Travels in America Performed in 1806

Book excerpt: Although agreement is general that Ashe usually stretched the truth in the direction of the vicious and spiteful, authorities also laud his account as being highly readable and interesting. His chief interest was in archaeological remains, but he takes to task the men of America, including references to some Missourians as having "stupid insensibility." He did think the women of America far superior to any he had encountered in Europe. He found the climate in New Orleans so disagreeable that he states that "an average of nine strangers die out of ten shortly after their arrival." Ashe liked the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, and his description of them is generally credible.