300 Letter to [Part HI. 



TO 



MORRIS BIRKBECK, Esq. 



OF 



ENGLISH PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS TERRITORY. 



North Hempstead, Long Island, 

 MY DEAR SIR, 10 Dec. 1818. 



569. I HAVE read your two little books, namely, 

 the " Notes on a Journey in America" " and the Let- 

 " ters from the Illinois." 1 opened the books, and I 

 proceeded in the perusal, with ^ear and trembling ; not 

 because I supposed it possible for you to put forth an 

 intended imposition on the world ; but, because 1 had 

 a sincere respect for the character and talents of the 

 writer ; and because I knew how enchanting and de- 

 lusive are the prospects of enthusiastic minds, when 

 bent on grand territorial acquisitions. 



570. My apprehensions were, I am sorry to haA'e 

 it to say, but too well founded. Your books, written, 

 i am sure, without any intention to deceive and decoy, 

 and without any, even the smallest, tincture of base sell- 

 interest, are, in my opinion, calcvdated to produce 

 great disappointment, not to say misery and ruin, 

 amongst our own country people (for I will, in spile 

 of your disaA'owal, still claim the honour of having you 

 for a countryman), and great injury to America by send- 

 ing back to Europe accounts of that disappointment, 

 misery, and ruin. 



571. It is very true, that you decline advising any 

 one to go to the Illixois, and it is also true, that your 

 description of the hardships you encountered is very 

 candid ; but still, there runs throughout the whole of 

 yoiir Notes such an account as to the prospect, that 

 is to say, the tdtimate effect, that the book is, without 

 your either wishing or perceiving it, calculated to de- 



