A VISIT TO THE ILLINOIS. 431 



and invigorating, yet these advantages of nature were useless without 

 the labour of the hands of man; and, amongst roving Indians, and 

 gouging backwoodsmen, labourers there were none. The disadvan- 

 tages of the inland situation of the settlement became very soon ap- 

 parent; the influx of emigrants from England, after the first season, 

 became materially diminished ; the lands in which the capital of the 

 projectors of the settlement had been extensively invested, remained 

 unsold, and Mr. Birkbeck was already dispirited at the prospects of his 

 family. These consisted of several sons and daughters, grown up, and 

 all educated in the utmost degree of refinement. Mr. Birkbeck being 

 himself a widower, apparently about fifty years of age. Another cir- 

 cumstance was thought to have added much to the mortification pro- 

 duced by the failure of his projects, being no other than a disappoint- 

 ment in love, which, even at that late period of his life, had affected 

 him in a remarkable degree. The object of this strange occurrence 

 was a Miss A , a lady of the Jewish persuasion, who had accompanied 

 his family from England. She possessed very brilliant conversational 

 talents ; and whether specially engaged to the patriarch of the party, it 

 is certain, that when the lady announced her intention to enter into a 

 matrimonial connection with Mr. F , the companion and co-partner of 

 the journey, the most inveterate hostility, which time appeared in 110 

 wise to abate, was the consequence upon the part of the elder rival. In 

 due time, however, the bright-eyed Jewess consigned her charms to the 

 younger of these competitors maugre his wife in England. This affair 

 contributed very greatly to the disadvantages of the settlement, substi- 

 tuting the most inveterate hostility for that co-operation of plan, which, 

 in so retired a situation, was essentially required for success. In this 

 state of things, about five years wore on, the settlement becoming gra- 

 dually more deserted and impoverished, until at length the instalments 

 due upon the extensive lands of Mr. Birkbeck, being unable to be paid, 

 the entire property reverted to the government of the United States ; 

 the ruin of his family was the consequence of this too sanguine specu- 

 lation ; arid his own unfortunate end, in the waters of the Wabash, 

 completed what Mr. Cobbett has too truly called <e the melancholy his- 

 tory of Mr. Birkbeck." 



About two miles from Wanborough was the skeleton of another town, 

 called Albion, in the centre of the lands of Mr. Flower. This town 

 consisted of a few straggling log huts, with two or three houses built of 

 stone, a brick tavern and two well supplied stores, with several inferior 

 whiskey shops. Beyond this the place did not appear to advance, and 

 a deficiency of water, none being found at a depth of one hundred and 

 twenty feet, rendered its progress extremely dubious. This town, 

 however, was otherwise in a well chosen situation, being upon an ele- 

 vated ridge, and the spot healthy in the highest degree. Mr. Flower 

 had the misfortune to become very unpopular amongst the backwoods- 

 men of the neighbourhood, for which there appeared certainly to be no 

 foundation, other than the anomaly of a wealthy proprietor, living in 

 some appearance of refinement, amongst a lawless and Tartar popula- 

 tion. In any of the older settlements of the Union, this gentleman 

 would have been much respected for his intelligence, enterprise, and 

 wealth ; but here the most lawless outrages were committed upon his 

 property. Various were the attempts to burn down his dwelling-house. 

 At length, the murder of his younger son completed the list of his mis- 



