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 Fé--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