WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 289 



and lakes, and the falls of Niagara. There is nothing 

 haughty or forbidding in the Americans; and wherever 

 you meet them, they appear to be quite at home. This is 

 exactly what it ought to be, and very much in favour of 

 the foreigner who journeys amongst them. The immense 

 number of highly polished females who go in the stages to 

 visit the different places of amusement, and see the stupen- 

 dous natural curiosities of this extensive country, incon- 

 testably proves that safety and convenience are ensured 

 to them, and that the most distant attempt at rudeness 

 would, by common consent, be immediately put down. 



By the time I had got to Schenectady, I began strongly 

 to suspect that I had come into the wrong country to look 

 for bugs, bears, brutes, and buffaloes. It is an enchanting 

 journey from Albany to Schenectady, and from thence to 

 Lake Erie. The situation of the city of Utica is particu- 

 larly attractive ; the Mohawk running close by it, the 

 fertile fields and woody mountains, and the falls of Tren- 

 ton, forcibly press the stranger to stop a day or two here 

 before he proceeds onward to the lake. 



At some far-distant period, when it will not be possible 

 to find the place where many of the celebrated cities of the 

 East once stood, the world will have to thank the United 

 States of America for bringing their names into the western 

 regions. It is, indeed, a pretty thought of these people to 

 give to their rising towns the names of places so famous 

 and conspicuous in former times. 



As I was sitting one evening under an oak, in the high 

 grounds behind Utica, I could not look down upon the 

 city without thinking of Cato and his misfortunes. Had 

 the town been called Crofton, or Warmfield, or Dews- 

 bury, there would have been nothing remarkable in 

 it ; but Utica at once revived the scenes at school long 

 past and half forgotten, and carried me with full speed 



U 



