I have seen very little of Paris—the streets are so dirty, and I wait till I can make myself under- stood before I call on Madame Laurent, &c. Miss Williams ® has behaved very civilly to me, and I shall visit her frequently, because I rather like her, and I meet French company at her house. Her manners are affected, yet the simple goodness of her heart continually breaks through the varnish, so that one would be more inclined, at least I should, to love than admire her. Authorship is a heavy weight for female shoulders, especially in the sunshine of prosperity. Of the French I will not speak until I know more of them. They seem the people of all others for a stranger to come amongst yet sometimes when I have given a com- mission which was eagerly asked for, it has not been executed, and when I| ask for an explanation, I allude to the servant-maid, a quick girl, who an’t please you, has been a teacher in an English boarding-school, dust is thrown up with a self- ® Helen Maria Williams (1762-1827). 221 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOTRS sufficient air, and I am obliged to appear to see her meaning clearly, though she puzzles herself, that I may not make her feel her ignorance; but you must have experienced the same thing. I will write to you soon again, meantime let me hear from you, and believe me Yours sincerely and affectionately, Two days later she wrote to Mr. Johnson: Paris, Dec. 26, 1792. 3 I should immediately on the receipt of your letter,. my dear friend, have thanked you for your punctuality, for it highly gratified me, had I not wished to wait till I could tell you that this day was not stained with blood. Indeed the prudent precautions taken by the National Convention to prevent a tumult, made me suppose that the dogs of faction would not dare to bark, much less to bite, however true to their scent; and I was not mistaken; for the citizens, who were all called out, are returning home with composed countenances, shouldering their arms. About nine o’clock this morning, the king passed by my window, moving silently along (excepting now and then a few strokes on the drum, which rendered the stillness more awful) through empty streets, surrounded by the national guards, who, clustering round their carriage, seemed to deserve their name. The inhabitants flocked to their windows, but the casements were all shut, not a voice was heard, nor did I see any thing like an insulting gesture — For the first time since I entered France, I bowed 1 Kegan Paul, William Godwin, i. 208, 9.
_* Wednesday, December 26, was the day on which the Oy ae to plead, by his advocate, Deseze. (K. P.’s note.
222 7 MARY IN PARIS to the majesty of the people and respected the propriety of behaviour so perfectly in unison with my own feelings. I can scarcely tell you why, but an association of ideas made the tears flow insensibly from my eyes, when I saw Louis sitting, with more dignity than I expected from his character, in a hackney coach, going to meet death, where so many of his race have triumphed. My fancy instantly brought Louis XIV before me, entering the capital with all his pomp, after one of the victories most flattering to his pride, only to see the sunshine of prosperity overshadowed by the sublime gloom of mystery. I have been alone ever since; and though my mind is calm, I cannot dismiss the lively images that have filled my imagination all the day.—Nay, do not smile, but pity me; for, once or twice, lifting my eyes from the paper, I have seen eyes glare through a glass-door opposite my chair, and bloody hands shook at me. Not the distant sound of a footstep can I hear. My apartments are remote from those of the servants, the only persons who sleep with me in an immense hotel, one door opening after another. —I wish I had kept the cat with me! I want to see something alive; death in so many frightful shapes has taken hold of my fancy.—I am going to bed—and, for the first time in my life, I cannot put out the candle.® In Paris, save for a short stay in Havre, Mary passed her next three not very happy years. Her friends there—some she had already known in London: some she now met for the first time— were of various nationalities. They included Thomas 3 Posthumous Works, Letter Xvi. iv. 92-5. Kegan Paul also prints this, 1, 209-10, from Godwin’s version, but altering the punctuation, and giving the king a capital ‘ K. ’ ID 2 223 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Christie, founder of The Analytical Review; Thomas — Cooper of Manchester; Thomas Paine; Helen Maria — Williams and her lover John Hurford Stone, whose name she had assumed—all these English; also three Americans: Joel Barlow, his wife Ruth; Gustav, Graf von Schlabrendorf, born in Stettin; a happy pair from Zurich, Jean Gaspard Schweizer and his wife Madeleine; Archibald Hamilton Rowan, an expatriated Irishman; her French intimates Brissot and the Rolands, and—most important of all—Gilbert Imlay.
To this distinguished group must be added, as a business associate of Imlay and probably therefore an acquaintance of Mary—one Elias Backman, of Gothenburg, whom I have purposely omitted from the list above, because Mary always drew a sharp distinction between a ‘civil acquaintance’ and ‘a friend, and because she was opposed to Imlay’s business activities (the alleged cause of his long ab- sence) and, in consequence, to most of his business associates. She once wrote to Imlay: ‘I do not -admire your commercial face,’ and again: ‘ How I hate this crooked business!’
Practically all of these friends (and others not mentioned by name) were in sympathy with the Revolutionary movement in France; a number had already been made Citizens of France by the National Assembly.
4On August 26, 1792, this title was conferred on ‘ Priestley, Payne,’ and on September 25 following the Patriote announced the same title conferred on ‘ Thomas Cooper, John Horne Tooke, Thomas Christie, Englishmen and Joel Barlow, American.’: 224 waar) 5) ©? ae “ 4 : ‘ PAN aren SCI RG IE Helen Maria Williams had been one of Mary’s friends in London; Mary had reviewed several of Helen Maria’s books in the Analytical, and with obvious pleasure. With Joel Barlow she had con- sulted regarding the chances of obtaining a farm for Charles in America. And to Paine’s house, during his 1791-2 stay in London, she had been a visitor. To this fact Clio Rickman, Paine’s friend and bio- grapher, may be our witness.
Mr. Paine’s life in London was a quiet round of philosophical leisure and enjoyment. It was occu- pied in writing, in a small epistolary correspondence, in walking about with me to visit different friends, occasionally lounging at coffee houses and public places, or being visited by a select few. Lord Edward Fitzgerald; the French and American ambassadors, Mr. Sharp the engraver, Romney the painter, Mrs. Wolstonecraft, Joel Barlow, Mr. Hull, Mr. Christie, Dr. Priestley, Dr. Towers, Colonel Oswald, the walking Stewart, Captain Sampson Perry, Mr. Tuffin, Mr. William Choppin, Captain De Stark, Mr. Horne Tooke, etc., etc., were among the number of his friends and acquaintance...Of Paine’s circle in Paris, two years later, Rickman says: In 1793 he retired to the Fauxbourg St. Dennis (sic) where he occupied part of the hotel that Madame de Pompadour once resided in.
Here with a chosen few he unbent himself; among whom were Brissot, the Marquis de Chatelet le Roi of the galerie de honore, and an old friend of Dr. Franklin, Bancal, and sometimes General Miranda. His English associates were Christie and family, Mrs. Wolstonecraft, Mr. and Mrs. Stone, etc. Among his American friends were M.W. 225 P SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Capt. Imlay, Joel Barlow, etc., etc., to these parties — the French inmates were generally invited.® But of all the friends mentioned, no one—un- fortunately for Mary—was so intimate with her as — was Captain Gilbert Imlay.
Gilbert Imlay was born in Upper Freehold, Mon- mouth County, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the year 1754. This direct statement, which the majority of his biographers avoid, shall have such evidential support as I can give it.
I believe that he was descended, in the fifth genera- tion from a Peter Imlay, who bought land from Thomas Boll in 1693. This same land was sold in the year 1710 by a Patrick Imlay, and it seems a fair assumption that Patrick was the son of Peter. A later Patrick became one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church ‘ Old Scots’ in Freehold. He was a grantee of the Matawan tract, and acquired land on Doctor’s Creek, Allentown. Imlaystown, on Doctor’s Creek, in the county of Monmouth, was named for this honourable family. Patrick died and left issue: Robert, William and Parthenia, of whom Robert was the grandfather of the philandering Gilbert. This Robert died in 1754, and in his will he left property to his wife Alice; and to his children, Peter, John, William, Elizabeth and Margaret.
5 The Life of Thomas Paine...By Thomas Clio Rickman...London: Printed and Published by Thomas Clio Rickman, Upper Mary-le-Bone Street; and to be had of all Booksellers. 1819.
226 Wane - lea fe 6a _ i Cini Rl IML AT The will of Robert’s wife, signed ‘ Allys Imlay’ (dated June 7, 1761) makes her son Peter sole heir, with a small legacy to her son John, and to Peter’s children, who are mentioned in this order: Robert, Peggey and Gilbert. Robert, apparently the eldest, was not yet ten, for ‘the money is to be put out at intrest when the said Child is Ten years old.’ It is not very likely that thrifty Allys would have wished this money to remain without ‘intrest’ for any length of time, so I think we may assume that Robert was at least nine. This dates his birth in 1752, and, considering how rapidly colonial families increased, one may venture to assign ‘ Peggey’s’ birth to 1753, and Gilbert’s, the youngest, to 1754.
In due course he joined the Revolutionary Army, but of his service there few records remain.
Heitman’s Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army (like the same author’s other work— see above, p. 203—unofficial but entitled to credit) shows: ‘Imlay, Gilbert (New Jersey) Ist Lieutenant &c. 11th January 1777; resigned 24th July 1778,’ and personal information from the Adjutant General of New Jersey and from the U.S. Adjutant General confirms these particulars.
On the title-page of his book—A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America (see below, p. 231), Imlay describes himself as hav- ing been ‘A Captain in the American Army during the late War.’ Whether this rank was an official one or the title given him by courtesy, I do not know.
After the war Imlay settled in Kentucky. Professor 227 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Rusk, in his pamphlet The Adventures of Gilbert Imlay,® thus describes his appearance there: At the close of the Revolutionary War, Imlay, like many other land-hungry ex-officers of the American army, turned toward the Western country, where white settlers, who had first pene- trated the region only a few years before, were not appearing in considerable numbers. In March 1783 Imlay purchased a tract of land in Fayette, one of the three counties into which the District of Kentucky was at that time divided; (It was still a part of Virginia.) and in the autumn of that year he attempted through the agency of Henry Green, deputy surveyor of that county, to obtain a clear title. It does not seem likely, however, that Imlay himself appeared in Kentucky before the spring of the following year, 1784. According to his own account, in which he does not state the year, he left Pittsburgh on his Western journey sometime in March and arrived at Limestone less than five days later.?. That the year was 1784 and that his own statement as to the month is correct seems likely, because at that time, and not until then, begins the long eourt record of the business and legal entanglements that marks his residence of not quite two years in Kentucky.
On the seventh of the following April, Imlay, who, as we have seen, had already begun speculation in Kentucky lands, took the oath at Louisville as a deputy surveyor of Jefferson County by the faculty of William and Mary College, November 27, 1780...This office, to which Imlay vaguely alludes on the title-page of A Topographical Description, where he claims for himself the dignity of ‘ com- S Indiana University Studies, vol. x. No. 57, March oe Cre hal AY.
missioner for laying out land in the back settle- ments,’ was doubtless of considerable advantage to him as a speculator. How long he retained the desirable place, however, I have been unable to determine. At all events, he was not long to remain free from the annoyance of sheriffs’ sum- monses, which from this time on were continually dinned in his ears while he remained in Kentucky, and posted at church doors and published in news- papers years after his departure.
Imlay gradually became the owner of thousands upon thousands of acres in Kentucky lands—of all of which he was dispossessed, for one reason after another, before the end of 1786.
During the two years Imlay remained in Kentucky he wrote four letters to his friend and business associate, Henry Lee (not ‘Light Horse Harry’). The originals of these letters are in the Draper MSS. of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. A few extracts will be given here: (1) As its probable that I shall leave this Country sometime in October for the East I shall take it as a favor if you will undertake the surveying of the Land I purchased of Capt. Holder...In case I should go Eastward Dr. Skinner will pay the bills you draw on me. Farewell, Success attend you.
Lincoln, 14th Sept. 1784. aes (2) Puting the highest confidence in your abilities and diligence I shall Rest assured that a completion of the Whole Business will be made. Farewell. God bless you. On Wednesday morning I launch into the wilderness. Expect to see me by Christ- mas. G. Imuay.
Danville, 10 Oct. 1784.
229 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS (3) The last letter may refer to an early philander- ing, or to a negro slave wench—the latter more likely, I think.
Dear Sir, Genl Wilkinson has undertaken my business in Fayette and will make provision for the expenses of surveying. I have been obliged to part with the girl that Mr. Brent brought down. If she has been lodged with you be so good as to send her to Mr.; Joel Collins’s in Lexington. I have got Mr. Lees 3 survey of 4,000 acres received with some difficulty.
The fees &c. was £2: 15: 74. Pray let me hear from you before your departure. Yours &c. G. Imtay.
May 28th, 1785. Danville.
From a letter written by this General Wilkinson in the previous year it appears that even in 1784 Imlay’s financial condition was not of the best.
Sept. 28 [1784]. Your affairs with Mr. Imlay remain in the same situation they did when I last wrote you—however I expect on my return that Mr. Imlay must have procured unequivocal titles sufficient to take up his Bonds—if he has, the Business will be immedi- ately closed, otherwise it will remain in its present situation—for were I to push or expose Imlay in his present critical situation, ruin would come upon him, and you would lose your property, probably forever. Depend, Sir, on my fidelity and attention and be assured I am your obliged and obedient servant. JAMES WILKINSON. MATHEW IRVINE, Esq.8 8 Original in the Emmett MSS. Collection, New York Public Library. 230 ’ GILBERT SiMe L AT Professor Rusk dates Imlay’s return from his journey to ‘the East’ before April 9, 1785. He was in Danville in May, and probably remained for some time, for a record exists of his entering into an agreement there in November with Isaac Hite and Amos Ogden to erect iron works. In December he was probably at Richmond. Professor Rusk continues: On the third of December he made a small payment to Colonel John Campbell on account of his debt to Rogers. The record of this transaction seems to be the last substantial evidence of Imlay’s presence in the United States. And according to testimony offered in the Kentucky courts during the following year—testimony which, for a number of reasons, may be accepted as convincing—Imlay left the continent of America before the end of 1786.
There is a considerable gap between December 1786 and 1792, the date of publication of Imlay’s first book. His whereabouts during those five years %A | Topographical Description | of the | Western Territory | o | North America; | Containing / A succinct Account / of its / Climate, Natural History, Population, Agriculture, Manners and Customs, / With / An ample Description of the several Divisions into / which that Country is partitioned, / And an accurate Statement of the various Tribes of Indians / that inhabit the Frontier Country. / To which is annexed, / A Delineation of the Laws and Government of the State of Kentucky. / Tending to shew the probable Rise and Grandeur of the American Empire. / In a Series of Letters to a Friend in England. / (printer’s line) / By G. Imlay, / A Captain in the American Army during the late War, and a Commissioner for laying out Land in the Back Settlements. / (printer’s line) / London: / Printed for J. Debrett, Opposite Burlington-House, / Piccadilly. / (printer’s line) / 1792.
235 SUPPLEMENTAL O MEMOIRS must be a matter of mere conjecture. I think it likely that he sailed for France with the idea of persuading the French to attempt the conquest of New Orleans from Spain. There may well have been some recollections in Imlay’s mind of his own travels when he wrote the account of a European journey of ‘ Mr. Il-ray,’ the hero of his only work of fiction, The Emigrants. (See below, p. 237.)
The time of Imlay’s arrival in London is also a matter of conjecture, but as his Topographical Description was mentioned as being published during the first six months of 1792 in The Analytical Review (Appendix to Vol. XIII., August 1792, p. 533), 1 think it likely that he was in London during perhaps the whole of 1791, preparing his MS. for press and revising proofs when the printing had started. The complete MS. could not have been ready for press until a very few months before publicatiom, for, as Professor Rusk points out, ‘ the author devotes a part of the eleventh chapter to comment upon St. Clair’s defeat of November 4, 1791.’.
Imlay’s book was received with unanimous approval by the reviewers. The subject of settlement in America was then of great general interest, and Imlay had chosen an excellent time for his book to appear. Its popularity is sufficiently shown by the fact that it went through three London editions—all published by Debrett—a second edition in 1793, and a third, greatly enlarged, in 1797. A New York edition was published in 1793.
Imlay went to Paris, probably about February 1793, bearing a letter of introduction to Brissot from Thomas 232 CUCeh Ra al Wake Ay, Cooper, of Manchester, who with Watt, the son of the inventor of the steam-engine, had been in Paris the previous year, and, as Professor Rusk says, the two ‘ got out of Paris, in haste and secretly, in time to save their heads.’
Imlay found in Brissot a man already interested in the scheme for the seizure by France of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi valley. Ever since the Frenchman had travelled in the eastern part of America in 1788 and written a book about it,1 he had been keeping himself informed on affairs there. Brissot had been influential in securing the appoint- ment of Le Brun to the Foreign Office and Genet to the United States. He was interested in the com- mercial possibilities of the Mississippi valley, and as early as 1791 had reported the hostile feeling of the western Americans against Spain. On January 25, 1793, he was designated by the Comiteé de Défense Generale (later succeeded by the Comite de Salut Public) to present a report on the possibility of an expedition against the Spanish dependencies.
1 Nouveau Voyage / dans / les ETATS-UNIS / De / LAmerique Septentrionale, / Fut en 1788; Par J. P. Brissot (Warville), / Citoyen Francois (sic) / (Quotation, Latin and French) / (Printer’s line) A Paris, / chez Bursam, Imprimeur et Libraire, rue / Haute-Feuille, No. 20. / (short double line) / Avril 1791.
This volume was translated into English by Joel Barlow and published in America: New Travels /in the / United States / of / America. / (double printer’s line) / Performed in 1788./ By J. P. Brissot de Warville. / (Printer’s line) / Translated from the French / (double lines) / (Quotation from Tacitus) / (double lines repeated) / New York: / Printed by T. & S.
Swords, for Berry & Rogers, Book- / sellers and Stationers, No. 35, Hanover-Square. / —1792.— 233 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Brissot gave Imlay a letter of introduction to some — r ‘citoyen’ unknown.
CITOYEN, Je vous addresse le Capitaine Imlay, americain de l’etat de Kentucky, qui m’a été recommendé par estimable Cooper de Manchester, il desiroit s’entretenir avec moi de l’expedition du Mississippi. Il me paroit trés propre a vous donner les renseigne- ments sur le maniére de mettre ce plan a execution. Lorsque vous l’aurez entretenu, nous fixerons un jour avec le Ministre pour avoir une Conference generale sur cet objet.
Croyez moi tout a vous, The following month Brissot sent him to the Minister of Foreign Affairs—Le Brun.
Paris ce 22 Avril 1793. CITOYEN MINISTRE, Le Capitaine Imlay qui vous remettre cette lettre m’aprend qu’il n’y a encore rien d’arreté pour lexpedition du Mississipi. Je vous avoue que cette lenteur me parait trés prejudiciable pour la chose publique. Si ce Capitaine et les autres personnes ne partent pas sous I5 jours, il foudra renoncer a l’enterprise, et certes La Republique aurait des reproches trés fondés a faire pour y avoir renoncé, hatez vous donc de prendre un parti decisiv. L’argent ne doit pas vous arreter main- tenant. Avez vous besoin de l’avis du Conseil je suis pret a y aller, pour y developer les avantages du plan mais de grace ne perdez pas un moment.
ij i. ‘; ee, } Cad OF eh 2s ONY Cs BY de Imlay met with no success whatever in his negotia- tions with the French government. His first proposal is brief and vague. He gives five inconclusive reasons why France should undertake this expedition: first, It would alarm Spain, force her to ‘ augment her forces in America,’ and so ‘result in an additional em- barrassment of her finances’; second, French com- merce would enjoy immense advantage ‘by the abundance of goods of all sorts that the Ohio and the Mississippi would furnish as soon as their chains were broken’; third, ‘It would be easy to arm Corsairs (privateers) at New Orleans’; fourth, ‘It may eventually draw’ the United States ‘into actual war’; and fifth, ‘This plan can be executed at very little expense.’
The proposal merited no response, and received none. In his second, much longer, proposal, he remarks: he ‘ fears that the papers presented on this subject to your Committee by Ministre Le Brun have not yet been examined.’
For a summary of this second proposal I take advantage of Professor Rusk’s version: Imlay presents a carefully prepared argument, tactfully interspersed with professions of deep respect for the Revolution and for the Committee of Public Safety. The author urges enthusiastically the importance which Spain attached to Louisiana, the long attempt of the Spaniards to use their position in that province to extend their power over the Western territories of the United States, the rapid growth and future commercial importance of those territories, his own first-hand knowledge of the Western people gained during a long residence 235 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS in that country, the necessity of keeping the matter from the knowledge of the American government, the slight expense the expedition would involve and the possibility, if it should prove necessary to exercise extreme retrenchment, of avoiding even that small expense by putting the whole matter into the hands of Genet (then French minister to the United States) and the men of the Western country.
Imlay made an estimate of the probable cost of ' this expedition: If your Committee sees the evident importance of this plan, Captain Imlay is sure that the slight expense that will be necessary, which will not exceed seven hundred and fifty thousand livres...will not be a reason for abandoning it...With this sum success is certain.
It is fairly evident, from the second letter from Brissot, quoted above, that Imlay himself was to take an active part in this expedition, and perhaps be its leader.
Professor Rusk says: In all probability...Imlay.and ‘the others’ never actually started on their mission. Certainly the fifteen days within which Brissot considered it necessary to act or abandon the plan passed without a decision; for exactly a month later we find a certain Lyonnet, who may have been one of ‘ the others’ who were to go with Imlay, writing from Lyons to Otto of the Foreign Office that he has received a letter from Imlay informing him that though nothing has been done, hope for the Missisippi scheme has not been entirely abandoned. But such hope could not have lasted much longer, for the fall of the Brissotins was impending...at the end of the following October Brissot himself 236 Gite wal ie LAL was sent to the guillotine. As for the preparations making on the other side of the Atlantic in con- nection with the projected conquest of Louisiana, they were ended shortly after Fauchet relieved Genet as ambassador in the following February. Though there was some talk in 1795 of reviving the project, there seems to be no proof that Imlay was again involved.
The allusions in Mary’s letters and in Godwin’s Memoirs, to a cherished plan of settling on a farm in America are not, perhaps, without added signi- ficance when viewed in the light of the fact that during the early period of their acquaintance the way seemed open to success for Imlay through the Louisiana expedition. A plantation in the West would have been only a reasonable reward, and Brissot himself, we are told by Madame Roland, had at one time looked forward to the same kind of retreat in America. On the other hand, the failure of the Louisiana scheme may have had some bearing on Imlay’s decision to engage in business, which...was not put into effect until the autumn of 1793, when the Brissotins had been driven from power. At first, when Imlay began his business operations, his object, if we may believe Mary’s letter, was to gain a thousand pounds, which would have been ‘ sufficient to have procured a farm in America.’
It was in May or June 1793—a month or two after Imlay and Mary had, in Godwin’s words, ‘ entered into that species of connection, for which her heart secretly panted ’—that Imlay’s novel The Emigrants, etc., was published in London in three small volumes. Another edition in one volume, probably pirated, was brought out in Dublin in 1794.4 4The / Emigrants, &c. / or the / History / of / An Ex- patriated Family, / Being / A Delineation of English INE Bf 237 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS This is the first Kentucky novel. It is written in | the form of letters, and the underlying purpose seems _ to be to condemn the existing divorce laws in England. Two of the female characters exemplify, in their own lives, the difficulty of obtaining a divorce; the book contains various dissertations on the subject in letters from other persons; and the author in his Preface says: I have no doubt but the many misfortunes which daily happen in domestic life, and which too often precipitate women of the most virtuous inclinations into the gulf of ruin, proceed from the great difficulty there is in England, of obtaining a divorce.
Manners, / Drawn from Real Characters, / Written in America, / By G. Imlay, Esq. / Author of The Topographical Description of tts Western Territory. | Vol. I. (II. I11.] | London. / Printed for A. Hamilton, near Gray’s-Inn-Gate, / Holborn. / 1793. 3 vols. 12mo. Vol. I. pp. xiv. 1-221; Vol. II. ii plus 222 (actually 224, pp. 71/2 being repeated; Vol. III. ii+192. The volumes end respectively with Letters xxiv, XLIxX and Lxx1I. There are actually 74 letters, numbers LxIx and Lxx being repeated.
The one-volume edition had the same title. The imprint reads: Dublin. Printed for C. Brown, No. 93, Grafton- Street. 1794. 1 Vol. I2mo. pp. vii, 325, Letters I-LxxIv.
The book is extremely scarce in either edition. I have discovered only four copies of the first edition: one in the British Museum, lacking both second and third volumes; one in the John Carter Brown Library of Brown University, Providence; one in the New York Public Library, bought at the sale of the library of Charles Deane, a Boston collector; and one picked up in England by the late Col. R. T. Durett of Louisville (founder of the Filson Club), and by him bequeathed to the University of Chicago. Of the 1794 Dublin edition, after a casual search, I have learned of only four copies: one in the library of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, presented in 1919 by the Maryland Historical Society (an acquisition of theirs of 1856 from the Baltimore Library Company); a copy sold in 1898 at Bangs’ Auction Room, New York; my own copy, generously presented to me by Mr. John Wilson Townsend, and one recently offered at £5, “ Very Scarce’ by Quaritch.
238 DM LAD ser it Eh EMIGRANTS,” Imlay puts into the mouths of his characters many quotations from such authors as Tasso, Cardinal de Retz, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Rochefoucauld (all quoted in English), Shakespear (sic), Milton, Thomson and Sterne. An imitation of the latter is occasionally noticeable. Many of the letter-writers employ scraps of verse to express their sentiments. About half of these cite the author, Thomson being thefavourite. The remaining verses are printed without quotation marks, and we may probably assume that they were inspired by Imlay’s own Muse.
The book is written in all seriousness, and without a spark of humour; but the language is so delightfully florid, and the characters continually display so much of that quality, now obsolete, then termed ‘ sensi- bility,’ that much of the novel may still be read with amusement.
The tale begins with the arrival at Philadelphia of a family from England, in September 1782. (The letters are not dated by years, merely by months and days, but the year 1782 is sufficiently fixed by the fact that the hero of the book is later described as having been ‘in his sixteenth year when the late unhappy war commenced’ and ‘he appears now to be about two and twenty.’)
The family consist of Mr. and Mrs. T. n, their son George, and their three daughters, Eliza, Mary, and the lovely Caroline. Mr. T n was a man whose business ‘ was at one time worth ten thousand pounds annually,’ but the extravagance of his wife and the dissipation of his son had ruined him, and forced him to flee from his creditors to America.
239 7 z \ 4 \: » | SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS I shall give only two extracts from this book. The first is a passage describing the departure of the — a n family from Philadelphia on their journey to Pittsburgh—then Fort Pitt. It is typical of Imlay’s florid style, and the last paragraph was quoted verbatim, in ridicule, by one of his English reviewers: This dejected family was preparing to traverse a region which they had been taught to believe was inhabited mostly by wild beasts and savages; unattended, except by the driver of the waggon, they had hired for the purpose of transporting the small hoards they had preserved from the wreck of that opulence they once so prodigally squandered.
The lovely Caroline’s face diffused the soft effulgence of an opening rose when heaven impearls it with the morning dew:—and as you have seen the aether of a western sky brighten the horizon in the evening showers of June, so shot the aethereal sparks from her half-closed eyes——With her heart beating high in the transports of nature her lovely bosom seemed to palpitate with emotions which threatened the confines of her delicate frame; and when she was severed from the arms of her more fortunate sister [Eliza, who had married Mr. F » ‘a passenger in the ship which conveyed them across the Atlantic’ and was to return to London with him], it appeared as if the fibres of her tender heart would burst with the agonies of sorrow.
Every spectator caught the flame of sympathy, and in that querulous moment, we appeared like the mourners of Adonis surrounding the Queen of Love.—The hasty hours upon the rapid wings of Time hurried on the moment of their departure.— Language then was mute.—As when a shipwrecked crew, who are entombed in the boisterous waves, 240 IMLAL SOT HE EMIGRANTS” and whose murmurs cease, and you no longer hear aught but the scolding winds;—as such was that luctiferous schism.
The other extract is the description of the lovely Caroline, as she, and her lover Captain Arl—ton, who has just rescued her from the Indians, travel down the river on their return to Louisville.