In Gottlieb Mittelberger’s, Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750 and Return to Germany in the Year 1754, he vividly depicts the harsh realities of what those traveling to America experienced through his own venture to the western hemisphere. He also provides a summary of different aspects of the land and society of Pennsylvania in the early 1750s. Because his work is a first-hand account, the reader gets an accurate depiction of these important events in history. In the beginning of the work, Mittelberger recounts his journey from Germany to Pennsylvania. One of the first aspects of the voyage that he describes is the length of time and the route that was taken to arrive in America. Mittelberger, who traveled by boat, remarked that…show more content… He begins by commenting on the lack of space allowed for each person. Since there were usually four or five hundred people aboard each ship and many goods and supplies were being transported with the people, each boat was extremely crowded, and an individual would not be allowed much space. This crowdedness was too such an extent that Mittelberger remarked that the “people are packed densely like herrings” (Mittelberger…show more content… For example, although he did not experience this himself, he remarks that some ships get lost and never actually make it to their destination. He also notes that no one would notify Germany about this sort of occurrence because many were afraid that knowledge of these mishaps would dissuade others from migrating to America. Mittelberger continues to describe situations in which the passengers were not taken to their desired destination. Instead they would be taken to a different colony, and they would never see the family they had planned to see,
