DICKENS’ “AMERICAN NOTES.”

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 95, 27 June 1843, Page 4

DICKENS’ “AMERICAN NOTES.”

Soon after nine o’clock we come to Pontomac Creek, where we are to land; and then comes the oddest part of the journey. Seven stage coaches are preparing to carry us on. Some of them are ready, some are not ready. Some of the drivers are blacks, some whites. There are four horses to each coach, and all the horses, harnessed or unharnessed, are there. The passengers are getting out of the steamboat, anc into the coaches; the luggage is being transferred in noisy wheelbarrows; the horses are now frightened, and impatient to start; the black drivers are chattering to them like so many monkeys; and the white ones shouting like so many drovers ; for the main thing to be done in all kinds of holstering here, is to make as much noise as possible. The coaches are very much like the French ones, but not nearly so good. In lieu of springs, they are hung on bands of the strongest leather. There is very little choice between them.; and they may be likened to the car portion of the swings, at the English fairs, roofed, and put upon axle-trees and wheels, and curtained with painted canvass. They are covered with mud from the roof to the wheel tire, and have never been cleaned since they were built.

The tickets we have received on board the steamboat are marked No. 1., so we belong to coach No. I. I throw my coat on the box, and hoist my wife and her maid inside. It has only one step, and that being about a yard from the ground, is usually approached by a chair ; when there is no chair ladies trust in Providence ! The coach holds nine inside, having a seat across from door to door, where we in England put our legs; so that there is only one feat more difficult in the performance than getting in, and that is getting out again. There is only one outside passenger, and he sits upon the box. As lam that one I climb up, and while they are strapping the luggage on the roof, and heaping it into a kind of dray behind, have an excellent opportunity of looking at the driver.

He is a negro—very black indeed. He is dressed in a coarse pepper and salt suit, excessively patched and darned, particularly at the xnees, grey stockings, enormous unblacked •high-low shoes, and very short trowsers. He has two odd gloves, one of parti-coloured worsted, and one of leather. He has a very short whip, broken in the middle and bandaged up with string. And yet he wears a low-crowned broad brimmed black hat, faintly shadowing forth a kind of insane imitation of an English coachman ! But somebody in authority cries “ go ahead,” as -I am making these observations. The mail tfckes the lead in a four-horse ! waggon, • and all the coaches follow in proces- ■ sion, headed by N0..1. By the way, whenever an Englishman would cry "all-right,”ah-Ataericancries “go ahead,” which is ;somewhat ; expressive of the national character of the two-countries. i ,

The first half mile of the road is over bridges made of loose planks laid across two parallel poles, which tilt up as the wheels roll over them, and in the river. The river has - a clayey bottom, and is full of holes so that half a horse is constantly disappearing unexpectedly, and can’t be found again for some tjme. . - ■■But we get past even this, and come t© >fehe road itself, which is a series of alternate swamps' and gravel pits. A tremendous .place is close before us, the black driver rolls his eyes, screws

up his. mouth very round, and looks. • straight between the two leaders, as- if he were saying to himself, " we have done this often before, but now we shall have a crash.’’ He takes; a, , rein in each hand—jerks and pulls: at both—- , and .dances on the splash board with both feet (keeping his seat, of course, like the late

lamented Ducrow on two of his fifty coursers.) . We come to the spot, sink down in the mire nearly to the coach windows, tilt on one side at an angle of forty-five degrees, and stick there. The insides scream dismally—the coach stops —the horses flounder—rail the other six coaches stop—and their four-and-twenty horses flounder likewise —but merely for company and in sympathy with ours. Thereupon the following circumstances occur: Black driver to the horses—" Hi!” Nothing happens, and the insides scream again. Black driver to the horses—" Ho i” Horses plunge, and splash the black driver. Gentlemen inside looking out—" What on airth—” Gentleman receives a variety of splashes, and draws liis head in again, without finishing his question or waiting for an answer. Black driver, still to the horses—"Jiddy! Jiddy!” Horses pull violently, drag the coach out of the hole, and draw it up a batik, so steep, that the black driver’s legs fly up into the air, and he goes back among the luggage on the roof. But he immediately recovers himself, and cries (still to the horses) — " Pil!” No-effect. On the contrary, the coach begins to roll back upon No. 2, which rolls back upon No. 3, whioh rolls back upon No. 4, and so on till No. 7 is heard to curse and swear behind afl. Black driver (much louder than before) — " Pil!” Horses make another desperate struggle to get up the bank, and again the coach rolls backward. Black driver (much louder than ever) — •“ Pe-e-e-i’l!” Horses make another desperate struggle. Black driver (recovering spirits) Jiddy, Jiddy, Pil!” Horses make another effort. Black driver (with great vigour—"Ally Loo! Hi, Jiddy, Jiddy. Pill, Pill. Ally Loo!” Horses almost do it. Black driver (with his eyes starting out of his head) —" Lee den, Lee dere. Hi. Jiddy, Pill. Ally, Loo. Le-e-e-e!” They run up the bank, and go down on the other side at a fearful pace. It is impossible to stop them, and at the bottom there is a deep hollow full of water. The coach rolls frightfully. The insides scream. The mud and water fly about us. The black driver dances

like a madman. Suddenly we are all right by some extraordinary means. A black friend of the black driver is sitting on a fence. The black driver recognizes him by twirling his head round and round like a harlequin, rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, and grinning from ear to ear. He stops short, turns to me, and says—- " We shall get through sa, like a fiddle, and hope & please you when we got you through sa. Old ’ooman at home, sa;” chuckling very much. “ ©ld ’ooman at home, sa,” grinning again. "Aye, aye-; we’ll take care of the ole woman.” The black driver grins again, but there is another hole, and beyond that another bank close before us. So he stops short—cries to the horses " Easy. Easy den. Easy. Steady. Hi. Jiddy. Pill. Ally. Loo,” but never " Lee !” until we are reduced to the very last extremity, and are in the midst of difficulties, extrication from which appears to be all but impossible. So we do the ten miles in two hours and a c half, breaking no bones, though bruising a .great many; and, in short, getting through the distance " like a fiddle.”

Chinese Customs —The Chinese do not bury -their dead till the day twelvemonths after their decease; but keep them all this time in coffins in some part of their houses, having previously dried them by means of quicklime. .... During all this time that the body is preserved in the house, meat and drink are set before it every day; and if they 'find these gone in the morning, they imagine that the dead person has consumed them. They mourn during three whole years; and whoever transgresses this law, is punished'with the bamboo. . . . . The Emperor reserves to himself the revenues arising from the salt-mines, and those which are derived from impositions upon a certain herb called teha, which they , drink with hot water, and of which vast quantities are sold in all the cities in China. This is produced from a shrub more bushy than the pomegranite-tree, and of a more pleasant smell, but having a kind of bitterish taste. The way of using this herb is, to pour boiling water upon the leaves, and the infusion'cures all diseases. • . The islands of Sila are inhabited - by white people, who.send presents, to the Emperor of China, .and who arei persuaded that if'they were to neglect this, the rain of heaven would not fall upon; their country.' —Travels of a Makommedan Traveller in the Ninth Century,