DEPARTURE FROM PLYMOUTH AND NEW-BEdford, 483 yet seen. The chair used by Governor Carver on board the Mayflower, made of old English oak, with the staple for lashing it to the ship's deck in stormy weather, was a prominent article in the furniture: the other chairs were of the old, high-backed English fashion, the seats stuffed with hair, the wood of dark mahogany, the covering of striped black stuff. The old chest of drawers, with fanciful brass handles; the oak-framed, horizontal-paned glass over the chimneypiece; the little lion-pawed mahogany pier-table; the perpendicular and narrow oak-framed pier-glass between the front windows, with the dark green watered moreen curtains; and the family arms of the Whites and the Howlands, both Pilgrim Fathers, hanging over the mantelpiece, framed and glazed, as issued from the Heralds' College in London, carried one back so completely to the old English country mansions of past centuries, that it was difficult to feel one's self in the New World, and among a yet infant people. We indulged ourselves with a long visit to this venerable and deeply-interesting lady, and received quite as much pleasure from her lively and agreeable conversation as she herself seemed to derive from the visit of strangers, especially as my wife and son were both present, and answered the many inquiries made of them on points that interested her deeply. Our leave-taking of the families of Plymouth was cordial and agreeable in the extreme. We had attended two large parties made for us while here, and interchanged several more social visits. Great regret was evidently felt at our short stay; the lectures were closed with more enthusiastic approbation than it is usual for American audiences to bestow; and we parted with many a hope that we should visit Plymouth again. On Thursday, the 27th of December, we left Plymouth for NewBedford in an extra-coach; and, after halting an hour to take refreshments at the house of our friends Captain and Mrs. Lumbard, at Rochester, we reached Fairhaven at two o'clock, remained there to dine with our friends Captain and Mrs. Adams, and in the evening went to New-Bedford to deliver a lecture for the benefit of the Bethel and Port Society, as its funds had fallen into arrear, and it was thought desirable to make an effort, while the feeling of the public was strongly alive to its importance, to pay off its debts, which the proceeds of the lecture and the assistance of its best friends were likely to accomplish. On Friday, the 28th, we left New-Bedford on our way to NewYork, and travelled in an extra-coach about twenty-two miles to Taunton, a small but pretty and rising town. After dining at the hotel we started at three o'clock by the railroad train for Mansfield, a much smaller place, distant about eleven miles. Here we shifted into other cars for Providence, at which we arrived about six o'clock; and passing on by another line of cars, we went by 484 ARRIVAL AT NEW-YORK.-CONCLUSION. the railroad to Stonington, a distance of forty-seven miles, in two hours and a half, reaching the latter place at half past eight in the evening. As the moon was near the full and was unusually bright, and as the cars were commodious and well warmed by stoves in each, our journey was extremely pleasant, and the society agree able. At Stonington we embarked in the Narraganset steam-vessel for New-York; and, though late in the season, we found a large number of passengers, among whom were as many ladies as gentlemen. The vessel was of the largest class, containing more than 200 separate berths or bed-places, and having the means of making up more than 300 beds, including the sofas and benches. The saloons were certainly magnificent, the tables amply supplied, and everything that could make the passengers comfortable seemed to be carefully attended to. During the night we had a heavy fall of snow. In consequence of the thickness of the atmosphere, the greatest caution became necessary, and we accordingly proceeded at a slow rate, often stopping altogether for a few minutes, and continually sounding with the lead on both sides. At daylight, however, we found ourselves close to the entrance of New-York, with the northeastern portion of the city on our right, and the extreme end of Brooklyn on our left; and after passing the Navy-yard, and getting among a crowd of vessels of every class, which were thickly ranged on both sides, we rounded the Battery Point of New-York, and by eight o'clock were safely alongside the wharf, from which we went directly to the American Hotel, and, finding rooms there, made it our abode for the short period of our intended stay in the city. This terminated our travels through the Northern States of the Union, embracing the principal cities and towns in each; and, on casting a retrospective glance over the places visited and subjects described, it will be admitted that they are as varied and comprehensive as the limits of the work would contain. To different classes of readers who may honour these volumes with their perusal, various objections to separate parts of them will no doubt arise; for the tastes of mankind are as diversified as their temperaments, and unless all could be educated in the same school, and placed under the same circumstances-study the same subjects, and have the same objects in view-it would be chimerical to expect uniformity of taste and judgment on any literary production. The political reader would have liked, perhaps, more extensive developments of the principles of republican government, and more detailed expositions of its practical working. The financier would have gladly exchanged this for more information respecting the condition and solvency of the state stocks and corporate banks. The geologist, mineralogist, and botanist would hold both politics and finance to be inferior in interest to descriptions of Nature in the several departments named. The mercantile reader would think these all misplaced, if they occupied a more prominent portion than the information he seeks, as to the extent and nature of the exports and imports, tonnage of shipping employed, tariffs, duties, markets, prices current, &c. The philanthropist will perhaps think that more might have been said on the subject of slavery, on prison discipline, education, and benevolent institutions. The churchman and dissenter will each respectively regard the subjects of endowments for religious establishments, and the comparative merits of this and the voluntary system as of sufficient importance to take precedence of every other. And the general reader, who seeks only for amusement, will most probably complain that so much space should have been given to all these topics, and so little devoted to matters of a more light and entertaining nature. Amid all these conflicting claims, the utmost that any writer can hope for is to please that portion of the community who are reasonable enough to remember that if a book-professing to be at once historical, statistic, and descriptive- contains a sufficient amount of information on each of these branches to justify its title -and, in addition to this, something agreeable to their own tastes also they should charitably consider that others require to be informed and gratified as well as themselves. The remainder of our travels through the Continent of America embraced a visit to the Southern and Western States: from NewYork to Charleston in South Carolina; thence to Mobile and NewOrleans, by a land-journey across the States of Georgia and Alabama to Louisiana; up the River Mississippi; across the mountains of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and over the ridge of the Alleghanies into Virginia; and afterward across the Cumberland range, through Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh, and by the Ohio to Cincinnati, Kentucky, St. Louis, and Missouri; across the prairies of Illinois to Lake Michigan; from thence to Mackinaw, Lake Huron, Detroit, Lake Erie, and Canada, including Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec; Pictou and Halifax, in Nova Scotia ; St. John's and Frederickton, in New-Brunswick; across the boundary-line into Maine; and thence, by Bangor and Portland, to Boston and New-York. From this, the original port of our landing, we embarked in the ill-fated steamship President; and, after encountering a heavy gale, and being obliged to put back for want of fuel when nearly half way across the Atlantic, we completed in her the last voyage she ever made before the fatal one in which there is now too much reason to believe she has perished! It is intended, during the present summer, to arrange and pre pare for the press a second series of this work, to embrace as much as the same extent of limits will admit, of the travels in the Southern States, which are less known than they deserve to be to the British public. And if the reception given to this portion shall be sufficiently encouraging to warrant the undertaking, it will probably be ready for publication about the autumn of the present year. APPENDIX.-VOL. II. No. I. ▲ CONTRIBUTION FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1838. (Referred to at page 54.) HAIL! day of joy! whose glad return Hears a united nation's voice, "In thoughts that breathe and words that burn," Bid millions of free hearts rejoice. Thy dawning sun look'd forth upon VOL. I.-3 P Earth's coasts, or bathes her capes and isles, O'er a bright day of joy and smiles. Immortal honour to the brave, Whose hands first sign'd the bold decree; But oh! while boisterous revelry Shall swell the loud, triumphant song, No other tyrant, whose dark rod Rules o'er the land with fearful sway, E'en on this, sacred Freedom's day? With one accord join heart and hand, Could they but rise, might best reply. This tyrant carries in his train |