FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>  
aptains learned the art of pronouncing upon the exceptional character of a particular voyage for the benefit of the traveler who is making that voyage. They saw water-spouts, 'four at one time.' The billows were 'mountain-high, and at night appeared to be all on fire.' They had infinite leisure, and scarcely knew how to use it. Mrs. Priestley wrote 'thirty-two large pages of paper.' The doctor read 'the whole of the Greek Testament and the Hebrew Bible as far as the first book of Samuel.' He also read through Hartley's second volume, and 'for amusement several books of voyages and Ovid's Metamorphoses.' 'If I had [had] a Virgil I should have read him through, too. I read a great deal of Buchanan's poems, and some of Petrarch's _de remediis_, and Erasmus's Dialogues; also Peter Pindar's poems, ... which pleased me much more than I expected. He is Paine in verse.' On June 1 the ship reached Sandy Hook. Three days later Dr. and Mrs. Priestley 'landed at the Battery in as private a manner as possible, and went immediately to Mrs. Loring's lodging-house close by.' The next morning the principal inhabitants of New York came to pay their respects and congratulations; among others Governor Clinton, Dr. Prevoost, bishop of New York; Mr. Osgood, late envoy to Great Britain; the heads of the college; most of the principal merchants, and many others; for an account of which amenities one must read Henry Wansey's _Excursion to the United States in the Summer of 1794_, published by Salisbury in 1796, a most amusing and delectable volume. Priestley missed seeing Vice-president John Adams by one day. Adams had sailed for Boston on the third. But he left word that Boston was 'better calculated' for Priestley than any other part of America, and that 'he would find himself very well received if he should be inclined to settle there.' Mrs. Priestley in a letter home says: 'Dr. P. is wonderfully pleased with everything, and indeed I think he has great reason from the attentions paid him.' The good people became almost frivolous with their dinner-parties, receptions, calls, and so forth. Then there were the usual addresses from the various organizations,--one from the Tammany Society, who described themselves as 'a numerous body of freemen, who associate to cultivate among them the love of liberty, and the enjoyment of the happy republican government under which they live.' There was an address from the 'Democratic Society,' one from
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   >>  



Top keywords:
Priestley
 

principal

 

pleased

 
Boston
 

volume

 

voyage

 

Society

 

delectable

 

missed

 

amusing


Salisbury

 
cultivate
 

sailed

 
liberty
 
enjoyment
 

president

 

published

 

States

 

address

 

merchants


Democratic

 

college

 

Britain

 

Excursion

 

Wansey

 
United
 

associate

 

Summer

 

government

 

account


republican

 

amenities

 
calculated
 

addresses

 

reason

 

attentions

 

Tammany

 

organizations

 

parties

 

receptions


dinner
 
frivolous
 

people

 

wonderfully

 

America

 
numerous
 

letter

 
settle
 
inclined
 

received