A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America

A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the?by S. A. Ferrall

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Title: A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America
Author: S. A. Ferrall
Release Date: March 26, 2004 [eBook #11725]
Language: English
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A RAMBLE OF SIX THOUSAND MILES THROUGH THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY S. A. FERRALL, ESQ.
LONDON, 1832

[Illustration: Fac-simile of the first two Paragraphs of the Leading Article in the "CHEROKEE PHOENIX" of July 31, 1830]

PREFACE.
The few sketches contained in this small volume were not originally intended for publication--they were written solely for the amusement of my immediate acquaintances, and were forwarded to Europe in the shape of letters. Subsequent considerations have induced me to publish them; and if they be found to contain remarks on some subjects, which other travellers in America have passed over unnoticed, the end that I have in view will be fully answered.
Although I remained in the seaboard cities sufficiently long to have collected much information; yet knowing that the statistics of those places had been so often and so ably set before the public, I felt no inclination to trouble my friends with their repetition.
In Europe, the name of America is so associated with the idea of emigration, that to announce an intention of crossing the Atlantic, rouses the interfering propensity of friends and acquaintances, and produces such a torrent of queries and remonstrances, as will require a considerable share of moral courage to listen to and resist. All are on the tiptoe of expectation, to hear what the inducements can possibly be for travelling in America. America!! every one exclaims--what can you possibly see there? A country like America--little better than a mere forest--the inhabitants notoriously far behind Europeans in refinement--filled with wild Indians, rattle-snakes, bears, and backwoodsmen; ferocious hogs and ugly negros; and every other species of noxious and terrific animal!
Without, however, any definite scientific object, or indeed any motive much more important than a love of novelty, I determined on visiting America; within whose wide extent all the elements of society, civilized and uncivilized, were to be found--where the great city could be traced to the infant town--where villages dwindle into scattered farms--and these to the log-house of the solitary backwoodsman, and the temporary wig-wam of the wandering Pawnee.
I have refrained nearly altogether from touching on the domestic habits and manners of the Americans, because they have been treated of by Captain Hall and others; and as the Americans always allowed me to act as I thought proper, and even to laugh at such of their habits as I thought singular, I am by no means inclined to take exception to them.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Sail for New York in an American vessel--the crew--ostentation of the Captain--a heavy gale--soundings--icebergs--bay of New York--Negros and Negresses--White Ladies--climate--fires--vagrant pigs--Frances Wright--Match between an Indian canoe and a skiff
CHAPTER II.
Depart for Albany--the Hudson--Albany--Cohoe's Falls--Rome--the Little Falls--forest of charred trees--"stilly night" in a swamp--fire fly--Rochester--Falls of Gennessee--Sam. Patch--an eccentric character--Falls of Niagara--the Tuscarora Indians--Buffalo--Lake Erie--the Iroquois--the Wyandots--death of Seneca John, and its consequences--ague fever--Wyandot prairie--the Delawares' mode of dealing with the Indians--the transporting of Negros to Canada
CHAPTER III.
Arrive at Marion--divorces--woodlands--Columbus--land offices--population, &c. Shaking Quakers--kidnapping free Negros--Cincinnati--the farmers of Ohio--a corn-husking frolic--qualifications necessary to Senators, Legislators, and Electors--a camp-meeting--militia officers' muster--Presbyterian parsons--price of land, cattle, &c.--fever and ague
CHAPTER IV.
Set out for New Harmony--the roads--a backwoodsman--the journey--peaches--casualties--travelling--New Harmony--M. Le Seur--barter--excursion down the Wabash--the co-operative community--Robert Owen
CHAPTER V.
Depart for St. Louis--Albion--the late Messrs. Birkbeck and Flowers--Hardgrove's prairie--the roads--the Grand prairie--prairie wolf--mode of training dogs--Elliott's inn--inhabitants of Illinois--ablutions--coal--soil and produce--the American Bottom--St Louis--monopolies--Fur companies--incivility of a certain Major--trapping expedition--trade with Santa F��--lead mines--Carondalot--Jefferson barracks--discipline--visit to a slave-holder--the Ioway hostages--Indian investigation--character of the Indians.
CHAPTER VI
Leave St. Louis--Indian mounds--remains of ancient fortifications--burial caverns--mummies--Flint's description of a mummy--the languages of America--town making--the Indian summer--population, &c. of Illinois--the prairie hen--the Turkey buzzard--settlers--forest in autumn--a gouging scrape--the country--extent and population of Indiana--hogs--a settler in bottom land--the sugar maple--roads--a baptism
CHAPTER VII
Set out for New Orleans--Louisville--Mississippi steam-boats--the Ohio--the Mississippi--sugar plantations--the valley of the Mississippi--New Orleans--Quadroons--slavery--a Methodist slavite--runaway Negros--incendiary fires at Orleans--liberty of the press--laws passed by the legislature of Louisiana--Miss Wright--public schools--yellow fever--the Texas
CHAPTER VIII.
Depart for Louisville--tellandsea, or Spanish moss--Natchez--the yellow fever--cotton plantations--Mississippi wood-cutters--freshets--planters, sawyers, and snags--steam-boat blown up--the Chickesaws--hunting in Tennessee--electioneering--vote by ballot--trade on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers--the People--the President's veto--finances--government banks--Kentucky--the Kentuckians--court-houses--an election--universal suffrage--an Albino--Diluvian reliqua
CHAPTER IX.
The political condition of