LETTER VIII. MY DEAR SIR, It has been the fashion of Englishmen, who have visited this country, if qualified to write a legible hand, to publish their "Travels," for the edification or amusement of their untravelled friends. Many of these travellers, who, by the way, have never been five miles from the sea-port in which they landed, have conceived, that nothing which they could invent would be so eagerly swallowed, as the vilification and abuse of the American people. It is surprising that honest John Bull should suffer himself to be gulled by those unworthy specimens of the British character. Such a line of conduct has had its effects on this side of the Atlantic; and has gone far towards a complete annihilation of the sympathies felt for the mother country. Every future sojourner here, for a considerable time at least, must feel the bad effects of such unwarrantable, misrepresentations; for it has rendered the deportment of Americans towards strangers less generous and open than it would have been, provided a proper respect had been paid to truth. English laws have established the rule, that every man must be supposed honest, till he has been proved a rogue; but here it has been found expedient to reverse the rule, by supposing all Englishmen knaves, till they have been proved honest. When an Englishman writes respecting America, he must find much difficulty in describing it so as to be well understood. This arises from the variety of taste-a country which is charming to one person, will disgust another. Your picturesque tourist has an easy task, when he knows that all the diversity among his readers, is that "One pursues While The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild," "Another sighs for harmony and grace but a book for farmers and mechanics to comprehend, is a very different affair. Most of these people are wedded to old habits, and it is almost impossible with many, however glaringly wrong they may be, to alter or correct them. Persons who come to this country, either as farmers or mechanics, should endeavour to ac commodate themselves to the place; and it must be confessed that I have seen many bad specimens of my countrymen. This kind of people are the most likely to get dissatisfied with any place where they may be, since good conduct is necessary for their welfare in every situation. The extreme ignorance of others is very amusing. I have been shown an extract of a letter, or letters of a person of the name of Howit, who says his brother preferred an English workhouse to any place he saw in America; and speaking of the British settlement, in Susquehanna county, he says, that for scores of miles, scarcely a blade of vegetation could be seen; and that nothing was visible but huge, ponderous, splintering stones, lying in one wide melancholy prospect, as if showered upon it by some inexhaustible volcano. He represents the inhabitants of this terrible place, as living on wild cats, raccoons, and squirrels. Now one would suppose, that on this subject no difference of opinion could exist; and yet although I have been a considerable time in the British settlement, and over all parts of it, I have seen none of those ponderous rocks and stones, which Howit has so lavishly showered upon it; nor have I ever seen or heard of a single wild cat; but I have heard of one raccoon that was killed in this desolate part of the country!-It is really difficult to account for the strange misrepresentations so frequently made of this country, by some of our countrymen who have been here. When I read the above mentioned statement, I supposed the person who wrote it had never been in the settlement; but on making inquiry, I was told that a person who was believed to be the writer alluded to, in company with another who carried a gun, came into the settlement about two years ago, and that he amused some English settlers, by the singular questions which he asked, among which were, whether the grass raised in this country would feed cattle? How came the stumps in the fields? &c. &c. and that, taking offence at the risibility which his inquiries occasioned among his own countrymen, he set off some time in the night without the family of the house being informed of his departure. This person is too insignificant to have his falsehoods noticed; but there are many others of more consequence, who have committed the overflowings of an ill-temper to paper, and repaid American hospitality with contumely and abuse. Writers of this description, destroy the harmony of a kindred people, and excite a spirit which is at least as injurious to Great Britain as to America. But I have the pleasure to think, that we shall see much hereafter in the tone of a late number of the Edinburgh Review. Indeed, I saw a few days ago, a letter dated in October last, from Isaac Weld, who was the writer, some years since, of "Travels in America," in which letter he makes many apologies for the language used in his "Travels," which he attributes to youth and want of proper temper and information. In this letter he says, "it appears to me, as if those genuine feelings were reviving, which the rancour of civil war had interrupted, and that England might now be proud of her offspring, as America might glory in her parent. I wish well to America with all my heart and soul; and to the great political experiment carrying on in her realm. What a bright contrast is there between the United States, and the countries on the continent, which I have lately visited, where despotic and absolute sway has been the order of the day! America need not be impatient; if she is prudent, her power and strength will be more than great; and wisely and justly directed, will influence the destinies of the old hemisphere, during generations which have yet to play their part in this bustling world." This is like "Pytholeon libelled you; but here's a letter Informs you, sir, 'twas when he knew no better." Each country has its peculiarity; and I do not recollect ever hearing of one remarkable for being remarkable for nothing at all. Though the Americans have coined a few new words, and neglect the authorities of Johnson and Walker in a few others; yet through all this amazing extent of territory, there is to be found but one dialect. I was much amused with that part of one of your letters, in which you so anxiously inquire after my safety from wolves, bears and rattle snakes. I am extremely obliged to you for the kind solicitude you are pleased to express; but I assure you, who, like many more of our countrymen, are annoyed with apprehensions of dangers which never existed, that I have yet escaped. The most dreadful of this mortal trio, will not attack a person, unless driven to it in self defence. Besides, they are comparatively scarce, for as man advances, they fall back into the more remote forests, and are but rarely seen. Mr. Shultze and another gentleman, who were lately travelling in the western part of New York state, relate the following story: "We stopped," say they, "the same evening, at a settlement a little above Wood creek, in order to obtain a fresh supply of milk for our coffee and chocolate. The sun had just set as we were ascending the bank, when we heard the cries of a hog in distress; and upon approaching the house, we found it occasioned by a bear, that had come upon the same errand with ourselves, namely, to get something to eat; but as he found no one with whom to make a bargain, he very deliberately seized a small hog of about three hundred pounds weight, and marched off into the woods. By the time we came to the house, we discovered an old woman, with a long-handled-frying-pan in one hand, and a ladle in the other, running after the robber; but she soon returned, and informed us that this was the second time the darnation devil had visited them within a week."" The bear is easily tamed when caught young, and is really a fine playful fellow. We have here two kinds of foxes, the red and the gray. The red fox is said to have been imported from Europe, but I think it improbable, for neither in shape nor colour do the foxes of the two countries agree. Reynard is not very troublesome, for though he is sometimes heard at night barking in the woods, his visits to the farm yard are by no means frequent; and when he treats himself to a goose, it is sheer necessity which compels him; whereas English foxes often destroy the whole hen-roost, without bearing off a single prize, as if they delighted in bloodshed and cruelty. Buffaloes and elks are found in many parts of the Western states; the former are exceedingly numerous. The various nations, or tribes of Indians, subsist principally on the flesh of those animals and that of the wild deer. As the country becomes settled, they retreat to the wild and uninhabited wildernesses; except the deer, which are found near the abode of man, so long as any extent of woodland remains. The chief amusement of the backwoodsman is deer-hunting, or rather shooting, for his rifle is his sole dependence. Wagon loads of venison are sent to the cities in winter, where it seldom sells for more than from four to sixpence per pound. In the country, the common price is from a penny to two-pence! This country cannot boast of a great variety of game. A small species of hare is found in many places, which is something between the English hare and rabbit. Wild turkeys abound in many of the states, some of which weigh from twenty to thirty pounds. Pheasants are inferior both in size and plumage to ours; partridges are also much smaller. Woodcocks are numerous in some places, but are not so large as those of Europe. Water fowl are peculiarly abundant on the sea board, and also about the rivers and lakes. Squirrel shooting is an amusement among the woodsmen-the gray and black ones are large and good to eat. These people shoot the squirrels and pheasants through the eye, with a single ball, for fear of injuring the carcase! This I know will appear almost incredible to you, for so it did to me when first I came among them, but I can now bear witness to its being a fact. (To be continued.) ART. IX-The Pirate. By the author of "Waverley, Kenilworth," &c. In three vols. Edinburgh: First American edit. two vols. Carey & Lea. [Blackwood's Magazine.] THE author of Waverly has taken the field this season in a new and unknown territory, and with forces of a novel description, but with as much skill, boldness, vigour, and, we may add, with as much certainty of success, as ever distinguished him at any preceding era of his career. Having already shown himself the unrivalled master of Scotish manners and English character, he has now transferred the scene to the Isles and the deep; and the beautiful lines of Shakspeare, which he has partly applied to his hero, may be applied without mutilation and without alteration, and every way with much greater propriety, to himself:- Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea-change The encounter of new and untried difficulties has, as in the case of Ivanhoe, served only for an additional spur of his imagination; and if the Pirate be, from the nature of its subject, a less splendid, it is, we venture to say, not a less delightful effort of the first genius of our age, than even Ivanhoe itself. The essential fable of this romance is very simple, and, indeed, very slender,--so that a very few words may serve to give as full an account of it as is necessary for our present purpose. Availing himself of a true story (which is shortly told in the preface,*) he This is unaccountably omitted in the American edition; and we are disposed to apprehend that there is another hiatus about the middle of the first volume. The 13th chapter opens with a reference to a drinking bout |