FROM PHILADELPHIA 183 



lages was superior to anything which could have been 

 expected from former observations or from the general 

 opinion regarding the morals and way of life of these 

 nations. The beautiful situation of their villages, often 

 plainly the result of choice ; the size, construction, and 

 arrangement of their dwellings, these were the things 

 first to strike the beholder in this new and unknown 

 country. Sullivan reported, (and I had later General 

 Irwin's personal confirmation), that their wigwams or 

 houses were not only spacious but even cleanly, and 

 he several times mentions that they were regularly 

 framed. The size of their corn-fields excited astonish- 

 ment no less than the industry with which they were 

 cultivated. As to both facts an indication is to be had 

 from the statement that the troops destroyed corn in 

 the field to the amount of 160,000 bushels. Still more 

 striking was the number of fruit-trees found and de- 

 stroyed, and also the size and apparent age of several 

 of their orchards. Sullivan mentions that at one place 

 they cut down 1500 fruit-trees, many of which seemed 

 to be very old. To be sure, he does not say of what 

 varieties these were ; the greatest part of them were 

 very likely the above-mentioned Indian Plum-trees. 



Such circumstances are proof that these nations have 

 long practiced agriculture, and are not to be charged 

 with an incapacity of providing for the future or with 

 an absolute carelessness of their posterity. No doubt 

 the case with man in his uncivilized state is the same 

 as that observed among beavers and other animals, 

 that is to say, they become more careless, wilder, and 

 less regardful of the future when they find their works 

 disturbed by the approach of man and their peace and 

 quiet interrupted. It is well known that the natives of 



