CHAPTER VIII.

NORTHERN EUROPEAN WRITERS.

KALM; MISS BREMER; GUROWSKI, AND OTHERS; GERMAN WRITERS: HUMBOLDT; SAXE WEIMAR; VON RAUMER; PRINCE MAXIMILIAN VON WEID; LIEBER; SCHULTZ; OTHER GERMAN WRITERS: GRUND; RUPPIUS; SEATSFIELD; KOHL; TALVI; SCHAFF.

IN the North of Europe, since the beginning of the present century, French literature has been the chief medium of current information in regard to the rest of the world. Within the last twenty years the English language has become a fashionable accomplishment; and, with the wonderful development of German literature, books of science and travel, in that language, have furnished the other northern races with no small part of their ideas about America. In Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, many of our best authors have been translated; and the Journal de St. Petersbourg, L'Abeille du Nord, Vedemosti (Bedemoctu), during the civil war, have, by the accuracy of their facts and the justness of their reasoning, evidenced a remarkably clear understanding of the struggle, its origin, aim, and consequences. A pleasant book of "Impressions" during a tour in the United States, by Lakieren, a Russian, was published in that language in 1859; and a Swedish writer-Siljestroem *-gave

"The Educational Institutions of the United States, their Character and Organization," translated from the Swedish by Frederica Rowan, London,

to his countrymen an able description and exposition of the American system of popular education, which is justly esteemed for its fulness and accuracy; while the great work of Rafn on "Northern Antiquities" identifies the profound researches of a Danish scholar with the dawn of American history.

It is refreshing alike to the senses and the soul, to turn from the painfully exciting story of those. early adventurers on this continent, whose object was conquest and personal aggrandizement, whose careers, though signalized often by heroism and sagacity, were fraught with bloodshed, not only in conflicts with the savages, but in quarrels among their own followers and rivals, to the peaceful journeys and voyages— attended, indeed, with exposure and privation-of those who sought the woods and waters of the New World chiefly to discover their marvels and enjoy and record them. We find in all the desirable reports of explorers, whether men of war, diplomacy, or religion, more or less of that observation, and sometimes of that love of nature, so instinctively active when a new scene of grandeur or beauty is revealed to human perception. But these casual indications of either a scientific or sympathetic interest in the physical resources of the country are but the episodes in expeditions, whose leaders were too hardy or unenlightened to follow these attrac tions, for their own sake, with zeal and exclusiveness. Other and less innocent objects absorbed their minds; and it is chiefly among the missionaries that we find any glowing recognition of the charms of the untracked wilderness, the mysterious streams, and the brilliant skies, which they strove to consecrate to humanity by erecting, amid and beneath them, the Cross, which should hallow the flag that proclaimed their acquisition to a distant but ambitious monarch. To the naturalist, America has ever abounded in peculiar interest; and

1853. Other Swedish works on America are C. D. Arfevedson's "Travels," (1838); Gustaf Unonceis' "Recollections of a Residence of Seventeen Years in the United States" (1862-3). Munck Rieder, a Norwegian, wrote a work on his return from the United States in 1849-chiefly statistical.

all with an inkling of that taste have found their loneliest wanderings cheered thereby. Nor has it been the scientific love of nature alone to which she has here ever appealed. To the adventurous and poetical, to the brave lover of independence and freedom, like Boone, and the enthusiast, like Chateaubriand, the forest and the waterfall have possessed a memorable charm. From Bartram to Wilson, and from Audubon to Agassiz, the world of animal and vegetable life in America has yielded a long array of naturalists the richest materials for exploration.

One of the earliest scientific visitors to our shores was Peter Kalm, who was sent from Sweden, with the approbation of Linnæus, in 1745. His salary was inadequate, and he so trenched upon his private resources, in order to carry out the objects of his journey, as to be compelled, after his return home, to practise rigid economy. Kalm was born in Osterbotten, in 1715, and educated at Upsal. On his return from America, he was appointed professor of natural history at Abo, where he died in 1779. A charming memorial of his visit to our country is the botanical name given to the wild laurel of our woods, first made known by him to Europe, and, in honor thereof, called the Kalmia. His work, "En resa til Norra Amerika," appeared in Stockholm in 1753–261, in three volumes, and was translated into Dutch, German, and English-the latter by John R. Foster, under the title of "Travels in North America" (2 vols., London, 1772).* He passed the winter of 1749 among the Swedes settled at Racoon, New Jersey. He explored the coast of New York, visited the Blue Mountains, the Mohawk, Iroquois, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Onondaga Indian tribes, Lake Ontario, and the Falls of Niagara. His description of the latter was long popular. In his diary, while at Philadelphia, he notes the variety of religious sects and their peculiarities, the exports, and the hygiene. Some of the facts recorded by him of the

* "Travels in North America, containing its Natural History, and Civil, Ecclesiastical, and Commercial State," &c., by Peter Kalm, 3 vols. 8vo., best edition, map, plates Warrington, 1770.

City of Brotherly Love a century ago, enable us to realize how rapid has been the advance from suburban wildness to the highest metropolitan luxury. When Kalm sojourned there, elks, beavers, and stags were hunted where now is "the sweet security of streets." So abundant were the peaches, that they served as the food of swine. The noisy midsummer chorus of frogs, locusts, and grasshoppers vibrated through what is now the heart of a great city. Maize was to the Swedish botanist the most wonderful staple of the soil. He discovered a species of Rhus indigenous to the region. The murmur of the spinning wheel was a familiar sound; and sassafras was deemed a specific cure for dropsy.

Kalm's picture of Albany in 1749 is an interesting parallel and contrast to Mrs. Grant's more elaborate description, and to the pleasant social glimpses of its modern life given by the late William Kent in a lecture before the young men there of this generation. The Swedish traveller tells us that all the people spoke Dutch, that the servants were all negroes, and that all the houses had gable ends to the street, with such projecting gutters that wayfarers were seriously incommoded in wet weather. He describes the cattle as roaming the dirty streets at will; the interior of the dwellings as of an exemplary neatness, and the fireplaces and porches thereof of an amplitude commensurate with the wide and genial hospitality and liberal social instincts of the people, whose prevalent virtues he regarded as frugality in diet and integrity of purpose and character. In their houses the women were extremely neat. "They rise early," says Kalm, "go to sleep late, and are almost over nice and cleanly in regard to the floor, which is frequently scoured several times a week." Tea had been but recently introduced among them, but was extensively used; coffee seldom. They never put sugar and milk in their tea, but took a small piece of the former in their mouths while sipping the beverage. They usually breakfasted at seven, dined at twelve or one, and supped at six; and most of them used sweet milk or buttermilk at every meal. They also used cheese at breakfast and

dinner, grated instead of sliced; and the usual drink of the majority of the people was small beer and pure water. The wealthier families, although not indulging in the variety then seen upon tables in New York, used much fish, flesh, and fowl, preserves and pastry, nuts and fruits, and various wines, at their meals, especially when entertaining their friends or strangers. Their hospitality toward deserving strangers was free and generous, without formality and rules of etiquette, and they never allowed their visitors to interfere with the necessary duties of the household, the counting room, or the farm.

In describing his visit to Niagara Falls, in a letter dated. Albany, September 2, 1750, Kalm furnishes us with an interesting contrast between the experience of a traveller to this long-frequented shrine of nature, a century ago, when such expeditions were few and far between, and the magnificent scene with its frontier fort was isolated in the wilderness, and the same visit now, when caravans rush thither many times a day, with celerity, to find all the comforts, society, and amenities of high civilization:

LL I came, on the 12th of August, to Niagara Fort. The French there seemed much perplexed at my first coming, imagining I was an English officer, who, under pretext of seeing the Falls, came with some other view; but as soon as I showed them my passport, they changed their behavior, and treated me with the greatest civility. In the mouths of September and October, such immense quantities of dead waterfowl are found, every morning, below the fall, on the shore (swept there), that the garrison of the fort for a long time live chiefly upon them, and obtain such plenty of feathers in autumn as make several beds."

The Swedish colony on the banks of the Delaware early associated that brave nationality with the settlement of America.* Longfellow's translation of Tegner's "Children

1. "Description of New Sweden in America, and the Settlements in Pennsylvania by Companies," Stockholm, 1792, a small quarto, with primitive engravings.

2. "Description of the Province of New Sweden, now called by the English Pennsylvania," translated and edited by Peter S. Duponceau. Phila., 1824. 8. "The Swedes on the Delaware," by Rev. Jehu Curtis Clay, Phila.