Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/204

 and wait here for the troubling of the waters; but owing to the meanness of the company and provisions, I soon left, and returned to head-quarters at Louisville. The traveller, who must necessarily often mix with the very dregs of society in this country, should be prepared with plain clothes, or the dress of a mechanic; a gentlemanly appearance only exciting unfriendly or curious feelings, which defeat his object, and make his superiority painful.

The American, considered as an animal, is filthy, bordering on the beastly; as a man, he seems a being of superior capabilities; his attention to his teeth, which are generally very white, is a fine exception to his general habits. All his vices and imperfections seem natural; those of the semi-barbarian. He is ashamed of none of them. Labourers and mechanics are here rather scarce, although so many are said to have returned home to England from New York; the former receive one and a half dollars to two dollars a day, and the latter, two and a half dollars, with provisions very cheap. Emigrants, of this description, should never linger about eastern cities, and suppose {203} that, because there is no employment there, none is to be found in America.

The new steam-ship, now at New York, cost 120,000 dollars, is intended only for passengers, and to run from New York to Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, twelve times a-year, taking, in the year, 5,000 passengers, at 200 dollars each, the voyage. The steam-boat, Vesuvius, from New Orleans to Louisville, freighted, in one trip, 47,000 dollars, and cleared half, that is 23,500 dollars net profit. Sixty or seventy of these fine boats are now on the Ohio and Mississipi rivers.

27th.—At sun-rise I left Louisville, in Colonel Johnson's carriage and pair, for Vincennes, in Indiana, well