John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852)
John Lloyd Stephens
was born at Shrewsbury, Monmouth county, New Jersey, Nov. 28, 1805. He was the son of Benjamin Stephens, one of the "oldest inhabitants" of New-York; his mother was a daughter of Judge Lloyd, of Monmouth county, New Jersey. Both his parents were natives of New Jersey. The future traveller was brought up and educated in the city of New-York. He received his classical education at the schools of Mr. Boyle and Mr. Joseph Nelson, the blind teacher, from the latter of which he entered Columbia College at the early age of 13. He entered low in his class, but left at its head. He remained four years in college, where he was a general favorite with his fellows. On graduating, he entered the office of Daniel Lord, as a student-at-law. He remained in his office about a year, and then entered the Law School, at Litchfleld Conn. at that time under the charge of the late Judge Gould. Here he remained a year, and on his return to the city of New-York entered the office of George W. Strong as a student-at-law, where he remained until admitted to the practice of the law. On his return from Litchfield his early taste for travelling developed itself.
In company with a cousin, of about the same age with himself he projected a visit to a sister of his mother's residing in Arkansas, at that time almost a terra incognita. After making their visit, instead of returning home, as at first contemplated, it was determined to go to New-Orleans. They accordingly descended the Mississippi in flat-boats, at that time the only mode of conveyance on its waters. After an absence of some months, he returned home by sea, from New-Orleans and resumed his study of law.
At the end of his novitiate he entered upon the practice of the law, at which he continued for about eight years; but he never felt or exhibited much ardor or zeal in the pursuit of this profession. During that period he took a somewhat active interest in politics, united himself to the Democratic party, and became a sort of pet speaker at Tammany Hall. He always advocated the doctrine of free trade, and was strongly opposed to all monopolies. his manner was earnest, and every one who heard him could see that he felt what he spoke. Owing, perhaps, to his public speaking, he contracted a disease of the throat, which bid fair soon to break up his constitution. His physician happening to hint at a voyage, he seized upon it immediately, and hastened to carry it into effect. He embarked in the autumn of 1834, in the packet 'Charlemagne,' for Havre, and landing on the coast of England, went up to London, and from thence crossed to France. Thence he visited Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Russia, returning by the way of Poland and Germany to France. On his return to France from the North of Europe, and when his family expected to hear of his embarkation for home, he suddenly took passage on board a steamer at Marseilles for Egypt, by the way of Malta. He landed at Alexandria, visited Cairo, ascended the Nile as far as Thebes.
He returned home in the latter part of 1836. Prior to his return, some of his letters written from Scio, in Greece, and other places, were published, by the request of his friends, in a magazine, edited by Mr. Charles F. Hoffman, and were generally copied in the papers of the day. In 1837 he published his first work, entitled, "Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea and the Holy Land." This was followed, in 1838, by "Incidents of Travelin Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland." Of the former 21000 copies have been printed, and of the latter 12,000. These works were republished in London, and received favorable notice from the reviewers.
In 1839, he was recommended to Governor Seward for the appointment of Agent of this State to visit Holland, for the purpose of collecting records of our Colonial history; but, being opposed by the Whigs in the legislature, he did not receive the nomination, which was conferred on Mr. Brodhead. About that time Mr. Van Buren, being then President, gave him the appointment of Special Ambassador to Central America, for the, purpose of negotiating a treaty with that country. On his return to the United States he prepared a third work, entitled, "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan;" it appeared in June 1841. Of this 15,000 copies have been printed. While on this mission his attention was first turned to a passage across the Isthmus of Darien.
In 1842 He again visited Yucatan, and published, in 1843, the result of his labors in another work, entitled, "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan." Of this latter work 9,750 copies have been printed. In 1846 he was chosen a delegate from the city of New-York, to the State Convention of New-York to revise the Constitution. He was nominated by the Democrats, but on account of his popularity was also placed on the Whig ticket. He introduced, and advocated the provision for a Conciliation Court, which was adopted by that body.
In 1847, the subject of ocean steam navigation greatly attracted the public attention. England had the monopoly of this mode of conveyance. It was said, America could not compete with her in navigating the Ocean with steam. She had neither the capital, nor could she build vessels and machinery of sufficient strength and power-Mr Stephens became deeply interested in the project, and a charter was obtained from the State of New-York, incorporating The Ocean Steam Navigation Company in the city of New-York. Of this Company Mr. S. was a director, and the result of the enterprise, were the steam-ships Washington and Hermann. The former made the first trip, and proceeded from the port of New-York to Southampton, England, and thence to Bremer-Haven, the port of the city of Bremen, Germany. Mr. S. embarked in the Washington, on this her first trip, and had the happiness of seeing an experiment in which he felt so deep an interest successfully carried out.
He was present at the felicitations offered at the different ports, and at Bremen the excitement on her arrival was intense. The thunder of cannon and tumultuous rejoicing of every kind greeted her arrival amid much speechifying, in which Mr. S. took a prominent part. This decided the question of America's competition with England, in Ocean Steam Navigation. He returned to England to meet the Washington by way of Hamburg, Berlin, &c., visited Humboldt, at Potsdam, and published in the Literary World an account of his visit to this distinguished traveler and philosopher, entitled "An Hour with Humboldt."
He took a strong and active interest in the Hudson River Railroad, and warmly supported its claims in a speech at the Merchants' Exchange, in the city of New-York. In 1849 he became one of the associates of the Panama Railroad Company, and one of its most zealous advocates. About 1st July, 1849, the Company was organized, and Mr. S. was chosen its Vice-President.
In the ensuing autumn he visited the Isthmus, and Panama, for the purpose of inspecting the route; from Panama he went to Bogota, the capital of New Granada, and concluded an arrangement with that Government most favorable to the interests of the road. On the journey on mule-back to Bogota he met with a very severe accident, by the falling of his mule. his spine was very much wrenched, and it was with the utmost pain and difficulty that he reached Bogota. On his arrival there he was obliged to take to his bed, lie in one position, and thus carry on amid the most violent pain and anguish of body, all his communications with the Congress of the New Granadian Government. This accident may have helped to impair his health, or at least to make him more susceptible of disease. Certain it is, he never recovered entirely from its effects.*
He returned home by the way of Carthagena, whence he took a steamer for the United States. On his way back he stopped at the Island of Jamaica, and made a flying circuit of that beautiful island. So much was he struck with its natural beauties, and the moral and social aspects growing out of its present anomalous condition, viz., the abolition of slavery, that it is believed he made some very considerable notes of incidents with a view to future publication. On his return to New-York, and upon the resignation of Mr. Thomas W. Ludlow, then President, Mr. S. was appointed in his place, and assumed the duties of President of the Panama Railroad Company.
To the duties of this office all his energies, mental and physical, were bent. The two following winters of 1850-1 and 1851-2 he visited the Isthmus and personally super-intended the work and progress of the road. To this great work he devoted himself; his zeal was as conspicuous as his hopes in its success were firm and unwavering. On his return in the Spring of 1852, he seemed in as good if not better health than usual, and so continued for six or eight weeks, when he was attacked by a disease of the liver, which developed itself in an abscess and after an illness of about four months, in almost continued pain and suffering, terminated his life.
As a literary man, the contributions of Mr. Stephens were in the department of travels alone; his observations however had extended over a field so wide in both hemispheres, that his countrymen were wont to call him "the American traveller." And so unstudied, familiar and agreeable was his mode of telling what he had seen, that those who had ever listened to his verbal relation of his "Incidents of Travel," had the man perfectly before them as they read his lively pages.
Perhaps there never lived a writer less ambitious of producing an impression by the mere graces of "style ;" or one more wilfully and blissfully ignorant of the petty artificial devices, the little tricks of literary composition, by which small writers sometimes contrive to make a shallow rivulet of thought meander over a large field of letters. In truth, he eschewed trickery of all kinds, and was as incapable of employing it when he wrote, as he was of carrying it into the business transactions of life. And it is precisely this naturalness of manner, added to the truthfulness of his character, which have made his writings so universally popular. With a quick and keen observation, an appreciative and good-natured sense of the ludicrous, and a remarkable faculty of retaining vividly to the last the freshness of first impressions, he sat down and told his story with the pen very much as he would have told it to his intimates with the tongue, had he encountered them just after emerging from one of his many adventures.
It happened to the writer of these lines to meet him in London on his return homeward from his eastern travels when he had no expectation of becoming an author (though for the sake of his friends he had kept memoranda of his observations); and many an hour was agreeably occupied in listening to his stories, particularly of his journey through Idumea, related almost precisely as they were afterwards given to the world. Indeed the publication of his first volumes of travels afforded a remarkable proof of the intrinsic worth of the book as well as a most unexpected and gratifying instance of literary success: that which was prepared, chiefly for the sake of personal friends passed rapidly through several editions; and a work unheralded by previous laudatory announcement, and not bearing on its title-page a name established in the world of letters, obtained, by virtue of its contents alone, a wide-spread celebrity, and conferred on its author the character of a popular American writer. It was not learned, but it was truthful and intelligible to the mass of readers, and this insured its success. We are inclined to believe that the unexpected reception of this first attempt, made our author a traveller on our own continent.
In repeated conversations with the present writer, the attention of Mr. Stephens was called to the ruins of Guatemala and Yucatan, as represented in the works of Del Rio and Waldeck. His was just the enthusiasm of character to be captivated by the thought of explorations where so little was known; and his diplomatic appointment to Guatemala by President Van Buren afforded him precisely the field he wanted, with the advantages his work might derive from official station. He used laughingly to say that he travelled over all Guatemala looking for the government to which he was accredited, and which he never could find; while his journeyings enabled him to discover something which would probably prove more interesting to his countrymen than any diplomatic correspondence. And it was more interesting, not merely to his countrymen, but to the learned of Europe also. His travels in Central America and Yucatan are unquestionably the richest contribution ever made by any one man to the subject of American Antiquities.
Those who knew him are aware that he possessed in an eminent degree, many, if not all the requisites necessary for precisely such a work as he had undertaken. His single deficiency was, that he had not had time to acquire the learning of a well read antiquary. But he had all things else that were needed. Sustained by his enthusiasm, he could and would endure an incredible amount of bodily fatigue; his perseverance was indomitable; indeed energy of character was probably the strongest element of his nature. He possessed also, with a large knowledge of men, extraordinary tact in his intercourse with them, and a courage, moral and physical, which nothing could daunt. To this we may add, an ever-ready power of accommodating himself to circumstances and making the best of them, with a good humor that laughed at inconveniences when they were remediless, and a generous kindliness of heart, prompt to respond to human suffering.
He had large sympathies with his kind. There was about him, too, a truthfulness which made its impression even on the shortest acquaintance. Every one, therefore, who knew him was satisfied that he would use no traveller's privilege; that what he related as facts within his own knowledge might be implicitly relied on, even to the measurement of an inch in the length of a wall. These were the qualities which he carried into the work of an explorer among our buried cities; and the results of the employment of these qualities, told in his own unpretending manner, often relieved by an outbreak of his quick sense of the ludicrous, have made, and will long continue to make, his books of American travels a source at once of information and amusement, that will last until a fresher interest is created by fresh explorations and newer discoveries; but let who will succeed him in the field, not one will be more truthful than John L. Stephens.
His life was spent in action; and it is a sad thon0ht that the very enthusiasm and energy which formed in him such marked characteristics, probably contributed, in no small degree, to send him to the grave at the comparatively early age of forty-seven. His travels in Central America subjected him to exposure and disease, of which, at the time, he thought less than they deserved. They doubtless gave to his constitution a blow which but little fitted it to encounter fresh exposure on the Isthmus of Panama, whither he was led by the same unconquerable energy and perseverance which had marked his previous career.
The great work of connecting the two oceans proceeded too slowly for his enthusiastic nature. He saw its importance, and resolved that it should be finished speedily. As President of the Company he repaired in person to the spot, and enduring toil, and exposure, and sickness, returned home but to die; but he has left his mark upon the age in which he lived. The railroad is nearly completed, and the first iron track between the Atlantic and Pacific is henceforth indelibly connected with the name of John L. Stephens.
* From Bogota he was carried in a chair constructed on purpose, supported on pillows, and carried on the shoulders of men to the steamer on the Carthagena river.
