Part III.] MoKRis BiRKBECK, Esq. 309 



Connecticut men. Men with families of sons. Men 

 able to do as much in a day at the works necessary in 

 their situation as so many Englishmen would be able to 

 do in a week. They began with a shed ; then rose to a 

 log'fiouse ; and next to a frame-house ; all of their own 

 building. I have seen them manure their land M^ith 

 Salmon caught in their creeks, and with Pigeons caught 

 on the land itself It will be a long while before you 

 will see such beautiful Corn-fields as I saw there. Yet 

 nothing but the danger and disgrace which attended their 

 return to Connecticut prevented their returning, though 

 there they must have begun the world anew. J saw them 

 in their log-huts, and saw them in their frame-houses. 

 They had overcome all their difficulties as settlers ; 

 they were under a government which required neither 

 tax nor service from them ; they were as happy as 

 people could be as to ease and plenty ; but, still, they 

 sighed for Connecticut ; and especially the women, 

 young as well as old, though we, gay fellows with 

 worsted or silver lace upon our bright red coals, did 

 our best to make them happy by telling them entertain- 

 ing stories about Old England, while we drank their 

 coffee and grog by gallons, and eat their foM'ls, pigs 

 and sausages and sweet-meats, by wheel-barrow loads ; 

 for, though we were by no means shy, their hospitality 

 far exceeded our appetites. 1 am an old hand at the 

 work of settling in wilds. I have, more than once or 

 twice, had to begin my nest and go in, like a bird, 

 making it habitable by degrees ; and, if I, or, if such 

 people as my old friends above-mentioned, Mith every 

 thing found for them and brought to the spot, had diffi- 

 culties to undergo, and sighed for home even after all 

 the difficulties were over, what must be the lot of an 

 English Farmer's family in tiie Illinois { 



587. All this I told you, my dear Sir, in London just 

 before your departure. I begged of y«u and jMr. Richard 

 Flower both, not to think of the Wildernesses. I begged 

 of you to go to within a day's ride of some of these great 

 cities, where your ample capital and your great skill 

 could not fail to place you upon a footing, at least, with 

 the richest amongst the most happy and enlightened 

 Yeomanry in the world ] where you would find every one 



