The wanderings and fortunes of some German emigrants — Context and Discussion

The embarkation--First taste of salt water--Sea-sickness--Intestine dissensions--The passengers--Alsatians--The Oldenburghers and their wooden shoes--A calm--Fate of the wooden shoes--A child overboard--Capture of a shark--A storm--Effects of the storm--Death of a passenger--The storm abates--Complaints against the committee--The remonstrance--The committee's vindication--Indolence of the Oldenburghers--A stratagem--Approach to the American coast--"Ashore! Ashore!"--Negro robbers--Termination of the voyage p. 1-43

The "Switzer's home"--Wonders of New York--"Five hundred journeymen wanted!"--A civil countryman--The future settlement--An adventure on the Quay--"The Switzer's home"--A night's "rest"--The "striped pig"--A natural curiosity maker--The "striped pig" explained--Yankee dodges--Mr. Becher's address--The promised land--The purchase completed--A Methodist ranter--The tailor's adventure--Letters of introduction--Suspicions against Dr. Normann--Dr. Normann's "smartness"--The separation 44-83

THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE SETTLEMENT.

Scenery of the Hudson--The haunted island--A night on the Hudson--Utica--A "railway hotel" repast--The Erie canal--A name for the future town--The canal bridges--The first death--The Falls of Niagara--American fences--Abandonment of luggage--Difficulties in the treasury--The subscription--Cincinnati--Adventures in Cincinnati--An old settler--The Negro barber--German-American politics--Political spouting--Daybreak on the Ohio--Normann's love suit--The Cincinnati "Museum"--First impressions of the Mississippi--Arrival at the Big Halchee--The home in the wilderness 84-133

A night in a shanty--The watchman's horn--The woodsman's hut--Death in the woods--The forest burial-place--A clearing on the Mississippi--A desolate scene--The "river" and the "town"--The floods of the Mississippi--A journey in the woods--Unpleasant forebodings--A town in the backwoods--A "camp out"--The "dead clearing"--The "lot" identified--The disappointment--Forest lodgings--Use of the axe--Deer-stalking--Perils of hunting in the backwoods--Progress of settlement--A plot and a counter-plot 131-174

EXCURSIONS HITHER AND THITHER.

Plans for the future--How to "get along" in America--Philadelphia--The Quaker City--Points of the compass--Letters of introduction--Steam-voyage to New Orleans--Approach to the city--"Yellow Jack"--A New Orleans school--American school-system--Pleasant anticipations 175-194

THE SETTLEMENT--AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.

A "herd" of wild turkeys--Turkey-buzzards--A startling apparition--Dr. Normann--The doctor's accomplice--The reconciliation--Sinister speculations--Plans for abduction--"Bear-tracking" 195-210

Purchase of horses and cattle--Backwoods hospitality--The wolf and the sheep--"Salting" cattle--Elbow-room in the woods--"Westward Ho!"--Farming in the Backwoods--"Chicken fixings"--Rail-fence making--Mutual secrets--The deer-calf--Success of the ruse--The arrival of the cattle--Treachery discovered--Bertha's fears--The Mulatto's sudden appearance--The abduction completed--The Serpentine water-course--Narrow escape from discovery--The pursuers at fault--The last gleam of hope 211-249

THE MOUTH OF THE BIG HALCHEE.

The shores of the Mississippi--Girdling--Settlers' errors--New mode of banking--Settlements by communities--Schwarz's plans--Wood-carrying on the "go-ahead" principle--A backwoods "river"--A Mississippi steamer captain--American hospitality--The landing--An unexpected discovery 250-268

TREACHERY WITHIN TREACHERY.

Normann's suspicions awakened--The Yankee's escape--The pursuit--The deliverance--Suspense--Bertha restored to her father--An unpleasant recognition--The mulatto's escape--Death struggle on the Mississippi--The return to the settlement 269-290

A new home--The old bachelor--A ride through the woods--The deserted pastor--The break up of the colony--The pastor's removal--Bringing home the bride--Two households arranged--The fortunes of some of the colonists--Conclusion 291-310

WANDERINGS AND FORTUNES

The majority of the intending passengers by the new and smart bark, the "Hoffnung," Commander Wellbach, bound for New York, were assembled at Meier's, the host of the Hull Arms Tavern, in the ancient Hanse-town of Bremen, prior to their departure, to hear the laws read, which had been drawn up by a committee chosen by themselves, from among their leading men, and to subscribe these laws. They related not only to the voyage across the ocean, but also to the proceedings of the Emigrants on their arrival in their new home, and were intended, as the preamble expressed it, "to unite firmly the Emigrants in a band of friendship for the attainment of _one_ great object."

The committee consisted of six members--namely, the Lutheran clergyman, or, as he is styled, the Pastor Hehrmann; Becher, an advocate; a Mr. Von Schwanthal; two brothers, merchants, named Siebert; and a gentleman named Herbold, formerly a landed proprietor. They were zealous for the general welfare, and had, by these laws, reserved equal rights and assigned equal duties to each, so far at least as was compatible with the foregone determination of buying a block of land somewhere in the United States, immediately on their arrival in New York, of occupying it, of tilling it, and of harvesting it in common; and such of the party as had never handled a plough or a spade, were as pleased as children with the thought of working hard in the New World--in the primeval forest--and pictured to themselves how well they should relish the bread to be raised by the toil of their own hands.

The requisite funds for the voyage, as well as a small surplus for a beginning, had been previously handed over by each of the little community to the elder Siebert, as treasurer, who had accordingly bargained with the broker and paid for the passage; and when all the passengers had signed the laws there no longer appeared to be any obstacle to their future happiness, or, at all events, none to their future concord and good-fellowship.