prudent exultation the traitors of the North, all the travellers heard from the official representatives of their country who greeted their arrival, was discouraging-almost hopeless for the republic. His Highness thought otherwise, and viewed the national cause with unshaken confidence; but Colonel Pisani, in giving his letters to the public, a year afterward, found himself obliged to retract premature forebodings, and admit a reaction and reversal, not only of the fortunes of war, but of the vital prospects of the nation. Midsummer is the worst period of the year for a foreigner to arrive in New York-a fact this writer scarcely appreciated, as he regards the deserted aspect of the palatial residences as their normal condition, and speaks of the then appearance of the population as if it were characteristic. Surprised by the courteous urbanity of those with whom he came in contact in shops, streets, and public conveyances, he contrasts this superiority of manners with his anticipations of ruffianism, and with the utter neglect of municipal method and decency. The American steamboats and railways are fully discussed and described. Broadway seems to Pisani a bazaar a league and a half in length. He misses the taste in dress familiar to a Parisian's eye, thinks the horses and harnesses fine, but the horsemen and equipages inferior. Despite "les industries de luxe," men of leisure, varied culture, and special tastes seemed quite rare, and the average physiognomy unattractive. The architecture and aspect of the hotels strike him as sombre compared with those of Paris; and he declares every gamin of that metropolis would ridicule our popular and patriotic fêtes as childish attempts thereat, which he attributes to the basis of Anglo-Saxon reserve in the national character, wherein "l'expression de la pensée est rarement dans un rapport exact avec la pensée elle-même." Decentralization, and all its phenomena, naturally impress his mind, accustomed to routine and method; and the manner of recruiting and organizing-in fact, the whole military régime of the country-offers salient points of comment and criticism to one who has long witnessed the results of professional life

in this sphere. Visiting Philadelphia, Washington, and the great lakes, adapting themselves to the customs and the people, examining all things with good-natured intelligence, this record contains many acute remarks and suggestive generalizations. We have numerous portraits of individuals, sketches of scenery, reflections on the past, and speculations as regards the future. The absence of a concierge at the White House, the naïveté of the new President, the character and principles of statesmen and of parties, are subjects of candid discussion. The mines of Lake Superior, the community of Rappists, McCormick's manufactory of "engins agricoles," the local trophies and the economical resources of the country, find judicious mention. While the Colonel is indignant at the "curiosité brutale" encountered in the West, he pays a grateful tribute to the hospitality of the people. At Pittsburg, the site of Fort Duquesne, he reverts with pride and pathos, to the French domination on this continent, recalls its military successes, and laments its final overthrow. At Mount Vernon he thinks of Lafayette's last visit, and sadly contrasts that period of republican enthusiasm and prosperity with the sanguinary conflict of the passing hour. Indeed, the value and interest of these letters consist in the vivid glimpses they afford of the darkest hour in our history as a free people, and the indirect but authentic testimony thus afforded to the recuperative and conservative power of our institutions and national character. Colonel Pisani accompanied Prince Napoleon in his visits to the camps of both armies, and heard their respective officers express their sentiments freely. Rare in the history of war is such an instance of dual observation apparently candid; seldom has the same pen recorded, within a few hours, impressions of two hostile forces, their aspect, condition, aims, animus, and leaders. Rapid as was the journey and hasty the inspection, we have many true and vivid pictures and portraits; and it is interesting to note how gradually but surely the latent resources of the country, the absolute instincts of the popular will, and the improved because sustained force of the Government, are revealed to the

mind of this pleasant raconteur, who brings home to the American reader the moral crisis, so memorable in the retrospect, which succeeded our premature battle for national honor and life-whose vital current, thus baffled, shrank back to the heart of the republic, only to return with fresh and permanent strength to every vein in the body politic, and vitalize the popular brain and heart with concentrated patriotic scope, insight, and action. Absorbing, however, as was the question of the hour even to a casual sojourner, the physical, social, and economical traits of the country were only more sympathetically examined by the intelligent party of the Prince because of the war cloud that overhung them; and we are transported from inland sea and lonely prairie to the capital of New England, where, says the Colonel, “for the first time I believed myself in Europe," and to quite other society than the governmental circles at Washington or the financial cliques of New York. At Cambridge and Boston, with Agassiz, Felton, Everett, and others, he found congenial minds. The speech of the latter at a parting banquet given the Prince, is noted as a model of tact and rhetoric; while "Vive la France," the refrain of Holmes' song, with happy augury cheered their departure.

CHAPTER X.

AMERICAN TRAVELLERS AND WRITERS.

JOHN AND WILLIAM BARTRAM; MADAME KNIGHT; LEDYARD; CARVER; JEFFERSON; IMLAY; DWIGHT; COXE; INGERSOLL; WALSH; PAULDING; FLINT; CLINTON; HALL; TUDOR; WIRT; COOPER; HOFFMAN; OLMSTED; BRYANT; GOVERNMENT EXPLORATIONS; WASHINGTON; MRS. KIRKLAND; IRVING; AMERICAN ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE; BIOGRAPHY; HISTORY; MANUALS; ORATORY; ROMANCE; POETRY; LOCAL PICTURES; EVERETT, HAWTHORNE, CHANNING, ETC.

THERE is one class of travellers in America that have peculiar claims upon native sympathy and consideration; for neither foreign adventure nor royal patronage, nor even private emolument, prompted their journeyings. Natives of the soil, and inspired either by scientific or patriotic enthusiasm-not seldom by both-they strove to make one part of our vast country known to the other; to reveal the natural beauties and resources thereof to their neighbors, and to Europeans; and to promote national development by careful exploration and faithful reports. All the intelligent pioneers of our border civilization more or less enacted the part of beneficent travellers. Public spirit, in colonial and later times, found scope in expeditions which opened paths through the wilderness, tested soil, climate, and natural productions, and estimated the facilities hitherto locked up in primeval soli

tudes. Washington's early surveys, Boone's first sojourn in the woods of Kentucky, Clinton's visit to Western New York to trace the course of the Erie Canal, are examples of this incidental kind of home travel, so useful to the early statesmen and the political economists. At subsequent periods, the natural features of the Great West were revealed to us by Flint and Hall; New England local and social traits were agreeably reported by Tudor and Dwight; Lewis and Clarke gave the first authentic glimpses of the Rocky Mountains and the adjacent plains, afterward so bravely traversed by Fremont and others; and Schoolcraft gathered up the traditions and the characteristics of those regions still occupied by the aborigines; and while Audubon tracked the feathered creation along the whole Atlantic coast, Percival examined every rood of the soil of Connecticut.

Among the most interesting of the early native travellers. in America, are the two Bartrams. Their instinctive fondness for nature, a simplicity and veneration born of the best original Quaker influence, and habits of rural work and meditation, throw a peculiar charm around the memoirs of these kindly and assiduous naturalists, and make the account they have left of their wanderings fresh and genial, notwithstanding the vast progress since made in the natural sciences. John Bartram's name is held in grateful honor by botanists, as "the first Anglo-American who conceived the idea of establishing a botanic garden, native and exotic." He was lured to this enterprise, and its kindred studies, by the habit of collecting American plants and seeds for his friend, Peter Collinson, of London. Encouraged by him, Bartram began to investigate and experiment in this pleasant field of inquiry. He was enabled to confirm Logan's theory in regard to maize, and to illustrate the sexes of plants. From such a humble and isolated beginning, botany expanded in this country into its present elaborate expositions. The first systematic enumeration of American plants was commenced in Holland, by Gronovius, from descriptions furnished by John Clayton, of Virginia. As early as 1732, Mark Catesby, of Virginia, had