The stage had been first of all sent to our hotel on the morning when we left Albany. We were afterwards driven about the town to pick up the remaining passengers, the practice being universal to call at the residences of the passengers, to receive them and their baggage. Having been told that the people of this country are very subject to sickness in the stages, and, on that account anxious to sit with their faces to the front of the carriage, we took possession of the front, or foremost seat, nearest to the driver's seat, as being the least popular, with our faces to the back of the carriage. The Chancellor of the state was the first passenger, after we set out, for whom we called. He placed himself in the most distant seat, but gave it up to a family, consisting of two ladies and children, which we picked up at Cruttenden's, the chief Hotel at Albany, in the upper part of the town. The ladies were from Providence, in Rhode-Island, and on an excursion of pleasure to Niagara. There is no such thing as post-chaise travelling in any part of the United States. Journeys are usually performed in the four-horse stages, or in. steam-boats ; but on moat of the toads of very great resort, extra stages may be obtained, which may be regulated, as the passengers incline, as to the time they are to be on the road. In general, however, the travelling of this country .by land is performed in the regular stages, it being the ordinary custom of the country for all descriptions of persons to travel by the same conveyance, and while travelling, to eat together. The present President of the United States, Mr. Adams, whose private residence is near Boston, travels to Washington the seat of government by steamboat and the regular stage.
People going short journeys, of course, make use of their own carriages. The close carriage of Britain is rarely seen, but barouches and gigs are common ; and small wagons, and dearborns, which arc a light four-wheeled carriage, on springs of wood, with a movable seat, frequently covered on tire top, are in general us?. The road on which we were driven to Schenectady wm in many parts rough, and not well engineered, but wide; and there were rows of large Lombardy poplars on each side of a great part of it: the soil sandy, and by no moans fertile ; the orchards not productive ; the wood chiefly oak, cedar, and pine,-the greater part of nine. The driver stopped twice on the way to give water to his horses, on account, I presume,of the heat of the weather; and the ladies from Providence also got water for themselves and their children, always asking, before they tasted it, whether the water was good? The persons waiting at the doors of the hotels on the road,-for the most trifling inn, or house of public entertainment, is styled a hotel,-very civilly banded tumblers of water to the passengers, without payment of any kind. The conversation of the passengers was far more unrestrained than it probably would have been,-more especially had the Chief Justice been one of the party,-in an English stage coach ; nor did the judge presume in the slightest degree on his high official situation.
We reached Schenectady about twelve o'clock, and found the usual arrangement was, that the passengers should dine here, before embarking in one of the canal packets at two o'clock. The low land on the bank of the Mohawk, where Schenectady is situated, is good. The town contains a college, at which 200 young men are educated' : the whole population about 4000. The Mohawk Indiana, who are now extinct, possessed the fine district of country in this , neighbourhood, and to the westward, on the banks of the Mohawk.
The ringing of a bell summoned us to dinner about one o'clock, and about twenty people assembled, consisting of the ladies who had accompanied us, and the boarders. The system in all the country ions or hotels is to have breakfast, dinner, and tea, at fixed hours, which are announced by the ringing of a hand-bell. At those hotels there are generally boarders, consisting of many of the merchants, and merchants' clerks, doctors, &c. in the place. Some of them only board ; others board and lodge, at rates from, two and a half dollars to three and four dollars a week. Mechanics generally live in the same way, at houses somewhat of an inferior kind, at a lower rate,-a dollar and a half to two dollars a week. The innkeepers do not like to have the trouble of preparing separate meals, unless where absolutely necessary, and fix the hours of the meals so as to suit the passengers in the stages as far as possible. Dinner was abundant, consisting of fish, roast beef, boiled Iamb, broiled chickens, potatoes, squash, beet-root, green cabbage unboiled, cut down like pickled red cabbage, in vinegar; apple pie, pudding, cheese, melted butter, cold butter, and pickled cucumbers. The table was literally covered with dishes. Brandy was set down, but little used. No wine, nor any liquid but water. The waiters were men of colour. No payment was made to them, nor to the driver of the stage. Half a dollar for each person was the charge for dinner.
The canal passes the door of the hotel. We embarked in the packet at two, p.m.; and, though it did not appear to us to be in all respects a desirable mode of conveyance, we had no reason to regret our preferring it to the stage for the first part of the journey, on account of the very interesting district through which this part of the canal is carried. The accommodation for ladies, in respect to sleeping-places, is tolerably good; but that for gentlemen is not to be commended. The bridges over the canal are numerous, and so low, that passengers must leave the higher deck of the packet, where alone they can see the country, each time they pass them. We, therefore, very soon after leaving Schenectady, resolved again to betake ourselves to the stage when we arrived at Utica, distant eighty miles from Schenectady. We had tea and supper on the day we embarked, and breakfast and dinner on the following one, before we reached Utica ; every thing good, and as plentiful, as at the hotels. Three horses drag the boat at the rate of about four miles all hour ; but the locks occasion considerable detention ; and at one of them we were, owing to some accident, detained for an un reasonable time, and did not arrive at Utica until the afternoon of the 31st August, twenty-six hours after we had left Schenectady. The country through which we passed has been long settled-originally peopled by the Dutch-the present proprietors speaking both Dutch and English ; farm-houses good, with orchards loaded with fruit, and every appearance of comfort and plenty. The outsides of many of the houses painted of different colours ; white, green, mulberry brown. Great part of the canal is close to the river; and supported for considerable space by a prodigious wall, twenty or thirty feet high. There are small hotels in many places on the sides of the canal, where fruit, liquors, &c. may be had ; and various places, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Frankfort, &c. well situated on the river. There is also Caughnawaga, a fine Indian name. Indeed all the Indian names, such as Niskayuna, Saratoga, Ticonderoga, Cayuga, Ontario, Onondaga, Niagara, &c. are fine,-far preferable to the modern ones.
There are two large stone houses not far from Caughnawaga, formerly belonging to the Johnson family, whose great possessions here were confiscated at the period of the revolution, in consequence of their adherence to the British, who gave them compensation by grants of land in Canada. The founder of this family is said to have acquired this fine tract of country by a piece of dexterous management. He traded extensively with the tribe of Mohawk Indians. Their chiefs were in the habit of applying to him frequently for tobacco and rum, which they had, they told him, dreamed that he was to give them. The Indians profess to place great faith in dreams ; which Johnson never failed to encourage,-humouring their foible, by acceding to every request founded on them. Thus visits and dreams became frequent on the part of the Indians. Johnson never sent them away emptyhanded. To every request he replied, "I will prove that you were right ;" and presented them with whatever they applied for, on the footing that they had dreamed of it. At length the king had the conscience to dream that, if be was invested with Johnson's military dress of scarlet and gold, he should be as great a man as King George!--and King George he soon in so far became, for no long time elapsed before Johnson had him apparelled as he wished. But Johnson's turn to dream had now arrived ; for he had all the while attached the same weight to dreams. He dreamed, that the nation had, in consequence of his kindness to them, and in return for the hospitality he had shown them, bestowed on him part of their territory, which he described, and which he of course took care should be sufficiently extensive and valuable ; in fact, one of the finest tracts of land that it is possible to conceive. "Have you really had such a dream?" (they exclaimed,) with terror and alarm depicted on their countenances. Being satisfied on this point, the chief or king, convoked his tribe, who deliberated, and then announced to the dreamer that they had confirmed the dream. "Brother Johnson," (they said,) " we give thee that tract of land; but never dream anymore." The head of this farnily, whether the Johnson who obtained this grant, or his descendant, I know not, was subsequently created a baronet, for his gallantry in action in the war, when the French made an incursion from Canada in 1755. Mrs. Grant's representation of Sir William Johnson's intercourse with the Indians, and of his mode of life a few years subsequently to this period, is singular: " He had built two spacious places of residence, -Johnson Castle and Johnson Hall ; the one on an eminence, fortified, and the other on a delightful plum on the river side. The Hall was his summer residence; and here, where he made his greatest local improvements, he lived, like a little sovereign, keeping open table for strangers, officers, &c. His trade with the five Indian nations, then in his neighbourhood, was extensive ; and he treated them so fairly and honourably, that they placed unlimited confidence in him. When they returned from their summer excursions, and exchanged their furs for fire-arms; &c. they used to pass a few days at the Castle, while Sir William's family were at the Hall. There they were liberally entertained ; and 500 of them have been known for nights together, after drinking freely, to lie round him on the floor, while he was the only white person in a house containing great quantities of everything that was to them valuable or desirable." The ruins of Mohawk Castle are about thirty miles from Utica. Mrs. Grant, then a very young woman, was one of the first females, above the lowest ranks, who penetrated so far into what was then (about 1760 or 1761) considered a remote wilderness. The second day of her journey from Albany with her father, a British officer, and her mother, they came to the residence of the " Sachem, or king of the Mohawks, whose castle stood on a rising ground, surrounded by pallisades. He resided at the time in a house which the public workmen, who had lately built Fort Henrick, so called after the name of the sachem, had been ordered to erect for him in the vicinity. They waited upon his majesty, who, not choosing to depart too much from the customs of his ancestors, had not admitted divisions of apartments, or modern furniture, to profane his new dwelling. It had the appearance of a goodbarn, and was divided across by a mat hung in the middle. King Henrick, who had a princely figure, and a countenance that would not have dishonoured royalty, was sitting on the floor beside a large heap of wheat, surrounded with baskets of dried berries of different kinds ; beside him, his son, a very pretty boy, was caressing a foal, which was unceremoniously introduced into the royal presence. A laced hat, a fine saddle, and pistols, gifts of his good brother the great king, were hung round on the cross beams. He was splendidly arrayed in a coat of pale blue, trimmed with silver. All the rest of his dress was of the fashion of his own nation, and highly embellished with beads and other ornaments. I was prepared to admire King Henrick, by hearing him described as a generous warrior;- add to all this, that the monarch smiled, clapped my head, and ordered me a little basket, very pretty, and filled, by the officious kindness of his, with dried berries. Never did princely gifts, or the smile of royalty, produce more ardent admiration and profound gratitude."
There is a striking assemblage of romantic objects at the Little Falls of the Mohawk, about twenty-two miles from Utica, near which, at one place, the pass, between hills and through precipitous rocks of granite and limestone is so narrow, that a great deal of cutting and expensive operation has been necessary, in order to make room for the canal and road by the river side. The cataract itself is nowise remarkable, the descent being gradual over a rough rocky bed, and not unlike the Rapids at Killin, near the burying place of Macnab of Macnab, in Perthshire, in Scotland. The fall is occasioned by a chain of hills of no great elevation, which crosses the Mohawk. There are good specimens of petrifaction in this neighbourhood, especially of wood of large size.
Above Little Falls, the canal passes through a plain of fine alluvial land, called the German Flats, from its being originally peopled by German emigrants. Much of the land, from Schenectady to Utica, consists of good soil. Very little green crop is seen ; some potato, but very little turnip. Wheat is cut in July ; but part of the maize, which is sown in rows, and is a most valuable crop,-the great staple of American husbandry,-and of the oats, in different crops, are still in the field. No hedges, and the fences generally of wood, strong substantial posts and rails, for which locust, cedar, and hickory are preferred. The number of farm-houses and cottages seemed to us as great as in well-cultivated districts in England.
We saw many fine maple trees, valuable for giving shade, with little injury to the growth of grass and grain under them,-for their wood as beautifully marked for cabinet-makers,-for fuel, and chiefly, I believe, for giving sugar. The sugar has a peculiar flavour, which we thought unpleasant; but habit would, I doubt not, soon reconcile one to the use of it. The trees are tapped, two or three inches into the wood, with a view to obtaining the sap, from which the sugar is extracted, some time in February, or the beginning of March. The holes are made in a slanting direction, in which sprouts of elder or sumach, projecting from the tree, are placed. The holes are plugged as soon as the sap is drawn. The tree does not become impoverished by repeated tappings. There are instances on the Hudson, where the process has been continued for fifty years. Maple trees never thrive but on good land.
The party in the canal packet consisted of the ladies and their family who had accompanied us from Albany ; one of the agents of the canal ; a storekeeper from New-Jersey, and his sister ; and one or two other gentlemen, besides passing travellers, and workmen, who were often with us only for a mile or two. The charge is, I believe, three or four cents a mile. There are one hundred cents to a dollar ; a cent is therefore of about the same value as a halfpenny, supposing the dollar to be worth four shillings and threepence sterling.
Although the passengers were in different ranks in life, little or no distinction was observable among them in the perfect freedom with which they entered into conversation, or gave their opinion on any subject which was started. All spoke with equal ease, and seemed on a par. The canal works, and the beauties of the country, were of course pointed out to the strangers ; but the engrossing subject was the election of the president of the United States, to be decided two months hence, a topic of warm but perfectly good-humoured discussion. The canal agent was as vigorous a partisan of Adams, as the storekeeper of Jackson; and we soon found that the opinions of the party were pretty equally divided. Some one said, that Jackson had merely distinguished himself as a soldier, and that it was now too late in life for him to acquire the habits necessary for the great situation to which he aspired. My friend from New-Jersey set us all to rights in this respect. Jackson was originally a lawyer, attorney-general for his state of Tennessee, and for many years member of Congress. A new light was also given us respecting the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister. We were told that the court-martial had been prevailed on, after the promulgation of their sentence, when they were entirely devested of the character of a court, to alter it, which they had no more right to do, than any other men in the country ; that Jackson had merely enforced the first sentence of death in both cases , but that, had he even altered the sentence, it was no more than our commander-in-chief is every day in the habit of doing, when he is called to revise the sentences of courts-martial. Were we to judge of the claims of the candidates from all that we have heard during the few days we have been in this country, we should incline to think that Jackson's popularity is mainly owing to his being considered the sterner, and more inflexible republican of the two. The family of Adams, were from the beginning Federalists. The name of Federalist is now extinct, but their principles remain, and are not without influence. The present president, Mr. Adams, on one occasion left his party ; and it was for having done so that Mr. Jefferson, then president, gave him office.
Nothing struck me more than the ease with which people of the lowest description, as we should view them from their appearance, entered at once into conversation, and delivered and enforced their sentiments. The late Sir Isaac Brock was, by some accident, mentioned. The canal agent spoke of him in terms of great respect, as the best commander the British had ever sent to Canada,-equally regretted on both sides of the St. Lawrence.
At Utica we landed at the canal coffee-house, and here, for the first time in the United States, saw an intoxicated person, an Indian, standing beside the canal, hurraing for Jackson. Having dined in the packet, we were desirous to have tea immediately on our arrival, that we might make as much use of our time as possible, in walking out while daylight remained, but we found that our request could not be complied with, without transgressing the ordinary rules of the house. We might have gained our object by extra payment, but even in that case as a favour. We therefore sallied forth, returning in time for the tea and supper hour at six, when we joined thirty or forty people seated at table in a large and rather handsome room. Tea and coffee were handed about, and there was plenty of food of all kinds, broiled meat, bread and biscuit, and cake of various sorts, plum jam, &c. The boarders seemed, to make as hearty a meal as the traveller?
Utica stands on the south bank of the Mohawk and is altogether of recent erection, though the population is now 8000 or 9000. It is regularly built, has wide, streets, and many handsome houses and gardens. There are several hotels,one of them Bagg's hotel, a very large house. Utica, being the point where many of the chief roads of the state unite, is a place of great resort for stages, and has been increasing rapidly since the canal was completed. Thera are, at present no less than five daily four-horse coaches from hence to Buflalo, on lake Erie, 200 miles distant, on the way to Niagara ; the fare six and a half dollars, and no payment to coachmen. There is no guard. The stores are very handsome, and there are several soda-water establisbments.
The Trenton Falls, a succession of water-falls, which travellers generally go to see, there being six chutes, and the wooded ravines and banks very romantic,-are about fourteen miles from Utica, on a creek which supplies the Mohawk; but as there was no intermission of the heat, we preferred proceeding onwards to Niagara in the stage. We had great difficulty in being ready at the hour for departure, the female servant having neglected to bring us a light in sufficient time. The stage was partly filled before we were prepared to take our seats,-half an hour before sunrise,- and did not reach Auburn until nearly sunset. A gentleman who had taken his seat in the back row, insisted on giving it up to my wife,so decidedly, as being her right, that she had no alternative but to accept it, although it was a matter of indifference to her on which, row she sat. In the same row with that gentleman was a poor woman, the widow of a labourer on one of the lakes with a child, to whom the gentlemen, two of whom were persons of no small consideration in point of fortune, showed the same attention and wish to be of use, as they could have done to any other female, whatever might be her rank in society.
Among our fellow travellers to-day was a gentleman of large property at Rochester, the most thriving of the villages on the Erie Canal, about eighty miles to the westward, situated on a considerable river, the Genesee, near Lake On tario, and possessing Immense water power. This gentle man told us, that the first child born at Rochester, after the settlement of the place, was a son of his, eighteen years ago. The place only contained a 1000 inhabitants in 1818 and now about 13,000. There are cotton-works, power- looms, woollen factories, eleven flour-mills, and six or seven churches. Large fortunes have been made by the purchase and sale of building lots.
Auburn itself is situated on the outlet of the Oswesco Lake, conveniently for manufactures, and is a thriving place, with a population of about 4000. It might have been the Auburn of Goldsmith, but for its numerous manufacturing establish ments, and for its being the situation of one of the two great state-prisons of the State of New-York. There are printing offices, and various newspapers here, as at all the villages; one of the papers devoted entirely to religious discussion and Intelligence. There are several hotels ; one of them, a splendid looking house, contains about 200 beds. The house seems well regulated. The hostess invited my wife to her parlour, where there is a good collection of books, including many of Sir Walter Scott's works, which we find even more frequently than Mr. Cooper's novels, wherever we go in this country.
Nowhere in this country has there been a more complete change since the revolution, than in that part of it where we now are, in respect of improved living, travelling, and augmented population. Mrs. Grant, who travelled as far as Utica, then called Fort Schuyler, nearly seventy years ago, and Chateaubriand, who passed through this part of the state on his way to Niagara in 1791, are good authorities at different periods.
In Mrs. Grant's time, roads there were none. The party proceeded up the river Mohawk in batteaux. The first night they spent with the King of the Mohawks, who allowed no division of apartments in his palace ; and where any of the forts were in the neighbourhood they slept in them, but at other times they encamped at night on the bank of the river. "This, (she writes,) in a land of profound solitude, where wolves, foxes, and bears abounded, and were very much inclined to treat and consider us as intruders, might seem dismal to wiser folks ; but I was so gratified by the bustle aftd agitation produced by our measures of defence, and actuated by the love which all children have for mischief that, is not fatal, that I enjoyed our night's encampment exceedingly. We stopped early wherever we saw the largest and most combustible kind of trees. Cedars were great favourites: and the first work was to fell and pile upon each other an incredible number, stretched lengthways, while every one who could was busied in gathering withered branches of pine, &c. to fill up the interstices of the pile, and make the green wood burn the faster. Then a train of gunpowder was laid along to give fire to the whole fabric at once, which blazed and crackled magnificently. Then the tents were erected close in a row before this grand conflagration. This was not merely meant to keep us warm, but to frighten wild beasts and wandering Indians. In one place, where we were surrounded by hills, with swamps lying between them, there seemed to be a general congress of wolves, who answered each other from opposite hills, in sounds the most terrific."
Chateaubriand's description of the difficulties he had to encounter thirty years afterwards, is not less interesting. He set out from Albany on horseback, having bought a couple of horses, and procured a Dutchman as a guide. " When I found myself, (he writes,) after passing the Mohawk, in woods, which had never been subject to the axe, I fell into a sort of intoxication. I went from tree to tree, to the right and the left indiscriminately, saying to myself, ' Here are no more roads to follow,-no more towns,-no more close houses,-no more presidents, republics, or kings ; and, to try whether I was at length reinstated in my original rights, I indulged in a thousand whimsical acts, which enraged the tan Dutchman who officiated as my guide.
"Our horses (near Onondaga) needed, rest. I sought with my Dutchman a spot suitable for our encampment. We found one in a dell, at a place where a river rushes impetuously from the lake. It was in the bend of the river that we prepared our lodging for the night. We planted two tall poles in the ground, and laid a third horizontally across their forks ; pieces of birch bark, one end resting upon the earth and the other against he transverse pole, formed a roof worthy of our palace. A fire was kindled to cook our supper, and to drive away the mosquitoes. Our saddles served for pillows,and our mantles for bed-clothes. We fastened bells to the necks of our horses, and turned them loose in the woods. By an admirable instinct, those animals never wander so far as to lose sight of the fire, which their masters kindle at night to drive away insects, and to defend themselves from serpents."
Again, "The new settlements exhibited a curious mixture of the state of nature, and the civilized condition. In the corner of a forest, which had never rung but with the shouts of the savage, and the braying of the fallow deer, you met with cultivated lands : you perceived, from the same point of view, the hut of an Indian, and the habitation of a planter. Some of these habitations already completed reminded you, by neatness, of English or Dutch farmhouses ; while others were but half-finished, and had no other roof than the dome of a spreading tree.
"In the best situations, villages were erecting. It is impossible to conceive the feelings and the delight experienced on seeing the spire of a new steeple rising from the bosom of an ancient American forest. As English manners stick to the English, wherever they-are, so, after traversing coun tries, where there were no traces of inhabitants, I perceived the sign of an inn dangling from the branch of a tree by the road-side, and swinging to and fro in the wind of the desert.. Hunters, planters, Indians, met at these caravanseras ; but the first time I slept ia one of them, I vowed it should be the last.
"One evening, on entering one of these singular inns, I was astounded at the sight of an immense bed constructed in a circular form round a post. Each traveller came and took his place in this bed, with his feet to the post in the centre, and his head at the circumference of the circle, so that the sleepers were ranged symmetrically, like the spokes of a wheel, or the sticks of a fan. After some hesitation, I took my place in this singular machine, because I saw nobody in it. I was just dropping asleep, when I felt a man's leg rubbing along mine ; it was my great devil of a Dutchman's, who was stretching himself beside me. I never was so horrified in my life. I leapt out of this hospitable contrivance,-cordially execrating the good old customs of our good old ancestors, and went and lay down in my cloak in the moonshine. This companion of the traveller's couch was nothing less than agreeable, cool, and pure."