书城旅游地图心灵的驿站
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第22章 游美札记(6)

My Boston friend climbed up to bed,somewhere in the roof,where another guest was already snoring hugely;but,being bitten beyond his power of endurance,he turned out again,and fled for shelter to the coach,which was airing itself in front of the house.This was not a very politic step,as it turned out;for the pigs scenting him and looking upon the coach as a kind of pie with some manner of meat inside,grunted round it SO hideously,that he was afraid to come out again,and lay there shivering,till morning.Nor was it possible to warm him,when he did come out,by means of a glass of brandy;for in Indian villages,the legislature,with a very good and wise intention,forbids the sale of spirits by tavern—keepers.The precaution,however,is quite inefficacious,for the Indians never fail to procure liquor of a worse kind,at a dearer price,from traveling pedlars.

It iS a settlement of the Wyandot Indians who inhabit this place.Among the company at breakfast was a mild old gentleman,who had been for many years,employed by the United States Government in conducting negotiations with the Indians,and who had just concluded a treaty with these people,by which they bound themselves,in consideration of a certain annual sum,to remove next year to some land provided for them,west of the Mississippi,and a little way beyond St.Louis.He gave me a moving account of their strong attachment to the familiar scenes of their infancy,and in particular tO the burial—places of their kindred,and of their great reluctance to leave them.He hadwitnessed many such removals,and always with pain,though he knew—。that they departed for their own good.The question whether this tribeshould go or stay had been discussed among them a day or two before,in a hut erected for the purpose,the logs of which lay still upon theground before the inn.When the speaking was done,the ayes and noeswere ranged on opposite sides,and every male adult voted in his turn.The moment the result was known,the minority(a large one)cheerfullyyielded to the rest,and withdrew all kind of opposition. We met some of these poor Indians afterwards,riding on shaggyponies.They were SO like the meaner sort of gipsies,that if I could haveseen any of them in England,I should have concluded,as a matter ofcourse,that they belonged to that wandering and restless people. Leaving this town directly after breakfast,we pushed forward again,over a rather worse road than yesterday,if possible,and arrived aboutnoon at Tiffin,where we parted with the extra.At two O’clock we tookthe railroad;the travelling on which was very slow,its construction beingindifferent,and the ground wet and marshy;and arrived at Sandusky intime to dine that evening.We put up at a comfortable little hotel on the brink of Lake Erie,lay there that night,and had no choice but to waitthere next day,until a steamboat bound for Buffalo appeared.The town,which was sluggish and uninteresting enough,was something like the back of an English watering-place,out of the season. Our host,who was very attentive and anxious to make US comfortable,was a handsome,middle-aged man,who had come to thistown from New England,in which part of the country he was“raised.’’When I say that he constantly walked in and out of the room with his hat on,and stopped to converse in the same free and easy state;and lay down on our sofa,and pulled his newspaper out of his pocket,and read it at his ease,I merely mention these traits as characteristic of the country;not at all as being matter of complaint,or as having been disagreeable to me.I should undoubtedly be offended by such proceedings at home,because there they are not the custom,and where they are not,they would be impertinences;but in America,the only desire of a good-natured fellow of this kind iS to treat his guests hospitable and well;and I had no more right,and I can truly say no more disposition,to measure his conduct by our English rule and standard,than I had to quarrel with him for not being of the exact stature which would qualify him for admission into the queen’S grenadier guards.As little inclination had I to find fault with a funny old lady who was an upper domestic in this establishment,and who,when she came to wait upon US at any meal,sat herself down comfortable in the most convenient chair,and producing a large pin to pick her teeth with,remained performing that ceremony,and steadfastly regarding US meanwhile with much gravity and composure(now and then pressing US to eat a little more),untilit was time to clear away.It was enough for US that whatever we wished done was done with great civility and readiness,and a desire to oblige,not only here,but everywhere else;and that all our wants were,in general,zealously anticipated.

We were taking an early dinner at this house,on the day after our arrival,which was Sunday,when a steamboat came in sight,and presently touched at the wharf.As she proved to be on her way to Buffalo,we hurried on board with all speed,and soon left Sandusky far behind US.

She was a large vessel of five hundred tons,and handsomely fitted up,though with high—pressure engines;which always conveyed that kind of feeling to me,which I should be likely to experience,I think,if I had lodgings on the first floor of a powder mill.She was laden with flour.some casks of which commodity were stored upon the deck.The captain coming up to have a little conversation,and to introduce a friend,seated himself astride of one of these barrels,like a Bacchus of private life:andpulling a great clasp-knife out of his pocket,began tO“whittle’’it ashe talked,by paring thin slices off the edges.And he whittled with suchindustry and hearty good—will,that but for his being called away very soon,it must have disappeared bodily,and left nothing in its place butgrist and shavings.