xxxiv LIFE OF WILSON. 



moments that should be devoted to this pursuit, provided I could have hopes 

 of succeeding. Your opinion on this subject will confer an additional obliga- 

 tion on your aflFectionate friend." 



It is worthy of remark, that when men of uncommon talents conceive any 

 great scheme, they usually overlook those circumstances of minor importance. 

 which ordinary minds would estimate as first deserving attention. Thus Wil- 

 son, with an intellect expanded with information, and still grasping at further 

 improvement as a means of distinction, would fain become a traveller, even at 

 the very moment when the sum total of his funds amounted to seventy-five 

 cen ts ! 



To Mr. Wm. Duncan. 



" Gray's Ferry, December 24th, 1804. 



" You have no doubt looked for this letter long ago, but I wanted to see 

 how matters would finally settle with respect to my school before I wrote ; 

 they remain, however, as uncertain as before; and this quarter will do little 

 more than defray my board and firewood. Comfortable intelligence truly, 

 methinks I hear you say ; but no matter. * * * * 



" I shall begin where you and I left off our story, viz. at Aurora, on the 

 shores of the Cayuga.* The evening of that day, Isaac and I lodged at the 

 outlet of Owasco Lake, on the turnpike, seven or eight miles from Cayuga 

 bridge; we waded into the stream, washed our boots and pantaloons, and 

 walked up to a contemptible dram-shop, where, taking possession of one side 

 of the fire, we sat deafened with the noise and hubbub of a parcel of drunk 

 tradesmen. At five next morning we started; it had frozen; and the road 

 was in many places deep and slippery. I insensibly got into a hard step of 

 walking; Isaac kept groaning a rod or so behind, though I carried his gun. 

 * * * We set off again ; and we stopped at the outlet of Skane- 

 atelesLake; ate some pork-blubber and bread; and departed. At about two 

 in the afternoon we passed Onondaga Hollow, and lodged in Manlius Square, 

 a village of thirty houses, that have risen like mushrooms in two or three 

 years; having walked this day thirty-four miles. On the morning of the 

 22d we started as usual by five — road rough — and Isaac grunting and lagging 

 behind. This day we were joined by another young traveller, returning 

 home to his father's on the Mohawk ; he had a pocket bottle, and made fre- 

 quent and long applications of it to his lips. The road this day bad, and 

 the snow deeper than bef )re. Passing through Oneida castle, I visited every 

 house within three hundred yards of the road, and chatted to the copper- 

 colored tribe. In the evening we lodged at Lard's tavern, within eleven miles 

 of Utica, the roads deplorably bad, and Isaac and his disconsolate companion 

 groaning at every step behind me, so that, as drummers do in battle, I was 

 frequently obliged to keep before, and sing some lively ditty, to drown the 

 sound of their ohs ! and ahs ! and Lords ! The road for fifteen or twenty 

 miles was knee-deep of mud. We entered Utica at nine the next morning. 

 This place is three times larger than it was four years ago ; and from Oneida 



*Mr. Duncan remained amonE; his friends at Aurora. 



