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Search - Eldorado Or Adventures In Path Of Empire

Eldorado Or Adventures In Path Of Empire
Author: Bayard Taylor

Text extracted from opening pages of book: ELDORADO O B ADVENTURES IN THE PATH OF EMPIRE ELDORADO OH ADVENTURES IN THE PATH OP EMPIRE COMPRISING A VOYAGE TO CALIFORNIA, VIA PANAMA LITE IN SAN FRANCISCO AND MONTEREY PICTURES OP THE GOM> REGION, AND EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN TRAVEL BY BAYARD TAYLOR WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BT THE AUTHOR INTRODUCTION BY ROB... more »ERT GLASS CLELAND NEW YORK ALFRED A. KNOPF 1949 INTRODUCTION MIDSUMMER of 1849 the gold rush to California was in full spate, and the sleepy town of Chagres, which served as gateway to the Pacific port of Panama, had, willy-nilly, suddenly come to life. At daybreak one July morning a straight, slim, vigorous young man, with expressive brown eyes and long brown hair, landed from the United States mail steamship Falcon, and set out to find his breakfast. It was not an easy task, even for a seasoned and resourceful traveler, for there were no hotels or restaurants worthy of the name in Chagres and hordes of California-bound emigrants had long since stripped the shops and markets of most of their supplies. But the young man continued his search till he came to a native hut where some of his fellow passengers had just finished a scanty meal. Sitting on the dirt floor, in a circle of lean dogs and grunting pigs, with a hen coop for a table, he ate what his friends had left and with characteristic enthu siasm described the wretched fare of bread, fat pork, and spring water, drunk from the shell of a coconut, as a delicious repast. The optimistic traveler was Bayard Taylor, soon to become one of the most popular and prolific writers of his generation and the poet laureate of the Gilded Age/* With one phenomenally popular book, Views Afoot; or Europe Seen vriih Knapsack and Staff, already to his credit, Taylor was bound for California, under commission from Horace Greeley, to report the drama of the gold rush to the readers of the New York Trib une. In undertaking the journey, Taylor was following out the end and de sire of his life. For he was a wanderer, to the very heart and core of his being, an insatiable traveler who walked the earth with eager feet and yearned always for the lands beyond his world's narrow rim. 1 When he was fourteen years old, a phrenologist had foretold that he would be both i I am aware that Taylor did not like to be called a wanderer and declared that his extensive journeys were dictated primarily by financial considerations. But this explana tion was offered after his travels were nearly over and must be heavily discounted. Sec By-Ways of Europe ( New York, 1869), pp. 8-18. Vll INTRODUCTION poet and rambler, and an obliging destiny saw that the prophecy was ful filled. All his life long Taylor had a passion to go, to see, to visit strange countries, to mingle with other peoples, to meet the great of other na tions, to find new inspiration and knowledge from personal contact with the cultures and civilizations of other lands, to expose himself to the changing scenes and novel experiences, both pleasant and unpleasant, which only travel, especially in that day, could bring. Taylor was born in the village of Kennett Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on January 11, 1825. His forebears were mostly of English Quaker stock; but one of his grandfathers had married a German-Lutheran girl and was read out of the Society of Friends in consequence. None of the children of the excommunicant ever returned to the Society, but Bayard was reared in a strong Quaker atmosphere and often used the thee and the thou of the Friends in his intimate correspondence. When the boy was four years old the family moved to a farm a mile from Kennett Square, and there Bayard lived until he began his career in New York. The farm upbringing affected him in many ways, and, as he wrote in later years, The child that has tumbled into a newly ploughed furrow never forgets the smell of the fresh earth. 2 His passion for wander ing appeared at an early age and led him, presumably to the frequent anxiety

ISBN-13: 9781406765304
ISBN-10: 1406765309
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 424
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Taylor Press
Book Type: Paperback
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

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