Pehr Kalm

“ I have been told by Englishmen, and not only by such as were born in America, but even by such as came from Europe, that the English colonies in North-America, in the space of thirty or fifty years, would be able to form a state by themselves, entirely independent on Old England. But as the whole country which lies along the sea shore, is unguarded, and on the land side is harrassed by the French, in times of war these dangerous neighbours are sufficient to prevent the connection of the colonies with their mother country from being quite broken off. ”

“ I have sometimes walked with several other people in small gardens, and these birds have on all sides fluttered about us, without appearing very shy. They are so small that one would easily mistake them for great humming-bees or butterflies, and their flight resembles that of the former, and is incredibly swift. They have never been observed to feed on insects or fruit; the nectar of flowers, seems therefore to be their only food. Several people have caught some humming birds on account of their singular beauty, and have put them into cages, where they died for want of a proper food. ”

“ At Philadelphia I once saw a great number of people on a market day throwing at a dog that was so unfortunate as to have been engaged with a polecat just before, and to carry about him the tokens of its displeasure. Persons when travelling through a forest are often troubled with the stink which this creature makes; and sometimes the air is so much infected that it is necessary to hold ones nose. If the wind blows from the place where the polecat has been, or if it be quite calm, as at night, the smell is more strong and disagreeable. ”

“ The hogs greedily dig up its roots with their noses in such places; and the Indians in Carolina likewise gather them in their rambles in the woods, dry them in the sun shine, grind them and bake bread of them. Whilst the root is fresh it is harsh and acrid, but being dried it loses the greatest part of its acrimony. ”

“ The ore is here commonly infinitely easier got in the mines, than our Swedish ore. For in many places with a pick ax, a crow-foot and a wooden club, it is got with the same ease with which a hole can be made in a hard soil: in many places the people know nothing of boring, blasting and firing; and the ore is likewise very fusible. Of this iron they get such quantities, that not only the numerous inhabitants of the colonies themselves have enough of it, but great quantities, are sent to the West Indies, and they have lately began even to trade to Europe with it. ”

“ This is done in the following manner: when a gentleman has a faithful Negro who has done him great services, he sometimes declares him independent at his death. This is however very expensive; for they are obliged to make a provision for the Negro thus set at liberty, to afford him subsistence when he is grown old, that he may not be driven by necessity to wicked actions, or that he may be at any body’s charge, for these free Negroes become very lazy and indolent afterwards. But the children which the free Negro has begot during his servitude are all slaves, though their father be free. ”

“ Pease are not much cultivated in Pensylvania at present, though formerly, according to the accounts of some old Swedes, every farmer had a little field with pease. In New Jersey and the southern parts of New York, pease are likewise not so much cultivated as they used to be. But in the northern parts of New York, or about Albany, and in all the parts of Canada which are inhabited by the French, the people sow great quantities, and have a plentiful crop. In the former colonies, a little despicable insect has obliged the people to give up so useful a part of agriculture. ”

“ About the month of May they begin to flower in these parts, and then their beauty rivals that of most of the known trees in nature: the flowers are innumerable, and sit in great bunches. Before they open, they have a fine red colour, but as they are expanded, the sun bleaches them, so that some are quite white; many preserve the colour of roses. ”

“ In other provinces every body that kills squirrels, received twopence a piece for them from the public, on delivering the heads. Their flesh is eaten and reckoned a dainty. The skins are sold, but are not much esteemed. Squirrels are the chief food of the rattle-snake and other snakes, and it was a common fancy with the people hereabouts, that when the rattle snake lay on the ground, and fixed its eyes upon a squirrel, the latter would be as it were fascinated, and that though it were on the uppermost branches of a tree, yet it would come down by degrees, till it leaped into the snake’s mouth. ”

“ For the savages, or first inhabitants, frequently attained a great age, though at present such examples are uncommon, which is chiefly attributed to the great use of brandy, which the savages have learnt of the Europeans. Those who are born in Europe attain a greater age here, [104] than those who are born here, of European parents. In the last war, it plainly appeared that these new Americans were by far less hardy than the Europeans in expeditions, sieges, and long sea voyages, and died in numbers. It is very difficult for them to use themselves to a climate different from their own. ”

“ The country especially all along the coasts, in the English colonies, is inhabited by Europeans, who in some places are already so numerous, that few parts of Europe are more populous. The Indians have sold the country to the Europeans, and have retired further up: in most parts you may travel twenty Swedish miles, or about a hundred and twenty English miles, from the sea shore, before you reach the first habitations of the Indians. And it is very possible for a person to have been at Philadelphia and other towns on the sea shore for half a year together, without so much as seeing an Indian. ”

“ Industry and ingenuity went further: when a brook runs in a wood, with a direction not towards the meadow, and it has been found by levelling, and taking an exact survey of the land between the meadow and the rivulet, that the latter can be conducted towards the former; a dyke is made, which hems the course of the brook, and the water is led round the meadow over many hills, sometimes for the space of an English mile and further, partly across vallies in wooden pipes, till at last it is brought where it is wanted, and where it can be spread as above-mentioned. ”

“ Though the woods of Pensylvania afford many oaks, and more species of them than are found further north, yet they do not build so many ships in this province as they do in the northern ones, and especially in New England. But experience has taught the people that the same kind of trees is more durable the further it grows to the north, and that this advantage decreases the more it grows in warm climates. It is likewise plain that the trees in the south grow more every year, and form thicker ringlets than those in the north. ”

“ The first colonists in New York were Dutchmen: when the town and its territories were taken by the English, and left them by the next peace in exchange for Surinam, the old inhabitants were allowed either to remain at New York, and to enjoy all the privileges and immunities which they were possessed of before, or to leave the place with all their goods: most of them chose the former; and therefore the inhabitants both of the town and of the province belonging to it, are yet for the greatest part Dutchmen; who still, especially the old people, speak their mother tongue. ”

“ This is likewise the reason why travellers in New Jersey, Pensylvania, and Maryland, find many difficulties, especially in winter, to get forwards with their own horses, for the grass in these provinces is not very abundant, because the cattle eat it before it can bring seeds: but more to the north, as in Canada, are a sufficient quantity of perennial grasses; so wisely has the Creator regulated every thing. The cold parts of the earth, naturally bring forth a more durable grass, because the inhabitants want more hay to feed their cattle with, on account of the length of the winter. ”

“ In the great heat of the summer, the cattle like to stand in the shade of these trees, preferably to that of the oak, hiccory, walnut, water-beech and other trees of this kind, whose foliage is very thick; and when the cattle find the latter with the former, they always choose to stand under the firs and pines, though the other trees with annually deciduous leaves could afford a better shade: and if there be but a single pine in a wood, as many cattle from the herd as can stand under it, throng to it. ”

“ On those days the country people in Pensylvania and New Jersey, bring to town a quantity of victuals, and other productions of the country, and this is a great advantage to the town. It is therefore to be wished that the like regulation might be made in our Swedish towns. You are sure to meet with every produce of the season, which the country affords, on the market-days. But on other days, they are in vain sought for.
Provisions are always to be got fresh here, and for that reason most of the inhabitants never buy more at a time, than what will be sufficient till the next market-day. ”

“ For a man gets from eighteen pence to three shillings and upwards, for one day’s work, and the women are paid in proportion. They were therefore of opinion that the cultivation of all sorts of corn, of hemp, and of flax, would be of greater advantage, and that at the same time it did not require near so much care as the feeding of silk worms. By the trials of a governor in Connecticut, which is a more northern province than New York, it is evident however, that silk worms succeed very well here, and that this kind of mulberry trees is very good for them. ”

“ The soil does not seem to be deep hereabouts; for the upper black stratum is hardly two inches. This I had an occasion to see both in such places where the ground is dug up, and in such where the water, during heavy flowers of rain, has made cuts, which are pretty numerous here. The upper soil has a dark colour, and the next a pale colour like bricks. I have observed everywhere in America, that the depth of the upper soil does not by far agree with the computation of some people, though we can almost be sure, that in some places it never was stirred since the deluge. ”

“ The people who came at present to sell wood in the market were peasants, who lived at a great distance from the town. Every body complained that fuel in the space of a few years, was risen in price to many times as much again as it had been, and to account for this, the following reasons were given: the town is encreased to such a degree, as to be four or six times bigger, and more populous than what some old people have known it to be, when they were young. Many brick-kilns have been made hereabouts, which require a great quantity of wood. ”