HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
to tend cows. It will never be fully understood 
by any one who has not had a similar experi- 
ence, what privations, inconveniences and hu- 
miliations they suffered.  "We often cried," 
says one of the old ladies now, jokingly, "until 
our heads were like *Laegele, and wished we 
were at home again, even if we had nothing 
else to live on but tSchotte and Chrut."  But it 
was worse with theni than with the Ilelvetians 
of olden times, who tore down the bridges and 
burnt the villages behind them when they 
started out to take possession of Gallia. They 
coula come back and restore things, and were 
glad to do so, whilst the New Glarusers were 
very much in the dilemma of the bird in the 
adage: "Vogel, friss oder stirb!"  They had 
to stay and try. 
It would take up too much room to give a full 
description of the journey of the first settlers, 
which took up nearly the whole summer of 
1845; but in order to give an idea of what 
traveling was in that day, we will select some 
of the dates of a day book which Mathias 
Durst, one of the fellow travelers, has left us. 
We started from Biasche, on the lake of Wal- 
lenstadt, in Switzerland, on the 16th day of 
April; 155 persons were expected to assemble 
there, but when we were ready to start our 
number was 193. We understood that our con- 
tract was including our board, but our captain 
told us that he had nothing to do with it. This 
created quite an animated dispute between our 
leaders and the captain.  But we could not 
take what was withheld from us. When we 
arrived at Zurich, those of us that had to stay 
on deck were half frozen, and those who found 
a standing room in the cabin were half lame. 
There we learned that there was no room for all 
of us in the ship that was to take us to Basel. 
In great haste and during a heavy rain we had 
to procure four wagons, in which we put our 
women and children, and were afterwards glad 
* Small wooden casks, used for carrying drinking water 
into the fields. 
Whey and spinach. 
* Eat, bird, or die. 
 
that they could not find room on the ship, be- 
cause we men suffered greatly of wet and cold. 
We came to Laufenburg that day, and stayed 
over night in a large hall of a hotel, where we 
laid on straw during one part of the night, and 
walked through the streets of the village dur- 
ing the other, in order to keep warm. We came 
to Basel at the same time with the wagons. 
The landlords in the city were very friendly, 
and took very good pay for their friendliness. 
From Basel we started next morning on the 
Rhine, ad came to a place in the evening where 
there was a very big hotel, but they only offered 
beds to single persons, and would not allow a 
family to come into the house. I, however, was 
quick enough to run into the house and take the 
key from a room with two beds, where I put my 
family to bed after da:k without being noticed 
by any one in coming or in going.  In Mann- 
heim we had to wait two days for the steamer. 
All our money, that we termed the "beginning 
fund," was used up for the journey, and still we 
slept on boxes and benches for many a night. 
From Dordrecht we were transferred to Rotter- 
dam in two small boats, which were so over- 
crowded that none of us could lie down, or even 
fall down. 
At New Dieppe we were to embark for Balti- 
more, but we had to wait one week until the 
ship was fitted up for us. We slept in the ship, 
but we had to do our cooking on the shore, like 
the gypsies. On the 13th of May we bade good 
bye to old lady Europe, and trusted our lives to 
God and the ship. Any sea-sickness? Yes, 
lots of it, but excuse me from describing it; it 
is altogether too personal, and can only be 
understood when-at sea. On the 21st we had a 
storm, which lasted nearly a whole week, and 
was fiercest on the 25th.  The ship was laid 
over from one sid6 to the other, dipping up 
tons of water, and dispatching the same down 
into the middle deck. Our trunks became liv- 
ing, every one of them traveling on its own 
risk now east, now west. A bag of potatoes 
fell over, and the potatoes were in a hurry to 
 
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