Shortly after daybreak we were assembled on deck. A clear, beautiful day began. All around, the thunder of cannon resounded, for today was the famous Day of Independence highly celebrated in the United States, on which, by chance, we reached the harbor—an interesting moment! After about an hour, the ship turned and we approached even more closely the low coast that extended scenically before us and extensively on both sides.
In the center, in the direction of Boston, stood, on a small rocky island, the snow-white lighthouse (Boston Lighthouse), with its black roof; beside it were several small picturesque islands, some of them of white sand covered with a grass carpet at the top, and some of them rocks. Mr. Bodmer sketched a part of this view. To the right and left, the coast extended with diverse changes. In the distance there were a few high, blue mountains—for the most part low, however—here and there spotted white and green because of the grass cover, alternating with many towns in several areas where, especially to the right, in the region of Salem, the smoke from the cannon still rose. Because of the festive holiday, the firing of cannon had begun in Boston and continued along the entire coast. More and more beautifully and picturesquely, the islands and the coast emerged most pleasantly, like decorations in various shades on the dark-blue surface of the sea.

On the rear mast of the Janus one now hoisted the number of our ship (45. 53.) with four of the blue-and-white signal flags, as I mentioned above in connection with the invention of these signals, and they were arranged as the sketch at the top of [my] following page indicates. At this moment our royals were reefed; the topgallant and the remaining sails (except for studding sails) were set. These signals are immediately relayed by a telegraph located on an island in the vicinity and now have already given the ship’s owner the good news that his ship has safely reached this point. All the ships that sail around us, even the fishing boats, have hoisted colorful flags (the national flag) today. Above the snow-white lighthouse, too, the American flag waves. Fishing boats and sloops with colorful stripes like ribbon grass sail past us. Crowds of people from Boston are on pleasure outings, some of them to fish. We see them pulling fish out of the water.

After seven o’clock we sail past the narrow, rocky Graves Island. The lighthouse stands before us and the flag waves in the wind. Mr. Bodmer had already drawn this island more from a distance. We sail past several oddly shaped rocky islands, and Mr. Bodmer now sketches some of them as well as the lighthouse. A stately three-master beside us puts out to sea. We sail past small, remarkably jagged rocky islands and strange, yellowish, baldly cut-off sandy islands. The beautiful white lighthouse is also situated on an island with a very rocky base, the flagstaff beside it. Magnificent prospects of the near and distant coast reveal themselves, in part elevations, otherwise grain fields, as in England. Here and there are also tall trees in the bays, though seldom. Cities and villages in the distance, white buildings and islands with manifoldly graduated forms, a magnificent view in the bright morning sun. The distant scenery becomes more and more interesting the farther one proceeds out between the islands lying before us. The coast opens up more and more and becomes ever more varied. The pilot does not come out because today is the great holiday; therefore, the captain himself has to steer. The view into the interior of the large Bay of Boston grows more and more beautiful: the number of islands here is very great. Many have steep, yellowish, abrupt sandy banks with attractive grass cover on top. Nice white and other buildings, telegraphs, etc. Cattle graze on some of the islands.

Suddenly the pilot appears. Now we are secure. He approaches in a small boat and boards the Janus. Ships are sailing in all directions; many others, decorated with numerous colorful flags, lie at anchor. To our right is Long Island, a long, narrow island with the telegraph; to the left, graceful buildings with flagstaff. The wind becomes very weak; we tack (ship about) in between the islands. On all sides extensive picturesque glimpses of the water between the islands. Attractive homes, trees, and, toward shore, the citadel, or fort of Boston, which projects to the right and left in the bay, in which to the right [one sees] the imposing city of Boston with its reddish brown roofs. To the left in the bay [are] villages, countless homes, very many trees and woods on the gentle slopes: a magnificent view!

Many ships, all of which today have innumerable colorful pennants and flags, sail and tack in all directions. Fishing schooners lie at anchor. Here the water has a somewhat dark, soft green color and is no longer blue. In the water along the banks grows much long, thin eelgrass, undoubtedly Zostera marina. Its torn-off stalks drift about everywhere. Numerous jellyfish drift in the water near the ship; their number is very great. They are round, extremely translucent, very flat, wide open, surrounded underneath by a veil of filaments, and on the bell one sees a cloverleaf of four whitish circles, probably internal vessels.

The fortress at Boston now emerges in a particularly attractive manner; its snow-white walls on the gentle elevation contrast nicely with the dark-green trees rising above it. At ten o’clock the heat was very great, the wind very weak. The pilot has the ship turned frequently, and thus we came closer and closer to the city. Mr. Bodmer sketched yet a third view between several islands, facing away from Boston in a northeastern or eastern direction. Several steamboats hasten in various directions toward the remote parts of the bay; they are all decorated with new national and other flags, but none of the steamboats that we saw yet were large.

In glowing heat the Janus now lay on the magnificently gleaming surface of the water, surrounded by the unique landscape. Islands of all kinds and with the oddest, strangest shapes surrounded us; several were high, steep, partially covered on top with grass; others were cultivated, with dwellings and scattered trees on them; some were steeply cut off at one end; others extended in long narrow ridges. In short, these diverse islands give the Bay of Boston its very distinctive character. Here are some of their shapes.

While we drifted forward very slowly with the wind, which was barely perceptible, several ships came past us, including a very beautiful three-master, the Louisa, which was sailing to the Antarctic on a whaling expedition. It had a large crew on board, all dressed in striped shirts in proper summer fashion, though some of them wore red woolen shirts and caps in spite of the great heat. We now sailed slowly past the fort. It is on an island and has roughly this shape. Above its white stone walls a building can be discerned, and the flagstaff flew the flag. A swift steamboat (the General Lincoln) now sped past us. It had two engines beside each other and was therefore very broad. It had a smokestack on each side, was very high, and had a nice area forward, covered with canvas, and a large number of passengers. Several other small steamboats are seen arriving from every direction. Most of them are very elegant and sail as swiftly as an arrow. Close by, a small ship that sank yesterday with all its sails lies near us; it was loaded very heavily, and the water rushed in.

At twelve o’clock on shipboard, a temperature of 18°R [72.5°F, 22.5°C] in the shade with a slight breeze. Right before us, near the ships, a high smoke cloud rose on shore from the first houses of the city; finally, a very large flame. We learned upon our arrival in Boston that this had been a fire in a warehouse for salted mackerel; the fire had been caused accidentally by melted tar. Nearby, a large masted ship (brig) had also caught fire and was completely destroyed. We were able to verify this from what we saw during our walk that evening, when the stench of burnt fish was still quite unbearable. At about one thirty, the Janus dropped anchor at the India Wharf among many large, imposing ships from various parts of the world.

At the time of our arrival, the heat in India Wharf, a longish, rectangular harbor surrounded by imposing supply buildings for the navy, was very great. Therefore we soon left the ship and went to the Commercial Coffeehouse, where we took lodging. My baggage had to remain on board the ship today until it was released by the customhouse officials.

In general Boston made the impression of an English city on me, yet there are some differences. The city is very nice looking, spread out, and large. It has nice long streets, often rather broad but occasionally somewhat narrow, provided with very good sidewalks. There are very pleasing houses, mostly constructed of brick, some also made of square stone, and, in the oldest sections, also wooden houses with rather tall chimneys (though not with the same shape or as tall as in England). They are covered for the most part with slate or wooden shingles and thus have an ash-gray or blackish color, something that lends them a rather somber appearance. There is no lack of impressive buildings. Many churches are built in a graceful style, one of them Gothic, and there are several public buildings about which information can be found in various works (that of Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, among others). As in English cities, one frequently finds here also a small parterre or an enclosed, elegantly fenced-in lawn or front yard planted with ornamental plants or tall, shady trees in front of the fine buildings along the street. This contributes not a little to the adornment and pleasantness of the houses. I found that all these plants were not of American but [rather] European origin. Horse chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum), weeping willows, Lombardy and other poplars, elms, as well as a few catalpa trees, whose flower buds were just now opening, and a lone tulip tree caught my attention. I scarcely ever saw maple, acacia (Robinia), and other American trees. In addition to these small green yards at several houses, Boston has various parks and avenues with very tall, shady elms (Ulmus), which here grow very tall with branches spread wide, like the tall trees in England. In particular, there is the promenade, called the Commons, about which more will be said later.

Boston has several very attractive streets, of which Washington Street, which runs almost the length of the city, is regarded as the most beautiful. Here, as in the largest European cities, one finds a significant number of very fine and diverse shops, and nowhere have I seen a more complete selection of products from the West Indies. I found, for example, Brazilian bananas in tolerably good condition, coconuts, oranges, and other fruits in large quantities. Because of the big Independence Day celebration, most shops were closed today. On the other hand, however, the entire population of the city was seen strolling on the streets and in public squares, and one could become very well acquainted with the colorful crowd.

Although the Americans on the whole have many characteristics of the English, they nevertheless differ very significantly from them. They are mostly tall, often lean, and in large part have less expressive physiognomies than the English. Straw hats with black or green bands and clothing made of summer materials were generally worn, but also clothing of heavier material made completely according to European fashions. Their frock coats had rather long coattails; their straw hats often had broad rims.

Generally one does not see very many Negroes, and all of them are free, whereas in the southern states some are still slaves. Not far from the public promenade there is a small street that, for the most part, is entirely inhabited by Negroes and their mulatto or freed descendants. Here we saw the strange variations of color and hair as well as transitional stages of the Negro race, and many comical little black children, all of which vividly reminded me of my Brazilian journey, completed fifteen years ago. In Boston I looked in vain for the original American race, the Indians; they have disappeared from this region.

In Boston the female sex did not seem to differ significantly from English women, although I must add that I saw few really beautiful features. Their costume was rather English and French. During their walks in the heat, they wore a kind of green silk hat (called calèche), which is very unflattering and really does closely resemble the top of one of the vehicles so named. After we had made our observations in the very lively streets of Boston for a long while, we proceeded to the inn where, in a long room, we found a table set for sixty to seventy persons. On the door a sign was fastened stating that no one may enter the dining room until a bell is rung, and this rule is closely observed, for scarcely had the bell rung than a crowd of hungry gentlemen stormed in, hurled themselves at the table, and immediately helped themselves. The food consisted of roast beef, potatoes, and green peas, salmon, and a few additional vegetables, which were devoured one after another in very short time. Then there were strawberries with cream and sugar, everything served very quickly and in meager quantities. The knife is primarily used for eating, because the fork had only two tines and was thus merely a stabbing weapon. Cider and water, which one mixed, were served as the beverage. Wine had to be ordered. There was strong brandy on the table. The guests scattered very quickly, and later one saw some of them in the lower, cool passages of the house, lounging about, smoking their cigars, and making themselves more than comfortable on the benches.

As the cool of the evening approached, the streets of Boston were empty, for the entire population surged to the promenade that one calls the Commons. This sight was really most interesting. From a slight elevation of the city, a large, wide area covered with grass descends toward the water, and it is bordered by avenues of tall, very shady elms along the row of houses. In the middle of the green square are various intersecting paths and lanes; a small, oblong depression with a similarly shaped small pond; and, not far from it, a huge, old elm with a very thick, tall trunk and a spreading crown, the diameter of which measured thirty-eight to forty of my paces. It was a pity that the mass of people made this beautiful, lofty tree, at least on this lively evening, quite inaccessible for us and our olfactory organs. On the broad square mentioned, all of Boston, rich and poor, in their most elegant Sunday finery, were now assembled. Indeed, people carried large numbers of small children around on their arms. Groups lay in the grass. Rows of tables and small booths were set up where a nauseating smell announced a veritable oyster carnage; the crowd ate these mussels in such quantities that the sight of the slime flowing on the tables was anything but inviting.

When darkness fell, a very mediocre fireworks display was set up on the elevation beyond the small pond. The rockets were numerous and very good. Apart from these, pinwheels were practically the only fireworks and poor. This fireworks display to celebrate Independence Day was furnished by a society through subscriptions. Even earlier we had seen the citizen “militia” companies marching through the streets. One company had red uniforms with dark-blue, goldembroidered collars, narrow shakos, white shirts. The officers had golden epaulets, stars on their chests, and dark-red silk sashes. The band played with all its might, [Page 1:27]but unfortunately some of the men wore civilian clothes, something that strangely contrasted with the gold-and-red uniforms. Another company consisted of artillery with very small fieldpieces drawn by two horses. The men wore blue-and-red uniforms, their jackets blue, their collars embroidered with gold, the officers with golden epaulets. They lacked military bearing and carried sabers in their hands. We did not return until late from this interesting spectacle of the large crowd, illuminated by the fire, in which blacks and whites jostled each other in a colorful, bustling throng. The evening table, or rather, tea table, in the inn was illuminated by nothing but small long lamps. During the evening a whole row of these lamps (‘a’) stands on the table; they are twelve inches high.