Part 8 (1/2)
More than three centuries ago, when the romantic Ponce de Leon, with his chivalrous followers, first planted foot upon the southern extrereat Western Valley, the discovery of the far-famed ”Fountain of Youth” was the wild vision which lured hih disappointed in the object of his enterprise, the adventurous Spaniard was enraptured with the loveliness of a land which even the golden realms of ”Old Castile” had never realized; and _Florida_,[143] ”the Land of Flowers,” was the poetic name it inspired Twenty years, and the bold soldier Ferdinand de Soto, of Cuba, {213} the associate of Pizarro, with a thousand steel-clad warriors at his back, penetrated the valley to the far-distant post of Arkansas, and ”_El padre de las aguas_” was the expressive nahty streaes he laid his bones to their rest[144] ”_La Belle Riviere!_” was the delighted exclaeur, as, onder hourly increasing, he glided in his light pirogue between the swelling bluffs, and wound a the thousand isles of the beautiful Ohio The heroic Norman, Sieur La Salle, when for the first tirounds of the peaceful Illini, pronounced them a ”Terrestrial Paradise” Daniel Boone, the bold pioneer of the West, fifty years ago, when standing on the last blue line of the Alleghanies, and at the close of a day of weary journeying, he looked down upon the beautiful fields of ”Old Kentucke,” now gilded by the evening sun, turned his back for ever upon the green banks of the Yadkin and the soil of his nativity, hailing the glories of a new-found home[145]
”Fair wert thou, in the drealorious flowers, And summer winds, and low-toned silvery streams, Dim with the shadows of thy laurel bowers”
And thus has it ever been; and even yet the ”pilgriolden beauties of the Valley beyond the Mountains
{214} It was a fine Sabbathfarht, to pursue e of which it stood The village of Hillsborough was but a few miles distant, and there I had resolved to observe the sacredness of the day The showers of the preceding evening had refreshed the atales, and rustled a Beforelandscape, with herds of cattle sprinkled here and there in isolated masses over the surface; the rabbit and wild-foere sporting along the pathway, and the bright woodpecker, with his splendid plu the thickets Far away along the eastern horizon stretched the dark line of forest The gorgeous prairie-flower flung out its cri like a banner bathed in slaughter,” andsunbearass rustled musically its wavy masses back and forth, and, aht there were there notes of sweetness not before observed The whole scene lay calnised the Divine injunction _to rest_; and the idea suggested itself, that a solitary Sabbath on the wild prairie, in silent converse with the Alht not be all unprofitable {215}
”Sweet day, so cool, so calht, The bridal of the earth and sky, Sweet dews shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die”[146]
Froracefully away towards the eastern tie with farms The retrospect from beneath the tall oaks of the prairie over which I had passed was exceedingly fine; the idea strikes the spectator at once, and with much force, that the whole plain was once a sheet of water
Indeed, e to form our opinion from the _appearance_ of many of the prairies of Illinois, the idea would be irresistible, that this peculiar species of surface originated in a submersion of the whole state There are many circumstances which lead us to the conclusion that these vast meadows once formed the bed of a body of water similar to the Northern lakes; and when the lowest point at the _Grand Tower_ on the Mississippi was torn away by some convulsion of nature, a uniforhed in the soft soil by subsequent floods, and hence, while the elevated lands are fertile, those more depressed are far less so The soil of the prairies is of a character decidedly alluvial, being composed of compact strata of loam piled upon each other, like that at the bottonant The first stratum is a black, pliable mould, froamated with sand, from {216} five to ten feet in thickness; the third a blue clay, mixed with pebbles, of beautiful appearance, unctuous to the feeling, and, when exposed to the atmosphere, of a fetid s in fish, which, when the waters subside, are rein of these vast prairie-plains is, after all, no easy matter to decide; but, whatever the cause, they have doubtless been perpetuated by the autumnal fires which, year after year, from an era which the earliest chronicles of history or tradition have failed to record, have swept their surface; for, as soon as the grass is destroyed by the plough, the winged seeds of the cotton-wood and sycarowth of tiin of creeks and streaetation does not becoreat extent These fires originated either in the friction of the sear and tinder-like underbrush, agitated by the high winds, or they were kindled by the Indians for the purpose of dislodging ga by circular fires is said to have prevailed at the time when Captain Smith first visited the shores of Chesapeake Bay, where extensive prairies then existed These plains, by cultivation, have long since disappeared Mungo Park describes the annual fires upon the plains of Western Africa for a similar purpose and with the same result[147] Tracts of considerable extent in {217} the older settlements of the country, which many years since were , shur! A pleashant tay, shur! Coo of mine host, or rather of the h as I drove up to the bar-roo, bottle-shaped little personage, with a jolly red nose, all the brighter, doubtless, for certain goodly potations of his own goodly ads, inserted into a pair of inexpressibles _a la Turque_, a world too big, and a white capote a world too little, to complete the Sunday toilet
He could boast,lubricity of speech, and that oiliness of tongue ith sinful publicans have ever been prone to beguile unayfarers, _taking in travellers_, forsooth! Before I was fully aware of the change in my circumstances, I found myself quietly dispossessed of horse and equip my foot across the threshold The fleshy little Dutchh now secure in his capture, proceeded to redouble his assiduities
”Anything to trink, shur? Plack your poots, shur? shave your face, shur?” and a host of farther interrogatories, which I at length contrived to cut short with, ”Show me a chamber, sir!”
The Presbyterian Church, at which I attended worshi+p, is a neat little edifice of brick, in modern style, but not completed The walls remained unconscious of plaster; the orchestra, a naked scaffolding; the pulpit, a box of rough boards; and, {218} more _picturesque_ than all, in lieu of pews, slips, or any such thing, a few coarse slabs of all forms and fashi+ons, supported on remnants of timber and plank, occupied the open area for seats And marvellously comfortless are such seats, toI attended the ”Luteran Church,” as my major domo styled it, at the special instance of one of its worthy e one--the largest in the state, I was inforhbour, was as yet but commenced The external walls were quite complete; but the rafters, beams, studs, and braces within presented aand creaked beneath the foot, were spread over the sleepers as an apology for a floor There's practical utility for an econoood and sufficient reason why it should re, my _cicerone_ very unexpectedly favoured me with an introduction to the e Bible and psallances at s in the ear of h, and delivered hiyely adled with a smile, which, I misobative, he turned very unceremoniously away, and betook him to his pulpit By-the-by, this had by no means been the first ti s after service, we found quite a respectable congregation gathered around the signpost, to who forth in no uns” at the dawning of the ever-memorable ht like coot fellows; they tid so, py jingoes; and I'll pe out at tree o'glock, py jingoes, I will so,” raphsodied the little Dutch up under the fervour of his own eloquence This subject was still the the when he marshalled me to my dormitory and wished me ”pleashant trea the eastern heavens beheldat the door of the inn; and by , and telling over all manner of kind wishes till I had evanished from view A , pot-bellied publican is rarely to be met, than that which I encountered in the person of the odd little genius whose peculiarities I have recounted: even the worthy old ”Caleb of Ravenswood,” that miracle of major domos, would not {220} have disowned e of Hillsborough is a pleasant, healthy, thriving place; and being intersected by some of the hfare An attempt has been made by one of its citizens to obtain for this place the location of the Theological Seminary now in contemplation in the vicinity rather than at Carlinville, and the offer he has made is a trulyon the prairie's edge south of the village, co a view for ible than any spot I ever observed in Carlinville
After crossing a prairie about a dozenbreakfast with a far plains until near the e The whole region, as I journeyed through it, lay still and quiet: every farregated to the nearest villages to celebrate the day; and, verily, not a little did my heart smite me at my own heedless desecration of the political Sabbath of our land
_Vandalia, Ill_
XX
”There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society where none intrudes--”
_Childe Harold_
”The sun in all his broad career Ne'er looked upon a fairer land, Or brighter skies or sweeter scenes”
Ever since the days of that king of vagabonds, the ht to the contrary, as long before, there has existed a certain roving, taht has consisted in wandering up and down upon the face of the earth, with no definite object of pursuit, and with no rination save a kind of restless, unsatisfied craving after change; in its results e-birds, but, unlike that periodical instinct, incessant in exercise Nohether it so be that a tincture of this sa my veins under the nah these wild, unsettled regions, I have imbibed a portion thereof, is not for me to decide Nevertheless, sure it is, not unfrequently are its proh this beautiful land
It is evening now, and, after the fatigues of a pleasant day's ride, I am seated beneath the piazza {222} of a neat farh which, for the last hour,out upon a broad landscape of prairie My landlord, a high-rant, bitterly complains because, forsooth, in the absence of slave-labour, he is forced to cultivate his own farh, by the aid of a Dutchman, he has made a pretty place of it, yet he vows by all he loves to lay his bones within the boundaries of the ”Ancient Dohtful; over broad plains, intersected by deep creeks, with their densely-wooded bottoms These streams constitute one of the most romantic features of the country I have crossed verymy tour, and all exhibit the same characteristics: a broad, deep-cut channel, with precipitous banks loaded with enorled underbrush and gigantic vegetation As the traveller stands upon the arch of the bridge of logs thrown over these creeks, sometimes with an altitude at the centre of forty feet, he looks down upon a strea away into the dusky shades of the overhanging woods, until a graceful bend withdraws the dark surface of the waters from his view In the dry months of summer, these creeks and ravines are either completely free of water, or contain but a mere rivulet; and the traveller is amazed at the depth and breadth of a channel so scantily supplied But at the season of the spring or autued: a deep, turbid torrent rolls {223} wildly onward through the dark woods, bearing on its surface the trunks of trees and the ruins of bridges swept from its banks; and the stream which, a feeeks before, would scarcely have wet the traveller's sole, is now an obstacle in his route difficult and dangerous to overcome
Within a few miles of ht interest to _e beneath a broiling sun As I was leisurely pursuing h the forest, I had chanced to spy upon the banks of the roadside a cluster of wild flowers of hues unusually brilliant; and, with a spirit worthy of Dr Bat,[149] I at once resolved they should enrichth succeeded, after athering up a bouquet of surpassing nificence Alas! alas! would it had been less so; for hts and actions, and possessing, lories of botany, had long, with suspicious and sidelong glances, been eying the vagaries of his truant h to resurateful quadruped flung aloft his head, and away he careered through the green branches,
In vain was the brute addressed in language the most mild and conciliatory that ever insinuated itself into horse's lug; in vain was he ordered, {224} in tones of stern mandate, to cease his shameless and unnatural rebellion, and to surrender hie: entreaty and command, remonstrance and menace, were alike unsuccessful; and away he fleith flowing tail and flying e
At one moment he stood the attitude of hue of the high banks; and then, the instant the proximity of his much-abused master became perilous to his freedom, aloft flew mane and tail, and away, away, the aniained license lay behind hih dust and sun, a happily-executed manoeuvre once more placed the most undutiful of creatures in my power And then, be ye sure, that in true Gilpin fashi+on, ”whip and spur did ed misbehaviour
”Twas for your pleasure that I _walked_, Now you shall RUN for mine,”
was the very Christian spirit of retaliation which ani toothe capital of Illinois The town is approached fro it fros, few in number as they are, stationed here and there upon the eularly novel aspect viewed frohts There is but little of scenic attraction about the place, and, to the traveller's eye, still less of the picturesque Such huge structures as are here beheld, in a town so inconsiderable in extent, present an unnatural and forced aspect to one who has just e prairies, sprinkled with their hu; it is not picturesque Such, at all events, were e, and _first_ ih to the huge white tavern, a host of people were swar the doors; and, from certain uncouth noises which from time to time went up from the midst thereof, not an inconsiderable portion of the worthy loriously tipsy in honour of the glorious day There was one keen, bilious-looking genius in linsey-woolsey, with a face, in its intoxicated state, like a red-hot toh-priest of the bacchanal; and so fierce and high were his objurgations, that the idea with soested itself, whether, in the course of years, he had not screae to its present hatchet-like proportions May he forgive if I err But not yet wereeffected a retreat from the abominations of the bar-room, I had retired to a chamber in the most quiet corner of the mansion, and had seated myself to endite an epistle, when a rap at the door announced the presence ofan old {226} yeoiven him a ceremonious introduction, withdrew To what circumstance I was indebted for this unexpected honour, I was puzzling entles of the head, gave me briefly to understand, much to my admiration, that I was believed to be neitherCompany of the North,” etc, etc: and then, in a confidential tone, before a syllable of negation or affirmation could be offered, that he ”owned a certain tract of land, so many acres prairie, so many timber, so many cultivated, so many wild,” etc, etc: the sequel was anticipated by undeceiving the old farh with no little difficulty The cause of this ht circuister in the bar-room I had entered as my residence my native home at the North,else; or because, being a sort of cosht presuht proper as that of my departure or destination As a e, no sooner had the traveller turned froacious host and his co unable to conceive any reasonable excuse for aso far from his home except for lucre's sake, the conclusion at once and irresistibly followed that {227} the stranger was a land-speculator, or so thereunto akin; and it required not h such an inflammable mass of curiosity