Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/330

Rh would, on my return, in passing through Copenhagen, pay a visit to his old mother and convey to her his greeting.

And here I may as well remark, en passant, that the children of Indian women by white men commonly attach themselves to the white race. They are most frequently fine specimens of humanity, although not of a remarkably elevated kind. They are praised for their acuteness of eye, and the keenness of their perceptive faculties generally. I have heard that the greater number of the steersmen of the Mississippi boats belong to this half-blood race.

A young Norwegian woman lives as cook with Governor Ramsay; she is not above twenty, and is not remarkably clever as a cook, and yet she receives eleven dollars per month wage. This is an excellent country for young servants.

I shall, to-morrow, commence my voyage down the Mississippi as far as Galena; thence to St. Louis, at which place I shall proceed up the Ohio to Cincinnati, and thence to New Orleans, and advancing onward shall proceed from some one of the southern sea-port towns to Cuba, where I intend to winter.

I am not quite satisfied about leaving this part of the country. I wish to see more of the Indians and their way of life, and feel something like a hungry person who is obliged to leave a meal which he has just commenced. I wish to see more of the country and the aborigines, but do not exactly see how and in what manner. Neither roads nor means of conveyance are to be met with here, as in the more cultivated States. Besides which I must not any longer remain in this family, which has so hospitably provided me a chamber, by sending the only child of the family, a beautiful little infant, and its nurse into a cold room. The child must return into its warm chamber, for the nights are getting