With these views the journey was undertaken, and the annexed pages are the result; in perusing which the reader is requested to observe, that he will not find, strictly speaking, an emigrant's guide through the country, (although there are hints which it is hoped may be found useful,) but chiefly facts and reflections for consideration previous to going thither under the inducements held out by Mr. Birkbeck and others:—These hints, the Author is conscious, have not been conveyed [xi] in the most pleasing form, but he trusts, that if the matter be found important the manner will not be looked upon with the severity of a critic's eye.
To the Americans the Author wishes to address a few words, in order to assure them that, in the following observations, he has fully intended to guide his pen by the spirit of his motto: nor does he think them at all to blame in not coming up to the perfect model of a Republican which may be mentally pourtrayed; but rather ourselves are wrong in forgetting that they are not only men, but men placed in a new country, with all its difficulties, natural and moral, to overcome. If I picture to myself a giant and find a man of but ordinary proportions, is he to blame for this? Certainly not. The North Americans possess a fertile beautiful country and a fine climate: no one can wish for the improvement and the true enjoyment of these advantages more than the Author; he the more laments the apparent presence among them of a huge portion of blind conceit in their own superiority, and also the absence of the very essential Christian principle of good-will and benevolence; [xii] under the influence of which the truly great hold out the hand of good fellowship to the rest of mankind, regard them as brothers, and wish for "peace on earth, good-will toward men."
VISIT TO NORTH AMERICA
THE VOYAGE[1]
May 5th. Off Margate on board the Venus, bound for New York. This ship, which was to have sailed on 29th April, did not drop down the river until the 1st instant; and then, owing to an accident which befel the Steam Tug, did not reach Gravesend until Sunday the 2d. We had meanwhile repaired thither, and remained smarting under the extortionate charges of a Gravesend tavern. At length, on the Monday evening, the signal was displayed for sailing, and trunks, &c. having been previously sent on board, we took a [2] long leave of English ground, and proceeded with other passengers to the ship; expecting, like unfledged Voyagers, to find everything in trim to receive us.
When agreeing with the Captain for the passage, I had inquired if there were many other passengers, and was then told there were "a few;" previous to going on board the "few" had increased to "as many as convenient;" notwithstanding this hint, so inexperienced were we, that we were not in the slightest manner prepared for the scene presented to our appalled senses on rising the ship's side! Trunks, portmanteaus, packages of all kinds and descriptions, piled in all directions and in every way—a crowd of dirty squalid steerage passengers, which appeared to our magnifying eyes at least five times the real number, (about 80)—altogether formed a mass through which we could not, without much difficulty, push our way to the cabin; and that accomplished, still more horrors presented themselves to view: instead of the carpet and good order which reigned there when I had examined the vessel while in dock, the dirty floor was covered now with nothing but trunks, bedding, and other baggage; giving an effect the most forlorn and petrifying to us all: so that we sat down upon broken chair, box, trunk, or anything we could, and glared upon each other [3] desponding as the fallen angels at their first drop!