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Page: of 436
OCTOBER 1848—FEBRUARY 1849
He does not seem to be in very good spirits. He did not say so, but I
know by his letter that he feels as if he had now left his second home,
and was more alone than ever before.
Writing from Cincinnati, Niles described to Cornelia the next leg of
his trip:
We left Pittsburg on Monday, and were consequently four days in
coming down here—a distance of five hundred miles, being detained
every night by fogs. Ours is doubtless the last boat that will ever descend the Ohio—in fact, we have, in my opinion, destroyed the river
altogether, having scraped the bottom all out of it, so that it cannot for
the future hold any water.
We were aground for five hours once in coming; twice on snags; ran
down one flat boat, drowned an Irishman, and committed sundry other
depredations during the passage. I should like well to give you a full
account of my travels, but have not time or space.
Cincinnati, “Queen of the West,” with its ten thousand beauties (I
don’t mean beautiful women), this morning for the first time opened to
my view. Though yet but in its infancy, it contains between one and two
hundred thousand inhabitants, and is decidedly the finest city in the
world—at least of those I have ever seen. If you hear anybody speak of
handsome cities, please present my compliments and say Cincinnati exceeds them all..
I arrived last evening, having traveled over eleven hundred miles. .
need not add that my route has been intensely interesting—I have been
up early and late—endeavoring to gain all the information in my power
relative to the different places through which I have passed. . . .
The wonders of the western world are before me. Perhaps you would
like to know where . am going; answer, going West. How far? answer—don’t know. My passage is paid to St. Louis, Mo., and we start in
an hour or less; indeed, the steam is up and . am afraid . shall not have
time to go with this to the [Post] Office before starting..
For many weeks they heard no more from Niles, but life went on at a
busy pace in New York State. Deb Wickes informed Cornelia of the arrival of Miss Slocum, Libby Conkling’s house guest. “She appears to be a
real pleasant, pretty girl. I do hope she will stay, for it is most dreadfully
dull and she looks as if she was not afraid to laugh once in awhile.”
Cornelia’s mother agreed that Miss Slocum was quite pretty and reminded her of Nancy Niles.
“We are to have a couple of weddings this month if Bill Watson don’t
cut his throat again and Jim Mackey don’t sicken of his bargain,” wrote
157