Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest































































































































































 - 

To an Englishman lately arrived in this country there are other phenomena,
equally curious; as _fire-flies, night-hawks &c - Page 18
Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest - Page 18 of 66 - First - Home

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To An Englishman Lately Arrived In This Country There Are Other Phenomena, Equally Curious; As _Fire-Flies, Night-Hawks &C.;_ But, Above All, Such Tremendous Peals Of Thunder And Flashes Of Lightning, As Can Be Conceived Only By Those Who Have Been In Southern Latitudes.

I have often thought, if an enthusiastic _cockney_, of weak nerves, who had never been out of the sound

Of Bow bell, could suddenly be conveyed from his bed, in the middle of the night, and laid, fast asleep, in an american swamp, he would, on waking, fancy himself in the infernal regions: his first sensation would be from the stings of a myriad of mosquitoes; waking with the smart, his ears would be assailed with the horrid noises of the frogs; on lifting up his eyes he would have a faint view of the night-hawks, flapping their ominous wings over his devoted head, visible only from the glimmering light of the fire-flies, which he would naturally conclude were sparks from the bottomless pit. Nothing would be wanting at this moment to complete the illusion, but one of those dreadful explosions of thunder and lightning, so _extravagantly_ described by Lee, in Oedipus: -

"Call you these peals of thunder, but the yawn or bellowing clouds? by Jove, they seem to me the world's last groans, and those large sheets of flame it's last blaze!"

I have often traversed the woods by myself at night, and sometimes during _such scenes_; and though I was conscious that all round me proceeded from natural causes, I could not at these times entirely forget,

"All that the _priest_ and all the nurse had taught."

Farewell. - Believe me

Yours very sincerely, &c.,

* * * * *

_Philadelphia, August 10th, 1794._

DEAR SIR,

Having a few weeks vacation at the theatre, we agreed upon a scheme to give three concerts at Lancaster, a town in Pennsylvania, about seventy miles west of this city. Our band was small, but select; and our singers Darley, and miss Broadhurst. We crossed the Scuylkill about two miles below the Falls.

The country, which, from the Atlantic to this spot, is nearly a level, now abruptly swells into hills, and rises as you advance westerly, till you reach the Allegany mountains, the great _back bone_ of America, as the Indians call that chain of mountains. There is then a considerable descent; but that the country rises afterward for many hundred miles is certain from the course of the rivers. No traveller has penetrated so far west, in these latitudes, as to find a river which did not ultimately run into the Atlantic Ocean,

We slept about a mile from the _Pioli_. I took a walk to reconnoitre the field of battle, with one who was present at that horrid affair.

General Wayne was here completely surprised, but had his revenge at Stoney Point.

After St. Claire's defeat, he was appointed by Congress to the command of the continental army in the present indian war. The fatal surprise at the Pioli has been an excellent lesson for him; since his present appointment he has established the most rigid discipline:

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