The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrantsGerstäcker, Friedrich
General
The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrants
Gerstäcker, Friedrich
Germany -- Emigration and immigration -- Fiction; Immigrants -- Fiction
No. They, of whom one would have least expected it, namely, the
women--were the most patient; the men, on the other hand, especially the
Oldenburghers, grumbled dreadfully, and declared often enough that they
were entitled to expect a better kind of life in return for the payment
of so large a capital. 'Tis true that they could no longer reproach the
Committee with pride or exclusiveness, for they lived in the midst of
them, ate the same food, and laboured at the same tasks; but that, in
fact, was one of their chief grievances, that they really had no
reasonable pretence for complaint.
Under Wolfgang's direction, and with his active help, sufficient
shanties were erected to protect the whole of the settlers from wind and
rain; and, indeed, to afford them as convenient a shelter as is usual in
those parts. They had also begun to clear the land--that is, to fell the
trees and to grub up the bushes, and the immediate necessaries of life
for the present were provided for, Wolfgang having bought a sufficient
quantity of flour and salt meat from a steamer which stopped at his
place to take in wood, and having sent up these stores by his negro.
What was it that they wanted, then?
Everything! How had the ideas which they had cherished in their old home
been verified? Where were those fertile plantations, where that
super-abundance of produce, that easy life of which they had dreamed?
Alas! it had, indeed, been but a dream! Such things look very different
in reality. Those aboriginal woods which we cannot picture to ourselves
grand and splendid enough, become an intolerable nuisance when we have
to live in them, and to combat their gigantesque vegetation. Every one
hears and reads with pleasure of the romantic life of a hunter, who
passes his nights in the open air, under the greenwood; but it is
anything but romantic when the rain falls through that greenwood, and
wets one to the skin. Thousands of such trifles there are, to which all,
especially Europeans, must first get accustomed; but that is not done in
three weeks, which was the period of time that had elapsed since the
passengers of the "Hoffnung" had taken possession of their land. Was it
surprising, then, that they were not yet satisfied with their life, that
they could not be satisfied?
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