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198 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Foreign Literature.
In the spring of 1852 , having given up the share he had taken in the Editing of the " New York Allegemeine _iZeitung" and
consider-, ing that a residence in that city did not promise him much more of _material than of spiritual profitthe author made an arrangement
with a mercantile house to accompany , a cargo of goods to fee sent from Missouri to Chihuahua , _ifcapid as has been the advance of a
_civilized population over the _^ _Torfch American continent , there are still immense tracts so insecure and inhospitableand so exposed to
, the ravages of hostile Indians , that they cannot safely be traversed otherwise than in great caravans ; and as these journeys are often
attended with no inconsiderable risk both to persons and goods , no small share of personal courageas well as a sagacity and readiness
, to endure occasional hardship and privation , is often required to conduct them to a successful issue .
The progress of these numerous caravans is necessarily very slow . In many places it is found that the ten mules are insufficient to drag
one of the waggons , weighing five or six thousand pounds each , over a hill , or through , a morass , and three or four extra pairs have to be
harnessed in turn before each , in addition to the efforts of eight or ten men ; and as the caravan must keep together * it sometimes effects
very few miles in a day , though at other times , when none of these difficulties occur , as much as eighty miles may be done in four and
twenty hours . The waggons are of great strength , and frequently perform the whole of their enormous journey without accident ; but
to provide against disasters carry with them spare wheels , axletrees , and all the more important parts of a waggonbesides plenty of
, axes and hatchets for cutting wood , and of spades and pickaxes , windlassesleversand crowbars to mend the roads when necessary
, , , and of course a plentiful stock of firearms and weapons . The caravan joined by _M . Frobel , consisted of eighteen waggons ,
each drawn by ten mules , with the necessary number of additional ones for changing—and a numerous personnel of
waggonersmule-, drivers , & c . ; escorted by the second partner in the firm to which the goods belonged , as well as by the Author . The travellers appear
to have carried with , them on this occasion a most abundant stock of necessaries and unnecessariesfor besides flourporkteacoffee
, , , , , sugar , & c , we hear of preserved meats and delicate vegetablesasparagus and cauliflowers , pickles and preserves , oysters and
lobsters , chocolate , claret , and champagne : the latter being provided for the especial benefit of a lady who formed one of the party . The
consumption of sardines in the wilderness is so great that M . Frobel thinks you might find your way from Independence to Sante Fe by
following the line of tin cases thrown away on the route . There was notas will be seenmuch danger in the present instance of the
, , travellers suffering from privation—but even with all these appliances of comfort and luxury the journey had its rough passages *
Here for instance is an account of one of the halts .
198 Notices Of Books.
198 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1858, page 198, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051858/page/54/
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