A Ramble of Six Thousand Miles through the United States of America   By: S. A. (Simon Ansley) Ferrall (-1844)

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.