THE CITY OF THE SAINTS.* CArrerx BURTON'S book does not

add so much to our knowledge of the City of the Saints as was expected. Indeed, the larger portion of the work is not devoted to the city at all, bat consists of a diary describing the traveller's route to and from the Mormon encampment. This diary is, however, exceedingly fresh, full of careless slap-dash writing, which describes, often very picturesquely, the external aspect of things between Missouri and California, via the City of the Saints. Captain Burton has travelled too far and lived with too many races not to observe keenly, while a rooted contempt for the social life of the West, and apparently for most Western ideas, gives him a sort of reckless toleration for all things but dirt and bad eating, which has much of the effect of philosophic fairness. His Indian experience, too, has given him knowledge which, applied to circumstances so new, creates the impression of originality. The suggestion, for example, that camel corps offer the true force with which to control the Indians and wild men of the western desert, is one the American Govern- ment may do well to ponder. Regulars are useless against these tribes, which day by day, as the march of civilization hems them in, are becoming more desperate, more inclined to turn at bay rather

* TheCoity of the saws. By Captain Burton. Longman&

than retreat farther into the west. Another, and in itself better, suggestion, that of enlisting the desert tribes as irregular but dis-

ciplined horsemen, is, we fear, impracticable, from the difficulty of in-

ducing the wild tribes to submit to discipline, or trust the Americans in any way. The South, however, is trying the experiment on a small scale. Captain Burton has obviously no favourable opinion of the Indians, the Delawares, who are now greatly reduced in number, ex- cepted, and gives from observation and official reports an interesting account of the Dahcotahs, or Sioux, by far the most powerful and warlike of the tribes of this region. They are supposed to number still 30,000 souls, good horsemen, and, while mounted, good warriors, but useless dismounted. They are a straight, tall, well-macje, brown race, with Mongol features, and deficient as compared with Euro- peans in physical strength, but agile, tolerably brave, and as a rule not very creel. The women are chaste, but the men are given to vices which destroy populations, and are described by Captain Burton as thieves, vindictive, and excessively indolent. The author seems undecided as to whether they are or are not dying out. He rejects Captain Mayne Reid's prophecy in their favour, but remarks, never- theless, a statement made by the missionaries that wherever the pro- gress of a village can be watched, the deaths are found less numerous than the births. The truth, we presume, is, that the Indians have the

tendency of all other races to increase, that hardship, war, and a wild life, thin them off, and as the two last evils fall chiefly on men between twenty and forty, the number of families slowly decreases. The next race is not more hopeful : "The half-breed has a bad name in the land. Like the negro, the Indian belongs to a species, sub-species or variety—whichever the reader pleases—that has diverged widely enough from the Indo-European type to cause degeneracy, physical as well as moral, and often, too, sterility, in the offspring. These half-breeds are, therefore, like the mulatto, quasi- mules. The men combine the features of both races ; the skin soon be- comes coarse and wrinkled, and the eye is black, snaky, and glittering like the Indian's. The mongrels are short-lived, peculiarly subject to infections diseases, untrustworthy, and disposed to every villany. The half-breed women, in early youth, are sometimes attractive enough, uniting the figure of the mother to the more delicate American face ; a few years, how- ever, deprive them of all litheness, grace, and agility. They are often married by whites, who hold them to be more modest and humble, less capricious, and less exacting than those of the higher type : they make good wives and affectionate mothers, and, like the quadroons, they are more ambitious'—that is to say, of warmer temperaments than either of the races from which they are derived. The so-called red is a higher ethnic type than the black man ; so in the United States, where all admixture of African blood is deemed impure, the aboriginal American entails no die- grace—some of the noblest of the land are descended from Indian princesses.' The half-breed girls resemble their mothers in point of industry, and they barter their embroidered robes and mocassins, and mats and baskets, made of bark and bulrush, in exchange for blankets, calicoes, glass beads—an indispensable article of dress—mirrors, needles, rings, vermilion, and other luxuries. The children, with their large black eyes, wide mouths, and glittering teeth, flattened heads and remarkable agility of motion, suggest the idea of little serpents."

There may be in this paragraph a trace of the dislike which every man who has been in the tropics acquires to crossed races, but it is partly borne out by almost all observers, and rally justified by the re- cords of modern Mexico, the only place where the half-caste has at- tained a history. The pure " western man," whom Buxton so well de- scribes, though almost as savage as his rival, is much more hopeful, though Captain Burton's picture even of him is chequered : " The western men may be divided, like the traders, into two classes. The first is the true mountaineer, whom the platitude and tame monotony of civi- lized republican life has in early youth driven, often from an honoured and wealthy family, to the wilds and welds, to become the forlorn hope in the march of civilization. The second is the offscouring and refuse of the eastern cities, compelled by want, fatuity, or crime, to exile himself from all ho most loves. The former, after passing through the preliminary stage greenhorn, is a man in every sense of the term : to more than Indian bravery and for- titude, he unites the softness of woman, and a childlike simplicity, which is the very essence of a chivalrous character; you can read his nature in his clear blue eyes, his sun-tanned countenance, his merry smile, and his frank fearless manner. The latter is a knave or a fool ; it would make bad blood,' as the Frenchman says, to describe him. " M. Reynal's history had to be received with many grains of salt. The western man had been worked by climate and its consequences, by the huge magnificence of nature and the violent contrasts of scenery, into a remarkable resemblance to the wild Indian. He bates labour—which poets and divines combine to deify in the settled States—as the dire effect of a primeval curse ; loaf' he must and will ; to him one hour out of the twenty-four spent in honest industry is Jodie euperque. His imagination is inflamed by scenery and climate, difficulty and danger; he is as superstitious as an old man-o'-war's man of the olden school ; and he is a transcendental liar, like his prototype the aborigin, who in this point yields nothing to the African negro. I have heard of a man riding eighty miles—forty into camp and forty out—in order to enjoy the sweet delights of a lie."

In the instances given, however, the lies are rather romances, wild travellers' tales, which, however blamable, do not indicate the poverty of spirit of which habitual falsehood is the first sign. The best race of all, by universal testimony, is the French Canadian who has taken to western life ; but even against him Captain Burton has something to say. He records faithfully enough the cub- gliuns of other travellers, but adds :

" Such is the voyageur of books. I can only speak of him as I found Mm, a lazy dog, somewhat shy and proud, much; addicted to loafing, and to keeping cabarets, because, as the old phrase is, the cabarets keep him—in idleness too. Probably his good qualities lie below the surface—those who hide a farthing rushlight under a bushel can hardly expect us, in this rail- way age, to take the trouble of finding it. I will answer, however, for the fact, that the bad points are painfully prominent." able—too favourable, we suspect, for absolute fairness, but, 30 far as

it is a record of things seen, deserving of consideration. Indeed, he trusted, for in Utah there avers that nothing but what you see can be

are three accounts of everything—the Mormon defence, the Gentile poorly developed in these lands—this has been positively stated of the narrative, and the anti-Mormon libel—none of which, except the se- degree than is usually believed."

cond, can be relied on. Certain facts, however, are distinctly allowed.

In other words, setting all morality aside, if monogamy, as Mrs. The Mormon government, for example, is theocratic, Brigham Young

300, among a population of 9000. Mr. Young is about 59, but harder for the other. looks 45 : Captain Burton confirms the statements of most unprejudiced

" Scarcely a grey thread appears in his hair, which is parted on the

side, light coloured, rather thick, and reaches below the ears with a half

curl. He formerly wore it long after the Western style, now it is cut level secret jealousy make their laws against adultery as stern as Moses with the ear lobes. The forehead is somewhat narrow, the eyebrows are ll

thin, the eyes between grey and blue, with a calm, composed, and some- what reserved expression : a slight droop in the left lid made me think that

he had antlered from paralysis, I afterwards heard that the ptosis is the re- sult of a neuralgia which has long tormented him. . . . The nose, which THE Magazines are full this month of vitality and freshness, many is fine and somewhat sharp-pointed, is bent a little to the left. The lips having at least one paper full of new thoughts, or very recent Ia. are closed like the New Englander's, and the teeth, especially those of the formation upon some pressing topic of the hour. Blacktcood, for under jaw, are imperfect. The cheeks are rather fleshy, and the line between example, gives us a " Month with the Rebels," an account of a rapid the aloe of the nose and mouth is broken; the chin is somewhat peaked, and trip through the South, made by an English traveller so recently as the face clean shaven, except under the jaws, where the beard is allowed October. The writer actually saw Fremont's camp, talked to the to grow. The hands are well made, and not disfigured by rings. The figure is somewhat large, broad-shouldered, and stooping a little when

standing.

" The Prophet's dress was neat and plain as a Quaker's, all grey homespun, except the cravat and waistcoat. His coat was of antique cut, is the latest English eye-witness to the tone of the South. He and, like the pantaloons, baggy, and the buttons were black. A necktie of entered " Secessm" vitt Kentucky, the Federal Government refusing dark silk, with a large bow, was loosely passed round a starchls collar,assports into the "insurrectionary States;" and he describes the which turned down of its own accord. The waistcoat was of black satin— Feeling of that State fairly enough. Its legislature is for the Union, once an article of almost national dress—single-breasted and buttoned nearly and so is the population of entire counties ; but the active majority to the neck, and a plain gold chain was passed into the pocket. The boots are with the South, and the feeling among them is one of intense were Wellingtons, apparently of American make. bitterness against the Yankees. As he passed South this feeling " Altogether the Prophet's appearance was that of a gentleman farmer deepened, until in the cotton States he found absolute unanimity, a

in New England." resolution to perish rather than submit, "stamped," he says, " upon

He is an abstinent man, as far as liquors are concerned, and has every countenance." The statement does not tally with information become very wealthy, chiefly by trade. He evidently gave our received from Georgia and North Carolina, but still it must be held traveller an impression of great ability and an indomitable will. This to mean this :—so large a proportion of Southerners approve the war, personage controls a body of men who in extremis would number that the Government has no difficulty in silencing the opinions of the from six to eight thousand, and who would be assisted by from thirty remainder, a state of affairs which strengthens the Administration to forty thousand Indians. The Mormon creed, says Captain Barton, almost as much as unanimity. The writer evidently disbelieves in makes them kind to all Indians, and the savages prefer them to all all stories of danger from the slaves:

other Americans. A body of picked men, called the Life Guards, are

ready at any moment at the call of the govenior, the children are se- except the overseers; and instances occur daily of the fidelity with which dulously trained to arms, and if the theocracy is not broken up, the sue- servants' who have acoompanied their masters to the war serve them in Lessor of Brigham Young may have a formidable army. The first and the camp and field. Further, the generals employ the negroes in the corn- indeed only great political object of the Mormon leader is to become in- missariat, and upon earthworks in situations where desertions and conse- dependent, which, in presence of the existing contest, he may succeed quent freedom would be perfectly easy, thereby showing in the slaves a in becoming. He will then forbid the consumption of liquors, and confidence which is justified by the fact that the Northern army, now on punish adultery with death, and perhaps prohibit residence in Utah Arlington Heights, find it almost impossible to obtain correct information of to all but Mormons. Much, however, depends upon his successor, what is going on in the Confederate camp, two miles distant from the who is still unnamed. The Church thinks well of his son, an edu- Union outPosta•" rated man, but there is a disposition to be very reverential towards The slaves, indeed, he says, are a source of strength ; for as they the family. of Joe Smith—whose name, by the way, is always pro- must work, agriculture goes on uninterrupted, while the whites are nonnced in a low tone, with a sort of awe—and the second son of enabled by their aid to open new trades without the temptation of the first prophet may be accepted by the Church. Mormons, when profit. Thus slaves are being set to weave the cloth no longer spoken to on the matter, content themselves with affirming their belief imported from the North, and the leather trade—formerly unknown that in the hour of need God will raise them up a new ruler. Of —has been at once developed by the pressing wants of the army. anything approaching to disaffection among the Mormons themselves All this must be taken as the opinion of a man of strong Captain Burton saw nothing, though he mentions several persons Southern sympathies and no particular power of observation, whom he oddly enough calls "apostates" He would probably be for he describes an estate on which negroes have gold watches, severe enough upon any one who applied the same term to any one and six or seven hundred dollars of property., a scene, we sus- who had quitted a more ancient faith. On the polygamy of Utah, pect, got up for his special benefit, and talks of the negroes as Captain Burton gives us little that is new, for his careful account of " heartily joining their masters in the great struggle in which they the reasons urged in its favour is not novel. He reprints, however, are now engaged." If they do, the fact only proves that slavery can a letter from Mrs. Belinda Pratt, wife of the "apostle" Orson Pratt, dematde human beings even lower than its enemies believe, but the addressed to her sister, upon which, apparently, M. Remy eon- conduct of the slaves of Port Royal, who resisted their masters' strueted his apocryphal dialogue with a Mormon lady. The letter is orders to depart, and fled by thousands into the Northern camp, snf- a bold defence of the practice : firstly, as allowed in the Old Testa- ficiently refutes the assertion. All the writer proves, is the absence meet ; secondly, as tending to the development of the human race— of any apparent agitation, or attempts at partial and local insurrec- a Mormon wife living alone while enceinte—and, thirdly, as beneficial tion, which we can readily believe. During the Indian Mutiny every to women. The first argument has been answered to weariness, the regiment, till it revolted, professed the profoundest loyalty, and dis- simple fact that the sexes are born equal beim. sufficient to prove in- tncts which were one day as obedient and contented as Suffolk were contestably the intention of the Almighty ; and the second, even if given up to anarchy on the next. The writer speaks in high terms correct, has never been carried out by any polygamous nation; but of the Southern army, which he says is composed of all classes except the third is new. Captain Burton evidently believes that one reason white labourers—who do not, he adds, exist—which costs the state for the success of the Mormons is the intense dislike of women to nothing, even the clothes being found by the women of the South, work and poverty, and they, it appears, say distinctly they would and which is full of confidence in its officers and itself. A great rather be "sealed" as fiftieth wife to an old man who could maintain effort is being made to introduce uniformity of dress, though as yet them in comfort, than lead "a nigger life" with a poor man. That with little success, but the men are excellent, drilled in the French argument has been too much forgotten, and probably has weight in style, and with a quicker step than the Zonaves. The majority are America as in Europe, where precisely the same motive—an absolute armed with the Enfield, usually supplemented by a revolver and impatience of labour—yearly recruits the ranks of the social evil. bowie-knife, and are fair marksmen from long practice in shooting The only mistake is in considering this temper anything better than squirrels, while the similar impatience which inclines a man to steal or to murder. " The commissariat seemed to be most efficiently administered. Captain Burton, however, answers the argument still better him- " A large depiA of breadstuffs is placed in convenient position, whence self : the different corps are supplied in waggons drawn by four horses, one of "Another curious effect of fervent belief may be noticed in the married

state. 1Vhen a man has four or five wives, with reasonable families by each,

he is fixed for life; his interests, if not his affections, bind him irrevocably saw scores of cattle and sheep driven along the roads, from the condition of to his new faith. But the bachelor, as well as the monogamic youth, is which it was evident that their journey had not been long. Indeed, a prone to backsliding. Apostasy is apparently so common that many of floating population. the new saints form a mere floating He is proved by a counties of Virginia, adjacent to the seat of war, to last the army f :two mission before being permitted to marry, and even then women, dreading a years." possible renegade with the terrible consequences of a hesvenless future to The currency secured on cotton, moreover, circulates readily, all themselves, are shy of saying yes. Thus it happens that male celibacy is classes holding that defeat alone would produce repudiation. and Captain Burton's account of the Mormon city is decidedly favour- mixed up in a curious way with polygyny; and that also in a faith whose interpreter advises youth not to remain single after sixteen, nor girls after fourteen. The celibacy also is absolute ; any infraction of it would be dangerous to life. Either, then, the first propensity of the phrenologist is are three accounts of everything—the Mormon defence, the Gentile poorly developed in these lands—this has been positively stated of the ruder sex in California—or its action is to be regulated by habit to a greater

Pratt says, makes life easier for one sex, it makes it a great deal being prophet, priest, and king, and the Gentiles numbering less than looks 45 : Captain Burton confirms the statements of most unprejudiced travellers, that outward decency reigns in Utah, and, of course, the owners of harems there, as everywhere else, being devoured by a , and Mahomet did before them, and probably with equally little effect.