One Of Them, A Young
Married Woman With A Baby Of Three Months Old, Was Alarmingly Ill, And, As
The
Poor infant was in danger of being seriously injured by the rolling of
the ship, I took it on my
Lap for an hour till the gale moderated, thereby
gaining the lasting kindly remembrance of its poor mother. I am sure that
a white infant would have screamed in a most appalling way, for, as I had
never taken a baby in my arms before, I held it in a very awkward manner;
but the poor little black thing, wearied with its struggles on the floor,
lay very passively, every now and then turning its little monkey-face up
to mine, with a look of understanding and confidence which quite
conciliated my good will. It was so awfully ugly, so much like a black
ape, and so little like the young of the human species, that I was obliged
while I held it to avert my eyes from it, lest in a sudden fit of foolish
prejudice and disgust I should let it fall. Meanwhile, the Southern lady
was very ill, but not too ill, I am sorry to say, to box the ears of her
slaves.
The gale moderated about nine in the morning, leaving a very rough, foamy
sea, which reflected in a peculiarly dazzling and disagreeable way the
cloudless and piercing blue of the sky. The saloon looked as magnificent
as by candle-light, with the sunshine streaming through a running window
of stained glass.
Dinner on a plentiful scale was served at one, but out of 300 passengers
only about 30 were able to avail themselves of it. Large glass tubs of
vanilla cream-ice were served. The voyage was peculiarly uninteresting, as
we were out of sight of land nearly the whole day; my friend the widow did
not appear, and, when I attempted to write, the inkstand rolled off the
table. It was just sunset, when we reached Buffalo, and moored at a wharf
crowded with large steamers receiving and discharging cargo. Owing to the
gale, we were two hours too late for the Niagara cars, and I slept at the
Western Hotel, where I received every attention.
Buffalo is one of the best samples of American progress. It is a regularly
laid out and substantially built city of 65,000 inhabitants. It is still
in the vigour of youth, for the present town only dates from 1813. It
stands at the foot of Lake Erie, at the opening of the Hudson canal, where
the commerce of the great chain of inland lakes is condensed. It is very
"going ahead;" its inhabitants are ever changing; its population is
composed of all nations, with a very large proportion of Germans, French,
and Irish. But their national characteristics, though not lost, are seen
through a medium of pure Americanism. They all rush about - the lethargic
German keeps pace with the energetic Yankee; and the Irishman, no longer
in rags, "guesses" and "spekilates" in the brogue of Erin.
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