June 9, 1834

We had breakfast early at Mr. Twigg’s house. Mr. Lesueur went with me [in the carriage]; Messrs. Twigg and Bodmer made the trip on horseback. The whole area that we traveled through is uninterrupted forest, except very close to the Wabash near Vincennes. The settlers’ houses are located in [the forest] on both sides of the roadway. [They are] mostly log houses, [but there are also] some better ones of wood, and now and then [of] brick. The fields are fenced in everywhere. The area quickly turned hilly; the soil is very fertile close to the Wabash. In the great drought, the heat was [irritating,] the dust even more so. [However,] there was no lack of clear water to refresh ourselves on our way, because almost every house had a well or a spring. The coachmen watered their horses often. We usually mixed [our] water with some of the brandy we had brought along; however, [spirits] could also often be obtained along the way.

Maximilian’s June 1834 route overland from Mt. Vernon, Indiana, to Louisville, where he embarked on a steamer for Portsmouth, Ohio. The prince’s route from Fort Clark downriver to St. Louis and from there to Mount Vernon, Indiana, duplicates in reverse that portion of his outward voyage on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers. A red line on the original map tracing his outward route has been removed here, and the June 1834 overland route more clearly marked to avoid confusion.

A traveler here [cannot help but] notice the costumes of the women in [such] small, poor huts. We frequently found [in them] a fashionably dressed lady—or at least [one] dressed in a manner that someone does not see in Europe, [even] in the (often far better) houses of rural people. Their houses are often only small cages. A colossal bed, with high corner posts, almost fills the whole room, where a fire burns in the fireplace. The doors and windows are almost always open. The women frequently ride sitting sideways on a saddle. They can be seen riding alone [at a] trot or gallop, arriving from a far distant [point]. At home they usually smoke their little pipes. These are the women of the so-called backwoodsmen of Indiana.

The field crops looked very good in this area, even though the spring had been very dry. The corn was still small. Many cattle grazed everywhere in the forest. The hogs were quite numerous. They are an important commodity in this area; their meat is sent down the Mississippi to New Orleans. We passed the Black River, a small brook. Many Libellula [dragonflies] of several different species inhabited its damp, shady banks.

We drove through a forest that was especially shady and consisted of tall, slender [yet] colossal, trunks, particularly oak (Quercus nigra Willd.), walnut, tulip trees, Cercis, maple, sassafras, sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua), etc. The many toppled-over trunks [lent] a wild character to the forest. [The forest] floor showed a nice growth of plants, but flowers [were] few during this season.

About noon we reached Owensville in the tall forest, a small village of five to six widely scattered houses. We [paused] for lunch and gave our hot and thirsty horses some rest. The house where we stopped was surrounded by fields of blooming clover, around whose flowers the butterflies ([the same ones] seen earlier in Indiana) flew in great numbers, particularly the ajax and the beautiful blue and black philenor. The ajax is white with black stripes and spots and some red spots. In the afternoon we traveled again through tall forests where the tree frogs, Hyla squirella, were heard in large numbers. Our carriage broke down, and we were forced to stop.

We reached an area with many marshy spots and several creeks, or brooks, where we found some interesting birds, among them a Tanagra mississippiensis that was sitting quietly on one of the lower branches, like one of the larger Muscicapa or Tyrannus flycatchers, and showed [neither] liveliness nor timidity.

Before evening we reached Princetown, a town [built] around a large square where we stayed overnight in a good inn. Above the table in the dining room, a large wing of cloth, stretched on a frame, was mounted on the ceiling; [it] was moved by a Negro [pulling] on a cord to [fan] away the many flies. This contrivance is used in several places.

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Journal Location: Princeton, IN