THE EAST RIVER.HURL-GATE.THE SOUND.POINT JUDITH.NEWPORT
HARBOUR.PROVIDENCE.
On Saturday morning, at 7 A.M.
Septh, quitted Philadelphia; arrived in New York
at 2 P.M.; and transferring my baggage from the steamer
on the North River to the one about to depart for
Providence, and whose wharf lay upon the East River,
I had a couple of hours’ leisure, which I employed
in writing home, for the packet of the 1st of October;
and at five o’clock P.M. left the city, in the
noblest steam-vessel I had yet seen.
The view of Brooklyn, the Navy Yard,
and this part of the harbour, is very attractive from
the point of departure; and the numerous little steamers,
actively plying to and fro at the various ferries,
give an unceasing air of bustle to the scene.
I was greatly charmed by our sail up this passage
into the Sound dividing Long Island from the continent,
which it flanks and protects for a distance of one
hundred miles.
The banks on either side do not vary
a great deal in elevation, but are of a slightly undulating
character, beautifully wooded, and sprinkled with
the attractive-looking villas of the country.
Mr. Cooper’s graphic description of Hurl-gate,
in his novel of the “Red Rover,” led me
to look out for it with an interest which the reality
did not repay, although the tide was in a favourable
state. I confess, however, I think that my imagination
rather outran discretion than that the whirlpool lacked
grandeur: that it was not to be encountered without
some peril we had very good evidence; for, on a rocky
islet to the southward of the worst part of the fall,
a large schooner lay hove up on her beam-ends, with
all her spars aloft and her sails half furled, as she
had been abandoned by her crew. Our pilot informed
me that the accident had occurred the day previous,
and was by no means a rare example, the downward passage
at the last of the ebb requiring great care and experience.
Our powerful engines forced the vessel
through the dark eddies, apparently without difficulty;
and in a little while this long looked-for wonder
was forgotten.
I remained on deck until after midnight;
for there was a bright moon and a calm clear sky,
and the Sound was sprinkled with craft of all kinds.
I must not omit to notice supper,
or tea,for it was both, and an excellent
meal it was,served about eight o’clock
upon two parallel tables, which ran the whole length
of the cabin, at least one hundred and eighty feet;
and to which sat down about one hundred persons of
all ranks,the richest merchants, the most
eminent statesmen, and the humblest mechanic who chose
to pay for a cabin fare, as most of these persons
who travel do. I was seated with an exceeding
lady-like and well-bred woman on my left hand, and
on my right sat a man who, although decently dressed,
was evidently a working operative of the humblest
class; yet was there nothing in either his manner or
appearance to annoy the most refined female:
he asked for what he wanted respectfully, performed
any little attention he could courteously, and evinced
better breeding and less selfishness than I have witnessed
at some public dinners at home, where the admission
of such a person would have been deemed derogatory.
I do not mean by this description
to infer that a crowded table of this kind is as agreeable
as a party whose habits, education, and sympathies,
being on a level, render intercourse a matter of mutual
pleasure: what I would show is, that in this
mingling of classes, which is inevitable in travelling
here, there is nothing to disgust or debase man or
woman, however exclusive; for it would really be impossible
to feed a like multitude, of any rank or country,
with slighter breaches of decency or decorum, or throw
persons so wholly dissimilar together with less personal
inconvenience either to one class or another.
I had been accustomed to see this
set down as one of the chief nuisances of travelling
in this country, and the consequences greatly exaggerated:
things must have improved rapidly; since, as far as
I have hitherto gone, I protest I prefer the steam-boat
arrangements here to our own, and would back them
to be considered less objectionable by any candid
traveller who had fairly tested both.
During the night it blew fresh, and
the vessel pitched a little, the consequence of which
movement was evident in the desertion of the upper
deck in the morning. I had noticed it, the evening
previous, occupied by sundry little groups reading
or chatting, and with more than one couple of merry
promenaders: I now made its circuit, meeting with
but one adventurer, a lively-looking old gentleman,
of whom I inquired where all our passengers were vanished
to.
“Most of them in bed yet,”
said the old gentleman, “or keeping out of the
way in one hole or another. If there’s any
wind or sea, you always find the deck pretty clear
till we get round Point Judith. Once let us get
to the other side that hill yonder, and you’ll
see the swarm begin to muster pretty smart.”
I had often heard “Point Judith”
mentioned by the New-Yorkers, as the Cockney voyager
talks of Sea-reach, or the buoy at the Nore; and here
it was close under our lee,a long, low
point of land, with a lighthouse upon it.
We soon after opened the entrance
to the fine harbour of Newport, and, as my informant
predicted, the deck gradually recovered its population:
some came up because they felt, and others because
they were told, we had passed Point Judith.
It was about seven o’clock A.M.
that we ran alongside the wharf at Newport to land
passengers. The appearance of the town, rising
boldly from the water’s edge, was imposing enough;
but trade, judging from the deserted state of the
wharves, is now inconsiderable, although formerly
of much importance.
After a delay of a quarter of an hour,
we once more got under weigh; and one of the chief
advantages of a steamer is the ease and facility with
which this important movement is effected: nowhere
is the management of these immense bodies, in my thinking,
so perfect: the commanding position of the wheel,
clear of all obstruction, and under the hand of the
pilot, whose finger also directs the machinery below,
through the medium of a few well-arranged bells,the
absence of all bawling and shouting, and the being
independent of transmitted directions, gives these
craft facilities which make their movements appear
like inspiration.
This system I found prevailing all
through the States; and, as far as possible, it would
be well to adopt it here. The arrangement of the
wheel, or steering apparatus, if I remember rightly,
was fully and technically described by Captain Hall.
I do not know whether it has in any case been adopted;
but if it were enforced upon our crowded rivers, there
would, I feel assured, be fewer accidents.
The fogs of the Sound, in this passage,a
highway as much travelled as the Clyde,and
indeed on all the great American rivers, are only to
be paralleled by a London specimen about Christmas,
in addition to the former being more frequent; yet
accidents arising from running foul are of very rare
occurrence, although the desire to drive along is yet
stronger than with ourselves.
The river up to Providence is of a
breadth and character to command the voyager’s
attention, but offers little in detail to repay him
for it. With the exception of the time devoted
to breakfast, which a supply of newly-caught fish,
taken on board at Newport, rendered a positive treat
to me, I paced the upper deck, according to my custom,
until we arrived at Providence, a very thriving place,
seated on a commanding ridge, and already having,
as viewed from the river, an air and aspect quite
city-like.
Here we found a line of coaches drawn
up upon the wharf, awaiting our arrival. I had
already secured a ticket for the Mail Pilot: and
in a few minutes the luggage was packed on; the passengers,
four in number, were packed in; and away we went,
rolling and pitching, at the heels of as likely a
team of four dark bays as I would wish to sit behind.
At our first halt, I left the inside to the occupation
of my companions,a handsome girl, with,
“I guess,” her lover, and a rough specimen
of a Western hunter or trader, who had already dubbed
my younger companion Captain and myself Major, and
invited us both to “liquor with him.”
I declined, but the Captain, to his evident
satisfaction, frankly accepted his offer; and whilst
I mounted the box, and the horses were changing, they
entered the house together.
This is a courtesy the traveller to
the South will find constantly proffered to him by
a class of honest souls, whose good-fellowship sometimes
exceeds their discretion; and I had been told it was
not at all times possible to decline the offer without
risking insult. I discovered by experience this
to be one of the numerous imaginary grievances conjured
up to affright the innocent. In this, as in all
other points, I have never departed from my own habits;
and although often in remote parts of the Union strongly
urged “to liquor,” have always found my
declaration that it was a custom which disagreed with
me, an excuse admitted without hesitation or ill-humour.
In this, my first experiment, indeed,
I had to deal with the most punctilious specimen I
ever afterwards encountered; for when, some two hours
after I had declined his request, I called for a glass
of lemonade, my friend popped his head out of the
coach-window, calling out with a most beseeching air
“Well but, Major, I say; stop
till I get out: you’ll drink that
with me any how, won’t you?”
He was in the bar-room at my heels
in a twinkling, and I need hardly say we emptied our
glasses together very cordially, although their contents
would, I fancy, in my friend’s opinion, have
assimilated best in a mixed state; for, giving his
sling a knowing twist as I swallowed my excellent
lemonade, he observed:
“Now that’s a liquor I
never could bring myself to try nohow, though I’m
sometimes rather speculatin’ in drink, when I’m
travellin’ or out on a frolic. Poorish
stuff, I calculate: but you hav’nt
got the dyspepsy, have you, Major?”
I assured my friend that I was perfectly
free from dyspepsia, and that it was because I desired
to continue so that I avoided any stronger drink before
dinner.
We were now summoned to our places,
my companion declaring
“It is past my logic how lemon
and water can prevent dyspepsy better than brandy
and water;” adding, with a look half comic, half
serious
“But I suppose everybody will
go for the Temperance-ticket soon, and I shall be
forced to clear out of all my spirits; for I never
can drink by myself, if I’m forced to take to
the milk and water line for company.”
Our road was a tolerably good one
as roads go here, and the horses excellent. We
arrived in Boston about half-past three, having performed
forty miles in five hours, all stoppages included;
and the whole distance from Philadelphia, being three
hundred and twenty miles, in thirty-two hours and
a half, including about three hours passed in New
York. Quick as this travelling is, they contemplate,
when the railroad to Providence shall be opened, by
the aid of that and an improved steam-boat, to deduct
eight or nine hours from the time between this and
New York.
Alighting at the Tremont hotel, I
found dinner over, as on Sunday they accommodate the
hour of dining to the time of church service:
I was, however, quickly provided with a good meal,
which a keen breeze, a long ride, and a long fast
enabled me to do good justice to. In the afternoon,
malgré a cutting east wind, which was anything
but agreeable after the hot weather I had been living
in, I took a long walk about the town, accompanied
by an old friend of mine and a constitutional grumbler,
who yet joined with me in declaring that a first impression
of Boston could hardly fail pleasing any man who could
be pleased by a near view of a city, well and substantially
built, as it is undoubtedly nobly situated.