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William Priest - Travels in the United States of America
therefore education may be claimed by all as a right.
This climate is much colder, compared with yours, than I can account for geographically; but it may
perhaps be owing to our having a greater proportion of easterly winds, which, coming immediately from
the banks of Newfoundland, are attended with a cloudy sky, and thick atmosphere. These may tend to
mitigate the heats of summer, but are very disagreeable in the other seasons. The coldness of the climate
is plainly to be perceived in the birch tree, which is here common in the woods; and the want of
the mocking bird, the red bird, and a great variety of others, that visit you in the glimmer from South
America. The fox squirrel too is scarce, and the gray squirrel almost white. We cannot cultivate the
sweet, or tropical potatoe, but import it from Carolina. Even the peach is late, small, and acid. The
coldness of the climate, and the fanaticism of the inhabitants, make the New England states by no means
such desirable places of residence, as those of the south, to
Yours, &c.
* * * * *
Dover, April 22nd, 1797.
DEAR FRIEND,
On the 12th of March I embarked in the Betsy, captain Hart, for London; my live stock consisted of some
fowls, four brace of partridges, a flying squirrel, and a young racoon. We sailed about midnight, with a
good breeze at S.W., and were in a few hours clear of the land.
On the evening of the 13th, we met with a hard gale at N. E. by N. - The degree of cold was intolerable.
We shipped some heavy seas, and our rigging being intirely incrusted with ice, our captain was resolved
to stand to the south, in search of better weather. The next morning being on the edge of the gulf stream,
we were witness to a strange struggle between the warmth of the current, and the coldness of the
surrounding ocean and atmosphere: the stream actually smoaked like a caldron! We ran as far to the
south as latitude 38, when the wind shifting to the S. W., in a few hours we found a wonderful change of
climate: the degree of heat was, at least, equal to that of a usual summer day in England, without the
disagreeable pressure experienced from a thick atmosphere. The air was perfectly clear, elastic, and
animating, nothing could be more charming; but this was of short continuance; the next morning the
wind shifted to the N. E., and blew a gale, which lasted eighteen hours. We had then a calm,
which was succeeded by westerly winds,
On the 27th, we had run down half our longitude, four degrees of which we sailed in the last twenty four
hours.
On the 29th, we met with another very severe gale at E.N.E., which soon obliged us to strike our
top-gallant-yards, and lie too, under our mizen and mizen stay sail. During the confusion of the night, my
racoon got loose, and found means to kill all my partridges! and, as misfortunes seldom come alone; a
large spanish cat we had on board, caught my flying squirrel. The loss of my partridges was the more
provoking, as they were in perfect health, and I had no doubt of landing them safe: so ends my project of
propagating the breed of these birds in England.
In a former letter, wherein I gave you my motives for making this attempt, I mentioned their extreme
hardiness; of this I had now additional proofs: these birds were in a coop on the deck, and I expected
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