FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

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ordinary breakfast in New York, tea, coffee, meats of various sorts, omelets of fresh eggs. Here they give us divine griddle cakes made of corn. Your mother, who loved them so in Brittany, couldn’t help but agree that these here are better. <strong>The</strong> rye bread is not as tasty as that of New York, but the butter is much better. I will leave Tuesday morning for Lancaster, which is 60 miles from here. I plan to rest there a day and take the coach which leaves Thursday for Pittsburgh. I’ll write you from that city before leaving. Several persons just left last week to go there and make the voyage to New Orleans. I’ll probably rejoin them before they embark. On the Ohio, it is not yet the season to start down. Perhaps we can give them passage on the barge. One isn’t unhappy to have companions along a route of 2100 miles and which will last at least six weeks. Send this letter, as well as the preceding ones, to your mother. [p 4] I will continue to keep a journal of my voyage, because I presume that your mother will not remain at Laytonstone after Christmas, and since I hope that you will stay on with Mrs. Davison, it’s better that I address my letters there, and that you read right away those that I send you in your name. If I write to your mother’s address, it will be about personal matters, so you be careful to send them along to her immediately without opening the letters, which will be addressed in care of you. Give my regards and respects to Mr. and Mrs. Davison. Hug your mother and your sisters tenderly in my memory when you see them. Love them always and for your part hold for them a friendship as tender as they hold for you. 32
Letter 8. [Lancaster, PA] November 2, 1808 [From Jean-Baptiste Florian to Laura Eugenie Florian, later Bowers (1791-1857), the first daughter of Jean-Baptiste; she is apparently in England] I left Philadelphia yesterday morning at 5 o’clock, as I told you in my last letter, my dear Laura. I arrived at Lancaster about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a distance of 62 miles. We stopped almost two hours en route to eat, so you see that one travels by public carrier as fast as in England. <strong>The</strong> road is a bit rough, being made of a very hard rock which they break up with an iron club into pieces as thick as one’s fist. <strong>The</strong> country is beautifully cultivated. <strong>The</strong> only woods one sees are those needed for consumption. <strong>The</strong>y don’t burn anything else. In all the country and even in Philadelphia they use coal very little. As far as the eye can see on both sides of the road one sees farmhouses well built of stone or brick. Orchards of apples and peaches, fields of wheat, of corn, of clover. <strong>The</strong> country is cut by valleys and hills of medium height ________ and three or four pretty streams not very deep in which flow limpid waters over a bed of pebbles. It is in the middle of this rich and flourishing countryside that Lancaster is situated, a pretty market town which contains 800 inhabitants. Almost all of them have a store or stand, and the majority are of German origin, as are the farmers everywhere around. <strong>The</strong> signs on the stores and the printed advertisements, are always in English and German, and the inscriptions on the gravestones frequently are in the first language only. I was struck by the number of apothecary shops and arms factories. One would say that here more than elsewhere men like to take care of their existence and destroy that of others. <strong>The</strong>y give balls here frequently during the winter. <strong>The</strong>y print an Almanac ________. Lancaster is the capital of the province. <strong>The</strong> houses are very well built of brick, the streets wide and straight as an arrow, cutting each other at right angles. <strong>The</strong> inn where we are staying concedes nothing to those of England. <strong>The</strong> _______ is less abundant than in Philadelphia and New York, as well as the fish and game, the poultry and fats meats excellent. It costs much less to live here. Our dinner yesterday only cost half a piaster per head (about 2-3 Sterling) and still we ha between four of us a half bottle of very good Madiera wine and a quart of French cognac. I have had occasion to admire the sobriety of Americans. Two of the invited persons contented themselves with two small glasses and we left at least three glasses in the half bottle of wine, and almost half of the cognac. Thus they are constrained by themselves to drink to their own advantage. I had already notices the same thing in Philadelphia, as ordinary at the hotel of Mr. Arch and Mr. Call, director of the bank, where I dined Monday. It is not thus in New York, where English mores prevail very much. <strong>The</strong>y make a beautiful wool cloth here, almost as _______ and as velvety as that which the English call Angora [?], and a beautiful grey, but it is very expensive. <strong>The</strong>y asked me one piaster – 70 cents [p 2] (about seven shillings and six pence). Factories rise up on 33
Page 1 and 2: FLORIAN Th
Page 3 and 4: Section 2: Letters from Other Famil
Page 5 and 6: France still correspond, keep track
Page 7 and 8: Published Writings of Jean Baptiste
Page 9 and 10: Estelle Sims Collection. This consi
Page 11 and 12: Note on Translation and Holdings Wo
Page 13 and 14: Note on Monetary Exchange Value In
Page 15 and 16: Letter 1. 2 [Letter translated, not
Page 17 and 18: the education, with the compensatio
Page 19 and 20: Letter 2. [Letter translated, not o
Page 21 and 22: In case you receive from Messrs. Fa
Page 23 and 24: Letter 5. Halifax [Nova Scotia], 4
Page 25 and 26: Joseph Marie Le Det de Segrais Pier
Page 27 and 28: sorrow, my tender friend, that I ca
Page 29 and 30: Letter 7. Philadelphia, October 30,
Page 31: We crossed the state of New Jersey
Page 35 and 36: sobbing of the women _____ _______
Page 37 and 38: Letter 9. Pittsburg[h], Sunday, Nov
Page 39 and 40: years, one finds himself with a ret
Page 41 and 42: Mr. and Mrs. Linton, with all the r
Page 43 and 44: ecause the current was so rapid and
Page 45 and 46: Letter 11. Natchez, 4 January, 1809
Page 47 and 48: of 20 to 22 cents per pound, as it
Page 49 and 50: Letter 12. New Orleans, January 23,
Page 51 and 52: I have sent to Mrs. Kirkland letter
Page 53 and 54: will see all the country from there
Page 55 and 56: Letter 14. New Orleans, February 11
Page 57 and 58: Letter 15. New Orleans, February 12
Page 59 and 60: They think only of
Page 61 and 62: Letter 17. New Orleans, March 5, 18
Page 63 and 64: We have had news from England, of t
Page 65 and 66: [p 2] Madame Sain [Dai?] will entru
Page 67 and 68: Letter 19. Montesano [West Florida,
Page 69 and 70: Bring along also a few bushels of S
Page 71 and 72: Letter 20. Montesano [West Florida,
Page 73 and 74: ye-grass, clover, sainfoin, [Lucern
Page 75 and 76: Section 2 Letters From Other Family
Page 77 and 78: as much for the grandeur as for the
Page 79 and 80: Your affectionate uncle, Jolly Patr
Page 81 and 82: ignorant of the renunciation which
Page 83 and 84:
Eliza talks only about her pretty f
Page 85 and 86:
Elizabeth Florian Talcott, later in
Page 87 and 88:
Letter 5. [Letter from Marguerite M
Page 89 and 90:
I have seen the Couissin girls, the
Page 91 and 92:
I took [the girls?] to a grand ball
Page 93 and 94:
They should not al
Page 95 and 96:
Your sisters had promised to reimbu
Page 97 and 98:
Now I must scold you for not termin
Page 99 and 100:
My dear Papa, My sisters have told
Page 101 and 102:
Letter 8. [Letter from Marguerite M
Page 103 and 104:
hair, which is almost all white. Yo
Page 105 and 106:
some years this will be quite a lar
Page 107 and 108:
Letter 10. . [Undated letter from P
Page 109 and 110:
Duault is the most perfect and fine
Page 111 and 112:
sad, as did I, just a passerby on t
Page 113 and 114:
almost all the summer in the countr
Page 115 and 116:
Letter 12. [Letter from Pierre Rene
Page 117 and 118:
Adieu dear Friend! I hope that at l
Page 119 and 120:
Letter 14. [Letter in response from
Page 121 and 122:
attachments which had been planned
Page 123 and 124:
ealize only too well by what I have
Page 125 and 126:
For two months, while I have been a
Page 127 and 128:
I don’t have time on this occasio
Page 129 and 130:
not complain of anything, but his t
Page 131 and 132:
Letter 19. [Letter to Azelie Floria
Page 133 and 134:
Letter 20. Emma’s Narrative Proba
Page 135 and 136:
On Saturday the 21 st [unfortunatel
Page 137 and 138:
I told him I was not afraid, but as
Page 139:
The climate and th
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FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

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