FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

Letter 5.
Halifax [Nova Scotia], 4 October 1808
[From Jean-Baptiste Florian to his wife Marguerite, she is apparently in England,
probably at Epping Forest, Essex, about 7 miles from London, or at an apartment in
London]
Here I am, arrived safe and sound after three quarters of my voyage, my Gogo, after a
passage of three weeks. We left Falmouth [England] Tuesday, September 13 [1808] at
two hours after mid-day, and arrived in this port yesterday, Tuesday, at three hours [after
mid-day?]. 5 We have had good weather constantly, or at least so say the captain and the
other passengers. As for me, I would have thought that we had terrible periods of
alternating calm and storm. <strong>The</strong>y were able to laugh at my expense, and yet I didn’t half
reveal my fears. I am warning you about this so that when you get to sea you will
remember that all wind which isn’t a head wind, is good when it blows.
Our little society is most agreeable. It consists of Mr. Berthure, a New York
businessman; Mr. Chipwell, a young man from Guernsey, settled in Virginia; Captain
Pinkham, of the island of Nantucket, who has just completed two excellent whaling trips
in southern seas for Mr. Mather, and who knows all the Mathers very well. One Captain
Burke, a little man puffed up with vanity, and a Mr. Hollyday, a Methodist minister from
<strong>Man</strong>chester, who is the laughing stock of all the others. I pass as a native of Louisiana,
which I prefer, being among native born Englishmen, ________ good federalists and
enemies of the French. We are well fed aboard, on the whole as well as possible on a
ship.
We arrived at the Grand Banks of the new world last Thursday, the sixteenth day after
our departure from Falmouth. We saw 12 to 15 boats anchored, fishing for codfish. We
came up near one boat [p 2] in order to send someone aboard to get some codfish,
sending a rowboat to it, and we ourselves began to fish. In less than two hours we had
caught 15 codfish with two lines, the only lines we had aboard. A dozen codfish and two
halibut were produced from the fisherman, and we feasted on them the rest of the trip.
<strong>The</strong>y made an excellent fish stew, which the Americans call “chowder.” In an iron
cooking pot they put some pieces of pork. Cut and browned, the fresh codfish is sliced
into strips. Water and a pint of port are added, and it is simmered for 20 minutes to half
an hour, with the addition of pepper, salt and a bouquet of herbs, when they are available.
<strong>The</strong> coast doesn’t look very pleasant, when you get your first view of the land on entering
the harbor, but as one goes father in the view increasingly improves. In any case, it in no
way resembles the coasts of France and England, even though everywhere you see trees,
greenery and rocks. But these are all differently distributed and mixed up. I don’t mean
to say that the coast of England is more agreeable to the eye; on the contrary I know of
5 Attempts to trace the name of the vessel that Jean-Baptiste sailed on have so far been fruitless.
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