The Journey
The End
Arrival in the USA
"Are we there?"
After a long journey at sea, the passengers were very glad that they were on land again. "Some of them were sitting on their knees, and thanked God in the Heaven, because they hadn't any trials and dangers of the ocean."But not all the dangers were gone. The only large welcome the immigrants received was from swindlers, who wheedled them out of what little money they had. Not knowing how to speak English, the immigrants tended to trust anyone who appeared to have a kind smile. After a couple of days they went on to Michigan.
Good advice
After their long journey, the immigrants finally arrived and wrote back to their family and friends from their village, giving them advice on what to do if they emigrated. This is what G.Heerspink wrote to his brother in 1850:"(...), if the Lord wants it I tell you how you must immigrate, to stay in Albany in Trooi or Buffulloo first of all, there are many Dutch, who could learn you everything, there you can earn a lot of money with Gods blessing, if you want to emigrate, especially take woollen clothes, flaxes and woollen yarn and baize (thick, pure wool flannel, editorial), cotton isn't more expensive then in the Netherlands, take spinning-wheels with you and your clock.
Here are clocks cheap and bad, tobacco is expensive and bad. Till the journey, eat potatoes, buckwheatmeal, beans, dried meat and bacon, pepper, salt, vinegar, coffee and especially tea, you need many sacks of victuals for the journey, you have to buy small barrel with salt fish in the last city you leave, get especially a water-cask with a funnel, in which you get your daily water, buy it full with water, where you leave the harbor."
You come on your own
R.Brinks had promised his mother that he would bring her from the Netherlands to his home in Michigan. He wrote her this:"Mother, you wanted that I came back and took you with me. I would like to do that, but like you know, I'm married and allied to my wife. She says that with the children and the cattle, she can't make it, and much work won't be done, so that I had much damage because of that, at least 400 Guilders (160 Dollars). But I will help you, I will let come another, Frits Tibbe, because he will call for his family. He comes from the Laar, at Coevoerden. I promissed him 2 and a half Guilders for it. But the money for your traveling-companions and you: you all have to pay it yourselves if you arrive here, it's for the journey over sea, for the food and the journey over land, which is something like 100 Guilders for each one, children are cheaper. You have to ask Frits Tibbe what you don't know, and you have to do what he says. You don't have to take cheap, old clothes with you, Hendrik Brinks, you have to stay close to each other in the cities so you won't get lost and watch your bags during the journey. And you have to watch out and carry your money on your chest. If you are on the steamwagon (a steam locomotive, editorial), you have to keep your head down. You may not take a long break if it stands still, so it won't leave without you."
Barter
The ships, which navigated to and from America did more than simply ferry the immigrants. They bartered many European goods:. woolen clothes, pans, and axes. They brought back to Europe fish, wood, fur, tobacco, and agricultural produce like grain and cotton. "Much space, where we otherwise could sleep, was occupyed by mediums of exhange. Now we had to sleep over each other."And further
How was Michigan when they arrived there? Read it in 'How was Michigan when you arrived there?'. For the story of Van Raalte and the foundation of Holland: go to 'Holland - The journey to Michigan'.The immigrants weren't the first to Michigan. First of all, the fur trappers and the bushrangers, to explore the area and to build the first blockhouses, lived there. After that, the farmers came, who made the land ready for the agriculture and they settled there for a longer time. Sometimes, farms close together became a village. Then there came the people who were going to do something else than agriculture. The magic word in the US was optimism.
Discomfort
What went wrong
[The End]