
Caraballis, threw one arm tenderly round the neck of his
little lady during the dance, while with the other he placed
a small silver coin in her mouth. And the black driver,
an ugly little fellow (he under whose whip I saw the women at work), availed himself frequently of his rank, sometimes by kissing, during the dance, the prettiest of the
girls that he danced with, and sometimes by interrupting
the dancing of another man with a handsome young negro girl, or with one of the best dancers, and then taking
his place; for it is the custom that if any one of the bystanders can thrust a stick or a hat between two dancers,
they are parted, and he can take the man's place.  In
this manner a woman will sometimes have to dance with
three or four partners without leaving her place. Women, also, may exclude each other from the dance, generally by throwing a handkerchief between the dancers, when
they take the place of the other who retires, such interruptions being generally'taken in very good part, the one
who retires smiling and seeming well pleased to rest a little, only again to come forward, and the man laughing
still more heartily to see himself the object of choice with
so many. The dancing of the women always expresses a
kind of bashfulness, mingled with a desire to charm, while,
with downcast eyes, she turns herself round upon one spot
with an air and grace very much resembling a turkeyhen, and with a neckerchief or colored handkerchief in her
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
hand, sometimes one in each hand, she half drives away
from her the advancing lover and half entices himtn to her
-a mode of dancing which, in its symbolic intention,
would suit all nations and all classes of people, thoughHeaven be praised-not all the beloved. The spectators
stood in a ring around the dancers, one or two couples accompanying the dance with singing, which consisted of
the lively but monotonous repetition of a few words which
were given out by one person in the circle, who seemed to
be a sort of improvisatore, and who had been chosen as
leader of the song. Each time that a fresh couple entered the dance they were greeted by shrill cries, and the
words and tune of the song were changed; but both tune
and voices were devoid of melody. It is difficult to imagine that these voices would develop that beauty, that
incomparable, melodious purity, and this people that musical talent which they have attained to in the slave states
of America. The wild African apple-tree has, when transplanted into American soil, ennobled both its nature and
its fruit. The words of the singer were, I was told, insignificant, nor could I get any clew to their purport.
I have been told words used by French negro Creoles
in their dances, which in their patois expressed a meaning which it seems to me would very well suit the negro
dances here; they say,
Mal A tete, ce n'est pas maladie,
Mal aux dent, ce n'est pas maladie,
Mais l'amour, c'est maladie!
The dance has no distinct divisions, no development, no
distinct termination, but appears to be continuous variations of one and the same theme improvised, according to
the good-humor or inspiration of the dancers, but comprised within a very circumscribed sphere, and-not advancing beyond the quiverings, the twirlings, and the evolutions of which I have spoken.  If either man or woman wish to choose a partner, they go out of the circle apd
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place their handkerchief on the shoulder of the desired
partner, or put a hat upon his or her head, or an orna  ment of some kind upon them; and I saw, on this occa  sion, one young negro woman whirling round with a man's
hat on her head, and hung all over with handkerchiefs.
It is also a common custom, but not of the most refined
kind, to place a small silver coin in the mouth of the
dancing lady at the close of the dance. The music con  sisted, besides the singing, of drums. Three drumnmers
stood beside the tree-trunk beating with their hands, their
fists, their thumbs, and drumsticks upon skin stretched
over hollowed tree-stems. They made as much noise as
possible, but always keeping time and tune most correctly.
It was a very warm day, and I saw that the linen of
the quivering and grimacing gentlemen was in a state as
if it had just been taken out of the sea. Yet not the less
danced they, evidently from the pleasure of their hearts,
and seemed as if they would continue to dance to eterni ty'; but a loud crack of the whip was heard not far from
the dancing-ground, and immediately the dancing ceased,
and the dancers hastened away obediently to labor. Sug ar-grinding and boiling must again begin.
The slaves of Cuba have no holiday during la Secca,
although on Mr. C.'s plantation labor has a pause for two
hours on Sunday morning.
How much more lively and full of intelligence was this
dance under the almond-tree than the greater number of
our dances in society, at least if we except the waltz. Our
dances have not enough of natural life; this dance has
perhaps too much; but it is full of animation and straight forwardness, and has this good quality belonging to it,
that every one in company may take part in it, either
singing, or dancing, or applauding. Nobody is excluded;
there is no need for any body to stand against the walls,
* for any body to be dull or have ennui. Long live the
African dance!
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I have made an interesting excursion with the family
to one of those remarkable grottoes which abound in the
mountains of Cuba.  This is called La Lomab de Lorenzo
de St. Domingo, and is distant some miles from Limonar.
Mrs. C. and I drove thither in their volante, the young
ones riding the small Cuban horses, the most good-tem
pered, willing, and prettiest of all creatures of the horsekind, and which carry the rider so lightly that he feels
no fatigue: these horses are small; their action is a short
and very even trot. John C., a cheerful, spirited, and
very agreeable young man, ordered a couple of negroes to
carry a quantity of straw and brushwood into various
parts of the grotto, which was set fire to. This produced
a splendid scene. Millions of terrified bats swarmed in
the lofty and dark arches of the cavern; and what strange
and wonderful shapes were revealed by the flames! It
was a world of dreams, in which every form fashioned by
nature, and of which the human heart has dreamed or
had previsions, seemed to present itself in gloomy, chaotic outline. There seemed to be the human form wrapped
as if in swaddling bands, awaiting patiently light and
life; there were pulpits and thrones; wings which seemed about to loosen themselves from the walls; thousands
of fantastic shapes, some lonely, some grotesque, some
hideous. Ah! within these caverns of nature seem to be
contained the whole of that dark world which the cavern
of the human heart incloses, but the shapes of which we
do not see, excepting when, in dark moments, a gloomy
fire lights up its shadowy recesses. Every form which I
beheld here I had seen long beforehand in —my own breast.
And I know that they all exist there still, although God
has allowed the sun to enter, and palms to spring up in
those gloomy spaces. I know that beyond the light there
still exist gloomy, night-like expanses unknown to myself, or, at all events, indistinctly known, and which will
perhaps remain so through the whole of my earthly life.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
But then-life's caverns are only imperfectly illumined
on earth!
The most definite and the most beautiful formation in
these grottoes are the pillars. A drop of water distilling
from the roof of the cavern falls upon the earth, and petrifles; from these petrified water-drops grows up a conical
elevation, from above also a similar cone is formed, depending from the roof, and slowly growing from petrifying water-drops; and in the course of centuries these two
have met, and now form a column which seems to support the roof, and not unfrequently resembles a petrified
palm-tree. Many such palm-trees stood in the vault of
the grotto; many others were in process of formation. The
power of a water-drop is great!
Monday vorning. I have been wandering about in the
inclosed pasture-ground, el portrero, contemplating parasitic growths and sketching trees. A wood in Cuba is a
combined mass of tendriled and thorny vegetation which
it is impossible to penetrate. I have seen in the inclosed
pastures some beautiful tall trees, but many more deformed, from parasites and other causes; the beautiful
and the unsightly stand there side by side. I saw to-day
also a beautiful convolvulus, with large white flowers
twining itself up to the very top of a dead tree, overhung
with many heavy parasites. There are many kinds of
the convolvulus here, which, with their beautiful flowers,
constitute the principal ornament of the quick hedge,
which they bind together into a dense mass and covei
with lovely flowers. There are many species of wild passion-flower, some very large. which bear fruit, others very
small. One of the most beautiful trees on this plantation
is the pomme-rosa tree; it is just now in flower, and its
blossom has an indescribably delicious fragrance.
I shall shortly leave the plantation of Ariadne, but shall
return both from my own wishes and those of the family.
I am anxious to leave with my kind entertainers, as a re
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
membrance of me, a portrait of the youngest boy, my
little playmate.
St. Amelia Inhegno, March 15th.
St. Amelia Inhegno is a large sugar plantation, and I
am now sitting in the smoke of the sugar-mill, which en ters through the open window into my room- a large,
excellent room, with a regular glass window, from which
I obtain a fine view of the hills of Camerisca, and the
palm-groves and plantations at their feet. I have every
thing here which I can wish for, only too much of the
sugar manufacture, which is just opposite my one window, and which is on a much larger scale than on the
plantation of Ariadne. Is it not singular that the word
Inhegno, which here signifies an inclosed and cultivated
place, and which is always used to indicate a plantation,
so much resemibles, both in sound and meaning, our Swedish word Inhiaignad?
My hostess, Mrs. De C., is an agreeable and well-bred
American lady, a widow with four children, three of whom
are in the United States, and only one, a pretty girl of
sixteen, remaining with her at home. She lives here with
her father, an old officer of cheerful temperament, although
lame, and confined for the most part to his arm-chair. A
young American Creole, Mr. W., whose plantation adjoins,
is a daily visitor in the family, and a most agreeable cornpanion he is. He, like my hostess, is possessed of the gift
of gay and easy conversation, below which lies a foundation of earnest integrity. Another young man belongs to
the social circle of the evening and the dinner-table, and
he is, under the old gentleman, overseer of the plantation.
This young man is of great value to me, from the candor
and readiness with which he communicates any information which I may desire to possess.
This plantation is much larger than the one I visited in
Limonar, and a considerable portion of the slaves-two
hundred in number-have lately been brought hither from
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Africa, and have a much wilder appearance than those I
saw at Ariadne. They are worked also with much more
severity, because here they are allowed only four and a
half hours out of the four-and-twenty for rest; that is to
say, for their meals and sleep, and that during six or seven
months of the year! Through the remaining portion of
the twelve months, the "dead season," as it is called, the
slaves are allowed to sleep the whole night. It is true,
nevertheless, that even now, upon this plantation, they
have one night a week for sleep, and a few hours in the
forenoon of each alternate Sunday for rest. It is extraordinary how any human beings can sustain existence
under such circumstances; and yet I see here powerful
negroes who have been on the plantations for twenty or
thirty years. When the negroes have once become accustomed to the labor and the life of the plantation, it seems
to agree with them; but during the first years, when they
are brought here free and wild from Africa, it is very hard
to them, and many seek to free themselves from slavery
by suicide.  This is frequently the case among the Luccomees, who appear to be among the noblest tribes of
Africa, and it is not long since eleven Luccomees were
found hanging from the branches of a guasima-tree-a
tree which has long, horizontal branches. They had each
one bound his breakfast in a girdle around him; for the
African believes that such as die here immediately arise
again to new life in their native land.  Many female
slaves, therefore, will lay upon the corpse of the self-murdered the kerchief, or the head-gear, which she most admires, in the belief that it will thus be conveyed to those
who are dear to her in the mother-country, and will bear
to them a salutation from her. The corpse of a suicideslave has been seen covered with hundreds of such tokens.
I am told here that nothing but severity will answer in
the treatment of slaves; that they always must know that
the whip is over them; that4hey are an ungrateful peo
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pie; that in the disturbances of 1846 it was the kindest
masters who were first massacred with their whole fam ilies, while, on the other hand, the severe masters-were
carried off by their slaves into the woods, there to be con cealed during the disturbances. I am told that, in order
for a man to be loved by his slaves, he must be feared. I
do not believe it; such is not human nature; but there is
a difference between fear and fear. There is one fear
which does not exclude love, and one which produces
hatred and revolution.
The slaves have here, in a general way, a dark and
brooding appearance. They go to their work in the sugarfields sleepy and weary. As they drive the oxen to and
fro, I frequently see them sucking sugar-cane, which they
are very fond of, and of which they seem allowed here to
have as much as they like.  This is, at all events, a refreshment.  They are not fed here on rice, but principally
upon a species of root called malanga, which, it is said,
they like, but which seemed to me insipid. It is yellow,
and something like the potato, but has a poor and somewhat bitter taste; each slave receives a portion of such
root boiled for dinner, and eats it with his salt meat. They
have for breakfast boiled maize, which they bruise and
mix with wild tomatoes, the fruit of the plantain, or vegetables; for they are allowed a little land on the plantation
where they may sow and reap for themselves, and besides
this, each family has a pig, which they kill yearly and sell.
Sunday, March 17. It is the Sabbath, and forenoon;
but the sugar-mill is still grinding, and the whip-lash
sounds commanding labor.  The slaves will continue to
work the whole day as if it were a week-day. Next Sunday, they say, is the one on which the slaves will rest for
some hours, and dance if they are inclined; but-they
look so worn out!
There are in Cuba plantations where the slaves work
twenty-one out of the four-and-twenty hours; plantations
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
where there are only men who are driven like oxen to
work, but with less mercy than oxen. The planter cal culates that he is a gainer by so driving his slaves, that
they may die within seven years, within which time he
again supplies his plantation with fresh slaves, which are
brought hither from Africa, and which he can purchase
for two hundred dollars a head. The continuance of the
slave-trade in Cuba keeps down the price of slaves. I
have heard of "gangs" of male slaves, six hundred in each
gang, who are treated as prisoners, and at night locked
up in a jail; but this is on the plantations in the south ern part of the island.
It is amid circumstances such as these that one may
become enamored of the ideal communities of socialism,
and when men such as Alcott seem like the saviors and
high-priests of the earth. How beautiful appear to me
associated brotherhoods on the earth, with all their extravagance of love, when compared with a social state in
which human powers are so awfully abused, and human
rights trampled under foot! Here I feel myself more
ardent than ever for those social doctrines which are laboring to advance themselves in the free states of America; and when I return thither, I shall endeavor to become better acquainted with them and their leaders, and
to do more justice to both.
Yet even here I have derived some little comfort with
regard to the condition of the slaves on this plantation, at
least from the visit which I have paid to their bohea.
This is a large, square, but low fortress-like wall, in which
the slaves live as at Ariadne plantation, and in which they
are secured by bolts and bars during the night. I have
often visited them here during meal-times, and have always felt it a refreshment to witness their vigorous life
and their cheerfulness; nevertheless, I have seen countenances here steeped in such gloom, that not all the tropical sunshine would illumine, so hopeless, so bitter, so
334 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
speechless were they-it was dreadful! The countenance
of one young woman, in particular, I shall never forget!
I can not but often admire the Herculean frames among
the men, the energetic countenances in which a savage
power seems united-to a manly good-heartedness, which
last shows itself especially in their treatment of the children, and by the very manner in which they look at them.
The little ones are not here familiar and merry as they
are on the plantations in America; they do not stretch
out their little hands for a friendly salutation; they look
at the white man with suspicious glances-they are shy;
but the very little Bambinos, which are quite naked, fat,
and plump, as shiny as black, or black-brown silk, dance
upon their mother's knees, generally with a blue or red
string of beads around the loins, and another round the
neck; they are the very prettiest little things one ever
saw; and the mothers, with their strings of beads round
their necks, their showy kerchiefs fastened, turban-wise,
around the head, look very well too, especially when, with
delighted glances, and shining, pearly teeth, they are
laughing and dancing with their fat little ones. Such a
young mother, with her child beneath a banana-tree, is
a picture worthy the pencil of a good painter.
I saw in those dark little rooms-very like those at
Ariadne plantation-more than one slave occupied during
the short time allowed him for rest in weaving little baskets and hats of palm-leaves, and one of themn had constructed a fine head-dress of showy patches and cock's
feathers!
In other respects the slaves live in the bohea very much
like cattle. Men and women live together, and part again
according to fancy or whim. If a couple, after having
lived together for some time, grow weary of each other,
the one will give the other some cause of displeasure, and
then they separate. In case of any noisy quarrel, the
majoral is at hand with his whip to establish peace.
335 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"Are there here no couples who live constantly together as in proper marriage; no men and women who love
one another sufficiently well to be faithful to each other
as husband and wife?" inquired I from my young, candid
conductor. 
"Yes," replied he, "there are really such couples who
have always remained together since they have been upon
this plantation."
"Lead me to one of these couples," said I.
It was just dinner-time. My companion led me to one
of the rooms in the wall. The door stood open, as is comrn.nly the case, to admit light and air.  The man was
out; the woman sat alone in the room; she might be
about fifty, and was busy at some work. She had a round
face, without beauty, but with a good and peaceful expression.
I asked her, through my interpreter, whether she was
fond of her husband?
She replied cheerfully and without hesitation, "Yes;
he is a good husband."
I inquired whether she had been attached to him in
Africa?
"Yes, in Africa," she replied.
I asked how long she had been united to her husband
-how many years?
This question seemed to trouble or perplex her; she
smiled, and replied at length that she had had him always!
Always! She did not know how vast and profound
that word was on her lips. It went to my heart. Weeks,
months, seasons, years, youth, strength, many changes
had passed by unnoted, unobserved; hemisphere had been
changed for hemisphere, freedom for slavery, the palm-tree
hut fbr the bohea, a life of liberty for a life of labor-every
thing had changed; but one thing had remained steadfast,
one thing had remained the same-her love-her fidelity!
She had always had him, the husband whom she loved
336 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
he had always had her. Of that which was variable and
evanescent she knew not, made no account-she knew
merely of time as regarded that which was eternal. She
had had her husband always; she should have him al ways.  That was evidently written in her calm counte nance and in her calm voice.  It could not be otherwise.
"Love requires to be sustained by duty!" said Geijer
to me, on one occasion when he spoke of marriage. So it
does; but it is beautiful to see that the natural marriage
between two kindred souls can remain firm and strong
merely through the law of love, amid the wild license of
the bohea, and that in the case of two black people, two
of the wild offspring of the desert!
Poets and philosophers have spoken of souls predestine
for each other.  Here I found two such.  They hai l a&
ways belonged to each other. In the profound consoc us.ness of God they had belonged to each other, and woulti
belong to each other through all time   that is, in
eternity.
The man entered while I was still in the room. He
seemed to be about the same age as the woman, and had
the same good-hearted expression; but there was in his
smile a sort of imprisoned sunshine, a cheerful beam of
light, which, lit up from the heart itself, seemed as if it
would gladly have free diffusion. I have often observed
this imprisoned beam of light in the countenances of these
children of bondage. They have brought it with them as
an inheritance from their mother-country.
I went from this married pair to the prison cell, in
which the slaves are placed after they have suffered  punishment-women as well as men-and while the mind
is still in a state of fermentation, after having endured
bodily suffering.  They are placed here in irons, made
fast to a wooden frame, and here they sit, bound hands
and feet —-women as well as men-till their minds are
again calm and their wounds healed, so that they can
VOL II.-P
337 
,HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
again go to their work. They are said to get fat while
they remain here!  The room was now empty, and inhabited merely -by swarms of fleas.
I only wonder that suicide is not of more frequent occurrence among this people. How ~trong and tenacious
the instinct of life must be!
The sugar-mill here affords, in its way, an interesting
and picturesque scene. The athletic figures of those halfnaked Africans who stand by the furnaces, or. by the boiling sugar-pans, in those large, gloomy buildings, or who
move about occupied in various ways, produce a singular
effect. I can not behold without amazement and pleasure
the savage but calm majesty of their bearing and movement, as well as the dark energy of their countenances.
Sculptors ought to see and model from these African chests
and shoulders. They seem made to sustain Atlas. And
though the Atlas of slavery presses heavily upon them,
they are still strong-terribly strong, if the hour of vengeance should ever come; now they are silent and gloomy.
The  Spanish majorals, in their white  shirts and with
their whips, or short, thin, square staves in their hands,
stand or sit here and there on elevated platforms within the building, to overlook the work, and in the morning take the while their coffee and white bread. They
seem to me, as far as form and appearance goes, to be
much smaller and more insignificant than many of the
black slaves. In the slave states of America no idea can
be formed of the peculiar beauty of form of the African
negro, especially those of certain tribes. The native slaves
there are a weaker and gentler race. The wild raven has
been tamed.
Many of the slaves, also, who are brought to Cuba have
been princes and chiefs of their tribes, and such of their
race as have accompanied them into slavery on the plantations always show them respect and obedience. A very
young man, a prince of the Luccomees, with several of
338 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
his nation, was taken to a plantation on which, from some
cause or other, he was condemned to be flogged, and the
others, as is customary in such cases, to witness the punishment. When the young prince laid himself down on
the ground to receive the lashes, his attendants did the
same likewise, requesting to be allowed to share his punishment. This affecting instance of loyalty produced
merely the coarse assurance "that they should not fail
of their full share of the whip when opportunity offered!"
This occurrence did not take place on this plantation.
There is more use made of machinery in this sugar-mill
than in that at Ariadne. Instead of fixed troughs by
which the sugar-cane is conveyed by human hands to and
from the mill-stones, there are here carriages to convey
the cane worked by machinery, and which run on many
wheels in a long row, one after the other, from one door
of the sugar-mill to the other, and it is merely at the entrance-gate that the cane is loaded by human hands.
And now you must have had enough of sugar-cane;
but, before I leave the bohea, I must say a few words
about the government of its population. This rests, after
the master, upon an overseer, who is called the majoral,
and below him is a contra-majoral, who sometimes is: a
negro. On large plantations, such as this, there are many
white under-majorals. The condition of the slaves, and
the prevailing state of feeling among them on a plantation, depends very much upon the ability, prudence, and
humanity of the majorals, The savage murder of a majoral in Cuba not unfrequently bears witness to the despotism of their proceedings, and to the state of frenzied
excitement into which cruel oppression may bring the naturally gentle and easily subjected negro-race.
However oppressive slavery may be to the inhabitants
of the bohea, and though the planters quite naiYvely ignore
most of the Spanish laws for the emancipation of the slave,
and though the justice of the law is also here nullified at
339 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pleasure, still the wafting breezes of the life of freedom
ean not be wholly excluded from the bohea.  The slave
knows, generally, that he can purchase his own freedom,
and he knows also the means for the acquisition of money.
The lottery is, in Cuba, one of the principal means for this
purpose amonig the negro slaves, and they understand how
to calculate their chances wisely.  For instance, several
individuals of a certain nation will unite for the purchase
of a quantity of tickets, the numbets of which follow in
close succession.  Out of a total of consecutive numbers,
one or two will commonly draw a prize, which, according
to agreement, belongs to the nation, and is divided among
all the members.  In this way I have heard that the Luecom6e nation lately obtained at Havana a prize of eleven
thousand dollars, a portion of which, it is said, has been
applied to purchase the freedom of slates of their nation;
and, if I mistake note a Luccomee negro on this plantation has lately, with the consent of his owner, purchased
his own freedom for two or three hundred dollars.  Yessome become free, but many, many never become so!
As far as concerns myself, my life here is as free and
agreeable as I can desire.  Mrs. De C. is a very charming
and amiable person to associate with, and she allows me
to have all-the liberty I wish, and is infinitely agreeable
to me. In the early mornings I go out alone; visit the
slaves' bohea, or ramnble about the plantation; I enjoy the
air, and sketch trees and flowers.  I have now become aequainted with that candelabra-like plant, which I have already mentioned.  It is the flower-stalk of a plant of the
aloe genus, called Peta, a shrub with stiff, thorny leaves,
and this flower-stalk shoots up from the root every third
year, and bears upon its branches bunches of yellowish
flowers which produce fruit. It shoots up to a height of
five or six ells, blossoms, and bears fruit all within the
space of two months, after which it dies down.  It; has a
singulat but very ornamental appearance; I have made a
340 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
drawing of it. Here, also, are a couple of remarkable
ceiba-treep, the one on account of its beauty, the other
for its deformity-its tragical combat with the parasite.
The sugar-cane fields are inclosed with lofty, untrimmed
hedges, in which grow wild orange and various tropical
trees.
During the hottest part of the forenoon I sit quietly in
my own light, excellent chamber, writing and drawing.
Just before dinner I go out, look around me in.the bohea,
or seat myself under a mango-tree on a cross-road to catch
a few breezes, if I can, in its shade. In the afternoon I
generally drive out with Mrs. De C. in her volante, her
daughter and Mr. W. accompanying us on horseback.  To
be rocked over the country in an open volante, in that
heavenly, delicious air, is the most soothing, delightful
enjoyment that any body can conceive.
The family assembles in the evening, and I then play
American marches,' "quick-steps," and other lively pieces,
with Yankee Doodle for the old gentleman, who, with
these, recalls his youthful achievements, and feels new life
in his stiffened limbs.   At a later hour I go out on the
piazza to see the stars shining in the darkness of night,
and to inhale the zephyrs which, though not so full of
life as at Matanzas, are yet always fuill of delicious influence.
Among my pleasures, I must not forget the lovely humming-birds in the little garden.  In the-mornings, and
directly after mid-day, one may be sure to see them hovering around the flowers, and around the red ones by
preference. There are in the garden a couple of shrubs,
which are now covered with most splendid red flowers;
the shrub is called La Coquette, and over these the little
humming-birds are always hovering, they too of a splendid red, like little flames of fire.  They are the most gorgeous little creatures any body can imagine, as fat as little
bull-finches, and like them, having plump, brilliant breasts.
341 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
They support themselves as if in the air, fluttering their
wings for a considerable time about the red floirers, into
which they then dip their bills, but how gracefully I can
not describe. La Coquette and her winged wooers present the most lovely spectacle. I have here- seen three
kinds of humming-birds. The one with the crimson coloring of morning, of which I have just spoken; a little one
of a smaragdus-green and more delicate form; and a third,
green, with a crest of yellow rays on its head. They will
sometimes all alight upon a bough, and as they fly away
again, a soft, low twittering may be heard. They are
quarrelsome, and pursue one another like little arrows
through the air, while, as rivals, they approach the same
flower.
Besides these most lovely little birds, I see here a black
bird about as large as a jackdaw. It resembles the American blackbirds, and is called majitos or solibios (or solivios, for here there is a great confusion between "v" and
"b," and "b" and "v;" thus Havana is frequently both
written and pronounced Habana). I see these blackbirds
often sitting upon the branches of the candelabra-like
peta.  These queer birds are said to be a species of communists, to live in communities, to lay their eggs together,
to hatch them in common, and to feed the young in the
same manner, without any difference of mine or thine.
The humming-bird is evidently of a very different temperament, and is a violent anti-communist.
The heat is now becoming excessive, and I feel it so
enervating that I think I shall leave Cuba on the 8th of
April instead of the 28th, as I had intended.   From Cuba
I shall proceed to Charleston and Savannah, visit two
plantations on the coast of Georgia, and so on to Virginiathe Old Dominion-which I must see, and where I shall
probably spend the month of May; thence to Philadelphia
and New York-to my dear home at Rose Cottage; then
to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, pay a visit to
342 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Maine and Vermont, and thence, in the month of July, to
my first beautiful home on the banks of the Hudson; then
to England, and then-home!
I am now going for a few days to Cardenas, a little city
on the sea-coast; but I shall return hither. The kind
Mrs. De C. will lend me her volanite.
LETTER XXXIV.
Cardenas, March 19th.
IT was at Cardenas that the first senseless robber-expedition against Cuba, under the conduct of Lopez, landed
last year, and was repulsed by the bravery of the Spanish
army. You are shown holes in the walls made by cannon-balls, and they are now living in daily expectation
and fear of a new attack under the same leader, the news
of which is just now in circulation,andpeo are on the
alert in consequence, and the6city under watch..
Cardenas is a small city, built in the same style as
Havana, and carries on a brisk trade in sugar and treacle.
It is situated by the sea, but lies so low that it can scarcely
be seen from the sea; its harbor is very shallow, and will
not admit vessels of large size. I am living in a small
hotel kept by a Mrs. W., the widow of a Portuguese, and
who has five daughters, which is nearly four too many!
I should not be afraid of having ten daughters in the
United States; I should be certain that they all, however
poor they might be, would be able to attain to their proper human development, would gain consideration and a
competence through their own merits and endeavors. But
in Cuba, what could any one do with five daughters?
Marriage is the only means there of obtaining for them
respect and a living, and it is not so very easy to get
married at Cuba, because it is not an easy thing to maintain yourself in an honorable way there.  Two of these
343 
HOMES OF THENEW WORLD.
young girls are very pretty; the eldest, a perfect blonde,
has the noblest profile. She is betrothed to a young of.
fleier; but it frequently happens that marriage does not
follow love and betrothal.
Among the people who interest me here is a young
lawyer, a Spaniard, more than ordinarily agreeable and
lively in social intercourse. I have obtained a good deal
of information from him respecting the administration of
the laws of the island with regard to slaves and their
treatment, of which I shall have more to say another
time. -In other respects Cardenas appears to me an uninteresting little city; but kind people here have afforded
me an opportunity of seeing things in the neighborhood
of the city which have great interest for me, one of which
is a coffee plantation in full bloom.   The  eoffee-plant
flowers once a month, and the whole of the plantation is
in blossom on one single day, and the flowers, which are
in full bloom in the morning, wither in the evening.  The
earliest blDossoming in the year is in February, the latest
a November.   The flowers, which are placed upon the
twig in compact white racemes and bunches, produce
small fruit-pods, which are first green, then red, and lastly of a dark brown, when they are gathered; these contain the coffee-beans. The harvest is, therefore,,continually going on during three or four months of the year.
The coffee plantation which I visited was in full bloom,
and the appearance was as of a shower of snow over the
green shrubs. The coffee-shrub has beautiful rich green,
smooth laurel-like leaves; the flowers resemble those.of
the single white hyacinth, and have a delicate, agreeable scent.  This coffee plantation was remarkably lovely,
with beautiful avenues of alternate orange-trees and sagopalms; the pine-apple grew there, and there were avenues
and groves of bananas.  The trees were full of blossoms
and fruit.  The people who lived here had never noticed
the peculiar blossoming of the banana; people live amid
344 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the richest treasures of nature without paying attention
to them.
Among the beautiful objects on this plantation, I must
mention its proprietor, and her lovely young daughters
especially. They presented me with flowers and fruit,
and I have sketched a blossoming branch of the coffeeshrub for mamma.
The second object of interest to me was a little zoological garden, or museum, which a German collected in
the neighborhood of Cardenas, of the birds and other animnals of Cuba.  Among the latter were a crocodile and
an alligator together in the same tank. They were so
alike, that to my ignorant eyes they seemed entirely so;
but I was shown various distinctive markings.   Their
owner had made vain attempts to tame them.   They
seem to be the most devoid of intellect, as well as the
ugliest of all animals, at least to my taste.  Neither alligators nor crocodiles, however, are found in the rivers of
Cuba; these have been brought hither as curiosities from
America and Africa.
Mareh 21st. There stands in the court into which my
room looks a large hen-coop, containing many kinds of
poultry for household use. The present cook of the family, a tall, hands4ome Spanish soldier, came this morning
to fetch away a couple of the feathered company for dinner, for the family and guests.   The first that he carried
off was a large black turkey; and I could not but admire
the manner in which he set about the business, it was
so gentle, so humane, and wise.  He stroked the turkey,
in the first place, before he took it from the pen, and
even this was done with so much  suavity that the turkey, when he carried him off quite comfortably across the
court, merely looked a4itle astonished, and uttered a few
sounds in his throat, as if he would say, "Now what's
going to be done?"
I have seen with us, when a hen was to'be killed, the
P2
346 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
whole poultry-yard in a state of uproar, and she herself
breathless from terror before she gave up the ghost. Span iards are not in a general way remarkable for humanity
to animals; and the country people frequently come to
market with turkeys and fowls hanging by the feet tied
together across the horse's saddle, so that their heads hang
down. This barbarity was forbidden by a Governor Tacon of Cuba, who is described as having been a severe
man, but who abolished many abuses; this, however, is
still continued, and I have frequently met monteros riding between clusters of poultry thus suspended, and sometimes half dead.
There is a district not far from Cardenas which is called Havanavana, which is almost entirely peopled by free
negroes, the number of whom, I understand, amounts to
twelve or thirteen hundred. They are mostly cultivators
of land, on the half system, with Spanish Creoles.   I
should be extremely glad to see how these small farms
are managed by them-to see with my own eyes how
negroes manage when they are left to themselves; but I
am advised not to go there, as I am not acquainted with
the language of the country, and the government is very
suspicious of strangers. The slave disturbances of 1846
are still fresh in the minds of people, and they originated
in this part of the island. These disturbances, which gave
rise to such cruel proceedings on the part of the Spanish
government, have also caused severe restrictions to be laid
upon the occupations and amusements of the free negroes.
Formerly, it is said, might be heard every evening and
night, both afar and near, the joyous sound of the African
drum, as it was beaten at the negro dances. When, however, it was discovered that these dancing assemblies had
been made use of for the organization of the disturbances
which afterward took place, their liberty became very
much circumscribed.    E
The free negroes of Havana have,eah,nation tc itself,
346 
drawn by three horses abreast, flew like a, Whirl-'Wiid
through the red dust, and our cala~k~o,.Pa t'ricio-, ~o
greatly to enjoy the wildcre.
It is again'Su~nday~,-th~at, Sundat'yl upol w,hieh-Ith,61slad*~
ar!oha  aflsuet?hi'   atalke  tob th
the  *61d  l        iiad'the~ young:one about ~it, nd pa
tha telves mightheadae';''t~   al    cho
it WI ill'bo    h'n~t'~tr 
T'Vbes       h  sga miill isno a    tryg"~. b   wokdbtI' e   h
ciackin  of th whip keeping te'ock,,'it i
at'in "the a fte'rnoonI arlnt ~~a'iting i tp epct6tion a,
im~~~~p'a~~~~tie'nc~~~~~~~e.  sill there be~~~~~~~~~~~~ a -ancorn  Iferht
la bor'.  J cofe'tha~t' Ishl- be v6ry- muh  noydifi
96, l'o',f" th-'e 4ad-c  has  ee'  p~~ d me,  n  thepo'o
pople nee               neite'sold    lo   h     to
danc'e to no purpose.  Ther'e~the", Afrij can'du'heec
Later.  ~he dance didnt~ this ietk   lc   ne 
sh''a~~~d i a'mddte,btin- the "ho6t cuto          oe
The' ~ mere stationed with their di urns o the
siad, si'e6f the kice       1e a1eel      ml
~'o~'ay  of dani  ad the d'a nce ~wa oi'f"the same,6kind
a~ that at Aiad~~ and peieited  ofew- feature o6     i 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
terest, until an elderly Congo negro, called Carlo Congo,
entered with his Herculean chest into the dance.  He ordered the drummers to beat a new tune, and to this he
performed a dance, which, with its bendings, its evolutions, and tremulosities, would have told well in a ballet
of the Paris opera; that is to say, in the person of a satyr
or faun, for the dance had no higher character; but it
was admirable, from the power of the dancer, his agility, flexibility, bold transitions, and the wild, picturesque
beauty of his evolutions. This was the Congo dance;
but Carlo Congo could not execute it in its full perfection;
wearied for four months' labor, day and night, his limbs
were evidently deficient in the needful power; he was
obliged to pause many times to rest, and, though he soon
recommenced, he again came to a stand, shaking his head
good-humoredly, as if he would say, "No! it will not
do!" His countenance had that expression of power and
sensibility which I have so often seen among the negroes;
he wore a little cotton cap on his head, and a necklace of
blue glass beads round his throat; the upper portion of
the body and the muscular arms were bare; and their
form, and the development of the muscles, during the
dance, were worthy the study of a sculptor.  The partner
of this skillful dance was also more animated in her movements than any of the negro women whom I had yet
seen, and swung round with great dexterity and art.
Carlo placed a little sprig of myrtle in her mouth, after
which she danced, holding it between her lips as a bird
would have held it in his bill.
By degrees the dancers increased in number.   The
women also invited partners to dance, generally by giving
a little blow with a handkerchief to-the selected cavalier,
who immediately showed himself ready and willing. Some
of the men dropped on the knee during the dance; so true
to nature does this movement appear to be, which of old
obtained admissioninto the refined world of gallantry and
chivalry.
348 
HOMES OF THE N~EW WORLD.
There were others who daneed solo to the beating of
the drums, twirling -round upon one spot, and waving the
while up and down with the body; children also came,
naked as God made them, and imitated, most excellently,
the dancing of the elders.  But others, both men and
women, passed by, and-cast gloomy, joyless glances on the
dance; and the bitter expression of those dark, night-like
countenances testified of the darkest night-life of slavery;
countenances those were which I shall never forget-one
especially, that of an elderly woman!  Other negroes
were passing through the gate of the bohea, laden with
bunches ofbananas and tomatoes (which here grow wild),
or other green vegetables. The young overseer inquired
whether they were from their own country, and they replied curtly, " Yes."  They passed by the dancers, some
with an indifferent glance, others with a half smile.  The
dancing in the mean time became more and more animated
in that hot sun, and the numbers increased, both of men
and women. Now, however, the loud crack of a whip was
heard, and the dancing stopped at once. The dancers
dispersed again to recommence work in the sugar-mill.
I too left the bohea, but not without thanking the drummers, and, in particular, Carlo Congo, in the manner
which I knew was'most-agreeable to them.
I am now again in my quiet chamber. The sugar-mill
is clamoring and smoking, and the slaves are carrying la
bagaza.
I see above the walls of the bohea, but far beyond them,
the magnificent guadarajail of palms below the hills of
Carnerioca.  These hills also have deep caverns and concealed tracts, which serve as the retreats of fugitive slaves.
They dig pitfalls at the mouths of the caverns to preserve
them from their pursuers.   But the pursuit of them is
now given up, as it is not only unavailing, but attended
by great peril to the pursuers. Sometimes they will come
down in the night-time to the plantations for sustenance,
349 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
which they obtain from the negroes of the plantation, who
never betray the fugitives of the mountains.  The negroes,
it is said, never betray one another except under the torture of the whip.
March 26th. I have visited with my kind hostess some
of the plantations in the neighborhood. The most agreeable of these visits was to that of a handsome young
couple, M. and Madame Belle C., French Creoles.  An
enchanting expression of human kindness was portrayed
on their countenances. They are said to be very kind to
their slaves, and I understand that M. Belle C. is thinking of taking a sugar plantation in Florida, on which he
will employ only free negroes. May he succeed! One
single successful experiment of this kind would effect a
great change in American slavery. The man who does
this may be reckoned as among the greatest benefactors
of humanity.
I saw at M. and Madame Belle C.'s two of the sweetest little children, and a well-kept garden, in which were
many beautiful plants. I saw some remarkably fine Pro"
vence roses, but without any sign of; fragrances.: -The
great heat, it is said, destroys,te sdent)bfthi~and tmany
other flowers.  TThited}ine yoang  uple hav-einvited
me to spend some-time with -tmm, but Imust decline the
invitation; -  i 4
i Theplantes ofub.  arbex - lyhpitablei and' as
the life of the ladies is very monotonous, and increasingly
soe of late,f6'r,,thr h-tand&07i,thit Sih p goviniment has
'estedheav'ily  n the Beanie j?oneSi~nc7  thehlate d9i
trbaanceeompelltmg himo  Ii,   a y a  tax, they are by no
.means  tnhi   a Wing toX hate th monotony,-of theirf every-day
4fe.,diversifi ed I,byfthpreseree, of arEUropea-  tranger. 
~he character'of the snor plttatioa an- the life apda
i-semo ito        earyf muck  thes psametsevery where.  Ther
most beautifni features ef these platations e ares the -ireat
avenues, ^ Res,ocially4 +f:palms&; -- I carn; n, s w-l, ethrough
350 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
these guadarajahs without a sentiment of devotion, so
beautiful and magnificent are they! The gardens are
frequently quite small, and commonly but ill kept. The
fields of sugar-cane encroach upon every thing else. The
life of the ladies is not cheerful, and scarcely active at
all. They seem to me to suffer from the condition of the
plantation, which is never free from danger, and which
does not allow them to develop at all their more beauti ful activity-nay, which even cheeks their movements.
They dare not go out alone-they are afraid of runaway
slaves; besides, with all the beauty of trees and vegeta tion peculiar to the Cuban plantation, it still lacks that
which constitutes one of the greatest delights of country
life-when one looks at it merely from the pleasurable
point of view-it lacks grass-sward-that-soft, submis sive, verdant sward, in which millions of small blades of
grass and masses of little flowers are brought together, to
prepare for human beings a fresh and soft couch on which
to repose in the open air.  It lacks those groves of shadowy trees and underwood, beneath and amid which we
repose so pleasantly; and I soon observed that this paradisaical atmosphere and these guadarajahs could not compensate to the inhabitants of the island for the absence
of those unpretending rural pleasures.
Besides, we behold no injustice around us in the country, no want which we can not in some degree lessen.
They behold much daily which they can not do any thing
to alleviate.  Nay, the more noble a womaniii'm us
the more unhappy must she become.  Andevean iifs-h be
united to the best of i,hiusbands,.who does; lil that,es in
his power for' her and -forhis sla   -she stiltl can not 6lose
heir ~eyestoT.hat nvwhich; oecursaroundhier. the plita
tion -~is never B:any    e aeres: i7/extenit, anyd it, adjoins uth~~
plantations whiche ahre dmanagdi acoing  to the disposi
tion of'their masters and- of what kind thi: sbometimes- i
we know- al/eady; ~'Add to thia themstt 6f the overh
361 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ment of the island, the violence of government officials,
slave-trade, slave tumults, the examinations of the Spanish government, and the punishments which it inflicts,
one perpetuai state of fear- no delicious waftings of the
heavenly atmosphere of Cuba can give cheerfulness to life
under such circumstances.
Last week a cargo of slaves from Africa arrived at Havana; they were no less than seven hundred in number,
and all children, the eldest not eighteen, and the youngest
under ten years of age.  It was spoken of this evening in
our circle.
"They who do this," said a mother of the party, bitterly,
(' ought to have some d,ay the reward they deserve!"
And yet, if'human beings are to be conveyed from their
native country into foreign slavery, it is better that it
should take place when they are children than when
grown up; it is less bitter then.  As children, they become accustomed to the bohea and -to the whip, and have
not the memory of a life of freedom, which drives them
to despair and suicide.
Amid these gloomy thoughts and impressions, again and
again the unspeakable beauty of the air and the vegeta-.
tion presents itself, and affects my soul to thanksgiving,
and shows me a future paradise.
It is again full moon, and the nights are indescribably
beautiful. I returned home late last night from a visit
with my hostess. EWe drove, with uncovered heads, in
the open volante, through palm-groves, beneath -the vault
of heaven, which was flooded with light. The air was
delicious and bland, as the purest human kindness.
There are two splendid palm avenues at the plantation
of St. Amelia, a hundred -trees in a -row, I have no doubt.
Many of them are just now in bloom. The luxuriant
sprays of flowers shoot out like a garland ofwings around
the stem, a little below the palm-crown, in the most beautiful relationship both to it and the stem. There is an
352 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
other avenue of the tamarind (from the green heads of
which the beans are now falling, and which the little negro children eagerly gather, to suck the agreeable acid
fruit), and of mango-trees, and a species of acacia, with
led berries, from which the negroes make necklaces. There
are, in front of the house, many of those trees, with limetree-like heads, and dark, fiery-red flowers, such as I saw
on La Plaza des Armas at Havana, the botanic name of
which is Hibiscus tiliacea.
Cuba is an outer court of Paradise, worthy to be studied by the natural historian, the painter, and the poet.
The forms and colors of the vegetation seem to typify a
transition from earthly life to a freer and a loftier sphere
of beauty.
Caffetal LIndustrie, April tst.
Thank God that it is now the commencement of spring
in Sweden, and that you can now begin to think about
salt baths, summer, and convalescence, and that all around
you can begin to live; way-side weeds, butterflies, the
little yellow flowers, and larks-the cheerful larks, which
warble and sing, " Now it is spring-time! now it is spiringtime!" Ah! the diffusive joy which spring imparts among
us, that-that is not known in this beautiful Cuba.
But-Cuba has beauty enough to make human life
happy, if its beauty and its glorious atmosphere might
only operate unimpededly.
I have now been for some days on a new plantation,
both of sugar and coffee, with an American family of the
name of P., consisting of an elderly gentleman, his wife,
much younger than himself, two young sons, and two
daughters. I have to thank the Swedish consul, Mr.
Ninninger, for this invitation. Mr. P. is a warm republican, and courageous enough openly to express his republican sympathies in the very face of the Spanish authorities of the island. - He would do it, he says, "at the
mouth of a four-and-twenty pounder," and I believe him,
353 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the brave old gentleman, and I like him for it!  Mrs. P.
was born in England, and now, at near fifty, her counte nance has still all the charm and sweetness of youth,
combined with an expression of the greatest kindness.
She reminds me of those springs of fresh water which
God permits here and there to well up in the sandy deserts of the tropics for the invigoration of the desert pilgrim. Palm-trees grow around them, and the sward becomes verdant; the wanderer rests there, and drinks of
the springs, and wishes only that he could linger there.
When I meet with one of these characters of perfectly
original goodness, I involuntarily ask myself why, when
such might be created and given to the earth, we yet see
so few of them. As it is, they seem like the spirit of the
wind on this island, merely to reveal themselves on the
earth,-to remind us of a paradise which-is not to be
found there.
There is a glorious view from the front of the house,
across the country, and to the distant blue sea. I enjoy it,
and the breezes from the sea, as I walk upon the broad
piazza in the incomparably beautiful mornings and evenings. My charming little room adjoins the piazza, and
from it also I have an extensive view; there, however, I
am often disturbed by the little negro children, who climb
up by the iron railing before my window, and peep in,
exclaiming "Buon dios, Signora," good-morning, missis!
which, spite of their good-tempered, joyous countenances,
splendid eyes and teeth, does not always amuse me, that
is, when I wish to be quiet. But it is, after all, really a
joy to see how fearless the negro children are on this plantation. The good, motherly lady and her daughters have
produced this effect, and the children are evidently well
cared for, and the elder ones well clad. They run about
freely, and accompany us on our walks, sometimes in little troops.  I frequently see the elder children carrying
the younger ones, riding astride upon the left hip, while
354 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
they hold them up with the left arm thrown round the
bead-encircled bodies of the little creatures. I see them
in this way move about, and even run, with great ease;
the girls arc particularly dexterous in this respect, and as
I thus see them, I frequently can not help admiring their
beautiful and perfectly developed frames.
The slaves on this plantation seem to me well fed and
full of enjoyment. Neither is their bohea locked up and
prison-like; it is left freely open, and I have seen dwelling-rooms there full — of possessions like the dwellings of
the slaves in America. The good lady of the plantation
is fond of her people, and takes good care of the feeble
and the sick.
From her gentle lips I have written down the following
words  
"It is a great sin to call the slaves wicked; there are
among them both bad and good, as among all people. It
is rare to meet with such as are wicked, and many are
very good!
"They who consider the whip necessary to drive the
negroes to work, which they would do willingly with reasonable treatment, do not understand them, and frequently make them wicked. I can not tell you what I have
suffered;  nay, indeed, I have been ill for weeks from the
grief occasioned by the sight of so much flogging, and of
the many cruelties, which, in many cases, a kind and serious word might have prevented the necessity of! The
negro nation is wonderfully susceptible to kindness and
indulgence when they are judiciously used. They are
capable of becoming the best and the most devoted of
servants and friends." 
The German overseer of a plantation, La Sonona, belonging also to Mr. P., made the following remarks regarding negro' slaves:
"They are not at all difficult to manage, if they are
treated, at the same time, with firmness and kindness
.355 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
They love regularity and decision in their masters, and
obey without difficulty when they are treated with equanimity and reason.  It will sot do to be renmiss; neither
is there any necessity for severity and cruelty."
This I believe to be the truth; and well would it be if
many gentlemen would believe so too, and then treat
them according to this belief; but a despotic temper and
passion are often the masters' master, and the slaves suffer in consequence.
The most remarkable occurrence that has happened to
me since I last wrote is my having seen the Southern
Cross, and the Cuculio, or "the Cuban fire-fly," which
now begins to make its appearance, but which is not a fly,
but a beetle, which in form and appearance resembles our
Thor-beetle, only somewhat longer and narrower. It flies
in the-same manner, but more slowly and much higher,
and produces during its flight a still louder and more
buzzing sound.  It emits light in two ways, when it
creeps along, or is still, from two round, small shining
points immediately behind the eyes, and I read by the
light thus produced with great ease last evening, by conducting the cuculio along the lines like a little lamp;  and,
secondly, when it flies, it emits from an opeaing m the
stomach a strong clear light, now quickly shining out,
and then extinguished, as is the case with the American
fire-fly, but shining steadily as long as it remains on the
wing: you can scarcely conceive how beautiful it is. Imagine now the planets Venus, Jupitr, Mars, and others
as bright, coming down froml above, and flying around
through the air, over the roof, and among the trees and
bushes, and you behold the cuculio: it lhas the loveliest,
clear blue fire which you can imagine.
Fire-flies make their appearance at the commencement
of the rainy season, and as we have now had a couple of
small showers, to the great joy of the coffee-planters, the
cuculios show themselves as soon as it begins to grow
356 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dark.  They are not, however, numerous as yet; but I
am told that when the rainy season sets in, in May, June,
and July, they become so numerous that the heads of
large trees are sometimes entirely covered with them, and
gleam out as from millions of little tapers. It is not known
here how and whence they come; it is maintained that
during the dry season they conceal themselves in decayed
trees; they now feed on sugar-cane, and I'have a whole
party in a glass in my room, where they suck pieces of
sugar-cane.  They seem to be very well off there, and
think more about eating, apparently, than freedom; they
sit quite still and suck the cane, and their light seems
dimmed the while; but if I oblige them with a bath of
fresh water, it becomes bright again, and the whole creature more lively. Sometimes, when I wake in the night,
I hear a buzzing noise in my room, and see one or two
cuculios flying about, and lighting up every part of the0
room which they approach.
I have to-day drawn a couple of them in my album.
I have here a perfect phrensy, sketching and drawing
people, birds, trees, flowers, dwellings, every thing which
strikes me; and so much strikes me here, from its beauty
or its novelty, that I am in a continual drawing fever.
Many of my efforts are not wholly successful, both fronm
want of time and artistic skill; but I shall carry home
with me some small memories which it will be pleasant to
possess.
I see in the evenings the Southern Cross slowly rising
in a slanting direction with regard to the horizon; at midnight it stands perpendicularly above it. I went out last
night to see it. This lovely constellation shone bright and
beautiful amid the tranquil, beautiful night. The stars
are of the second magnitude; one of them, however, is of
the third; but the proportion between them is so perfect,
that the whole figure is striking in the highest degree;
besides which, the splendid  roQss staands solitary in the
357 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
southern heavens, with its foot almost touching the earth,
and its arms extending over it. The whole figure pro duces a solemn but melancholy effect upon me. A glory
is formed above the Cross by the stars of Centaur, and the
two stars Circinus and Robur stand like sentinels, one on
either side.
After midnight the Cross declines toward the right, and
thus sinks, by degrees, once more beneath the orb of the
earth. The nights are very dark, but the darkness is as
if transparent; the air is not felt. There could not be
more beautifuil nights in Paradise. The beauty of our
midsummer in the north of Sweden might emulate it, but
in another way.
When I turn from the Southern Cross, and the palmtrees between which it shines, I see in the northern firmament, above a beautiful ceiba-tree in the court, the North
Star and the Great Bear.
April 3d. I have spent this beautiful morning in the
banana groves, which are always to be met with on coffee
plantations, sketching the tree, with my favorite fruit and
all its little upspringing family around its stem. I found
here also flowering cotton-plants in a considerably wild
state.   The shrub has twisting, irregular stems, coarse
lobed leaves of a dark dull green color. The flower resembles a double mallow, and is of a clear, light yellow
color, and of the most delicate and graceful form. The
manner in which the capsule opens, and throws out the
bunches of cotton in which the seeds are imbedded, is
wonderfully pretty. I must now paint this, as well as the
Southern Cross above the palm-trees.
The palm-trees! I never grow weary of contemplating
the waving of their heads in the wind, and the soft and
majestic inclination of the branches. They are' full of
poetry and of symbolic beauty; they speak forcibly of the
union of the noble in thought and deed, and the beautiful
in expression; wherever I turn, they meet my eye with
368 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
new aspects of beauty. The palm-tree's crown has gen erally from fourteen to sixteen branches.  Every month,
or every alternate month, one of the lower branches falls
off.  I have often seen such, six or seven ells long, lying
across the path as I have been driving out, and every
month a new one shootk forth. This always shoots up in
the centre of the crown, like an upright sceptre ruling the
tree; it unfolds itself first at the point, and the delicate
leaves sport in the wind like a green flame, or flag, above
the tree.
It is customary in this neighborhood to cut off the
branches of the palm in the woods and fields for the purposes of thatching roofs, &c., and the tree is sometimes left
with merely two or three branches, by which one might
imagine that it was bereft of all its beauty; but no! the
despoiled palm elevates its two remaining branches with
a graceful bend toward the branches of another tree in the
same condition, and you behold Gothic porticoes, and arches of the most beautiful proportions, arising in the fields,
or in the depths of the forest: to deprive the palmn of its
nobility and its beauty requires the destruction of its life.
The king-palm has always an upright column or stem;
the cocoa-palm, on the contrary, has a curved, leaning
stem, much thinner than that of the king-palm. I see
the latter almost always heavily laden with fruit, which
grows in clusters close to, or beneath the branches. People here are fond of the milk of the fruit, and consider it
as a purifier of the blood; it has the appearance of whey,
and one must be accustomed to its flavor before one can
like it. The fruit of the king-palm is a berry, and is only
used for fodder for cattle. The cabbage of the palm, as it
is called-that is, the middle of the stem nearest to the
crown-the very core, as it were, of the tree, is said to be
a great delicacy, but it can not be removed without taking
the life of the tree.
In the afternoons I have driven out with my kind host
359 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ess, in her volante, to visit some of the neighbors.  Yesterday-we called on an elderly French lady, who interested
me by her strongly-marked individuality; it was a pleasure to hear her relate any thing, and to follow her expressions and gestures.  In a general way, it seems to me
that Europeans have far more accent and emphasis in
their whole being than the Americans, or than those families of European origin which have been resident in America for any length of time. The former speak louder;
emphasize the words more strongly; use more action; appear more forcible; make more demonstration: the latter
move and speak with very little outward action; there is
a something silent and without sound in their being; energy has a more inward, a more concentrated power. The
great expression of the American seems to be properly, in
his public institutions, in the development of the political
life of the states, in the advancement of commerce, in the
magnitude of his public undertakings. Individuality does
not indeed vanish, but it seems to me to occupy itself in
a higher species of manifestation.
The Spaniards present, in manners and appearance, the
strongest contrast which can be conceived to the AngloAmerican, and the melody and majesty of the Spanish
language always enchants me-excepting, indeed, when I
hear it spoken or screamed out by uneducated women. I
visited a farm one afternoon, where we found an assembly
of ten or twelve women belonging to the working-class,
but not to the poorest. They were, the greater number
of them, thin and very brown, and they screamed and
made such a din, although it was all in kindness and
cheerfulness, that it was almost deafening; one might
have imagined one's self amid a flock of turkeys; and to
all this noise was added a great deal of action, very energetic, but angular and quite devoid of grace. On the
contrary, from the lips of educated and refined women,
the Spanish language is the most beautiful music.
360 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The beautiful cuculios are now my torment as well as
my delight, because, oh! they are stupid; and when they
fold together their wings, they are the most awkward and
helpless of all creatures. During their flight they strike
them' selves against any thing that comes in their way, and
then fall down, when they creep, or lie upon their backs
as foolishly as our cock-chafers. They allow themselves
to be caught with the greatest ease, and, once caught,
they seem to forget that they have wings. The little negro children run after them, crying " Cuccu! cuccu!"
catch them easily, and then torment them in many ways.
And since the time when I purchased some of these poor,
stupid creatures for a few galietas, to release them from
the hands of their tormentors, dozens of these young negroes come crowding in the evening on the piazza, which
lies on the same level with the great parlor, poke in their
curly heads, and stretch out their hands, with the brilliant
insects in them, shouting "Cuccu! cuccu!" One is obliged
to purchase some of them out of captivity, but all-a whole
pocket full of galietas, would not suffice for that!  If one
makes any demonstration of driving the children away,
off they fly like a flock of sparrows, with a loud cry of
exultation, for they are full of fun; but they are soon back
again, shouting "Cuccu! cuccu!"  If one takes no notice
of them, they will steal into the room-that is to say, if
no gentlemen are there-and come up to the piano when
Miss P. is playing Cuban dances, or I Swedish polkas, and
temptingly stretch out their hands full of "cuccus," merrily laughing. If I take up my handkerchief with a threatening gesture, away they scamper like the wind, but
merely for a moment.
These beautiful cuoulios are really the most tormenting of all creatures. The negroes place them in phials
and bottles, and use them as lanterns and candles in their
rooms. In this way they will live for a week, until finally they die of suffocation. If they were but as devoid of
VOL. iT.-Q
361 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
feeling as they are of sense! The children of the family
anrd I amuse ourselves in the evenings by endeavoring to
make the cuculios fly, which we have either picked up or
purchased out of bondage. It is sometimes difficult to
persuade them to it, but when one sets them on the point
of one's finger, and holds it up in the air, one may often
see them spread out their wings, and, making their dron ing sound, ascend aloft, giving forth their beautiful, in comparable light. 
In the morning I return to Matanzas, and thence I
shall proceed to Havana, and afterward to San Antonio
de los Bagnos-a bathing-place, where the country is said
to be magnificent, and thence to a plantation at some distance. A young planter here, a French Creole of the name
of S., wishes me to become acquainted with his mother,
a widow, after a second marriage with a Spanish marquis
C., who resides there; and he has often spoken of her in
such a manner as makes me wish to know her.  Besides
this, she is said to enjoy literature and art, and the company of people who are devoted to them. I shall thus remain longer in Cuba than I intended, but-I shall be at
Cuba only once in my life; and Cuba is a home of beauty,
and I am annoyed that it is so little known. Natural
historians, architects, painters, and poets ought to come
hither for new knowledge and new inspiration. Air and
light, the vegetation above ground, and the caverns below
it, are full of life and beauty!  There is also a remarkable grotto not far from this plantation, which we, if possible, shall visit early in the morning.
We have now as visitor in the house a lively young
girl, a French Creole, Eudoxia B., whose cheerful conversation, and natural, healthy, and graceful manners it is
a pleasure both to hear and see. I hear from her that
young girls have sometimes in Cuba, as well as in Sweden, certain Utopian dreams of a home (a kind of paradise for young girls) into which no man shall be allowed
362 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
to enter. Eudoxia's only brother is said also to have similar dreams of a corresponding paradise for young men,
from which all ladies are to be excluded. I am mistaken
if these young exclusives will not, one fine day, exclude
themselves from their paradise by entering the marriage
state; I would not be surety for the pretty Eudoxia's vocation as a nun. I have drawn this charming young girl's
portrait in my album. A little green lizard sat all the
while, certainly for two hours, upon a vine-branch by the
window, and peeped in; another lizard, its counterpart or
spouse, sat a little higher up, just opposite, and seemed
to watch its movements. The little creatures amuse me
greatly, they look so wise and so reflective. When they
would make themselves agreeable one to another, they
open a kind of wing on one side, of the brightest red color, and wave it about like a fan.
I found this morning, to my astonishment, that all my
cuculios had disappeared from the glass which always
stands upon my toilet table. I could not comprehend
how it could be, for I knew that they had not energy
enough to leave the sugar-cane and fly away. Somewhat
later in the forenoon, I beheld a huge coal-black spideras large as a little child's hand-sitting upon the wall of
my room with a cuculio in its mouth.   I had already seen
the ugly creature there several times. These spiders have
a hideous appearance, but are said to be inoffensive to
man. The multitudes of creeping things here are, nevertheless, a nuisance; in order to preserve eatables from
them, they must be surrounded by water.
There is a general talk now of a fresh attack being
made on Cuba, a new attempt at conquest which is said
to originate with the Americans. It is said, also, that the
expedition is arming at Yucatan, and consists of a number
of people who were in the Mexican war; it is expected
about Easter. Many families on the plantations hold
themselves in readiness for flight from the island on the
363 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
first outbreak of disturbances. The Creoles are bitterly
displeased with the Spanish government, and they have
reason for being so. They wish universally to be liberated from the Spanish yoke, but are themselves too weak
to undertake their own liberation; and they fear the negroes, who, on the first occasion, would rise against thenm.
The Spanish army is in active preparation to defend the
island against the Americans. The American government
has publicly declared itself opposed to these. robber expeditions, and admonishes all good citizens of the United
States to oppose them. The Spaniards, however, suspect
the American slave states of being concerned in them,
and of desiring their success, in order that, by the annexation of Cuba as a slave state, they might have a balance
in the South, against the increase of the free states in the
North. I shall hear the result of all this, however, in the
United States.
On the 22d of April I shall bid farewell to this beautiful, but serpent-stung Cuba!
Matanzas, April 6th.
I am once more at the good and excellent house of Mr.
and Mrs. B., happy to be with these young and handsome
people inhaling the delicious air! No place has such air
as Matanzas, so animating, and so charming; and nowhere
does one hear so much music. The whole day through
may be heard Cuban dances from four or five pianos in
the neighborhood; and in the evening, a couple of gentlemen come out upon a piazza nearly opposite to ours, and
sing Spanish songs, and accompany themselves on the
guitar; a skillful harp-player goes about from door to
door, twanging upon his harp-strings as he carries his
harp on his back, and playing at the doors "La Hauta
Arragonesa," that dance so full of quivering life, till my
whole being quivers and dances as I listen to it-or la
Cachuca, so full of grace; and during all this, the band
is sounding from La Plaza des Armas, where the beau
364 
-HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
monde of Matanzas are walking about in the moonlight
beneath the poplars; the ladies without bonnets, and with
flowers or other ornaments in their hair, in their transparent veils and white dresses-and where I also walk
during these pleasant evenings with my young hostess
and the gentlemen of the house, or with my agreeable
young countryman, Mr. F.; so that one hears music
enough at Matanzas, that is, in the evenings especially,
when there is a regular charivari of it, but which is by
no means disagreeable, because the time and the spirit
of the music is in all cases so very much alike. In all
this there is a gay, sportive, care-free life; I give myself
up to the influence of it, and bathe, as it Were, in the
softly floating atmosphere which dances around me, like
playful zephyrs, as I pace the piazza till toward midnight,
and see the Southern Cross gleaming as it ascends higher
and higher in the heavens, above a row of dark-green,
shadowy sapota-trees. Yes, this is indeed a peculiarly
delicious, tranquil life; I wish that every body could thus
enjoy it.  On the prairies of America, and often in Amer.
ica, did I stretch out my arms and fly-fly over the whole
earth.  Here I wish merely to be quiet-to sit in the
shade of the palms, and listen to the rustling of their
branches, or on the piazza in a rocking-chair, soothed by
music and the zephyrs of Paradise; thus could I sit, it
seems to me, for an eternity, and feel nothing wanting!
Mrs. B. drove me last evening in her volante to the top
of Combre. A pair of horses drew the volante rapidly up
the hill, although it is a two hours' journey. The road
lay between lofty candelabra-likle aloe-plants; and when
we had reached the summit or ridge of hills, we beheld
the blue, vast sea stretching out on the right hand, scattered over with trading vessels and ships of war both
large and small; all that great world's life and that boundless ocean of the world; and to the left, inclosed within
mountains, Yumori Valley, with its green and lovely groves
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of palms, like a quiet, peaceful paradise-a greater or
more beautiful contrast can not be imagined. Beautiful
habitations, the country houses of the wealthy inhabitants
of Matanzas, were scattered about this elevation, surrounded by trees and flowers. We saw the sun set and
the moon rise in calm majesty. I could merely say,
" God, how beautiful are thy works!"
Oh! I would bring to this height of Combre the woman
wearied and imbittered by life-she who has seen into
the darkened abysses of life; I would let her here see,
breathe, and derive again courage and hope from these
speaking symbols of the affluence and glory of the Allgood!  I would place her here, and say to her, "See, all
this is thine-will be thine one day when thy desert-pilgrimage shall be ended, and thou shalt have won the victory-Trust and hope!"
We drove back through the clearest moonlight, with the
view across the bay lying unbroken before us the whole
way. But Mrs. B. and I had absorbed ourselves in a conversation upon quite another subject than the beauties of
nature, and I gave to them merely a half attention, a preoccupied mind, and now feel a little reproach of conscience.
10th. Ah, how charming it was to receive a letter from
you, and to know how every thing was at home. The
letter was, it is true, somewhat old, for it was written in
January, but it sounded deliciously fresh to me, poor WestIndian pilgrim! And nothing in it pleased me more than
to know that you, on the first of June, will go with the
Q.'s to Marstrand. Thoughtful, rational people, brotherin-law and sister!
I shall not, however, be at home in July, and perhaps
not even in August; I have still so much to see and to
consider thoroughly in the United States; but when colder weather comes, then, my dear child, I shall come and
be with you and mamma. And how much of light, and
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warmth, and good, both in great and small, shall I not
have gathered up in my wanderings-nor shall I keep
them all to myself-of that you may be sure!
I have enjoyed, and still enjoy, much in Cuba, both in
soul and body, and I have become really stout and young
again there (N.B.-In comparison with what I was in
the United States, where I grew both thin and old). I
should have still further improved if I could only have
rested somewhat. But my imagination has been so much
invigorated-or, rather, so much excited here, that it has
left me no repose, but has kept me in an almost continual
fever. New objects and new combinations are continually
presenting themselves, and exciting me to copy them or
to avail myself of them, and urging me to undertake
more than I can accomplish, both as regards time and
ability. It is almost laughable, and sometimes also a little to be regretted, because I can get no rest. I am,
however, more amused by my work than I have ever been,
and I take portraits now better than I did formerly, but
those which are most successful I generally leave at the
homes where I am staying at the time. Yes, those good,
beautiful homes! they have been as good to me at Cuba
as in the United States; open, hospitable, they have afforded me rest and friends, and have enabled me to see
and to know  the inner life and condition of society, and
have given me an opportunity of seeing people who will
be united in my heart with the delicious air and the beautiful palms of Cuba. Among these is Mrs. P., one of the
best hearts in the world-one of those gentle, motherly
beings whom one must love and reverence with one's
whole heart. It was a grief to me to part with her and
her kind daughters, who overwhelmed me with kindnesscs and gifts, even to the last moment.
I live with the young couple here as with a younger
brother and sister, and am as happy as possible with them
in their lovely home, and in the charming air of Matanzas.
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I have again visited my beloved valley of Yumrnori, and
made a drawing of its opening, as being most manageable
from the azotea of the house, which commands a beautiful
view of this point. I wished also to draw a Cuban house,
and selected for this purpose a small, very pretty house
on La Plaza des Armas.  Very early in the morning, accordingly, I seated myself upon a bench, under the poplars there, with pencil and book, and thus hoped, quite unobserved, to place Casa donna Fabriana Hernandez in
my album.  The first morning, every thing succeeded to
my wishes. One negro only looked out of the gate of the
house and cast suspicious glances at me. The second
morning, however, several heads peeped forth from the
house, and a crowd of lads gathered round me, peeping
into my album. On the third morning, the house was in
evident inward uneasiness, and tall men came round me
talking Spanish, not in any unfriendly manner, and with
questions to which I could give no other reply than by
showing them my drawing, and saying " hermoso Casa in
Matanzas." They laughed, but would see me at work,
and there was no more tranquillity for me; I therefore
left the place as soon as I had done sufficient of the house
to enable me to finish the drawing at home. A handsome
Cuban house, with its fresco-paintings, its handsome iron
railing, parapet, and decorations, is a complete trinket from
its ornament and loveliness. The gate of the house is,
comparatively speaking, too large for the house, and there
always stands the elegant volante, which may be regarded
as the feet of the family, because these seldom move out
of the house excepting to be conveyed by it. The gate is
always kept fastened except when it is opened for the volante, and a little wicket in the gate serves for the ingress
and egress of pedestrians.
I drive out in the afternoons with Mrs. B., sometimes to
make purchases, and sometimes upon one of the beautiful
promenades, Paseo de Tacon or La Pleja; this last, along
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the shore, where we breathe the fresh, delightful sea-air,
while the waves dash and roar against the beach, is indescribably delightful.  It is sometimnes late before we return, and then it is beautiful to see the lights gleaming
in Matanzas, in the shadow of the hills along the shore,
in the dark but clear air.
Our shopping is managed in this way: the volante stops
before a shop, when immediately one or two shopmen
hasten out to the carriage, and inform themselves of what
the signoras require. We mention what we wish, and
immediately as great a choice of the particular article is
brought out to us as we can desire, and our purchase is
made without our leaving the volante. But, whether we
purchase or not, the behavior of the young gentlemen of
the shop is alike polite, attentive, and agreeable. Yes,
one might fancy that a young page of the days of chivalry
rather than a simple shopman was before one, so courteously and agreeably does he behave, that young Spaniard,
to the purchasing signoras or senoritas, as he sometimes
calls them in a flattering, melodious voice.
Many of these young tradesmen are sons of good families of the island, for the Creoles have not much higher
prospect in life than trade or agriculture. Civil and military employment is generally given to Spaniards.
During these drives, my young hostess salutes the passers-by, or the people in their houses, with a gracious wave
of the hand, and the word adios! as we proceed. Such
is the custom here, and the salutation by a graceful and
friendly movement of the hand, which has various degrees of expression and warmth, is universal both for ladies and gentlemen, and seems to me a graceful and becoming mode of salutation, in comparison with which
our custom of a gentleman's taking off his hat seems very
troublesome and unnecessary. The polite Spaniard adds
to this salutation of a lady, "I kiss your hands!" which,
of course, means nothing, but which sounds well, and the
Q 2
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expression of his countenance is at the same time extremely charming. The Spaniards are certainly the most
polite of all men, but it is asserted that they are just as
fickle.
I yesterday afternoon saw the Spanish soldiers exercise.
Their maneuvers were excellent; but they were very short
men. Their discipline and conduct on the island is said
to be very good.
With the evening comes music, both within and out of
the house, and the play of the sea-breezes on the piazza.
Mrs. B. plays the lively Cuban and Spanish dances remarkably well; and now also she plays Swedish polkas,
which she has learned fromn me, and I play her dances.
Sometimes there are visitors, both of the European settlers on the island and Spanish ladies, who always maneuver and flutter a great deal with their fans, for the
weight and the splendor of the fan is the pride of the
Spanish lady. I have seen here fans which have cost
from twenty-five to one hundred dollars each. The most
valuable are of ivory set with gold, and greatly ornamented, in part, with small oval mirrors on the outer sides.
The maneuvering with the fan is quite a little science,
in which the Spanish lady or Spanish Creole lady comprehends a whole language of signs, by which she converses when and how she will with the friend of her
heart.
In the reception-rooms of Cuba stand two rows of rocking chairs, some of the Spanish and some of the American style-the Spanish being very much more mragnificent and heavier-the one against the windows, and the
other within the room. Here people sit and talk, rocking
and fanning themselves while the wind sports in through
the windows. They drink tea and eat preserves. The
Creole ladies have fine, soft brown eyes; they are said to
have good natural understanding and intelligence, but to
be very ignorant. They are principally occupied within
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the house in sewing, dressing themselves, and receiving
visitors.
I shall make one more excursion with my kind friends
-that is to say, up the Canima, which is one of the most
beautiful rivers of Cuba, and not far from this place;
then I must say farewell to Matanzas.
April 13th, evening. Yesterday morning, before sun rise, we set out, Mrs. B., her brother Philip, and myself,
and, just as the sun ascended in all his glory from the
sea, we put off from the shore at Matanzas. An elderly,
weather-beaten seaman from the Canary Isles, and his
two young sons, were our boatmen. The sea was quite
calm, or merely moved in long smooth waves without
foam. This was all as it should be, for otherwise we
could not have entered the Canima, which, in rough
weather, is dangerous at its outlet into the sea. Cuba
has many rivers flowing from the mountains, but none
large, and none navigable to any great extent.
After a sail of about half an hour on the sea, we reached the outlet of the Canima, a clear little river flowing
with a sweep into the sea, from between lofty, precipitous, rocky walls covered with tropical vegetation. Fanpalms waved on the heights in picturesque groups, and
along the steep, rocky heights grew an infinite variety
of trees and shrubs, amid which hung splendid orchids,
with red, yellow, white, and purple flowers, around which
hovered swarms of green humming-birds. Nearest to the
river grew trees and shrubs of bamboo, bending down toward the water with a movement of such incomparable
grace, that it enchanted me, and made me almost melancholy.  The shadow of the hills fell over the river, which,
perfectly calm, lay, with its tropical world, like a beautiful mystery before us. Thus advanced we onward hour
after hour, and at every new bend of the river discovered
new beauties, but all of the same character-palms, aloes,
bamboos, orchids, humming-birds. A lovely white bird
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flew continually in advance of us for some time, alighting on the banks to rest, and then flying on again when
we approached, only anew to show us the way; they
called it the gazza. But the sun ascended, and there
was not a breath of air in that deep glen. The boys who
rowed us poured, every now and then, water down their
throats from the spout of a clay vessel, in such a manner
that the stream of water flowed straight into their stomachs without any appearance of swallowing. They held
their heads slanting backward, their mouths wide open,
and the clay spout at some distance from their mouths,
and in this way the water flowed down their throats for
several seconds, after which they cried or groaned out Ave
Maria! laughed, and rowed on.
We landed at a little bend of the river, and ate our
breakfast under some beautiful bamboo-trees, while the
humming-birds danced over their red flowers around us.
I took a walk along the banks of the river, which is
here very narrow. A couple of ruinous wooden houses
stood upon the opposite bank; the most lovely groups of
palms and bamboos were scattered beside the river. The
whole scene had a luxuriant and paradisiacally wild appearance. Crabs, and that species of craw-fish which is
called in America the fiddler, from its one large claw,
swarmed on the shore, as they had done through the
whole of our course.  Spite of all the beauty of the vegetation, I felt that, in order for any one to live happily here
in this narrow world, he must be_ither a crab or a humming-bird. I should have died here for want of fresh air.
We were surprised on our return by a thunder-storm
of the wildest description, and, notwithstanding the arched
sail-cloth covering of our boat, we were wet through, which
made me very uneasy on account of Mrs. B., who was not
well that day, and who is not strong. We were glad to
reach home after a sail of ten hours.  Our boatmen continued to pour water into themselves, and to sigh out their
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Ave Maria! and were to the last in good humor, and apparently unwearied: I can not but admire their power of
endurance.
We were very weary; but we had, however, seen the
Canima, and I now can place the impression of its tropical scenery beside that of the Hudson, the Savannah, the
Mississippi, the Ohio, and other rivers of the Western land
which I traversed.
And now it is evening-my last evening at Matanzas;
in the morning I shall set off to Havana. I have spent
the evening alone with my young friends; I have for the
last time heard Mrs. B. play La Hauta Arragonesa; have
heard for the last time Adeste fideles played by Mr. B. on
the organ.   I asked them for these pieces, that I might
bear them away with me as my latest memories of the
days spent in their home; and in the morning early I
part from these estimable, kind people-from Matanzas
and its beautiful neighborhood. It grieves me to leave
them, but it can not be helped. Never more shall I feel
such an atmosphere- such zephyrs; never again hear
such a flood of joyous music; never again behold Yumori, Canima, and Combre!
LETTER XXXV.
Havana, April 15th.
GOOD-MORNING once more, my little heart, in Havana,
where I am excellently lodged in Mr. Woolcott's good hotel, Havana House, and where I am now able to live cheaper than at first, because the flood of travelers has now
somewhat withdrawn, and there is plenty of room. I
have again my former little room, with its outlet on the
roof, and the clever, good-tempered Mrs. Mary to look after
me, and a black Rosetta, with splendid eyes and a cheerful smile, to wait upon me as a second servant.  The good
373 
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F.'s have also again invited me to take up my former quarters in their house; but the house is full of children and
guests, and I will not abuse their hospitality; besides, I
so infinitely enjoy my solitude and my liberty.
This is Maunday-Thursday, a great holiday in the Christian Church, and I have this morning visited two churches in the city. There was great pomp in them. Ladies,
dressed as for a ball, knelt upon splendid mats in silk attire, and satin shoes, jewels, gold ornaments,.and flowers,
with bare neck and arms, and every where the transparent
black mantillas, and every where glittering, waving fans.
Quite young girls, even, were so tricked out; and all
around them stood gentlemen contemplating the ladies
through their lorgnettes.  The sight of all these adorned,
only half-veiled women of all colors-for mulattoes also,
very splendidly attired and with magnificent figures, were
among them-prostrated in crowds on their knees in the
centre aisle of the church, from the very end to the altar,
is really beautiful, especially as the eyes and busts of the
Spanish women are generally remarkably lovely. But
the want of earnestness in every thing, excepting in vanity and the wish to be admired, was very striking, especially on a day such as this-the day of the Lord's Supper-that calm, unpretending, solemn day of initiation to
the highest and holiest life of humanity. I called to remembrance a Maunday-Thursday in St. Jacob's Church
at Stockholm; there simply called " Going to the Lord's
Supper." Whole families assemble-father, mother, and
children, assemble to drink together from the cup. I remembered the silence, the calm, deep devotion of all who
filled that crowded church!
There is but one general voice in Cuba, among the strangers of various nations dwelling there, of the entire want
of religious life on the island. The clergy live in open defiance of their vows; are respected by no one, nor deserve
to be so; nor does morality stand any higher than religion.
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"There is plenty of love and passion at Cuba," said a
thoughtful young man, a resident there, to me, "but it is
more frequently on the side of vice than of virtue."
The god of money is blindly worshiped. It is very sel dom that a marriage takes place in which he has not been
consulted before any other. Ladies who remain unmrnar ried seldom continue blameless in their lives. Unmarried
men never are so.
People come to this beautiful island, like parasites, mere ly to suck its life and live at its expense. But it avenges
itself, flings around them its hundred - fold, oppressive,
snake-like arms, drags them down, suffocates their higher
life, and changes them into a corpse in its embrace.
In the evening.  I have again visited three or four
churches. They are splendidly illuminated this evening,
especially the choirs and around the altar-pieces. They
were less crowded than at morning mass, and now principally by a lower class of people. Several seemed to be
kneeling and praying with devotion. There sat, one on
each side the entrance of the Cathedral, two magnificent
Spanish dames entirely covered with jewels, each with a
table before her, upon which a collection was made for
the poor. One single jewel from all their splendor would
richly have outweighed all the offerings of those humble
people. I passed in and out without impediment, mingled with the crowds in the churches, or with the crowds
in the streets, and all was peaceable and quiet. The appearance was of a people going about to amuse themselves
From this moment to Easter Sunday morning at about
nine o'clock, a profound stillness prevails in Havana; not
a single volante is seen in the streets. To-morrow afternoon they will be occupied by a great procession.
Easter Sunday. I witnessed the procession the day before yesterday, with two American acquaintances, from
the piazza of La Plaza des Armas. Ladies dressed as
for a ball, white, yellow, brown, and black, attended by
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gentlemen, filled the square early in the afternoon, walking about, talking, and laughing. The mulatto ladies
were particularly distinguishable by their showiness, brilliant flowers and ornaments in their hair and in their bosoms, and in these they flaunted about in the style of proud
peacocks. It was evident that people were expecting a
splendid show. In the twilight the procession approached with candles and blazing torches. The figure of the
dead Christ is borne along lying upon a state-bed, beneath
an immense chandelier, which lights up the pale, noble,
wax countenance. Mary weeping is borne after in a
gold-embroidered mantle, and with a golden crown on her
head; and Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, have
also their magnificent garments. The procession was
large, and not without a certain pomp and dignity. Among
those who took part in the procession, I observed a number of negroes with large white scarfs bound across the
breast and shoulders. I was told that they belonged to a
kind of order of Freemasons, who attached themselves to
the church by the exercise of deeds of mercy, taking care
of hospitals, &c.
Thousands of people streamed gayly along the streets
and squares, and the colored portion especially brilliant,
in all the colors of the rainbow. It was a splendid spectacle, but not at all suitable for the occasion. Not a particle of seriousness was observable among the masses of
people. It was very evident by this procession that religion was dead in Cuba!
-Nevertheless, yesterday was a great fast, and a deep
stillness prevailed throughout the lively Havana. This
morning the image of the arisen Christ was borne in great
procession from the Cathedral to the Church of St. Catalina; and from St. Catalina, in the mean time, another procession was advancing, the weeping Mary Magdalene seeking for Christ. When the processions meet, and it is proclaimed that Mary Magdalene has met Christ, a shot is
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
fired, and all the bells of the churches begin to ring, flags
to wave in the harbor and on the church towers, and
trumpets to be blown. The fast is at an end. Volantes
drive out of the gates, and negroes rush about also, shouting and laughing; a thoughtless, universal jubilation at
once begins.
During all this I quietly betook myself to my favorite
Cortina de Valdez. It was the loveliest morning that
could be imagined. The bright blue sea, agitated by the
wind, flung itself in lofty, silvery-crested waves around the
feet of the rocks of the Moro, and the flags in the harbor
fluttered cheerfully in the morning breeze. The atmosphere was full of regenerated life. White doves flew down
to the white marble basin, and drank of its fresh spring
waters; little green lizards darted about on the wall with
love and delight; and as I walked along, my soul uttered these words:
She walks along lonely,
She comes from a foreign land;
She is distant from friends and from kindred;
She walks along lowly,,
Lonely she walks among strangers;
They of her having no knowledge,
She not knowing them;
They look upon her
With cold and indifferent glances.
Yet still her spirit
O'erfloweth with joy,
With bliss gusheth over,
And bright are her eyes,
With warm tears of gladness.
She has one friend,
One frlend who was dead,
And he has arisen,
And this is his day of arising,
The morning of Easter!
And fresh living breezes,
And the bright sun ascending,
And the ringing of church-bells,
And the fluttering of banners,
And flowers unfolding, 
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
And twittering of lizards,
And the beating of drums,
And the blaring of trumpets,
And the great ocean,
And white doves which drink at the rim of the fountain;
They all speak of Him,
They all bear His name,
That name so beloved,
And His name by the whole world is borne!
April 20th. Your birth-day!  Blessings on the day
which gave me my dear friend! I can not to-day present you with flowers, but I can sit down in thought with
you, and tell you the history of the day, which was to me
party-colored, but amusing, and which will perhaps amuse
you more than a bouquet.
Two American gentlemen, of the chivalric species, whom
I hope our Lord will bless with man's best reward-good
and beautiful wives-had taken charge of me and my effects when I came by rail-way from Matanzas to Havana,
and conducted me and mine, safe and sound, to Havana
House. One of them, who has resided much in Cuba,
Texas, and Mexico, and who has, in consequence, a touch
of the Spaniards' grace of speech and manner, has since
that time been a very agreeable companion to me, and I
have to thank him for presenting me, through conversation, with living pictures of the scenery, population, and
manners of these Southern lands. The other, Mr. F., a
merchant of New York, is grave and simple in his manners, one of those men with whom I always am at ease,
and to whom I feel a sort of sisterly relationship.
This gentleman has accompanied me with noble American simplicity, and as kindly and with as little sense of
impropriety as if he had been a brother, in various of my
little excursions, making all the needful arrangements for
me in the pleasantest manner. Thus we took a sail together to-day in the beautiful bay, crossed over to the
heights Casa Blanca, which are covered with the wild
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candelabra-like aloes, and saw from thence a glorious sunset; after which we rowed round in the dark, clear shadows
of the hills on the water, and saw it drip in gold and silver
drops from the oars. It was a beautiful excursion, which
had only one shadow; that was the company of a German
gentleman, who had a great deal of that imperiousness
which one frequently finds in European gentlemen, but
seldom or never in Americans. His inflated manner formed on this occasion a great contrast to the single-mindedness of the American, who, in his simplicity, was so far
his superior. But this is merely en passant.
I was, in reality, going to tell you of a visit which I and
my two American gentlemen had made to the Cabildos de
Negros, or to the assemblies of the free negroes of the
city. It was not possible for me to go alone. These two
gentlemen offered to escort me, and Mr. C., who spoke
Spanish like a native, undertook to obtain admission for
us, although the free negroes, in general, do not admit of
the whites in their society, nor are they by any means so
patient or so much under restraint as in the United States.
As these clubs generally meet in the afternoons and
evenings of the Sunday, we set off in the afternoon to the
street in which the cabildos are situated, for they occupy
a whole street near one of the toll-gates of the city. The
whole street swarmed with negroes, some decked out with
ribbons and bells, some dancing, others standing in groups
here and there.  There prevailed a wild but not rude
sort of lawlessness, and on all hands, near and afar off,
was heard the gay, measured beat of the African drum.
Round the gates of the different halls were collected groups
of white people, most of them evidently sailors, who were
endeavoring to get sight of what was passing inside; but
a couple of negroes, stationed at each with sticks in their
hands, kept the entrance closed with good-tempered determination, and did not allow the doors to open beyond
half way. 
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By some means, however, Mr. C. succeeded in getting
his head within the door of the Luccomees' Cabildo, and
then requested permission for la Signora to enter. Some
negro heads peeped out, and when they saw my white
bonnet and veil, and the flowers which I wore-for I
adorn myself more with flowers here than in Swedenthey looked kind, and granted permission per la Signora,
and the gentlemen also who accompanied her were allowed to enter; but the door was immediately closed to various others who wished to thrust in after us.
Chairs were offered to us not far from the door; we
were presented to the queen and the king of the assembly,
who made demonstrations of good-will, and we were then
left to look about us in quiet.
The room was tolerably large, and might contain about
one hundred persons. On the wall just opposite to us
was painted a crown, and a throne with a canopy over it.
There stood the seats of the king and queen. The customary dancing was going forward in front of this seat.
One woman danced alone, under a canopy supported by
four people. Her dancing must have given great delight
-though it was not very different from that of the negro
ladies which I have already described-for all kinds of
handkerchiefs were hanging about her, and a hat, even,
had been placed upon her head. The women danced on
this occasion with each other, and the men with the men;
some struck the doors and benches with sticks, others rattled gourds filled with stones, and the drums thundered
with deafening power.- They were apparently endeavoring to make as much noise as possible. While this was
going on, a figure was seen advancing with a scarlet hat
upon his head, and with a great number of glittering
strings of beads round his neck, arms, and body, which
was naked to the waist, from which hung scarlet skirts.
This figure, before which the people parted to each side,
approached me, bowing all the time, and as he did so the
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whole upper portion of his body seemed to move in snake like folds. Still making these serpentine movements, he
stood before me with extended hands, I being not at all
certain whether he was inviting me to dance, or what was
the meaning of his apparently friendly grimaces, and his
great, black, outstretched hands. At length he uttered,
with other words, "per la bonita!" and I comprehended
that all his bowings and bedizenment were intended as a
compliment to me,-and I made my reply by shaking one
of the black hands, and placing within it a silver coin,
after which we exchanged friendly gestures, and my friend
made a serpentine retreat, and began to dance on his own
account, receiving great applause from the by-standers.
A great number of negroes were sitting on the benches,
many of whose countenances were earnest, and remarkably agreeable. The Luccomees have, in general, beautiful
oval countenances, good foreheads and noses, well-formed
mouths, and the most beautiful teeth. They look less
good-humored and gay than the other negro tribes, but
have evidently more character and intelligence. The nation is regarded as rich, in consequence of the great prizes
which it has won in the lottery, and this wealth it is said
to apply to a good use-the purchasing the freedom of
slaves of this tribe.
These cabildoes are governed, as I have already said,
by queens, one or two, who decide upon the amusements,
give tone to the society, and determine its extension. They
possess the right of electing a king, who manages the pecuniary affairs of the society, and who has under him a
secretary and master of the ceremonies. The latter presented me with a small printed card, which gave admission to the "Cabildo de Senora Santa Barbara de la
nacion Lucumi Alagua." *
* The Luccom6e nation, like the other African tribes, Gangas, Congoes, &c., are divided into many subordinate tribes, with their various
cognomens, and their various places of meeting.
381 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
After this, and when we had made a little offering to
the treasury of the society, we took our departure, in order to visit other cabildoes. And in all cases they were
so polite as to give free access to la Signora, la bonita,
and her companions. I do not know whether this politeness is to be attributed to the negro character, or to the
Spanish influence upon it, but am inclined to believe the
latter.
I was received in the Cabildo de Gangas by the two
queens, two young and very pretty black girls, dressed in
perfectly good French taste, in pink gauze dresses, and
beautiful bouquets of artificial roses in their bosoms and
their hair: they both smoked cigarettes. They took me
kindly each by the hand, seated me between them, and
continued to smoke with Spanish gravity. One of them
had the very loveliest eyes imaginable, both in form and
expression. On the wall opposite to us was a large and
well-painted leopard, probably the symbol of the nation.
There were also some Catholic pictures and symbols in
the hall. I here saw a whole group of women moving
in a kind of dance, like galvanized frogs, but with slower
action, bowing and twisting their bodies and all their
joints without any meaning or purpose that I could discover. It seemed to be the expression of some kind of
animal satisfaction; it had also the appearance as if they
were seeking for something in the dark. And the poor
benighted people may be said to be still seeking-their
true life's joy, their life beyond that of Nature.
They seem, however, to have approached nearer to this
in the States of North America. I thought of that nocturnal camp-meeting in the forest, by the light of the firealtars, and of the melodious hymns which sounded from
the camp of the negroes!
I saw in another Cabildo de Gangas that same irregular, serpentine dance, danced in circles and rows both by
men and women around one another. I saw again, also,
382 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in a Cabildo de Congos, the Congo dance, as I had seen
it in the bohea at St. Amelia, and another which seemed
to be a mixture of the Spanish-Creole dance, Yuca and
Congo dance. There is considerably more animation in
the latter dances than in the former, as well as more art
and poetical feeling. The symbol painted upon the wall
of this room was a sun with a human face. Here also
were several Christian symbols and pictures. But even
here, also, the Christianized and truly Christian Africans
retain somewhat of the superstition and idolatry of their
native land. The Congo and Ganga nations seem to me
born of a more careless temperament, and have a more
animal appearance than the Luccomees.
I visited two other cabildoes, but did not find any new
features of interest, and, finally, I was heartily wearied by
the noise, and the rattling, and the bustle, and the dust,
and the chaotic disorder in the dancing, and in the move ments of their assemblies. I longed for pure air and clear
water, and, to gratify my longing, Mr. F. drove me in his
volante to Havana harbor.
It was sunset. We inquired for our friend, the boatman of the former evening, Rafael Hernandez, who soon
made his appearance with his splendid boat, La Leonora
Rosita, and rowed us out into the harbor.
Ah! how beautiful, in that tranquil, resplendent evening, to row softly along that palm-decorated shore, and
silently to inhale the pure air, and to contemplate the
soft, clear coloring of every object. The glowing blush
of evening tinged all. Presently the lamps were lighted
on the quay la Alameda di Paula, and other places along
the harbor. These lit up the shore and the water with a
wonderfully pure and clear splendor. It seems to me as
if light and air here possessed sound and melody; I hear,
as it were, their purity, while it strikes upon my eye.
And now I felt as if I had come out of chaos into the
world of pure light and harmony. But, of a truth, what
383 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ball-room would not have seemed to me dusty and stifling
when compared with'this rotunda of nature beneath thpe
heaven of Cuba.
I asked our boatman-who spoke English as well as
Spanish-whether he was satisfied with his condition in
life.  He shook his head: "Things were going dreadfully
with him; he should find himself compelled some fine
morning to run away from both boat and city."
"You smoke too many cigarettes, Hernandez!" said I.
" Only twenty a day, signora!" said he, and shrugged
his shoulders.
April 22d. Good-morning, my beloved child: I get on
charmingly now at the hotel. I have full freedom, have
every thing excellent, and the good Mrs. Mary does not let
me want for any thing. Early in the morning I go out
to walk on my favorite Cortina; watch the waves breaking against the rocks of the Moro; inhale the sea-breezes;
converse with the naiads; visit a church or two; look at
the pomp there; listen to the music; then go home across
La Plaza des Armas, where I linger a while to study the
monument to Columbus, which I afterward at home sketch
into my book; but I am obliged to make my observations
very warily, for the military on the Square are already
beginning to watch me. They suspect that I am plotting
an invasion.
Late in the evening I walk about on the azotea among
the urns, and watch the moon and the Moro light emulating each other in lighting up the city and the sea, and
watch the Southern Cross rise in quiet majesty above the
horizon, while toward the northern star, which shows out
at sea, I always cast a friendly glance. The roar of the
sea comes to me from the side of the Moro, and the gay
sound of military music from La Plaza des Armas.  Later
in the night, the harmonious air and sounds are broken
in upon by the Serenos, or fire-watchmen of Havana, who
sing so-that it really would be deplorable if it were not
384 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
so extremely ludicrous. I never before heard such a suc cession of false, jaw-breaking, inharmonious tones. I can
not get angry with them for laughing.
I go to my friends, the F.'s, generally for an hour every
morning, to paint the portrait of Mrs. F., which I wish to
possess, in memory of one of the best, most motherly women in the world.
While I am thus occupied, she tells me the experience
of her lifetime as regards the negro character, Her observations agree in the main with those of Mrs. P. Mrs.
F. says, as she does, "that there is a great difference in
the characters and tempers of the negroes, as is the case
among the white races, but that they are, in general, more
accessible than these to the sentiment of attachment, of
tenderness, and gratitude. The whites make a great mistake when they accuse the negroes of ingratitude. They
make them slaves, they demand incessant labor from
them, and require after that that they should be grateful. Grateful for what? They who wish really to be
the negro's friend will find him grateful and noble-minded. I have had both black and white nurses for my
children, but with the black only have I been perfectly
satisfied."
An affecting proof of love and strength of character
among the negroes was related to me, in the history of a
young negro couple who loved each other, without being
able to marry, because the master of the young negro
woman obstinately refused to consent to her marriage.
Love, however, had had its way, and the young lovers had
a child. The master of the negro woman, in a fury of
anger at this discovery, forbade her again to see the young
man, or he to see his child. The young negro was in service at Mrs. F.'s; he was an excellent young man, with one
only fault-he loved liquor, and not unfrequently allowed himself to be overcome by it; and this propensity increased all the more, now that the sorrow of not being
VOL. II.-R
385 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
able to see his wife and little boy often almost drove him
to despair. Mrs. F. said to him,
"If you will break yourself of this habit of strong
drink, I will allow you a peso a week, and lay the money
by for you, and with it you may, in time, buy the freedom
of your child."
From this moment the man became perfectly sober, and
persevered in being so for many months. After this time
of trial, Mrs. F. paid him the money which she had promised, and added to it, in order, said she, to show him her
esteem and satisfaction, as much more as was necessary
to purchase the freedom of the child.  He kissed her hand
with joy and tears of gratitude; he was beside himself
with happiness, and with the prospect which was afflorded
him of sometime being able to purchase the freedom of
the child's mother also, and being united to her. This
was now in progress of accomplishment. In the mean
time, the parents and the child had secret meetings, and
their love was as heartfelt, as romantically warm and
steadfast as that which any novel-writer describes between his heroes and heroines.
Mrs. F. confirmed all that I had already heard of the
kindness of the Spanish masters to their domestic slaves,
and the care which they take of them in their old age.
But if the domestic slaves are commonly well treated,
the slaves on the plantations are, in a general way, quite
the reverse; they are looked upon, not as human beings,
but as beasts of burden, and are treated with greater severity than these.
The house of the F.'s is now altogether full of love,
music, and mirth.  Young Louisa F. is married, and will,
although still hardly more than a child, now become mistress of her own household.
I have been sorely tempted just now by a journey to
Jamaica and thence to Mexico, which would have been
by no means difficult of accomplishment. But time and
386 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
-besides, I should not in Jamaica, in Central America,
nor yet in South America, see any thing essentially different in vegetation, population, manners, mode of building, or in any other way different to what I see in Cuba,
under the tropical heavens and the dominion of the Spaniards. And this was essential to me for my picture of the
New World. I have now received a clear impression of
its southern hemisphere. Books and engravings will help
me to see the difference.
And that they already do. I have seen at Mr. F.'s engravings of Mexico and other cities of Spanish America,
which seem to me merely repetitions of Havana. And
in Prescott's excellent history of the conquest of Mexico
and Peru I have become acquainted with the highlands
of these countries, as well as with the noble Aztecs who
once dwelt there.
Christian Aztecs must one day rule over these glorious
countries, hnd upon their noble heathen foundation erect
a new temple, a new community, which shall, in spirit and
in truth, make them the highlands of the world.
I have beheld the countenance of the earth beneath the
sun's warmest beams, where they call forth palms and coffee-shrubs. I know the circumstances of every-day human
life there, its pleasures and its miseries. I have comprehended this new page in the book of creation and the life
of nature.  I have enjoyed and been grateful.  And after
two weeks' longer stay in Cuba, to see Madame C. and the
paradisiacal regions of the Caffetal to the east of Havana,
I shall turn from the tropics and the palms once more toward the United States, and in the course of a few months
hope to see again Sweden, you, and all my dear ones.  Believe me, the home of the pine-tree is mny home, dearer to
me than the palm-groves here. Here I could not live,
after all!
3.
I 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
LETTER XXXVI.
San Antonio de los Bagnos, April 23.
ABROAD on an adventure in foreign lands, my dear heart,
and for the moment not of the most agreeable kind; I am
here, all alone, in a little Spanish posada or fonda (a thirdrate public house), as uncomfortable as possible, surrounded by people who do not understand me, and whom I do
not understand either. I am here awaiting the arrival of
a volante from Signora C., which is to take me to her plantation, about five English miles from this place. Possibly,
however, she may not yet have received the letter which
announced my arrival here, and the volante, in that case,
may not come for a day or two, and I, in the mean time,
shall have to stop here; but I am neither uneasy nor in
want of food, for my little traveling fairy is with me, and
keeps me in capital humor, and has enabled me to fall in
with a little Spanish Don on the-rail-way, who could speak
a little French, and who was delighted to be of service to
me. With his help, and my Spanish phrase-book and dictionary, I manage very well. And besides, I have sent off
a letter of introduction, which I had with me, to Don Ildephonso Miranda, who lives not far from here, "in sm Caffetal en Alguizar," and I expect to see him in the course
of the day, and with his assistance I shall be able to get
out of my fonda, for he speaks French like a native, I am
told, and is, besides, a caballero perfetto.
I am now writing to you in a little room with bare
whitewashed walls and earthen floor, the only furniture
of which is one wooden chair and a wooden table, and
with the wind blowing with all its might in through the
window. But here it is the warm wind of Cuba, and one
can not be angry with it.
MIy journey this morning by the rail-way was glorious,
like another morning journey which I made some weeks
388 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
since, and the palms and splendid flowers of the caffetals
shone out the whole length of the way. The whole of
this side of the island is celebrated for the beauty of its
coffee plantations, the most splendid days of which are
now over, as they are not able to produce coffee in the
same quantity and of the same excellent quality as the
more southern plantations of the island, and are, in consequence, somewhat on the decline. San Antonio de los
Bagnos is a small city or town, celebrated for its baths,
and for the beautiful mountain scenery of its neighborhood. Plantations lie scattered among these hills, where
the heat is never extreme, where the sea-breezes continually blow, and the grass is green the year round; airy
habitations are these, with splendid views over the vast
sea. San Antonio is further celebrated for a subterranean
river, which I shall go out and endeavor to discover for
myself. I have dismissed the guide whom my firiend Don
Manuel obtained for me, saying that he was a coquin, and
who appeare&d to me to be such in so high a degree, that
I considered him quite capable of pitching me down into
the subterranean river which I was going to see. I excused myself, therefore, on the plea of el vento. It blows
so into my room that I can not write any more. The pa.
per is in a perpetual flutter.
Caffetal la Concordia, April 27th.
I have had, since I last wrote, various small uneasinesses and misadventures, but all of which turned out for the
best, and I now write to you from Madame C.'s beautiful
coffee plantation, where I am staying amid the most delightful tranquillity and cheerfulness of her lovely family.
I spent the day quite alone at San Antonio in my little
posada.  My room, however, although naked and bare of
furniture, was clean, and Raimund, the servant of the
house, was very respectful and kind, and began by degrees, out of pure good-will, I believe, to understand me,
and if I had not been left alone in this posada for a time;
389 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and if these little adverse circumstances had not occurred,
I should not have made acquaintance with San Antonio
de los Bagnos, as I have now done, and that would have
been a great pity.
When I had dined on some excellent boiled beef and
yams, and the day began to grow cool, I set out on a solitary ramble, having l6ng since become' hardened against
the wondering glances of the screaming and skipping negro children, who always follow me at first when I go out
alone.
Some palm-thatched huts, standing in a plantationgrove at a little distance from the posada, attracted me,
because I presumed them to be the dwellings of negroes;
and I was not deceived in this respect. I soon found
myself wandering in a small irregular town, through
streets of birch-bark and brushwood cottages, surrounded
with little gardens, and the beautiful trees and vegetation
of the country.   Cocoa-palms and bananas grow on all
hands, and on all hands might be seen, beneath them,
stark-naked negro children leaping and playing about;
negro women were at work, or were standing at the doors
of the cottages. I found myself evidently in an African
region.
"Bon jour, Madame," sounded toward me from one of
the huts, and, turning round, I beheld a stout and welldressed negro woman standing at her door, who looked
like a personified invitation. I accepted it, glad to have
an opportunity of talking with some of the people; and
on entering the cottage, which was spacious, I found her
one of the very nicest, kindest, most cheerful old negro
women that one can imagine. Every thing also in and
about the cottage was clean and orderly, bed-room, kitchen, and garden, and the old woman took me to see everything, laughing with all her might at every question which I asked or observation which I made. She
was born in St. Domingo, and had been servant in a
390 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
French family there before the revolution on the island.
She "expressed herself very imperfectly in French, but
nevertheless gave me a deal of information regarding the
condition of the negroes in the little town.   They seemed
to be happy and contented; supported themselves on their
small allotments of land and by their animals, as well as
by doing work of various kinds for the people of the city.
She herself took in washing, and was well contented with
her world. At the present moment she was enjoying a
dolce far niente, and so also was her husband, who could
not speak any other language than Spanish, and therefore
did not take part in our conversation,:but sat and smoked
his cigar with an expression of the most cordial good-nature and contentment. When I saw some banana-trees
in the garden (which was not remarkably well kept), I
asked her whether she ate bananas at breakfast. This inquiry seemed to be inconceivably entertaining, and, almost choking with laughter, she said she must have roast,od meat and coffee at breakfast, but that her husband ate
roasted bananas.
Wishing that happy old couple a long life in their cottage, I went on my way, and every step increased my delight at the irregular, but poetical and picturesque scene
which San Antonio de los Bagnos presented to my view.
Imagine ruins of old, lofty walls and porticoes covered
with fresco-paintings, among small white or gayly tinted
Cuban houses and small palm-thatched negro huts, all
standing in picturesque confusion; a deep but narrow
river, as clear as crystal, its banks overgrown with shadowy trees, among which stand negro huts, with their
palm-leaf roofs, anid over these, bending down from the
sloping banks, bananas and bamboo-trees, and all around
bushes covered with red and yellow flowers; in the river
imagine boys bathing and gamboling about, and old stone
and wooden bridges spanning it, with their pointed pillars and buttresses; and majorals riding over the bridges
391 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with pistols at their saddle-bows, and swords with silver
hilts by their sides; and here and there, upon the verdant
banks of the river, or beneath cocoa and bamboo trees, in
gardens, or beside the old porticoes and the ruined walls,
groups of olive-complexioned or white women, for the most
part young and handsome, some smoking cigarettes, others with white flowers in their hair, commonly acknowledging the salutation of the passer-by with graceful inclinations of the head, and a melodious "-Buono tarde,
Signora!" and here and there groups of lightly-clad people, jolly negro men and women, and stark-naked negro
children, carrying themselves like regular little savages;
white men sitting on the stone walls, or wandering slowly
along, smoking cigars; and over all this that mild tropical sky, that delicious air, a soft but joyous light-a
slumberous, joy-giving, far niente life-and you see an
outline of the panorama which I contemplated wandering
hither and thither, until the shades of evening advanced,
and stars came forth on the scene.
Again in my fonda, I prepared myself for the night.
I had a neat little bed With clean sheets and a light coverlet. I obtained a cup of weak tea, some bread, and a
night-lamp, my friend Raimund devoting himself to me
with the utmost respect and gravity. I was now alone;
and the sound of a guitar, accompanied by a tremulous,
monotonous, but pleasingly melancholy song, similar in
character to the' Spanish seguidilla, reached me, and to
the sound of this I fell asleep on my cool sacking bed,
and passed an excellent night, undisturbed by the bloodthirsty robbers that I feared-gnats and fleas.
When I woke next morning, I saw the respectful face
of my friend Raimund at my low window, come to inquire if I wished for any thing.  I wished for coffee and
an egg; and while I was thus breakfasting, La Miranda
was announced in such a manner as showed that he was
regarded as a power of the first rank.
392 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
And before long, I was prepared to receive Don Ildephonso Miranda, which I did in a room adjoining mine,
and of the same unpretending character.
Don Ildephonso Miranda whistled to the people of the
posada,* and they flew forward to receive his commands;
he motioned with his hands, and they flew to all distances to fulfill them.
As for myself, La Miranda was really en caballero perfetto, infinitely polite in tone and mannner; he allowed
me the use of his volante and his calashero to convey me
to Madame C.'s; breakfasted with me; arranged every
thing as I wished; and when I was about to set off, and
inquired for my bill at the posada, it was already paid
by La Miranda! It would have been nd use protesting
against it, neither would it have been becoming; I treated it, therefore, as unimportant, and thanked him, with
a compliment on the politeness of the Spaniards. This
politeness is really great toward ladies and foreigners,
and must be founded on a certain national pride, which,
at the bottom, is noble and beautiful.
I drove to the residence of Madame C., the Caffetal la
Concordia, in Don Ildephonso's volante and in a tropical
hot wind, which raised all the red dust on the road in a
whirlwind; and in that flying career, and through the
cloud of red dust, I could merely see, in passing, the beautiful palms and the brilliant flowers of the caffetals, gleaming above the stone walls which bounded either side of
the way.
Madame C. was not at home on her plantation; she
was away at the sea, on the southern side of the island,
for the sake of bathing, together with her sons and grandchildren; and it was not until this morning that she wuld
* Whistling to people of the servant-class is customary in Cuba, and
they make use of it also among themselves. The sound is, however,
rather a hissing than a whistling sound, like a sharp "H!" and is audible at a considerable distance.
R2
393 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD,
be able to receive mine and her son's letters. But the
steward on the plantation, Don Felix, a polite, elderly gen tleman, received me with Spanish courtesy, and said,
"Toute la maison est a votre disposition!   Vous etes
chez vous.  Desposez de tout.  La maison est a vous.  Ce
n'est pas un compliment!"
We dined together, the polite old gentleman and my self. Don Felix spoke of Madame C. with an expression
of worship.
"Oh, c'est une dame, une dame, comme il y en a peu!"
Trinidad, a kind negro woman with lovely eyes, and
who speaks a little French, is my femme de chambre, and
I slept that night at this place. The next morning brought
a letter from Madame C., inviting me to join her at the
sea-coast, arranging all for my coming, and appointing as
my companion the very dearest of all handsome and grace ful boys, Adolpho S., twelve years old, Madame C.'s eldest
grandson.
We set off. It was an arduous journey in the coin mencement, through a perfect wilderness, over stocks and
stones; then in a boat, drawn by men along a narrow
stream, almost choked up with reeds and differentt kinds
of water-plants.  It was horribly wearisome and horribly
hot.  My little dark-eyed cabellero, the sweet lad, en couraged and comforted me: "It will soon be better," said
he; "we have got over Jthe worst now! We shall very
soon come into more open water!"  The amiable little
fellow was really a refreshment to me on this part of the
journey, which occupied three mortal hours; the water,
after that, expanded into a little river, and we felt the
breezes from the sea.  At the outlet of the little river into
the sea a few small birch-bark juts, regular fishers' huts,
stood upon the bare turf; here dwelt the aristocratic fam ily, and lived a kind of field-life for some weeks for the
sake of the bathing.
Madame C. had just now returned from the bath.  How
394 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD,.
handsome and charming she appeared as she advanced
toward me in her long white costume, with her mild, pale
countenance, her noble bearing, her beautiful manner.
She seemed to be between fifty and sixty, and the most
refined womanly grace was impressed on face and form.
Around the beautiful lady stood two young, tall, handsome men, her two youngest sons, Alfred and Sidney S.,
and a handsome Spanish lady, the wife of the eldest, and
their six children, four boys and two girls, all handsome;
and in the outskirts of this beautiful group, negro men,
and women, and dogs.
A cottage on the other side of the little river, and opposite that of Madame C.'s, is prepared for me. I shall
be there quite alone, and the excellent lady has made it
as comfortable as it can be, with a bed, a chair, and a
table. The wind blows straight through its walls of
brushwood, on the side facing the sea, but then it is the
wind of Cuba. There are no trees in the immediate
neighborhood-nothing but swampy, low meadow, and
beyond that the great sea, which extends, unbroken by
rocks, into limitless distance. We are here on the southern side of the island, in d desolate region, inhabited alone
by poor fishermen, for whom Madame C.'s residence among
them makes the red-letter days of the year. The whole
has the charm of novelty, and may do for a few days. I
am almost sorry that I have come here, because I fear
that I have caused a deal of inconvenience to the seabathing family. They are, however, too polite to wish me
to perceive it, and I have determined to be contented with
every thing; and that is not difficult in this air. We fared
sumptuously at a small table on the piazza of Madame C.'s
palm-hut, and afterward sat talking by star-light in the
mild sea-wind, as I have not talked for a long time, on
interesting periods in history-in Swedish history among
the rest, for this intellectual lady and her well-educated
sons are perfectly acquainted with its main features.
395 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It was near midnight when, with the aid of a faithful
old servant, I reached the other side of the river by means
of a crazy old bridge; it blew strongly from the sea, and
the waves roared very much. The Southern Cross, with
its glory of Centaur's stars, and the magnificent star in
the ship Argo, Canopus, stood bright above the sea in
the southern heavens; I greeted them, and crept into my
hut. The light was blown out; but the stars peeped in
through the opening of the window which ifaced the sea.
The curtain of the bed fanned and fluttered about in the
wind; but it was the wind of Cuba. I lay down in my
bed with it whistling round me, and though I did not sleep
much, yet still enjoyed an unspeakable pleasure, as if
borne upward by the wings of the wind, and by the fresh,
gentle spirit of the sea. I did not seem to be conscious
of my physical being; I felt, as it were, changed into
spirit.
The next morning the scene presented a serious aspect.
The heaven was clear; but the night-wind had driven
the sea inland, and still continued to blow with the same
force; the river swelled, and overflowed its banks and the
land round our huts; one pool of water-was brought into
communication with another, and the pools all ran together into small lakes.  It was no longer possible to
walk from one hut to another; we paddled about like
ducks in the water. The family began to be alarmed.
" If the wind continues in this direction, we shall be
surrounded with water in the morning!"
The wind did blow from that quarter. It was now impossible to pass from one hut to another, excepting with
boats; the water had risen as high as Madame C.'s piazza. We could no longer go out.
" Ce n'est pas vivre ici."
And they came to the hasty resolution of leaving La
Playa, and returning every one of them to La Concordia
next morning. The eldest son and all the children were
396 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ill. The remainder of the family and I sat and talked
together cheerfully enough in the evening till half past
ten, when I, in storm and darkness, partly splashing, and
partly leaping through water, reached my cottage, where,
with the storm roaring round me, and amid showers of
rain, I still passed, a very good night.
The next morning the camp broke up, and we returned
to the caffetal by the same narrow brook which we had
before traversed to reach La Pldya.   In the crowded
space, the heat and inconvenience of all kinds, I felt a
sort of silent despair in being obliged to increase the general discomfort, though by only one individual additional
presence; and I was at the same time filled with admiration of the amiable old lady, who, though herself very unwell, yet endeavored to shelter under her parasol as many
of the young ones as she could from the heat, and to save
my legs by theirs. The youngest Bambino screamed the
whole half of the way. At length, wearied out, and in a
very deplorable condition, we reached the caffetal.
But we recovered ourselves; and in the evening we sat
out on the beautiful piazza, and saw the brilliant cuculios
floating through the air, and listened to Spanish seguidillas, which Alfredo S., who is romantically handsome,
sang to the guitar with a beautiful voice, and the utmost
feeling and expression, so that it did one's soul good to
hear him.  How different is the same song when sung
with or without soul! These Spanish seguidillas, the peculiar national songs of Spain, have also its peculiar national spirit, which breathes from them with indescribable freshness and nature. One recognizes in them the
inspiration of a youthful primeval life. They have this
in common with our popular songs, however different they
may be from them in temperament and character. Our
melodies are deeper and richer, but there is more sunshine
in theirs, and a more joyous and a warmer life.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
La Concordia, May 1st.
Again I bless God that he enables me in Madame C.,
the proprietor of this plantation, to be acquainted with
and to love one of those beautiful maternal women, who
are a blessing in all the countries of the world, and who
are able, at least for a moment, to remove even from
slavery its oppressive fetters, and to allow the slaves to
forget them.
This was very soon evident to me from the apparent
joy of the negro people in her return to the plantation,
and from the beaming countenances which met her, and
replied to her joyous, cordial salutation; and each passing
day only makes this the more clear, as I silently observe
the motherly spirit which induces her to visit the sick
among the slaves herself, to send them the food, or allow
them the little indulgence which they have wished for;
as I have seen how, daily, on the piazza, her chair is
surrounded by dozens of little negro children, who sit or
creep at her feet, leap and play with one another around
her, touching her white dress, coming and complaining to
her just as familiarly as if they were her own children;
seen the mutually joyful greetings between her and the
negroes, both men and women, whom we meet in our
walks; heard it also continually in her unpremeditated
expressions, felt it in her heart, in the charm of the atmosphere which surrounds her beloved presence.
This evening, when she and I were returning in the
twilight from a ramble in one of the woods of the plantation, we met a negro woman.
" Oh, Francisca, Francisca!" exclaimed Madame C.,
cordially, and inquired from her in Spanish how  she
was, &c.
Francisca replied, with a beaming expression, that she
was well, was happy, and hoped soon to present suea merce
with a beautiful little negrito. She expected soon to become a mother. Mistress and servant could not have
398 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
conversed more cordially in our own free country.  The
young anticipating mother was evidently certain that her
child would, in the handsome white lady, meet with a
motherly protector.
A little negro lad, who was one day playing with her
youngest grandson, rushed up to her in a state of great
excitement, complaining, "He calls me a negro without
shame!" (un negre sans honte).
"Don't play any longer with him!" said Madame C.,
gravely. "Don't play with him now," continued she,
addressing the other negro boys around them. And the
handsome little Edwardo received a reproof, and was left
alone and with downcast looks for some time.
I often admire the patience with which she allows herself to be surrounded and followed by the active little
troop of black children, who kick up a cloud of dust on
the roads around her white figure. I confess that I could
not endure it as she does; but I shall often in memory
hear her gentle voice say, as she frequently does, when I
turn the conversation to this subject,
"'These poor creatures, whose lot is so hard, who labor
for us, and have so little prospect of freedom and happiness, ought we not to alleviate their fate, and sweeten
their lives by all means in our power? I can not bear
to see any thing suffer-not even an animal.  It is a consolation to me to know that my negroes are fond of me.
I am fond of them, and I have always found them devoted, and anxious to do all that I wish them to do. They
are by no means difficult to manage when they once see
that people really wish them well, and desire to be reasonable and just toward them.
"I never allow any flogging to take place on this plantation without my express permission.  The majorals are
rude, uneducated men, and often will strike a negro in
passion and from ill humor. This ought not to be allowed. When a negro is guilty of any offense which de
399. 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
serves punishment, I am informed, and I determine the
punishment. If the whip is to be used, it must be used
without passion, and only when admonition and reprimand
have proved themselves unavailing.  My negroes are attached to me because they know that I will never allow
them to be ill used."
"It'is not, then, true," said I, triumphantly, "what I
have been told of the ingratitude of the negroes, and that
in the slave disturbances in 1846 the kindest masters
were those who were first murdered by their slaves?"
"Ah, no!" returned Madame C., " such conduct is not
in accordance with human nature! It happened at that
very time that I was quite alone among my negroes, and
they it was who watched over my safety.  My son was
obliged to go to his plantation on the southern side of the
island, where just then the tumult was in full force. The
majoral was absent for a time. I summoned my contramajorals, who were all negroes, and thus addressed them:
'You know what is going forward at this time not
far from this place-that the negroes have arisen, and
that they murder and plunder their owners?'
" Yes, they knew of it.
"'Very well,' said I;' I now place myself and my family under your protection. My son must leave me, and
remain away for two or three weeks. There will not be
a white man on the plantation; neither will I send for
any. I depend upon you, and will confide myself to you.
I shall consider you responsible for the behavior of the
negroes. If you observe any disorder among them, let
me be informed of it.'
" They promised me accordingly.
" I at that time, as now, and indeed ever since my husband's death, slept very badly, and often lay awake great
part of the night. One night, therefore, being sleepless,
I rose between two and three in the morning, and looked
through the window, when I saw, to my astonishment,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
one of my majorals armed and walking sentry before my
house. I called to him, and asked him if any thing were
amiss.
"'No; all is tranquil,' replied he;'but we fear, I and
my comrades, that some of the negroes from - might
come here and disturb your grace, and therefore we determined to keep watch over your house in turn every
night, so that your grace might be able to sleep quietly.'
"I thanked him for this proof of devotion, and inquired
how the negroes were behaving, and whether they worked
as usual.
"' Better than usual,' was the reply;'they know that
la Signora confides in them, and they wish to prove that
they deserve her confidence. Your grace will be always
safe.'"
After these proofs of the fidelity and worth of the negro character, the noble lady can not do other than suffer
from the cruelty and the injustice which she sees practiced
by so many of the slave-owners toward their slaves.
"Often," said she, on one occasion, "have I, in the bitterness which this has occasioned, wished that they all
could be free!"
I often observe in her a shudder, as of anguish, and hear
a sigh when the whip is heard to crack, which is the signal for the slaves to go to work; for here even she has
not the power bof having this abominable signal changed.
Another more musical sound is heard daily, about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon, when a long, melodious, far-resounding blast is blown on a shell, the summons from
labor of such negro women as have infants at the breast,
to go and suckle them, and rest before doing so.
So universally known is the kind disposition of Madame
C. toward her negro slaves, that she is often besought by
strange negroes who have displeased their masters to become their intercessors, and have them spared from punishment. It is not an unusual thing in Cuba for the
401 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
offending slave to choose from among the white people a
Padrino or a Madeira to intercede for them with their
exasperated owner, who seldom or never refuses pardon
which is thus asked. Madame C. has often been requested to become Madrina, and never in vain. Who, indeed,
could refuse that noble, charming woman any thing which
she might ask for? Wherever her white, beautiful form
appears (she always is dressed in white), she seems to be
a messenger of peace.
Madame C. was born in San Domingo, of French parents, who fled thither from France during the Reign of
Terror. During the bloody tumults of San Domingo, she
and her family were saved by the devoted zeal of faithful
slaves. During the beautiful evenings of my stay in the
house of this excellent woman, and which we spend on
tho piazza, or in quietly wandering in the palm-groves of
the plantation, she has related to me many episodes from
the romantic history of herself and her relatives; and she
has no idea how much I am captivated by those traits of
an unusually gifted and profoundly intelligent soul, which
presented themselves the while, without herself understanding their beauty and their unusual character. We
often converse, and her son Sidney with us, on more general topics, especially connectedivith history, and compare
remarkable characters and incidents from the histories of
different countries, and I do not make any bad figure in
this way, with my Swedish men and women. We talk,
we think, we paint together; we are very merry together;
and I can not help grieving beforehand in having so soon
to leave this place. Here I could live without suffering
from what I see most nearly surrounding me, and here I
could become so attached, and here I could draw and paint
so much.
Madame C. draws and paints flowers,'butterflies, and
all natural objects remarkably well, because she maintains
the utmost fidelity to nature, and draws with intelligence;
402 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
during her misfortunes (she lost her husband, Marques C.,
and her youngest son by cholera, and suffered greatly in
property by the late hurricanes), she lost her inclination
for these cheerful occupations; but the delight I have in
natural objects, and my fever for drawing, have revived it
in her, and if I could remain here some months, we should
make together a beautiful album of the flowers and fruits
of Cuba, and it would be very agreeable, if greater and
dearer vocations did not prevent me!
Many kinds of trees are blossoming now that the rainy
season is at hand. Cuculios come out in great numbers,
and constitute here, as at L'Industrie, my amusement and
my torment. Madame C. can not, she declares, say sufficient about the splendor and the luxuriance of the vegetation during the rainy season, nor of the pomp and gorgeous coloring of the clouds. She would willingly tempt
me to remain and see all this-with her!
We are now alone here, she, her youngest son, the
young, giant-like Sidney S., and three of the second son's
children, namely, my little Cabellero Adolpho; a most
charming, pretty, and gracious little girl, Michaelita, the
image of her grandmother; and a little boy, Edwardo, a
living counterpart of Corregio's Amor.   Madame C. reads
with the children in the forenoon, while I draw and write
in my own room. The afternoons and evenings we spend
together. No one can live more agreeably than I do here,
but the phrensy of drawing continues, and leaves me no
peace. I am drawing Madame C.'s portrait, that I may
carry home with me her gentle countenance, her beautiful,
intelligent eyes, which so faithfully mirror her soul. I
am taking a portrait of the poetically-beautiful head of
Sidney S. for his mother. I am drawing a group of their
sweet children, and while I paint them I am enchanted by
the witchery of their countenances, the beauty of their
eyes.  I am drawing the trees, and flowers, and fruit, and
birds.which surround me, and I am continually in a state
403 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of half desperation that I can get so little done in the
short time that I have to remain here. This Caffetal is
the most beautiful and the best kept of any which I have
yet seen. The whole of this district is full of coffee plantations, and in the time of their prosperity every one of
these is said to have been a little paradise of beauty and
luxury; their proprietors emulating each other in magnificence of life and lavish expenditure. Signor C., the busband of my beautiful friend, was one of the most distinguished planters for affluence, magnificent liberality, and
beneficence. He was one day dining with a neighbor;
the hour of his return arrived, and his volante, drawn
by three magnificent horses, drove up to the house; the
guests, on this, rose to the windows to see the horses of
Signor C., which were celebrated for their beauty.
"Ah! - how happy I should be if I were possessed of
such horses," exclaimed one lady, as the splendid creatures advanced to the door at full trot.
"Madame!  ils sont a vous," said the polite Spaniard.
Terrified at the consequence of her thoughtless exclamation, the lady wished to refuse. It was of no use. Signor C. ordered the horses to be immediately taken out of
the carriage, and, borrowing a pair from his friend, returned home. There was nothing for it but that the lady must
retain the valuable gift. Such was the luxury and such
the spirit which prevailed in the flourishing times of this
coffee plantation. The depreciation of coffee as an article of commerce, and two hurricanes in succession, have
changed the state of things in this part of the island. In
the last which occurred, in the year 1848, the house of
Madame C. was leveled to the ground, and books and pictures, which have since been dug out, were drenched and
destroyed by salt water, which during the hurricarne was
driven upon the island. It is said that the ground is still
sick from this dreadful tempest, and that the trees and
plants have not yet recovered their former vigor. Many
404 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
large trees, and among these a magnificent ceiba, lie still
in the pasture meadows, prostrate on the ground. In the
garden, however, all is again in the most beautiful luxuriance, and the lovely aviary contains a number of rare
birds. The house, which was rebuilt by Sidney S. for his
mother, by the help of the negroes alone, is one of the
most lovely which I have seen in Cuba; so dexterous are
negroes as handicraftsmen. The greater number of artisans in Cuba are negroes, and, as such, they gain so much
that they can easily purchase their own freedom.
When at sunset I walk with Madame C., quietly conversing in some of the many alleys of the coffee plantation, I can not help stopping again and again, enraptured
by the beauty and grace both in the form and movement
of the young palm-trees which grow there. There is an
incomparable grace about the branches of the cocoa-palm
in its youth. Regularity and ease, precision and freedom,
majesty and gentleness, reveal themselves here in living
symbols. There is also among the beautiful features of
this place a gigantic berceau, or lofty arcade of bamboo,
called in Spanish cagna brava, which forms the termination of a magnificent guadarajah of king-palms.  When
I behold the setting sun through this light green temple
arch, and see the delicate branches of bamboo forming
lofty Gothic arcades-the grace of which is indescribable
-against the pale red and golden clouds of the western
heaven, I feel, with a mixture of melancholy and joy,
that the creative artist must here drop his pen and pencil, and say, discouraged like Carlo Congo in the dance,
"No! it is of no use!"  No, it is not of any use to lift the
hands to imitate, only to worship; but it is of use to see
these fashionings of the greatest artist, to learn from them
to worship, and that the mind, and art itself, may be ennobled and inspired by them!
I rise early in the mornings to draw, and to see from
my window two large bushes of hybiscus, Wvith their fiery
405 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
red flowers, surrounded by a vast multitude of smaragdus-green humming-birds. There are also in the large
plane-trees, which grow just by, a great many birds
which are very amusing to me.  Forernost of these are
two long-legged, long-necked, pale red flamingoes, which
were taken when young on the sea-shore, and which are
now perfectly tame.  They somewhat resemble swans in
form, but have considerably longer and thinner legs, longer and thinner necks. They have small heads, and large,
crooked bills, and make a noise like ducks, only much
louder, and which becomes particularly audible when
they do not receive their food at the accustomed time;
and if they happen to see Madame C., they come walking after her screeching out their grievances, as if very
anxious to complain to her of having been neglected.
Their contempt for the hens and geese is indescribable,
and the very important airs which they assume as they
climb up and look down upon them, as if amazed at their
presuming to come into their way, are really splendid.
The hens, in the mean time, scuttle away from before
them, as if humiliated by their transcendant greatness
and by a conscious inferiority; but the fat and ponderous
geese, who resemble city dames beside Austrian Archduchesses, avenge themselves sometimes by stretching
out their necks after them, and uttering a derisive cackle,
which the high-bred flamingoes do not think it worth
their while to notice. Such are nature's democracy. The
poor, high-bred flamingoes are, however, now nearly parched up with thirst; there is, it is true, a stone basin for
them here which ought to contain water, but the continued drought has left it very nearly dry.  Here, nevertheless, the flamingo pair take their morning bath with great
ceremony, and when they perceive a little water on their
wings, they go out upon the grass, and with great pomp
and solemnity spread out their huge wings to dry in the
wind and the ascending sun.  After that they take a doze
406 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
standing on one leg under a casuarina-tree, with long, outstretched branches, and turn their long necks in snake-like
curves over their backs. It is most amusing to see them.
Here, as every where else in the world, people are never satisfied with the weather which God sends them. As
people often in our country long for rain, so are they longing for it now in Cuba. And the hot air and the red
dust causes the longing for rain here to be something
burning and tormenting. I have said a great deal about
the deliciousness of the air and the beauty of the vegetation of Cuba, and I have enjoyed both extremely; yet
even here, in the midst of all this magnificence, I feel as
if I had a sort of foreboding of what home-sickness must
be. There are moments when I do not dare to think of
our cool summer nights, and the white, soft mists which
arise in the evening, and lie like white veils over the meadows below the house at Aersta, those mists beneath which
the oxen lie so comfortably chewing their cuds and reposing! I know that if I should be ill here, I should, like
the poor little Laplander, Tantas Potas, when he was dying in Italy, desire amid all the tropical magnificence that
which I could not obtain-" a little snow to lay upon my
head!"
May 3d. A  shower! a shower! and the flarningoes
have water to bathe in, and have had a great bathing,
and the geese cackle, and vegetation shines out, and the
animal creation raises its head.   Now the coffee-shrubs
will set their beans, and the Palma Christi* will stretch
forth its green hands vigorously to the winds. The papaya-tree shakes the rain-drops from its crown, and cuculios come in swarms.
To-morrow, Sunday, the negroes will have a dance beneath the great alnond-tree in front of the bohea. It will
* So called from the form of its leaves; the plant from which the castor-oil is extracted. Latterly, this plant has been much cultivated in
Cuba and the southern states of America.
407 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
be my last day at La Concordia. The day after to-morrow I shall go to Havana, accompanied by Sidney S.
While I have it fresh in my memory, I must tell you
a circumstance which has lately occurred not far from
here, and which proves that, according to the treatment
which he receives, the negro slave becomes either good or
bad.
A French planter at Cuba, M. Chapeaud, went to Europe a few months since, and before his departure left the
care of his plantation and his negro slaves to a majoral in
whom he had confidence. iHe, however, was a stern and
brutal-tempered man, who treated the slaves with severity
and violence, and before a month had elapsed the whole
working population of the plantation was in a state of
complete tumult, and the life of the majoral was in danger.  Madame Chapeaud-a lady whom I should like to
be acquainted with-seeing this state of things, determined to dismiss the majoral and take upon herself his duties. Screened by an umbrella from the heat of the sun's
rays, she herself went out with the negroes upon the sugar-cane fields, watched them at their work, attended them
home, and looked after their food and their comfort, treating them all according to justice and reason. From this
mrnoment-,the most perfect order and obedience prevailed
on the plantation. The slaves worked willingly, and were
anxious to evince their devotion to the estimable lady,
who continued to exercise the duty of a majoral on the
plantation until a man was found capable of governing
the plantation according to her views.
My last evening at La Concordia. Cuculios are shining beside me in the glass, and I could write by their
light. I write, however, by one made by human hands,
because the light, although not so beautiful, is yet stronger. It is my last evening at La Concordia. I have be.
come acquainted with much that is beautiful in nature
and in man at this place, for which I shall be eternally
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.                409
thankful. One thought makes me especially happy. I
came hither unknown, even by literary reputation-be cause it is very seldom that European books reach Cuba
-without any other recommendation than that of being
a stranger from a far-distant land-the land of Gustavus
Adolphus and Queen Christina-and, after a residence of
little more than a week, I am become as a sister and a
friend of the family. This relationship, which has renew ed itself for me in various homes of Cuba, has given me
the happy feeling of kindredship of soul, which, whenever
it makes itself availing, becomes a much stronger bond of
union than any mere outward ones. I have seldom ever
felt myself more at home in a stranger's house than I
have done in this. Madame C. is one of those persons to
whom I could become cordially attached, and with whom
I could live happily in daily and quiet communion. I
could right earnestly quarrel with her son on certain sub jects; but I should, nevertheless, become attached to him,
and interested in him, as in a young giant character, rich.
ly gifted by nature, and capable of being kindled by great
and noble thoughts.   These sweet children, too-yes, I
am fairly in love with them, especially with the youngest
little amor, Edwardo. One can not imagine to one's self
more beautiful or more graceful children! It is a grief
to me to part from them all.
Flowers and fruits too, which are now beginning to
come forth in yet greater abundance! I have here become acquainted with many which were hitherto urnknown to me. These islands of'the Southern Sea, favorites of the sun, abound in rich fruits and spices. None
of the many savory dishes at Madame C.'s table have
pleased me more than the favorite dish of the negro slaves,
foufou, a Ed of pulpy but very savory pudding, which
is made ofmashed bananas or plantains, and eaten with
a sauce of tomatoes or other vegetables. It is a remarkably good and wholesome dish, which we have had many
Vol. II.-, 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD,
times at breakfast since I expressed my great liking for
it; and next to our potatoes, which in Cuba are a rarity,
I know no vegetable root so excellent, so savory and delicate at the same time, as that noble root yuca, which is
eaten like potatoes with fresh butter, and which flourishes
as well upon the poor land of the negroes as in the rich
planters' well-manured caffetals.  So good a mother is
Nature, so good a Father is the Creator of Nature, that
the most Hatable and the most wholesome food of the
earth is, in all countries, the most accessible to all. What
have we in our country which for a continuance tastes so
good and is so wholesome as potatoes and herring, milk
and bread, and rye-meal hasty-pudding?  "Even their
excellences," I remember your saying, on one occasion,
"may very well conclude with hasty pudding!"- and
water, clear, pure spring water, the first, best of all
beverages of Nature, is the one which is given freely
to all!
I must now say a few words about tHe last negro dance
which I shall witness in Cuba.   
It was in the afternoon of this day, under a large, shadowy almond-tree in front of the bohea, whieh here is not
one of those castellated walls, with gates, and- bolts, aad
bars, but a building lying open, and which reminds me
of the large barns in our own country.  It seems as if the
coffee plantations were distinguished from sugar planta
tions by the style of the bohea. 
The dance was altogether similar in character to the
lances which I have already described.  The negroes
stood in a ring and sang, monotonously and inharmoni.
ously, but with measured cadence, the words and the tune
which a young negro gave out. In the centre of the ring
two or three dancing couples flourished about, leaping and
grimacing, the men with much animation, the women
sheepishly. The dance was one continuous, monotonous
improvisation. A number of little children joined in the
410 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ring, and among them stood the good white lady, la dame
blanche, as I like to call her, gentle and motherly.
Again I asked and endeavored to ascertain the mean  ing of the words which were sung to the dance, and again
I was told that these words were so insignificant, so oom  pletely nothings, that it was not worth while to attend to
them. It may be that they frequently are so; but that
this is not always the case, I know from many accounts
which I have heard, and from many negro songs in the
slave states of America.   The faculty of the African for
improvisation is a distinguishing feature of his life and
temperament, and may, asv we know, become the utterance
of a higher degree of simple beauty in soul and action.
When the celebrated English traveler, Mungo Park, as
he himself relates in the account of his travels, had lost
his way in the African deserts, and was driven with ab horrence from the village where he had hoped  to find a
night's lodging, he seated himself under a tree, alone,
hungry, wearied, dejected, with no other prospect before
him than a miserable death, because a tempest threaten ed, and wild beasts roared around. Tlken came toward
him in the twilight a woman returning from the field;
she saw him, and had compassion upon him; took up the
horse's saddle and bridle-for his horse had been stolen
and bade -the unhappy traveler follow her.
She led him to her hut, lighted her lamp, spread out a
mat upon the floor, and bade him rest upon it through the
night. She then brought out a fine fish, which she roast.
ed for him upon the coals, and gave it him for his supper.
During a great part of the night she spun cotton with
other women in the hut, and as they spun they sang songs
to enliven themselves, one of which was evidently improvised for the occasion.  One woman sang it first alone,
afterward the others joined in chorus. The air was soft
and melancholy; the words were the following:
"The storm raged, and the rain fell; the poor white
,41,1 
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man, weak and weary, sat beneath our tree. He has no
mother to carry milk to him-no wife to grind his corn!
Chorus. "Have pity on the white man who has no
mother," &c.
If the women of Africa, in America and the West Indies, sing less beautiful songs, it is no fault of theirs; if
their improvisation is fettered like their bodies and souls,
it is the fault of the white man.
It is his duty to emancipate them; to let them, by means
of the sun of Christian love and education, shoot up like
a palmn-tree, like a bamboo-arcade from the sun-warmed
earth; and then the people of the tropics, with their songs
and dances, may one day correspond with the mild and
beautiful scenery of the tropics. And that, too, is like the
continued improvisation of a varied, luxuriant summerlife, which, amid its eternal blossoming, might make man
almost forget that death is come into the world.
Later in this beautiful evening-one of the most beautiful which I have spent at La Concordia, for the atmosphere was refreshed by the rain, and the full moon ascended beautifully above the white dwelling-house-we sat
out of doors, and saw the cuculios fluttering about in the
air, and the fire shining out from the negroes' bohea. This
people can not live without fire, even in the midst of the
greatest heat, and they like to kindle it on the floor in the
middle of their room; they contrive to make their bedsa wooden frame, with or without straw-by means of leafy
branches and rags, as much like dens as possible, and in
these they are fond of lying all in a heap.
Still later, I played with those sweet children on the
piazza at "lend me your fire-stick," which is here changed
into "t t me da la candela," which was a novelty to the
children, and made them crazy with joy.
I shall set off early in the morning for Havana, whence,
on the 8th of May, I proceed to Charleston by the" Isabel."
The dance under the almond-tree, and the beautiful
412 
HOMES OF THlE NEW WORLD.
white lady there, like a mother among the black children,
is a picture which I am glad to bear away with me.
But I, bear away with me thence the memory of the
words which the estimable Don Felix uttered one evening,
and which in his mouth could not be questioned: "Ah,
c'est un malheur que d'6tre esclave!"
That beautiful white lady can not, after all, protect the
poor black slave!
Havana, May 7th.
Religion is not altogether dead in Cuba; it still exists
there in some beautiful, charitable institutions for the benefit of orphan children and the unfortunate sick. It still
exists there -more vital than in the United States of
America in one respect, namrnely, that it acknowledges as
worthy of its care the black as well as the white, and
equally so as regards its hospital and benevolent institutions. I have seen this to-day, and have heard the same
from the amiable Creole Alfredo S., with whom I visited
the large infirmary of St. Lazare, of which he is Intendente. This great institution is appropriated to the unfortunates who are afflicted with the incurable diseases peculiar to the tropics, and in particular to the African race,
leprosy, elephantiasis, in which the legs and feet swell to
an unnatural size, and la maladie de St. Antoine, in which
the hands and feet are contracted, and without apparent
cause or sore, waste away to nothing. These unfortunates
are here provided for in the most beautiful manner. The
extensive building-built like an immense bohea around
a square court, and with a grated door-is situated by the
sea, which bathes with its roaring waves the rocky walls
at its feet, and surrounds the home of the sick with its
breezes, fraught with life and health.  There were in the
court beautiful shrubberies of oleanders, now in full bloom,
and the beautiful pink flowers of which filled the air with
a delicious fragrance. These beautiful shrubberies were
the work of the young Intendant.   Each unfortunate,
413 
4HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
whthoter blaek or white, who is afflicted with any one of
these incurable maladies, has here his own separate convenient abode.  Among those whom I visited was an old
negro, who from his very youth had been afflicted with la
maladie,de St. Antoine.  His hands were now merely finger-ends, and his feet knobs, upon which, nevertheless, he
managed to move about by help of sticks, and contrived
even with his poor finger-ends to perform his little household duties.  His dwelling consisted of one little sittingroom, ditto chamber, a little kitchen, and a little garden
besides, in which he cultivated bananas and various roots;
every thing was small, but comfortable and neat. He
looked good and contented. The other sick persons had
all similar dwellings: nothing was wanting which might
in any way alleviate their slowly-dying life. Christian
love labored here for the most suffering of the children of
men. The hopeless might here live for the most beautiful hope.
Another noble institution of mercy at Havana is La
Casa de Beneficenza.  This receives many hundreds of
motherless children. Here they are educated, and each
one, on leaving the establishment, receives a dower of five
hundred pesos with which to commence his own career in
life.
Fromn l'Inflrmrie de St. Lazare, Mr. S. conducted me
to the great cemetery, Campo Santo. It is a large structure of white marble, in the lofty walls of which, within
an immense sort of castle-court, each family has its little
niche or ledge, that is to say, if the family is able to pay
for it. Each such little niche was furnished with an inscription in gilt letters. The width and height of the
walls made these grave-niches appear very small, but each
is nevertheless capable of holding many coffins.
I had in the hospital beheld the spirit of Christianity; in
the Campo Santo I again found that of heathenism.  The
bodies of the rich were interred in those lofty walls with
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
their gilded inscriptions; those of the poor were buried in
the earth without any token of memorial without even a
green sod over them, or a flower or shrub to speak of
life above the grave; and there was one large quarter of
the Campo Santo where the spectator beheld heaped-up
mounds and walls of bones and skulls. This was the
burial-place of the negro slave. It is forbidden to bury a
negro here in a coffin; the bodies are therefore thrown
either wholly or half'naked into the ground, and lime, or
some other kind of earth, which quickly consumes the
flesh, is thrown upon them. In the course of from eight
to fourteen days, the bodies are disinterred to make room
for other corpses, and the bones are east up in heaps to dry
in the sun.
While wre stood here we witnessed the interment of
some humble person in the neighborhood of the negroes'
quarter. I noticed that they laid cushions, coverlets, and
articles of clothing with the dead in the grave.
During these, my last days at Havana, I have visited,
in company with my good Mrs. F., several beautiful private gardens, in order to become- acquainted with various
flowers and fruits; I made the acquaintance, also, of Dr.
Philippe Poe6, the professor of botany, who has been so po.
lite as to present me with some Cuban butterflies, among
which is a specimen of the urania, the most beautiful
butterfly of Cuba. It is of a splendid dark green color,
and has a gloss as of velvet.
I regret not having earlier become acquainted with the
interesting and kind Alfredo S., because I should have
gained much knowledge from him in Havana which the
shortness of time does not now admit of.
Many things even in Cuba seems to have greatly improved of late years; in particular, as regards police regulations and personal safety, as well in the whole island
as in the city.  Some years ago-I have been told this
by various people-there would frequently be hoard, late
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a 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in the evening, the cry of "Assasino!" in the streets; but
no one dared to go to the spot whence the cry proceeded,
because the cry was not unfrequently a mere trick of the
assassin himself. And if one person saw another lying
murdered in the fields, he did not dare to render any assistance, because if the wounded man died, and there
were not several witnesses to attest his innocence, he ran
the risk of being himself accused of murder, and was sure
to become involved in an endless legal prosecution. The
present improved state of the public safety is attributed
to the keen scrutiny and general reform of Governor Jacon. He was a stern man, whose despotic temper was
beneficial to the public, while it made him hated by many
private individuals.
Lawsuits and lawyers abound in Cuba, and the histories of the arbitrary power and venality of the law, and
even of the judges' bench, as regards private individuals,
and the difficulty which there is for any one to obtain justice, if he can not purchase it at a great price, are unprecedented. There requires, however, for the full reformation of all these abuses, a total reorganization, not only in
the administration of justice, but in the government of
the whole island.
During my rambles in Havana I have always observed
the negro population there with great pleasure, because
they appear to me freer and happier than in the cities of
the United States.  Certain it is that one here sees negroes and mulattoes much more frequently engaged in
trade than there, and their wives are commonly very well,
nay, even splendidly dressed.  It is not unusual to see
mulatto women, with flowers in their hair, walking with
their families on the principal promenades in a manner
which denotes freedom and prosperity.   Mulattoes are
generally to be found in the tobacco-shops, either as shopmen, or as the proprietors of the place. The black inhabitants emulate the white in cigar-smoking; many la
416 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dies of the second and third class are also fond of smoking their cigaritos, and it is asserted that, of the population of Cuba, one third is occupied in the preparation of
the cigars, and that the other two thirds smoke them.
Two different styles of physiognomy are very evident
among the population of the city. The one has refined
features, an oval countenance, a proud and often gloomy
expression: this belongs to those of Castilian descent. The
second has a round c6untenance, flat, broad features, a jovial but plebeian expression: this marks the Catalonian.
The former is spare in forn,-the latter stout.  The Castilian is generally met with among the government officials, the Catalonian among the tradespeople. The latter
form themselves into guilds and corporations, and are not
on good terms either with Castilians or Creoles. The
Creoles are good people, and seem to inherit from the delicious climate of the island a mild and inoffensive temperament.
I had wished to see in Jamaica the negroes who govern
themselves as a Christian community; and though I have
not been able to do so, I have obtained a tolerably clear
idea of their condition from the elder Mr. F. and two of
his acquaintance from that island. It appears that the
Christianized negro remains very faithful to his African
turn of mind.  There have been built for them, in Jamaica, large houses, with convenient rooms, kitchens, and
gardens, in which they might possess all the advantages
of the domicile and the work-shop, private life and the life
of      association combined; but in vain!  The large, convenient  stone house stands empty.   The negro likes neither
stone nor association. The highest aim of the negro is to
be   able to purchase his own little plot of ground, a "mountain," as it is called, where he can erect for himself a
birch-bark hut thatched with palm-leaves, plant his native trees, and grow sugar-cane, or maize and edible roots.
He labors to gain for himself this earthly paradise. When
S2
41-7 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
he has obtained it, it is his pleasure to rest and enjoy himself as rmuch as possible, and to labor as little.  And why
should he labor?  That ambition, that lust of knowing
and subduing the world, spiritually or physically, with
which the Creator has endowed the Caucasian race, does
not belong to him. He, on the contrary, is endowed with
the power of care-free enjoyment, a gay temperament, and
the ability for measured songs and dances. The climate
under which he is born is propitious to the latter gifts,
and opposed to the former.
Even in trade the negro evinces his bias toward the individuality of his own little world, and his disinclination
or inability for association. Instead of one great trading
house in sugar and coffee, the negroes open twenty small
shops, where each one for himself sells sugar and coffee,
without any connection with the rest.
In consequence of this tendency, they do not like to
work for the larger planters, and require from such ex.
travagant wages.   If they can not obtain as much as
they desire, they prefer not working at all.  They can do
without it; their wants are few, and the beautiful earth
feeds them with small labor.
Hence it happens that all the great plantations in Jamaica have declined, and their owners are ruined. The
greater number of the large plantations may now be purchased at very low prices.  I have heard, nevertheless, of
two great planters in Jamaica, the one an Englishman,
the other a Spaniard, who have had no cause to complain,
and who have always been able to obtain as much negro
labor as they required; but I presume they did not require much, and that they were on good terms with the
negroes.
And why should not labor be made cheerful to a cheerful people? The negroes themselves seem, by their songs
in the sugar-mill at night, to show the way and the means
by which they might work well. Let them go out to
4,18 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
labor to the sound of music and singing, and perchance
their labor may go on like a dance. The Europeans, however, believe generally that no labor can be carried on vigorously without day's wages, or-the whip!
Morning of May 8th. I had my last great view of Cuba
from the azotea of Alfredo S.'s house last evening at sunset. For the last time have I seen its beautiful palmgroves, its gay, showy houses, its mild heaven, its bright
bJlue sea.  This afternoon I shall go on board the "Isabel,"
and bid farewell forever to the palms and ceibas of Cuba, to
its cuculios and contra-dances, to its guadarajahs and constellations, to the African drums, songs, and dances, to its
happy and its unhappy people, to its hell and its paradise!
I have taken leave of my good friends, have sketched
the monument of Columbus on La Plaza des Armas, and
this morning, for the last time, have I visited my beloved
Cortina de Valdez, and seen the breakers dash around the
rocks of the Moro. On my return, I called at a restaurateur's to purchase des libros de dulces, which I wished to
give to the little girls. When, however, I was about to pay,
I received back my money from the young man who stood
behind the counter, with a polite "it costs nothing, Signora." I fancied I had misunderstood him, or that he
had misunderstood me; I therefore again offered him the
money, but received the same remark in return. I then
recollected the Spanish and Cuban gallantry, and, looking
round the shop, I observed Mr. S. at some distance, near
the door, and now it was quite clear to me.
"Ah, this is one of your Spanish tricks!" said I to him.
He smiled, but evidently did not wish to be thanked.
One day I by chance admired a little basket which his
wife held in her hand, and immediately I was obliged to
accept it. All my protests were in vain; I really became
afraid of admiring any thing.
I must now bid adieu to the kind F.'s and S.'s, and
then conclude some letters.
419 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The next time I write it will be from the United States.
I have inhaled new life in Cuba; but I could not live
there. I could only live where a life of freedom exists
and grows.
LETTER XXXVII.
LETTER TO HER MAJESTY,. CAROLINA AMELIA, QUEEN DOWA                   GER OF DENMARK.
Cuba, West Indies, April.
YOUR MAJESTY-" Write to me from America!" were
your majesty's last kind words to me at parting, when I
had the pleasure of seeing your majesty at Sorgenfri. And
these words have accompanied me on my. long journey, as
one of the beautiful and precious memories for which I
have to thank good Denmark, because they remind me of
the great kindness which the Queen of Denmark showed
to me.  I have wished to obey them by presenting to your
majesty, from the soil of the New World, some very beautiful spiritual flowers, not unworthy of those roses which
your majesty's own beautiful hand gave me, at the moment of parting, from your majesty's garden. But it was
long before I found sufficient freedom of mind or tranquillity to be able to put together, from the rich Flora of
America,,any thing resembling a bouquet or a garland
which it seemed to me could give pleasure to your majesty, and with less I would not be satisfied.
I now write, beautiful and good Queen  of Denmark,
from the Queen of the Antilles, from the beautiful tropical
Isla de Cuba. And while a glowing sun ascends over
groves of coffee and bananas on Caffeta! la Concordia,
my present home; while rose-colored flamingoes stretch
out their wings to cool them in the morning wind, and
little negro children, naked as God created them, leap and
tumble about the green meadow, where smaragdus-green
420 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
humming-birds flutter gayly around the hybiscus flowers,
I wing my way, in spirit, to "the green islands," to the
cool, shadowy dwelling where I heard the nightingales sing
in the beech-woods around your majesty, and convey thither, in these lines, my tribute of respect and devotion.
I can from Cuba, better than from any other point on
this side the globe, speak of the NewWorld, because Cuba
lies between North and South America: the Anglo-Nor.
man and the Spanish races here meet, for good and for
evil, secretly and openly combating for dominion; and in
the midst of this wondrously beautiful scenery, which belongs to the tropics (beneath which the greater part of
South America is situated), beneath the tropical sun, among
palm-trees and coffee plantations, one sees already the
homes of the North American, rail-roads, and shops. The
Anglo-American "go-a-head" here comes in contact with
the motto of the Spanish Creole, poco-a-poco; and-will
run it down sooner or later, that is not difficult to foresee.
While the impression of the scenery of North America,
its people, and states, was still clear in the soul, it was a
great refreshment to receive in this beautiful island so
strongly contrasting a picture as that of the scenery of
South America, its people, and its states; for both belong
essentially to the picture of the New World; and North
America presents, in scenery, culture, and manners, merely
one half thereof. That southern half, with its yet unorganized states, its chaotic popular life, its rich, grand scenery, its River Amazon, and its Andes, its palms, and its
eternal summer, will still, in contact with the northern
portion, develop a glorious life-not so strong, perhaps,
but more gentle and beautiful. And both will become
one in that great human kingdom which is growing up
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, between the
North Sea and the South. For although South America
does not as yet show either a people or character which
demands esteem or admiration; although it as yet appears
421 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
subject to nature instead of elevating itself above her, is
enervated by the sun instead of being inspired by its glow ing and pure light, yet we still know that it was in this
climate, beneath this sun, these palms, that the worship ers of the sun, the Peruvians, and those noble Aztecs,
lived; that it was in this climate, beneath this sun, and
these palms in the East, that the most ancient wisdom, the
most ancient poetry, was born on the earth; the Vedas of
the Hindoos, their temples, the ruins of which still excite
our admiration, their songs and poems, Sakuntala Urvasi
and Vikrama, and many more, graceful and noble, such
as only could be composed beneath palm-trees and in an
atmosphere such as this; those intellectual legends, the
game of chess, the airy dance of the Bayadere, and many
another art and science for the beautifying of life, which
could only have birth where the life of nature holds its
holiday. And that which has once flourished may, under
similar circumstances, again come forth in new, or still
more elevated forms. The Oriental tropical zone has produced its bloom; that of the West will bring forth hers
in the light of Christianity. As yet we can merely surmise what it will one day becomrne-surmise that from the
glorious natural life which now is its most beautiful production.
But it was about the people and the States of North
America that your majesty wished to hear, and of these
I will proceed to speak; for, however much your majesty
loves the beautiful in nature, I know that your majesty
loves still more that which gives to human weal and human happiness a still higher significance.  Is not your
majesty one of the mothers of humanity, one of the noble
and the tender, who embrace the young generation in order
to elevate them, and bring them nearer to the father of
love and perfection?  Was it not surrounded by fatherless
and motherless children, who looked up to your majesty
as to a mother, that I first saw your majesty, that Christ
42,2 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mas-eve, when the Christmas candles burned in the North ern pine for the joy of the children and in honor of the
heavenly friend of childhood! And have not I, more than
once, heard your majesty express the wish and the hope
for "a community on earth in which all the members
should have equal opportunity for the attainment of virtue,
knowledge, a life of activity and prosperity-a oomnmunity
in which goodness and capacity should constitute the highest aristocracy, and in which the highest rank should depend upon the highest human worth?"
And, however far the United States of America may
be from having attained to this ideal of social life, still it
can not be denied that it is at this that they are aiming,
toward this to which they are daily more and more advancing-more, perhaps, than any other nation on the
earth. This refers especially to the Northern and the free
states of the Union, which are peopled principally by descendants of the oldest Pilgrims, and whence the Quaker
State has every where sent abroad its messengers of "the
inward light," of freedom, peace, and universal brotherhood. These Northern States are founded on enthusiasm
for religion and human rights. And upon this foundation
have they grown great and powerful, and still grow day
by day, extending their dominion more and more.
The Southern States acknowledge, it is true, the same
principles of freedom, human rights, and human well-being as their aim also, but they bear a fetter which impedes their progress on the path of human and social development, and which they in part will not, and in part
can not, now throw off, namely, the institution of slavery. They have bound the negro as a slave, and the negro slave binds them; prevents them from developing education, industry, and every good social institution which
gives strength and greatness to a nation.
It is a pure and noble joy to behold the development
of the life of freedom in the Northern States; and in spite
423 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of various pernicious offshoots, which as yet run wild and
produce disorder, the whole presents a glorious spectacle.
For the whole movement of the social system tends upward; it is a growth of cultivation and improvement
which embraces all classes, every branch of activity, and
which extends to the most remote points, and includes
the most humble individual. It corresponds with the glorious image of our mythological Ygdrasil, of which every
single leaf derives vital aliment from the common root,
and is watered by the Norna's hand from the renovating
fountain of Urda.
Besides, the community has come clearly to feel within itself, and has clearly and forcibly expressed the same
in word and deed, that it is the duty of the state so to
provide for every individual member that he may become
a perfected human being.
Hence the comprehensive and excellent system of popular education which commenced in the "pilgrim" State
of Massachusetts, and which has since been adopted, and
is being adopted, with modifications and improvements, in
all the free states of the Union. On all hands have arisen
free public schools, where children, boys and girls, in separate schools, receive free education to fifteen or sixteen
years of age, when they may, from these schools, enter
the high-schools and academies, unless they prefer to enter practical life with that amount of knowledge which
the public schools have given them, and which does not
appear to be so insignificant, as many of the "best men"
and the first statesmen have not studied in any other
schools than in these and-in that of life.
I would, before every thing else, present to the womanly and maternal mind of your majesty these great and increasingly developing institutions for the education of the
rising generation, which are open to the younger mem.
bers of the entire community, and which are advantageous
to the children of the indigent still more than to the chil
424 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dren of the wealthy, and, together with this picture, that
of the increasing importance of the young woman in society as the teacher, and that not alone in families and
homes. I would present to your majesty's view those
large, cheerful school-rooms which are now to be met
with in the public schools from Massachusetts to Wisconsin and Illinois, from New Hampshire to Ohio, where light
and air obtain free access-school-rooms full of lovely
children, with bright, animated glances, and  where the
young teachers, the daughters of New England, and the
honor of New England, refined and graceful in manners
and appearance, stand, at the same time, firmer to their
principles than the earth's Alps and Andes on their foundations, and govern their troops of young republicans
easier and better than any stern M. A. with thundering
voice and ferule.
The youthful daughters of America in the free states
of the Union are not kept in ignorance and inactivity, as
are still the greater number of the young girls of Europe.
They are early taught that they must rely upon God and
themselves if they would win esteem and independent
worth; they leave home early to enter the schools, where
opportunity is afforded them to advance as far as young
men in study and the sciences, and where they prove that
the sciences, which have hitherto been considered as too
difficult for them, are as easy for them to acquire as that
superficial knowledge and accomplishment to which hitherto their education has been restricted.   They distinguish themselves in mathematics, algebra, the physical
sciences, the ancient languages, at least in Latin, and
many other hitherto interdicted branches of learning; and
their written compositions, in verse and prose, show an unusual purity of style, considering their age, clearness of
thought, and expansion of mental horizon. It is evident
that the spirit of-the New World has unbound their intellectual wings, and permitted them a free flight over the
425 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
fields of earth.  The American woman  is being formed
for a citizen of the world; she is teaching herself to em brace the whole of humanity. Such is evidently the in tention of her school education, even if an adequate sys tem be yet wanting.  Girls mayafrom these schools also
advance into the high-schools and ladies' academies, in
which they can graduate and take diplomas, and, provided with these, go out as teachers over the whole Union.
Such are, in particular, the daughters of New England,
who seem to have a peculiar vocation for the office of teach.
er, which they adopt most frequently from love rather than
necessity.   Every where throughout the United States'
in the west as well as in the north and south of the Union,
wherever schools are in operation, you meet with young
teachers from the States of New England, that is to say,
from those states which are peopled by the descendants of
the Pilgrim Fathers.  And the value of women as teachers of the young increases more and more in America.
But it is not merely as teachers that the spirit of the
New World seeks to prepare for woman a freer develop.
ment of her being, and a wider sphere of activity; it seeks
to open for her free paths in arts and manufactures.
"If I must choose between giving educationto the
men or the women of a country, I would leave the men
and begin with the women," said one of the legislators of
this country to me one day.
And I believe that I do not say too much when I maintain that this mode of thinking is participated by the
greater number of men in the United States; so strong
is the conviction of the power of woman's influence on the
rising generation.                                - 
The advancement of the higher development of woman,
and her importance in society, is one of the most remarkable features of the New World's cultivation, its greatest
merit and its principal labor for the future.  All that is
now wanting is merely that it does not stop half way.  I
426 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
do not believe that the right-mindedness and chivalry of
the men will fail, if the women will, with discretion and
noble earnestness, take the place which society here is
willing to assign to them.
It is with justice that we are accustomed to estimate
the measure of a nation's cultivation by the estimation in
which woman is held, and the place which she occupies
in society, because it requires no small degree of spiritual
culture to value a being whose highest power is of a spiritual character. The people of America have shown themselves to be possessed of this, and it will increase in the
same proportion as the women of the country make them.
selves deserving of it.
I mentioned a growth of cultivation and improvement
which in the free states embraces the entire community,
and spoke of popular education as its most essential power.
This, and many institutions favorable to human development, belong to these states; but, besides these, there is a
movement, a free development in popular life, which may
be compared to the circulation of the sap in a vigorous,
growing tree. Free associations now take the place of the
old guilds and corporations as regulators and promoters
of all the various interests and functions of the social system. Thus have religious, moral, and industrial corporations arisen within the great community, and in faithful
adherence to it, at the same time that the good-will and
the divers powers and talents of each individual are made
available to its highest interests. The United States represent, at the same time, the highest development of the
individual and the public at large. This internal, social
movemernt of humanity is assisted from without, by the
free circulation and communication which is afforded by
the numerous navigable rivers of North America, upon
which thousands of steam-boats go and coime; and in still
later years by the rail-roads and telegraphic lines which
extend over all parts of America, from state to state, andi
427 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
from city to city. The great diffusion of newspapers within the country, of every book which wins the love of the
popular heart, of that religious popular literature which,
in millions of small works, "tracts," or tales, is poured
forth over the nation like rrmorning dew or a shower of
manna-these all belong essentially to this life-giving circulation, and wherever the Anglo-American advances, the
same cultivation, the same vitality arises. He accomplishes with astonishing certainty his mission as cultivator of the New World, and the framer of free, self-governing communities; and not even the institution of slavery
is able to withstand the power of cultivation which advances with him over the earth.
Wherever the sons and daughters of the Pilgrims find
their way, there are established homes, schools, and churches, shops, and legislative assemblies; the free press, hotels
for strangers, and asylums for the unfortunate or the orphan; there is the prison converted into the reformatory
institution-into a new school for the ignorant and de,
praved children of the earth. Wherever they come, they
acknowledge aloud the name and doctrines of the Master
who is "the way, the truth, and the life."  The right
of the Anglo-American people to become a great people
consists in its Christianity. It is the spirit of tle World's
Redeemer which makes it the World's Conqueror.
When we leave the Northeastern States, where first the
standards of religion and freedom were planted, and proceed westward to the limits of the wilderness beyond the
Mississippi, where the Indian still hunts the deer, erects
his wigwam, and kindles his nocturnal fires, then it is that
we are at first aware of the advance and mode of this new
cultivation.
Your majesty has certainly often read descriptions of
the wonderful waterfall, Niagara; of the almost miraculous prairies of the West, where the sun mirrors his image
in an ocean of sunflowers waving in the wind; of the
428 
HOMES'OF THE NEW WORLD.
rapid growth of states and cities in the Great West; of the
great River Mississippi, and the gold mines of California,
and'many other lions of the Great West.
But less known are the first steps of cultivation, its
first impress on the wilderness; and this it was, together
with the great spectacle of Nature, which most attracted
my earliest attention; for it is amusing to observe the
first steps of the child, and how he advances and grows
to man's estate. It is an image worthy the regards of a
motherly queen.
The trees fall before the ax along the banks of the river
-and rivers every where abound in North America-a
little log-house is erected on, the skirts of the forest and
the banks of the river; a woman stands in the door-way
with a little chubby child in her arms. The husband has
dug up the earth around the house, and planted maize;
beyond graze a couple of fat cows, and some sheep in the
free, uninclosed meadow-land.  The husband tills the land,
and milks the cows, and performs the whole out-of-doors
labor. The wife remains in the house, and takes care of
child and home; nor can any woman do it better. The
cleanliness and order of her person are reflected by every
thing within the house. No neater nor more excellent
home can be found on the face of the earth than that of
the American woman, even of the poorest. No wonder
that the husband is happy within it-that the American
knows few other pleasures than those which he finds in
his home, no other goal of bliss on earth than that of possessing a good wife-a good home!
The log-house has been erected in the forest, and not
far from it are erected, in the same way, two or three
other log-houses; they all are furnished with excellent
beds, and there always lies on the shelf a Bible, a hymnbook, and some other religious books. A little further off
stands a somewhat larger log-house, where a dozen or two
chltildren-the half-wild offspring of the wilderness-are
429
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HOMES OF THE NEW-WORLD.
assembled. This is the school. The room is poor, and
without furniture; but the walls are covered with maps
of all parts of the globe, and in the hands of the children
are books which present them with views over the whole
world, and reading-books which contain the noblest pearls
of literature, in paragraphs, short essays, narratives, poems
&c.  Anon other houses spring up; some of framed timber, some of stone; they become more and more ornamental; they surround themselves with fruit trees and flowers;
you see a chapel of wood arising at the same time with
the wooden houses; but when the stone houses come, there
come also a stone church and a state-house. The fields
around are covered with harvests; flocks and herds increase; and before long you behold one or two steamboats
advancing up the river; they lie-to at the new buildings;
they purchase wares and cattle, and leave newspapers behind them. In two or three years there is here a little
city of two thousand souls; motherly women institute Sunday-schools in the church, and assemble the little children
to instruct them in Christianity, and establish an asylum
for orphaned little ones. Shops spring up at the same
time with the school and the ohurch, and they constitute,
together with the printing-press and the state-, ouse, the
ensign of the Anglo-American; and wherever he plants
this, thence retreats the red man, now  almost without
resistance, with his wigwam and his subjected women,
and goes to light his fires further off in the wilderness.
He knows, by experience, that the new erections which
he beholds will, within a quarter of a century, become a
great city, with its fifty thousand inhabitants or more and
that the whole region round about will be full of a- people
alike potent in war as in peaceful civilizatiou  I have spoken of the progress of the new man in the
West; but I must, for the sake of justice, also say a few
words about the old man, for ah! the old progresses
equally with the new, and he is here also, on. the. new 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
earth, the same old sinner, and drinks, and quarrels, and
gambles, and steals, and makes a fool of himself, and is
puffed up with pride, tout conirne cIez nous; and in the
Great West, on the Mississippi and the Pacific Oceaii,
perhaps a little mnore so, because many unconscientious
adventurers are collected there, and the counteracting
powers have not yet gained an ascendency. Freedom is
still sowing its wild oats here. One great difficulty in
the cultivation of the West is the great emigration thither
of a large portion of the most rude and indigent popula
tion of Europe, as well as the unfortunate children of the
Eastern American States. By degrees, however, this population becomes orderly under the influence of the New
World's cultivation, and with every passing year the new
Adam gains a greater ascendency over the old, in proportion as the better emigration from the Pilgrim States
gains a firmer footing, and with this, schools, churches,
and the better periodical press take their place. 
The valley of the Mississippi has room for about two
hundred millions of inhabitants, and the American Union
has a heart large enough, and sufficient power to take
under her charge all strangers, all neglected or unfortunate children of the earth, and to give them a portion of
her earth and of her spiritual life.
This Mississippi Valley-the central region of North
America-presents in its entire extent all the principal
features which distinguish the great realm of North
America, in which I also, as far as people and scenery
are concerned, include the English col6nies in the North.
It includes, from the springs of the Mississippi, in the
northern Minnesota, to the South, where the Great River
empties itself into the Mexican Gulf, every climate, with
the exception of the most northerly, all productions which
this hemisphere.bings forth, all people wh&inhabit her
soil.  The Indian is still found in prosperity at Minnesota; pine-forests are native there, and winter is vigorous as
431 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with us.  There are glorious springs of water, rivers and
lakes abounding in fish, rich hunting-ground, and good
arable land, though as yet untilled. The Norwegian and
the Dane have begun to turn it up; but the colonies
proper of these nations and the Swedes are to the south of
Minnesota, in the States of Wisconsin and Illinois, where
the natural scenery is that of a grand and cheerful pastoral. A new Scandinavia is here growing up by degrees;
and it is a joy to me to be able to testify that our countrymen are universally regarded as a valuable, industrious, and good people. They are obliged to work hard and
to dispense with many comforts at the commencement;
but the more the number of laborers increases, the lighter
becomes labor, the richer the harvests which the universally productive soil yields to them. The Norwegians constitute the agricultural core of the Scandinavian population;.the Danes, in comparison with these, are few in
number, and I have found here that the Danes more generally devote themselves to trade than agriculture.
The great corn region proper of North America begins
in Wisconsin and Illinois; and that immense corn district, which is continued on both sides of the Mississippi
to the states of Kentucky and Missouri, is said to be capable of producing bread-stuffs for all the states of the
Union, that is to say, when it becomes fully cultivated.
One sees there indeed, at the present time, vast plains
waving with golden maize, but still vaster upon which,
as yet, only tall grass and wild flowers grow. Germans
and the Irish flock to this region. Half the population of
the larger cities consists of Germans; they have their
concerts, their shooting-grounds, their dances, and they
drink beer as in the Old World, while they participate in
the legislative and commercial life of the New.
Lower down, in Kentucky and Missouri, commences
the region of cotton. There cotton plantations and slave
villages are to be seen.  To this succeeds the region of
432 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the sugar-cane, with warm summer winds and the sun in
the middle of winter, beautiful plantations, and groves of
orange and magnolia trees. Here is Louisiana, the most
southern of the Mississippi States.
Here we meet with the French and Spaniards, as well
as people from all the countries of the world, all submitting to the laws and government of the Anglo-American.
These Southern States present, in their institution and
scenery, a peculiar feature in the life of the United States.
The traveler in these Southern States is not edified; no
ideal of social life elevates here his mind and his glance;
no public endeavor is made here,as in the individual and
governmental life of the free states. But he is amused
by the many novel and unusual objects which present
themselves to his gaze; he meets many unusually cultivated and agreeable people, shining out like diamonds in
the sand. A new world of nature full of treasures is
opened to him-the enchantment of the peculiar scenery
of the South, the delicious character of the atmosphere
during the greater part of the year, the primeval forests
along the banks of the red rivers, with their thousand varieties of trees, flowers, and creeping vegetation, the song
of the hundred-tongued bird, the nightingale of America
(Turdus polyglottus), and the pleasant but monotonous
whistling " Whip-poor-will;" the many glorious trees,
live-oaks, with their long, waving mrnosses, the magnolia,
with its large, snow-white flowers, cypresses, tulip and
amber trees, and fan-palms; the richness of sunshine,
flower odors, birds' songs, and delicious fruits; and, in
the midst of this beautiful natural scenery, the negro people, with their peculiar life, which slavery can not obliterate; their religious festivals, hymns, and cheerful songs
-the traveler is not edified and animated, as in the North
of the Union, by noble and magnificent efforts and institutions, but he rests and enjoys, when he is not disturbed
by any new, bitter experience of that injustice which the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
laws here give rise to, or provoked by persons who, con trary to truth and sound reason, justify it as a good and
allowable thing.
The contest respecting slavery is the great contested
question of America, and will continue to be so, unless
slavery ceases to exist there; because this institution is
too evident a lie against the American social principle, too
crying an outrage against justice and humanity.
Still it must be conceded that the social spirit of America has of late years tended greatly to ameliorate the condition of the slaves, and it may with truth be stated that
this improves year by year. The nobler popular feeling
in the Southern States is doing, at this moment, a great
deal toward raising the condition of the black population,
spiritually as well as temporally. The Gospel is preached
more and more generally to the slaves-especially in those
states where the religious life was strong of old, Georgia
and Carolina-and wherever it is preached, there is the
slave elevated; there he forms religious communities, and
there he himself preaches the Savior and redemption with
joy and with power, and sings in honor of the Savior
hymns, of the beauty and the harmony of which no idea
can be formed by those who merely judge of the musical
talent of the African from the songs and screeches of his
wild condition. Yes, if the legislation of the Southern
States would follow in the steps of the Gospel, a great
work would then be accomplished, and they would prepare for themselves a great future.
If we contemplate the present condition of the slaves
from its best side in the American States, we shall find it
to be, under a good master, a tranquil life without a future, but not without its enjoyment.   The slave on the
plantation has his own neat little house, his own garden,
and, besides this, his pig and his poultry. His labor is
moderate, and he can make his days somewhat cheerful;
his children are well fed, and he does not trouble himself
t
434 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
about the morrow. The house-slaves, in good families,
are still better off, still better cared for, as regards their
dwelling and their old age, than free servants even are
sometimes with us.
But it is not right to give one human being an irresponsible right over another.   No human  circumstances can
be more horrible and more hopeless than those of the slave
under a bad master, and proof enough of this is found in
the every-day history of slavery in the United States. Besides this, the institution carries along with itunhappy
and degrading results, both as regards the white and the
black population, which not even the best master can obviate. Even the best master may die, or may fall into
pecuniary difficulties, and his servants be sold to any who
will purchase them. Slavery, to the really good and noble slave-owners in these states, is the source of anxiety
and sorrow, and they regard it as a misfortune of which
they would gladly be rid. And many of them are laboring silently for this purpose in their own immediate
spheres.
In this rapid sketch of some of the principal features in
the great community of the United States, I must of necessity pass over some of the lesser ones, which, nevertheless,
like genre-pictures in a gallery of paintings, serve to give
the whole a varied and more lively interest. I must,
however, mention among these some small communities
which exist independently in the great community, although they are separated from it by their modes and eus-,
toms; as, for instance, the Quakers, with their simple cos.tume, their thee and thou to all the world, their silent divine worship, their women, who are allowed to preach and
participate in church and social government; the Shakers,
with their dancing divine worship; and those small Socialist communities which seek in a spirit of love to make
all true workers participate alike in the good gifts of the
earth.
435 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Among the peculiar, picturesque scenes of the American
soil must be mentioned public baptisms on the banks of
rivers and lakes, where both white and black neophytes
are initiated into a life of holiness; and the religious festivals, called "camp-meetings," where, in the depth of
night and the forest, by the flames of fire-altars, thousands
of voices uniting in harmonious hymns, and souls trembling in religious ecstasy, are alternated with abundance
both in eating and drinking. These festivals are the saturnalia of the negro slaves, and their prayers and songs
are as ardent and living as the sun of the South.
When we leave the United States and betake ourselves
to the southern hemisphere of America, we find that in
three days' time we have removed into a new world. And
this first meets us, as in Cuba. Heaven and earth, the
people, language, laws, manners, style of building, every
thing is new, and the refreshment produced by this rapid
change of scene is indescribable, although, at the time,
every thing in it is not good.
The scenery of South America, its dominant people and
language, meet us in Cuba; we are in the region of the
palm, of the tropical sun, of the language and rule of the
Spaniard. One half of America belongs to the Germanic
and Anglo-Norman race, the other half to the Roman. In
the former Protestantism prevails, in the latter Catholicism. But in Cuba, that glorious island, situated between
the two hemispheres, in the midst of the salt sea of the
world, both races seem to have met-whether for war or
for peaceful union, it is not yet possible to say.
Cuba is also at the present moment a field of combat
for the powers of light and of darkness, and seldom, indeed,
are they seen on earth to stand so close to each other, or
in stronger contrast.
On the dark side stand the Church and the state; the
state with its rule of violence and despotism (Spain blindly governing her distant colonies by deputies, over whom
436 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the mother-country can have no control, and who deny to
the Creoles all right of self-government); the Church,
which exists merely in pompous ceremonial, and is deficient in all spiritual life. On the night-side lies prominently slavery, which exists in Cuba in its worst formn; and
the slave-trade with Africa, which is said to be of daily
occurrence, although not openly. The government of the
island receives bribes from the slave-traders, and shuts its
eyes to the thousands of slaves who are annually landed
on the island. Nay, it is asserted that it is privately not
unwilling to see the island filled with wild Africans, because the dread of the unrestrained power of these, if they
should one day emancipate themselves, restrains'the Cre.oles from rebellion against a government which they can
not do other than hate. Government oppresses the slaveowner, the slave-owner oppresses the slave, and knows no
other means of subjecting him but the whip and the chain.
The sugar-planters not unfrequently work their slaves
harder than beasts of burden, and require from them a
greater amount of labor than human nature can sustain.
In thewprison walls of the bohea the slaves live like brute
beasts; no Savior is preached to them, and the only pleasures which are allowed to them-and that often in the
scantiest measure-are those of the animal.  Wild tumults
have been sometimes the evidence of the cruelty of oppression, and of the savage spirit and power of the negroes;
more frequently, however, they die without venturing to
utter a cry or to lift a hand in remonstrance or complaint;
frequently, during the earlier period of their captivity, they
themselves put an end to their days of misery, in the belief (which is current among them) that they will immediately after death rise again in their native land.
The government and condition of Cuba, from the governor's palace down to the bohea of the slave, is a government of violence and despotism. Justice and nobility of
mind are, it is true, met with in individuals, but are not
437 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of general prevalence; and in the laws also there is some
evidence of a magnanimous spirit, but it is nullified as
much as possible.
Opposed to this dark side of life in Cuba stands the
bright side in the most striking contrast. There is the
tropical sky, as mild as an angel's glance, its sun as pure
and clear as the purest tones of music; there is the wind,
a spirit as gentle, as pure, as full of vitalizing life as if it
came forth fresh from the fountain of life and love; there
is the peculiar natural world of the tropics, full of marvelous plants and scenes; those palm-groves, where immtortals might wander; those gardens, beautiful as that of
Eden, where coffee-shrubs and bananas grow in beautiful
plantations, one perpetual blossoming, one perpetual succession of fruit; those magnificent guadarajahs of kingpalms, which seem planted as if for a triumphal procession
of kings and queens; a beauty in atmosphere and life, in
form and color, which involuntarily charms the senses, but
which can not be described by words or by color, only by
music.  And Cuba, the Queen of the Antilles, is aCalypso, beautiful in her sins, who can so seduce the traveler
that he, like Telemachus of old, would need, in order to
resist her, a wise Mentor who should pitch him head-foremost into the sea. Thus did I feel as week after week I
delayed my parting from the enchantress, captivated also
by the amiable hospitality of the Creoles, and by the acquaintance of some of those noble beings who are the ornament of the earth, and who are able also to lift its curse
even from slavery-at least for the moment. I must mention among these two ladies in particular-one of them
born of Danish parents, whom I would introduce to the
motherly Queen of Denmark, becausbe they are mothers in
the highest sense of the word-mothers of the motherless,
of the stranger, of the slave, of all who are in need!
I have spoken of the night-side of the negroes' life in
Cuba. Let me also speak of the bright side, because this
belongs essentially tq the day-side of Cuban life.
438 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Cuba is at the same time the hell and the paradise of
the slave. Spanish laws, as regard the slave, originating
under the influence of men as mild and noble as Las
Casas, are favorable also to their emancipation; and if
they were adhered to, there would not be found under the
Spanish dominion any wholly unfortunate slave, because
there would be none without hope; but wherever the in stitution of slavery prevails, the law is unable to make
itself availing.   There are, however, in the mean time,
some points in which the Spanish laws of manumission
for the slave are really availing, and that because the
Spaniard has established courts of justice, and judges who
watch over them, and to whom the slaves can appeal.
According to these Spanish laws, a slave can purchase
his freedom for the sum of five hundred dollars, which is
the specified legal price; and no slave-owner has a right
to refuse freedom to a slave who can pay down that sum:.
And it must be confessed that many slave-owners are
kind and just enough to allow their slaves to purchase
their freedom for considerably less.  If a slave-owner
should refuse freedom to his slave on those terms, he can
appeal to the syndic of the city or district, who then selects one of three persons nominated by the slave and his
master, and he decides the question.
According to the Spanish laws of freedom, a mother has
a right to purchase the freedom of the child before its
birth for fifteen dollars, and afterward for double that
sum. This law, however, it is said, is not acted upon,
excepting with the consent of kind-hearted masters.
The Spanish law of freedom allows the slave many opportunities of earning money, so that the moment of freedom can always shine like a star of Bethlehem upon his
desert path. This, however, has reference more particularly to slaves in the cities. On the plantations and within the walls of the bohea, it is not an easy thing to hear
of the star of freedom, still less to attain to it. Yet that
happens sometimes even there.
439 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
These laws of emancipation have caused the negro pop
ulation of Cuba to amount to nearly five hundred thou sand souls; about one half of the whole population of the
island, and near one third free negroes. And the free
negro of Cuba is the happiest of all created beings. He
is protected by the laws of the country from that violence
and those hostile attacks which continually threaten him
in his own country from hostile tribes. He can for a
small impost become the possessor of a couple of acres of
land, on which he builds his hut of palm bark and palm
leaves. Around this he plants the trees and edible roots
of his native land, and the golden maize. The earth
produces, at-small expense of labor, all that he requires.
He needs not to labor, and he can enjoy much, and rest
the while. The sun gives him fire, and frees him from
the necessity of clothing for the greater part of his body.
The cocoa-palm gives him milk; the plantain-tree bread;
the king-palm feeds his swine and his poultry; the field
gives him sugar-cane, and the wild trees of the forest
drop for him their manifold fruits. The African drum
with its cheerful life, the African dances and songs, are
free to him here.  He lives here a real life of Canaan, and
will not on any account emigrate to Africa. He is happy,
although his happiness is not of an elevated character.
I confess to your majesty that it has been astonishing
to me, and distressing at the same time, to see the United
States stand so far behind Spain in justice and sense of
freedom in their legislation for the slave population, and
it is difficult for me to explain how the noble-mindedness
and national pride of a people can bear and allow themselves to be outdone in their laws regarding freedom by a
nation which they consider far below themselves in humanity, and which is so, too, in many respects. The Spaniards of Cuba are not altogether wrong when they, on this
subject, look down on the Americans, and call them, as I
myself heard, "barbarians!"' 
440 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
There are in Cuba, probably, at this time, more happy
black than white people. The slave-owner is not happy.
or him wave no palm-trees; the delicious winds do not
caress him; for him the mild, bright heavens shine not;
between him and all the glory of nature stands the bohea
and the sugar-mill, with their negro slaves, who dread him,
and of whom he stands in dread.   The mild heaven of
Cuba gives him no peace; he sees the sword of Damocles
hanging over his head, and the future is dark to him.
Therefore his end and aim is merely to make as much
money as he can, and then to-leave Cuba forever.
When I think of this beautiful island, of its glorious
scenery, its rich resources, I can not avoid my imagination transforming it to what it ought to be, to what it
seems intended to be by the mind of the Creator; yes,
and not merely it, but all those beautiful islands which
God has scattered with an affluent hand in the Southern
sea, like jewels upon its billowy mantle.
Among these may be named, as representatives of all,
three in particular, pre-eminent in beauty, grandeur, and
wealth-  Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica.  But I will
now speak of Cuba, that beautiful Queen of the Antilles.
I behold her, then, freed from her fetters, and free from
slaves; behold her crowned by her palms and her lofty
mountain peaks, born again from the ocean waves, caressed by them and by immortal zephyrs, a new Eden, a
home of perpetual spring, a golden chalice of health, to
which all the sons and daughters of earth might make
pilgrimages, and take draughts of new life, and receive
new revelations of the Creator's wealth, and a foretaste
of the abodes of the blessed in the great Father's house.
There might they wander in banana and orange groves,
enjoying the delicious fruits of Paradise, or sit in rockingchairs on the hills where the palm-trees wave, and the
breezes from the sea, full of renovating life, dance around
them-n-sit thus and breathe, and behold, and think how
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441 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
beautiful is existence! The sun descends in mild glory;
brilliant cuculios dart like stars through space, and cover
the tree-tops with glittering jewels; the air is filled with
the music of the Cuban contra-dances and the Spanish
seguidillas; the cheerful measure of the African drums
is heard in the background, and the Southern Cross rises
slowly above the horizon in the growing darkness of night.
It is night, but no one need dread the night here; it is not
cold; it has no dew. The night of Paradise could not be
more innocuous than that of Cuba. The weak and the
suffering in body should come here and inhale invigorating life.  The aged should comne, to be reminded of an
eternal youth; the dejected and the sorrowing, to gain
new hope. The philosopher should come hither, that his
glance might be extended over the infinite realm of man
and his Creator; the poet and the artist, to study here
new forms of beauty, new groupings of the noble and the
lovely in coloring and in form. The statesman should
come, to strengthen his faith in the ideal of life and the
possibility of its realization.  And this new realm of beauty and goodness on earth should be governed by a queen,
a ruler of the heart as well as of the state, to whom all
hearts and all people, black, and white, and red, and olivecomplexioned, and yellow, should pay voluntary homage
-a queen good and beautiful as your majesty!
Charleston, South Carolina, May 1st.
I conclude this letter to your majesty, which I commenced beineath the southern heavens, in the United
States of North America.   I no longer behold the infinitely mild skies of the South, and its waving palms, but
I see before me a large and increasing popular life-a
guadarajah of states growing aloft like palms. In the
southern portion of North America nature is a great poet,
in the northern a great human being.
It is still in this southern portion that I am now writing, and in one of the slave states of North America.
442 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It is the month of May, and the luxuriant, but feeble,
and almnost diseased beauty of South Carolina is now in
its fullest bloom. They are, however, glorious, these liveoaks, with their long, depending trails of moss, which
convert the forest into a natural Gothic temple-these
magnolia-trees, with their large, snow-white blossoms,
and odors which fill the warm, soft air.
The songs of the negro slaves from the river, as they
row home after having sold their wares in the city, reach
me at this moment in the beautiful, homelike home from
which I have now the happiness of writing to your majesty, and where I feel myself, as it were, nearer good Denmark, because its mistress, Mrs. William Howland, is a
Dane, of the Danish line of Monefeldt, and well worthy
to be introduced to the queen of Denmark, both from the
lve which she bears to her mother-country, and for the
beautiful, maternal feeling toward both blacks and whites
which distinguish this noble Danish woman.
I have already spoken of slavery as the misfortune of
the Southern States. I should at this moment be ready
to call it their good forlune, that is to say, if at this
moment they would take hold upon the misfortune, the.
curse, and convert it into a blessing. And there is no
doubt but that they might do so. Charcoal, it is said, is
the mother of the diamond. The states of the South possess in slavery the charcoal of a jewel; what do I say? of
a diadem of jewels worthy of a new Queen of the South,
more beautiful than she who came to Solomon!
Since I have seen in Cuba the negroes in their savage,
original state-seen their dances, heard their songs, and
am able to compare them with what they are at the best
in the United States, there remains no longer a doubt in
my mind as to the beneficial influence of Anglo-American
culture on the negro, or of the great mission which America is called upon to accomplish with regard to the African
race, precisely through the people who, having enslaved,
-443 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
they ought now, in a two-fold sense, to emancipate. The
sour crab is not more unlike our noble, bright, Astrachan
apple, than is the song of the wild African to the song of
the Christian negro in the United States, whether it be
hymns that he sings or gay negro songs that he has himself composed. And this comparison holds good through
his whole being and world. There is a vast, vast difference between the screeching improvisation of the negroes in Cuba, and the inspired and inspiring preaching
of the Savior, and his affluence of light and joy, which I
have heard extemporized in South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, and Louisiana. And low and sensual is that lawless life, and intoxication of the senses in those wild negro-dances, and those noisy festivities to the beat of the
drum, compared with that life, and that spiritual intoxication in song and prayer, and religious joy, which is se(
and heard at the religious festivals of the negro people
here.  Hard, and wild, and empty is the expression in
the glances of the former, compared with that which I
have seen beaming in those of the latter when the lightlife of Christianity was preached to them with clearness
and naivete. And this is going on through wider and
still wider circles, especially in the slave states of North
America, in the south, from Virginia to South Carolina
and Georgia; and this last-mentioned state, in particular,
seemed to me to be animated by a noble, youthfully vigorous spirit of freedom. And it is becoming more and more
general for the negroes themselves to stand forth as religious leaders of their people, and churches are erected for
them.  In the southwestern slave states, on the contrary,
the religious life is but very little awakened, and the condition of the negroes on the plantations is, most frequently, alike gloomy with regard to the life both of soul and
body. There is, however, no doubt but that light is
breaking through; noble-minded Christians are opening
a path for its rays, and the Gospel will soon be preached
444 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
to the slaves, even among the swampy wildernesses of
the Mississippi, and on the banks of the distant Red River, in Texas and Arkansas.
The Gospel advances, the Church of Christ unfolds its
arms, and the gates of the slave prison-house burst open
before it throughout the slave states of America! All that
we have a right to demand from them as a Christian community is, that the Gospel should advance unimpeded, and
that law should follow in the steps of the Gospel  that
the slave legislation of the United States should adopt
that law of emancipation which the Spanish legal code
now possesses.
If the law of the Southern States, like that of the Spaniard, allowed the slaves, male or female, to purchase their
own and their childrens' freedom by labor; if it would
open to them a prospect of liberating themselves and their
children for a reasonable and legally-fixed sum, and would
appoint judges to watch over the rights of the black population; if it would, in addition to this, extend the system
of popular education to the children of the blacks-even
if they were in separate schools, and would fearlessly concede other consecutive means of moral and intellectual development, we-might then confidently predict for the Southern States of America a great future.  It would have accomplished a work which would entitle it to the gratitude
of two hemispheres, and demand the admiration of the
-whole world-a work which evidently seems to lie in the
plan' of God's schemes, and which already the best and
noblest citizens of the slave states speak of as American
concession.
Thle Colonization and Christianization of Africa by
means of the liberated negro slaves of America is this
work, already commenced in the infant colony of Liberia,
(A, the coast of Africa, and which annually increases by
means of emigrants sent out by the southern as well as
the northern free states, and through the generosity of private citizens
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Some of the slave states, and foremost among them the
oldest, Virginia and Maryland, have appropriated a considerable amount of revenue to the colonization of the negroes
in Africa, and two steamers annually proceed from Baltimore in Maryland, and from Savannah in Georgia, with
black emigrants to Liberia, provided, both from public and
private sources, with all that is requisite for their establishment in the old-new-country, each religious community
providing separately for the members of their own body.
In the proposition and extension of this colony, the
Northern and the Southern States have shown themselves
to be a noble Union, with one heart and one soul. Inthis
they extenl their hands to each other for reconciliation in
the great quarrel between them on the subject of slavery.
I must, however, confess that this work seems to me
merely as a part of that which the Southern States ought
to accomplish. These states would, without the negro population, lose much of their most picturesque, most peculiar
life; besides which, they could not dispense with negro
labor. It is declared that rice, cotton, and sugar could
not be cultivated without the negro, who is habituated to
the heat of the sun, and to whom it is a delight. The
white man dies of the heat and the miasmnas which are
produced by the soil; the black man, on the contrary,
flourishes there, increases and multiplies, or merely suffers
slightly from climatic fevers. When the circumstances
are favorable between the white and the black, it is evident that there exists no inimical relationship between
them; they love each other, and are attracted to each
other; equally unlike, their respective deficiencies perfect
nature. The good-tempered, cheerful negro loves the grave,
sensible white man, and allows himself to be guided by
him, and he, in his turn, loves the good-hearted black man,
and allows himself to be tended by him.
I say nothing but what noble and thinking men in the
slave states consider to be possible when I state to your
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
majesty the conviction that the noblest, because the most
difficult, future endeavor of the slave states ought to be
the converting of one portion of its slave population into
free laborers. I say one portion, because it is clear that
merely one portion thereof would be capable of remain  ing, as freemen, under American dominion. The portion
of the slave population which longs to go to Africa should
go there; and that portion which is attached to the soil
and the people of America, and which is capable of ac quiring its cultivation and its active, laborious spirit,
should remain in its Southern States, where it has been
brought up, to which it belongs, by nature, habitude, and
affections, and where the coloring and the romantic life
of these lands, beloved by the sun, would be greatly in creased by their life of labor on the plantationsand in the
cities, by their religious festivities, and their songs and
dances.             ~
From what I have seen of the good understanding be tween the white man and the negro, I believe that many
of the best heads and the ablest hands among the negro
people would prefer remaining in America to emigrating
from it.
The traveler may then visit these states with an admiration free from any depressing reservation, for they will
then advance in moral beauty and political power, and the
American Union will then, without an exception, become
what it has already declared itself willing to become, a
great asylum, diffusing the blessings of liberty to all the
nations of the earth by both precept and example.
It is evident that such an emancipation can not take
place at once, nay, perhaps not for several tens of years.
It may be delayed for a century, if we can only see that
it is approaching, if we can only see the commencement
of its dawn, so that we may know that it will advance
into the perfect day.
And it can not be otherwise; the streaks of dawn are
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
already, even at this moment, piercing the nocturnal shadows which the late political contests between the free
states and the slave states called forth over the Union.
I have already mentioned to your majesty the labors
of the Colonization Society, both in the Northern and the
Southern States, as advancing the work of enfranchisement in Africa. I place among the movements, the aim
of which is an emancipation of the black slave population
of America, the scheme of a law, by that noble, patriotic
statesman, Henry Clay, which should declare free all theo
children of the negro slave born after a certain year1856, I believe-a scheme which, however, did not mneet
with the support of the less noble statesmen; and the endeavors of various noble private individuals for the education and liberation of their slaves.
There is, however, one among these efforts to which I
desire pre-eminently to direct yoi majesty's eye, both
because it proceeds from the womanly and maternal element in the community, and because it is the grain of
mustard- seed, which, although a small seed, may yet grow
into a large tree and spread its shadow far around.
I know in the slave states some young girls, the daughters and sisters of planters, who are not ashamed of-keeping schools themselves for -the children of the slaves on the
plantation, and of teaching them to pray, to think, and
work. They speak highly of the powers of mind, and the
willingness to learn, of the negro children, especially when
knowledge is presented to them in a living and pleasing
form by means of narratives and pictures.
If the young daughters of the Southern States would
generally imitate this good example, they would do more
than any legislation to prepare the way for a happy emancipation; for emancipation might take place without any
detriment either to the black or the white population, if
the slave had been educated from his youth upward by
love, and habituated to the fear of God, to order, and la
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
bor; and I participate fully in the views of an elderly
man of the South, that the possibility of an approaching
emancipation from slavery is much more in the hands of
the women than of the men at the present moment.
I have spoken of the young teachers from the states of
New  England, the daughters of the Pilgrims, as "the
young mothers of humanity." The young women of the
Southern States have assigned to themselves a similar of fice, and that nearer home-yes, so near and so natural,.
that it seems to me assigned to them by God the Father
himself.
It is a universal custom on the plantations of the South
that while the slaves, men and women, are out at labor
the children should all be collected at one place, under
the care of one or two old women.   I have sometimes
seen as many as sixty or seventy, or even more together,
and their guardians were a couple of old negro witches,
who with a rod of reeds kept rule over those poor little
black lambs, who with an unmistakable expression of
fear and horror shrunk back in crowds whenever the
threatening witches came forth, flourishing their rods.
On smaller plantations, where the number of children is
smaller, and the female guardians gentle, the scene, of
course, is not so repulsive; nevertheless, it always reminded me of a flock of sheep or swine, which were fed
merely to make them ready for eating. And yet these
were hurman beings, capable of the noblest human development as regards sentiment and virtue-human beings
with immortal souls!
Here are the subjects of Sunday-schools ready to hand.
But where are the teachers, men-and women?  The children are driven hither in the morning, are called over
morning, noon, and night, and receive in the mean time
threats and castigation, and then are driven back to their
cottages in the evening; and thus it continues till they
are old enough for labor, and can be brought under the
law of the whip.
449 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Would it be too much to demand from the wives,
daughters, and sisters of the planters, too much to demand from Christian women, that they should once or
twice in the week go down to this neglected crowd of
children, and talk to them of their Father in heaven, and
teach them to pray to "Our Father in heaven?"
How right and how beautiful it is to see a young white
girl-an angel of light she appears, and really is, in such
cases-standing amid the black little ones, teaching them
to utter with knowledge this holy, universal prayer, "Our
Father which art in heaven!"
First let this prayer be common to black and white,
then will all the rest come in its time, and as the good
and great Father wills it!
Good and beautiful would it also be if the young white
woman would exercise the black children in singing and
dancing, as they are practiced in their native land; those
songs, for instance, with the chorus, which seems to be
the heart of all songs among the natives of Africa, and
which should contain some sensible meaning.
There is one song which might serve as a model for all
such songs. It was sung by African women to a white
traveler, to whom they gave shelter one stormy night in
their hut, and its words are these:
The storm roared, and the rain fell;
The poor white man,
Worn and weary in the dark night,
Sat alone beneath our tree.
He has no mother who can give him milk,
No wife who can grind his corn!
Chorus.-Have pity on the white man,
He has no mother, &c.
This song from the mother-heart of Africa might show
to America the best mode for the cultivation of the negro
people. A popular mind which can produce such a song
ought to be treated with respect. Such an occupation
would be more, beautiful, and more worthy of the young
450 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
daughters of the South, than wasting their days in levity,
or in paying visits, or in empty pastime, as most of them
do now.
Yet I know some who have chosen the better part;
many there ought to be.  Blessings be upon them!  May
they become many! And the great work of emancipation
will proceed in silence and in beauty, as if of itself.
It is very common in Europe to lay the blame of the
institution of slavery on the United States of America, as
a sin against the Holy Ghost, which takes away all truth
and all value from their free estate. But people forget
that it is only a part of these states which have slaves,
and that it was Europe who first compelled them to have
them! Many of the young colonies, in particular Vir ginia and Georgia, protested in the commencement, and
that in the most strong and earnest manner, against the
introduction of slavery. In vain. England was then the
mother-country, and, carrying on the slave-trade, required
a market for her cargoes of slaves, and commanded the
young American colonies to become this market. The
selfishness of the planters, the climate, and the productions of Southern North America, all assisted. Thus was
slavery introduced into the United States. Climate, productions, and many other causes continue to maintain it
there, until-something further.
England, during a period of newly-awakened national
conscientiousness, and influenced by such men as Wilberforce, shook herself free from slavery, and liberated her
slaves at the enormous sacrifice of twenty millions sterling.
It is said that the whole thing might have been done
more judiciously; it could scarcely have been done with
more magnanimity. We yet look for the Wilberforce of
America.
The people of the Southern States are greatly exasperated by Europe, and by the Northern States wishing
to mix themselves up, as they say, in their own private
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
affairs, and talking of and interfering with the institution
of slavery and their established right to it, as if it was
any thing to them.
Their excuse is that the American Union, and the great
purpose which it declares itself called upon to accomplish, is of such vast importance, of such infinite significance in the eyes of all the free states, for the whole of
humanity, and for all the nations of the world, that they
could not allow themselves to be other than interested in
its full accomplishment as in an affair that concerned
themselves. And does it not in reality concern them?
The United States of America have declared the freedom and the rights of humanity. Every human being
feels himself participant in this great charter of liberty.
"The Mayflower" was the name of the first ship which
conveyed the first colony of free men and women from
the Old to the New World, and who founded a new community on the soil of North America. " The Mayflower"
was the symbol of the Old World's youngest anticipations.
The community of the United States became the Mayflower of the human race. It will not tolerate that any
worm should feed in its dewy chalice, that any Nidhogg
should gnaw at its root. And it is right.
But I have too long detained the attention of your majesty by this side of the history of the United States, and
I fear that in so doing my letter has extended itself to an
undue length. I can not, however, close this account to
your majesty of the life in the New World without saying
a few words respecting the homes there.
During the whole period of my residence in this hemisphere, I have lived and been entertained in American
homes, and it is in these homes and by familiar intercourse with their members that I have contemplated and
reflected upon the social life of the New World; it is in
them that I have loved and thought, reposed and enjoyed
myself; it is the home of America which I have to thank
452 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pre-etninently for what I have here learned and experienced; it is the home of America which has conferred
more upon me than the whole treasure of California-a
new life both for heart and soul.
The home on the soil of the New World is that which
the home was for our old North, and still is to this day
-a sacred room. The American home, however, will be
also a beautiful room. It loves to surround itself with
green plots, with lovely trees and flowers. It is the same
,,in the cities.  More beautifully adorned homes are not to
be met with in the world. Within the home, the fear of
God, morality, and domestic love are met with. It is the
American home which strengthens the American states,
and makes them steadfast in the fear of God and a moral
life. The best and the noblest men of America have every one of them, with Washington at their head, been
brought up by pious mothers, in noble and moral homes.
Probably that which most distinguishes the home of
the New World from that of the Old is the dominant
sway which is assigned- in it to woman. The rule of the
American man is to allow the wife to establish the laws
of home. He bows himself willingly to her sceptre, partly from affection, partly from the conviction that it is best
and most just that it should be so, and from chivalric politeness to the sex; for the American believes that a something divine, a something of a higher and more refined
nature, abides in woman. He loves to listen to it and to
yield to it in all the questions of the inner life.  He loves
to place his partner in life higher than himself.
She -is left to the free development of her world and her
own being within the home, seldom contradicted, never
comnpelled, is generally true to her nobler nature, and stands
forth gentle, domestic, affectionate, and God-fearing. One
of the most striking features in American women is their
religious strength.  Many American women, during the
earliest periods of their wars with the Indians, like the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
mother of the Maccabees, strengthened their children un der their martyrdom, admonishing them to hold fast by
their God; many do the same at the present day during
severe trials of sickness or misfortune. And from the
Eastern Sea to the Mississippi, from the Northern Minne sota to the tropics, throughout the Western country, have
I seen nothing more worthy of love, nothing more near to
perfection, than the motherly woman.
Neither have I ever seen any where on the earth a being of more dew-likc freshness, more beautiful, primevally
vital life, than the young girl of America.
But beyond this group of beautiful womanhood I am
obliged to confess that there are in the West many women who in no respects correspond to the ideal which the
cultivation of the New World requires them to attain to
- women whose thoughtlessness, insipidity, vanity, and
pretension make the spectator pause and ask himself how
far that great freedom, which is early permitted to young
women, is in accordance with the higher development of
her being.
The better class see this misdirection in a portion of
their sex, and deplore it deeply. I would not, on their account, have this freedom circumscribed in the least degree-I would give merely a higher object and consciousness. That which woman requires is not a less, but, on
the contrary, a higher esteem for home and her vocationa higher comprehension of the human work and worth to
which she is called. It is only a higher consciousness
which can save her from her egotistical littleness.
As a general rule, it may be said that the citizeness is
not as yet fully awakened within the community of the
New World; as in the Old World, she still slumbers, lulled by the old cradle-song, and by the little voice which
prevents her listening to the great voice, and by the liking which men have for the merely agreeable and outwardly attractive in the sex.
454 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It is from this defective consciousness of a higher voca tion that the influence of woman within the home, and
on the education of the child, is still, in general, far from
what it might be, and what it needs to be in this country,
where the power of conscience and of the inner law ought
to be strengthened ten-fold, in the same degree as the
outward are less restrictive upon the wishes and the
whims of the individual. The American woman is married young, and when she is scarcely past the years of
childhood; she soon has children of her own, and shows
her maternal love principally by spoiling them, by indulging all their whims and wishes, as she herself was indulged and spoiled in her paternal home. She leaves discipline and severity to the school, to which the child is sent
early. And the school does what it can-gives style and
grace to the outward being, but leaves the inward very
much, probably, as it found it.
Hence, especially in the slave states, that unrestrained
temper and mode of action-that want of a stricter moral
law, of a keener conscientious perception, with which, and
not without reason, the young men of America are reproached, and those disorderly occurrences in private life
and in the community at large which are the consequent
results.*
Strong, stern women, who would bring up republicans
by severity and love - such women as Lycurgus would
fofm to make his republic strong and great-are not to
be met with here.
Neither is that Spartan type of physical strength the
only necessary. The New World requires another. And
if it should become more universal, if woman in the United
States of America became that which she ought to be, and
exercised that influence which it lies in her power to ex
* I must, however, remark, that although such occurrences make a
great noise here, they did not appear to me worse than such as take
place more silently-and more numerously-in European countries.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ercise on the soul of the child and the man, on social life,
on the great interests of the community, then would the
United States become also the ideal states of the earth!
Many distinguished and amiable women in North Amer
ica-Quaker women among these-have presented noble
examples to their sex; and many movements in the States
have latterly shown the dawn of public spirit among women.  May it increase and strengthen; and I will venture
to say that the American woman will then stand forward
as the earth's most beautiful and most perfect woman.
If I were able to present to your majesty those American women who appear to me to be the purest representative type of the Eve of the New World, your majesty's
glance would rest upon them with an expression of satisfaction, both as regards the sense of beauty and of moral
feeling.  I see your majesty's own  gentle being thrilled
by the recognition of a kindred being, and seem to hear
from your majesty's lips this judgment.
" They resemble the most beloved women of our hemisphere; their grace of person is not less than their steadfastness in principle. But they have something more than
the women of Europe.  Their glance seems to me to embrace a larger world; their intelligence a larger activity;
and their heart seems to me large enough to embrace and
elevate the human community'in all its spheres."
Probably it is only just to say that the human being of
the New World is not better than he of the Old; butte
stands on more advantageous ground, under more  favorable circumstances as regards free- and true development.
Human nature, both in the individual and in the community at large, mnay become more perfected, because here
every private advantage may become that of all; the circle
of society is more complete.
But it is time for me to conclude, and I must already,
I fear, have  wearied your majesty by the length of my
letter.  The interest of the subjects, and the interest which
your majesty expressed in them, must be my excuse.
456 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I shall now very shortly leave the South. Its witchery
is great, but my bias is now toward the North. The tree
of freedom grows more vigorous amid its granite hills.
And as it grows in the Northern States of America, grows
it also in our Scandinavian North. But what this North
possesses, and which America possesses not, is an antiquity
full of song and saga, of glorious prophecy and symbolism,
of gods and heroes who gave to Scandinavia so large, so
peculiar, so romantic a life. It is this antiquity, its sig nificance for the present time, its life in our scenery, and
our every-day life, which attracts me once more to my
native land, as powerfully as my mother's voice.
A visit to my beloved Copenhagen stands before me like
a point of light on my return to Sweden, and I hope that
this coming autumn will enable me to greet the cheerful
capital of Denmark. I shall esteem myself fortunate if I
see there once more the good and beautiful Queen of Denmark, and receive her bright image into the sanctuary of
my heart, there to be preserved as one of its most precious
treasures.
Your majesty's kindness makes me bold enough to hope
it; and it is also in reliance upon that that I venture to
solicit a place in your majesty's memory among the many
who love your majesty, as does       -
Your majesty's humble and devoted servant,
FREDRIKA BREMER.
LETTER XXXVIII.
TO AGATHA.
Savannah, Georgia, May 13.
I HAVE left the island of the sun and of the palms, and
am once more on the continent of America.
On the 3d I went on board the pretty but expensive
steam-boat the " Isabel," where nothing was good except  VOL. lI-U
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ing the captain and mate. My host at Havana, Mr. Woolcott had the politeness to see me on board himself, and to
take charge of my luggage. He is a good and polite host,
and understands perfectly every thing which a traveler
requires, and his hotel in Havana is excellent, nor is it
very dear, except during the so-called winter months,
when the concourse of strangers to the city is extraordinarily great. Besides which, Havana is one of the dearest places in the world.
The last view I had of the Queen of the Antilles showed me her enveloped in dark clouds, the precursors of
tempest. The sea rolled high, and the vessel rocked tremendously; and the Moro light was seen like a flambeau
on its lofty rock, as the vessel rose on each ascending billow, to be again lost when it sunk into the abyss of the
waves. That beautiful bright light, which so often gladdened me during the evenings and nights of Cuba, seemed to me now, in the rising tempest and darkening night,
like some signal of misfortune flashing forth from the
stormy horizon. On the day previous there had been an
eclipse of the sun, and around the sun a vast black ring.
This seemed to me a prophetic token; for the internal
condition of Cuba, the despotism of the government, the
prevailing venality and the thirst of gain, the bitter dissatisfaction of the Creoles, the state of the slaves, the con.
tinuance of the slave-trade, which annually peoples the island with thousands of wild Africans, the longing glances
which America casts upon this new Helen, all forebode a
stormy future, and, it may be, a terrible, bloody crisis!
May I be an untrue diviner!
Ah! this beautiful island, with its delicious breezes, its
glorious trees, its lovely evenings, its eternal summer-I
shall always love it as one of God's most beautiful creations, and be thankful that I beheld it, and have learned
from it the better to understand a new heaven and a new
earth!
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
My secret wish and hope is, that Cuba may one day,
by peaceful means, belong to the United States. When
the United States shall comprehend within themselves the
regions of the tropics, and shall thence extend their realm
of states, then first will it become the universal realmn
which it ought to be. And Cuba in the hands of the
Anglo-AmVericans would soon discontinue the slave-trade;
the Gospel would be preached to the slaves; the fortress
walls of the bohea would be converted into pretty Ameri can slave-villages; and perhaps the noble-mninded laws of
Cuba respecting the slave might be incorporated into the
legislative code of the Union when Cuba itself became a
part of the Union.
I arrived in Charleston on the morning of the 11th of
May, and amid the brightest sunshine, which nevertheless seemed like moonlight, or like veiled sunshine, so
gloomy and dim appeared to me the light on the walls
and roofs of Charleston, or amid its shadowy trees, after
the pomp and glory of sunshine to which I had become
accustomed in Cuba. I could not help continually looking up to the sky, to see whether the sun were not obscured by cloud.
But what heartfelt pleasure it was to me to see Mrs.
W. H. and her family once more, and to talk with them
about Cuba, and to spend with them, in joy and tranquillity, one whole, beautiful day!
My thoughts, however, were not just now bent on tranquillity and quietness. I was about to undertake new
journeys and new adventures.  I desired to see Florida,
and easily persuaded my good Mrs. W. H. to accompany
me, being sure that the' journey would give her pleasure,
while it would be a great joy to me to make it in her
company.
The determination must be quickly made. The following day a steamer left for Savannah, and there I was to
meet with the Mac I. family, who, according to an agree
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ment of a year's standing, were to make by it a journey
to Florida, up the beautiful River St. John.
No sooner said than done. The next morning saw Mrs.
W. H. and myself on board the steamer bound for Savannah. It was the most beautiful May morning, and just as
we reached the shore, and were about to go on board,
there was my friend from Belmont with a bouquet of
flowers, and some other friends also. How kind and how
delightful!
And now, after a day's pleasure-sail on the river, I am
once more in this verdant city, once more among old
friends, good, kind, and hospitable as formerly-Mr. and
Mrs. T., Mrs. B., and many others.
I found the Mac I.'s in deep sorrow on account of the
death of a beloved daughter and sister in the past autumn.
The father, however, the estimable Colonel Mac I., and his
youngest daughter, an intellectual and highly-cultivated
young girl, were ready to accompany us to Florida, where
we were to pay a visit to the eldest son of the family, who
was married and lived there. On my return I shall visit
the plantations of a Mr. C., where, I am told, I shall meet
with the ideal of plantation-life in the slave states.
On the morning of the day after to-morrow we set off
by a pretty little spick-and-span new steamer, "the Magnolia," and intend to go up the River St. John as far as
steamers can go, that is to say, as far as Lake Monroe.
Miss Dix, who came by steamer to Savannah, has joined
our little party, as she also wishes to visit Florida. The
weather is glorious, the moon is at the full, and I am full
of the desire for traveling, and the desire to see Florida,
the flower of the Southern States, the land of which the
delicious balmy odors made the Spaniards believe that the
fountain of eternal youth was hidden there. And nowthither, thither, to taste its nectar!
460 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The Magnolia, May 17.
Very seldom are letters written from a steamer which
lies on a green meadow; it is from a steamer in that very
predicament that I am now writing to you. And how
long it and its passengers are so to lie, depends upon the
moon and human kindness; but we have reason to sus pect the good-will both of one and the other at this mo ment.
The first day of our voyage was a particularly merry
one, and the ladies of our little party were very amusing to
each other. Miss Mac I., now removed from an environ ment of sorrow, bloomed forth into such fresh life, and
vivacity, and wit, as her earnest, classical countenance had
not led me to expect from her. Mrs. W. H. has always a
fund of calm, good-natured humor at hand, and the two
together excited Miss Dix to a friendly quarrel. We had
also a certain dominant and philanthropic lady on board,
who would domineer over us all, and who made " mount ains of mole-heaps." But we took it all in good part, and
were very merry. Our pretty little Magnolia wedged its
way gayly, in all sorts of curves and angles, through the
swampy flats, where, among many currents, it had to find
out its own. I could not help admiring its courage and
its many expedients, only it seemed to me to have quite
too great a fancy for the land, for we often struck against
the banks while we swung between them, but there was
often no space to take any free sweep.
"Beautiful evening, Missis!" said the black helmsman,
looking out of his little house on deck with a good-homored countenance, and addressing one of the ladies of our
party.
"Yes, but-shall we soon reach our quarters for the
night?"
"Oh yes- oh yes, immediately! We shall soon get
along. Don't be uneasy, Missis, Ma'am!"
Shortly after, when we were all sitting at tea, the vessel
461 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
was suddenly heaved up, as by a strong wave, and thenwe stood still, although the engines kept working on for a
moment. The captain, who was sitting at the table, and
a couple of other gentlemen, sprang up and rushed out.
It was apparent that the ignorant extra-ordinary helmsman (the ordinary one lay sick at Savannah) had mistaken
the channel of the stream, and had steered us directly
upon a projecting point of land. It was overflowed with
water, for the moon was that evening at her full, and it
was high tide.
At ebb tide, therefore, the next morning, we found ourselves lying entirely on dry land, with green grass growing around us, and just by a grove of live-oaks and flowering magnolia-trees, which latter may have exercised
some mysterious attractive power upon our poor little
Magnolia, which now lies with its head turned toward
the grove, just as if it would plow its way right into it.
We were quite fast. And we are still sticking quite
fast now on the 17th, amid the green grass and the clay,
saluted in the evenings by the whistling notes of the
whippowil from the magnolia-grove, and in the morning by brilliant butterflies. A whole regiment of negro
slaves are busied in digging around the keel of the vessel, to loosen it out of the sand and the clay, but thereby
only to reveal the depth to which it is imbedded.
On the first day we said, "When the tide comes up in
the evening, then-"
But when the tide came up it did not rise as high as
on the preceding evening, and the moon, now past the
full, looked down upon us coldly, and let us lie where we
lay.
"In the morning, when the steam-boat,'the Gaston,'
passes by," we now said, "it will give us a pull, and help
us off!" and Miss Mac I. proposed that all the ladies should,
on the approach of the Gaston, come on deck, and show
themselves with handkerchiefs to their eyes, and so move,
462 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
by that means, the probably hard heart of the captain of
the Gaston.
The morrow came, and the smoke of the Gaston was
seen, and the smoke of hope ascended from our hearts.
The Gaston approached, paused, looked at us. The
tide was in. We were full of anticipation of the Gaston's "pull."'' But the hard-hearted Gaston only looked
at us and went on his way, and left us to our fate on dry
land.  (N.B.-The moving scene of the pocket-handkerchiefs was forgotten!)
Great indignation in the Magnolia. Our dominant lady
vowed that she would draw up a declaration of indignation against the Gaston and put it in the newspapers.
She proposed to the ladies on board a declaration of esteem for the captain of the Magnolia, and his gentlemanly conduct, which we applauded and signed.
Our hopes are now fixed on the steam-boat St. Matthew,
which is expected to-morrow evening, and that it may
show itself to be a good apostle, and take us on board,
because it is clear that the Magnolia can not be released
at present, as the moon decreases every day, and the tide
is lower also, and the Magnolia sinks deeper every day,
from its weight, in the sand.
We in the mean time console ourselves with good-humour, and a ramble every now and then on the shore,
which we can do dry-shod from the vessel.
The ladies are especially good-tempered and merry.
Good Mrs. W. H., who can not live without her housewifely activity, began to wash her miuslins, and recommended herself as a laundress of fine linen to all whom
it might concern, but got scolded for laziness and want
of skiill. Miss Dix, on the other hand, being suspected
of theft, was threatened with the house of correction, and
thus we laughed heartily and amused ourselves, especially Miss Mac I., in whose breast the fountain of youth
seemed to well forth afresh, and who could not herself
463 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
understand how she could be so lively; and in the evening we celebrated the birth-day of our captain's pretty
little daughter. I wove a garland of wild flowers for her;
the other ladies gave her little presents, and the little girl
was very happy, and sprang forward to exhibit herself to
her father.
There was in company a lady, not yet forty, handsome,
tight laced, and well dressed, with light curls, and thoughts
evidently directed to the world and its pleasures. This
lady is, nevertheless, a widow after her third marriage,
and the mother of twelve children, nine of whom are
dead, and two married, and the grandmother of three
grandchildren.
"And you got very well through all this?" said I, with
some surprise.
"Yes, indeed," replied she, evidently well satisfied with
herself and her own strength of mind.
"And you would not, perhaps, be unwilling to marry a
fourth time?" said Mrs. W. II., a little curious as to the
reply.
Oh no!" replied she, calmly, " not if I could better
myself by so doing."
Miss Mac I. was so indignant at this that she could
hardly restrain herself from breaking out upon her.
Among the gentlemen was a young Californian adventurer, just returned from the land of gold, and on his way
back to his wife and his home, with divers lumps of gold,
melted and unmelted, Californian ducats, and a white China
silk shawl for his wife. He was a handsome young man,
more of a dandy, and more childish than is usual for an
American, but all suitable for a Californian adventurer.
I wanted to know something about the country, and the
people, and the way of life in California; about the Chinese
and their social state, their mode of worship, &c. But
the young man merely knew that he had with him many
nuggets of gold, and a Chinese silk shawl for his wife.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
This afternoon we went a little way inland, and saw a
fine cotton plantation, beautifully situated upon a lofty
terrace by the river. It belonged, as we were told, to a
Mr. Valburg. I was particularly pleased with some of
the slave dwellings which I visited, and which bore evi dence of a certain degree of prosperity, as did also the ap pearance of some of the slaves who had returned from
labor.
There stood beside a well a very old negro woman,
who was come hither to fetch water. I asked her how
old she was.
"A  little better than a hundred, ma'am!" was her
reply.
The negroes have a great desire to be very old, and
really do live to extreme old age when their life is easy.
I should have retained nothing but the most agreeable
impression of this plantation had I not, in returning to
the shore, met at a gate the overseer of the plantation
(the owner and his family were abroad), and in him had
seen a strong-limbed young man, with that fierce, lawless,
wandering gaze which I have remarked in many overseers
on the plantations, and which takes away all faith in the
justice and integrity of their treatment of the slave. The
slaves who are digging around our vessel are strong-built,
and work hard, but as silently as if they were digging a
grave. This is not natural for negroes, and is not a good
sign.
There is the most beautiful moonlight in the evenings,
and the melodious but monotonous cry of the whippowil resounds from the magnolia grove. In the daytime
the heat is great, and-may St. Matthew only have mercy upon us!
Lake Monroe, Florida, May 20.
I now write to you from the heart of blooming Florida,
reposing upon one of its lovely mirror-like lakes, with
horrible alligators swimming around our little floating
U2
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dwelling (a very rickety steam-boat named Sarah Spalding). A garland of dark green wood, resembling myrtle,
surrounds the great lake, for at this distance we can not
distinguish between groves of orange and palmetto and
forests of cypress.  The whole shore is low, and the lake
as clear as a mirror, and every thing profoundly still
around it. No cities and towns, no steam-boats, no boats
of any kind, no human beings, excepting ourselves, the
Florida travelers. Here is infant land, nay, almost wild
land still. But how glad I am to be now in the poetical
wilderness of Florida, to have seen something of its marvelous, natural poetry!
St. Matthew proved a good apostle to us, and on the
afternoon of the 18th received us all into his bosom, poor,
stranded sinners as we were, but who nevertheless did not
experience any want, and were not much to be pitied, excepting that it was tiresome to lie quiet in a steamer on a
neck of land, in the midst of the hot sunshine. Our captain, however, was mostly to be pitied; so were some of
the men, who were already taken ill. Our deliverer, St.
Matthew, did not come very near to us, but had us fetched
off in a boat. Four negroes rowed us. I was thinking
that they were rowing well, and with great precision, when
our dominant lady, who is known to be very philanthropic
to white sinners and was keeping a sharp look-out on the
blacks, said, the very next moment, in a stern voice,
"Why do you not row with more vigor?" and then
turning to me, she added,
"One can see by their chests and their breathing whether they exert themselves as much as they are able."
The philanthropic lady thus sat and watched the respiration of the negroes, with her eyes riveted upon their bare
chests, to ascertain whether they exerted themselves to the
utmost to serve her and us. I am obliged to confess that
this lady was from one of the states of New England.
Such is the philanthropy of many American women.
466 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Our dominant lady, in the mean time, did not get any
one to concur in her remarks and admonitions. The ne groes rowed calmly, but regularly and well, the heavily loaded boat, and we all came happily on board the. St.
Matthew. And we soon found ourselves, to our great satis faction, sweeping along the Altamaha River, whose waters
here in the neighborhood of the sea are salt, and seemed
in the evening twilight likle a river of brightly-flowing
silver, full of sparkling diamonds.
St. Matthew had already many passengers on board, and
among them were three pair of turtle-doves of the human
race. The first pair, physically handsome, but second-class
people in cultivation and- manners, were so in love with
one another, and showed it to such a degree, that it was
quite disgusting; the young man, with a huge breast-pin
of sham diamonds in his shirt-frill, confessed to an acquaintance in the company that he considered himself to
have married the most perfect woman in the world. But
her perfectly handsome person did not appear to me to
entertain much soul within it.  Turtle-doves No. 2 were
of a more refined character altogether, agreeable people,
with the loving soul beaming from dark and beautiful
eyes; she, very delicate in health, after only one year's
marriage; he, very anxious about her. Turtle-doves No.
3 were neither of them any longer young or handsome,
but they were of all the three pair the most interesting,
and perhaps the most happy. It did one good to see them
and to hear their history.
They belonged to the poorer class of white people, of
Carolina and Georgia, living in the most sandy and sterile
part of the country, without schools or any means of education. She married her husband without the consent of
her relatives, and when, some time after their marriage,
they fell into great poverty through some fault of her husband, her relatives gave her a home on the strict condition
that she should never again see hirm. He, extremely angry
467 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
at this prohibition, swore that they should never see him
again until he came to fetch away his wife to her own
home. He went away, and not a word was heard of him
for seven years. She remained in the mean time with
her parents, having her children with her, two boys and a
girl, the youngest boy born just before the father left, and
by degrees she lost almost all hope of ever again seeing
her husband, whom she loved with all her heart. One
day, however, the eldest boy exclaimed, "Here comes my
father!" She could not believe him; she had so many
years waited in vain to hear from him. She, however,
went out of the house to see the approaching stranger, and
when she at a distance recognized her husband, she sank
fainting to the earth. He had, after persevering exertions,
succeeded in securing a livelihood as a carpenter in Florida,
where he had built himself a cottage, and to this home
it was, in the land of eternal summer, that he was taking
his wife and children. The family were now on their way
thither.
This new home lay on the banks of Lake Monroe, and
there it was that the married pair would begin a new
life. In that moonlight evening they kissed and rested
one against the other with the most heartfelt love and
joy. He had a good and manly appearance. She had
fine features, and had evidently been handsome, but seemed to have suffered from sorrow and hard labor.   She
could not be much above thirty, and he looked a few
years younger than she. She rested her head upon his
shoulder with an expression of deep confidence and peace.
She needed no longer to labor alone for home and children, separated from her husband, and surrounded by re.
lations who neither esteemed nor loved him. He was
with her; she had him now again, and, what was still
more, she had esteem for him as a man and a husband.
He could and he would, from this time forward, provide
for her and the children,  He was taking her far, far
46& 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
away from the dreary sand-hills, where she had suffered
so much misery, to the blooming Florida; orange-groves
would overshadow her dwelling on the banks of the lake,
and the summer winds of Florida call up fresh roses on
her pale cheeks. All these delicious feelingsand thoughts
might clearly be read in the expression and demeanor of
this husband and wife. They seemed to me the happiest
of human beings, excepting-myself, who saw them, and
to whom God has given so much enjoyment in the happi ness of others.
The youngest child was a nice little lad, handsome and
cheerful, with a smart little cap on his head; the oldest
boy, fifteen years old, was not so nice; and the girl of
fourteen, Molly by name, was a black line in the romance
of the parents; for, although not ugly, and with the father's good looks in her round countenance, she was a
genuine daughter of the sand-hills, and had grown up
with her old grandmother, like a pine-tree in the sand,
without any more trimming or training than it.  Our
dominant lady took this wild shoot of humanity under
her charge, and her attempts to educate the young novice, and the girl's spirit and mode of behavior, furnished
us with subjects for many a hearty laugh.
The first night on the St. Matthew was hot and oppressive in the crowded and narrow saloon.   The floor was
strewn over with outstretched ladies, some of whom were
handsome, two quite young and with regularly classical
features, very lovely in their sleep and their reposing position; and when I could not sleep, I amused myself by
contemplating them with an artistic eye from my elevated berth.
By evening we had left the River Altamaha, and, after
a few hours by sea, we found ourselves the next morning
in the St. John's River, after having happily passed a dangerous sand-bank at its mouth without suffering more than
a severe shock occasioned by a swell of the waves dash
469 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ing us against the bank, and which made old St. Matthew
creak in all his joints. But he did not go to pieces, which
sometimes happens under such circumstances, in which
case we should all infallibly have gone to the bottom, so
that we had nothing to complain of.
Several of the passengers left the vessel at various colonies and plantations by the way, so that it became less
crowded and more agreeable; and I enjoyed inexpressibly
the glorious morning, and the journey up the river.
St. John's River-in the Indian language, Welaka, or the
Lake-River-is like a chain of larger and smaller lakes,
linked together by narrow but deep straits, which wind
in innumerable sinuosities between shores, the wonderful
scenery of which is scarcely to be imagined, if none similar to it have been seen before. Here is again primeval
forest such as I saw on the Savannah River, but still richer
in its productions, because Welaka flows, for the greater
part, under a tropical sky, and below the boundary which
frost approaches. We see here thick groves and belts of
palmettoes; here are wild orange-groves laden with brilliant fruit which there are no hands to gather; masses
of climbing plants, vanilla, wild vines, coqnvolvuli, and
many others, cover the shores in indescribable luxuriance,
forming themselves into clumps and bushes as they grow
over the trees, and cypresses, which present dark green
pyramids, altars, perfect temples with columns, arches,
porticoes, shadowy aisles, and, on all hands, the most
beautiful, the most ornamental festoons flung along and
over the clear river.  From amid the masses of foliage
towers upward the fan-palm, with its beautiful crown,
free and fantastic; the magnolia stands full of snow-white
flowers, and, pre-eminent amid that republic of plants,
flowers, and multitudes of trees, stand the lofty cypresses
like protecting, shadowy patriarchs, stretching out horizontally their light green heads, with long, waving mosses hanging down from their strong branches.
470 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Here is the life of Nature in its luxuriance, but it is
the realm and reign of'the old pagan god of Nature, old
Pan, which embraces both the good and the evil, life and
death, with the same love, and which recognizes no law
and no ordination but that of production and decay. Beneath these verdant, leafy arches which overshadow the
water lie the peaceful tortoise, and the cruel alligator also,
waiting for its prey. Elks inhabit these natural temples;
also panthers, tigers, and black bears. Around these columns of leaves and flowers wind the rattlesnake and the
poisonous moccasin, and that beautiful, romantic forest
is full of small, poisonous, noxious creatures. But more
dangerous than all is the pleasant air which comes laden,
during the summer, with the miasmas of the primeval forests and the river, bringing to the colonist fever and slowly
consuming diseases, and causing these wondrously beautiful shores still to lack human inhabitants. Small settlemnents have been commenced here and there on the river,
but have, after a few years, been deserted and left to decay.
It is, however, precisely this primeval life in the wilderness, this wild, luxuriant beauty defying the power of man,
and vigorous in its own affluence, which is so unspeakably interesting to me, and which supplies me with an
incessant festival. And the air is so pleasant, and the
magnolias so full of flower, the river so full of life, alligators and fishes splashing about, large and beautiful water-fowl on all hands-every thing is so luxuriant, so wonderfully rich, wild, and lovely, it is a never-ending fairy
scene, especially in the evenings, when the moon rises
and throws her mystic half light and half shadow into the
arches and pillared aisles of these marvelous natural temples. I sit in silence on the piazza, and gaze upon it with
devotion and rapture, as at every bend of the river new
and striking scenes present themselves, happy when I can
thus sit alone, or with my good Mrs. W. H. at my side, in
company with whom I am always right.
471 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
But we are not without our little disturbing occurrences.
On our first morning on the Welala, St. Matthew, through
carelessness, ran upon a snag, and this gave the dominant
lady a deal to do in the way of reproof and command, and
we had to lie still for a good hour to repair our damage.
Molly of the sand-hills was always in our way, and when
we by any chance stood in hers, we had nothing to expect
but a good slap. Our dominant lady's educational management became more strict, but we began to lose all hope of
the power of cultivation on this daughter of the wilderness. We had all sorts of droll scenes, and the gay young
Miss Mac I. amused both herself and us by her observations on Molly and her ways.
The pair of turtle-doves No. 1 and No. 2 were landed
at the little colony of Pilatka, which is in the midst of a
hot, sandy plain, and which, probably, was on that account more healthy than other situations surrounded by
luxuriant vegetation. The turtle-doves No. 3 would accompany us to Lake Monroe.
We refreshed ourselves at Pilatka by a grand washing
and good milk. We are in Pilatka in the region where
frost has power-where it is occasionally felt, though it
does little damage.  Somewhat more to the north, in the
district of St. Augustine, a large plantation of sweet oranges was entirely destroyed about two years ago by
frost, and the only wealth of several thousand persons
thus perished. At Pilatka, however, I recognize the climate of that balmy atmosphere, and soft, fanning airs
which I breathed in Cuba. This air can only exist where
frost can not come.
Amid this enchanting air there lay at this time in Pilatkia, far from his relations and friends, a youth who was
dying of consumption. He was from Philadelphia, had
journeyed to Florida for the recovery of his health; but
the disease had overpowered him. The balmy winds of
Florida sported in through the window of his room; a
472 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
faithful negro sat and fanned the sick youth with a fan
-in vain!  Fever consumed him, and he could not have
many days to live. He was handsome, with large blue
eyes and fair hair. His grandmother was a Swede, and
he bore her name of Rudolph. Feeble as he was, it yet
seemed to give him pleasure to see his distant country woman. He was now bent on returning to Philadelphia,
and believed that he should be able to get there; but
Miss Dix, always tenderly watchful over the sick, took
the young man's address in Philadelphia in order to inform his relations of his danger.
We were at Pilatka delivered over by St. Matthew to
the care of the little, ugly Sarah Spalding, which made
me this evening almost repent of my undertakings at least
on account of my friends. Every thing was in the highest degree uncomfortable and poor, and our cabin swarmed with cockroaches. But I have scarcely ever laughed
more than I did this evening. Miss Mac I. entered the
cabin in a sort of merry rage against the disturbers of our
peace, and pursued them with a comic fury; Mrs. W. H.
too, Jike this splendid young girl, was so resolved to look
at all our difficulties on the amusing side, that-every
thing became a subject of mirth.
The moonlight nights were glorious, and we sat out till
late on the little triangular piazza aft of the steamer, and
two young sisters with sweet voices sang " Dearest May,"
and other delightful negro melodies; the scenery of the
banks assumed more and more of a tropical character.
We then slept a little, and I, for my part, soundly, spite
of the cockroaches. Our dominant lady, however, who
considered it her duty to watch over our comfort, and who
was very uneasy all night, made horrible tigers out of
little mice.
Early the next day we lay to land to take in fuel, and
I went on shore to refresh myself after the uncomfortable night. The country seemed altogether uncultivated
473 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and wild. A little foot-path, however, wound into the
woods, and along it I went, a la bonne aventure, on an
expedition of discovery, and as I wandered alone here
through the wilderness, my wings unfolded, and my
whole being was full of joy. But then the morning and
the wilderness too were so unspeakably beautiful! The
live-oaks stood in their magnificence with their masses
of hanging moss, their arcades penetrated by the beams
of the ascending sun. The morning dew lay fresh and
sparkling on the leaves of the amber-tree, on the innumerable small plants and bushes which bordered the path.
The earth was full of fragrance. I kissed the dew from
the leaves; I laid them upon my eyes, my brow, those
fresh morning leaves of the young new earth; I wished
to bathe anew in this Urda-fountain; I wept, half from
pain, half from unspeakable gratitude and joy. Light as
a bird I went onward, and sang a hymn of praise with
the birds, for I had here indeed drank of the refreshing
draught for which I had thirsted during a long pilgrimage in the desert; I had drank-I still drink the fullness
of life from the fountains of God's abundance, and was
sustained alone by His power, and by the wings which
he had given me!  Who was more free, who was more
rich than I? What were the common joys and pleasures
of life, those which I had childishly thirsted after, in comparison with those which now were mine; and not mine
alone-might, would become those of many others, if the
many only knew that-God gives them wings, and teaches them how to use them.
Thus rambled I onward, full of blissful emotions an!
thoughts, until I reached an open space in the forest,
where man had been, where probably a settlement had
formerly existed. But now the place was deserted. The
lovely forest surrounded in silence the open, deserted
spot.  Neither man nor beast was to be seen.  It was a
profound, wild solitude. I so much enjoyed my morning
474 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ramble, that I wished Mrs. W. H. to participate it, and
returned to seek for her. I found her sitting on the shore
at the foot of some cypresses, but as she was not inclined
for the walk, I seated myself by her, and noticed clusters
of small white flowers, which, surrounded by a garland of
leaves, floated on the water like little flowery islands. I
did not know their name, but had before observed them
as we came up the river. As they grew on the water
close to the shore, I examined them, and found that the
whole plant was fastened by merely one slender threadlike root to the soil at the bottom of the water. This was
easily broken by wave and wind, and the plant, with its
white flowers in the midst of its circlet of leaves, like the
D)raba verna, was now proceeding on its foreign travels,
the sport of wave and wind.
Our state on board the "Sarah Spalding" was somewhat perturbed this morning. A couple of young and
very pretty girls who are on board, without their mother
or any older friend, had, by their giddiness and thoughtlessness, caused two gentlemen to pay them unbecoming
attentions, which led to our dominant lady's very proper
interference. The young girls received a very suitable
admonition from two of the elder ladies, who, however,
were strangers to them, and one of the faulty gentlemen
was publicly reprimanded by the captain of the steamboat. He was an elderly man, and had such a good expression of countenance that I could scarcely believe that
he deserved the rebuke which he received, and which affected him so much that he became ill.
It was with real pleasure that I heard the true and
beautiful motherly reprimand which Mrs. W. H. gave the
handsomest and, according to appearances, the most blanmable of the young girls, and I saw with equal pleasure the
manner in which the young girl received it. She stood
silent before the elder lady, who had called her to her,
and listened silently and respectfully; not a word, not a
475 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
gesture, betrayed vexation or impatience; she seemed as
if she would really let the good and wise words sink deep
into her heart —as if a good seed for the future had been
sown in her soul. I was the only one of the elder ladies
who did not give the young girls a moral lecture. If
the truth must be spoken, I had more inclination to address, as a sister, the sweet young girl who had received
the motherly rebuke so beautifully. Perhaps she understood my good-will, for certain it is that during the day
she seemed to wish to prove to me hers by various little
agreeable services; and when we, in the evening, separated, she took leave of me in a manner which made me
give her a cordial "God bless you!"  Why were such
young lambs sent out alone into the wilderness, among
wolves and eagles, without any controlling or guiding
friend? It is neither right nor well. My faith in the
good and the pure in young girls is great, and has been
strengthened even by this little occurrence; but people
should not treat young children as if they had already cut
their wise teeth.
Our journey was enchanting the whole day; we emerged
from the narrow, winding river-passes into a large, clear
lake, surrounded by luxuriant verdant banks.  The affluence of vegetation and animal life seemed to increase
with every hour; the Flora of the tropics and the atmosphere of the tropics seemed to approach; we advanced
into the home of eternal summer. The wild sugar-cane,
the maiden-cane grew along the banks, and showed that
the soil was favorable for sugar cultivation. The temple
of Nature became still richer. Beautiful, gorgeous flowers,
red and blue, upon long stalks, white lilies, and gigantic
water-plants, among which was the tall Alisma plantago,
shone like stems of light beneath the dark green arches;
flocks of little green parrots flew twittering over the wild
sugar-cane and into the palm-groves; wild turkeys, larger than our tames ones, were seen on the shores; lovely,
476 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
slender water-fowl fluttered fearlessly around us, and
equally fearless, but much less lovely,*thousands of alli gators swam in front of and on each side of our vessel,
and fish leaped and splashed about as if they were out of
their-senses, but whether from terror or from joy I know
not. It was a&grand spectacle the whole way.
We were also more comfortable on board, for our little
coterie was now almost alone on the " Sarah Spalding,"
and there was added to it an enlightened and agreeable
French Creole, Mr. Belle C., from Cuba, who, with a
friend of his, were on a journey of discovery in Florida,
to ascertain the availability of the soil for sugar cultiva tion. His society was a great pleasure and ornament to
our little party. The captain was a polite and good-natured man, and the crew, who were all negroes, seemed
to have very much their own way, but that was a good
way; they were all agreeable and cheerful. The cook, a
young man, who cooked very good dinners, was a really
witty fellow, and said and did many very amusing things.
But the pearl of the black company was our little waiter,
the negro boy Sam, clever, intelligent, and willing, who
attended to all our little wants, waited at table, and did
every thing, and was always merry. We had no female
attendant on board, which we found to be an advantage,
because these ladies are, in the American steam-boats,
not frequently patterns of their sex or of their race, whether they be white, black, brown, or yellow. We had,
however, on the St. Matthew, a remarkable agreeable and
also very handsome young negro woman as stewardess;
she was a free woman, married to a free negro.
The only annoyance I experienced the whole way was
the lust of shooting which possessed one of the passengers
in particular, and who was not contented with shooting
alligators right and left, but who even shot the lovely
water-fowl, which, however, he could not make any use
of, and it was distressing to me to see them fall down
477 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wounded, here and there, among the weeds. I took the
liberty of speakingl my mind to him about this needless
shooting. He smiled, agreed with what I said, and continued to shoot. I wished him, in petto, bad digestion!
As regards the alligators, I could not have very much
compassion on them. They are so hideous to behold, and
are so terrible; for, though they do not attack grown people unless in self-defense, still they carry off the little
negro children without ceremony. They swim, with the
upper part of the body above the water, so that it is not
difficult to hit them with a bullet in the body and the
fore-legs. On this they dive down, or, if severely wounded, turn on one side; they are often seen like masses of
living mud, rolling themselves on the shore to hide themselves among the water-reeds that grow there.   Their
number and their fearlessness here are amazing. It is
said that even two years ago they were so numerous
that it was difficult for boats to get along. They make
a sort of grunting or bellowing sound, and it is said that
early in the spring, at pairing-time, they make a horrible noise.
I spent the whole day on the piazza, dividing my attention between natural scenes and the perusal of Columbus's journal, which he kept during his first voyage of discovery among the enchanting islands of the New World.
Molly of the sand-hills was troublesome all day, though
she mostly kept out of the way of our dominant lady.
In the afternoon we passed many wild orange-groves.
We reached Lake Monroe, the goal of our journey, last
evening. Beyond this point there is neither steam-boat
nor yet any carriage-road. Mr. Belle C. left us here, intending to continue his journey of discovery through the
wilderness on horseback.   We landed at Enterprise, a
new settlement, with an hospital, in the neighborhood of
Fort Melun, which also is situated near the lake, and is
erected as a defense against the Indians. The house at
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Enterprise stood in deep sand, and the rooms seemed so
uncomfortable and the people so ill, that we determined
to pass the night upon the lake in our little floating habitation, withwhich we are now become almost good friends.
We put off, therefore, from the wretched, temporary quay
at the unfortunate Enterprise, steered nearer to Fort Melun, and cast anchor at a short distance from it. At no
great distance from the shore stood the home of the turtle-doves No. 3, and they were now about to leave the
steamer. It was a beautiful sight, before they left, to see
the husband and the wife sitting together on their baggage, quietly but joyfully awaiting the boat which would
take them on shore. It was beautiful, also, to see them
in the little boat, with their children and their effects, advancing toward the verdant shore, nodding a friendly farewell to us. If the daughter Molly had only been a little
more charming! The last torment and the last memory
of her was when she took hold of my shoulder, just as a
man would take hold of a hedge-stake to help himself to
climb up a bank, as her father's voice was heard calling
her to the boat. No, no, amid the summer of Florida,
she ought yet to bloom out like a rose, and be married to
the commandant at Fort Melun, or to the owner of Enterprise.
We lost sight of the colonist family when they reached
the shore, but a bright light was soon afterward seen
glimmering in a house near the spot where they landed.
It was now dusk, and twilight increased rapidly, although
the sky was still clear. I sat for a long time on deck enjoying the quiet scene. The dark, low shore lay like a
vast myrtle garland around the mirror-like lake. Fireflies glimmered here and there above it, and fishes, large
and small, struck out their circles incessantly. The bird
of evening, whippowil, whistled his pleasing note from
the shore, and the alligators grunted in chorus. The negroes of our little vessel began to play duets upon the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
violin and the flageolet very sweetly, and with excellent
musical skill and feeling, all of them gay and sportive
melodies. They continued this toward midnight. From
three places only on the shore were lights visible. The
one was from an orange plantation belonging to a widow
lady, the second from Enterprise, the third from the home
of the colonist, the pair of turtle-doves No. 3, and this
burned remarkably bright in the growing darkness of
evening.   The whole region was low; no single object
stood forth pre-eminently. A few clouds floated, or rather
lay, like small islands on the western horizon, and melted by degrees into evening glow. I endeavored in vain
among them to discover some symbolic poetical shape;
the highest that I could arrive at was a lady in a Quaker's bonnet, sitting on a haystack. She and all the other
clouds changed themselves, finally, into a herd of little
pigs, and then vanished. The lights at Enterprise, and
at the widow lady's, were extinguished. Every breath
of wind had laid itself to rest; every thing on the shore
was dark; the light alone in the colonist's home still
burned, but dimmer, and finally it also was extinguished.
But I saw it burning in the house yet. Toward mnidnight the negroes' music was silent also, but the alligators and the whippowils continued their duet the whole
night through.
I could sleep but very little, although I felt perfectly
well. But the spirits of the air called me, and I was
obliged to rise again and again, and go out upon our little
piazza aft of the vessel, into which the doors of the saloon
opened, and there, attired merely in my white night-dress,
I contemplated again and again the tranquil scene. And
still at early peep of dawn, when the stars grew dim, and
only the morning star stood bright above the bright mirror of the lake, was continued the duet between the birds
and the alligators. When the sun rose they became silent, and other birds then began to sing, and fishes to leap
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
about; and the monsters of the river swam and swim
still around us, pondering, as it seems, on our vessel and
its provisions. The cruel sportsman is no longer with us,
and we, in the Sarah Spalding, live at peace with the whole
world, and merely, like the crocodiles, ponder about our
breakfast.
Later. We were bent on having fresh fish for breakfast,
and therefore our captain let a couple of negroes row out
in a boat nearer to the shore, and throw out a couple of
nets, which were thrown out and taken in again at once,
and in ten minutes we were breakfasting on a most de licious fish, which resembled flounders in taste. No fish ermen as yet dwell on these banks, and the river swarms
with life.
In the afternoon we commenced our return. I shall
not advance any further south in Florida, but I see here
the character of the country and its scenery in this south ern portion. The whole of this part of the country is low,
and abounds in swampy ground and fogs, as well as in
forests of fir-wood, called everglades, which are said to com.
bine an amount of animal life which is truly astonishing.
The natural historian, Agassiz, who saw these everglades
for the first time this spring and summer, clasped his hands
in admiration and devotion at the sight of these hitherto
unknown riches of nature. Here, and yet further south
toward the Mexican Gulf, the country becomes still more
flat, and the vegetation is divided between the half tropical, which I had already seen, and vast forests of Pinus
Australis, or light wood, in every-day language. Indians
of the Seminole and Creek nations still live in these wild
regions, and are dangerous to emigrants.  In the most
southern portion of Florida it is said that the cocoa-palm
and the banana might be cultivated. What an empire,
what a world is North America, embracing all climates,
natural scenery, and productions. It is indeed an empire
for all the nations of the earth.
VOL, III-X
-.481 
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Ortega Plantation, Florida, May 23.
Again, my child, on a bank, but not in a steam-boat
(our poor little Magnolia is said-to be lying there still,
without any hope of getting off before the next full moon!
melancholy!), but on a maize plantation belonging to relatives of the Mac I. family, where I am enjoying rest
and refreshment with an amiable family, in a good and
hospitable home. And very good it is to be able to rest
after the fatigues and difficulties of the journey, which
were not small by any means. There were indeed moments when I suspected that the first discoverers of these
vast wildernesses could not have endured greater suffering
than we did; baked as it were in an oven on our vessel
by the burning sun, and without water fit to drink.  With
Mr. Belle C. disappeared all our good, ice-cold water, and
we then only discovered that the polite Creole had allowed us ladies to enjoy the ice which he had brought
from Cuba for his own use. There was now an end of
that. Sarah Spalding had no supply of drinking water
in her larder, and we were reduced to drink river-water,
which was parboiled by the heat of the sun, and looked
as if it were distilled from alligators. I could not drink
it. But then the captain, at my request-a capital, good
fellow was that captain! —-landed myself and Co. in a
wild orange-grove, and we there gathered whole sacks
full of oranges, from which I brewed lemonade, and the
whole company was refreshed thereby. That wild orange.
grove was a wonderful sight.  The captain and two of
his men went on before with axes to cut a pathway from
the shore. The wood itself was one wild tangle of thorny
vegetation, fallen trees, and all kinds of bushes and plants.
Within the orange-grove thousands of oranges lay on the
ground, and on the slightest shaking of the trees showers
of others came down upon us-.  Many of the oranges
which grew here were as large as small infants' heads
These oranges are sour, but very juicy, and of an agree
482
NE. 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
able acid, and these golden chalices of the wilderness af forded us a real refreshment.   The captain's store of sug.
ar diminished rapidly, but the good, kind man said not a
word, and so he had as much lemonade as he liked to
drink. I had four of the huge projecting spines of the
orange-tree, which are sometimes two ells long, hewn off
for sticks for some gentlemen friends at home (brother-in.
law Q. and Fabian W. are of the elect).   These sticks
are very handsome when they are stained; they are very
strong, and greatly valued by the American gentlemen.
As memories of the orange-grove, we took away with us,
besides oranges and sticks, a multitude of small insects
of the species here called tick, and with which we be came personally acquainted at home, as small, ugly, flat
creatures, which eat into the skin. I was particularly
infested by these inhabitants of the orange-grove, and labored the whole day in getting rid of them.  Among the
adventures of our return was the taking fire of our sunscorched vessel in one of the lakes, which gave our domi.
nant lady a great deal to do with her tongue. She-made
the quarter of an ell long flames two ells long, and if it
had not been for her there would have been an end to us
all! The captain and his men, in the mean time, extinguished the fire so quickly and silently, that I did not
know of the danger until it was over.
We suffered through the night from cockroaches and
musquitoes, by day from the hot sun and suffocating
fumes from the engine fire. Amid alPthese bitter moments came moments when the cool breezes enabled us
to enjoy once more the invariably beautiful and fantastic
scenery, and the intercourse and conversation of friends.
One afternoon wrsaw a large crane-roost, as it is called, that is, a republic of white cranes. It was upon an
island, on which grew tall, shadowy trees. On the approach of the steamer, the republic rose into the air
like a large cloud, then immediately after settled down
483 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
again, and the island looked as if it were covered with
snow.
We called, on our return, at two cities, Jacksonville
and St. Mary's. Jacksonville is an increasing city, its situation being very favorable for trade; but it lies amid
sand, and was a horribly hot, disagreeable place. We
slept there one night, at a hotel which resembled a noisy
wooden barrack.  St. Mary's, which is some years older,
is not so well situated for trade, and is on the decrease;
it, however, was more agreeable than Jacksonville, from
the beautiful, shady rows of trees in its streets. Wandering here, I saw a well-dressed negro, about fifty years old,
who was tattooed like the Luccomees whom I had seen
at Cuba.  I addressed him, saying,
"You have come hither from Africa?" He replied,
Yes; that he had been smuggled hither from Cuba many
years ago. He was now overseer on a plantation, and
was very well off. He was a Christian, and seemed
pleased to be so. He spoke very sensibly and cheerfully,
and had a good, open countenance.
"You do not wish to return to Africa?" said I.
"Oh yes, Mlissis; oh yes, that I do!"  replied he;
"there I should be still better off."
"But people often kill one another there," remonstrated I.
" Oh, but nobody troubles themselves about that. And
there are a great many good people who live there at
peace."         *
"But look here, my friend," said Colonel Mac I., who is
a strong Calvinist; "if you had remained in Africa, you
would not have become a Christian as you now are, and
then the devil, in the end, would have had you!"
The negro laughed, looked down, shook his head, and
twisted round his cap which he had in his hand, and at
length exclaimed, again looking up with an expression of
humor and inventive acuteness,
484
K 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"Now, Massa, look'ee here!  The Gospel is now being
preached over the whole of Africa, and if I had remained
there, what was to hinder me from being one who heard
it as well there as here?"
To this there was no reply to be made, and the sensible, good-tempered negro had the last word.
One of our pleasant incidents was that our dominant
lady left us by the way, to domineer, I should imagine,
in some boarding-house of one of the cities in this part of
Florida; and the atmosphere became much less oppressive in our little community in consequence. Miss Dix
left us also to go to St. Augustine, the most southern city
of the United States, the prisons and benevolent institutions of which place she wished to visit. Wherever she
goes, she endeavors to do good to the sick, the neglected,
or the criminal, and to scatter the seed of spiritual culture wherever she is able. She scatters about her, like
morning dew, as she goes on her way, little miniature
books called " Dewdrops," containing religious proverbs,
and numbers of small tracts, with pretty wood-cuts and
ditto stories.   Molly of the sand-hills ought to derive
nourishment from this manna which would suffice to
make her a thinking and amiable woman.
St. Augustine was founded by the Spaniards, and is the
oldest city in North America; the city still preserves the
character and style of building which prove its origin, but
of late years it has very much fallen into decay, and since
the destruction by frost of the orange plantations, which
constituted the principal branch of trade in the city, it
has become still more deserted. It is now visited generally by invalids, who during the winter months come
hither to breathe its pleasant atmosphere and invigorating
sea-breezes. St. Augustine lies somewhat to the south of
New Orleans, but has a far more salubrious climate.
It was not until the year 1819 that Florida passed from
the dominion of the Spaniards to that of the United States,
485 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and it became united to these, as an independent state, in
the year 1845, but is said not yet to contain a greater
population than about 80,000 whites. The Indians and
the insalubrity of the swampy soil have retarded, and still
retard, the cultivation of the country. But in the northwestern portion of the state the land lies higher, and is
more cultivated, and has two increasing cities; the political capital is Tallahassee, with beautiful plantations, villas,
gardens, and, as I have been informed, pleasant domestic
and social life amid that lovely sumnmer-warm scenery.
And where the Anglo-American comes, there always come
at the same time happy domestic life, friendly social intercourse, and every comfort of life.
All these we enjoy also in this kind home, although joy
is not properly at home here. The eldest daughter of the
family, a beautiful, young, newly-married lady in the
bloom of her life and her maternal joy, died lately in giv.
ing birth to her second child, and the grief of this weighs
heavily on the mind of her mother. A splendid little
grandson, very like his grandmother, and full of life, can
not console her; and her husband and the other children
participate in her sorrow. The whole family has an expression of so much good-heartedness and gentleness, that
one sees plain enough that the slaves can not suffer. But
the drought is fearful; the maize plants on this plantation
are withered in the sand, of which this plantation has more
than its ordinary share; and the harvest of this year wears
a mournful appearance. It is now more than four months
since I have seen a cloudy day. Even in this beautiful
Florida, life is heavy and dry as regards the poor children
of earth.
But when in the mornings early I wake and feel the
balmy wind of Florida play through the white curtains
round my bed, and hear the nightingale of America pouring forth, in its many tongues, its melodious inspirations
in the trees before my window, then do I exalt the home
486 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of summer, and wonder not that Ferdinand de Soto and
his young men were enchanted by it, and it seems to me
almost unnatural that life here can be heavy or dark.
We remain here a couple of days in expectation of a
good steam-boat which will take us to Mr. C.'s plantation
at Darien, whence we return to Savannah.
This plantation lies in a sandy tract, and the sand considerably encroaches upon the charms of nature and country life. There is here, however, a foot-path by the river
which follows a wild and woody shore, than which nothing
more picturesque can be conceived, in particular the masses of trees and wild boscage which rise like a lofty wall between the shore and the sloping cultivated land. Splendid magnolias, covered with white flowers, lift aloft among
these their darkli, shady crowns. The magnolia is the
most magnificent tree of the Southern States. I wander
here alone in the afternoons, wondering sometimes whether I shall hear, from the dense thickets, the warning signal of the rattlesnake-for this serpent gives warning before he makes an attack or approaches near. But, although
rattlesnakes are numerous in Florida, I have not yet happened either to see or to hear a living one. I however
saw this afternoon one which the negroes had just killed
on the plantation and brought to show the family. It
might be about three yards long, and as thick as my arm.
The head was much injured by the blows it had received,
and the terrible poison-fangs were revealed. I have had
the rattle, with its fourteen joints, given to me to take
home with me to Sweden. A year ago a negro on the
plantation was bitten on the leg by a rattlesnake; great
endeavors were made to save the limb from amputation,
but in vain; it was, in the end, obliged to be taken off, to
put an end to the great and increasing suffering.
A pretty little village on the plantation is the home of
the black nurse of the gentleman of the house, and there
she rests from her labors, under circumstances which test
4.87 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ify the tenderest care. She has her own neat little house,
on a terrace by the river, and within it every convenience
that an old person can desire; a comfortable rocking-chair
is even among these, and children and children's children,
whom she has faithfully nursed, visit her with love and
presents. She has had many children of her own, but she
acknowledged that the white children were dearest to her;
and this affection of the black nurses, or foster-mothers,
to the children of the whites is a well-known fact. Another fact also, which is often witnessed in the slave
states, is the tender care which is bestowed upon these
faithful black foster-mothers in their old age by the family, that is to say, when the families are able.
St. Simon's Island, May 27th.
In front of my window runs, broad and clear, the western arm of the Altamaha River, and beside it sits the indersigned upon an island on the coast of Georgia, between the river and the Atlantic Ocean. I am now at
the house of Mr. J. C., a planter, in the midst of gardens
and olive-groves, where the family seeks for its summer
pleasure and the salubrious air of the sea when fevers begin to ravage the large plantation at Darien, the principal
residence of the family.
Mr. C. is one of the greatest planters in the south of
the United States, and owns about two thousand negro
slaves, whom he employs on his rice and cotton plantations. He had been mentioned to me as a reformer, who
had introduced trial by jury among his slaves, with many
other educational institutions, to prepare them for a future life of liberty. And this created in me a desire to
become acquainted with him and his plantations. But I
did not find him a reformer, merely a disciplinarian, with
great practical tact, and also some benevolence in the
treatment of the negroes. In other respects I found him
to be a true representative of the gentlemen of the Southern States-a very polite man, possessing as much knowl
488 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
edge as an encyclopedia, and interesting to me in a high
degree through the wealth and fascination of his conver sation. He is distinguished for his knowledge of natural
history; he has a beautiful collection of the natural pro ductions of America, and the lecture which I heard him
read this morning, in the midst of these, on the geology
and the rock formation of America, has given me a clearer knowledge of the geological structure of this portion of
the world than I ever possessed before.
Mr. C. has an unusual faculty for systematization, and
for demonstrating the characteristic points of a subject.
A conversation with him on any subject can not fail of
being interesting, even if one differs from him in opinion.
But as Mr. C., on the question of slavery, unites with
the good party in the South, who regard the colonization
of Africa by the liberated negro slaves as the final result
and object of the institution of slavery, it was any thing
but difficult for me to converse with him on this subject,
and that which naturally belongs to it. Neither could I
do other than agree with him in the views he expressed
regarding the peculiar faculties of the negro race and
their future destiny, because they accorded with my own
observations. Among those views of his which I must
adopt, I recall the following:
The tropical races can not attain to the development
and intelligence of the native whites in the temperate
zones.   They are  deficient in  the power  of abstract
thought, of systematization, of pursuing strict laws of
reason, and of uniting themselves on a basis of this kind.
The tropical races typify the highest state of the life of
feeling. Natural life imprisons them; released from this
by religion, they would typify animal and vegetable life
in their transfiguration.  (N.B.-This idea, I believe, was
presented to Mr. C. from my magazine.) They are receptive of culture, and may, during their subjection to a
more developed race, develop a very respectable capacity
X2
489, 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
for thought and artistic ability. They may arrive at a
respectable degree of semi-civilization, interesting by the
peculiar forms which it would assume from the peculiarity of the people themselves.
Mr. C. regards slavery in America as a school for the
children of Africa, in which they may be educated for
self-government on the soil of Africa. He was inclined
to look at the institution of slavery as a benefit to them.
And that it might be converted into a benefit is certain.
But that it is the only means of imparting to Africa the
blessings of Christianity and civilization may be safely
denied, and I had here the pleasure of letting the wise
negro from Florida preach to-the wise white man.
In urbanity and grace of conversation Mr. C. reminds
me of Waldo Emerson; but, in a general way, the Southern gentleman has too small a development of the organ
of ideality, even as in the gentleman of the North it is
too large.  Mr. C. corroborated the facility with which
the negroes acquire a knowledge of handcraft trades, and
their dexterity as artisans. They have in Georgia begun
to employ them advantageously in manufactures. I now
remember having visited, last year, a cotton factory near
Augusta, in which colored work-people were employed.
It was not a sight which caused me pleasure, because I
could not believethat the blacks would voluntarily choose
this occupation, with its noise, difficulty, and dusty, unwholesome atmosphere-they who had been accustomed
to the labor of the open fields.
I asked some women who were employed in winding
how they liked it. Two of them replied that they liked
it very well-as well as any other work.  An elderly wornman, however, with a good countenance, said, with an expression of deep dejection and weariness, No, she did not
like this work; she would rather work out in the fields.
I did not wonder at this, for the place was not like one of
the Lowell Mills.
490 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The home here is full of gay, youthful countenances,
six boys and two girls, the youngest of which is the image and delight of her father; and Mrs. C. is a youthful,
pretty, and happy mother of this handsome flock of children.
Not far from the house is a troop of little black children, seventy or eighty in number, whom I visited this
evening, and who wanted mothers. A couple of witchlike negro women, with rods in their hands, governed the
troop by fear and terror. I had been told that they also
taught the children to pray.   I gathered a little flock
around me, and slowly repeated to them the Lord's Prayer,
bidding them read the words after me.   The children
grinned, laughed, showed their white teeth, and evinced
very plainly that none of them knew what that wonderful prayer meant, nor that they had a Father in
heaven.
The children were well fed. They were kept here, separated from their parents, on account of fever raging on
the plantations where they worked.
If I have not found here the reformer whom I expected, I have heard of two such planters, the one in Florida,
the other in Georgia, who have established schools for the
children of their negro slaves, with the intention of preparing them for good and free human beings. One of
these gentlemen, Mr. N., is said to have the greatest hopes
of the susceptibility for cultivation in the negro children,
nay, even of its being greater than in the children of the
whites.
Why have I not before heard of these Christian labors?
I would have made every possible effort to have witnessed
them, to have seen them with my own eyes. Such plantations in the slave states may be regarded as holy spots,
to which pilgrimages would be made by those who seek
for the soul's elevation, and for new power to hope and to
believe. What, indeed, have I been so zealously seeking
491 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
for, and inquiring after, in these Southern States, but for
such places!
It is not natural to me to look out for subjects of blame.
I do not recognize such excepting when they force themselves upon me. I do not avoid seeing darkness, but I
seek for the light which can illumine the darkness, in all,
and with all. In the darkness of slavery I have sought
for the moment of freedom with faith and hope in the
genius of America.  It is no fault of mine that I have
found the darkness so great, and the work of light as yet
so feeble in the slave states.
Charleston, June 3d.
Again here in the good home of my good Mrs. W. H., a
home which is at the same time one of the most peaceful
and the most beautiful which I have found in the United
States. It is an excellent thing to rest here a little while
after the vagaries of the last three weeks, some of the fatigues of which were by no means small.  But thus I
have seen Florida, and have a better understanding of the
nature and extent of that realm, that great home which
is being prepared, in North America, for people of the
whole world. From the home of eternal summer I now
journey up toward the home of winter, the White Mountains, in the most northern states of NeW England, and
thence home, because I shall then have seen all that I desire to see on this side the ocean.
Among the memorable events of the latter part of our
journey, I must not omit our morning journey in large
boats of hollowed cypress-trees from Ortega plantation to
Jacksonville, where we took the steamer. The morning
was glorious, and the negroes rowed vigorously and cheerfully. The gentlemen of the amiable family at Ortega
accompanied us on board. They were of the good and
the quiet of the land.
I parted from Mr. C. with sincere gratitude for his interesting society, and with a decided liking for one of the
492 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
young sons of the plantation, whose broad forehead re vealed a thoughtful, unprejudiced, and humorous turn of
mind.
The place at which we were to take the steamer to Sa vannah was where the early city of Frederica had been
founded by Oglethorpe, the first cultivator of Georgia.
The situation appears to have been excellent, but of the
city there now remains only two ruins, garlanded by green
trees and bushes.
We arrived here in good time, but the steamer did not
make its appearance for several hours. In the mean time
it went on with us in a fairy tale. A most charming little old lady, just like a good little fairy, received us into
her house, a regular little fairy palace for beauty, comfort, and attractiveness.   Every thing was bright, and
seemed to be alive from sheer cleanliness and care. The
little lady-old in years, but full of youthfulness of mind,
and with a pair of clear, lively blue eyes-gave me, as
she made a playful demonstration round my head, a
knock on my forehead, which might have cracked the
skull if it had been less thick. She spread a table for
us, brilliant with white linen, and china, and silver, and
entertained us with tea and bread and butter, potatoes at
my desire, eggs, and other good things. No, it would not
have been possible for a meal spread by fairy hands to
have been more delicate or more finely flavored. The
clever and cheerful little lady and I drank together a
toast, "Friendship and potatoes," as the chief indispensables of earthly happiness. After this we proceeded to Savannah.
I saw in Savannah, besides good old friends-always
good and kind-a Seaman's Home, under the management
of the ladies of the city. It was a simple, but well-ordered and successful institution, where the sailors, while in
port at Savannah, may obtain at the lowest possible charges
the best possible comforts in a large common hall, both
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
food for the body and food for the soul-this latter con sisting of good books and small tracts, containing treatises
and narratives of a religious tendency. The lively, agree.
able lady who conducted me thither-Mrs. B., the daugh ter of Judge Berrian-is one of the directresses, and, al though a happy wife as well as mother of six boys and one
girl, she finds time and heart to look after this home for
the sons of Neptune, otherwise left to winds and waves
more dangerous to them in the city than those out at sea.
Wife, mother, citizen, are the titles of the woman of the
New World.
In the evening at the hotel, Pulaski House, where I took
up my quarters during the short time of my stay, that I
might not be separated from Mrs. W. H., I made the acquaintance of a young lady, a planter, now come to the
city with a family of seven boys, all in succession, with
but one, or, at the most, two years between them. Both
mother and children were full of the fresh spirit of life,
the gay young mother's only anxiety being to keep the
merry lads from running about in the city, as they were
accustomed to do in the country. They were going to be
placed in a school here.
Families in North America are very large, although not
so large as in England. The largest family I heard spoken
of here was twelve children by one father and mother,
but this was considered unusual; seven seems to be, in a
general way, the largest number of children in a family.
Nor is it unusual to meet with married pairs without children at all.
But I must now tell you something about South Carolina, because South Carolina is resolved at this moment to
be a state for itself, apart from the other states. It is, in
fact, extremely incensed by the injustice which it considers that the Southern States suffered in the last Congress
from the compromise between the free and the slave states
on the Californian question; and a large Convention of the
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wise men of the state has just been held at Charleston, at
which, after having eaten and drunk together, they with
great enthusiasm took the heroic resolution of seceding
from the Union, and assuming a hostile attitude against
its Northern States. The Palmetto State seems to have
calculated on meeting with co-operation from the other
Southern States; but it appears that she is mistaken in
this respect. Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, and several others, have openly declared themselves for the Union,
and I have read in the Florida papers keen disapprobation
of the proceedings of the Palmetto State. Mississippi is
now the only one which seems to stand undetermined
whether or not it shall declare itself for the Union, or
against it and for South Carolina.
In the mean time, it seems as if South Carolina itself,
like the great Ermperor Philip of ancient memory, is of a
different state of mind during the feast and after the feast,
and that the good brothers who ate and drank together
at Charleston, and there declared themselves for war, were,
notwithstanding, much less inclined for hostilities when
they had left Charleston and found themselves each one
sitting quietly at home. Nor are there wanting wise and
good citizens who openly declare themselves opposed to
the heroic declarations of the great Convention, over which
people now make themselves merry. In one of the newspapers of the city I read to-day the following quotation from
a speech which is said to have been made by one of the
warlike members of the great Convention:
"' Yes, gentlemen, I protest that, when war breaks out,
I shall be one of the first to run across my cotton field,
exclaiming, like General Washington at the battle of Waterloo,'A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!'"
From the observations which I have heard made, and
which I have read in the newspapers on this Convention
and its consequences, one sees how vigorous and discreet
is public opinion, and that it merely requires time.
495 
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And probably this declaration of secession on the part
of South Carolina will merely be a proof of the internal
strength of the Union to hold together, spite of the dis pleasure of individuals.
Mr. Poinsett's letter to the Convention (to which he
was summoned, but could not attend) is spoken highly of,
as being distinguished in a high degree for its nobility
and statesmanlike wisdom. It counsels strongly to maintain- the Union, and proves that South Carolina is wrong
in her assertions.
I have received, also, a private letter from the noble old
statesman, which has pleased me by the invitation which
it contained for me again to visit him at his house, "that
we might talk over together the present condition and future prospects of the United States." I should very much
like such a conversation with him, but I have not the
time to go as far as his hermitage.
Among the topics of conversation of the day is a scandalous paper war, which is being carried on in the New
York newspapers between private individuals. One of
the principal literary men of the city is involved in the
contest, which has reference to the good name and fame
of two respectable ladies. The warfare is carried on with
great bitterness and unbridled license, and the good and
thinking portion of the public look on with annoyance
and disgust, and also censure severely that inclination for
coarse personality which is one of the greatest sins of the
American newspaper press. Generally, however, even this
spares women, who always find powerful defenders. A
man who in conversation or through the press should allow himself to attack a woman, or to express himself
coarsely against her, would be condemned by the better
portion of the people as a man of bad education and bad
taste. A silent reprobation would exclude him from the
better class of society. Thus noble and chivalric is the
spirit of this country.
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I shall now remain quietly here for about a week, part ly because I find myself so comfortable here, and that I
require rest, and partly to have my toilet refitted, under
the advice and management of my good Mrs. W. H.. I
think more on this subject here than I did at home, be cause I must here appear as a Swede. I wish to do so
with honor to my country, although with all becoming
modesty. My costume, therefore, is always black silk,
with a mantilla or light jacket, also of silk, trimmed with
lace. You must fancy me when walking out in a white
silk bonnet and veil, and black satin cloak or dress. I
endeavor to combine gravity with a certain degree of elegance.
From this place I propose proceeding through the highlands of North Carolina and Georgia, the remarkable
scenery of which I wish to become acquainted with, into
the State of Tennessee, by the Tennessee River, and so
into Virginia, the Old Dominion, where I think of remaining some time, to make myself familiar both with the people and the scenery. It is now terribly hot here, and one
is as if in a constant bath. I ought to write many letters,
and read various things; but, instead of doing so, I spend
long hours in doing nothing but sitting in my rockingchair and rocking to and fro.
"It is all very well as yet," says Mrs. W. H.; "but
when this heat shall have continued four or five months,
and seems as if it never would come to an end, then-"
No wonder that so many young ladies here seem pale
and languishing.
Vegetation is in its highest glory, and the woods are
splendidly in flower.  The Indian-pride-tree, the Frenchtree, the tulip-tree, the magnolia, shoot forth their splendid fragrant flowers.  In the gardens roses and orangeblossom fill the air with perfume; the fruit of the nectarine is set, and the fig-tree bears ripe fruit. People enjoy
themselves, but with a languid animation. The evenings
497 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
are the most beautiful part of the day, and my greatest
enjoyment is to walk slowly backward and forward on the
upper piazza, shaded by the trellised roses, and fanned by
breezes from the river.
June 11th. In the morning I shall leave this good home
and this amiable family forever. It is painful to me to
say so, but so it is. I have spent delightful hours and
days this time also with them and with some other friends
in Charleston.  I have again infinitely enjoyed the society of Mrs. H., wandering with her in the myrtle-groves at
Belmont for one whole beautiful day, and in conversation
on subjects which deepen and expand life at the same
time. Mrs. H. has more imagination than I have, and
her poetical feeling, united to an intellect of no ordinary
grasp, which, taking its stand on the earth, comprehends
the universal relationship of all things, and which, at the
same time, derives its aliment from a religious centre based
on Christianity, makes my intercouse with her highly en.
livening and beneficial.
I have received from many kind friends renewed proofs
of their steadfast warmheartedness, and from the noble
Unitarian minister, Mr. Gilman, a blessing which I have
placed within my heart. When I was one day making a
sketch of his pure, ascetic countenance, I asked him, "At
what age have you felt yourself most happy?"
Between fifty and sixty," replied he.
I heard his reply with joy, because I am approaching
that age, and I have hope in its tranquillizing power.
The young missionary, Miles, whose name and book
you may remember as mentioned in my letter from this
place last year, has had the pleasure of receiving some
lines from the noble Neander in Berlin, containing these
words: " The aged Neander extends his hand across the
ocean, in brotherly union, to the young missionary in
South Carolina, and in token of cordial acknowledgment."
Such tokens are joyful signs of the times!
498
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Among the remarkable things which I have seen of
late, I must mention the Slaves' Fair last Saturday evening, that is to say, when the slaves resident on the plantations come to Charleston with their wares and small
manufactured goods, woven baskets, mats, etc., and set
them out publicly, cry them aloud, and sell them: the
scene is lively, but it lasts only an evening; a visit which
I made to two negro schools; the large, newly-laid-out
cemetery of Charleston, the Mlagnolia, and a night on
Sullivan's Island.
One of these negro schools was for the children of free
negroes.  It was kept by a white master, and with open
doors. I saw here an assembly of colored children, of all
shades between raven-black and almost perfect white.
The school-books, which I desired to see, were the same
as those in use in the American schools for the children
of the whites.
This school is a good institution, but evidently a dan.
gerous element in the slave states, unless it is kept in
harmony by the instruction of the slaves, and the views
which this will open to them.
I had also heard speak of secret schools for the children
of slaves, but had extreme difficulty in discovering such
an one, and when I had discovered one, to gain admittance
into it, so great was the dread of the law's severity, which
forbids, under a heavy punishment, the instruction of a
slave in reading and writing. And when I did gain ad.
mittance into this secret chamber, I found in a wretched
dark hole only half a dozen poor children, some with an
aspect that testified the greatest: stupidity and mere animal life. They had evidently been brought hither as an
attempt to humanize them.
Magnolia Cemetery is a new, noble, and magnificent
burial-place, and an honor to Charleston.  It is situated
by the sea, the pure, refreshing breezes of which blow
over it with invigorating life.  Three sides have a back
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
ground of magnolia and cedar -forest, and on the fourth
lies the blue sea. The ground is flat, but not swampy,
and canals have been dug to bring in the river and seawater, so as to form small islands and promontories within the vast burial-ground. Beautiful groups of Southern
trees stand here and there. The manner in which the
people of America provide resting-places for their dead
foretells for them a long life on earth.
I saw in this new burial-place only two monuments,
but they had each of them so peculiar and so dissimilar
a history that I must relate them to you in few words.
The one marks the grave of a young girl.  She was
her mother's only child. It one day happened that she
touched her eye with her hand after having just gathered
the poisonous flower called here Nightshade (Solanun nigrum), which has a pretty, pale yellow flower, in form
like that of our potato blossom, and the eye became thereby poisoned. It became enlarged and deformed; and this
enlargement, and the suffering which attended it, undermined the young girl's life. She withered away, but
beautifully and piously. Her sufferings and her patience
made her an object of general love. She and her mother
converted the path to the grave, by the strength of religion, into a pathway of light; the Nightshade had no
power over them. After two years of suffering, she died
-if a good angel can die; and her grave is surrounded
by memories of light.
The second belongs to the grave of a young man. He
was an officer in the American army during the war in
Texas or Mexico, I do not exactly remember which. One
day, as he sat at the table with a comrade, he received
an order to go to the commanding officer. In youthful
insolence or pride, he said, " The deuce take me if I go!"
or something of that kind. Nevertheless, he went. The
thoughtless expression, which had been overheard, was reported to the superior officer, who commanded that, as a
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IHOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
punishment, and for example's sake, he should be gagged
for one or more days, I know not which. When the sen tence was announced to the young man, he said, "From
this time I will never eat any thing more. Nobody shall
ever reproach me with having been gagged!"
And he refused to take food. The superior officer, in formed of his words and his conduct on arrest, repented of
his barbarous and hasty command, and went himself to
the young man to induce him to give up his resolve. But
in vain. The young, determined soldier died of a wound ed heart, and of hunger, within a week, to the inexpressi bly bitter grief of his family, who were withheld from pros ecuting at law the inconsiderate commander merely by
the mother of the dead, to whom the family of the other
were nearly related, and by her saying, with truth,
" Revenge can not restore to me my son!"
Great sufferings have already consecrated Magnolia
Cemetery as a resting-place.
Mrs. W. IHI. and myself made the journey to Sullivan's
Island alone. It was pleasant to me to make this last
excursion in South Carolina alone with her, and with her
for the last time to feel the sea-breezes in the palmetto
and myrtle groves of the island. A steam-boat conveyed
us thither, and here we took a carriage to drive along the
sands. Our driver was a Yankee of fifteen, good-natured
and lively, who had come from Boston to Charleston to
seek his fortune. The boy had gone to a common school,
and was remarkably clever in his remarks and replies.
We confided ourselves to his guidance, and, deeply engrossed in conversation, it was not until after half an
hour's time that we observed that, instead of driving us
on the firm sands, he was driving us quite into the water, and going in deeper and deeper. We called to the boy;
he seemed to ponder about it, but said we should soon be
right, and thus we drove on again for a while. The water, however, by this time was above half way up the
601 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wheels, and we were among deep holes; it was clear that
we were not in the right road; and when we again spoke
to our young driver, it appeared that, instead of driving
on the usual and southern side of the island, he had driven on the northern shore, because he wished to ascertain
whether it was possible to drive also on that side. He
had chosen this occasion for the experiment.
Mrs. W. H. laughed so heartily at the idea of the lad's
scheme of trying an experiment with us which might
have cost us our lives, that her anger lost its power. The
boy was a little frightened, but smiled nevertheless, and
would willingly have continued his experiment to the
end; but this we utterly forbade, as we none of us knew
what ground we were upon, and each fresh step might be
our last. We alighted, therefore, among the bushes of
the shore, and left the boy to find his way across the island with the carriage and horses in the best way he was
able.
We found our way through bushes and thickets, Mrs.
W. H. laughing the whole way with incomparable good
temper at the Yankee boy's characteristic schemie. After
an hour's wandering, forcing our way through thick brushwood, and wading through sand, we found a foot-path and
traces of a fence. From this point we looked around us,
and saw, to our surprise, a carriage and horses standing
on the top of the highest sand-hill in this part of the isl.
and. Was it? Yes, certainly it was our equipage, which
had ascended this hill from the water, and there on the
box sat quite tranquilly the Yankee boy, looking around
him, and spying out the geography of the island.
When, in the course of about two hours, we had at
length piloted ourselves to the southern side of the island,
and down to the fortress, there we found our Yankse boy
and his carriage waiting for us as tranquil and good-tem.
pered as if every thing had gone on in the best manner
possible
'602 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
We did not think that it had, and still less so when we
saw, before we could reach the shore, the last steam-boat
leave the island for the city. We should be obliged to remain over night in the island. But we found a good hotel, and we had the sea and the beautiful moonlight, and
thus that night on Sullivan's Island, a great portion of
which was spent awake, remains as one of the delightfully memorable nights which I spent beneath the heaven of South Carolina.
To-day, as we were driving out of the city in a carriage, I saw a man taking along a young negro lad, with
]is hands tied with a rope. The man was on horseback,
and the lad, he might be about fourteen or fifteen, walked
behind the horse. He had probably attempted to run
away, and was now brought in this manner to the city to
be flogged. The people looked with indifference, as on a
very common sight.  Beautiful manners!
On one of my walks in the city with my good Mrs. W.
H., we saw an old, well-dressed negro sitting on a stone,
bleeding at the nose. She stopped.
"Are you bleeding, daddy?" asked she.
-'Yes, Missis, yes," replied he, very civilly; "it will
not stop."
"You shall have my keys, daddy, to lay on your neck,
and then it will stop," said Mrs. W. H., taking out her
bunch of keys, and placing it on the neck of black daddy,
and waiting a while until it had produced the desired
effect. Daddy thanked her heartily, but not as if for any
unusual mark of kindness. Neither is such behavior or
such kindness shown by the whites to the blacks unusual
either in the slave states.  But the institution of slavery
causes the good and the bad master to be placed under
the ban of one hatred; and yet they are as unlike as day
and night.
My proposed journey through the northern parts of
Georgia and Tennessee, like that of last year, must be
603 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wholly given up. The heat is oppressive; Tennessee
River is dried up, so that it is not navigable for a steamer; and there is no other mode of conveyance for me,
while the fatigue of diligences upon those wretched roads
would be greater than I could support. I shall, therefore,
also this time confide myself to the sea, but merely for
four-and-twenty hours, land in North Carolina, and proceed through that state to Virginia.  I shall probably take
the same steamer northward as Mr. and Mrs. H.
I am perfectly well, my little heart, and my friends in
Savannah and Charleston flatter me with the assurance
that I am grown younger in appearance-that I am won-,
derfully improved, and ascribe the change to the American
climate (the worst climate under the sun for the renovating process).  But I know better, and commend Cuba,
and the good homes both here and there, before every
thing else. Blessings be upon them! But I have nevertheless become old in exterior, that I see and feel, and
must prepare you for.  The exertion of traveling, and the
climate of the West, have left visible traces on me. I
might tell you of something, however, which is renewed
in me, but I dare not now.
LETTER XXXIX.
Richmond, June 16th.
GOOD- MORNING, my  beloved child, on this beautiful
morning in the chief city of Virginia. I have just returned from a ramble in the park round the capital, from
which I have seen the beautiful River St. James, in the
Indian tongue Powkaton, with its foaming fall, and its
calm water, bright as silver, winding on their way through
verdant plains, and hills far, far away into the country.
A glorious view from this magnificent capital. I wished
that the intellectual and moral view from the States'
-- 504 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
seat of government corresponded with it.  But-Virginia
is a slave state, and its views open, and its river of life
flows, as in all other slave states, for one half of its popu  lation only. We are reminded of this the moment we
reach the gate of the park of the capital, for on the pillars
of the gate is placed the announcement in large letters,
declaring that any slave who ventures within these gates
shall be liable to a punishment of thirty-nine lashes!
One can not enjoy or admire any thing in the slave states
without having one's pleasure disturbed by these lashes!
But in a material respect, how well watered is North
America! Throughout all its states flow these beautiful
navigable rivers, which, like great arteries, receive into
themselves innumerable lesser streams and brooks, and
convey to all places the life and the fruits of civilization!
I can not contemplate these beautiful rivers without the
hope that they will prepare the way for the noblest of all.
I parted from my kind Mrs. W. H., who had become
as dear to me as a sister, and from her family, with a
pang which I endeavored to stifle, because parting is in evitable.
It was in the afternoon of the 12th of June that I left
Charleston and South Carolina, where I had enjoyed so
much kindness. The sea was rough, and the vessel so
crowded with passengers that I regretted in silence that
my wish to be with Mrs. H. had caused me to select this
vessel, and not rather to have delayed my journey a couple
of days longer. I feared now to incommode others, and
to be incommoded myself. But Mrs. H. became my comfort and my help. As she was acquainted with the negro
woman who waited in the ladies' saloon, she induced the
old woman to make us up two beds on the soft sofas
near the window, because all the cabins in the vessel
were occupied, and by this means we escaped the heat of
the cabins, and enjoyed during the night fresh air from
the saloon window. 
VOL, II.-Y
605 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
As night approached, the sea became rougher, and the
clouds assumed a more stormy aspect; the air was op
pressively hot, the passage was one of danger, and the
vessel had not the best reputation.
But I consoled myself with thinking, "when the moon
rises!" for I have an inborn faith in the moon as my
friend. She attracted my glance to her when I was but
a child, and before I could say any other word, before I
could say father or mother, I said "M [ooii!"  My first
verses were dedicated to the Moon. They were poor
enough; but the celestial presence which I saluted as the
consoler of the fortunate and the unfortunate, has been,
in her turn, equally propitious to me, and never yet, during my sea voyages, has she failed with her rising to dissipate the clouds, and to calm the restless winds and
waves. I have always, therefore, endeavored to arrange
my voyages that they should be during moonlight nights,
and I had accordingly so arranged my present voyage, for
the pleasure of which I had to thank both Mrs. H. and the
moon.  Neithe-r of them deceived me.
Mrs. H. was somewhat sea-sick, but was still, amid the
throng of the steam-boat, the same amiable, perfect lady
as in the drawing-room and the myrtle-groves of Belmont; and the moon was, as soon as she arose on the sea,
the same amiable planet as she had formerly shown herself to me.  The clouds, it is true, did not vanish, but
they stood, as it were, still, or withdrew in picturesque
groups.  The waves, it is true, still heaved, but not tempestuously; it lightened incessantly and splendidly amid
the clouds, but there was no thunder. It was as if the
severe countenance of the moon had stayed the tumult
of the elements. I gazed at the moon, and enjoyed that
grand, excited, but not stormy life in the heavens and on
the sea amid the shadows of night.
The following day we went on shore, and proceeded by
rail-road through North Carolina, which seemed to be one
6,06 
HOMES OF THE NEW' WORLD.
continued stretch of pine wood, with some open spaces
for the cultivation of cotton and maize, a flat, uniform,
and poor country, except as regards the sap of the pine
forests, whence the state derives its popular name, "Old
Tar and Turpentine." The northwestern portions of the
state are hilly, and are possessed of much natural beauty.
Mrs. H. told me that "Old Tar and Turpentine" was not
renowned for any thing excepting for its politeness and
simple manners. When other states in the Union refused
to pay the debt to England which they had agreed to pay
together (some loan affair, which was unsuccessful), "Old
Tar and Turpentine" set them an example of punctuality
and integrity, and paid its quota of the debt without any
ado. North Carolina has been, although a slave state,
one of the principal abodes of the Quaker sect in Amer ica, and has always been celebrated for its patriarchal life
and manners.
Two places at which we stopped by the way were in
the pine forest, and this was, as is usual in the Southern
States, rich in many varieties of trees. I counted above
fourteen in one of the forest woods.
Mrs. H. was to me on this journey, as she always is, a
fountain of refreshment and delight. I have never met
with any one, either man or woman, who possessed in so
high a degree the power of calling others out in conversation. We accompany each other like two birds flying
up and down, between heaven and earth, from star to
star, from land to land, from tree to tree, from flower to
flower. I learn much from her. She spends with her
husband, the esteemed naturalist, Holbrook, her sister,
Miss L., and her handsome old mother, a beautiful life,
rich in domestic affection.
Toward the evening of this day we reached the little
village of Weldon, on the boundaries between North Carolina and Virginia, and where the wild, foaming River
Roanoke rolls along its waves, dividing the two states.
601 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I went down to the falls in the evening twilight, and
saw them foaming and rushing along. The fire-flies
danced glimmering under the gloomy arch of the trees.
Nature was here romantic, wild, and beautiful, and the
whole district was as desolate and silent as if no human
beings were to be found there.
We passed a comfortable night at the hotel, and although I was suffering from headache, yet, to my joy, I
was well enough to proceed on my journey the next day
by a slow accommodation rail-way train, which conveyed
us very easily and excellently through the fields of Virginia to Richmond, the capital of the state, and which
contains thirty thousand inhabitants, half of whom are
blacks. Its situation is romantic, among hills and valleys, on the banks of the River St. James. And there am
I now. I was obliged to take leave of my traveling companions last evening, as they continued their journey early this morning to Saratoga, whither they are going for
the benefit of the water and the baths. Later in the summer I also intend to go thither myself, not to drink the
medicinal waters, but to witness that scene of American
social life which I am informed presents there its worst
side —fashionable immorality and want of principle in
their gala dress.
Later. Usch! such a sermon! Just the sermon, if such
were the only means of divine knowledge, to make people either atheists or numskulls. It made me impatient
and angry.  The young preacher emptied with great selfcomplacency the vials of wrath, full of threatenings and
penal judgments, into the contents of his Calvinistic sermon of wrath against the sinners who —-were nowhere in
the church, if I could judge fromi appearance. The church
was thinly attended, and many people slept.  A couple of
very well fed and well dressed elderly gentlemen, who sat
on a bench before me, took out their watches every now
and then to see how the time went on, if it were near
508 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dinner-time, I presume; they were apparently not thinking about the last judgment, although the young preacher was thundering about it, and its advance upon a godless generation. True it is that the young preacher of
condemnation dealt so much with abstract ideas and barren phraseology, that none of his descriptions of sin seemed to touch the heads of the people who sat on the benches. But I have heard other preachers besides this one
who preach to an audience which evidently is not within
the church.
I shall remain here for two days, and then pay a visit
to our countryman, Professor Sheele de Vere, in Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, after which I shall return hither for a time.
June 1S8th. I have, both yesterday and to-day, received
a great number of visits, and ditto invitations. Among
the latter was one to a country-home near the city, which
I immediately accepted on my return from Charlottesville,
so greatly was I pleased with the persons who gave it, a
Mrs. Van L., a widow and her daughter; intellect, kindness, and refinement of feeling were evident in their gentle countenances. The daughter, a pleasing, pale blonde,
expressed so much compassion for the sufferings of the
slave, that I was immediately attracted to her.
She drove me out yesterday to see the lovely environs
of Richmond; the large, park-like church-yard, with its
hills and dales, was among these. The whole country
around Richmond is undulating, and every where is the
River St. James a remarkable and refreshing feature in
this landscape, through which it flows in manifold sinuosities. Although it is so near midsummer, it is cold, and I
was really starved in the open carriage, and the air felt
keen and ungenial.
We next drove to a large tobacco manufactory, as I wish
to see one of the works in which this staple of Virginia
was prepared.  Here I heard the slaves, about a hundred
509 
in number, singing at their work in large rooms; they
sung quartettes, choruses, and anthems, and that so purely,
and in such perfect harmony, and with such exquisite feeling, that it was difficult to believe them self-taught. But
so they were. God has given these poor creatures the
gift of song for their consolation in the time of their probation.  And their life in the tobacco manufactory is no
life of Canaan. One part of their work, the rolling of the
tobacco-leaf, in which they were at this moment employ.
ed, appears easy enough; but the packing of it in solid
masses by means of screw machinery, which is turned by
the hand and the chest, is so laborious that it not unfrequently produces diseases of the lungs, and costs the laborer his health and life. I suppose they become accustomed to the smell and the dirt which always prevails in
a tobacco manufactory, and which to me seems murderous, as they are employed in it from their very childhood.
As the work in the mnanufactory ceases, and the workpeople are released for the rest of the day after six o'clock
in the evening, and as that hour now approached, the
beautiful song of the slaves, " Halleluiah, Amen!" did not
sound like a burlesque; neither, however, did it sound
cheerful, nor yet did the singers look cheerful. Good Miss
Van L. could not refrain from weeping. The slaves were
all Baptists, and sung only hymns. The gay, sunny negro songs are only heard here in the slave-selling houses,
or the so-called negro jails. If these slaves had only any
future, any thing to hope for, to strive for, to live for, any
prospect before them, then I should not deplore their lotbut nothing, nothing!!! The extreme few who are released by the work of colonization can not be taken into
consideration in comparison with the mass who have no
hope at all!
I received, on leaving the manufactory, as a present from
the proprietor (a stout, good kind of gentleman), guess
what?-a large cake of chewing tobacco!  The present
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was so characteristic both of the fabric and of Virginia,
that I accepted it with great pleasure; and besides, it is
of a very fine quality. I kept it, however, as far from my
nose as possible on my drive horne, but I know, nevertheless, mouths in Sweden.that would set a high value on it.
In the evening I was invited to a large party, at which
a thousand people, the elite of the society of Richmond,
were to be present.
"He is the severest slave-owner in the whole neighborhood.  One can tell his slaves when one meets them on
the high road from their half-famished appearance!"
"Yes, he is a bad man, but he is very rich."
It was thus that I'heard two people of my acquaintance, themselves slave-owners, talking to each other last
evening.
"Who is so bad and so rich at the same time?" inquired I.
"That very gentleman, Mr., to whose house you
are invited to-morrow evening to the large party," was the
reply.
I inquired still further from other persons, and found
that these facts were universally acknowledged.
"And yet his house is frequented by the best society
of the city," said I, astonished; "and yet you maintain
that public opinion protects the slave and punishes the
bad master."
"But then Mr.'s wife and daughters are so good
and so amiable," argued they, "it is for their sake that
people associate with Mr.."
But I suspect, in reality, that Mr. -'s wealth has as
much to do with their overlooking his offense as the goodness of his wife and daughter.
I returned my thanks for the invitation, but declined it.
In order for this much-praised public opinion to make
a decided demonstration against the rich slave-owner, it
is necessary that something very horrible  and flagrant
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should be committed by him which can not be concealed.
An instance of his kind has lately occurred in Virginia.
A rich planter, not far from here, killed one of his houseslaves, one of his most confidential servants, by the most
barbarous treatment, and that merely on suspicion. The
fact was so horrible that it aroused the public indignation,
and the murderer was brought before the court of justice,
I have heard slave - owners say, "If justice had been
done, that man would have been hanged!"  But he was
rich; and on the sacrifice of a considerable amount of his
property to the learned in the law, both the affair and the
law were turned arid twisted, and the sentence which has
just been pronounced adjudges to the murderer five years'
imprisonment in the House of Correction. Many rightminded people have declared it to be shameful, but the
conscience of the slave state is enslaved.
An old free negro woman has just been sentenced to
the same punishment because she endeavored to assist a
young female slave to escape to the free states. The governor rejected the petition, which prayed for mercy in her
case, on the plea "of the state of feeling between the free
and the slave states at the present time."
Mammon and the fear of man!
I have to-day been present at a sitting of the great Convention in the Capitol, which has met there for the reconstruction, or rather extension, of the State Constitution.
I had on this occasion the pleasure of seeing mnany wellformed heads and foreheads, and manly, vigorous forms
among the one hundred and thirty legislators here assembled, and shook the friendly hands of divers of them.
But a bill regarding general education was ordered to be
laid on the table for some future time, without exciting
much attention.  The assembly occupied itself principally with the questions regarding an increase of judges in
the country in accordance with the increased population.
The purport of this Convention was similar to that in
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Ohio, and was designed to place greaterqower than for merly in the hands of the people, by giving them a partic ipation in the election of judges and other state officials,
which formerly lay more immediately in the hands of the
legislative power of the state. It delighted me to see
America progress in its democratic tendencies, faithful to
its fundamental principles; for if the new steps which are
now taken in this direction do not produce an immediate
advantage, still they have done much for the great pop ular education of a conscious public existence which is
hereby asserted.
In the large rotunda-like entrance to the Capitol stands
a statue of Washington, executed by the French sculptor
Houdon. I do not know when I have seen a nobler work
of art, or one which more perfectly represented the ideal
human being in the every-day reality. It is Washington,
the President, with the large chin, the somewhat stiff figure, in the old -fashioned costume; and yet it is, at the
same time, the type of the man of the, New World, with
that noble, self-conscious, well-balanced mind which the
Americans talk about as the highest excellence, in harmony with itself, certain of its own course and its own
object, resolute in persevering to the end, asking advice
from no one but the Divine Counselor. He has bound
his sword to the column, and now stands by the plow,
resting calmly with himself, without pride, but without
hesitation or doubt; the grand, intellectual glance looking out into the future! In truth it is a glorious figure,
a glorious statue, to which I shall gladly return when I
return hither.
But I now leave the city for Charlottesville.
Charlottesville, June 20th.
I am at the beautiful home of Professor Sheele de V.
,The professor, eince he was last in Sweden, has married
the most charming wife, both pretty and good, and both
he and she received me in the kindest manner.
Y2
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I find myseo here in a lovely mountain district, and
within sight ofwhat is called "The Blue Ridge," which
is the boundary of the great Virginian Valley, which lies
between this range of hill and the so-called "North Mountain Ridge," both portions of the Alleghany range. Around
the University, which was built by the late President Jefferson, in a magnificent and regular style, lies a region of
alternate hills and valleys, like a green carpet, bordered
with lovely country houses and small farms, a beautiful,
fertile landscape, in which nothing is wanting but water.
Foremost among these elegant villas stands, upon a lofty
hill, Jefferson's summer- delight, "Monticello," with its
splendid trees, and an extensive view over the country,
and the University, whose founder he was. I visited this
place yesterday with my new friends. The house, now unoccupied, is very much neglected, and is evidently falling
to decay. The internal decoration indicated a man who
was not very much attached to republican simplicity in his
own person.  One saloon with an inlaid floor was a magnificent room. But I seemed to miss on all sides the appearance of comfort, the appearance of a light and pleasant home.
Jefferson was the friend of Thomas Paine, and, like him,
was an Atheist, and his habits testified of a man of lax
morality. His portraits and bust present the physiognomy
of a man of an energetic but disquiet life; they express a
combative character, obstinate, and extremely irritable if
opposed; for the rest, active, cheerful, and communicative.
The forehead is broad rather than lofty. There is none
of Washington's calmness and nobility. Jefferson loved
his country, and guided its efforts for freedom to its outbreak in that grand act, the Declaration of Independence,
which was the product of the spirit of the time and the
people rather than of his brain and pen.
From Monticello I saw the sun descend in beauty as
it released itself from obscuring clouds& —-a sunset more
like Washington's than Jefferson's evening of life. 
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Wandering in the park, I noticed that extremely delicious odor which filled the air, and which rhave often perceived in America. I was told that it proceeded from the
blossom of the wild vine, which grows luxuriantly here,
as it does throughout the whole of the North American
States.  Nowhere so much as here does the prophecy seem
to be fulfilled, of every man sitting under his own vine or
fig-tree, and no one making him afraid.
Later in the evening I saw a considerable number of
the teachers of the University and their wives, among
whom were some very agreeable. The president, Mr.
Harrison, with his beautiful meditative eyes, and a quiet,
excellent manner, pleased me particularly.  This University is celebrated for the solidity of the learning which it
communicates, and the severity of its requirements as regards its students. Young men, therefore, who have ob,tained diplomas at the University, may be sure of situations and official appointments when they leave it. There
is here a separate establishment, which affords indigent
youths of good character, and who have the desire to learn,
the opportunity of maintaining themselves at the academy
free of cost.
When Jefferson founded the academy, he excluded from
it any ecclesiasticalestablishment or clergy.  Neither one
nor the other found a place in his seat of learning. But
so clear among this people is the conviction that social
life requires religious life, and that the religious teacher
must have his place in the,community, that, soon after
Jefferson's death, a room in one of the buildings of the
University was fitted up for a place of worship, and the
heads of the University agreed in summoning thither
ministers of various religious persuasions, who should alternately perform divine service and give religious instruction, by which means the principal sects of the United
States, Episcopalian, Calvinist, Methodist, and many
others, might here be represented, so that none should
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have cause to complain of illiberal exclusion, and that the
young students might have an opportunity of hearing all
doctrines preached. The official period for each minister
who is thus called to the academy is fixed to two years.
The minister who is now the University preacher belongs
to the Episcopalian Church. This excellent arrangement
is so acceptable to the youthful students, that, although
their participation in divine service, as well as the fees to
the spiritual teacher, are left entirely to their own choice,
yet they very rarely neglect the former-never morning
and evening prayer-neither do they disregard the latter.
The room which is devoted to these religious services is
in the highest degree unostentatious, and is low, as if it
were afraid of raising itself too much, lest it should be
observed by the spirit from Monticello: it seems afraid of
something.
I intend remaining at Charlottesville over the approaching examination and distribution of prizes, that I may see
something more of the young sons of Virginia and the
flower of its beauty, which is expected to be here on this
occasion. I shall, in the mean time, make an excursion
across the Blue Mountains into Virginia Valley, and then
visit a celebrated grotto called Wyer's Cave, after its discoverer.  Perhaps I may  extend my flight still further
west into the hilly regions of Virginia, to see the natural
bridge, and various other natural curiosities, which are
very celebrated. My kind host and countryman, Professor De V., is a good friend and adviser. I set off from here
in the afternoon by the diligence, under the escort of a
fine old gentleman, both learned and good.
Charlottesville, June 26th.
I am just returned from my ramble across the Blue
Mountains, but not in the diligence. I found that to be
so thronged and so hot, that I merely got in to hurry out
again; let it drive on, and then, with the help of my kind
host, hired a private carriage with two horses, and a negro
'516 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
as driver; and now, my little heart, you must see me
sitting there all alone, free and light as the bird on the
bough, and very happy thus, in solitude and unimpeded,
to travel through the grand, romantic scenery. And my
negro Davis is the best, most cheerful negro in the world,
drives well, knows every place we pass, is careful of his
horses, and is careful of me. We did not this day get
any further than the foot of the Blue Ridge, where we
took up our quarters for the night.
The next morning, the 24th, I set out at sunrise to asscend the Blue Mountains, going the greater part of the
way on foot, that I might the better witness that glorious
spectacle of the sunrise over the stretches of valley of East
and West Virginia on each side of the Blue Mountain
Ridge. It was a beautiful, bright, but cold morning in
the fresh mountain air   The road was good, and rich
masses of beantiful wood bounded its ascent up the mountain.  My good negro followed me on foot, pointing out to
me Albemarle and Nelson counties, and enjoying with
unmistakable pleasure the grand, beautiful views, in
which water merely was wanting.
Arrived at the summit of the Blue Ridge, I beheld rising before me another similar lofty blue mountain ridge,
in a parallel direction to this-this was North Mountain
Ridge. Between these two mountain ridges stretches itself Virginia Valley, east and west, a vast, fertile landscape, adorned with small, well-built farm-houses, cultivated fields, and pasture-land; a quiet, blooming country,
from the excellent homes of which one would think that
the Lord's Prayer must naturally arise, because all is pastoral, lovely, and peaceful; no proud mansions, no poor
cottages; the lot of all seems to be alike good, and the
house of God alone stands forth pre-eminently in the assembly.
We drove down into the valley, and I reached at noon
the celebrated grotto, which is situated in a mQuntain on
I
517 
FHIOHES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the banks of the lively River Shenandoah.  Near- to it is
a hotel for strangers, whom the landlord, a stout, jolly man,
conducts to the grotto. I was the only visitor there, and
thus had the grotto all to myself. The landlord and Davis
attended me with torches, and kindled fires here and there
in the grotto.
The grotto is entered by a very small door on the mount ain side, and some of its passages are narrow and difficult
enough to creep through, but for this the stranger is re warded by the sight of magnificent rocky halls and aston ishing figures. It required about two hours to pass through
the most remarkable portions of the grotto. The stalactite figures were similar to those which I had seen in the
grottoes of Cuba, but certain forms occurred here more
frequently.  Among these were, in particular, fluted col
umns, organ-pipes, towers, cascades, as of frozen, foaming
water; shields were reared against walls, which were hung
with spears; immense depending draperies, often in the
most soft and plastic folds, upon which, if one struck with
a stick, a loud, clanging tone was returned, which resounded through the subterranean vaults.  There were alcoves,
in which were standing solitary figures resembling human
masks; and between these figures, along the rock-walls,
a confusion of fantastic forms of animals, flowers, wings,
which seemed ready to fly away with the walls; cities,
which stood forth in bold relief, with streets, and squares,
and towers, and every thing which an active imagination
could conceive. There is one crypt, in which the whole
natural world is represented in stone masks-the dark
dream of a mountain king about the life of the world of
light, -for even sun and moon are there represented by large
round white dials shining forth from the deep, dusky
vault.  There are large halls, in the centre of which
stand two or three solitary stone images, always in the
semblance of man.   Here are warriors about to draw the
sword, there a philosopher deep in meditation, or a,woman
.51 8 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with a child wrapped in the folds of her robe; throughout
the whole it is a mysterious world, where life seems petrified in the midst of its presentment. A clear little fountain, the musical dropping of whose water is heard at a
considerable distance, furnishes a cool draught. But it
was so very cool in that subterranean world, and I felt so
ill there, both body and soul, that I was glad to leave it,
and inhale God's warm air and sunshine.
It was an unimaginably beautiful evening, and the
whole region was like the most lovely pastoral poem.   I
enjoyed it as I rambled alone beside the lively little, roaring, dancing River Shenandoah, and up among the fragrant fields, where the hay lay out in swathes, and where
they were just beginning to aut the corn. The golden ears
fell before large scythes, furnished with a sort of upper
story of wooden spikes, which threw the corn aside in
sheaves. It looked heavy work, but it succeeded perfectly. Men only, and no women, were at work in the fields.
The men perform, in this country, all the out-of-doors labor, even to milking the cows. The women stayat homethe white women, I mean, for the black are not considered to belong to the weaker sex.
When I returned to my quarters for the night, I-found
a handsome old man sitting near the house, on the grass
under the tree, reading in a thick book. Somewhat later I
fell into discourse with him, and borrowed the book from
him. It was a book published by the sect of United
Brethren, and was a statement of their doctrines, accompanied by copper-plate engravings.  Their peculiar doctrines seemed to me to consist in a more literal adherence
to the usages of the early Christians than is now generally the case.  Thus the sect practice feet-washing as a
religious ceremony, give the salutation of the kiss when
they meet, and adhere to many other ancient customs.
This sect, called also "Dunkers," that is to say, baptizers or dippers, and which is very numerous in this pat
-51-9 
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of the Virginia Valley, is said to have come hither origin
ally from Holland, and to be distinguished by its religious
narrowness and stagnation, but otherwise by great unanimity and brotherly love among themselves, as well as by
great industry.
It is said that two years ago a deliberative council of the
Dunikers was held at Wyer's Grotto, at which two hundred long-bearded and long-haired men were present, to
consult upon the most important affairs of the sect. One
of the principal questions which was brought forward
was, as to how far it was sinful or not to place lightningconductors against their houses.  The resolution to which
the assembly came, after an examination of the question,
which continued for two days, was, "that the brethren
who had already set up lightning-conductors against their
houses should not be recommended to remove them, but
that the brethren who had not yet set them up should be
strongly recommended to do without them, and to trust
in the Lord alone for the preservation of their houses."
In consequence of this stagnating principle, the Dunkers
allow their beards and their hair to grow in the most undisturbed repose, and by the same rule, they should not
either cut their nails, if they would be perfectly consistent; but they admit of an exception when they find it
for the best. They baptize each other in the river by immersing the whole body under water, whence probably
their name, and they have meeting-houses, and meet together like the Quakers, with alternate preaching and
silence, with occasional feet - washing.   They practice
agriculture, are generally in good circumstances, and,
while they are friendly and.communicative among themselves, are somewhat haughty and cold toward those whom
they call the children of the world.
While the Dunkers stagnate in this manner in the Virginia: Valley, rooted to the earth and the very letter of
religion, a large colony is at this moment establishing
520 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
itself in the most westerly portion of Virginia, under the
name of Egalitaires, and which, headed by French Com munists, have purchased large tracts of land for the estab lishment of a community, the tendency of which is con siderably unlike that of the Dunkers.  Fortunate country
-where every thing can have a fair trial, and every bias
of the human mind have its sphere and its place of action,
to the benefit of the many-sided developments of the human spirit, without being detrimental to any!
During my journey from Wyer's Grotto the next morning, I visited a farm which belonged to a Dunker family.
It was situated near the high road, and seemed to me the
ideal of a little peasant farm, so neat and comfortable, so
well built, so well kept, with its garden and fruit trees.
The long-haired husband was out at work in the fields,
but the wife, a stout old woman in a costume very like
that of a Quakeress, was at home, and looked at me askance with suspicious glances. She had a strong Dutch
accent, and could not be drawn into conversation; and
when I had had the draught of water for which I asked,
and had looked about me both within and without the
house, I pursued my journey on that beautiful morning,
between the mountain ridges to the right and to the left,
to the little city of Staunton. Here I dined en famille
with a very agreeable lawyer, Mr. B., whose conversation
interested me much.
There are in Staunton some beautiful public institutions, among which is a large lunatic asylum, established on the same principles as those at Bloomingdale and
in Philadelphia, and which produces the same results as
regards the treatment of the insane.  Cure is the rule
when the invalid is brought hither at the commencement
of his malady-incurable cases are the exception.
I was very kindly invited to remain at Staunton, but I
wished to continue my return, and at sunset I found myself once more on the summit of the Blue Mountains,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
quiet valleys lying east and west at my feet, with their
quiet little farms in the midst of the golden corn-fieldsa peaceful region to all appearance, but in which the strife
about mine and thine is not the less hotly carried on at
times, even to the separation of families.
As twilight came on, we stopped at a very pretty and
excellent place at the foot of the mountain, where every
thing was good, and the air so fresh that I was tempted
to remain. But Davis and his horses were expensive luxuries, and therefore I drove to Charlottesville, to which
place I had a pleasant journey through the quiet, fertile
country.
I shall now remain quietly here till after the Universit
examination, when I shall return to Richmond; and after
two days' stay there, -pay a visit to Harper's Ferry, one
of the  most  romantic  and beautiful tracts, it is said,
in Virginia, at the union of the two rivers Potomac and
Shenandoah-that lively little river which dances past
Wyer's Grotto.
I intend to be ready to leave America by the end of
August, and I must, therefore, give up the desire which I
had to see more of the mountain districts of Virginia.
Besides, the journey by diligence is too fatiguing for me,
and by carriage too- expensive. And, after all, Virginia
has no mountains which can be compared in grandeur to
the White Mountains, and those I shall visit.
While I linger in this beautiful and peaceful home-in
which a good young couple make each other happy, and
participate in the enjoyment of life's pleasures with a circle of friends- I read the early history of Virginia, and
picture it to myself.
The earliest known history of Virginia is rendered remarkable by a poetical incident so beautiful and so affecting that I must transcribe it here for you, and copy for
you also the portrait of its heroine, the young Indian girl
Matoaka or Pocahontas.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The accounts which the early English navigators
brought home of the beautiful and fertile country lying
on the eastern shores of North America, which they were
the first to examine during the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
so enchanted that monarch, that she resolved to connect
this new country more closely with herself, by giving to
it the name which she herself loved to bear, that of Virginia. Virginia became the symbolic name of the new
virgin-soil; and England first knew it under this name.
Even the pilgrims from Leyden, who were borne by stress
of wind and waves to the shore of Massachusetts, thought
to sail "to the northern parts of Virginia, where they
would found their colony."
Before this, English adventurers in the southern parts
of Virginia had penetrated inland, seeking for gold. But
the greater part of these had perished miserably, in consequence of their own excesses, and the diseases incident
to the climate.  One man, however, John Smith —an ambitious and bold adventurer, but equally prudent as courageous-succeeded by his personal influence in giving
some stability to a small colony, which was planted by
the James River, and where he founded a city called
Jamestown.
Where Richmond now stands, and a little above the
falls of the river, a powerful Indian Chief called Powhatan, styled also the emperor of the country, had his residence, and was obeyed by many smaller Indian tribes
who were scattered over the surrounding country and cultivated the land.  Smith advanced up the river, and endeavored to penetrate into the interior; but here, unfortunately, his men, disobeying his orders, were surprised
by the Indians, put to death, and he himself taken prisoner. He had been a prisoner before; had been sold as
a slave in Turkey, and, amid manifold adventures, which
his restless spirit had impelled him to seek in Europe,
Asia, and Africa, he hiad become well acquainted  W:;t
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HOMES OF THE iEW WORLD.
dangers, and prepared for whatever might occur. Standing captive amid the Indians, whose hatred and cruel.
ty he very well knew, he remained perfectly calm, and
riveted the attention and interest of the Indians by showing them a compass, and exhibiting to them various proofs
of his knowledge and his skill. This excited astonishment and admiration. He was conveyed from one tribe
to another, like some wonderful animal or conjurer, and
finally to the Emperor Powhatan, who was to decide
upon his fate. While Powhatan and his chiefs were holding councils respecting the stranger, and to decide upon
his fate, he employed himself in making battle-axes for
the emperor, and necklaces of beads for his little daughter, the Princess Pocahontas, a girl of ten or twelve years
old, who in appearance and expression greatly excelled
all the Indian maidens, and who was called nonpareille
among her people, from her intellect and her wit. The
emperor and his chiefs condemned Smith to death. He
was doomed to be sacrificed to the gods of the nation, and
his head to be crushed by the blows of the tomahawk.
The Indians prepared themselves for a solemn festival.
Fires were kindled before the images of their gods; Powhatan sat on his elevated seat; around him stood his warriors. Smith was brought forth and placed upon the
ground, his head was laid upon a stone, and the tomahawks were lifted. But at once the little daughter of
the emperor, Pocahontas, sprang forward, threw her arms
around the captive's neck, and laid her head upon his.
The tomahawks must fall upon her head before they reached his. Vain were threats, prayers, reasonings; the child
remained resolute in still enfolding the victim in her protecting arms. This conduct at length moved the hearts
of Powhatan and his savage warriors. Smith was pardoned for the sake of the little princess, and instead of
his being treated as an enemy, the chief gave him their
word of amity, and let him go to his own people.
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lOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The understanding, however, between the English and
Indians continued to be one of mistrust and hostility; the
Indians were continually on the look-out for opportunities
to attack their enemies. Pocahontas proved, however,-to
be the good angel of the English; and on one occasion,
when they were in great want, she brought them corn
and provisions; on another, she came to their camp, alone,
through the forest, in the dead of the night, pale, and
with her hair flying in the wind, to warn them of an approaching attack.
The beauty and amiability of Pocahontas tempted, a
few years later, an old, unprincipled adventurer, with the
help of a set of lawless fellows like himself, to steal her
from her father. But a noble, devout young Englishman,
by name John Rolfe, an amiable enthusiast, became her
protector. Daily, hourly, nay, in his very sleep, amid the
forests of Virginia, had he heard a voice which seemed to
bid him convert the Indian maiden to Christianity, and
then marry her. And when the Holy Spirit asked him
reproachfully (such are his own expressions) why he lived,
the answer was given, "To lead the blind into the right
way." He struggled for long against his inclination for
the young pagan princess as against a dangerous temptation, but finally yielded to the admonishing voice. He
won her confidence, and became her teacher, and she before long publicly received Christian baptism in the little church at Jamestown, the roof of which was supported by rough pine-tree stems from her father's forests, and
where the font was a hollowed fir-tree.   Here also, a
short time afterward, was she married to Rolfe, stammering before the altar her marriage vows according to the
rites of the English Church. All this, it is said, was done
with the consent of the father and relatives, her uncle, the
chief Opachisco himself, conducting her to the altar.
The marriage was universally approved, even by the
English, and in the year 1616 Rolfe sailed to England
625 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with his Indian wife, who, under the name of Lady Rebecca, was-presented at court, and was universally admired for her beauty and childlike naivete.   She was
most admirable both as a wife and a young mother. But
the young couple did not long enjoy their happiness; just
as she was about preparing to return to America, she fell
a victim to the English climate, at the age of twenty-two.
She left one son, who became the ancestral head of many
generations, who are to this day proud of tracing their descent from the Indian Pocahontas; and I do not wonder
at it. Her memory remains in singular beauty and pure
splendor. The race who produced such a daughter deserved a better treatment from the people whom she protected than it received.
The portrait of Pocahontas, which I have copied, represents her in the costume which was worn by the higher
class of English in the time of Elizabeth; but the stiff
Indian plaits of hair which hang down her cheeks from
beneath her hat betray her descent. The countenance
has an affecting expression of childlike goodness and innocence; the eyes have a melancholy charm, and the form
of the countenance reminds me of the Feather-cloud woman in Mlinnesota.  The portrait was taken in 1616, when
she was twenty-one years old, and bears the inscription,
Matoaka als. Rebecca Filia potentiss. Princ. Powhatan
Imp. Virginie.
Smith's portrait, which I have also drawn, shows a resolute, but not handsome, and very bearded warrior.  His
history, also in Virginia, is a chain of contentions, of bold
actions and mnisfortunes, by which he was finally subdued,
without having left, of all his unquiet, combative life, any
more beautiful memory than that which belongs to him
from the childlike tenderness and attachment of the Indian girl. That which the strong arm of this ambitious
man was not able to obtain, was obtained for him by two
tender, — childish arms which were wound round his neck.
526 
HiOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
My forenoons, as usual, I keep for myself, my afternoons
are devoted to company, walking, &e. I have visited a
few of the small farms in the neighborhood, which are
cultivated by free negroes, and have found them to be as
neat and comfortable as those which belong to the white
farmer.  I have also been w-ith my charming hostess to
see her parents, a planter's family not far from  here-a
family of good slaveholders, not rich enough to emanci.
pate their slaves, but too good not to take care of and to
make them happy. They belong to a considerable class
in these middle slave states, who would willingly see slav.
ery abolished, and have white laborers in the place of
black to cultivate their maize and tobacco fields.
I like, in the twilight, to sit on the piazza under the
beautiful trees with my amiable hostess, and decoy her on
to tell me about her life in her father's house, of her first
acquaintance with her husband, their courtship, and all
that appertained thereto; of her happiness as a daughter,
as a wife-a little romance as pure, as pleasant as the air
and the perfume of flowers around us in these tranquil
evening hours, while the fire-flies dance in the dark shadow of the trees. Her love for her father was her first love;
that for her good husband was her second; and the third,
for the child which she expects, is now awaking, yet with
fear and trembling, in her young heart.
In the evenings I see company, either at-home or at the
houses of some of the professors. These good gentlemen
have now a deal to do regarding the examination, and the
preparation of testimonials and diplomas.
Two of the young students are to deliver farewell addresses before they leave the academy, where they have
now finished their studies with honor, and I am invited
to hear them.
28th. I heard one of them yesterday evening, and if the_
second, which I shall hear this evening is of the same
character, as I expect it will be, I shall not have much
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pleasure in it. It is amazing what an enslaving power
the institution of slavery exercises over the minds of the
young, and over intelligence in general; and the young
speaker of yesterday evening belonged to this enslaved
class.  He was a young man of refined features, and a
certain aristocratic expression of countenance, but without
any peculiar nobility.- He is celebrated for having passed
through a splendid examination, and for possessing great
talents as a speaker
And his speech really flowed forth with a rushing rapidity; but such a shooting across the United States, such
an ostentatious boast of the South, of the "Sons of the
South, the flower and hope of the Union-nay, it was incomparable! One thing only impeded the grandeur and
the growth of the United States, and its wonderful, mighty
future, and this was-Abolitionism! It was this scorpion,
this hydra in the social life of the United States, which
ought to be crushed (and the speaker stamped vehemently
and angrily on the floor) and annihilated! Then first only
would the North and the South, like two mighty rivers, be
united, and side by side start forth toward the same grand,
honorable goal!"
What this honorable goal may be, I did not hear mentioned; but the students, who were present in great-numbers, must have understood it, for they applauded tempestuously, and every heroic apostrophe to the heroism and
nobility of the Sons of the South was followed by a salvo
of, clapping, which at the close of the speech was doubled
and redoubled, and seemed as if it never would end. Thus
delighted were the Sons of the South with the speaker,
with each other, and with themselves.
I left the hall very much depressed. Shall I not then
find within the slave states a noble, liberal youth, which
is that upon which I most depend for the promise of approaching freedom? Must I again find among the young
men that want of moral integrity, of courage and upright
528 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ness of mind?  I have scarcely any desire to go and hear
the speaker this evening, I am so weary of the old song.
29th. I have had a great and unexpected pleasure: I
have heard "a new song sung," and-but I will tell you
all in due course.
I again took my seat in the crowded, lamp-lighted hall,
and the young man who was to speak sat alone on an el evated platform facing the assembly while the hall filled.
This lasted for a good half hour, and it seemed to me that
the young orator's situation could not be very pleasant, sit ting there all alone, as he did, an object for all eyes; and
I asked myself whether it could be this feeling which cast
a certain shade, or a certain trance-like look, over his eyes.
He was a tall young man, of handsome, strong proportions,
who yet seemed to me not fully grown; the countenance
was pure and good, not regularly handsome, but handsome
nevertheless, with a youthfully fresh complexion, and clear,
strongly-marked features. I endeavored inquisitively to
guess from these the soul of the youth; but this lay, as
it were, under a veil.  The forehead was broad, the hair
dark brown, and abundant.
At length the moment came when he must rise and
speak. He did this with great simplicity, without grace,
but without any awkwardness or confusion, and began his
speech, without the facility of the former speaker, but with
calmness and precision. In the first part of his speech
he took a hasty review of the nations of antiquity, with regard to that which caused their greatness or their fall. He
showed that in all countries where slavery had existed, it
had degraded the people, and finally causedatheir downfall.
When I heard this, I confess that my heart beat high.
"Is it possible," thought I, "that I shall really hear in
this slave state, before this corporation of self.-complacent
advocates of slavery, a youth publicly, and like a man,
raise his voice against slavery-the weak side of the South,
and the nightshade of the New World?"
VOL. II.-Z
529
I 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Yes, I shall! The youth continued boldly, and in the
most logical manner, to apply to America those principles,
the consequences of which he exhibited in the history of
Europe and Asia.  Without reservation, and with great
beauty and decision of expression, he addressed his coun.
trymen thus:  "I accuse you not of any deficiency in
courage, in nobility of mind, in feeling for the good and
the beautiful, in enterprise, in piety. But of this I accuse
you, that you do not give education to the poor of your
country, that you do not labor for the elevation of the lower classes of your countrymen."' And there is good reason
for this accusation, for in Virginia, in consequence of the
restrictive fetters of slavery, which prevent the increase of
schools, there are upward of eighty thousand white people
who can neither read nor write. The population of Virginia, whites and blacks taken together, amounts to about
a million and a half.
The young orator declared the mission of America to be
that of communicating the blessings of liberty and civilization to all nations.   "If America fulfill her duty in this
respect, she will become great and happy; if not, then she
will fall, and the greatness of her fall will be commensurate with the greatness of her mission, and the intended
future in which she has failed."
I can not tell you with what feelings of delight I listened to these large-minded and bold words from the pure soul
of a youth, it was so unlike any thing which I had hitherto heard in the slave states. It was what I had been
longing to hear. My tears flowed, and I did not trouble
myself about them being seen. I was very happy.
But where now was the enthusiasm which on the former evening had animated the Sons of the South. They
listened in silence, as it were, in amazement, and the applause which was given at the close of the speech was
cold, and, as it were, forced.
The glorious youth looked as if applause or blame con
I
530 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
cerned him not. He had spoken from his own conviction;
his youthfully fresh cheek glowed as with the crimson
tinge of morning, and his dark eye and clear brow shone
serenely as a cloudless heaven.
I could not have any conversation with him later in the
evening, because he was summoned to his father, who was
dangerously ill, and he was obliged to leave the place immediately. Nevertheless, I pressed his hand, and spoke
my cordial thanks to him in the presence of his teachers
and his companions.
The good professors were somewhat confounded by the
unexpected character of the young man's speech, but full
of admiration: Good heavens! they had not expected such
a speech. Really an uncommon speech! Above the common average! and so on.
Alexander S. Brown (I write the name at full) was declared to be a fine fellow! a smart young man!  The president even expressed himself very yvarmly in his praise.
But the learned in law and books were nevertheless somewhat afraid of giving-to COesar that which was due to
Cesar, and endeavored to indemnify themselves by certain depreciatory and apologistie concessions.
This was one of my happiest evenings in the Southern
States, and I now looked with more cheerful, more loving
glances upon this beautiful soil since it had produced such
a youth.  How noble and how happy ought not his mother
to be!
Richmond, July 1st.
Again good-morning in the capital of Virginia; but not
now in the city itself, but in one of its rural suburbs, where
I am domiciled in a lovely country-house, beautifully situated upon a lofty terrace on the banks of the James River, surrounded by a park, with its lofty spreading trees.
It is the residence of Mrs, Van S., a beautiful home, and
I am infinitely well off here, in the midst of kind, wellwishing friends.
1531 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I left Professor S. de V. and his charming wife yesterday morning With mutual good wishes, and hope in a
short time to have good tidings from them.
The business at Charlottesville on Saturday consisted
for the most part of speeches and the distribution of diplomas. I could not hear much of the former, and my principal pleasure was the contemplation of the assembly of
ladies, among whom I remarked a great number of very
lovely and happy countenances.   If the Juno style ot
beauty is not met with in America as it is in Europe,
there are, on the contrary, a greater number of cheerful,
lovely countenances, and scarcely any which can be called
ugly. The men are not handsome, but have a manly appearance, and, in a general way, are well made and full
of strength. This, I believe, I have said once or twice
before, but I have not said, what nevertheless should be
said, that among the Americans are not found that decided type of one distinct race as we find it among the English, Irish, French, Spaniards, Germans, &c. An American, male or female, might belong to any nation, in its
beautiful human character, but divested of nationality;
nay, even the Swedish, that is to say, when this is found
in the most perfect faces, because a well-formed, fine nose,
and an oval countenance, is almost universal among the
ladies.  Our full-moon countenances, and noses which
come directly out of them like a handle, or a projecting
point of rock, are not seen here; neither are potato-noses,
like my own. Still, I have seen many a blooming young
girl in the Northern States of America, many a handsome young man, more like Swedes than the English
or the French. Nevertheless, light hair and light eyes
are rare.
JTuly 2d. How wearisome is this interrogative, this empty and thoughtless chatter of mere callers, especially ladies! Want of observation, want of an ear for life, is, after
all, one of the greatest wants here, and the school which,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
before every other, is needed most in the New World, is
the old Pythagorean.
Life, with its large, holy interests, its earnest scenes,
passes by these childish, undeveloped beings without their
either seeing or thinking about it.  Dissipated by the out ward and ordinary, they do not listen to the great still
voice which calls to them every day from the midst of
the life in which they live, like insects of a day.
July 3d. I have to-day, in company with an estimable
German gentleman, resident at Richmond, visited some
of the negro jails, that is, those places of imprisonment in
which negroes are in part punished, and in part confined
for sale. I saw in one of these jails a tall, strong-limbed
negro, sitting silent and gloomy, with his right hand wrap ped in a cloth.  I asked if he were ill. 
"No," replied his loquacious keeper, "but he is a very
bad rascal. His master, who lives higher up the river, has
parted him from his wife and children, to sell him down
South, as he wanted to punish him, and now the scoun drel, to be revenged upon his master, and to make himself
fetch a less sum of money, has cut off the fingers of his
right hand! The rascal asked me to lend him an ax to
knock the nails into his shoes with, and I lent it him without suspecting any bad intention, and now has the fellow.
gone and maimed himself for life!"
I went up to the negro, who certainly had not a good
countenance, and asked him whether he were a Christian.
He replied qurtly "No!"  Whether he ever had heard of
Christ? He again replied " No!" I said to him, that if
he had known him, he would not have done this act; but
that even now he ought not to believe himself abandoned,
because He who has said "Come unto me, all ye that are
weary and heavy laden," had spoken also to him, and
would console and recreate even him.
He listened to me at the commencement with a gloomy
countenance, but by degrees he brightened up, and at the
533 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
close looked quite melted.  This imbittered soul was evi.
dently still open and accessible to goMod. The sun shone
into the prison-yard where he sat with his maimed hand,
and the heavy irons on his feet, but no Christian had come
hither to preach to him the Gospel of Mercy.
The door of the prison was opened to us by a negr9,
whose feet also were fettered by heavy irons. He looked
so good-tempered and agreeable, that I asked, with some
astonishment,
"But this man, what has he done that he should then
be in irons?"
"Ah!" said the keeper, "just nothing but that his master had hired him out to work in the coal-pits, and something disagreeable happening to him there, the fellow after
that would not work there, and refused to go; so his mas.
ter wishes to sell him, to punish him; and he ordered that
we should put him in irons, just to mortify him."
And this plan had succeeded completely. The poor fe4.
low was so annoyed and ashamed that he did not seem to
know which way to look while the keeper related his story;
and besides that, he looked so good-tempered, so full of
sensibility, that, strong fellow as he was, he seemed as if
he would suffer rather from an injustice being done to him
than be excited by it to defiance and revenge, as was the
case with the other negro. He was evidently a good man,
and deserved a better master.
In another prison we saw a pretty little white boy of
about seven years of age sitting among some tall negro
girls.   The child had light hair, the most lovely light
brown eyes, and cheeks as red as roses; he was, nevertheless, the child of a slave mother, and was to be sold as a
slave. His price was three hundred and fifty dollars. The
negro girls seemed very fond of the white boy, and he
was left in their charge, but whether that was for his good
or not is difficult to say. No motherly Christian mother
visited either this innocent imprisoned boy or the negro
534 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
girls.  They were left to a heathenish life and the darkness of the prison.
In another "jail" were kept the so-called " fancy girls,"
for fancy purchasers. They were handsome fair mulattoes, some of them almost white girls.
We saw in one jail the room in which the slaves are
flogged, both men and women. There were iron rings in
the floor to which they are secured when they are laid
down. I looked at the strip of cowhide, "the paddle,"
with which they are flogged, and remarked, " Blows from
this could not, however, do very much harm."'
"Oh, yes, yes; but," replied the keeper, grinning with
a very significant glance, " it can cause as much torture
as any other instrument, and even more, because one can
give as many blows with this strip of hide without its
leaving any outward sign; it does not cut into the flesh."
The slaves may remain many months in this prison before they are sold.
The Southern States are said to be remarkable for their
strict attention to religious observances: they go regularly to church, they send out missionaries to China and to
Africa, but they leave the innocent captive slave in their
own prisons without instruction or consolation.
Yet once more-what might not women, what ought
not women to do in this case!
I have heard young, beautiful girls declare themselves
proud to be Americans, and, above every thing else, proud
to be Virginians! I should like to have taken them to
the jails, and have seen whether, in the face of all this injustice, they could have been proud of being Virginians,
proud of the institutions of Virginia.
July 5th. Here also, as every where on my pilgrimage,
have I become acquainted with good and thoughtful people, who form a perfect counterbalance to the unthinking
and the bad, and who attach me to the place and the community where I am. Foremost among the good stands
635 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the family in which I am now a guest-yes, these are
ladies so tender - hearted, especially toward the negroes,
that I find myself standing upon the moderate and less
liberal side, while I nevertheless inwardly enjoy the sight
of warm hearts who only err through an excess of kindness to an oppressed people. Such a sight is very rare in
a slave state.  Agreeable and clever women, courteous and
thinking men, have afforded me many a pleasant moment,
and warmed my heart by their kindness and hospitality.
Among my gentlemen acquaintance who have contributed to my pleasure, I may mention an elderly clergyman,
belonging, I believe, to the Episcopal Church, who has
given me some interesting information respecting the religious life and songs of the negroes, and a Quaker, Mr.
B., with a handsome, regular countenance, and a quiet,
thoughtful turn of mind. He has told me much that is
interesting regarding his own sect, and its form of internal government, and also that lately some Quaker women
have been cited before a court of justice at New York, to
given evidence in a complicated trial, and the clearness
with which they did it was universally admired and commented upon by the newspapers. Mr. B. attributed this
to the calmness and self-possession which distinguishes
the Quaker women, and to their being early accustomed
to self-government and public discussions in the part
which they have to take in the business of their society.
Yesterday, the 4th of July, the great day of America,
was celebrated, as usual, by speech-making and processions, and drinking of toasts, and publicly reading of the
Declaration of Independence. It was read in the African
church of the city; but why they selected the negro church
of all others for the reading of the declaration of freedom,
which is so diametrically opposed to the institution of
slavery, I can not comprehend, when the burlesque of the
whole thing must be so evident to every one.
I have been, with a kind and agreeable lady, Mrs. G.,
536 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
to visit the House of Correction here. The system which
is pursued here has nothing new in it, and the polite old
colonel who showed us the establishment looked like some
formal relic of Washington's staff. It astonished me not
to find here one single white prisoner. Of men there were
about two hundred. There were some black women here,
and among them that free negro woman who had endeav ored to aid the young slave in making her escape. She had
a very good and frank countenance, but was condemned
to remain here for five years. The room in which these
women were placed was large, light, and clean, and my
companion, Mrs. G., was received by the black female prisoners with evident affection and joy. She belongs to a society of ladies, who here (as well as throughout the United
States) are organized for the purpose of visiting the prisoners (but who, in the slave states, forget the innocent prisoner), and it was very apparent that the most cordial understanding existed between her and these black prisoners.
The rich planter who maltreated and killed his slave,
and was therefore sentenced to five years' imprisonment
in the House of Correction, ought to have been in it, but
he was not yet brought hither, and probably he would
purchase his exemption from the punishment.  Mammon
is mighty.
There exists in Virginia a growing feeling of the burden and the guilt of slavery, as is the case in all the middle slave states of America, which would be much more
benefited by white than black labor, and which see their
development, both physical and spiritual, restricted and
hampered by the institution of slavery; and I believe,
what I have been credibly informed is the case, that these
states would have already shaken themselves from the
yoke of slavery, and that Virginia indeed would have done
so some years since, if they had not been withheld, and
had not been irritated to antagonism by the unwise and
unjust abolitionism of the North.
Z2
537 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I do not say that this is high ground for them to take,
because no injustice should prevent our doing that which
is just and wise; but it is natural, and, to a certain extent, I myself can sympathize in it.
But now that the Northern States, for the preservation
of peace, have conceded to the Southern the honorable
and holy right of sanctuary which their states had afforded-now that they have given up the precious privilege
of protecting the fugitive slave, out of regard to the constitutional rights of the Southern States-and now that
violent abolitionism is more and more giving place to a
nobler and calmer spirit, nothing, I think, ought any lon.
ger to prevent the middle slave states from carrying out
such measures as would contribute to their highest interests.
- The slave institution of Virginia has not merely permitted a vast amount of the white population to grow up
-— eighty thousand, I have understood-without being able
either to read or write, and who are as low in morals as
in education, but it has here, as well as elsewhere, prevented the development of industry and the extension of
emigration, and has caused a want of enterprise in public
works, and hence want of employment for an increasing
poor population. The consequences of this have assumed
every year a more threatening aspect. There is here no
background of strong and noble popular life, as in the free
states, in which- the government of the states and the
schools are filled as by a fresh germ of life.  Immorality,
ignorance, and poverty increase; and it can not be otherwise when one half of the people hold the other in slavery.
The planters of Virginia, proud of their historic memories
and of their slaves, amnong: whom they fancy that they
live like feudal princes of the Middle Ages, although this
is a great mistake, intrenched behind their traditions and
slave institutions, have styled themselves "high-blooded"
and "high-minded,"' and other s'uch terms, have sat still
5-3.8 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
while the chariot of the age has passed by them. The
rapidly-flourishing condition of the free states of the Union
during a life full of great public undertakings, and the
developmnent of intelligence as well as of the industrial
spirit, and the decline of Virginia, both in affluence and
moral and intellectual culture, in comparison with the
former, has begun to open the eyes of the people, and during the last few years a new life has shown itself through
industrial undertakings which were formrnerly despised as
mean and unnecessary. Rail-ways are beginning to be
laid down, means of communication are required, and a
more vigorous life is beginning to circulate in the material region of the state; and there is no fear of its stagnating.
The Convention'which is now sitting at Richmond finds
it has to deal with new difficulties, based on the institution of slavery. Eastern and Western Virginia are at this
moment in open feud on the subject of voting at the elections. Eastern Virginia is possessed of plantations and
slaves, and will, according to accepted usage, vote by its
slaves, three slaves being considered equivalent  to one
freeman. Western Virginia, which is hilly country, has
no plantations and very few slaves, and therefore opposes
the right of Eastern Virginia to strengthen herself by the:
votes of her slaves. She has, therefore, sent to the Convention a powerful champion in a Mr. Weise, who, like
a new Nimrod, has come forth from the forests in full
hunter habiliments, and deals his blows around him with
mighty hunter spirit, speaking in this style.
"What, you will let the voices of your slaves weigh
against ours in elections?  You have forgotten that you
have declared the negro slave to have no soul. Come,
don't contradict me! I tell you that you have declared
that hundreds of times by your laws, by your customs,
and by your statutes. Answer me-come forth and contradict me, if you can!  Have you not bought and sold
530 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
them like brute beasts? Have you not forbidden that
they shall be educated-forbidden them to feel, to think,
to speak like rational beings? I will give any one a
hundred dollars who will prove me wrong. But it is
much better that you keep your mouths shut and say
nothing. It is the most sensible thing you can do, my
friends. If any one murmurs, I will kill him with a word.
I am a pro-slavery man, and I hate abolitionism. I will
neither hear it spoken of nor the emancipation of the
slaves. But when you come and assert that your slaves
have souls, and that they are capable of voting against
freemen - come, gentlemen, that is quite too foolish an
idea, quite too irrational, because you have shown both
by word and deed that negroes have no souls, and that
they ought to be regarded as brute beasts. Talk here,
talk there, talk as much as you like, nobody can talk me
down!"
Thus does Mr. Weise talk and perorate the length and
breadth of the Capitol at Richmond, with so much boldness and so much rude wit and jocularity, that he puts
all opposition out of the question; and at the same time
that he seems to favor slavery, he exhibits all the contradictions and the enormities to which it leads. This speech
has caused great excitement at this moment, and the columns of the newspapers are full of it.
Through the newspapers is also made known at this
time occurrences in Virginia which, more than any thing
else, seem to speak powerfully against an institution
which evidently undermines the morals and good sense
of the white people, by allowing in their youth the indulgence of arbitrary and despotic passion. At Lynchburg,
a large city in Virginia, two young men, both editors of
newspapers, have just now shot each other with pistols in
the open street. A little while ago they had a newspaper quarrel, in which they threatened each other. They
met one morning accidentally, and, without agreement or
540 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
preparation, at once fired at each other with an intent to
kill. The one died the same day, the other is mortally
wounded. Both were newly married, one only within a
few weeks.
The second tragedy is a case of elopement. A young
Dr. Williams loved a IMiss -Morris.   Her father and fami ly, planters of Virginia, opposed the union of the lovers,
and he carried her off. Her father and brother pursued
them, and overtook them in a small city. They came
upon them as they sat at the table d'khte of a hotel.
Young Morris, Dr. Williams, and a young man, his friend,
who had aided the lovers, fell into a dispute in the room,
drew forth their pistols, exchanged shots, and the consequence of this scene was three corpses, two of which were
Dr. Williams and young Morris. Old Mr. Morris returned home, taking with him the corpse of his son, and his
daughter insane.
These occurrences are much talked of and deplored,
but not as any thing very extraordinary.
The homes in the slave states can not possibly cultivate and guard the child as the homes of the free states
can; they foster selfishness, and those dispositions which
later in life disturb their peace.
In the good and affectionate home in which I am now
a guest, I see nothing but the most beautiful relationship
between white and black, and have occasion afresh to admire and marvel at the musical genius of the negro people. A young negro, who is house-servant and waits at
table, sings songs as naturally as he breathes-sings even
in the stomach, as a ventriloquist; and when he, during
meal-times, brushes away the flies, as is usual here, with
a large besom of feathers, he does it unconsciously to the
tune of some melody which silently sounds in his memory.
I am now about to leave the slave states not to return
to them, neither will I again return to the subject of slavery, but here give my parting words. I do this with the
541 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLI)D.
wish that the noble and right-thinking men and women,
whom I know are to be m-et with in all the slave states
of North America, would stand more determinedly forward and separate themselves from the mass, proving by
word and deed that they have considered what belongs to
the welfare of their people and state. I would have a
Convention, a sort of high tribunal, formed of the best
men both of the North and of the South, to deliberate on
the question of slavery, and thus I believe that the friends
of freedom and of the Union would alike have reason to
rejoice in its results.*
The noblest of the slave states should take the lead of
the rest by the adoption of those measures of legislative
emancipation for the slave which at this moment make
the Spanish monarchy in advance of the American republic.
No states appear to me more likely to take the lead in
such a liberal movement than the youthful, liberal Georgia among the Southern States, and Virginia among the
* It was often assigned, as one reason for the impossibility of the
emancipation of the negro slave, that he could not by any means be made
participant of American civil rights, and the proposal which has been
made in some of the free states to allow the free negroes the right of
voting in the state has always been met by a strong public opposition. I
believe that there may be justice in this. But what is there to prevent
the negroes of the United States from forming themselves into small.
free Christian communities for themselves, like the Shakers, Dunkers,
&c., who live an independent life in the great community, without taking part in its affairs, and without disturbing them? It is not difficult to
see from the negro character that they would trouble themselves very
little about the government of the United States, if they could merely
have their churches, their festivals, their songs and dances, their own
independent ministers and chiefs. A negro president would always be a
nullity.  Let them have their chiefs or princes, and let the negro community become that picturesque and cheerful picture which God in his
creation intended it to be, as he has evidently shown by the natural gifts
which he has conferred upon them. The great realm of the United
States would then present one natural family and one picturesque spectacle more-not by any means the least interesting which would  be seen
upon its soil.
I
542 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Middle States; Virginia, one of the oldest of the American
States, one of the foremost in civil liberty and in the war
for independence; Virginia, the native land of Washing ton, Jefferson, and many other great men, and before all,
of Washington, that true type of the man and the citizen
of the New World, whose greatness was of that rare kind
that it grows the nearer you approach it, and who, like
every true American, did not allow himself to be ruled
by time and by mankind, but who ruled them.
I rejoice in Washington's glorious statue in the capital
of Virginia.  I rejoice in that which I now read of him,
sketched by Bancroft in the last pages of the third part of
his "History of the United States."
"The treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle had been negotiated
by the ablest statesmen of Europe, in the splendid forms
of monarchical diplomacy. They believed themselves the
arbiters of mankind, the pacificators of the world, reconstructing the colonial system on a basis which should endure for ages, confirming the peace of Europe by the mere
adjustment of material forces.  At the very time of the
Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, the woods of Virginia sheltered the youthful George Washington, the son of a widow. Born by the side of the Potomac, beneath the roof
of a Westmoreland farmer, almost from infancy his lot had
been the lot of an orphan. No academy had welcomed
him to its shades; no college crowned him with its honors; to read, to write, to cipher-these: had been his degrees in knowledge. And now, at sixteen years of age, in
quest of an honest maintenance, encountering intolerable
toil; cheered onward by being able t write to a school-boy
friend-' Dear Richard, a doubloon is my constant gain
every day, and sometimes six pistoles;' himself his own
cook, having no spit but a forked stick, no plate but a
large chip;'roaming over spurs of the Alleghanies, and
along the banks of the Shenandoah; alive to nature, and
sometimes spending the best of the day it admiring tho
,543 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
trees and the richness of the land;' among skin-clad savages with their scalps and xattles, or uncouth emigrants,
that would never speak English; rarely sleeping in a bed,
holding a bearskin a splendid couch; glad of a- restingplace for the night on a little hay, straw, or fodder, and
often camping in the forests, where the place nearest the
fire was a happy luxury-this stripling surveyor in the
woods, with no companion but his unlettered associates,
and no implements of science but his compass and his
chain, contrasted strongly with the imperial magnificence
of the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. And yet God had selected, not Kaunitz nor Newcastle, not a monarch of the
house of Hapsburg nor of Hanover, but the Virginian stripling, to give an impulse to human affairs, and, as far as
events can depend on an individual, had placed the rights
and destinies of countless millions in the keeping of the
widbw's son."
And after this truly great man had accomplished his
important task, and achieved an independence for his native land, he crowned- his life, rich in honor, by giving freedom to his slaves, after having faithfully provided for their
future.
How long will Virginia remain behind her noblest son?
But, while we are earnest for the abolition of slavery
and for the advancement of the honor of America, let us
not forget what is the condition of the lower classes of our
working-people in Europe, and even in our own country.
Is not their life of labor too often like a hard slavery, especially as regards the women? Are not the daily wages
of women in the country so miserably low, that, even if
they work every day the whole year round, they can scarcely earn food and clothing for themselves and a couple of
children. When a third child comes, then comes want
necessarily with it. Is it not a common thing to hear the
poor women on our country estates deplore, as even a punishment of Godt, when they are about to give birth to'a poor
544 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
child; to hear mothers thank God for having of his mercy
taken away a child, that is to say, because it is dead? Of
a truth, our own working-class may improve themselves,
both intellectually and physically, and every one may be
the artificer of his own fortune. And this is a great advantage. But circumstances are often so compulsory that
even this liberty does not help much.
I leave Virginia grateful for the good which it has given me in beautiful scenery, amiable friends, for this home
full of kindness, and for the memory of a youth, fromn
whose pure soul I derive new hope for the future of America-hope and anticipation from the youthful generation
whose representative I see in him!
LETTER XL.
Philadelphia, July 14th.
SINcE I last wrote, I have made some small excursions
and had some small adventures.
I parted from my heartily kind entertainers at Richmond last Monday, and sailed down the St. James River
to Baltimore in Maryland.  The day was without a breath
of air, and oppressively hot; and it became still more oppressive to me from a certain dogmatic rector, who took
upon himself to be my spiritual cicerone, and as he instructed me in this, that, and the other, he stretched forth
and made vehement demonstrations with his arms, as if
he were preparing for a boxing-match or for some important operation, which threw me into such a fever of anxiety as destroyed the effect and the recollection of his
teachings. A young, polite, and warm-hearted student
of Charlottesville was my refreshment. He had the prejudices of the slave states in his head, but his heart was
good and unspoiled, and I doubt not but that I shall find
myself very well off at his father's plantation on the beau
545 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
tiful river.  How- amiable and refreshing is youth, when
it will be so!
The banks of the river were romantically beautiful and
exuberantly green; no wonder that the first white discoverers were so enchanted that they described the country
as an earthly paradise.
The ruins of the first church in Jamestown were still
standing, at least one wall, and shone out red brick from
a bright green wood by the river.
At night on the sea it was also stifling hot. A good,
kind negro woman was my attendant, and we talked of
various things.  She had been a slave in Baltimore, and
her master's family had assisted her to obtain her freedom.
I asked her if she 4as as well off now she was free, as
when she was a slave in a good family.
"Better, ma'am, better," was her energetic reply; and
added, "I do not believe that God intended any human
being to be slave of another."
The woman was remarkably happy and contented with
her present life.
There were very few passengers in the saloon.  A
couple of handsome elderly ladies sat and conversed together, in an under tone, about life and its incidents.
They spoke of the fate of friends and acquaintances; they
spoke of the death-bed of a Godless man, who had departed this life without one backward glance of regret for the
past, without one glance of hope for the future; they
made reflections on all this: their countenances were mild
and serious.
Two young girls, from twelve to fifteen years of age,
meantime rushed in and out of the room, like wild young
colts or calves for the first time turned out into the pastures. I took care to keep out of their way. The elderly
ladies looked at them.
"Wild young girls!" said one of them, mildly disapproving.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"Let them enjoy their freedom," said the other, yet
more mildly, and with half a sigh; " it is now their time:
life will tame them soon enough!"
But would it not, after all, be better if young girls were
educated to meet the hand of the tamer with another
spirit than the colt meets the bridle! The combat would
then be less severe and more noble than after this freedom
of the young colt.
The following morning I found myself at Baltimore,
and set off thence immediately by rail-way to Harer's
Ferry. I had heard so much of the beautiful scenery of
this part of Virginia, that I determined to go there to enjoy the effect of " the most sublime scenery of Virginia,"
as it was called.
The rail-way train flew onward, making innumerable
windings and turnings along the wooded and romantic
banks of a little river, with such abruptness and irregularity as to remind me of a terrified cow, and to make
me fear every moment lest it should be swung into the
river. But we arrived, without let or hinderance, at the
little hamlet at Harper's Ferry.
Here I remained for three days alone and unknown,
enjoying greatly my solitary rambles over the hills, and
in that romantic region. It reminded me of certain hilly
districts of Dalecarlia, and still more of Miinden Valley
in Germany, where the Rivers Fulda and Verra meet, because the rock formation and the vegetation are similar in
these two cases.  Here it is that the lively, sportive Shenandoah and the grave Potomac meet and unite to form
the great Potomac River. - Shenandoah is a gay and good
young maiden, dancing carelessly along between verdant
banks-laughing, leaping in the innocent enjoyment of
life. Potomac is a gentleman of much older years, who
advances onward solemnly and silently from the forests of
the West, with slow movement and shallow water. He
meets the gay Shenandoah, and draws her silently to him
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
self. She falls thoughtlessly into his bosom, and is swallowed up there. The rushing, dancing Shenandoah is no
longer heard of, no longer seen; it is all over with her gay
temper; it is all over with herself; she has become Mrs.
Potomac. Mr. Potomac, however, extends himself with increasing, swelling waters, and equally calmly, but more
majestically, continues his course to Washington, and thence
to the sea. Poor little Shenandoah! I am fond of her, and
feel sympathy for her; and though I gladly saw from the
heights the Potomac advancing onward in calm, profound
sweeps through the western highlands, I yet preferred going down into the valley south of the mountain, where the
Shenandoah, still a maiden, dances onward among the rocks
which crowned her bacchante head with the most beautiful garlands and crowns of foliage, or beneath lofty trees, in
which flocks of little yellow birds, like Canary birds, flew
and twittered gayly.  The country was here infinitely
pretty and romantic, and the waters of the Shenandoah,
although shallow, are as clear as crystal.
Lower down the river, on this same side, is a gun manufactory, which just at this moment is in a state of great
activity. The houses of the work-people lie on the hillside-small houses, well built, all alike, and from which
the views were very beautiful.
"We are all equal here," said a young woman to me
in one of these dwellings, into which I had gone to rest;
"our circumstances are all alike."
They were very good; and yet she did not look happy.
We sat in a parlor where every thing was comfortable,
and even elegant. The young woman had a little boy
in her arms, and yet she was not happy; that was evident.
Something in her mild, sorrowful expression told me that
she was not happily married.
In another house I made the acquaintance of an older
woman, whose countenance bore the impress of the deepest sorrow. She had lost her husband, and he had been
548 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the joy of her life. She spoke of him with words which
made me mingle my tears with hers.
In the beautiful evenings the doors of the houses for the
most part stood open, and women stood before them.with
their children, or sat outside and sewed. I made acquaintance first with the children, and then with the mothers.
All were similar in the lot of outward fortune, and yet
with that eternal dissimilarity of the inner fortune of life!
Thus will it always be.. But yet this dissimilarity is
borne more easily than that which is caused by the prejudices of caste. It causes less murmuring and less bitterness.
There was one evening a wedding down in the hamlet,
and the wedding guests were seen in their gay wedding
attire wandering down the foot-paths on the hill-side from
the dwellings on the hill to the shore. They were dressed simply but tastefully, very much in the same style as
the people dress themselves for company in the cities, but
in less costly materials.
One evening, when somewhat late I was returning home
over the hills, I saw, sitting on a style which I had to pass,
a man in a blue artisan blouse, with his brow resting on
his hand, in which he held a pocket-handkerchief. As I
came nearer, he removed his hand and looked at me, and
I saw an Irish nose in a good lively countenance, which
seemed to be that of a man about thirty years of age.
"It's very warm!" said he, speaking English. -
"Yes," said I, passing, "and you have worked hard,
have you not?"
"Yes, my hands are quite spoiled!" and with that he
exhibited a pair of coarse black hands.
I asked a little about his circumstances. He was an
Irishman, named Jimr, and had come hither to seek for
work, which he had found at the manufactory, and by
which he could earn twenty dollars a month.   But still,
he said, he loved the Old Country best, and he meant to
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
return to it as soon as he could get together a thousand
dollars.
I inquired if he were married.
No! he had thought it best to remain unmarried. And
then he inquired if I were married.
I replied no; and added that, like him, I thought it
best to remain unmarried, after which I bade him a friendly good-by.
But he rose up, and, following me, said,
"And you are wandering about here so alone, Miss!
Don't you think it is wearisome to go wandering about
by yourself?"
"No, Jim," said I; "I like to go by myself."
"Oh, but you would feel yourself so much better off,"
said he; "you would find yourself so much happier, if
you had a young man to go about with you, and take care
of you!"
"But I find myself very well off as I am, Jim," said I.
"Oh, but you'd find yourself much, much better off, if
you had a young man, I assure you, a young man who
was fond of you, and would go with you every where. It
makes the greatest difference in the world to a lady, I do
assure you!"
"But, Jim, I am an old lady now, and a young man
would not trouble himself about me."
"You are not too old to be married, Miss," said he;
"and then you are good-looking, Miss; you are very goodlooking, Ma'am! and a nice young man would be very
glad to have you, to go about every where with you."
"But, Jim, perhaps he would not like to go where I
should like to go, and then how should we get on together?"
"Oh, yes, he would like, Ma'am, I assure you he would
like it! And perhaps you have a thousand dollars on
which you would maintain him, Ma'am."
"But, Jim, I should not like to have a husband who
would merely have me for the sake of my dollars."
550 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
"You're right there, Miss, very right. But you would
he so very much happier with a nice young man who would
take care of you," &c.
"Look here, Jim,' said I, finally; "up there, above the
clouds, is a great big Gentleman who takes care of me, and
if I have him, there is no need of any one else."
The thought struck my warm-hearted Irishman, who
exclaimed,
"There you are right, Mfiss!  Yes, He is the husband,
after all!  And if you have Him, you need not be afraid
of any thing!"
~ "Nor am I afraid, Jim.  But now," said I, " go ahead,
for the path is too narrow for two."
And we separated. What now do you think of your
proposed brother-in-law?
The third day of my stay, people began to have some
knowledge of who was the solitary wanderer in the neighborhood, and kind visitors came with invitations, which I
regretted not being able to receive and accept, in consequence of an attack of toothache. The heat, too, was
again oppressive, and affected both soul and body.
From Harper's Perry I proceeded to Philadelphia. The
day was beautiful, but the journey was fatiguing, from the
many changes which were requisite from steam-boat to
rail-way and back again, and because I, being alone, without a gentleman friend, had to carry my own luggage,
being unwilling to trouble any stranger. In my case,
however, it mattered little, as I was strong and well; but
I was really distressed for a lady, solitary like myself, but
an invalid and suffering, who did not seem able to carry
her carpet-bag herself. And when I saw tall, strong men,
without any thing in their hands, passing by this lady,
evidently a gentlewoman, who was so in need of help,
without troubling themselves about her, I confess to my
being somewhat surprised. Where was now that vaunted
American politeness! I would have been very glad to have
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
helped her myself, but that I had enough to do with my
own effects, and there was so little time, because these
changes were made very rapidly.
I dislike that woman should demand from mnen politeness and service, and I believe that women who have esteem for themselves are the very last who would make
claims of this kind; but yet it ought not to be forgotten
that women within the house serve the men, and that they
generally do so willingly and in the entire spirit of affection, and very few indeed are the men who do not, some
time or other, experience the charm of this service, and
still fewer are they who have not to thank the care and
kindness of women for the care of their childhood and
youth. It ought not, then, to be too much for them, on the
highways of life, to extend to them, in passing by, a helping hand, especially when this can be done at the expense
of very little time and no self-sacrifice. And in a general
way there is no need to preach to American men about
politeness. That which I saw on this and two other occasions in the United States were so very much opposed
to the general politeness, and even kindness, that it merely
proves the truth of the old proverb, "There is no rule without an exception."
And, now that I am speaking about rail-way traveling,
I may mention that there is still a great want in America,
where, however, so much is done for the convenience of the
traveler, in there not being, as there are in England and
other European countries, officials at the rail-way stations
whose sole duty is to render any assistance to travelers
which they may need. And in America, where ladies
travel so much alone, it is more requisite than elsewhere,
and would be to them the greatest comfort; for what woman of delicacy would ask for aid which it would be considered trouble to give her?
I spent the latter part of that beautiful day very pleasantly in quiet companionship with my new and only ac
552 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
quaintance on the journey, the already-mentioned and
agreeable lady; watched the sun set, and the moon ascend
in splendor!
In the evening I was at Philadelphia, excellently lodged
in the handsome and comfortable dwelling of the kind
Quaker couple, Mr. and Mrs. E. T.
The angelic young girl, Mary T. (the sister of Mrs. T.),
whom I had seen this time last year lying in white gar ments on her bed, had now lain for two days in the earth
beneath green trees. Her death was bright, as was her
state in life, and she lies in her grave with her face turned
to the rising sun. She who wrote of the insect's meta mrorphosis, and loved to converse of the moment when
they freed their wings from their confinement, is now free
and enfranchised as they.
I visited with her brother, last evening, her final rest ing-place on earth, a beautiful, peaceful spot.:
July 15th. Ah, my child, how delighted I am with the
drawing academy for young girls which I visited yesterday! It is an excellent institution, and will effect an infinite deal of good.  Here genius and the impulse for cultivation in young women may receive nourishment and
development, and patient industry and the power of labor
have occupation and pecuniary profit in the most agreeable way. Young girls can receive instruction at this
academy (the poor free of cost, the more wealthy on the
payment of a small sum) in drawing, painting, composition; in the making of designs for woven fabrics, carpets,
or paper-hangings; in wood engraving, lithography, &c.;
and the establishment has already been so successful, and
so great is the progress made by the pupils, so numerous
are the orders for designs, wood engraving, &c., and so
well paid is all, that the young girls are able already to
make considerable earnings, and there is every prospect
that the establishment will, within very few years, be able
fully to support itself.
VoL. II.-A
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It is the same school which I saw last year in its infancy, with the warm-hearted Mrs. P., the wife of the
British consul here, when it entirely depended on her support. Since then it has rapidly developed itself, has become incorporated with the excellent Franklin Institute
here, and receives an annual stipend from its funds, and
now grows from its own strength. Several of the young
pupils gain already from ten to fifteen dollars per week.
The publisher of "Sartain's Magazine" told me that the
demand for such work in the United States, for newspapers, magazines, manufactures, &c., was so great, that all
the women of the country, who had time to devote themselves to such occupation, might have full employment.
And never have I seen, in any school whatever, so many
cheerful, animated countenances. One of the most cheerful was that of a young girl who had hitherto maintained
herself by dress-making, but who was found to possess so
fine a talent for drawing, that she might now calculate
with certainty on making by this means a respectable
maintenance for her whole life.
The cheerful, agreeable superintendent, Mrs. Hill, told
me that the young girls were so amused and interested
by their work, that they sometimes remained in the school
the whole day, instead of five hours, which constituted
the proper school-time. I am enchanted with this institution, which reveals a bright future for so many young
girls, otherwise unprovided for, and develops the feeling
of beauty in their minds, while it opens a path for them
in manifold ways. I am very much pleased with this
academy also, because its design is applicable to Sweden,
and may there open a prospect for many a one in the improvement of both soul and body. I have brought away
with me many proofs and specimens, which have been
kindly given to me, as well as all information which I
could obtain.
Ah! let us, if possible, establish almshouses and asylums
554 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
for the old, the infirm, and the sick; but for the young,
let us give work-free scope for emulation; let us unfold
paths for their development, and noble objects for their
lives. This is the only really good assistance which can
be given to girls otherwise unprovided for, because it nec essarily implies elevation, and secures happiness by self acquired worth. More of this when we meet. I feel as
if the time of our meeting were now so near, that it was
hardly worth while to write long letters.
17th. The same excellent and agreeable gentleman (Dr.
E.) who took me to the drawing academy, accompanied
me to-day to the medical college for ladies, which was
established here a year ago, and which will enable ladies
to receive a scientific education as physicians. This institution has not been established without great opposition, but it has nevertheless come into operation, to the
honor of the spirit and justice of the New World! To
this ought also to be added the steadfastness and talent
of a young American woman, and the reputation which
she obtained abroad.   Elizabeth Blackwell, after having
for several years, by hard work, helped to educate and
maintain several younger sisters, devoted herself to the
profession of medicine, firmly resolved to open in this way
a career for herself and other women. She was met by a
thousand difficulties; prejudice and ill will threw impediments in every step; but she overcame all; and finally
studied and graduated as physician at the city of Geneva, in Western New York. After this she went abroad,
desirous of entering and passing the Medical College of
Paris.  The head of the college was shocked: "You must
dress yourself as a man," said he, "otherwise it will be
quite impossible."
"I shall not alter even a ribbon on my bonnet!" said
she; "do as you will; but your conduct shall be made
known. You have seen my certificate; you have no right
to refuse me admission."
555 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Mr. L. was obliged to comply. Elizabeth's womanly
dignity and bearing, added to her remarkable knowledge,
impressed the professors as well as students of the college.
The young woman pursued her studies in peace, protected by her earnestness and scientific knowledge. Having
greatly distinguished herself, and won the highest commendation, she left Paris for London, where she gathered
fresh laurels, both in medical and chirurgical science.
She is at this moment expected back in America, where
she intends to be a practicing physician. Dr. E. wished
me to become acquainted with this young woman-this
vigorous soul in a slender and delicate frame-whom he
cordially admires, and rejoices over as with paternal pride.
He said, speaking of her to me,
" She is not taller than you, but she would take you
under one arm and my daughter under the other, and run
up stairs with you both."
I should like to see that.
It was now the time of vacation at this institution,
which contains already upward of seventy female students; but the session will soon recommence, and the
professor of anatomy, a handsome, agreeable  man, was
busied in the preparation of a human skeleton.
It seems to me very desirable that this establishment
should direct the attention of the female students, or
rather that they should themselves direct it, to that portion of medical science which pre-eminently belongs to
them; for is there not here, as in all spheres of life, science, arts, and professions, one region which, beyond all
others, belongs to woman, by reason of natural tendencies? In medicine, it is evidently partly the preventive
-that is to say, by attention to health and diet, to effect
the prevention of disease, especially in women and children-and partly, par excellence, healing, curing.'foiunen have in all ages shown a remarkable talent for the
healing art-have shown an ability, by herbs and the so
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
called domestic medicine, to cure or assuage human suf fering. Their branch of medical art ought evidently to
be that of the alleviation of pain; they should not be the
instigators of suffering. In this they would make great
progress. The instincts of the heart would be united in
them with the knowledge of the head. Curative medi cine would therefore be more adapted to them than sur gery. And herbs, those beautiful healing herbs, which
stand on the hilltops and amid the fields like beneficent
angels beckoning in the summer winds, may be borne by
the hands of the female physician into the dwellings of
the sufferers, and, by means of miraculous powers called
forth by love and art, may promulgate the Evangile of
health more and more over the earth, and change, as
much as is possible, even the so frequently terrible work
of death into a peaceful transition state. Oh, to be young,
to be able to devote a life to this glorious science!
Women, in all lands and in all ages, have practiced the
art of the physician with this aim. The work which demands more prolonged study, a more vigorous resolution,
a stronger, bolder hand, will in this profession, as in all
others, always become the part of the man, because he is
best fitted for it.
July 201th. Here I am, still detained by events in the
family whose guest I am; for only one week after the
death of Mary T., she was followed to the grave by her
most beloved sister; and Mr. E. T., who was to accompany
me to New York, is obliged to remain here yet a few days.
These two young sisters, who were both invalids, had
vigorous, richly-endowed souls, and had always lived in a
state of heartfelt friendship with each other, laboring together on literary subjects for the benefit of the young.
Tenderly attached in life, it was well that they should
accompany each other in death. But they have left a
great vacuum in the home where there is now only one
daughter remaining. She who last died lived during the
557 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
last days of her earthly existence amid the most beautiful
visions of her departed sister, and of their ascending together into a realm of glory.
The interment, at which I was present yesterday, took
place according to Quaker custom, without any unnecessary pomp or parade, without any ceremony or show. It
took place amid alternate short addresses both of men and
women, and silence, all in accordance with the influence
of the Spirit. It was really very affecting, when all the
friends and relations were assembled in the house of the
dead, and were sitting together in silence in one room, to
hear the aged, deeply-afflicted mother lift up her trembling voice, and begin in these words:
"My heart has been severely tried, but God has seen
me in his mercy!" All that she said came so purely
from the depths of a Christian mother's heart, and was,
at the same time, so tender in feeling, and so strong in
faith and submission, that nothing could have been better.
Most beautiful was the consolation which she derived
from the knowledge of the purity of her departed daughters' views and objects in life, and the memory of her
youngest daughter's last words shortly before her death.
When the mother ceased, amid the tears of all present,
another elderly lady spoke and dried them again; for her
speech was a cold( and thin dilution of the words of the
first. Then followed an elderly gentleman, who gave a
third edition, but not improved. Nor indeed could it be.
We drove to the burial-place amid thunder and heavy
rain.  But just as we alighted from the carriages, and the
coffin was lowered to the earth beneath the shadowy trees,
the silvery sun burst forth from the clouds and illumined
most splendidly the silent scene, the yet descending drops,
the beautiful trees, and continued to shine the whole time
during an address from one of the elders of the company
(which was as dry and prosaic as the sunshine was warm
and poetic), and until the coffin was laid in the earth.
558 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
It is very singular, but precisely the same occurrence
is said to have taken place at Mary's interment; the same
funeral procession amid the rain, the same splendid sunshine by the grave. Are such merely accidental? The
two young sisters partake of the same grave beneath the
same sheltering tree, as they partook of the same life,
joys, and sorrows, and their poetical sister-in-law may
sing of them,
Lay them together side by side,
To slumber most serenely, &c.
Mrs. E. T. has great poetical talent, especially for ballads and romances. Two of her small ballads are the
prettiest I know. Her husband is an agreeable man, of
very cultivated mind, with all that feeling for the public
well-being which distinguishes the American.   He himself is a celebrated dentist, and a member of an association of dentists, into which he is now endeavoring to introduce so liberal a spirit, that all beginners and imperfect practitioners may be admitted free of cost to the lectures and experiments of the association, and to the use
of their instruments, so that the inferior members of the
profession may be elevated by the influence and ready
co-operation of the higher. Mr. T. delivers lectures every
week gratis to young practitioners. " Leveling upward"
is the impelling principle also with him, and he has written an excellent treatise upon the fundamental idea of
this association. Association is the natural movement of
life in the free states.
July 21st. I have happened during these last few days
in Philadelphia to fall in love-yes, really to fall desperately in love-with a young girl, not so very handsome,
but of a glorious young-womanly character richly endowed, both soul and body, with that spark of inspired life
which is so enchanting and so infinitely revivifying; a girl
fresh as morning dew, and who sings as I never have
heard any one sing since her who has long since ceased
559 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
to sing on earth, yet not in my soul. But true it is that
she was Fanny Kemble's "pet," and had in her an incomparable instructress in declamation. And the girl,
the glorious girl, the girl of the New World, whom I have
for the first time seen since I had an idea of her: she is
called-But no, I will not write her name;  I feel as if
that would desecrate it, and she is to me holy. I could
weep when I think that such a girl should not have a
different fate to quiet, ordinary girls. Such a young woman ought to be the priestess of a holy temple, and deliver oracles to the world. I will tell you more about her
by word of mouth. She has called to life in my imagination a figure which has lain bound there for more than
fifteen years.
I shall set off to-day to New York. It has been so oppressively hot this time in Philadelphia that I have not
been able to accomplish much. To-day it is beautiful
and fresh after yesterday's rain. N.B.-That was the
first regular shower of rain which I had seen for five
months, and through the whole of that time I had not
seen one entire cloudy day.
I now cordially rejoice in the prospect of so soon seeing
once more those good, excellent friends of mine at Rose
Cottage.
Rose Cottage, July 24th.
And now I am with them, as happy as it is possible for
me to be so far from my beloved; here I am with this beloved, rose-colored family, always alike good, alike couleur
de rose; and all my friends from New York come to kiss
me, to shake hands with me, and to say " How do you
do?'"  Lively, cordial, fresh, impulsive people are these
people of the New World; there is no denying that! And
your letter, among dozens of others, to welcome me here!
But ah! that it should be so cold and cheerless with you.
It is very unworthy of Madame Svea to permit such
weather in June! But now, now you must have sun
560 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
shine enough, even in Sweden. I am preparing for my
homeward journey, but am out of breath when I think
of all I have yet to do before I can leave. 1 am now on
my way to Boston, and thence to the White Mountains,
to Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, &C.
I commence my journey in the morning, going from
one friend to another the whole length of the way.   But
it will not be before the commencement of September
that I can be ready to leave America. But then I will
leave it. Ah! I hardly dare to think about it, so painful
will the parting be to me. When autumn comes in Sweden, then shall I be with my beloved!  Mamma  must
propitiate St. Brigitta, that she give me a prosperous voyage over the great sea!
Great changes have taken place around Rose Cottage
and its peaceful environs since I was last there, that is to
say, since last year. Above a hundred houses, certainly,
have sprung up around it in all directions, and a regular
street runs now in front of its little park. When I first
came to Rose Cottage, it stood in the country; now it lies
in the very middle of the city. It is a good -thing that
there is yet a deal of space, and many trees around the
house, to preserve free breathing-room.
LETTER XXXIX.
Nahant, Massachusetts, August 1st.
A GREETING and a kiss to you, my Agathina, on this
cool, beautiful Sunday morning, which I am celebrating
upon a rock in the midst of the sea, surrounded by glittering, dancing waves. I am with Mrs. B., in her cottage
at Nahant, a little bathing-place a few miles north of
Boston.  The aristocracy of Boston have here their villas
and cottages, where they, for a couple of months in the
year, enjoy the sea air or bathing; and- here, at the pres
AA2
561 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ent moment, in these pretty dwellings, embowered by verdant, fragrant plants among the bare rocks, a select little
party is assembled.  Here is that splendid old Mrs. L.
(the mother of Mrs. B.) in her cottage; here is Mr. Prescott, the excellent historian, with his family; the preacher
Bellows, from New York; Mr. Longfellow, Mrs. S., with
several other interesting persons, and the intercourse-among
them is easy and charming, with little dinner-parties or
tea-suppers in the evenings. The Americans are in a high
degree a social people, and they do not like to shut themselves up, or to shut their friends out.
I came hither that I might see Mrs. B. again, who was
so infinitely kind to me-came hither from Boston, where
I spent a week with my excellent friend, Dr. 0., who,
when he had made me strong as his patient, made me
happy as his guest in his house, where I had merely one
standing quarrel with him, and that was because he had
not earlier made me acquainted with his wife, one of
those happy, amiable characters, who are a fountain of
joy and peace to all who surround them. Another singularly happy and affectionate mnarried pair.
I made two-small excursions from Boston, one of which
was to Concord, because I wished to see Emerson and
Elizabeth IH. once more before leaving America forever.
I can not exactly tell why I wished it, but my soul seemed to require it of me.   I must see Emerson yet once
more.
I reached Concord in the afternoon, and took up my
quarters with Elizabeth H. We went together to Emerson's. They were both from home. I went for a moment
into Emerson's study, a large room, in which every thing
was simple, orderly, unstudied, comfortable. No refined
feeling of beauty has, as is the case at the Downing's,
converted the room into a temple, in which stand the
forms of the heroes of science and literature. Ornament
is banished from the sanctuary of the Stoic philosopher;
562 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the furniture is comfortable, but of a grave character,
merely as implements of usefulness; one large picture
only is in the room, but this hangs there with a command ing power; it is a large oil painting, a copy of Michael
Angelo's glorious "Parcae;" the goddesses of fate, as there
represented, are not horrible; they are too noble and beau tiful for that, although inflexible. The one, in particular,
who holds the thread of life in her hand, is beautiful; she
who holds the shears to sever the thread, looks up to the
former with a questioning, compassionate expression, and
the other replies by a smile of the most beautiful assur ance and trust. Mortal can not gaze upon it without resigning himself with confidence to the hands of the immortal maternal powers.
Upon the large table in the centre of the room, at which
Emerson sits and writes, just opposite the picture, lay a
number of papers, but all in perfect order. I stood silent
for a moment in the room. Emerson's spirit seemed to
pervade its calm, pure atmosphere.
In the evening I saw Emerson at Elizabeth H.'s. He
was kind and bright, like himself in his most amiable
mood. I was to leave the following morning. He opposed this, however, most decidedly.
" Oh no, no, you must not think of that!" said -he, "I
have been proposing to myself to drive you to one of our
beautiful little forest lakes in the neighborhood, and then
you must see my mother, and receive her blessing!"
I do not know whether I have told you that Emerson
has a mother, in whose countenance may be seen many
features resembling those of her son. The old mother
was now confined to her bed in consequence of a fall, by
which she had broken her leg.
I could not resist Emnerson's kindness and these words.
The following day, therefore, he called for me in a cabriolet, which he himself drove, and took me by the love.
liest forest road to a little lake which lay in the bosom of
563 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the forest, like a clear, oval mirror in a dark green frame.
The place looked like a sanctuary of the kindly divinities
of nature.
We talked a deal by the way; for I am always excited
to conversation with Emerson in a calm and agreeable
manner. The topic of conversation on this occasion arose
principally from my asking Emerson whether he considered the intellectual culture of the New England States
to have attained its acm6, and if we might not see in these
a type of the perfected American community?"
"By no means," replied he; "there are at this time a
number of Germanisms and other European ideas, nay,
even ideas from Asia, which are now for the first time
finding their way into the life of mind, and which will
there produce new developments!"
Emerson evidently considers America intended to present under a higher metamorphosis those ideas, which
during the course of ages have been prefigured in other
parts of the world.
As regarded the late political concessions which the
Northern States made to the slave states, the right of
asylum to the fugitive slave, he expressed him in strong
disapprobation, but still in his placid manner.
"Hlere is a spring famous for its excellent water," said
Emerson, as he pulled up near some lofty trees by the
road side.  "May I give you a glass?"
I thanked him in the affirmative, and he alighted, fastened the reins to a tree, and soon returned with a glass
of water clear as crystal from the spring.
A glass of water! How much may be comprised in
this gift. Why this should become significant to me on
this occasion I can not say, but so it was. I have silently
within myself combated with Emerson from the first time
that I became acquainted with him. I have questioned
with myself in what consisted this power of the spirit over
me, while I so much disapproved of his mode of thinking,
664 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
when there was so much in him which was unsatisfactory
to me; in what consisted his mysterious magical power
-that invigorating, refreshing influence, which I always
experience in his writings, or in intercourse with him?
This cordial draught of clear water from the spring, givenby his hand, I understood it. It is precisely this crystal,
pure, fresh cold water in his individual character, in his
writings, which has refreshed, and will again and yet again
refresh me.
I have opposed Emerson in thought with myself, and
in conversation with others who have blindly admired
him. I shall oppose him also in public, from the conviction within my own soul of the highest justice and truth.
But in long years to come, and when I am far from here,
in my own native land, and when I am old and gray, yes,
always, always will moments recur when I shall yearn
toward Waldo Emerson, and long to receive from his hand
that draught of fresh water For wine, warmth-infusing,
life-renovating wine, I would go to another.
Emerson baptizes in water; another there is who baptizes with the Spirit and with fire.
I left Emerson with an unmingled sentiment of gratitude for what he has been to me. I may perhaps see
other more beautiful and more perfect forms, but never
shall I see his equal again.
During my stay in Concord I again enjoyed my intercourse with the intellectual, profoundly thinking and feeling Elizabeth H. I also again saw Mrs. Channing, the
younger sister of Margaret Fuller, now looking ten years
older, so much had sorrow for the tragical fate of her
highly-gifted sister weighed upon the young wife and
mother.
I made another excursion from Boston, in company with
the kind Miss P., to visit a seminary for teachers at West
Newton, established by Horace Mann, as well as to greet
once more and see Lydia Maria Child, who now resides in
565 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the neighborhood of the seminary. I was present at a
lesson in the institution, at which from fifty to sixty young
girls who are preparing themselves for instructors were
present. One of them ascended the lecturer's chair, the
others being seated on benches in the large, light, airy hall.
The subject of the lesson was the form of government
of the United States, in which she examined the others.
The young teacher was handsome, with every appearance
of a gentlewoman, and with an extremely agreeable deportment and manner. When she descended from her elevated seat, the others were encouraged to criticise her observations, or to point out any particulars in which she
appeared to be in error. Several voices were raised in observation, one remarking that she had left the chair without any sign of acknowledgment to her audience. The
young girl who took her place had a very different manner, was not so handsome, nor so much perhaps of the gentlewoman about her, but she was more ardent, more decided, and was evidently possessed of more than usual
abilities. The subject of her lesson and examination was
geographical statistics, and she gave it with a liveliness
which gave animation to her whole audience. She too
descended, and was criticised in her turn. In this way the
young female teacher is early accustomed to the usual
consequences of publicity, and is early accustomed to pay
that attention to herself in all respects which is so important, especially for the school-teacher. The outward demeanor also, their movements, their gait, &c., all are subjects of observation and attention. Nothing must be-allowed in the teacher which disgusts or excites ridicule in
the scholar. Great numbers of young teachers are sent
hence to the west and south of this vast country, where
they are soon engaged by schools or-lovers.
After that I saw Horace Mann, the hopeful, meritorious
man of education for the rising generation, and his agreeable young wife, at their cottage. I wished to have had
566 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
with him some earnest conversation' on the insufficiency
of schools as educational institutions, but I forgot myself
in Lydia Maria Child's home and company, until the railroad train was just about setting off, and I must return to
Boston.
That noble and refined woman and gifted authoress lives
here on a little farm, not much unlike a Swedish peasant's
wife, and not in her proper element. A pretty little Spanish child, one of the many whom Lydia Maria Child had
rescued from want, lives here with her and for her in heartfelt love. Friends surround her with affectionate solicitude.  In North America, less than any where else, need
people be solitary or neglected, unless they deserve to be
so; and they who deserve many friends find them also.  During my stay in Boston I have been much interested
by the new drawing-school for women, similar to that at
Philadelphia, which is about to be established there by a
Mr. Whiteacre, from London-a man with all the philanthropy of England in his eyes. Many respectable and
wealthy men are ready to aid in this institution by every
means in their power, from the interest they take in the
future prospects of young women. I was present during
a lesson given in the school, and rejoiced heartily in the
prospects which these schools open for thousands of young
women, and for the beautifying prospects of life in general.
I think of Sweden and Swedish girls, Swedish drawingschools, Swedish art and manufactures, and grow enthusiastic with many thoughts for the future.
It is now in Boston so cold and so cheerless with rain
as I have not found it during the summer. Ever since
the eclipse of the sun the other day, it has been as cloudy
and cold as with us in October. This American climate
leap3 continually from one extreme to another. I am as
cold as in winter. In other respects I am more vigorous
than I have ever been since I left home, and I need be so
to do all which I have now to do. Thus, for instance, I
567 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
have been to-day in motion, and engaged in conversation
from seven this morning till half past eleven at night, at
five different places, some in and some out of Boston, with
different persons, with whom I have to enter into interesting conversations on theology, art, politics, &c., with gentlemen at home, on all these subjects; but this amuses
rather than wearies me. Among my more intimate acquaintance in Boston during the last winter, I have again
met with an interesting lady, a Miss Parsons, of weak
physical constitution, but of an unusually beautiful soul;
that is to say, she is clairvoyant without sleeping, and can
give the contents of a letter, or the character and state of
the writer, merely by holding the letter closed in her hands,
or pressing it upon her forehead. I would not believe in
this species of clairvoyance at first, but have been obliged
to believe in it after I had placed a letter from you in
Swedish in her hand, without her having beforehand any
knowledge of who had written the letter, or any thing
about you. Besides which, her character is far above any
thing of charlatanism. But this clear-sighted soul lives
at the expense of the body, which becomes, as it were,
more and more transparent and spirit-like.
At the house of my good doctor I have again seen many
of my dear Boston friends, and made some new and interesting acquaintances, among whom is the Unlitarian
minister, Dr. Garratt.
Monday. I heard in Nahant church yesterday an excellent sermon by Mr. Bellows-one of those beautiful discourses from the very centre of Christianity-such a one
as ought to be preached by the sea, the great sea in which
all the individual waves rise and sink as in one general
maternal bosom-as all separate Christian sects and creeds
;.n the ocean of Christian love.
I had in the evening the great pleasure of conversing
with two cultivated and thinking women of my acquaintance about the ladies of America-of that deficiency of
568 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
many-sided development, that deficiency of instinct for the
higher human interests, and of that want of the ability for
conversation which is found in so great a number. These
amiable ladies, themselves distinguished in all respects,
agree with me in many of my observations, and, like my self, can not see any means of alleviating these deficien cies, excepting by a more thorough system of cultivation,
a more broad and general development of mind; and
many are the signs which will make this inevitable, if
woman will maintain the esteem of their own sex as well
as that of the men. Men have in general, at this time,
more gallantry than actual esteem for women. They are
polite to them, ready to comply with their wishes; but
they regard them evidently more as pretty children than
as their reasonable equals, and do not give them their
society when they seek strengthening food for soul and
thought. The many beautiful examples which one meets
of an opposite, of a perfect relationship between the two
sexescan not be said to belong to the rule. Women are,
it is true, rulers in the home and in social life, but that
is frequently rather through their weaknesses than their
virtues.
We spake of the signs which are indicative of the approach of a better state of things. We saw it by degrees
gradually advancing in the public consciousness, and we
marked also, as the forerunner of this, the Rights of Woman Conventions, which have now been held annually for
some years in the Northern States. The holding of these
Conventions is a movement of transition, which will cease
of itself when the end is attained. Many true and profound thoughts were expressed in the last great Convention which was held last year in Massachusetts, and at
which thousands of both men and women were present;
excellent speeches were delivered, beautiful speeches, worthy of those distinguished speakers.
Among these thoughts I in particular remember what
569 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
was said on the life and culture of past ages in comparison with those of the present time.
Occupations and objects in life do not now separate the
sexes, as was the case formerly. Man, except only in occasional instances, does not now live for the warlike profession; he does not now practice, above every thing else,
strength of body and achievements of arms; the two sexes
have, in a more spiritual sphere of life, come nearer to each
other in the home and in social life. Woman becomes
more and more the companion and helpmate of man; his
powers of soul will be crippled or elevated in proportion
as he finds in her that which retards or animates them.
And the circumscribing of her development will operate
unfavorably upon himself.
This was said, but far better than I have said it, by
Mrs. Paulina Davis, the lovely president of the Convention, that pale lady with the noble features and expression
of countenance, and the rich golden hair, whom I saw at
my good female doctor's, MVIiss H. 
The women of America have, as I have already said,
their noblest types in the best of the American women.
Nowhere can be found greater steadfastness to duty, or
more energy of character united to greater gentleness and
grace.
I have here greatly enjoyed the pure, fresh sea-air,
amid quiet social intercourse with kind and cultivated
people, under circumstances which combined enjoyment
with all the charms and comforts of life.  The "cottage"
of the New World is a type of the pretty and the convenient united.   Nature and art unite here to man.  The
veranda which runs round the house, with its leafy and
flowery creepers, shadowy and fragrant, affords the most
beautiful place for the quiet enjoyment, as well of nature
as of society, during the most lovely weather.
I had imagined Prescott, the historian, to be an old
man, bent down by study and labor, during which he had
570 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
become almost blind. I could scarcely believe my eyes
when, on the contrary, I found in him a tall and lively
gentleman, with far more of the youth than of the aged
thinker in his appearance and manner. Ilis conversation
and manners denote genius; they are full of life.
We have now moonlight, and our drives in the even ings along the sea-shore, while the waves are foaming
and roaring, are a great enjoyment.   Mrs. B. is one of the
most delightful of hostesses, and with little Julia-ah!
they who have such a little girl!
White Mountains, New Hampshire, August 10th.
Again several pleasant days have passed since I lAst
wrote you from Nahant.
I went from Nahant to Salem on the 8th of this month,
and at the house of the mayor there, Mr. S., was in com pany with, and shooks hands with between fifty and sixty
Salemites, among whom were some very pretty young
witches, and some very kind friends of mine.
The next morning, rush went we- my clever and
agreeable hostess, Mr. S., and myself-from Salem to
Boston, to see several persons; to be present at a lesson
at Mr. Whiteacre's drawing-school, and at another at Mr.
Barnard's phonographic sehool for little girls, who all conducted themselves like so many little miracles; to see
Mrs. H., of Belmont, near Charlestown, yet once more,
ah! for the last time; then back to the O.'s to write notes,
see people, arrange meetings, take leave, and a deal more;
then rushed back again by rail-way to Salem to dinner
and evening parties; then one day to write, and, comparatively speaking, to rest, amid quiet calls, promenades,
and conversation about the witch-trials at Salem in the
year 1692, during which trials the same species of phenomena were exhibited as those which appeared among
us in Dalecarlia a few years ago. Even in the free state
of the Pilgrims a considerable number of innocent persons, especially women, were suspected of witchcraft,
571 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
imprisoned, tortured, and several of them were put to
death.
We are now, thank God! so far removed from such
horrible scenes-more, however, by spirit than by timethat we speak of them as we speak of mad-house scenes,
and make merry with them when we are in good-humor.
This was done last year in the city of Salem, on the
great American day, the 4th of July. They celebrated it
by a grand historical, humorous procession, in which also
witch-trials, with their dramatis persone, both witches
and judges, were introduced, in grotesque, old-fashioned
costume.
Among the historical tableaux of the procession was a
series also which exhibited the progress made in the means
of communication within the last fifty years. First came
a horseman, riding slowly along, with the following inscription: "From Salem to Boston in forty-eight hours'
time." Then came an old, heavy diligence, with the inscription, "From Salem to Boston in twelve hours' time."
After them came a rail-way train, inscribed, "From Salem
to Boston in half an hour;" and lastly an iron wire of the
electric telegraph, inscribed, " From Salem to Boston in
no time at all!"  The whole of the historical procession
seemed to me one of the cleverest, most ingenious, and
amusing popular festivals which I ever heard of, and
seemed to have caused the greatest delight. The New
World, which is altogether deficient in traditional popular
festivals (with the exception of the beautiful Thanksgiving festival), seenms to have begun a new series of such,
of a more rational purport, and with more food for sound
thought and sentiment than the European popular amusements, which are often utterly devoid of meaning. Among
the American festivals I have heard some very beautiful
ones mentioned: the so-called Floral-feasts, in the months
of May and June, which seem to me like lovely children
of the spirit of the New World. But still, working-days
572 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
are in this country so supreme, that people are hardly
able to occupy themselves with festivals, at least the prod  uct of a self-conscious, developed popular life.
On the 7th of August I left Salem for the White Mount ains, in company with Mrs. S. and her young son.  Her
voluntary offer to be my companion on this excursion was
particularly agreeable to me, because I like her manners
and her society, and I can, while I make this journey with
her, avoid great parties and great companies, and can go
about in freedom among the mountains, the waterfalls,
and the forests, and see every thing as I wish to see it, in
the quietest and the most agreeable manner in the world.
The first day's journey was to the Shaker community
at Canterbury, by the Merrimac River in New Hamp shire, which I wished to visit, that I might see its Bo tanic Garden, and become somewhat better acquainted
with this remarkable sect. I had letters to the chief fam ily of this Shaker community from my little ladies' doctor in Boston, Miss H., who was frequently called in here
as physician. We went by rail-way into New Hampshire, but left it again in a forest, where we were to take
a carriage which should convey us to the Shaker village at
some miles' distance. After various small misadventures,
we obtained a cart in which was a seat, on which Mrs. S.
and I could sit, our driver sitting half on a little package
and half on our knees. Thus proceeded we leisurely with
a leisurely horse, along heavy, sandy roads, through the
forest. It began to rain, first very small, then thicker
and faster. We hoisted our umbrellas, and sat patiently
for between two and three hours. Very glad, however,
were we when at length we perceived through the vail of
rain the cheerful, yellow, two-storied houses of the Shaker village shining out on the green hills through the rain,
at some distance from us.
Pretty much like wet hens, we descended from our
cart, and soon a hospitable door was opened to us, and
i4y6i'
673 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
two young sisters, with gentle, pale countenances, led us
into a great chamber, where every thing was neat and
delicate, and rubbed as bright as in a doll's house. I
produced my letter, and immediately saw its good effect
in an increased kindliness, and by the cordial manner in
which Harriet H. was inquired after.
It -as late when we arrived. The kind sisters gave
us tea, with excellent bread and butter, preserves, &c.,
and at my request sang the while some of their spiritual
songs. Their manner was tranquil, and, though not
cheerful, had a heartfelt gentleness and serenity in it.
After this evening meal we were conducted to our chambers, two large, light rooms, where nothing was unnecessarily ornamental, but where every thing was neat and
convenient. Sister Lavinia took us particularly under her
charge.
Some streaks of light in the west at sunset had led me
to hope for a bright morrow, and they did not deceive me.
The brightest of suns shone the next morning over the
Shaker dwellings, and the pastoral, pleasing country which
surrounded them, and a considerable portion of which belonged to their community. Not a single dwelling except
their own was to be seen in that solitary region; and the
whole scene which more immediately surrounded these
was altogether as quiet and as orderly as if a life of labor
did not exist there. It was altogether so calm and silent
that it almost struck the mind as something spiritual.
After breakfast, which the sisters served in an excelle, t
and bountiful manner, we were asked if we would like
to see the school, and on answering in the affirmative, ove
were conducted into a spacious hall, in which about twenty little well-dressed girls were receiving instruction from
a female teacher.  This teacher, whom I will call Dora,
was still quite young, and of singular beauty, neither had
her complexion that paleness so common among women
of this community; her cheeks were fresh as the blush of
574 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
morning, and more beautiful eyes than hers I never beheld.
She allowed the little girls to show us one of their symbolic games. They placed themselves in a wide circle,
each one standing at three or four paces distant from the
other. They then began little verses, which, though I can
not give literally accurate, were in substance as follows:
Must I here alone be standing,
Having none that I can love;
Having none my friend to be,
None who will grow fond of me?
On this each little girl approached the one nearest to
her, and, taking each other's hands, they laid them upon
their hearts and sung
Nay, my sister, come thou nearer,
And I will to thee be dearer,
Be to thee a faithful friend;
I will share with thee thy sadness;
Thou shalt share with me my gladness!
With this the children all took hold of hands, and slowly moving round in a circle, repeated the while these last
words, or something like them; and in so doing, approach.
ed nearer and nearer together, wove their arms round each
other like a garland of flowers, then sunk upon their knees,
singing the while a hymn, the first verse of which was
Heavenly Father, look down in mercy
On this little flock,
United in thy name!
Give us of thy Holy Spirit, &c.
While singing this hymn, and while still upon their
knees, the children all kissed each other, after which they
rose up and separated. The beautiful symbolic meaning
contained in the whole game, its simplicity, and the beautiful grace with which it was performed; the thought of
the difference in the spirit of this game to the bitter reality of many a solitary existence in the great community
575 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
of the world, affected me deeply; I could not refrain from
weeping.  Mrs. S. was also very much affected.  From
this moment the Shaker sisters were our friends and sisters, and embraced us with the greatest cordiality.  Another beautiful song, worthy of serious attention, was sung
very well by the children.  It began, "Speak gently,"' and
showed in several stanzas the effect of a gentle word. A
song it was which all children ought to learn, and all grown
people commit to memory.
It was an unexpected thing to me to meet with children
here well practiced also in grammar, writing, arithmetic,
geography, and other ordinary branches of learning. As
a reward for, and an inducement to industry and good behavior, they receive small colored cards, printed with proverbs or exhortations, among which an occasional spur to a
praiseworthy ambition was not wanting.
From the school we went to the room where the fine
weaving was done, for which this Shaker community is
celebrated.
We saw in one room a knitting-machine, which knit
with its own hand woolen jackets, and could produce three
in a shorter time than would be required for two pair of
human hands to complete one. This machine, which seemed almost entirely to go on by itself, looked very curious,
and almost like an enchanted thing.
We next paid a visit to the dairy, and to the room in
which cheese-making was done, and which a number of
fresh colossal cheeses testified of the good condition of the
dairy-farm and all that appertained to it. The handsome,
clever sister who managed this department was so fond
of her employment, that, although she might have exchanged it for another, she had not done so, and had now
been engaged in it for several years. From the dairy we
proceeded to the kitchen, where I saw six blooming, hand.
some young girls employed as kitchen-maids; they were
at this moment employed in bakling large pies.  These
576 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
young girls were blooming as roses, and were ready to
burst out into the gayest laughter when one gave them
any occasion to do so.
" Look well after those sisters," said I, jokingly, to the
Sister President. And the six handsome girls laughed so
loudly and merrily that it was a pleasure to hear them.
From the medical garden, in which sarsaparilla and va rious other beneficial herbs are cultivated, we went to the
house where they were picked and kept, and where rose.
water was being just now distilled.
Finally, we were conducted into the sewing-room, and
which is at the same time the apartment in which the
aged sit together. Here, in this large, light, clean room,
they sat in light-colored, and, for the most part, white
clothing, and with bright, kindly countenances also. There
now assembled a great number of the sisters round us, and
we had conversation and singing, and I read aloud to the
sisters, by their desire, a Swedish psalm. I selected the
one beginning, "I will lift up mine eyes with the hills from
whence cometh my help," which they thought sounded
quite proper, and we joined them in singing various of
their hymns, which were very beautiful, the time of which
was marked, as is customary with them, by the waving
of their hands. After that I made a sketch of Sister Dora,
who consented on condition that I should not publish her
name, "because," said the sister, mildly, "we are not accustomed to such things." Dora belongs to the Churchfamily of the community, and has had "inspiration," it is
said. Of a truth, a more thankful, inspired glance than
hers I never beheld. And her pure beauty charmed me
still more as I sketched that noble, refined profile. I made
a sketch also of Lavinia. She had not Dora's severe style
of beauty, but, on the contrary, the gentlest grace.
I can not tell you how much I liked all that I saw of
this little community during the whole of this day, or how
admirable appeared to me the order and the neatness of
VoL. II.-B B
577 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
every thing, from the sisters themselves to every thing
which came under their hands. The male portion of the
community were busied with the harvest, and I saw merely a few representatives of them. These seemed to me to
have either a gloomy, almost fanatical expression, or to
have very well-fed bodies without any spiritual expression
at all. The good sisters, who now regarded us as their
friends, gave us many presents from their stores of valuable wares, implements of the work-box, fragrant waters,
cakes of maple-tree sugar, &c. And when, on the following day, we wished to pay for our entertainment, they replied, "We never take payment from our friends!"  Nor
would they receive the slightest sum.
A spacious traveling-carriage, with several seats, drawn
by two fat horses, and driven by a stout Shaker brother,
whom no Shaker dancing had been able to render less fat
and jolly, made their appearance, and some of the sisters
said that, as it was good for their health to take a little
exercise in the open air, they would drive with us to the
rail-way station. A politeness could not possibly have
been done in a more delicate or handsome manner.
And now behold us seated on our buffalo skins, Mrs. S.
between two Shaker sisters, and myself between two others, one of whom was the mild Lavinia, with two others
seated behind us. We thus toolk our way through the
forest, while the Shaker brother, a good-tempered, merry
fellow, and the sisters sung spiritual songs, some of which
were very characteristic, as, for instance,
Ye trees and shrubs be dancing,
Ye rivers rise on high,
The Prince of Peace is advancing, &c.
In this style we drove seven English miles, and in this
style we arrived at the rail-way station. And here the
sisters remained with us till the train came, amused by
looking over the portraits and sketches in my sketching
books. As to paying any thing for our journey hither,
578 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
that was not to be thought of; "the sisters required ex ercise, and it had been a pleasure for them to be with
us," &c. It would not have been possible for people to
behave with more naturally perfect politeness than the
Shaker sisters behaved toward us. We separated with
cordial shaking of hands.  Many of these sisters evidently did not enjoy good health. I ascribe this less to their
sedentary life than to their diet, which I do not believe
to be wholesome. The eating of so much greasy pastry
would be injurious to the soundest health in the country.
The Shaker comnmunity of Canterbury consists of about
five hundred persons. There are here a vast many more
fine and beautiful countenances among the young women
than in the community of New Lebanon. The costume
was the same, and the customs the same also. Among
their customs is that of using the pronouns "thee" and
"thou," as with the Quakers; and "yea" and "nay,"
instead of "yes" and "no."  They lay great stress upon
a friendly and kind behavior toward each other in word
and deed. They endeavor in their large families to create that life of love which is the most beautiful flower of
the lesser family. Work, and prayer, and mutual good
offices are the business of their daily life.
I have already described to you the form of government which prevails in these small communities.
The Shaker community of Canterbury derives its principal income from its farming produce, its preparation of
medicinal herbs for the pharmacopmia, and the weaving
of woolen goods.
The Shaker communities are the most rational, and
probably the happiest of all conventual institutions. I
should be glad if similar ones were found in all countries.
People may say what they will, and do the best they can
in the great community, but there will always exist the
need of places where the shipwrecked in life, the wearied
of life, the solitary and feeble, may escape as to a refuge,
679
4 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
and where their good-will and their powers of labor may,
under a wise and affectionate mana,geinent, be turned to
account; where the children of misfortune or misery may
be brought up in purity and love; where men and women
may meet and associate as brethren and sisters in goodwill and friendship, laboring all for the benefit and advantage of each other. And this is the case here.  The Shaker community is-admitting some small, narrowed peculiarities-one of the best small communities in the
world, and one of the most useful in the great community.
This sect is, in general, not understood. People consider its dancing mode of worship to be the main principle, when, in fact, that might just as well be away, though
I, for my part, would willingly retain it for its symbolic
meaning, like the heavenly child's-play which I saw this
morning.
There are seventy or eighty Shaker communities in the
free states of the Union, but that of Lebanon is the mother-community, and the others stand in a subordinate relationship to it  The sect does not appear to have increased of late years-indeed, it has decreased. Every
year solitary men or women, and even whole families,
make their appearance to fill up the gaps which have
occurred by death, or by members withdrawing from the
association.
Toward the evening of this day we have a beautiful
passage in the steamer across the large lake Winnipiseogee (the smile of the Great Spirit), which is scattered with
small islands, and surrounded by broken mountain tops,
and presents splendid views of the White Mountain, whose
summits, Mount Washington, Mount Jefferson, Adams,
La Fayette, and many other republican heroes, beckoned
to us in Olympian majesty in the splendor of the brightest August sun. The sunset was most magnificent above
that quiet, smiling lake. When the sun had sunk behind
580 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
the mountains we had reached land, and found tolerably
good quarters in the inn on the shore.
The evening was cool and bright, and it was a great
happiness to me to find myself in a mountain district, and
to be able to approach still nearer to the giants. Every
thing was still and silent around us. Late, however, in
the evening a "mammoth party" arrived, forty or fifty
persons, ladies and gentlemen, who, like ourselves, were
aiming at the White Mountains, and who took the hotel
by storm. Mr. S. and I were a little out of humor with
the company, partly on account of the noise they made,
and partly because of their " staring," whenever we
chanced to meet them. We, however, became thoroughly
reconciled to them next morning, when they sent a greet ing to me, and a request to sing to me on my departure.
Behold now, therefore, Mrs. E. and myself seated on
our buffalo skins in the open traveling-wagon, and the
company all assembled before the house, singing in quar tette the touching and pretty song of "Sweet Home."
The singers stood on the piazza, and around them and
our wagon were probably a hundred persons assembled,
all with friendly, earnest countenances. It was Sunday
morning; the sky clear and dark blue, after thunder and
rain yesterday; the atmosphere was fresh and pure as
that of my own native land.
I looked up to the bright sky, and thought of my home,
of my beloved ones; and listening to that melodious song,
"Sweet home! sweet home!" my heart swelled, and my
eyes were filled with tears. I never received a more
beautiful morning salutation. With this in my heart, and
amid the waving and kissing of hands, we drove off in our
open wagon into the verdant mountain region.
A New Hampshire farmer, strong as a giant, drove us,
his horses being brisk and gentle, and his wagon like one
of our ordinary traveling-wagons, resting, unlike those, on
easy springs, so that it was extremely comfortable. We
581 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
drove on, and our being was full of gladness; the air was
pure as crystal, the heat not extreme; there was no dust,
and through the whole way our road was bordered with
beautiful forest, now fresh green after the rain, and before
us we had the great mountains, to which we were approaching nearer and nearer. There was now no snow
upon their crowns, and they appeared rather green than
white, and Mount Washington shrouded himself before
long in a wreath of light cloud. The scenery around us
resembled the central portion of the northern mountain
districts of Sweden. The pine-tree and the birch are indigenous here, and beneath them grow the blueberry, the
raspberry, the fern, &C. Nevertheless, here also grow
maize, the sugar-maple, the walnut, and chestnut-trees,
with many other plants and trees which belong to a more
southern climate. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed this quiet, fresh journey in the open wagon, through a
tranquil, summer-rejoicing mountain district, or how fresh
and agreeable it seemed to me, in comparison with a
journey in a covered vehicle or a rail-way carriage, which
last, after the first two6 hours, becomes oppressively wearisome both to soul and body. But here we sat, awake
and cheerful, the whole day through. Mount Washington stood before us the whole time like a landmark. This
mountain, the largest and loftiest of the White Mountains, which is not more than three thousand feet above
the level of the sea, has a very marked character. It is
massive and pyramidal, but without an apex. The summit is a plateau, appearing at a distance like that which
volcanoes present.  But, unlike volcanoes, there is at the
top of Mount Washington no crater, but a spring of fresh
water.  Deep furrows, as of mountain streams, plow the
sides of the mountain. The other mountains, which link
themselves in long array to this, bear a resemblance to it,
but are less significant. All ascend in a gradual, pyramidal form, and have rounded tops or ridges.
582 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The nearer we approached the great mountain, and the
more the day declined, the cooler it became. The giants
wrapped themselves in gray, misty mantles, and enfolded
us in them also; they did not receive us kindly.  Nevertheless, I felt kindly toward them, and, with a sort of pleasure, allowed myself to be inclosed in their cold breath. My
friend, the moon, ascended, and combated for a while with
the spirits of the mist, and looked down upon us from amid
them with serene and kindly glances. My friend wished
well to us, and that I knew perfectly well. She could not,
however, perfectly penetrate those gray mantles.
We advanced deeper and deeper into the bosom of the
mountains, by solitary roads, upon which we did not meet
a single human being through the whole day. Already
had the night set in. Whether it was the influence of
the giants or not, I can not say, but I felt no sensation of
weariness from the long day's journey-nay, indeed, I could
very well have proceeded onward through the night.  It
was about midnight when we reached our quarters, and
it was with the utmost difficulty, and by making a loud
noise at the door, that we could wake the landlord of the
little inn. At last, however, we succeeded, and the landlord, sleepy, but kind and hearty, made us a fire, and prepared all that we required for refreshment and our night's
rest.
11th. A beautiful bright morning, an enchanting morning ramble, morning dew on the grass, in the soul, in life!
The memory of the Vale Song, and its prophecy of the
renovation of human beings born from dew! The heavens were a halleluiah-I have known such in the New
World! They live in my soul, encave themselves into pictures of the imagination, long prefigured, but treasured in
the silent work-shop of the soul. How strange! Beneath
the wild heaven of South Carolina I would merely enjoy,
and, enjoying, sing praises. Here I enjoy also, but in another manner. The soul is more powerful, more alive. It
683 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
receives merely to give in return. It will produce-it will
work. The dramatic life in the mountains, and in the
mountain-streams, forests, clouds, and sunbeams, awaken
the dramatic life within myself, and call to life pictures
and scenes which have laid in swaddling-bands within my
soul for fifteen or twenty years. They and I celebrate
this morning as a festival of the resurrection. The roads
are full of the songs of birds.
We shall, in the afternoon, proceed onward.
Franconia Notch, La Fayette House, August 15th.
I have lived in the bosom of the White Mountains since
I last wrote, heartily enjoying the companionship of the
giants, the fantastic gambols of the clouds around them,
of the songs and the dances of the brooks in the deep
glens, of the whole of this bold and strong scenery, which
made me feel as if at home in Sweden, amid the glorious
river-valleys of Dalecarlia or Norsland. Yet the scenery
here is more picturesque, more playful and fantastic, has
more cheerful diversity, and the affluence of wood and the
beautiful foliage in the valleys is extraordinary; you walk
or drive continually between the most lovely wild hedges
of hazel, elm, sumach (a very beautiful shrub, which is
general throughout America), sugar-maple, yellow birch,
fir-trees, pines, and many other trees and shrubs; and on
all sides is heard the singing and the roaring of the mountain streams, clear as silver, through the passes of the hills.
It was so cold in certain parts of this mountain region that
it was with difficulty that I could guide my pen, from the
stiffness of my fingers. But both soul and body were hale,
and Mrs. E. was equally vigorous and refreshing as the
scenery itself, with all its heights and its singing brooks,
its waving flowers and shrubs.
The peculiarity of these so-called White Mountains is
the many gigantic human profiles which, in many places,
look out from the mountains with a precision and perfect 
regularity of outline which is quite astonishing. They
584 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
have very much amused me, and I have sketched several
of them in my rambles.  We have our quarters here very
close to one of these countenances, which has long been
known under the name of "the Old Man of the Mountain."
It has not any nobility in its features, but resembles a
very old man in a bad humor, and with a night-cap on
his head, who is looking out from the mountain half in quisitive. Far below the old giant's face is an enchant ing little lake, resembling a bright oval toilet glass, in closed in a verdant frame of leafage. The Old Man of the
Mountain looks out gloomily over this quiet lake, and the
clouds float far below his chin.
Another head is that of a helmeted warrior, evidently
one of Theo's good fellows. I flatter myself with having
made the discovery of two faces. The one, which is seen
in the distance against the blue sky, is the countenance
of a beautiful woman, glancing upward with an expres sion of unspeakable melancholy. An old pine-tree stands
like the sign of the cross above her head; the brow is sur rounded as by a diadem of wavy hair. It is an extremely remarkable profile, especially for the soft beauty of the
mouth and chin.  Below this noble countenance, if you
step back a few paces, another presents itself, ugly and
cruel, with a great wart on its forehead. Evidently a
wicked giant, who keeps a beautiful princess in captivity. I caught glimpses of several other countenances, and
should certainly have traced them out if I had remained
longer in company with the giants.
The Indians are said to have worshiped these faces, and
to have offered sacrifices to them as to divinities; they are
also said to have many legends concerning them. The
conquerors and successors of the Indians have not left here
any other traces than of some tragical events.
One place is called "Nanny Bridge," from a young girl
who was found here frozen to death. She was the daughter of a farmer in the neighborhood, and had one evening
B B 2
585 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
a quarrel with her lover, in consequence of which he left
her in anger. She followed him in a state of desperation,
and was overtaken by night in a snow-storm. The next
morning she was found frozen to death, and her lover became insane.
Not far from this place, in the valley, stands the now
deserted "Wiley House," as it is called. A few years ago
a large family dwelt here. One night they were aroused
from sleep by a horrible noise and fall, and which was evidently the crash of an avalanche, which was descending
from the mountain in the direction of the house, and would
overwhelm it. The family rushed out in the dark night
to find a place in which they believed they should escape
the danger. But the avalanche took precisely that direction, and overwhelmed the whole fugitive family, consisting of nine persons. Hawthorne has taken this tragical
incident as the subject of one of his household tales"The Ambitious Guest."
It is now the custom to ascend the mountain from which
the avalanche fell to obtain from its top a view of the
valley. And just now has a trundling wagon, drawn by
six horses, and conveying from twenty to thirty persons,
driven at full speed from the hotel up the mountain. Mrs.
S. and I declined to join the party, as I have also declined
to ascend Mount Washington, which is done on horseback,
and with incredible difficulty, in order to see-nothing
under the most favorable circumstances, that is, if there
are no clouds-a confused view of land and water.
The whole of this mountain district is very wild, and
there is scarcely a dwelling to be seen excepting the hotels for travelers. It is, however, overflowing with noisy,
unquiet company, who do not seem to understand any
other mode of enjoying nature than in talking, laughing,
eating, drinking, and by all kinds of noisy pleasures. They
pass up the mountain laughing at full gallop, and come
down again at full gallop. Champagne corks fly about
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
at the hotels, gentlemen sit and play at cards in the middle of the day, and ladies talk about dress-makers and
fashions. How unlike is this thoughtless life to that of
nature, where the clouds come down as if to converse with
the mountain, sometimes speeding over them like airy
dragons, sometimes floating around them caressingly with
garlands and light sylph-like forms, which moisten their
forests with soft dewy vails; while in the valley below
the little streams grow and sing; and trees and flowers
waft over them their blessing as they speed along their
way; and above all this, the play of light and shadow,
sunbeams in the waterfalls which leap from the mountain,
the mighty rock visages, the little twittering birds-that
is life!
The senseless rioting of man in the midst of this grandeur of nature makes me almost sad for my kindred. And
yet, when I was young, I did not understand how to enjoy life and nature in any other way. The inclination
was not wanting, but there was want of education, and,
amid all that noisy merriment, a vacuity was felt.
People seek for the spiritual Champagne, but they mistake what it is.
The true has the same relation to the ordinary that
Bacchus Dithyrambus has to Silenus.
Yet there were also some true worshipers of the great
goddess. One day we met a father and his little daughter. They had been botanizing in the woods, and showed
us several beautiful vacciniunts, as well as a monotropa,
which has merely one single flower, and is here called
the Indian pipes. The father and daughter looked gentle
and happy. It was a beautiful and perfect little picture.
Mrs. S. and I are also of that class which silently receives the great spectacle into a thankful mind, now sitting beside the silver cascades for whole hours, now wandering on solitary rambles of discovery among the romantic mountain gorges.
687 
1NOMES OF TIlE NEW  WORLD.
We have this afternoon rambled up to the Thune.  This
is a narrow chasm between two lofty granite walls, through
which a stream pours in almost a direct line upward of
eight hundred feet, when it falls in a cascade from a
height of six hundred feet. Along the front of one of the
rock walls our host, in true Yankee fashion, had carried
a pathway formed of pieces of timber, stones, branches
which did not resemble any thing, but along which people,
to their astonishment, could walk quite safely, and without the least difficulty, if they steadied themselves with
one hand against the rock wall. Only a few days ago he
had carried a path over the stream fifty feet higher up.
At the point where it ceased we found ourselves near to
an immense round block of stone, which had fallen into
the chasm, and become fixed, so that it formed above it a
kind of curtain. Beyond the gloomy gorge, which looked
almost black, we saw up aloft the stream hurl itself from
the left hand into the mountain chasm, in a strong stream,
clear as crystal. Whence canie it? That was impossible to say; but the sun shone brightly upon it, and over
it a little birch-tree waved its soft, light green branches.
The source of the dark river lay in light. It gladdened
me, and all the way over that singing waterfall sang and
sported within my soul scenes and conversations which I
will relate to you at home.
All this scenery and this country are refreshing, wild,
and picturesque.   There are many "lions" among the
mountains, and a printed card which I received from our
host of La Fayette House promises
"An echo from the cannon every evening on the lake."
But I have already described sufficient.
We shall now proceed from the White Mountains of
New Hampshire to the green hill, Vermont.
Burlington, on Lake Champlain, Vermont, August 19th.
I now write to you from a beautiful house on the shores
of the Lake Champlain, which has one of the most glori.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ous views over the water and the mountain region which
I have ever seen since the Lake of Geneva, in Switzerland.
Nature is on a grander scale there; nor the mountain of
of Adirondack, now before me in Western New York, nor
the Green Mountains of Vermont, aspire to the height of the
Alps, but their forms are picturesque, combined with a cer tain degree of grandeur and boldness, and over the whole
fine and cheerful district now shines a beautiful August
sun, declining toward its setting, and filling the clouds
with an indescribable golden splendor.   The mountain
called Le lion conchant seems possessed of life, and about
to rise up in splendid glow of light-a magnificent giant
form. And there are many other mountains in this neighborhood which possess strongly-marked symbolic shapes.
We, Mrs. S. and myself, are at the house of the ex-president of the academy, Mr. W., where I was kindly invited
by both father and daughters. It is a noble and beautiful family, in which domestic devotion is practiced, and
where a mother only is wanted. This mother has now
been dead two years, and is yet tenderly sorrowed for by
her children, three sons and three daughters, all agreeable
and highly-gifted young people. The father of the family, a stately, elderly gentleman, and strict Puritan, nine
feet in height, I fancy (and on whose arm, as we walked
together, I hung like a swing in a tree), has a stronglymarked countenance, and keen, but kind eyes; is a firm
Whig, and not favorable to the Democrats; in all other respects an extremely polite and agreeable gentleman, very
entertaining to me in conversation, from his perfect knowledge of the ecclesiastical state of the country, from the
clearness of all his views, though I could not accord with
them all, and his agreeable manner of communication.
The house is a villa near the city, and is possessed of all
the charm and comfort of an Anglo-American home.
Yesterday we went on a pleasure party across the lake
to Adirondack Mountain, on the New York shore.   Tho
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
day was beautiful, so also was the excursion; the scenery
of the rapid, though shallow little river, Au Sable, where
the rocks present the appearance of regularly built, inaccessible fortress walls of a most remarkable character, all
of which I should have enjoyed much more if I had not
been called upon to reply to so many useless questions.
There was one lady in particular, with a sharp, shrill
voice, who tormented me in this style: Where are you
intending to go when you leave this? Whence did you
come from hither? With whom did you stay there?  Who
did you see at their house? and so on.
Oh! that people were but a little more like the objects
in nature, that they approached each other for some definite purpose, and had a pleasure in influencing-each other
by the silent communication of this; how much more
would they then allure from us, how much more would
they then know of us, than by these senseless, merely outward questionings, and which the better class in this country reprobate and ridicule as much as any foreigner whatever. Neither was there a want in this picnic of persons
such as I have just wished for. There was, in particular,
one charming young lady of very intellectual character,
and as fresh as the singing brook or the waving tree. It
was an agreeable invigoration to me to sit by her, to look
at her, to listen to her conversation, which was overflowing with soul.
Whenever I take a fancy to a lady, and we are mutually attracted to each other, it generally happens that I very
soon learn something of her biography.  In that of this
amiable young lady I was struck with the following:
She was overwhelmed by a severe and crushing affliction; she felt that she must either yield to it or-travel
away from it- from it, from her own thoughts, from herself. Without any fixed plan or any other object than to
get away, she seated herself in a rail-way carriage, and let
the train convey her out into the wide world.   The trees
590 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
waved, and beckoned her on into the world; the Clouds
advanced before her, and she followed; and one new object exchanged itself for another; her spirits grew lighter,
and the whole tone of her mind improved. She could
think more freely; life and every thing assumed a brighter
aspect. After a journey of merely a few days, she was
able to return home to her parents with recovered self-possession and peace of mind.  And now-two years latershe was amazed at the amount of happiness which she was
capable of enjoying.
"The time of silent sighs is past," said Geijer, on one
occasion. Ah! there is much yet wanted for that; but
this is certain, that the facility there is for a change of
scene, for the receiving of new impressions, and the ease
with which they are imparted, approximates this time. In
a country where rail-roads and steam-boats intersect the
land in all directions, and enable people to fly through the
world, there is no need for them to grow mouldy, as it
were, or to grow sour from sitting still.
Aug'ust 20th. Pity that three days of rest in this lovely
home, among its kind inmates, are now drawing to a close.
I have heartily enjoyed the glorious prospects, and the pomp
of the sunsets which I have witnessed from my window.
These lake districts are celebrated for their magnificent
sunsets. Nor have I any where else seen such picturesque
clouds, or such splendid transitions of color; there is in it
a joyousness and a play of color altogether unlike the soft
and mnild splendor of the sky of the South. The peculiar
outline of the mountains is also very attractive to me, and
Le lion couchant becomes every day more animated to me.
Lake Champlain has received its name from the brave and
wise Frenchman, Champlain, who first discovered and then
colonized this part of the country. Maine, New fRampshire,
and Vermont were, at the commencement, peopled from
France, and have to thank French missionaries and French
colonists for their first cultivation. Of this but little now
591 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
remains except the names of places and rivers, and some
Catholic seminaries. Vast forests, large lakes and mountains, are the primeval features of these states; agriculture,
the breeding of cattle, and the cutting of timber, are their
principal occupations. One beautiful minor branch of
trade is the preparation of mnaple-sugar, which is in considerable demand. The maple-tree is tapped for its sap,
as the birch-tree with us, and the sugar is formed in small
cakes of a brown color and very sweet flavor.
I saw yesterday evening at this house a great assembly
of the society of Burlington; cheerful and agreeable countenances were there-many such among the young.
There was in the company a universally beloved and
esteemed schoolmistress, who had, from her youth upward,
labored alone for herself and her family. She had done
this so successfully as to be able to educate several younger brothers and sisters; to pay the family debts; maintain
her aged mother; and, finally, build her a dwelling-house.
After having accomplished all this, she was now, at the
age of thirty, about to be married herself to a man to
whom she had long been engaged. She could now think
about her own happiness, about her own house and home.
The universal sympathy which seemed to have been excited, and the joy with which I heard all this related,
speak highly for the rest of the community by whom the
beautiful life and happiness of one humble individual is
so much appreciated.
Saratoga, August 22d.
I have now come hither from the society of the White
and Green Mountains, from the world-despising Shakers,
to the most fashionable, the worst, and most worldly place
in the United States, just to glance at and receive an impression of its life for my panorama of the New World.
We left Burlington yesterday. Many of my new friends
accompanied us by steamer across the lake, and our polite host, the ex-president and his only daughter-a dear.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ly beloved, but physically delicate young girl-came on
hither, where they will remain a couple of days with us.
The picture of that romantic lake, and of the colossal reposing granite lion, which in the setting sunlight seemed
to increase in size, while it receded still further and further into the dim distance, is one which I shall ever retain in my mind among the most beautiful natural scenes
of America. We reached Saratoga, in the western portion of New York, in the evening, and made that same
evening our appearance in the public saloon.
Several couples, ladies and gentlemen, were promenading round and round in the middle of the room beneath
the brilliant chandeliers. One couple, in particular, attracted our attention.  It was a very handsome young
girl, with very beautiful and quite bare shoulders, and a
young man, elegant and handsome also. They were, it
was said, the present season's pair of lovers. Among the
elderly company was one handsome old lady, who was
said to be very like Mrs. Martha Washington, and who
was dressed in the same old-fashioned style, which was
so very becoming to her that she looked in this costume
both original and extremely well.  I, who am very fond
of a little costume, and who would like that every person should dress themselves according to their individuality, whether of figure or fancy, was greatly amused by
the assembly, and as I chanced to meet there many new
and old acquaintances, I was not only amused, but soon
tired and was obliged to leave.
This evening, however, there is to be the great ball of
the season, to which I am invited, and whither I shall go
to see all that is to be seen. This season is said not to
be very brilliant, owing to the weather having been cold
and wet: It now rains.
23d. Now I have seen all that is to be seen, namely,
the great ball, and that is not such a very great ball, after
all.  There were not many people, and among the people
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
nothing remarkable, excepting some half dozen tasteful and
lovely toilets. It would be impossible to conceive any thing
more harmonious and elegant, without the slightest showiness or extravagance. The ladies who wore them were
also handsome and agreeable, and had in their costume
adopted the style which best suited them. I was much
pleased with the principal belle and dancer of the ball, because she was so very singular in figure and style. Her
dancing was so abrupt, and the wreath of red Provence
roses which she wore was placed on her head with so little grace, that I only wondered at her. Neither did the
gentlemen dance well; the polka was singularly ungraceful. It was painful to me to see some pale little girls
tricked out like grown people, and old before their time.
To take children out of their childhood is to destroy the
whole of their future.
One of the gentlemen at the ball had taken it into his
head that I did not properly appreciate Girard College at
Philadelphia, and took upon himself to be my instructor
on the subject of this college, which he maintained to be
unparalleled in the whole world. I observed that such
institutions were to be met with also in Switzerland and
France.  But no, not wholly such; there were no institutions in Europe which were altogether like this American one, which was vastly superior, as he would now
show me.
I felt myself indescribably incapable of learning, and,
sighing, bethought myself of Solomon's words, " That there
was a time for all things." I wished to look quietly at the
ball, and was very very glad when some new and agreeable
acquaintance put an end to the lecture.
And it has often happened to me thus; just as I have
had one instance of American assumption, the very next
moment I meet with an American sense of forbearance.
An elderly gentleman at Saratoga, who appeared to be
in ill health, but whose countenance was very agreeable,
594 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
asked me, with a diffident expression, whether I really
thought that the people of America were happier than
those of Europe?
After so many self-conceited questions about America,
it was a real refreshment to me, and I was glad that I
could reply that I believed there was more hope here than
elsewhere, and that in that alone consisted a greater happiness.
Spite of the many examples I have had of American
criticism on Americans, I can not deny being sometimes
reminded of the words of an Englishman: "I will not say
that the Americans do not do many great things, but they
are not done in a heroic way. And it has sometimes appeared to me, that that which this people need most to
make them really great, is a high-minded dissatisfaction
with themselves."
But is this to be found among Englishmen or Frenchmen? Is it possessed by any nation excepting in its noblest representatives? And such are not wanting here,
as I know by frequent experience.
The illumination of the public buildings in the evening
at Saratoga was tasteful. The supper and the arrangements of the ball showed care and good taste. Our sweet
Vermont flower, Miss N., was unable-more was the pity
-to be with us this evening. I took leave of her and her
father with regret, very sorry not to be able to accept his
invitation to be present with him at a grand synod of the
Presbyterian Church, which will be held next month in
Maine.
New York, September 4th.
Ah! my child, what a whirl of changing scenes, occupation, and engagements have not the latter few days been!
I could scarcely collect my faculties, much less take pen
quietly in hand, and even now I am writing on flying foot,
li) e Mercury, if I may so say, ready to be carried off at
a,loment's warning, or by kind friends.   Nevertheless, I
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
must give you shortly, and in great haste, a little account
of my proceedings.
From Saratoga we went to Lenox, in Massachusetts
where, according to arrangement, I met my excellent
friends the O.'s, from Boston. I here also parted with my
agreeable traveling companion, Mrs. S. and her husband,
who had kindly met us by the way.
The country around Lenox is romantically lovely, in spired with wood-covered hills, and the prettiest little
lakes.  Amid this scenery have Catharine Sedgwick and
Nathaniel Hawthorne their rural homes. I had been in vited to both, and I wished to see both. I spent four-and twenty hours with the excellent and amiable Catharine
Sedgwick and her family, enjoying her company and that
of several agreeable ladies. There were no gentlemen gentlemen, indeed, seemed to be rare in social circles )of
this neighborhood. But they were less missed here than is
generally the case in society, because the women of this
little circle are possessed of unusual intellectual cultivation-several of them endowed with genius and talent of
a high order. Fanny Kemble has her home here when
she resides in America; at the present time she is in England. The scenery is beautiful; these ladies enjoy it and
each other's society, and life lacks nothing to the greater
number.
I am, in a general way, struck with the number of ladies, and the scarcity of gentlemen in the homes of the
lesser cities in the Eastern States. The gentlemen run
over to the larger cities, or to the Great West, to carry on
business, to construct rail-ways, or to acquire wealth in
one way or another. Many solitary ladies are met with in
these Eastern States, who are neither wanting in charms
or endowments of soul, and yet who grow old unmarried.
I have heard many of these wish for themselves a wider
sphere of activity, the opportunity for leading a more
cheerful and more generally useful life. The old lament
698 
HOMES OF.IrE NEW WORLD.
over the stagnation and the heaviness of life, which I heard
in Europe, is repeated here also. It ought not to be so
here, in the young New World.
I spent an extremely agreeable day with Miss Sedgwick,
and one evening with Hawthorne, in an endeavor in con verse. But, whether it was his fault or mine, I can not
say, but it did not succeed. I had to talk by myself, and
at length became quite dejected, and felt I know not how.
Nevertheless, Hawthorne was evidently kind, and wished
to make me comfortable-but we could not get on togeth er in conversation. It was, however, a pleasure to me to
see his beautiful, significant, though not perfectly harmo nious head. The forehead is capacious and serene as the
arch of heaven, and a thick mass of soft dark brown hair
beautifully clustered around it; the fine, deep-set eyes
glance from beneath well-arched eyebrows like the dark
but clear lakes of the neighborhood, lying in the sombre
bosom of mountain and forest; the nose is refined and reg ular in form; the smile, like that of the sun smiling over
the summer woods; nevertheless, it has a bitter expres sion. The whole upper part of the countenance is clas.
sically beautiful, but the lower part does not perfectly correspond, and is deficitt in decided character.
Immediately in front of Hawthorne's house lies one of
those small clear lakies, with its somnbre margin of forest,
which characterize this district, and Hawthorne seems
greatly to enjoy the view of it, and the wildly wooded
country. His amiable wife is inexpressibly happy to see
him so happy here.  A smile, a word from him conveys
more to her than long speeches from other people. She
reads his very soul, and-" he is the best of husbands."
Rose, the youngest child, is still on the mother's breast.
Hawthorne's house is a happy, quiet little abode, embracing a beautiful family life.
At the rural inn where I was staying with my friends,
the 0.'s, also resided as guests several young girls for the
~ 597 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
benefit of country air and life. There was also a handsome and still youthful mother, with five handsome daughters. I one morning asked every one of these what she
wished for as her ultimatum in life. Every one replied
by mentioning some tolerably indifferent occupation and
condition of life. I reproached them with not being candid, and asked them whether in their conscience they
would not reply, as an amiable young girl had done to
whom I had once put the same question, "To be married,
and to see all my friends happy around me?" The young
girls laughed, and two of them said "Yes, if the right
man came."  And this reply is characteristic of the young
American's state of life and feeling. These young girls,
indulged by every one, enjoying their life and their liberty, without compulsion or restraint of any kind, are not
likely to be anxious, or to trouble themselves about the
circumstances of their lives:  Yet they will not say " no"
when "the right man  comes."   And for many young
girls he comes quite too soon; at least, so it seems to me,
in many cases where they are married as soon as they
cease to be children.  I have heard of a young girl who
was married at fourteen, and then was sent by her husband to a girls' school.
I paid a visit with my friends on Sunday to the Shaker
community at New Lebanon, which is merely a few miles
distant from Lenox. We were again there in a great
assembly; saw precisely the same figures in the danc(,
and heard the same kind of discourse and singing as I
had heard a year before.  The same friendly Shaker  iters brought forward benches for the spectators; the sanme
elder Evans stood up and delivered the same kind of reproving sermon.  Every thing had stood still; every thing
stood exactly at the same point, or moved in the same
circle.
During my stay in this part of the country it was very
cold. The stalks of the potatoes in the potato-fields were
598 w 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
quite destroyed by frost. The wind was keen, and full of
a frosty feeling. I never remember in Sweden to have
felt it so cold in the month of August.
I went with the O.'s from Lenox to New York through
the beautiful Housatonic Valley, the wonderfully pictur esque and sometimes splendidly gloomy scenery of which
not all the rattle, and the dust, and the smoke of the railway could prevent me from seeing, though I can not say
enjoying, so much does the mind become confounded by
this mode of traveling.
Not far from New York we removed into another train,
as long as a long street, and down which we wandered
through lines of people, from one carriage to another, before we could find places. This moving street was a train
conveying certainly a thousand persons. By this we arrived at New York; nor was I sorry, with it, to bid farewell to American rail-way trains. Excellent as they are
in many respects, especially by the convenience they are
to all, and by their low prices, equally reasonable to all,
they are fatiguing in a high degree. After the first two
hours, there is an end of all pleasure in traveling, and
one sinks into a suffering and stupid state; one feels one's
self not a human being, but a portmanteau, and I, for my
part, can not conceive a less beneficial or pleasurable
mode of traveling. One can not enjoy a mouthful of
fresh air.  If the quantity of smoke and dust could be
diminished, it would be a great blessing to the travelers.
The European rail-way trains, of which I have any experience, are all greatly superior to the American in this
respect.
At New York I parted with the O.'s.  Ah! it was painful for me to part with these friends, thinking, probably,
that I might never see him more- my kind physician,
my beloved Mary Anne, his wife! And to the last moment they overwhelmed me with proofs of love-I can
not call them any thing else. Foremost among these I
599 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
reckon the directions which he has given for tAe management of your health, according to the information I have
given him of your state, and the ample supply of homeopathic medicines which he has provided both for you
and me.
Thus he and she-ah! my Agatha, there are little affectionate motherly or sisterly attentions and kindnesses
which are invaluable to the stranger in a foreign land,
and which affect me more than large gifts, and I have to
thank her for such services, as well as many other motherly-hearted women, not only in America, but in Cuba.
When I think how their hands labored for me, how they
cared for me to the most minute details, I feel that I must
press those hands to my heart and to my lips. I shall always remember her kind, beautiful countenance, his grave
eyes, with their glance so full of sentiment, and again I
shall most certainly behold them at the resurrection. It
can not be otherwise. The expression of such spirits can
not die.
"There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body,"
says St. Paul.
Among the friends who met me in New York was Professor De V., from Charlottesville. But no longer full of
cheerfulness. His beautiful home was now a house of
mourning. His young wife, my beloved hostess there,
had died in giving birth to her first child. I was most
sincerely grieved for him and his motherless child.
I spent some days at New York in making a closer
acquaintance with that portion of the life of the great
city which belongs to its night-side, to the dark realm of
shadows and of hell, as it exists on the earth. I wander.
ed through it, however, accompanied by an angel of light.
I can not otherwise speak of the Quaker lady who accompanied me, for her countenance was bright and beautiful
as the purest goodness, and above her mild blue eyes
arched themselves brows as bright as those of the god
600 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
Balder must have been-they resembled merely a bright
golden line.
Mrs. G. is the daughter of the celebrated old Quaker,
Isaac Hopper. The daughter has inherited from the father that firm spirit of human love and that steadfastness
of character which neither shrinks nor turns back from
any impediment on the path which she has resolved to
pursue. A great portion of her time is occupied in caring
for the unfortunate, the guilty, and the prisoner; and so
universally known and respected is her activity in these
respects, that all prisons, all public benevolent institutions,
are open to her, and whoever walks at her side through
the abandoned haunts of New Yorkl may feel himself in
safety. Her bright and mild countenance is known even
in the darkest places as a messenger of light.
I went with her one day through that part of New
York called the Five Points, because I wished to see this
region, in which the rudest and the most degraded portion
of the population of New York were thronged together,
probably through the attraction which causes like to seek
like.  Not long ago it was unsafe for a stranger within
these purlieus.  But the Methodists of New  York conceived the divinely bold idea of building a church to God
in the heart of this central point of vice and misery. They
hired a house, sent a minister to reside there, established
schools, work-rooms, &c., which would give ample space
for "the other master."  The contest between good and
evil has just begun in the Five Points, and already several signs betoken victory.
The Five Points is one of the oldest portions of New
York, and received its name from five streets which open
here into a large square. These streets, and especially
the square, are the haunts of the extremest misery of that
great city.  Lower than to the Five Points it is not possible for fallen human nature to sink. Here are public
dens of prostitution, where miserable women keep so-eall  Voi,. TI. —(! c
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ed "fancy-men" and "fancy-women."   Quarrels and
blows, theft and even murder, belong to the order of day
and night. There is in the square, in particular, one
large, yellow-colored, dilapidated old house, called " the
Old Brewery," because formerly it was employed as such.
This house is properly the head-quarters of vice and misery. And the old brewer of all the world's misery, the
Evil One himself, has dominion there at this day.
We, Mrs. G. and myself, went alone through this house,
where we visited many hidden dens, and conversed with
their inhabitants. We considered it better and safer to
go about here alone than in company with a gentleman.
Neither did we meet any instance of rudeness or even incivility.  We saw young lads sitting at the gaming-table with old ruffians; unfortunate women suffering from
horrible diseases; sickly children; giddy young girls; illtempered women quarreling with the whole world; and
some families also we saw, who seemed to me wretched
rather through poverty than moral degradation. From
Unabashed, hardened crime, to those who, sinking under
the consequences of vice, are passing down to deathwithout an ear to listen to their groans, without sympathy and without hope-is there, in every grade of moral
corruption, festering and fermenting in the Old Brewery;
filth, rags, pestilent air, every thing was in that Old Brewery; and yet there, after all, I did not see any thing worse
than I had seen before in Paris, London, and Stockholm.
Ah! in all large cities where human masses congregate,
nay be found the Old Brewery of vice and misery, and
vhere the Old Brewer distills his poison.  The offscouring
)f society flows hither, becomes still more corrupt, and
vill thence corrupt the atmosphere of society,'until the
resh and better life obtains power over the old leaven:he new church over the Old Brewery. A great movement
exists in this direction at the present time. The Church
.f Christ extends itself not merely to the soul, but is be,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ginning to comprehend the whole human being; to develop itself in schols, in sanitary wardship, in every kind
of institution which promotes the wholesome work of
Christian love on earth, both for soul and body, and repeats the words of the Lord to the leper: "I will; be
thou clean!"
From the Old Brewery and its horrible figures we went
to the Mission House in the square directly opposite, and
had a long conversation with the missionary, Mr. N., a
man with a dark, bold eye, and that faith in God which
can remove mountains, and with somewhat of that faith
also in himself which may tend to self-deception, and to
the belief that more is done than is actually the case.
Certain it is, however, that hasty conversions of sinners,
long accustomed to the indulgence of besetting vices, are
rare, and not to be too much relied upon. Hypocrisy is
also one scheme of the old serpent's.
In the middle of the square of the Five Points there is,
as in many squares of New York, a little green inclosure
of trees and bushes. It looks, however, dry and withered;
no careful hands water the trees which attempt to put
forth foliage, and on the fencing around it hang rags to
dry.
It has often struck me how chance  or a mysterious
foreknowledge, which, without human consciousness, concerns itself with human affairs, gives symbolic, or, as it
were, prophetic appellations to things, places, or persons
who afterward accomplish that which their appellations
seem to have predestined them to. This I found to be
the case with regard to the Five Points, the Old Brewery,
and the prison which nearly abuts upon this region. The
great prison of the city of New York is called the Tombs,
from the massive, monumental style of building employed
in it.  The prison itself is of granite, and in the Egyptian
style-heavy,-but magnificent.  A massive lofty granite
wall, like the wall of a fortress, surrounds the court, in
603 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
which stands the prison-house like a vast, regular, massive block of hewn granite. When one stands within the
magnificent portals of this wall, one seems to stand within a gigantic tomb. And so it is. It gives admittance
to the offscouring of the criminals of the great city. One
portion condemned and executed here, another portion
conveyed hence to Blackwell's Island, where is situated
the House of Correction proper for New York. Few are
they who leave this place free, who do not return hither
to be more severely punished or to die. The Old Brewery furnishes unceasing food for the Tombs.
Before the door of the prison, in the interior court, sat a
fine general, in a comfortable arm-chair, as keeper or orderly of the prison, with diamond rings on his fingers, and
a diamond breast-pin in his shirt. Whether they were
genuine, I can not say; they looked, however, as though
they were; but that the man himself was not of genuine
human worth was not difficult to see, neither that he was
out of his place here He was in a high degree haughty
and self-sufficient, and did not even raise his hat to the
noble, beautiful lady who addressed him, much less raise
himself.  She showed her card of introduction, and we
were allowed to pass in, first into a room in which many
of the officials of the prison were assembled. The person
who was evidently the principal here, a fat man with a
large face, sat with his hat on his head and one of his feet
placed high against the wall, and one newspaper hanging
over his leg, while he was busy reading another which he
held in his hands.  On Mrs. G. mildly and politely addressing him, he turned his head toward us slightly, but
neither raised his hat nor his upraised foot from the wall,
and then putting some question with as surly a mien as
if he had been addressing some person in custody, let us
wait a moment, after which we were allowed to enter,
which probably would not have been the case if he dared
to have hindered it. We could not avoid remarking that
A.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
many of these jailers looked as if they ought to have been
among the prisoners, nay, even looked much worse than
many of them.
I could not but be greatly surprised at the disorder
which prevailed in the great prison of the men, which is
built of an elliptical form, with a gallery running in firont
of the cells.  The prisoners were walking about. talking,
smoking cigars, while dealers in cigars and other wares
were wending about freely among them. Many of the
cells were occupied by two prisoners. There were several
condemned prisoners-two condemned to death. I asked
one of these, who was a man of some little education, how
he felt himself in prison?  "Oh," replied he, with bitter
irony, "' as well as any one can do who has every moment
of the twenty-four hours his sentence of death before his
eyes;" and he showed me a paper pasted on the wall, on
which might be read, badly written, the day and hour when
he was to be hanged. The prisoners were much more polite and agreeable to us than the gentlemen on duty had
been. Some of them seemed pleased by our visit, and
thanked us, and talked in a cordial manner.
While we were there, a drunken old man was brought
into the lower part of the prison. The manner in which
he was carried in and thrown into the cell exhibited a high
degree of coarseness. I was the whole time in one continued state of amazement that a prison in the United
States-the prisons of which country have been so highly
praised in Europe-should present such scenes and be in
such a condition. But the city of New York, like the prisons of New York, are not the specimens by which American cities and prisons should be judged. The prison of
Philadelphia was very unlike this.
We found the condition of the female portion of the
Tombs very unlike that of the males. Here a woman
had sway, and she was one of those genial, powerful characters which can create around them a new state of order,
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
governed by wholesome influences. Her form, which indicated great cordiality and considerable physical power,
seemed made, as it were, to sustain the children of the
prison-to elevate, not to depress them. She was cheerful, and hearty, and good-tempered, yet nevertheless so
resolute with the prisoners that none of them ventured to
oppose her. Many seemed to look upon her as a mother,
and she seemed to regard many of them as diseased children rather than as criminals; this was the case, in particular, with those who were imprisoned for drunkenness.
" Oh, Miss Foster! oh, Miss Foster!" lamented one
scarcely half conscious woman, who was waking up in one
cell from a fit of drunkenness, "I am now here again!"
"Yes, that you are, you poor thing!" said Miss Foster, and went compassionately to lift her head from the
extremely uneasy position into which it had fallen in her
drunken sleep.
When she entered the cells, the prisoners talked to her
as to a guardian and a friend. One woman, who had been
imprisoned many times, and brought hither for drunkenness, but who always, during the time of her imprisonment, had behaved in the most exemplary manner, had
become so attached to Miss Foster that she begged to be
allowed always to remain in prison, where she would assist Miss Foster.  This had been permitted to her, and
she was very useful to Miss Foster in the prison.
One room in the prison is called "The Five Days'
Room," or "The Incurable's Room;" here women are
taken who have been repeatedly found in a state of drunkenness. After five days' confinement they are dismissed.
From the prisoners' room we went into the court where
the five-days' prisoners sit during the day, after they have
slept out their debauch. Here between forty and fifty
women were assembled, many of whom were quite young,
and some handsome. Among these women were also female vagrants, or such as had been taken up for quarrel
606 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ing and making disturbances in the streets during the
night. One of these, a very young and pretty woman,
wept bitterly.  Mrs. G. spoke kindly to her, and asked
her whether she would not come into the Itome (meaning the Home in New York for fallen women), and there
be well cared for, and receive instruction, and afterward
be placed in service with some respectable family. She
gratefully accepted the offer, and the whole thing was arranged. As soon as her five days of imprisonment had
expired, she was to be received into the Home. Thus is
the lost sheep sought for among the tombs, and brought
again under the care of the Good Shepherd and his faithful servants. 
The same question was put by Mrs. G. to another young
woman, a handsome but wild Irish girl. She replied scorn.
fully, " No! she would not go to such a place!"  " Why
not?" inquired Mrs. G., smiling kindly; " is it not a gooe
place?"  " Oh yes, ma'am, a very good place, very good.
but-yet I won't go there."
That wild spirit evidently required a long trial yet before it would yield.
There also were two young negro women: I asked one
if she were a Christian.
" No, ma'am," replied she.
" Have you not heard of Christ?"
" Yes, ma'am."
"Don't you love him?"
"Yes, oh yes, him, but-I have seen many things; I
can not become a Christian."
" But why not, if you love Christ?"
" I have been servant with many Christians; I have
seen many things: I can not turn to a Christian."
She would give no other reason.
During our conversation with these women, I could not
but observe that they were attentive, and, as it were,
struck by every rational word which was spoken to them
607 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
in a calm and kind manner. Opposition and boldness of
expression in all instances gave way, and a better, more
thoughtful expression took its place. These souls were
evidently not hardened, and would open themselves to re ceive the again and again recurring rays of light.
We found a great number of the prisoners out in the
large court which surrounded the interior of the prison,
and among them a boy of about ten years of age.
" What had he done, to be a prisoner here?"
" Nothing," was the reply; but he had been found at
night in the streets, lying now here, now there, and could
not give any account of a residence, and as they did not
know what to do with him, they had brought him in hither, where he had been for a long time. While we talked
with the little boy, many of the prisoners collected around
us, all speaking kind words to the boy, and praising him
greatly. I saw tears flow from the eyes of the motherly
lady over the neglected motherless boy, and I heard her
softly promise to take charge of him, and come and take
him out.
While we were thus standing here, we perceived a
movement in the court. The gates were heard to open,
and the words "The Black Alaria! the Black Maria!"
passed through the crowd. And in carne through the gates
of the prison court a large sort of wooden chest, or caravan, painted red, and drawn by two horses. This was the
vehicle which each day fetched from the various stations
in the city such persons as have been found by the police
out in the streets during the night, and had been conveyed to station-houses. They were carried to the Tombs
to undergo examination and receive sentence. This red
vehicle has received the name of the Black Maria from
its having first driven a black woman of that name to the
Tombs.
The red omnibus drew up before a gate of the prison,
the door was opened, as in any other omnibus, and out
.608 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
came boys, and women, and men, many of them resem bling the personages of the Old Brewery. They disap peared within the prison, and the vehicle was then im mediately refilled with a new load, who were now to be
conveyed from the Tombs to the House of Correction on
Blackwell's Island.
We were shown within the court the place where criminals are executed.
Before I leave the Tombs, I must give a parting glance
at Miss Foster- that living, genial, bright form among
the Tombs; for her face, her cordiality, her patience, and
good humor, the vigorous strength and perseverance with
which she has lived for many years among the population
of the Tombs, was a heart-strengthening sight. She had,
within the court of the female prison, had a little flowergarden laid out and planted with flowers; and mignonette
diffused its fragrance around, geraniums were in blossom,
and Provence roses in bud: to such prisoners as behaved
well, or were very much cast down, she gave some of
these flowers.  I received from her hand a Provence rosebud, which I have kept in memory of her, and the hope
of the Tombs; for within these Tombs I had beheld the
work of resurrection.
Yet still I had received a gloomy impression from them.
And I heard that in the great prison of Sing-Sing, dark
scenes and abuse in the wardship of the prisoners have
lately occurred. The society for the visiting of prisoners,
of which Isaac Hopper is a member, has within a short
period revealed several such facts. This society exercises
a salutary control over the wardens of prisons, and their
conduct and government, and it performs its work without
hostility or opposition.
The following day, in company with Mrs. G., I visited
the institution for poor or orphan children, on Randall's
Island, a salubrious and excellent locale for the purpose.
H e r e    were l   arge houses for the children, and a large hos.
C c 2
609 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
pital for the sick among them, and all was in the highest
degree orderly, neat, and in good condition as regarded
outward management; not so with regard to the inward.
Among these ten or twelve hundred children, there lacked
mothers or motherly women. The children were well
kept, but like machines in a manufactory; they produced
on my mind a sorrowful impression; although their spirit
of life was not destroyed, they could be unruly enough
sometimes. The superintendent, whom I- saw sitting
among brightly-scoured copper kettles, produced upon me
herself the effect of a copper vessel, so hard and dismal
did she look, not in the least like Miss Foster. And a
Miss Foster, and many such as her, are so necessary for
the mother warders and educators of such poor children
as these! Here, it is true, there is one warm-hearted
and benevolent woman; but age and increasing ill health
have disabled her for activity. The copper-madam was
also old and dried-up enough to have taken her leave, but
she was retained, it was said, for "consideration' sake."
But a still sadder impression was produced upon me by
the hospital for sick children, well kept and well managed
as it seemed to be with regard to cleanliness and general
convenience. A number of children, for instance, who
are here for diseases of the eyes, were sitting in formal
circles on the floor, without having any thing to do or any
thing to play with. They sat silent and inanimate.
" Have these little ones no playthings?" asked I.
"They had had playthings given them by the ladies,
but they only broke them," was the reply.
"But are they not allowed to employ themselves with
any thing?"
"They must do nothing on account of their eyes."
Any one who knows how easily children will create for
themselves a whole little world of living objects merely
with little stones, pieces of wood, fir-cones, and such like
trifles, and how happy they will be with them, must won
610 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
der to see these little creatures so devoid of all means of
enjoyment and pastime, because "they break their play things." And if they do, what is that in comparison with
the blankness and deadness of life which they are now
reduced to, and which must convert them into idiots if it
is long continued thus?
There were at the Deaconess's institution at Kaisers worth children also with diseases of the eye, but how
cheerful and animated they were, each and all occupied
with games or little playthings which did not require eyesight. All could sing cheerful and beautiful songs, and
gentle sisters, the deaconesses, took motherly charge of
them.
These institutions on Randall's Island as little corresponded with that which one has a right to expect from
the Christian mind and power of the New World as the
prison of New York. The mismanagement of the prisoners is chargeable upon the men, that of the children upon
the women.
The Houses of Correction on Blackwell's Island are celebrated for being well managed, and for fully accomplishing their intention, and it was my intention to have visited them; but Marcus S. and W. H. Channing had invited me to a meeting of the North American Phalanstery,
and this was what I could not by any means neglect.
On the 29th, therefore, I left New York in company withl
Channing.
It was an indescribably beautiful day. The softest
breezes wafted us from New York to the shore of New
Jersey. Here we were met by the wagon of the Phalanstery, and joined by various persons from other places
who were all bound on a visit to the Phalanstery.
Very different scenes, and very different faces to those
I had just seen in New York met us here.
When we arrived at the little, dark wooded gorge which
serves as a sort of portal to the territory of the harmonious
611 
ib-II'!Y'.i
HOMES O'F THE NEW WORLD.
association, we were surprised by the sight of Marcus S.,
who came driving along in his "buggy," drawn by Dolly
-buggy, Dolly, and Marcus himself all garlanded with
the blossoming wild clematis. I alighted from the wagon
and seated myself beside Marcus, and thus we advanced
slowly toward the Phalanstery, seated in a flowery, fragrant arbor. We were met in the park by the children and
young people, and even by some elderly ones, all wearing
green garlands and flowers. It was the most beautiful
and the gayest procession which can be conceived. As we
passed along we saw a group of agricultural laborers
standing in the shade of a tree, busied in eating an immense water-melon. It was just now dinner-time.
Marcus S. had, during last year, built himself a lovely
little house at the Phalanstery, in order to enjoy there,
with his family, the good air and sea-bathing during the
summer. The family lived here by themselves, but took
their meals at the Phalanstery. I had here, as formerly
at Rose Cottage, my own room in the house of my firiends,
and I now accompanied them to dinner at the Phalanstery.
Dinner was spread on small, separate tables, twelve or
fourteen in number, in a very large, oblong hall, with
windows in two sides: the freshest air was admitted by
these lofty windows. At the bottom of the hall wvas placed
a well-executed but somewhat fantastic painting of the
Phalansterian Association in its perfected state on earth,
and above this were the words, " The Great Joy," formed
in evergreen leaves.
The tables, which would each conveniently accommodate from ten to twelve guests, were brilliant with white
linen and porcelain. The group of waiters consisted of
handsome youths and young girls, all with artistically
formed wreaths of leaves around their heads. To these
the good Marcus, also, now associated himself. A more
beautiful group or a more gay dinner-scene it would not
612 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
be easy to lnai.  The dishes were simple, but remarkably
excellent and well-served.  There was neither wine, nor
the drinking of toasts, nor yet songs, but a cheerful, soft
murmur of kindly conversing voices was heard(] uninterruptedly during the whole meal, and mingled itself with
the pleasantly fanning breezes, with the sight of all those
cheerful, healthy countenances, and those lovely young
people who floated round the tables like beautiful, beneficent ministering spirits, all united to make this meal-time
more festal than any could be with sparkling Champagne
and music.
A great improvemrent had taken place in the Phalanstery
since I had been there two years before.  A new house
had been built, and besides the large hall they then had,
another had been erected called "The Little Joy."   The
kitchen had been furnished with steam apparatus for cooking, which was a great saving not only of time and labor,
but of expense, both in cooking and washing. Mr. Arnold,
formerly the minister and farmer, was now the President
of the Phalanstery, and his constructive brain had made
itself useful as regarded the introduction of many excellent practical arrangements. The members of the association had now increased to one hundred persons, and many
families had erected small dwellings around the principal
buildings, where they lived, probably in the same relationship to the Phalanstery as the family of my friends,
and watching with great interest the development of the
institution.
After dinner the company assembled in the park, beneath some large, shadowy trees; large baskets of melons
were carried thither, with which the people were splendidly regaled. I have never seen any where such an abundance of melons; they were here by hundreds; nor have I
ever tasted any so good, sweet, juicy, and fine-flavored.
The Canteloup-melons were especially remarkable.  The.
soil in this part of the country, especially in New Jersey,
is celebrated for the production of fine fruit.
6 1 a' 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I spent three days at the Phalanstery, amid a variety
of scenes, many of which greatly interested me. Foremost
among these I place a meeting, which was brought about
by Channing, for the consideration of the social position
of woman, and what it requires; her sufferings, their
causes, and the means for averting them. The assembly
consisted of about twenty women, and of those men whom
they invited. It was an assembly of thoughtful, gentle
countenances.  The office of spokesman was unanimously
assigned to Channing. Hle opened, therefore, the meeting
with a representation of those sufferings which may befall
a woman through the noblest and the best part of her nature, under the existing state of society.  I listened to him
with feelings which I have difficulty in describing.
" Is it possible," thought I, " is it really true, that I hear
a man thus aware of, thus understand the sighs, the agony, the yearnings which I myself, during a greater portion of my life, experienced almost to despair-which many
experience as I did, and under which many also sink? -Is
it a man whom I hear speaking for the captive, and demanding liberation?  And do I hear through him really
that a better time is approaching, a more just, more enlightened, more holy? Is it not a dream?  Shall really the
time of silent sighs cease upon earth? Shall there be light,
and a path, and freedom, and a heaven opened to all?"
I looked around on the assembly. There were some
beautiful women with thoughtful brows, whose remarkable destinies spoke powerfully for the reform which the
speaker demanded; there were gentle, motherly women,
such as Marcus's sisters, Mrs. A. and Rebecca, who, amid
their own domestic happiness, had not lost the feeling of
citizen-life, had not ceased to sympathize with their less
fortunate sisters; there was Channing, with his noble and
pure countenance glowing with inspiration; there was the
earnest President of the Association, the good Marcus, and
many others, in whom I recognized the representatives of
.hf'Ilighe,t, conscitlene aof htumanitvy
614 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
As I cast my eyes around, they fell upon a picture, the
only one in the room; it was a beautiful engraving, representing the dance of the hours around the flower-strewn
car of Time. I thought of Geijer, in the prophetic visions
and dreams in which this true seer beheld the advance of
the new time, and hailed it with rejoicing shortly before
he quitted this earthly scene. Oh! that he had been here;
that he had heard and seen the time here arrived of which
he had dreamed and spoken so rapturously, unintelligibly
to many, yet not so to me, in his last moments. The
memory of him-of the past; the impression of the present, of the future, took hold upon me with almost overwhelming power.
Excepting the speech of Channing, the meeting did not
produce any thing which remained in my memory. The
subjects which were here touched upon will be still further
pursued and developed at the great Woman's Convention
which will be held in the beginning of October, at Worcester, in Massachusetts, and which will be attended by
many of the members now here present, my friends, Marcus and Rebecca, among the rest. They wish me also to
be there, and I would very gladly, but on the 13th instant
I must leave America for Europe. I must see England
on my return, and I should, in that case, be too long detained from home.  
While I am on the subject of woman's position in society, and Women's Rights' Conventions, I will say a few
words about them. I am very glad of the latter, because
they cause many facts, and many good thoughts to become
public. I rejoice at the nobility and prudence with which
many female speakers stand forth; at the profound truths,
worthy of all consideration, which many of them utter; at
the depth of woman's experience of life, her sufferings, and
yearnings, which through them come to light; I rejoice
and am amazed to see so many distinguished men sympathize in this movement, and support the women in their
0
0
615 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
public appearance, often presenting the subject in language
still stronger than they themselves use. I rejoice also that
society, with decision peculiar to the Anglo-American spirit
of association, has so rapidly advanced from talking to action-has divided into separate committees, for the development of the separate branches of the subject, preparatory
to new social arrangements.
But I do not rejoice at some lesser, well-intentioned
measures and steps which have been proposed; do not rejoice at the tone of accusation and bravado which has now
and then been assumed in the C6nvention, and at several
expressions less noble and beautiful.
It must, however, be confessed, that these clouds on the
heaven of the new morning are few and fleeting in comparison with the vast and pure portions of light.  Conventions are good, because they give emphasis to the great
new moment of life in the community; they are good as
a sifting wind separating the chaff from the wheat. They
will, if rightly conducted, hasten on the approaching day;
if otherwise, they will retard it.  There are signs enough,
both in Europe and in this country, which predict the approach of a time, of which Moses already prophesied in the
words,
"The daughters enter in."
And if you should say, as you once said when we spoke
on this subject,
" Then all the wrong-headed will rule, and the whole
corps will be disgraced!"
To which I will reply, " I am not afraid of that, and less
so now than ever. Look at the Society of Friends, and
at the small Socialist community at this place. All the
women in these have the right to speak in the public assemblies, but none avail themselves of the right but they
who have talent for it, or who have something very good
to say.  All participate in the government, but it is done
quietly, and evidently for the best interests of the com
616 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
munity. Neither does one ever hear of quarrels between
the men and women, of disunion and separation between
married couples. With affectionately conceded privileges,
the spirit of opposition and disquiet is generally appeased.
The power of reason and affection obtain greater power.
Thoughtfulness and gentleness are the distinguishing feat ures of these free women."
A case of decision by general vote in the Phalanstery
has just lately proved in a striking manner the good influ ence of the pure spirit and morals of home on the affairs
of the community, through its direct influence from the
heart and centre of the home.
"' The Gauls," Tacitus tells us, " on important occasions
summoned a select assembly of women into the councils,
and their voice gave the final decision."
When the female consciousness of life becomes that
which it may be in our time, its influence must be most
beneficial in the councils of the community. As it is, this
is now deprived of that fructifying life which belongs to
the sphere of the mother, and the home does not now ediiucate citizens and citizenesses.
Not that I imagine a new and better state of things
would bring forth perfection.  Ah! no one can have arrived at fifty without, both from one's own shortcomings
and those of others, being too well acquainted with human imperfection to believe that every thing is to become
perfect upon earth; but somewhat better they will be nevertheless, when they who are the mothers and foster-mothers of the human race become as good and as wise as the
light of an extended sphere of life can make them-when
that fountain of light with which the Creator has endowed their nature can flow forth unimpeded, and diffuse its
living waters within the home and social life.
I can not see it otherwise. I believe that this development of liberty is the profoundest and the most vital principle upon which the regeneration of society depends, and
617 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
upon which the greatness and the happiness of the New
World depends.
"The darkness of the mothler casts its gloom over the
child; the clearness of the mother casts its lightt over the
child from generation to generation."
It is in this conviction that I will unite myself to the
Convention, and say with it,
" Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord,
all the earth."
And now again to the Phalanstery.
In the evening of the second day after our arrival, there
was a little play and a ball. A lively little piece, but without any very profound meaning, was acted very well by a
number of the young people. Many of the young ladies
made their appearance at the ball in the so-called Bloomer
costume, that is to say, short dresses made to the throat,
and trowsers. This costume, which is, in reality, much
more modest than that of the ordinary ball-room, and which
looks extremely well on young ladies in their every-day
occupations, is not advantageous for a ball-room, and is
not at all becoming in the waltz, unless the skirts are very
short, which was the case with two otherwise remarkably
wcll-dressed and very pretty young girls. Some of them
had really in their Bloomer costume a certain fantastic
grace; but when I compared this with the true feminine
grace wlich exhibited itself in some young girls with long
dresses, and in other respects equally modest attire with
the Bloomer ladies, I could not but give the palm to the
long dresses. Among the most graceful of the dancers in
long dresses was the lovely Abbie A., the daughter of the
President of the Phalanstery.
The ball was in other respects far more beautiful (even
if the toilets of the ladies were not so elegant), and the
dancing in much better taste, than that which I saw at
Saratoga.
When I was making a sketch in my room of the beau
618 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
tiful groups of waiters at the first day's dinner, I asked
them, one after the other, if they were happy in their life
at this place. They replied unanimously that they could
not imagine themselves happy under other circumstances.
Life appeared to them rich and beautiful. How many
young people in the home of the Old World could give the
same reply?
Among the ladies now members of the association was
one still young, without beauty, but with a lofty, intellectual forehead.   The mind had pondered within this
forehead upon the unjust distribution of human lotsupon the disproportion between the longings which she
felt within herself and that portion in life which was hers,
as a young woman of weak health and small means. She
dwelt on these thoughts and this state of life until she became also insane. Rigid, evangelical relations of hers counseled her "to bear her cross!"  She came hither.  Here
she was received by love and freedom-the most invigorating atmosphere both for soul and body. Her being expanded and unfolded itself like a drooping flower. That
life of social love, and that taste for fellow - citizenship
which lay fettered within her, liberated itself, and she soon
became one of the most active members of the little comrniunity, devoting herself to the cultivation of the garden,
and to the care of its fruits and flowers. She is now a
universal favorite in the little community, and is there
only addressed by some appellation of endearment, expressive of the general love for her, and her affectionate
activity for all.
I sat one evening in her little room, listening to the
simple and affecting history of her former inward struggle and her present happiness. That little room was not
larger than an ordinary prison cell; it had bare, whitewashed walls, but a large window which afforded light
and air. We sat upon a very comfortable sofa, and the
cornice and angles of the room were covered from floor to
619 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
ceiling with rich sheaves of beautiful grasses, grouped with
the most exquisite taste. The inmate of the room did not
know their names; she had never had an opportunity of
becoming acquainted with nature and its productions;
but every one of these grasses had been gathered by her
with love, had been contemplated with admiration, and
bound together one with another, so that the peculiar
beauty of each was made availing to the whole. That
fantastic moulding of yellow grasses was richer than one
of gilding.
My conversation in this little room was interrupted before I wished by my being called away to see one of the
sweetest young girls dance the Scottish hornpipe.
On Sunday Channing gave a public discourse on the relationship of religion and the community, on the relationship between the inward and the outward laws, a discourse
rich in Christian consciousness, and in which nothing was
wanting but that prominence should have been given to
the constant point of this consciousness, the need of mercy, and of the communication of the Divine Spirit, and of
prayer, that wonderful speaking-tube between earth and
heaven.
In the evening, which was beautiful, I ascended with
Marcus and Eddy a green hill at some distance from the
Phalanstery, which is called froin its shape the SugarLoaf Hill.  We had an extensive prospect from the summit, and saw in the golden light of the setting sun the
whole fertile, cultivated region, full of small rural abodes
embowered in their wooded parks, and among these the
pale yellow-colored house of the Phalanstery looked like a
large mansion. I gazed upon it with cheerful feelings,
although I can not divest my mind of fears regarding its
stability, more especially as some of its wisest members
are not without anxieties regarding its pecuniary difficulties.
This community, and those which resemble it in this
620 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
country, aim at producing the model community on earth,
a perfect state of social life. They call this community
the Harmonians, and place it above the old one, in which
the members graduate merely in artificial culture; their
efforts are principally directed toward the spiritual, the
natural, which, in its full state of culture, will lead to a
perfect, and in all respects harmoniously developed social
state.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that all the various talents
and natural gifts, upon the development of which the full
development of the community principally depends, can
not here attain to the depth and fullness which is necessary for this purpose. A small community can scarcely
furnish scope sufficient for the many dissimilar powers,
and these-but I will not say more on this subject.  I feel
that I am not fully possessed of it, and that the objections
which I might make could be met by the answer of the extended sphere of the nursery, which I have here seen. I
will rather adhere to that portion of the subject which I understand with my whole heart, which makes the institution
dear to me, and which, I am certain, forms a transition
point in its life and activity as regards the life of humanity.
It is a work of Christian human love. It aims at preparing every man and every woman for a harmonious development, conformably to their innermost being, by means
of a harmonious social life, in which all shall enjoy the
fruits of the labor of all, and all enjoy the fruits of God's
rich and beautiful earth. It enforces that object in individual activity at which it aims publicly in the great community. It is a forerunner and a prophet. The prophets
of old were stoned, and are dead.
And their voices sound even now upon earth. The
community of the Phalanstery, as I beheld it here, with
its sound kernel of pious and earnest working members,
with its surrounding garland of intellectual, devoted lookers-on, is a product of Christ's doetrine of love, and it aims
621 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
at making this a vital principle of social life. It is an
upright and a noble endeavor.
And the kingdom of God is extended by such endeavors.
May one and all be faithful in their part. And should
the Phalanstery, even in this its contracted form, become
one of the earth's "enfans perdus," yet it will not be so
in the history of the new community, neither in that of
the house of God.
For my part, I feel convinced that these small socialist
communities will not sustain themselves longer than they
are sustained by the noble spirits who infuse into them
their energetic life of love. Then probably their work
will fall to pieces. But if they, during a short successful
period, exhibit that which social humanity may become
when all shall be influenced by a noble and beneficent spirit, and possessing all these material advantages which associated life affords, then they will not have flourishedwill not have lived in vain.
And it can not be denied that the moral element which
they adopt as the principle of association, and which constitutes their characteristic and recognizable feature, is
also beginning to be valid in the great commercial, industrial, and scientific associations of North America. People are acknowledging more and more that man is more
than meat, and "leveling upward" is the universal watchword in all associated life. Associations in all professions,
and for all purposes, spring as the natural products of this
soil, but only the more is it felt that the strongest bond
of union is a supernatural one, and depends principally
upon that which is highest and best in man. Associations become fraternities.
The last evening of my stay at the Phalanstery I conducted all its members through a grand Swedish Nigare.
polka, which made a fervor. Seldom indeed had "the
Great Joy" resounded with a more universal or hearty rejoicing.
a22 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The following morning Channing was to leave. After
breakfast, therefore, we walked into the park for quiet
conversation. We met several people who would gladly
have exchanged a word with the beloved teacher, yet none
interrupted us, none disturbed us. I saw a lady sitting
reading under a shady tree; she sat as quietly there as
in her own room: so much is the private circle respected
by the members of the Phalanstery.
Among the varied scenes of these last few days was
one of a somnambule, of that kind which is called a medium, i.e., a person who, in the magnetic state, is, or believes himself to be, en rapport with a deceased friend or
connection, and delivers communications from him. This
medium was a pretty young girl (not a member of the
Phalanstery), and the spirit that was said to converse with
her was that of her father.
About twenty persons, myself being one of the number,
sat round a table, all forming a chain by the contact of
the hands; hymns were sung to cheerful tunes. Within
a   very  short  time the  young  girl became  suddenly pal e,
her head sank, and her features grew livid and rigid almost as in death. This lasted for a few minutes, during
w      h      i       c      h the singing was continued. The young girl then
awoke with convulsive movements, and immediately afterward began, with convulsive rapidity, to pass her fingers over the letters of a large alphabet which lay before
her, and in which she pointed out letters which were
written down by other persons, and thus words and sentences were put together. Questions which were put to
the somnambule were answered in the same manner, and I
am convinced that there was no deception; nevertheless,
the answers which she gave showed evidently that the
spirit with which she stood en rapport was not very much
wiser than we poor inquiring mortals. She had been extremely attached to the deceased father, and it was not
u      nti                   l       after his death that she fell into this singular c on
623
I 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
dition. The answers showed indeed a pure spiritual life,
but not any thing supernaturally so. The whole scene
interested me, but produced a painful impression on Channing, whose pure, spiritual nature is displeased by these
juggling or abnormal spiritual dealings.
There are in the United States at this time, especially in
the North, a great number of clairvoyants of all grades;
and mediums, "spiritual knockings," and many  other
dark spiritual phenomena belong to the order of the day.
They are totally rejected by many, but earnestly accepted
by others. I myself have seen sufficient of clairvoyant
exhibitions to be convinced that they are by no means deficient of a light which exceeds that of the ordinary natural condition, at the same time that they are by no means
infallible. The clairvoyant sees many things with wonderful clearness, but is mistaken in others. The clairvoyant is not a guide to be relied upon. Nevertheless, the
certain result of the phenomenon of clairvoyance is infinitely precious, that is to say, the certainty it gives that
the soul possesses organs and senses within the corporeal,
and independent of them; that the spiritual body is superior to the natural; that the latter is merely the natural medium of the former.
After these cheerful, festal days at the Phalanstery, I
returned to New York, where I am now, once more in my
good Quaker-home, occupied in visiting the public institutions and making preparations for my journey. I am
accompanied and assisted in all this by the eldest son of
the family, an amiable youth of nineteen, beautiful in
body and soul, one of those who make one think of the
new human being of whom the song of Vala speaks, "fed
with morning dew."
During my rambles hither and thither in New York, I
have often met with large parties of military, and yesterday a large body of cavalry passed along the streets, both
horses and men having a very martial and magnificent
624 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
appearance. I have never seen in any of the capitals of
Europe so much military movement as in New York.
But the soldiers here are voluntary troops, and exercise
themselves in military maneuvers for their own pleasure.
Many times during the day gay military music may be
heard on Broadway, and small detachments are seen
marching along in splendid uniforms, and with fine mil itary bearing, frequently with flowers stuck in their gun barrels. These volunteer corps of young citizens have
been exercising themselves beyond the city in firing and
military exercises, and are now returning thence with
bands of music, which are always good, and which play
lively marches or "quick-steps."  The peace-promulgating
people are warlike by nature, and its spirit of conquest is
double-faced, like the god Janus.
I have heard the Military Academy at West Point the only establishment of this kind in the United States
-praised by Europeans, who are authority on such sub jects, as being very excellent, and that the officers who
have been brought up there are as remarkable for their
knowledge as for their bravery. During the Mexican war
the number of killed and wounded of the officers greatly
exceeded, in proportion, that of the common soldiers, and
proved the courage with which they had led on their
troops.
I have to-day engaged a cabin on board the large
American steamer The Atlantic, which leaves New York
for Liverpool on the 13th instant. The vessel and the
captain, Mr. West, are both of the first class; with him
I shall be quite safe.
I return this afternoon to my friends at Rose Cottage,
and in the morning I shall be joined there by Mr. Downing, who is on his way from Washington, and who will
take me with him to his beautiful home on the Hudson.
There will be my last visit in America, where also was
my first. Some other visits I shall be unable to pay, how
VOL. II. —D D
625 
HOMES,- i-nl NEW WORLD.
ever much Idesire it.. But this is required from me, both
from duty and from-love.
I spent last evening-my last evening at New Yorkwith my affable, kind hostess, Mrs. G.. at the house of her
father, the ct Pirated old Isaac Hopper. This magnificent
old man, now ef,..ty-five, is still as strong and ardent almost as a youth.  Wi'l his strongly-marked, handsome countenance may be,  n the ardor of the warlike spirit, combined with the ySadfastness and wisdom of the peaceprinciple, relieved by a great deal of humor and shrewdness. His figure in his Quaker costume is not without a
degree of chivalric stateliness. It is evident that Father
Hopper, as he is commonly called, belongs to the Church
militant, and sta his life has borne testimony to this.  He
has, during h, active life in the service of the oppressed,
been the mea  r of delivering more than a thousand fugitive slaves oiut of the hands of their pursuers, and in so
doing has pe-l.ed his own life, has been maltreated, has
been hurled iito the street, thrown out of windows-once
out of the,:+lird story of a house-and always returned
resolute, fi4m, cheerful, full of courage and resources to accomplish that which he had begun, with a good-humored
obstinacy which finally conquered the malevolence of his
adversaries. At the request of his daughter and myself,
he related some of the occurrences of his life during his
efforts to save fugitive slaves. I have seldom heard narratives more instructive, and seldom have I spent so rich
and racy an evening.
Father Hopper has twelve children, and his handsome
second wife sat at the table in her fine, white Quaker costume. A young unmarried daughter still beautified her
old father's home.
Long life to Father Hopper and his family!
September 5tlh-10th. Days on the Hudson!  The last
days in my first beautiful home on its banks; beautiful
days, but still sad. It is borne in upon my mind contin
626 
HOMES OF THE No WORLD.
ually with a painful feeling, as of sending asunder, which
I can not describe, that the time draws near for separa tion; that I actually and forever am leaving this grand,
glorious country, in which I have lived soh ly, which
received me with such unexampled hos;ty-these no ble, amiable people, who are my friendlo whom I am so
deeply attached, with whom I would An always live and
associate.  Nowhere have I found s,rf friends.  Do not
imagine, my own Agatha, that I am less willing to return
home; believe me, I could not love arnd work any where
but in Sweden; but yet-it is bitter for me to tear myself
away, and I sometimes believe that I can not-that it is
not really possible!  It seems to me so unreasonable!
What a pleasure it was to me to seel-lnce more Mr.
Downing, Andrew Downing, my first frie$:T on the soil of
America, my young American brother, as i uve to call him!
The good Marcus had driven me down to the steam er, and sat with me in the saloon, waitin  till Downing,
according to appointment, should come.  iie came from
Washington, and Marcus left me in his chige.  It was
now more than a year and a half since I had last seen him.
He seemed to me handsomer-more manly; it seemed to
me as if he had grown, had developed himself; and so it
was. He had spiritually developed himself and his world.
His beautiful eyes beamed with a self-conscious power.
We advanced up the Hudson as we had done nearly two
years before; he sat beside me, silent as usual, after we
had exchanged the first natural communications between
friends; neither did I feel it necessary to talk, for we understood one another. It was the most beautiful afternoon
and evening. The wind was fresh and full of animation,
although warm; the waves were agitated more than usual, and danced and sang around us; nature was full of
cheerful and delicious life. No night-frosts as yet had
breathed upon the verdant heights; the enchanting veil
of the autumnal summer began to be unfolded over them.
627 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The moon arose and mingled her waves of light with those
of the wind and water. I sat silent, listening, and melancholy. I knew that the hour of parting drew nigh.
Carolin owning met us, as on the former occasion. I
found her aY oking younger and more lovely.  But I
felt that I mysehad become older, both body and soul.
B    ut then I had  i these two years passed through more
than in ten ordinary years, and much of this, which appertains to my innermost being, can only be imparted to you
by word of mouth.
I rejoice to see the development of life and activity
which has taken place in Downing. His outward sphere
of activity is now very wide and effective. President Fillmore has it in contemplation to lay out extensive grounds
around the Capitol at Washington, and there are here two
young architects from England who, under Downing's direction, are preparing plans for houses which he is commissioned to erect for private persons, who in their villas
and cottages desire to combine the beautiful with the useful. Downing's engagements and correspondence is at
this time incredibly great, and extends over the whole
Union; but then he does all so easily, so con amore, as
Jenny Lind seems to sing. That, however, which pleases
me in particular is the direction which his literary activity
seems to take. I have sometimes, half in earnest and half
in jest, reproached Downing with being more exclusive and
aristocratic in his beautifying activity than became an
honest, downright republican, and we have had, in consequence, various friendly little quarrels. It is very easy to
see, from Downing's naturally refined manner, that it must
be difficult for him to reconcile himself to a certain rude ness and unmannerliness which must exist among a peo ple where all possess equal rights, and regard themselves
as equally good, even before all have attained to that out ward and inward degree of cultivation which can make
equality natural, and the life of equality agreeable. He
628 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
seemed to me also as if, in his feelings toward this class
of people, he stood at too great a distance and was too indifferent.  But so he ought not to be, it seemed to me, as
a Christian republican. It is, therefore, with heartfelt joy
that I have now read a leading article from his pen on the
New York Park, in the last number of his monthly journal, "the Horticulturist," in which he takes a far higher
stand than that which he was formerly accustomed to do.
You, my Agatha, must also write me a few words of this,
because they deserve to be read, and they will be the last
which I shall quote from the New World.
I will let Downing speak.
"We have said nothing of the social influence of such
a great park* in New York. But this is really the most
interesting phase of the whole matter. It is a fact not a
little remarkable, that, ultra-democratic as are the political tendencies of America, its most intelligent social tendencies are almost wholly in a contrary direction. And
among the topics discussed by the advocates and opponents
of the new park, none seem so poorly understood as the
social aspect of the thing. It is, indeed, both curious and
amusing to see the stand taken on the one hand by the
million, that the park is made for the "upper ten," who
ride in fine carriages, and on the other hand, by the wealthy
and refined, that a park in this country will be "usurped
by rowdies and low people." Shame upon our republican
compatriots, who so little understand the elevating influ.
ences of the beautiful in nature and art, when enjoyed in
common by thousands and hundreds of thousands of all
classes without distinction! They can never have seen
how, all over France and Germany, the whole population
of the cities pass their afternoons and evenings together in
the beautiful public parks and gardens-how they enjoy
together the same music, breathe the same atmosphere of
* Downing urges in his article that the park must be laid out on a
aUch larger scale than bad been contemplated.
629 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
art, enjoy the same scenery, and grow into social freedom
by the very influences of easy intercourse, space, and beauty that surround them. In Germany, especially, they have
never seen how the highest and the lowest partake alike
of the common enjoyment- the prince seated beneath the
trees on a rush-bottomed chair, before a little wooden table, sipping his coffee or his ice, with the same freedom
from state and pretension as the simplest subject. Drawing-room conventionalities are too narrow for a mile or two
of spacious garden landscape, and one can be happy with
ten thousands in the social freedom of a community of
genial influences, without the unutterable pang of not having been introduced to the company present.
"These social doubters, who thus intrench themselves
in the sole citadel of exclusiveness in Republican America, mistake our people and their destiny. If we would
but have listened to them, our magnificent river and lake
steamers, those real palaces of the million, would have no
velvet couches, no splendid mirrors, no luxurious carpets.
Such costly and rare appliances of civilization, they would
have told us, could only be rightly used by the privileged
families of wealth, and would be trampled upon and utterly ruined by the democracy of the country, who travel
one hundred miles for half a dollar. And yet these, our
floating palaces and our monster hotels, with their purple
and fine linen, are they not respected by the majority who
use them, as truly as other palaces by their rightful sovereigns? Alas! for the faithlessness of the few who possess, regarding the capacity for culture of the many who
are wanting. Even upon the lower platform of liberty
and education that the masses stand in Europe, we see
the elevating influences of a wide popular enjoyment of
galleries of art, public libraries, parks and gardens, which
have raised the people in social civilization and social culture to a far higher level than we have yet attained in
Republican America. And yet this broad ground of pop
630 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
ular refinement must be taken in Republican America,
for it belongs of right more truly here than elsewhere.
It is republican in its very idea and tendency. It takes
up popular education where the common school and ballot-box leave it, and raises up the working-man to the
same level of enjoyment with the man of leisure and accomplishment. The higher social and artistic elements
of every man's nature lie dormant within him, and every
laborer is a possible gentleman, not by the possession of
money and fine clothes, but through the refining influence of intellectual and moral culture. Open wide, therefore, the doors of your libraries and picture galleries, all
ye true republicans! Build halls, where knowledge shall
be freely diffused among men, and not shut up within the
narrow walls of narrow institutions. Place spacious parks
in your cities, and unloose their gates as wide as the gates
of the morning to the whole people. As there are no dark
places at noonday, so education and culture, the true
sunshine of the soul, will banish the plague-spots of democracy; and the dread of the ignorant exclusive, who
has no faith in the refinement of a republic, will stand
abashed in the next century before a whole people, whose
system of voluntary education embraces, combined with
perfect individual freedom, not only common schools of
rudimentary knowledge, but common enjoyments for all
classes in the higher realms of art, letters, science, social
recreations, and enjoyments. Were our legislators but
wise enough to understand to-day the destinies of the New
World, the gentility of Sir Philip Sidney, made universal,
would not be half so much a miracle fifty years hence in
America, as the idea of a whole nation of laboring men
reading and writing was in his day in England."
Thus my friend Downing, who has in this declared from
his sphere the mission of the New World, and who has
taken a position which is worthy a son of the new creation, that of Christian artist.
631 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
He has gone forth among the people to elevate them to
his point of view; he has united himself with that great,
true republican party in the country, all of whose endeavors tend to "leveling upward," and whose watch-word is
" all things for all."
It is an especial source of joy to me to see how near
Downing now approaches to that point of view taken by
my friends the S.'s. Probably they will hereafter come into
closer personal contact. Downing may visit the Phalanstery, and may perhaps give it the benefit of his knowledge
and artistic genius in those building schemes which are
under contemplation. Thus are fraternal chains formed,
the first link of which rests in his hand who first declared
on earth that all men are brethren. His power will permeate it to the very extremest link. Praise be unto him!
Evening. I can not write much more from this place;
time fails me, my heart fails me. The writing of many
letters and the duties of the.present moment occupy the
hours, and the thought of leaving this country, these friends,
this people, is like a thorn in my heart. The weather also
depresses me; the heat oppressive; not a breath of wind is
stirring; the atmosphere is hot as if boiled. It is only
beautiful in the evening, when the moon has risen, and
pours her gushes of silver light among the shadows of the
river and the shore.
Last evening I took a stroll through the park alone, and
with an unspeakable melancholy in my soul.
"It is all past and gone, this beautiful time," thought
I; " these bonds of friendship, these beautiful sights of a
New World; these beautiful, animating circumstances; all
past! past and gone!" And I wept bitterly.
But when I looked, the full moon was looking down upon
me, large and splendid, and shone into my soul as she
seemed to say,
" No, it is not all past and gone! Strengthen thy heart
with the light which increases forever! That which the
632 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
human being has thus found, thus acquired, is his forever,
and can not die. It is an imperishable seed, which will
renovate itself in new and abundant harvests in the kingdom of light! These friends, these memories, will not cease
to live in thee. To each wane succeeds a new increase
and a new fullness."
This was what the moon, my friend, seemed to say to
me, and, comforted, I returned to the house, and was silent
and thankful.
In the morning I go to New York, whither my friends
accompany me.
My silent friend has let fall words full of important
meaning to me during these last few days. He says but
little, as formerly, but in that little-so much. He wishes
me clearly to understand both good and evil ii this country, and to express it without reserve, but he leaves it to
my own mind to find out the way and the truth.
"That will all come clear to you," he says sometimes,
"when you get home and are quiet."
His manner and his perfect confidence enchant me.
The interest he takes in the intellectual development
of woman in America is one circumstance which particularly attaches me to him.  This acute-minded observer
sees clearly that which is still wanting in general. He
has mentioned with great pleasure to me a work just published, entitled "Rural Hours," by Miss Cooper, the daughter of the novelist; a diary, in which she simply and faithfully chronicled, during a quiet residence in the country,
all that occurred in the life of nature around her, so that
the whole progress of the year is displayed-the grasses,
the birds, the flowers come out- and disappear, and beautiful drawings of the latter adorn the work.
Downing has spoken in high commendation of this
work in his own journal, "The Horticulturist," both on
account of its scientific worth, and for the example which
it gives to female mind, directing its attention to the daily
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD
marvels of nature, and to that which is great even in the
quiet every-day life of the country.
"Flowers, insects, and the biographies of birds ought
especially to be drawn and studied by female students of
Natural History."
Oh! that it is necessary to part from this friend; one
of the best, and the most suitable for my character and
turn of mind which can be imagined, or, rather, which
the goodness of God can give me. 
Rose Cottage, September 12th.
Yet a few more words, but merely a few, for I am
overwhelmed by letters and objects which demand my
attentions, and find that I am suffering  from headache
caused by over-excitement of mind and body.
Before I left the Downings we spent one day together
at West Point. The view was glorious, but the day oppressively hot, and without any air. The vessels glided
along the mirror-like Hudson, I know not by what power, for wind there was none.
At the table d'h6te, at dinner, there sat before us two
meagre, sallow-complexioned, sickly-looking little girls,
quite by themselves, who drank wine and ate all sorts of
delicacies like grown-up people. This did not escape
Downing's grave and disapproving glance. He said to
me,
"This is one of the circumstances upon which I wish
you to turn the general attention! There is so much
done for children in this country-people look upon them
as almost sacred beings, and yet children are spoiled by
regular neglect!"
"You must take this as a present from me to your sister Agatha," said Downing, giving me a large, beautiful
copper-plate engraving of the view from West Point.
His last gift to me was Bartlett's valuable work,
"American Scenery," and Miss Cooper's "Rural Hours;"
that was at New York. At the Astor House we parted,
634 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
where we had first mnet; I felt that we parted forever on
earth.
Marcus S., pale with the heat, always kind and atten.
tive, came with his carriage to take me to his home.
It is now late in the evening, my last evening in the
New World. The heat is horrible; the nights bring with'
them no refreshment.  People look as if their faces were
floured. All things seemn to suffer and to pant.
I can not conceive how it is possible for me to be ready
by morning.   Good-night'
I shall soon behold Sweden once more! Ah, if then,
when I come from Denmark, I could only see your sweet
face on the shore-your blue eyes!
My dear heart, I have longed greatly to have received
yet one letter more from you before I left America, which
would tell me that you had become warm again-the two
last were so very cold! But no warm summer letter has
come, and I must leave in faith and in hope.  And in love
I embrace heartily mamma and you!
On the Sea, September, 1851.
P.S.-It is over. I have left them forever, that great
country, those dear, precious friends!  It was inevitable,
and it is done; but I feel still stupefied, as it were, by it.
Thank God, however, the severest moment is past.
And the morning on which I must go-it was a strange
morning!  I was almost bewildered by the multitude of
small duties which I yet had to perform, and by a lingering headache; but all at once it went, and every thing
brightened up. The good Marcus sat in my room, and
sealed my letters as I wrote them, and received my commissions, saying calmly between whiles, "' plenty of time"
-" we are in good time."  And it really seemed to me
almost miraculous how the hours and the time spun them.
selves out; every thing disentangled itself; every thing
became light and easy, so wonderfully calm and even
pleasant-it was the influence of the gentle spirit that
was near me.
636 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
In good time I was ready-every thing was ready.
And I embraced my beloved Rebecca, kissed Jenny and
the baby, and set off accompanied by Marcus and Eddy.
On board the "Atlantic" I found myself all at once in
a regular whirlpool of old and new acquaintance; gentlemen who shook hands, and presented me with pamphlets
which they had written; ladies who presented me with
lovely gifts; acquaintance who introduced acquaintance;
dear friends from the North, from the South, who astonished me here to say farewell, and whichever way I turned
my head I was kissed by somebody. Ah! I was almost
glad when the bell summoned my friends on shore, and I
could hide myself in my berth.
The last faces I saw were those of the angelic Eddy
and the good, brotherly Marcus.
After that I sat silent and immovable for hours. But
Marcus had placed in my room a bouquet of evergreen
plants, and the yellow and red everlastings from the garden at Rose Cottage, and hung to it a card on which were
written a few words in pencil; and upon this bouquet I
sat gazing immovably, until its rich green leaves were
woven around my heart, and all my agitated feelings had
subsided into calm.
It was at noon when we left the land. Toward evening I went on deck, to cast one more glance upon that
great New World. There it lay on the western horizon,
dark green upon the blue waters, in a grand half circle,
like an open embrace, a calm and inviting harbor. Clouds
of tender peach-colors, and from the darkest violet to the
clearest gold, and the softest crimson, lay in picturesque
masses above it-rain-showers and sunbeams were flung
athwart it. The sun freed himself from the cloud, and
shone all the brighter the lower he sank toward the horizon where the great land lay. And that was the last
view I had of it; and thus shall I always behold it in the
depth of my soul.
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
I now see it no longer with my eye- see only heaven
and the ocean. I am now again passing through a pause
between two periods of life, between two worlds.  But my
heart is full. And when people ask me what the people
of the New World possess preferably to the Old, I reply,
with the impression of that which I have seen and passed
through in Amnerica fresh in my soul, a warmer heart's
pulse-a more energetic, youthfully strong life.
Among the letters which I received shortly before
coming on board is one which I shall always cherish. It
is not signed by any name, but if its writer only knew
(the style is that of a man) how much joy it gave me! I
have sometimes complained bitterly of the want of a nice
sense of delicacy; but I have not mentioned the many
proofs I have received of the most charming delicate kindness, which approached merely to give me pleasure, and
then withdrew to avoid thanks. This letter belongs to
that class.
The weather is now stormy and the sea runs high. I
keep quiet in my cabin. I look at the little bouquet of
green leaves and splendid everlastings. They speak to me
of America and the memories I carry thence. I shall not
behold any dear object until I once more see the Swedish
coast-and you.
She to whom these words were addressed I was never
more to behold. On the threshold of my home I found
her grave.
Had she lived, these letters certainly would have rermained unpublished.  Their contents would have undergone a change before they had been presented to the public, probably for the better; for then I should have had a
friend at my side in whose pure soul I should have seen
my faults as in a mirror. As it is, I have been alone,
although I have sometimes believed that an angel was
near me.
637 
HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
The letter to the distinguished Danish theologian, Professor H. Martinsen, which now follows, was thought over
in America, but was written in Europe. I required quietness and the power of making a general review before
writing it. I could not, while in the country, perfectly
see the wood for trees, and from the great number of
churches could not see the church.
Now, when the forests of the New World murmur in
the distance, and the great picture of the New World's
cultivation is seen in perspective beyond the agitated sea,
am I able for the first time to trace the main features
with greater clearness and precision. Some of these I
have already presented. One of the most essential I have
here endeavored to present to the noble and profound
thinker whom I am still so happy to call my teacher and
my friend.
LETTER XXXVIII.
ro THE PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, DR. H. MARTINSEN.
Stockholm, May, 1853.
OF the happy time during which I was able every week
to enjoy your society and conversation, I retain in my
soul two especial moments as focuses of that light which,
through the mercy of God, flowed from your soul into
mine. The one was that evening when, emboldened by
the struggle of my spirit and by your goodness, I drew
comparisons between the teachings of heathenism and
Christianity, inquiring after the new life until I made
you angry, but by so doing drew from your lips a word
before which my spirit became silent, because it perceived
therein the true answer to my inquiry, and the arising of
the new life. The second moment was the completion of
the first. Many questions had become entangled into one
single knot. You disentangled them by a single blow of
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
that spiritual sword, which is at the same time the sword
of the Word and of discriminating reason, which the Eter nal Word has placed in your hand, accompanied by a pow er but rarely given to mortals. The effect of these two
words, which still resound in my inner being, was, that
they reached the very core of the subject, and called forth
within me that which was essential, that which was vital.
Would that I might do the same now, in giving you
an account of that new life which, during the two years
which have elapsed since we parted, I have contemplated
in that great Western land, whither I went, as I had gone
before to you, as an inquirer-a seeker.
This is my wish. And I can promise you one thing, I
will not detain you by many words.
"For what purpose are you going to America-what do
you desire to see there?" was the question which you and
many other of my friends in Denmark put to me before I
embarked.  I desired to see-the approaching One.
For One there is who has silently advanced onward
through time, from the beginning. Bloody ages, brilliantly
splendid epochs, are merely dissimilar chambers through
which he advances, silently, calmly, becoming more and
more distinct, through the twilight vail, until he reaches
that period on the threshold of which he now stands, contenmplated by many with rapture, by many, too, with fear.
And if it is asked whose is the form before which thrones
totter, crowns fall off, and earthly purple grows pale, the
reply is, MAN-Man in his original truth, formed in the
image of God.
In all realms of Christendom, people are becoming aware
of his presence-are speaking of him, combating for him,
combating against him, and-preparing for him a way.
For his day is at hand, and he will come with it.*
* As a beautiful proof of this may be instanced, it seems to me, that
ready, cordial homage which free nations at the present time pay to noble
and liberal-mrinded rulers, such as Leopold, Victoria, Oscar. What tri
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I wished to see humanity as she presented herself in the
New World, now that she had cast off all dominion of courts,
forms, and uniforms, which had become oppressive burdens
in the Old World-now that she had there, on the new
soil, erected for herself a kingdom and an asylum for all
nations, according to no other law than that promulgated
in the Christian revelation and within her own breast.
That was the form of humanity which I desired to see and
to comprehend, and with her the new community and life.
Contemplate with me, then, for a moment, this humanity as she emerges from the bosom of the Mayflower, and
plants on the new soil the earliest legislative colony; behold her in the little company of the Pilgrim Fathers.
They have come hither from the Old World, because,
in the midst of persecution for their faith and struggle for
daily bread, they felt themselves called upon to extend
the kingdom of Christ in the New World-yes, even though
they should be, as it were, mere stepping-stones for others.
They call themselves Independents, Non-conformists, and
Puritans, because they have separated themselves from the
outward Church and all worldly power, and demand their
right to govern themselves conformably only to the Word
of God and the light of their own conscience. The Bible
and implements of labor were the principal effects which
they conveyed with them to the New World.
They wished to establish on that new, virgin soil, a
Church and a social state of the purest character, of the
inner man enlightened by the Word of God.
Every individual of that little company is made free by
God, and is a free fellow-citizen; and not fellow-citizen
merely-ruler, priest, magistrate, public official of every
kind, because he may and must also be all these, if he is
umphal procession of antiquity can indeed be compared to those noble
human thanksgiving festivals which were this year celebrated, in Sweden
and Norway, for the restored health of King Oscar-homage as much due
to the man as to the monarch!
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nominated to them by the community. Man bears within himself the ability for all. Each individual feels himself a man, and at the same time intimately bound up in
consolidated union with the rest. The community governs itself by the appointment of its own governors. These
are elected by vote.   The majority of votes decides the
election, all agreeing to respect rules and rulers which the
majority have agreed to.  The document of this agreement was signed by the emigrants before they left the
Mayflower-before they had landed on the new soil. When
the little community trod the shores of the New World, it
had already perfected its essential, its formative principle.
Within themselves were governors, priests, and magistrates, such as every human community would require,
but they must all be chosen by the popular voice.  Neither rank nor wealth availed any thing; nothing in that
new community was of higher avail than those qualifie-~
tions which made the fisherman Peter, and Paul the tentmaker, apostles in the kingdom of Christ.  The human
being made free through Christ holds the highest rank on
earth; there can be none higher. Such rank and dignity
are absolute; and the labor of this elevated and ennobled
humanity becomes thereby of the highest value.  Sanctity
of life and the honor of labor are laws in the community
of the Pilgrims; and the occupation of their lives during
the earlier portion of their settlement in the New World
was divine worship and labor.
Such was the little colony of the Mayflower.   That
was the seed.  It fell in good soil, and bore fruit a hundred-fold.   There was a creative power in that grain of
corn; and we recognize the same to this day in all the
social institutions and spiritual life of the United States,
even where this is still cramped by accidental fetters, or
darkened by the shades of the old night.
The humanity which became the lawgiver of this hemisphere stood forth there with a full consciousness of her
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self as the servant of God and a member of the social
state. These two in her are one. This is her peculiarity
or her peculiar perfection.
Many of our countrymen regard the United States
merely as an aggregate of inharmonious parts, brought
together by chance, and adhering together by chance,
without any organized centre.
But no one who has lived for any length of time in the
United States, with leisure to study their life, can fail to
perceive that they are within themselves possessed of a
common creative principle of life, which is vital in the
highest degree, and this is their religious and civil consciousness.
It is this which every where erects churches, organizes
social institutions, and those still more powerful free associations; this it is which gives the bent to education,
which determines the character of the home; this which
finds its way into literature, into all great social movements, the watch-word of which is every where that of the
genuinely divine commandments, " Love God above all
things, and thy neighbor as thyself." Nowhere, indeed,
on the face of the earth has the Christian consciousness
of true human freedom attained to so full a recognization
as in the United States; nowhere has it expressed so universally, and still expresses, both by word and deed, the
doctrine that pure religion is the foundation and fortress of sound morality; that the true worship of God is
the true love of man; that the most acceptable sacrifice
which can be presented to the Father of Nations is the
sight of a free, pious, and happy people, all of whom have
equal rights and equal opportunity to acquire the highest
human worth, the highest human happiness.
This consciousness is the centre of gravity in the cultivation of the New World throughout the Northern States.
Every thing else, whether it be statesmanship, material
development, science, or art, are subordinate to this, and
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must voluntarily or involuntarily obey it.  There are sep   arate corps, and separate leaders, and many different
names, but there is one Commander-in-chief, whom all
must obey and follow, and this is the great humanity   humanity in its highest individual and social develop   ment. The leading principle of this idea is, that each
and all must serve. This it is which must be realized in
every individual human being, and in society at large.
The Pilgrims took with them the Bible and implements
of labor from Europe to the New World, and it may be
said with justice that these two are to this day great pow   ers in the cultivation thereof. Religious and spiritual life
develop themselves in proportion to physical improvement.
The human being and humanity are regarded and ad   vanced pre-eminently with reference to their heavenly and
their merely earthly relationship; every thing else is sec   ondary.
Spiritual life must be here regarded principally in its
Iform as churches, and in the results'thence accruing.
North America is usually upbraided, in Europe, with
its many dissimilar religious sects, its many separated
churches. Nevertheless, it may be perceived, at the same
time, that they are possessed of an essential unity in doc  trine and life, although each individual sect has, as its
germ, gathered itself around some one individual truth
x wh ich i t e levte  f o.  r i ts standnal rd.*
* "What, even the Mormons?" you ask, suspiciously. Without being
able to speak with precision of that which is distinctive in the doctrines
of the Mormons, I must still say, on the ground of what I was able to collect in America regarding this sect-its leaders and doctrines-that I believe the accusations laid to their charge are for the greater part untrue.
The Mormons acknowledge as theirs the revelation of Christ and the
Bible. Their later prophets (as I myself had opportunity of ascertaining)
have given merely more close and more special prophecies of Christ, but
no new doctrines. I was assured by an intellectual man-not a Mormon
-who had resided two years among the Mormons in Utah, that the morals of the people were remarkably pure, and that the Mormon women were
above all blame.
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This was its purpose, its mission, its necessity.   "God
would have it so!" I have been compelled to say many
times to myself, as I contemplated the histories and the
lives of the persons who founded the most remarkable
sects of North America, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, George Fox, Anne Lee, and others, were impelled by
a spirit mightier than themselves. They began by opposing the inner voice (as Luther did), but in the end they
were compelled to follow its commands.  These persons,
divinely possessed, were driven by their inward spirit fromnt
comfortable and cheerful homes out into the wilderness,
into captivity and persecution, and amid manifold suffering, for the promulgation of that truth which they had received, to suffer, nay, even to die for the doctrines they
proclaimed. They could not do otherwise-they ought
not to do otherwise, if they were worthy to be the servants of God.
"Do not stand still with Luther and Calvin," exclaimed
Robinson, the spiritual pastor of the Pilgrims, addressing
them from the shores of the Old World; "they were great
and shining lights in their time, but they penetrated not
to the councils of God. I conjure you, bear this in your
remembrance; it is an article of your Church communion
that you hold yourselves in readiness to receive whatever
The founder of the sect, Joe Smith, was a man of simple education, but
possessed of extraordinary natural gifts, even of that secondary prophetic
kind which is known in Scotland under the name of" second-sight."  He
himself believed in his revelations-at least in a part of them. After his
death, the Mormon community was governed by men whom Joe Smith
appointed to be his successors. They rule, as Smith had done, according
to the word of the Bible and the inspiration of the Spirit. The hierarchical character of the government, under prudent leaders, constitutes its
present strength, and has caused its rapid prosperity, under the AngloAmerican moral law and order-which even in the valley of the Salt Lake
shows its formative powers-that very form of government constitutes
its danger, and may probably one day bring about its fall. And that day
will be whenever it violates the sanctity of private life. Should the inspiration of the government permit polygamy, the Anglo-American home
will never allow it.
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truth shall be revealed to you from the written word of
God."
It was on the ground of this progressive, divine comminunication from God to man that Luther appealed from
the Pope's bull to the Bible; it was on the ground of the
same doctrine that the Puritans appealed from the state
Church of England to the right of the human conscience,
with the light of Scripture to decide, each man for himself, on his mode of faith and divine worship.. It was also
on the ground of the same doctrine that, still later, Anne
Hutchinson and Henry Vane-in whom it was said that
Calvinism went to seed-appealed from the dogmatic despotism of Calvinism to the judgment-seat of individual
conscience, and the voice of God within it. God's light
in the Scriptures, in connection with the revelation of God
in the conscience of the searcher of the Scriptures, could
and should alone decide.  Persecution and banishment
only served to strengthen the cry in the innermost of the
soul.
Driven from home and country, deserted by all, accused
i   by his friends, and reproached even by his wife, the gentle
but steadfast Roger Williams was obliged to flee into the
wilderness for the doctrines of the liberty of conscience.
But God was with him, and there grew up around him
the large city of Providence, and afterward a state, that of
Rhode Island, the home of religious toleration and human
love.
The principle of freedom which the Pilgrims first plant  ed in the soil of the New World became more and more
intrinsically inward, demanding for man that he should be
left alone with God.
We know very well, my noble friend, to what dangers
of self-delusion and arrogance the human mind is liable
from this point of view. - But-every point of view has its
dangers when the eye is dark, and the human mind weak
or inflated with pride; nevertheless, there is no higher or
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more inward point of view than this-Man alone with
God. CGod spoke in the times of old with the great law givers, with Moses and the prophets. It is our Christian,
our joy-giving belief, that God at this day speaks indi vidually to all and each of his children, as He, through
Christ, spoke to Peter and Mary; that all and each of us
may, in our most sacred moments, perceive His voice, and
become both ear and tongue for his truth. Every thing
in this respect depends on purity and obedience in the in dividual man. It may be unpardonable audacity to stand
forth in the pretension of a higher knowledge; it may be
criminal cowardice to remain silent; God alone can be the
judge of this. The human being always stands at the
last alone with God, and no one can then come between
them. The Church can teach much, society can give
much culture, but at the last they are insufficient. The
human soul must converse alone with God. In this lies
a great danger, but great strength and consolation likewise. The founders of sects in America have known both.
If you should inquire in what way this division of the
Church into so many sects exhibits itself in the New
World, I would reply, firstly, in a large and universal love
of the Church, and a powerful form of Church discipline.
The number of churches-always well and handsomely
built-in both the larger and smaller cities, must strike
every traveler in the United States. Generally the churches are in proportion to the number of the inhabitants, one
for each thousand persons, frequently each five hundred,
sometimes for less.  Each religious community governs
itself, and takes cognizance of all its members, and of its
poor, and exercises a salutary supervision of morals and
general conduct. The minister is exclusively the shepherd of souls, and occupies himself with nothing excepting the care of souls, by public preaching and private admonition and sympathy. The community, which elects
its own minister, is generally very much attached to him,
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and estimates him very highly if he deserves it. Much
has been said in Europe on the fortune-hunting of the
ministers in America; but I must say, that I found those
ministers who were possessed of great Christian worth and
great independence of character were always regarded
with great affection by their congregations, supported by
them, cared for and provided for as long as they lived.
The ministers of religion constitute one portion of the aris   tocracy of America, and I have among them ret with the
most intelligent and interesting individuals.
The consequence of this liberty, which is extended to
sects, exhibits itself still further by a large development
of the religious mind. Each considerable sect has its own
religious publication, in which its doctrines are developed
by discussion with others, and the church relationship is
contemplated in a many-sided manner. Hence the pub   lie mind is very much turned to these subjects, and a gen   eral comprehension of them is the result; and therefore it
may be said of the American people, as Swedenborg, in
his day, said of the English, in the " Vision of the Last
Judgment,"
The better portion of this nation are at the central
point before all Christians, and the cause of their being at
the centre is, that they have developed the intellectual
light. This light proceeds from the freedom which they
have enjoyed in thought, and consequently in speaking
and writing. Among the people of other nations this in tellectual light is concealed, because it has had no outlet."
You are of a certainty acquainted with a number of
the more important religious sects in the United States.
I will here, therefore, merely speak of that which distin   guishes them in general, and is indicative of their inner
congregational life. Some address themselves more im   mediately to the feelings, others to the intellect; all, how   ever, lay the greatest importance on works of love.  The
Catholic and the Quaker, on this broad ground, extend to
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
each other their hands. No sect, however, it seems to
me, has attained to a universal church consciousness, proportioned to the political consciousness of the United
States, excepting in some of their highest representatives.
I have heard genial ministers among the Calvinists, the
Unitarians, the Baptists, who all open the Church of
Christ to the wide world. Especially so in the old Presbyterian Congregational Church, which I will also call
the Church of the Pilgrims, and in which every layman
takes part in the affairs of the Church. This Presbyterian Church seems to be possessed of a strong, growing,
and expansive life, i.e., in the free states; in the slave
states that Church is in general enslaved and bigoted in
character. In the free states it stands fixed on the Rock
of Ages, but opens itself thence to embrace the whole
world. Even nature, art, industry, and science are baptized to the service of God.
The so-called "Revivals" belong to the phenomena
which are common to all the Protestant churches of the
United States, and which are indications of their vitalizing
principle. These revivals are times when persons, possessed of unusual gifts and impelled by burning zeal, go
about as missionaries into the cities and the country,
uttering afresh the cry of John the Baptist, "Be ye converted!" Such times and seasons permeate the life of
the Church like deep, fresh respirations from the sphere
of religious life, and thousands of individuals date from
such their new and better life.
One of the most beautiful circumstances of the general
Church in the United States appears to me to be the great
institution for the diffusion of popular literature of a moral
and religious tendency, but without any sectarian spirit,
which was established in New York about twenty years
ago, and to which the adherents of many different sects
equally extended support, continuing to work amicably
and powerfully together to the present time.  Twenty
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steam-presses work off twenty-five thousand sheets daily,
three thousand volumes, calculated to diffuse the knowl    edge of our Lord Jesus Christ as the redeemer of sinners,
and to promote living piety and sound morality by the
circulation of works which will meet the approval of all
evangelical Christians.
The American Tract Society has thus made the press
subserve for the evangelizing of America. The best of the
religious and moral literature of England and America is
collected in these popular works, which are handsomely
printed, and furnished with beautiful wood-cuts. Many
hundred colporteurs are sent out to diffuse these over the
whole Union, over its most remote portions, among foreign    ers, and in the wildernesses, and thus the evangelical
-   Church continues to the present day to scatter a gentle
rain of manna over the land, as seed from the hand of the
Great Sower, and the good which is thereby produced, and
which springs up especially in the hearts of childhood and
youth, is incalculable.
And if we turn from this great institution for the scat   tering of evangelical seed-which has now been imitated
in many of the Northern States-to popular schools, to es   tablishments for neglected humanity, for the criminal, for
the sick, for the unfortunate of society, and, above all, to
the increasing attention to these, and the labor which is
bestowed upon them in the United States, it can not be
denied that these, above all, deserve the name of Christian
States.
But you will say that this is merely one side of the pic   ture; that you know very well that another life increases
also in these states, a worship and a Church which are
not of God. I know it well also. The Old Serpent lives
also on the soil of the New World. And call it AMammon   worship, slavery, despotism, mobocracy, or by whatever
name you please, indicative of the principle of selfishness
and lies, it lives, it grows there, as the tares among the
VOL.  II.-BE 
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HOMES OF THE NEW WORLD.
wheat.  Yes, it seems to me that the most essential impulses of the human spirit, for good as well as for evil, and
which, during the ages of history, have sprung up and
flourished in Asia and in Europe, have sprung up also in
America, and will there ripen for harvest. Frequently,
during my residence in America, was I reminded of your
words, in your article on the coming of the Lord and the
completion of all things, in which you say,
" The nearer history approaches to its close, the greater is the impetus attained by the wheel of time; the greater is the speed and the rapidity, the more quick the revolution of dissimilar conditions hurrying onward develop.
ment; and he may greatly miscalculate who conceives
that in the present condition of the world there still remains as much to do as may require the labor of centuries, and that the end may still be very distant; for, if the
Lord so will, it may be done in an eventful day, and without such a one it never will be accomplished. Neither,
therefore, is it opposed to the doctrine of Scripture, if we
conceive of the Alillennium as a very short period-as one
day which concentrates in itself a fullness and a glory
which otherwise would extend over a century."
The life of North America exhibits such a hurrying onward, such a concentration of the fullness of development
in good and in evil. The vastness and comprehensiveness
of this hemisphere, embracing the productions and peculiar beauties of every zone; the means of communication,
their abundance and facility, which places them within
the reach of every man; the extent of individual freedom,
the unlimited scope for competition-nay, even the nervous temperament of the climate, and its stimulating eflbectt
upon a race whose inborn energy impels them onward,
and, carrying all other people along with them, ever accelerates their speed with the force of the avalanche, onward to the goal, to the day of judgment; for, though I
have already said it, I must repeat it here, we must not
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expect a Utopia from America, but rather a day of judg ment; and to no nation so much as to this does the ad monishing word of Christ seem so applicable-'" Watch!"
Yet, nevertheless, when I look at that life, which is at
this time most powerfully increasing-that which is in the
ascendant and prevalent throughout the United States,
I must confess that my heart is filled with hope; because,
if the United States would-anid I believe they will-re move from their present legislation its great anomaly if they would introduce into slavery the right of libera tion by labor, and establish a gradual emancipation ac cording to law, then      *    *      *      *     *
If I imagine to myself some great convulsion of nature,
which should all at once annihilate this vast hemisphere imagine it sunk in the twinkling of an eye into the depths
of the sea, and there vanishing with its star-strewn banners, its fleets and rail-roads, its great cities and swarming human masses, its proud capitols and beautiful quiet
homes-imagine to myself all this vanishing silently into
the great deep, as into an immense grave, and the waves
roaring over it, and the space being desolate and void,
save for the angel of judgment, flying forth alone over the
past world, with the record of its deeds in his hand,
which he will place in the Book of LIife before the throne
of the Almighty Judge-then on this page we read,
"This people were in earnest to realize the kingdom of
Christ on earth, for the honor of God the Father!"
Behold here, my precious friend and teacher, my confession of faith regarding the life of the New World.  Let
me hope that I may one day justify it to you, either in
your home or in mine.
It was one of my most ardent wishes in the United
States to make them acquainted with you and your theological opinions, and it lies very much at my heart to
malke you more intimately acquainted with them, being
certain that the Christian mind of Scandinavia and the
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people of America are profoundly united by their labor in
the service of the same Lord, and that they have much
to say to each other.
Let me be included in your goodness, in your kind remembrance!
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APPEND I X.
IT was my intention, at the commencement of this work, to introduce
in an Appendix at its close such of the scenes which I had witnessed, and
my own experience in the slave states of America and in Cuba, as I coni      sidered necessary to be made known, but which I had not related in my
letters, being unwilling to point out persons and places. The celebrated
work, however, of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin,"
and, still more, her lately published work, "A Key, &c.," have rendered
this unpleasant duty unnecessary for me; for my narratives would not
have presented any facts essentially different to those which she has in      troduced into her story, so that I need not further prolong this work,
which is already too much extended, than by remarking that my pro      posed narration would have principally strengthened my often-repeated
observation regarding the demoralizing effect of the institution of slavery
on the white population.
When I saw a young man of almost angelic beauty, a noble by descent
and appearance, sell his soul, with the full consciousness of doing so, to
receive the wages of a slave-driver; heard him acknowledge that he did
not dare to read the Bible; heard him say that he-at the beginning of
his career-would not for any money have touched a negro with the
whip, but that now he should be able, without hesitation, to have a negro
flogged to death for "example's sake," and chase them with blood     hounds or any thing else; when I heard one of the richest planters of
Louisiana, one of the politest of gentlemen, naively praise himself and
the system on his plantation, without having the slightest idea of the
miserable hypocrisy, and the despotism which the whole of his conduct
on these plantations betrayed; when I saw a Christian woman and
mother forbid her daughter to dance on a Sunday, yet perceive nothing
offensive in compelling her slaves to work for her the whole of the Sun day to the music of the cracking whip; when I saw agreeable and ami     able young people anxious one for another, yet witness with perfect in     difference the brutal maltreatment of a young negro woman by her mas     ter for some trivial offense, I have been compelled to say with my friend,
the planter on the Mississippi, "It is the system! it is the system which
produced all this!"
Honor be to the noble, warm-hearted American woman, who has stood
forth in our day-as no other woman in the realms of literature has yet
done-for the cause of humanity and the honor of her native land, and
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APPENDIX.
that with a power which has won for her the whole ear of humanity.
Honor and blessing be hers! What will not that people become who can
produce such daughters!
I differ from the noble author of "Uncle Tom" in my convictions regarding the mode of emancipation from slavery. I am firmly persuaded
that the slave states of America have really begun the work, inasmuch
as they have begun to allow the negro slaves to form themselves into
Christian communities, and by uniting emancipation with the colonization
of Africa by free negroes. It is only by the establishment of Christian
negro communities that a good emancipation can be effected; The condition of the negroes in Africa and Jamaica show what this people would
become without a firm basis of Christian life and Christian teaching; it
is nothing to praise, it has nothing inviting, I repeat it; a commencement
is already made in several of the slave states to elevate the moral condition of the negro slaves, and my cordial wish and my hope is that still
more will yet be done, as well by statutes of emancipation as by the instruction of negro children. The preachings of the slaves themselves,
which I heard in many of the American slave states, are the best proof
of the living and beneficial manner in which they receive Christianity.
They have a peculiar capacity for the reception of its innermost life and
understanding. God grant that they may come to hear the Gospel
throughout the whole of the slave states! But as yet there is a great
deal wanting for that-an unpardonably great deal!
!My own hope rests still, however, as before, in the nobler South; my
earnest wish is, that it may take the emancipation question into its own
hand. It alone, and not England, nor yet the Northern States of America, can enter into the greatness of the question. The South alone knows
the burden, the danger, the responsibility, all the great difficulties; it
alone has the labor and the sorrows  If it succeed in unloosing the fetters of the slave, and freeing its glorious, grand country from slavery, it
will achieve for itself unfading glory.
STOCKHOLM, May 1st, 1853.
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THE END.
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