Chapter 13

In Boston, I took up the mantle of the wealthy trader, partner in several thriving enterprises. It turned out I was my own leading competitor. Two of my investments were now worthless, the companies having suffered great reverses in a financial panic. But three of them more than made up for the reverses, having become the leading shipping companies in the United States. I had to now think of them that way having again beaten the British army in a small war, called by them the War of 1812. Again, they were helped by the French under Napoleon who kept the main British army occupied on the continent, and would until that peasant upstart met his Waterloo.

Actually, the companies were performing well without my active intervention and I prudently thought it best to continue my silent partnership. I did not want to interrupt the functioning of a company which performed so well without my assistance. Let well enough alone is never bad advice and too frequently ignored, especially by politicians.

Settlement had extended beyond the Mississippi River. I found myself becoming interested in seeing this great land. My earlier encounter, when Indians still controlled much land, had not been of the most edifying results, that is, running for our lives as we did. Traveling in much more comfortable circumstances as now seemed possible, piqued my curiosity.

And so, I set out by boat to see this land. Though that at a glance is a contradiction, it is not. I traveled first to New Orleans, the great port of the Mississippi River, which guards the entrance to the center of the continent. Disembarking there I found a city both wild and yet genteel. It was an important trading center, so wealth accumulated. The rich of the city established a genteel 'Southern' culture, abounding in parties, overlaid atop the French Creole influence. I had introduction into the society, being of a trading company myself.

At one and the same time, all that work brought men, rough and tumble men, to perform the work. Their entertainments were of a different ilk entirely. The city was filled with drinking establishments and establishments of less wholesome pursuits. Much of the female population of the city was ensconced in the various houses servicing the lusty desires of the men, from the genteel women working in fine houses to which I was introduced by gentlemen, to the slatterns who served the dock men and rough river men. The only thing that was more popular than the women was drinking and gambling. I found out that the gamblers of the river did not let chance guide their fortunes, they cheated. False cards, false dice, false sleeves, false hearts, helped them in their quest to separate the unwary from their money. I lost just enough to learn a lesson that I never again needed to learn. It was in many ways, a cheap lesson. Such was New Orleans.

I spent enough time to tire of the frivolities of New Orleans before taking a paddleboat north. The riverboat stopped at nearly every little berg along the river. I took the opportunity to talk to many settlers and learn of their desires for the future and opinions. The cities flowed by: Clairborne, Baton Rouge, Vicksburg, Greenville, Rosedale, and Memphis named after the famous lost city in Egypt.

In the southern Missouri Territory, the great Ohio River emptied into the Mississippi. The confluence of these two great rivers was amazing. The Ohio was a mile wide and poured into the even greater Mississippi. Having only seen the small rivers of England and Boston, I could not imagine the volume of water carried by these great courses. It was almost as if the sea itself was flowing.

I sat one day on the bank of the confluence and watched the unending streams carrying an endless supply of water southward. And I thought about how much water these rivers carried and how vast the lands must be that these rivers emptied the water on them. Like a great bolt, I understood many things sitting there in the buzzing heat of a Missouri afternoon.

His Majesty's government had given the former colonists full rights and powers as a country. And these people had a confidence and vigor in them that was contagious. I had caught it myself, coming to regard myself as one of them and becoming embroiled even in their peculiar politics. The country was adding great swatches of land to the union of states, the largest being the sale of land by the French and the settlement of that land. The only opposition came from the savage inhabitants. Many battles were fought but the superiority of the settlers was never in doubt and the tide of settlement swamped the savages pushing them back and extending the frontier of the United States ever westward. By 1835, the former colonies of Great Britain were now many times larger than the mother country, perhaps as large as all of Europe when they finished settling this vast continent.

It was that vast land combined with their vast confidence that I had seen that made me know of a certainty, this country would surpass the mother country some day soon. Their vitality would lead these people to conquer the continent. Why just the territories? Why not Canada, a few acres of snow, as my old friend, Voltaire, described it? And Mexico, currently held by the French, why not take it? The Americans had shown that it wasn't possible for a European power to try to subdue an area twenty times greater than their own lands. It is one thing to push aside savages and claim a territory. It is decidedly more difficult to conquer their own descendents trained and armed with modern weapons and half a world away.

I knew then, as a great epiphany, that the Old World was not the place to make a fortune. It was this New World. And I knew the key; transportation, the business I was already well situated in.

I boarded the river boat up the Ohio, a spring in my step and a plan already launched in my mind. I honed it as I traveled up river, learning the ins and outs of business from everyone I met.

I traveled overland and crossed the Appalachian Mountains and back to Boston, a journey now much easier and safer than my previous sally through the wilds of New York. Where the Indians had not been tamed, they had been exterminated.

(Editor's Note: I have chosen not to redact this testament despite antiquated and outdated views expressed; for that is how a European would have viewed the world. It is presented as it was written, warts and all.)

Once back in Boston, I applied myself to my plans. With two partners who were of a mind with me, we took such monies as we possessed and began investing in the river boats and barge companies, including several ferry crossings of the great rivers.

One of the partners was quite adamant that railroads would someday revolutionize transportation. Although many lines were unprofitable, it was because they attempted to compete with existing canal boats. We decided our lines would go where no boats could travel, opening up transport to previously un-served areas, but areas of growing wealth. It took a longer view to wait while a region grew to profit the road, but it was surety. Eventually, we made a pile of money from these roads. What we profited, we poured back into the companies, making them grow all the faster.