Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820Flint, James, active 19th century
History
Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820
Flint, James, active 19th century
Ohio River Valley -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
The Scotsman twice alluded to in my last letter, was also bound for
Chillicothe, and we set out together. He gave me the following account
of his economy in travelling. The owner of the boat which we had just
left, engaged him to work his passage from Pittsburg to Portsmouth
without wages, except having his trunk carried to the latter place,
artfully telling, that the passage would be completed in nine days. It
turned out that twenty-one days elapsed, before the boat reached her
destination. Had he, in the first place, hired himself as a boatman,
he might have got seventy-five cents per day, and might have had his
trunk carried for a dollar; and thus a profit of fourteen dollars and
{91} seventy-five cents would have been made. On his journey from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg, he managed better. He travelled along
with the waggon that carried his trunk; the waggon also carrying his
provisions. In this way he was never obliged to enter a tavern except
at night, when he slept in his own bed-clothes. His bed was a low one,
but he had always the satisfaction of knowing that it was clean, and
that he was exempted from having a bed-fellow intruded upon him. It is
true that by travelling alone, he might have reached Pittsburg about a
week sooner; but he would have arrived there without clean clothes, and
incurred the payment of a week’s board, while waiting the arrival of
his trunk.
Having made a digression on economical travelling, I am led to
make some further remarks on it. The subject is highly interesting
to emigrants whose funds are scanty, as every dollar parted with
may be, in effect, giving up half an acre of uncultivated land. A
steerage passenger pays only about half the freight that is charged
for a passage in the cabin of a ship; and, when he lays in his own
provisions, he has it in his power to be nearly as comfortable as
a sea voyage can permit. In the American port, the cabin passenger
is sometimes subjected to delay in entering his baggage at the
custom-house, and getting the taxable part valued, whereas the steerage
passenger has his goods entered by the captain, and is allowed to
proceed on his journey without loss of time. Baltimore being the
most convenient landing place for Europeans who intend to settle in
the western country, those who arrive at New York, Boston, or other
northern ports, will have a saving by re-shipping for the Chesapeake.
Strangers ought to be careful in ascertaining what sloop is to sail
first. By putting goods aboard of a wrong vessel, a delay for a {92}
week or so may be occasioned. Having sent my own baggage round the
Capes, from New York to Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of observing
that several skippers, at the same time, affirmed, that his own vessel
would sail first. Liverpool is the principal resort, in Britain, of
ships for Baltimore. I conceive that it is unimportant to the emigrant,
whether he reaches the latter place in an American coasting vessel, or
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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