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THE
WANDERINGS AND FORTUNES
OF SOME
GERMAN EMIGRANTS.
BY FREDERICK GERSTÆCKER.

TRANSLATED
BY DAVID BLACK.

LONDON:
DAVID BOGUE, FLEET STREET.
MDCCCXLVIII.

[Pg iv]

Now Ready, in post octavo, 6s. cloth,

THE WANDERINGS AND FORTUNES
OF SOME
GERMAN EMIGRANTS.

BY FREDERICK GERSTÆCKER.

TRANSLATED BY DAVID BLACK.

From the "Athenæum."

The substance of this entertaining book—which relates the fortunes of acompany of German adventurers bound for the land of promise, with thedesign of forming a colony there—is evidently no fiction. It isimpossible to read many pages without perceiving that the author istelling what he must himself have seen, known, and suffered—so minuteand circumstantial is the narrative: and as he is gifted withconsiderable powers of observing and describing, the reality of his workrenders it extremely life-like and engaging.

Any true account—and such, in the main, this undoubtedly is—of whatbefals the exiles from Europe in their attempts to settle in the NewWorld, will always have a certain interest for those who remain behind.To English readers, especially, it is something new to learn how itfared with a party of German emigrants in North America. Of the fortunesof many of our own countrymen who have gone thither on the same errandwe have perhaps sufficiently heard. But we are little acquainted withwhat the crowds that have for many years past been leaving Germany forthe United States may have to say of their experience. We are glad,therefore, to meet with a writer who is evidently no stranger to thislittle known history; and who has not only had a personal share in theemigrant's lot and a close acquaintance with many features of that NewWorld to which hope allures him, but a quick eye, as well, to read thecharacters of men and things, and a ready masculine pen to record hisobservations.

Herr Gerstæcker seems to be a genial observer of the humours and ways ofmen, as well as apt in the business of daily life—with some readinessin portraying both in a simple, dramatic fashion. The tempers andoddities of the motley crew of pilgrims from Bremen are drawn with afreshness, and a truth to the special dialects and features of thedifferent provinces and trades from which they were collected, that itwould not be easy to reproduce in an English translation. The smith—thebold, burly brewer—the little tailor, half sly, half sheepish,—theflourishing man of law—the rough, simple Oldenburgher boor—and themeek, but somewhat too child-like pastor, are each and all kept inconsistent life-likeness throughout the whole course of the adventure;and in many of their mishaps, and experiences, and dialogues, presentthemselves with that mixture of good-natured rusticity and awkwardhumour that seems to be native to the ordinary German mind. The book, inshort, is full of pleasant reading, as well as of sagacious remark—andmust take a useful place in any series of works written for the peopleof a country that almost vies with our own in the number of exiles whomit annually sends across the Atlantic.

D. BOGUE, 86, FLEET STREET.

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CONTENTS.