[25] For the work of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, see Wyeth's Oregon, in our volume xxi, p. 71, note 47.—Ed.
[26] The first recorded death by cholera, in North America, occurred on June 8, 1832, at Quebec. The epidemic began raging in northwest India in 1827-28. It reached the shores of the Caspian Sea (1829), spread throughout Russia (1829-30), reached England (1831), and spread to the United States by way of Detroit the following year. Rapidly extending throughout the union, it counted its victims in nearly every state and territory.—Ed.
[27] For a brief sketch of Astor, see Franchère's Narrative, in our volume vi, p. 186, note 8.—Ed.
[28] The Americans report of this pine that, if it is cut down, oaks and other trees immediately grow up in its place; and if these are cut down, the pines grow up again, and so continually alternating in the same manner!—Maximilian.
[29] Richard Harlan (1796-1843) graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania (1818), practiced medicine in Philadelphia, and later occupied the chair of comparative anatomy in the Philadelphia Museum. He was a member of the Cholera Commission of 1832, and of many learned societies both in this country and abroad. His chief publications were: Observations on the Genus Salamandra (Philadelphia, 1824), Fauna Americana (1825), American Herpitology (1827), Medical and Physical Researches (1835), and a translation of Gaunal, History Of Embalming, with additions (1840).—Ed.
[30] Joseph Bonaparte (1768-1844) held many positions of trust under his brother Napoleon. He negotiated the treaty of peace between this country and France in 1800, and the treaty of Amiens in 1802. He was made king of Naples (1806), and king of Spain two years later. In an interview with his brother after the battle of Waterloo, arrangements were made for a meeting in New York. In the summer of 1815 Joseph Bonaparte, under the assumed title of Comte de Survilliers, came to the United States and purchased a mansion in Philadelphia, a country seat of about a thousand acres, near Bordentown, New Jersey, six miles below Trenton, and later a summer home on the edge of the Adirondack Mountains. His favorite residence was "Point Breeze," near Bordentown, where in 1820 he built what was accounted the finest mansion in the state. In 1850, Henry Beckett, the British consul at Philadelphia, purchased "Point Breeze," and demolished its mansion. Joseph Bonaparte was in Europe from 1832 to 1837; the next two years in this country; and in 1841 went to Florence, Italy, where he died. His benevolence and hospitality won for him much admiration in the United States. See our volumes xi, p. 159, and xii, p. 79.—Ed.
[31] On February 4, 1830, the state legislature of New Jersey granted a charter for the Camden and Amboy Railroad.—Ed.
[32] We were told that the Virginian deer were formerly very numerous here, but that it had been found necessary to shoot them, because, in the rutting season, they roamed about and did great damage to the crops.—Maximilian.
[33] For Major Long's Expedition, see our volumes xiv-xvii. Short notes on the Peale family, Seymour, and Say may be found in our volume xiv, pp. 39-41, note 2.—Ed.
[34] Bethlehem is today a post borough and summer resort in Southampton County, Pennsylvania, fifty-six miles north of Philadelphia. At times during the Revolutionary War, it was the general hospital headquarters for the Continental army and about five hundred soldiers were buried there. In 1740, under the leadership of Whitefield, a small body of Moravians who had recently migrated to Georgia settled on the Forks of the Delaware. Within a few weeks, however, doctrinal differences influenced Whitefield to expel the Moravians from his estate. Through the labors of Bishop Nitschmann, the latter purchased from William Allen five hundred acres on the banks of the Lehigh River. Count Zinzendorf, visiting the hamlet at Christmas in the same year, named it Bethlehem. It has since remained the centre of the northern division of the Moravian church in the United States.—Ed.