A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers.Thoreau, Henry David
History
A Yankee in Canada, with Anti-slavery and reform papers.
Thoreau, Henry David
Brown, John, 1800-1859; Québec (Province) -- Description and travel; Slavery -- United States
Howitt says of the man who found the great nugget which weighed
twenty-eight pounds, at the Bendigo diggings in Australia: “He soon
began to drink; got a horse, and rode all about, generally at full
gallop, and, when he met people, called out to inquire if they knew who
he was, and then kindly informed them that he was ‘the bloody wretch
that had found the nugget.’ At last he rode full speed against a tree,
and nearly knocked his brains out.” I think, however, there was no
danger of that, for he had already knocked his brains out against the
nugget. Howitt adds, “He is a hopelessly ruined man.” But he is a type
of the class. They are all fast men. Hear some of the names of the
places where they dig: “Jackass Flat,”—“Sheep’s-Head Gully,”—“Murderer’s
Bar,” etc. Is there no satire in these names? Let them carry their
ill-gotten wealth where they will, I am thinking it will still be
“Jackass Flat,” if not “Murderer’s Bar,” where they live.
The last resource of our energy has been the robbing of graveyards on
the Isthmus of Darien, an enterprise which appears to be but in its
infancy; for, according to late accounts, an act has passed its second
reading in the legislature of New Granada, regulating this kind of
mining; and a correspondent of the “Tribune” writes: “In the dry season,
when the weather will permit of the country being properly prospected,
no doubt other rich. _guacas_ [that is, graveyards] will be found.” To
emigrants he says: “Do not come before December; take the Isthmus route
in preference to the Boca del Toro one; bring no useless baggage, and do
not cumber yourself with a tent; but a good pair of blankets will be
necessary; a pick, shovel, and axe of good material will be almost all
that is required”: advice which might have been taken from the “Burker’s
Guide.” And he concludes with this line in Italics and small capitals:
“_If you are doing well at home_, STAY THERE,” which may fairly be
interpreted to mean, “If you are getting a good living by robbing
graveyards at home, stay there.”
But why go to California for a text? She is the child of New England,
bred at her own school and church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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