PREFATORY. 111 E PREFATORY. Ir was a great mistake of ours to suffer the words, "And Casket of Literature and Science," to slide into our Prospectus, in small letters. underneath the general head. When we adopted the general title, "Magazine of Travels," we supposed we had selected one which would, of course, be understood as indicating the character of the work, and when, to give it a little more dignity, we inscribed the above words underneath, we intended them more as a commentary upon it, than as an addition to it. Travels, to be good for anything, must be literary, and, indeed, they constitute one of the principal departments in the literature of the day. And they certainly cannot be of a very high order, without being, at the same time, to some extent, scientific. He must be a very superficial traveler, who should never undertake to classify and explain the new and strange facts which obtrude them, selves upon his observation; but, as far as he does this, he becomes scientific. That is all-and yet we hear of those who have taken alarm at these words, and consider themselves excluded from the list of our subscribers, because they are not literary and scientific persons. Pshaw! These are the very ones we are depending upon to make up the mass of our subscribers-the very ones to appreciate, and be interested injust such a work—the very class of persons, who so nobly sustained us as editor and publisher of the Michigan Farmer, a work far more scientific than this is proposed to be, its numerous subscribers and readers being the intelligent farmers of our State, their wives, their sons and their daughters. Talk not to us of the cities and large towns as the appropriate field for such enterprises. We are not insensible of their claims to consideration, and hope not to overlook them, or be overlooked by them. We expect a ready support from the more highly educated and professional few, as well as from the intelligent tradesmen, mechanics, &c., congregated in these commercial centres. But we say no more than they themselves know as well as we, in expressing it as our well weighed conviction, that there are ten in the country, who have an appreciating taste for a work like this, where there is one in the cityyes, ten where there is one. And what is it, after all, but miscellaneous reading, level to the commonest capacity, and adapted, above all other, to the popular mind? True, we added a fourth head to our prospectus, using the same unfortunate words, but it was thrown in merely to meet a contingency. Any one can see, that we had made pretty full provision for filling up the pages of our Magazine independently of it, and that, at most, but a very small space, if any at all, would be left for any such use. Το remove every stumbling-block then, and throw the door wide open to all, let the offensive words henceforth be stricken from our prospectus. Not that we have any cause of discouragement, as matters have hitherto stood. Contrariwise, the proposition we have sent out, has been most kindly received, and cheering words have come back to us from nearly every portion of the State, while many sections seem to be all astir with clubs and clubbing. Few publications have made their debut under more favorable auspices. But a single obstacle seemed to lie in the way of a general circulation among all classes of our population, and now, that that single obstacle is removed, we see no reason why our subscription list may not rise to a figure, which has no parallel in the annals of the West. The very low price at which the work is published, makes a large circulation, and strictly advance payment, indispensable to success. And for all this we rely, in the first instance, upon those tried friends who have so gallantly stood by us in days that are past. Their name is legion. These, with the many new auxiliaries already enlisting, have placed us, even at this early stage, above the contingency of failThe permanence of our work has thus become a fixed fact, and, in view of it, we name the first of May next as the time for the distribution of the liberal premiums we offer. All subscribers will be supplied with back numbers. See prospectus on last page of cover. ure. If any one shall discover, in some of the first numbers, a few things which have strayed from us into the newspapers of the day, he will not regret to see them repeated in the form in which we give them - here. These few things, (which not even one of our readers may have seen), are so connected with the main material of the work, and are of such a character, that no one would wish them excluded. We entertain no fears of complaint on that score. Much more cause for complaint would there be, should we decline, for that reason, to give them their appropriate place in the work. INTRODUCTORY. INTRODUCTORY. What, another Magazine afloat upon the great sea of adventure? Yes, another, and it must take its chance. And yet, tho' it be another, it certainly does not exhibit any very striking family resemblance. To our disparagement as a people, it has been said, that a Magazine, to be sustained among us, must be light and frothy - must swim full with those beautiful creations which bubble up in the brain of the dreaming sentimentalist. It may be so, but we have taken the liberty to raise a question on this subject, believing as we do, that there is truth enough in the world, practical and real, tragic and comic, to stir the sleepiest mind, to entertain the listliest, instruct the dullest, and even to amuse the silliest, without resort to those sentimental trickeries, which constitute, to a great extent, the current literature of the day. We should be sorry to believe, that our subscribers desire us to play the peacock for them-we have a higher appreciation of Michigan mind. This Magazine, has, we trust, a higher mission than that. Its pages are consecrated to lessons of instruction drawn from common sense views of men and things, from new and strange phases of human character and human enterprise, as witnessed in various and distant quarters of the globe. Its design is to bring home to the hearthstones of its readers the advantages of foreign travel, as truly as tho' they had crossed oceans and continents to secure them-to give them for a few shillings what it would cost them thousands of dollars to go abroad and accumulate for themselves-in a word, to do for them what would be almost equivalent to escorting them, at our own expense, thro' far distant countries, and making them welcome to share with us in the pleasures and advantages so dearly purchased. We have been emboldened to this step by the calls which have been made upon us for the results of our travels in the East-calls which have been numerous and persistent, and some of them from quarters entitled to much consideration. Our notes would probably soon have been in the hands of a book publisher, had we not concluded to send them out in this form. The portion of them, far the most interesting to us, has never yet been published, but will be given in this work. We congratulate ourselves and our subscribers on the accession to our columns of the travels of the Rev. Dr. Duffield. No little disappointment was felt by their failure to appear as announced some time since. This disappointment will now be repaired, and, at the same time, our columns enriched. The reputation of the author for habits of close and acccurate observation, sound judgment, and ripe scholarship, will stamp with much importance his contributions to the stock of Foreign Travels. The sketches of Western border life will add, we trust, a pleasing variety. We have been prompted to this enterprise, to some extent, we own, by an irrepressible desire for something to do, and, at the same time to be of some use to somebody. No man is safe, none can tell what he will come to, who has no useful employment upon his hands. In the absence of such employment, we have absolutely been in danger of taking to politics, and we know not thro' what dark labyrinths we may have been led, or into what turbid waters we may have been plunged, had not this open path to honorable usefulness, lain before us. The truth is, we have been ill at ease from the time we laid down the editorial pen, and in taking it up again, we feel very much like one who has been astray. Far away, truly, have we wandered, but a kind providence has been over us, and around about us, and has brought us back to tell what our eyes have seen and our ears have heard. Joyfully shall we make our monthly visits to our subscribers, to commune with them, at their own firesides, during these long winter evenings, upon what we have witnessed in countries far away, endeavoring, in all fidelity, to transfer to their minds, warm and glowing, the impressions we received, as we passed from object to object, and from scene to scene, in traversing the most interesting portion of the globeimpressions which are still as vivid in our own mind, as though but of yesterday. Magazine of Travels. NOTES OF FOREIGN TRAVEL. BY REV. GEOo. Duffield, d. d. Embarkation and leave-taking of Country,—Sea-sickness,-Fellow Passengers,―The Boat, its Order, Bill of Fare, &c.,-Tory_Island,-Giant's Causeway, ArrivalOverhauled by Custom House Officers,-Hotel in Liverpool,-Attending Church, &c. EUROPA, 24 HOURS SAIL EAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND, AUGUST. 16th, Latitude 48 50 North, Longtitude 47 12 West, Detroit time, past 12, ship's time, to 8 P. M. 1803 miles from New York. Half way, nearly, across the ocean, pushing our way in this mighty steamer, under a full press of sail, and with a powerful head of steam, at the rate of twelve and a half miles per hour, I turn aside to transfer to a letter sheet from my journal some of the thoughts I have penned more immediately for your sake and the dear ones with you. I give you the simple detail in the simplest form, presuming it will be therefore the most acceptable to you. My days of fancied scenes, of visions of the imagination, have long since vanished before the sober realities of life; nor has an ocean's boundless surface, spreading out illimitably before me, and the novel scene of this little moving world afloat upon the waters, awakened any desire to substitute the creations of the mind for the realities surrounding and transpiring within me. Reflections with me are realities, and you shall have them as they rise and mingle with the events and scenes I shall attempt to describe, if perchance I may aid you in taking a survey of my path-way across the deep. On my way across the North River a gentleman in a hack, drawn up on the ferry boat near that in which I was, when we had passed more than half way across the river, suddenly thrust out his head with some impatience, and cried out, "driver, when is that boat going to take us across?" I smiled and answered, “ we are nearly two thirds of our way across the river." "I did na' know it," said the Scotchman, |