With The Author's
Journals of his Two Voyages Across the Atlantic
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BY WILLIAM PRIEST, Musician,
Late of the Theatres Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.
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CAPPRICCIO con - -
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LONDON:
Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-Yard
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1802.
Bryer, Printer, Bridewell Hospital, Bridge Street.
PREFACE.
An elegant writer observes that a preface may be dispensed with in any
work, if the author (either from his humility of justice) think that his
style be calculated only to put his readers to sleep. Though I do not
think the publication of the following sheets will _materially_ affect the
price of opium, I cannot intrude this volume on the public without
informing them, what all my friends will vouch for the truth of, viz. -
that on my return from America, in 1797, I wrote the work in its present
form _for their_ perusal; and, that conscious of my want of talent as a
writer, I resisted all their entreaties for its publication, till within
these three months.
The public, I presume, will not be _wholly_ disappointed; the _extracts_ I
have made from _Jefferson_, _Belknap_, and other american writers, are
worthy their attention: _I_ have no other merit than having placed them in
a tolerable point of view.
"The God of Truth, and all who know
me, will bear testimony that, from my
whole soul, I despise deceit, as I do all
silly claims to superior wisdom, and
infallibility, which so many writers, by
a thousand artifices, endeavour to make
their readers imagine they possess."
CONTENTS.
Introduction
JOURNAL - Gravesend - why so called - Deal - Falmouth - Pendennis castle - a
gale - a hymn - the gulph weed - sun set at sea - dolphins and flying fish -
first account of the yellow fever - arrival in the Delaware - on shore in
the Jerseys - Woodbury - melancholy visit to Philadelphia - arrival at
Annapolis
ANNAPOLIS - why so called - extract from the charter - situation - loss of the
trade - accounted for - Annapolitans partial to theatrical amusements -
produce of Maryland - tobacco - wheat - new species of manure
JOURNEY TO THE CAPITAL - filial affection of the negroes - fried squirrels
and coffee - Baltimore - the mighty Susquana - intrepidity of a slave - how
rewarded - Wilmington - Brandywine - grist mills - the battle - Chester -
arrival at Philadelphia
TWO ANECDOTES - a gentleman blacksmith not ashamed of his origin - a high
sheriff doing his duty
PHILADELPHIA - state of, in 1681 - Penn's arrival in 1701 - intended plan of
the city - not observed - situation - advantages of exports - entries in 1793 -
buildings how constructed - houses removed intire - new theatre - pleasure
carriages - removal of the state government to Lancaster
MANNER OF LIVING OF THE PHILADELPHIANS - breakfast - dinner - supper - bad
effects of such diet - relishes in stile at an American tea-garden
BACK SETTLER - arrives at his purchase - builds his huts - manner of clearing
the land - Indian corn - advantages of - the black and grey squirrels -
attacked by the Indians - extract - he escapes the scalping knife - more
comfortably situated - an idle back settler - his manner of life - what he
calls liberty - joins the Indians at war with the states - the demisavage
copies only the black side of the Indian character
PENNSYLVANIA PLANTER - enjoys a happy state of mediocrity between riches
and poverty - the children how disposed of - the boys - effect of the
religious education given to the girls not intirely eradicated even by a
brothel - a country sleighing match - another in Philadelphia in stile - a
fiddler a necessary apendage
FROGS - two extracts - they sit croaking to the wonderment of strangers -
land of enchantment - frog concert - how supported - treble - counter tenor -
tenor - bass - fire-flies - night-hawks - probable effects on an enthusiastic
cockney
JOURNEY TO LANCASTER - the Pioli - Wayne's surprise - appointed to the
command of the western army - Indian war - shocking effects of -
misunderstanding between the Canadians and American citizens - accounted
for - French agents - the British government vindicated - Proceed on the
journey - charming prospects - beauties of the Susquana destroys the
navigation - arrival at Lancaster - rifle manufactory - uncommon shot of two
back woodsmen - Dutch schools - three concerts - two German sans culottes -
extracts from the regulations of the Hanover dancing assembly - German and
Irish emigrants
FEDERAL COINAGE not approved of by the people - the new scheme contrasted
with the old one - advantages of an even division by the decimal
DELAWARE SHAD FISHERY - stupidity of the Anglo-Americans in giving English
names to animals peculiar to the new continent - length of the siens -
greatest haul of shad on record - fanatical law of the Quakers injurious to
the fishery - sturgeon - extract from general Lincoln on the migration of
fishes
JOURNEY TO BALTIMORE - water-stage - Newcastle - Glasgow - the Elk - bay of
Chesapeake - arrival at Baltimore - yellow fever
BALTIMORE - situation - disadvantages of - the Dutch plan of canals not
adapted to a southern latitude - the former race-course in the centre of
the town - anecdote
MANUFACTORIES - not the interest of the Americans to engage in them - why -
American iron - its malleability - two patents granted by Congress -
sawing-mills - ship-building
SHOOTING AND FISHING - partridges - no game laws - woodcocks in August - the
American ortolan - back woodsmen - their game - wild turkey - squirrel
shooting - American fishing parties - how conducted
INDIANS - genius for oratory, painting, and sculpture - their continence -
extract - the Indian student - the splenetic Indian - his remedy - seen in
another point of view - the Indian orator - verses on an Indian burial-ground
SCHEME OF A RIFLE CORPS - of forming the corps - rifles - powder -
accoutrements and dress - exercise
SPECULATION - the United States - the land of - 100 acres of land for a
dollar - flour - the mines - description of a coal-bank
CLIMATE - Cooper on this subject not to be depended upon - quotation
from Jefferson - the N.W. wind not accounted for - Volney - his intended
investigation
WHITE SLAVE TRADE - mortality on board a white Guineaman from Ireland -
Hibernian and German societies - the trade not allowed in New England - a
German flesh-butcher sells his countrymen at Philadelphia during the fatal
yellow fever of 1793
JOURNEY TO BOSTON - Pennsylvania the garden of the United States -
Bristol - Trentown - New Brunswick - New York - arrival in Yankee Land - land
speculators harangue - interrupted - arrival at Boston - P.S. - dramatic
mania - detestation of the primitive Bostonians to theatricals - are first
introduced as moral lectures - the theatrical opposition
BATTLE OF BUNKER'S HILL - inscription from a monument on the scene of
action - anecdotes of Cox, the celebrated bridge-architect - connects Boston
with the Continent - goes to Ireland, where he builds seven bridges
BOSTON - situation - West Boston - advantages of the harbour - the long
wharf - new theatre - university of Cambridge - new bridge a mile in length -
Irish market
BOSTONIAN FIRE ALARM - amateur firemen - negro incendiaries - good effects of
their villainy
FANATICISM - Brownists - intolerance proved from their own writers -
rebellion against parents made a capital crime - smoaking tobacco and
drinking healths forbidden - proclamation against wearing long hair -
persecution of the Quakers - Penn's retaliation - poetry
NEGRO SLAVERY - state of in the Southern, Middle, and New England Slates -
abolition society - extract from Jefferson's Virginia
YELLOW FEVER - a new disorder - first imported from the coast of Guinea to
the West Indies in 1792 - extract from Dr. Rush - a disorder fatal only to
one race of men not new - plague among the red men - how accounted for by
the fanatics - not to the satisfaction of a philosopher - age of the world
proved to be 36,960 years from the falls of Niagara
AMERICAN FISHERY ON THE BANKS OK NEWFOUNDLAND - extract from Dr. Belknap -
dumb fish - how cured - merchantable - Jamaica fish - former and present state
of the fishery
NEW ENGLAND STATES COMPARED WITH THOSE OF THE SOUTH - beauty of the women -
accounted for - general knowledge of the inhabitants - free schools - how
supported - difference of climate
VOYAGE TO ENGLAND - journal - severe gale at N.E. - the vessel encrusted with
ice - stand to the southward - the gulph stream - another gale - misfortunes -
arrival at Dover - conclusion
_ERRATA._
P. 11, 1.8, for _plantation_, read _plantations_.
32, 1.5 and 6, are a note having reference to p. 28, 1.11.
