Реклама. ООО «ЛитРес», ИНН: 7719571260.
Contents
Preface
One. Going Away
Two. The Passage Out
Three. Boston
Four. An American Railroad
Five. Worcester - The Connecticut River - Hartford - New Haven - To New York
Six. New York
Seven. Philadelphia, and Its Solitary Prison
Eight. Washington - The Legislature - And The President’s House
Nine. A Night’s Steamer on the Potomac River
Ten. Some Further Account of the Canal Boat
Eleven. From Pittsburg to Cincinnati In a Western Steamboat
Twelve. From Cincinnati to Louisville In Another Western Steamboat
Thirteen. A Jaunt to the Looking-Glass Prairie and Back
Fourteen. Return to Cincinnati
Fifteen. In Canada
Sixteen. The Passage Home
Seventeen. Slavery
Eighteen. Concluding Remarks
Postscript
About the Author
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Charles Dickens
American Notes
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Divided between our rubber and such topics as these, we were running (as we thought) into Halifax Harbour, on the fifteenth night, with little wind and a bright moon - indeed, we had made the Light at its outer entrance, and put the pilot in charge - when suddenly the ship struck upon a bank of mud. An immediate rush on deck took place of course; the sides were crowded in an instant; and for a few minutes we were in as lively a state of confusion as the greatest lover of disorder would desire to see. The passengers, and guns, and water-casks, and other heavy matters, being all huddled together aft, however, to lighten her in the head, she was soon got off; and after some driving on towards an uncomfortable line of objects (whose vicinity had been announced very early in the disaster by a loud cry of ‘Breakers a-head!’) and much backing of paddles, and heaving of the lead into a constantly decreasing depth of water, we dropped anchor in a strange outlandish-looking nook which nobody on board could recognise, although there was land all about us, and so close that we could plainly see the waving branches of the trees.
It was strange enough, in the silence of midnight, and the dead stillness that seemed to be created by the sudden and unexpected stoppage of the engine which had been clanking and blasting in our ears incessantly for so many days, to watch the look of blank astonishment expressed in every face: beginning with the officers, tracing it through all the passengers, and descending to the very stokers and furnacemen, who emerged from below, one by one, and clustered together in a smoky group about the hatchway of the engine-room, comparing notes in whispers. After throwing up a few rockets and firing signal guns in the hope of being hailed from the land, or at least of seeing a light - but without any other sight or sound presenting itself - it was determined to send a boat on shore. It was amusing to observe how very kind some of the passengers were, in volunteering to go ashore in this same boat: for the general good, of course: not by any means because they thought the ship in an unsafe position, or contemplated the possibility of her heeling over in case the tide were running out. Nor was it less amusing to remark how desperately unpopular the poor pilot became in one short minute. He had had his passage out from Liverpool, and during the whole voyage had been quite a notorious character, as a teller of anecdotes and cracker of jokes. Yet here were the very men who had laughed the loudest at his jests, now flourishing their fists in his face, loading him with imprecations, and defying him to his teeth as a villain!
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