324 Letter u. to [Part III. 



MORRIS BIRKBECK, Esq. 

 OF ENGLISH PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS TERRITORY. 



LETTER IL; 



Nofth Hempstead, Long Island, 

 MY DEAR SIR, 15(/t Dee. 1818. 



616. Being, M'hen I -wrote my former Letter to you 

 in great haste to couclude, in order that my son Wil- 

 liam might take it to England with him, I left unno- 

 ticed many things, Avhich I had observed in 3'our 

 " Letters from the Illinois;" and which things merited 

 pointed notice. Some of these I will notice ; for, I 

 wish to discharge all my duties towards my country- 

 men faithfully ; and, I know of no duty more sacred, 

 than that of warning them against pecuniary ruin and 

 mental misery. 



617. It has always been evident to me, that the 

 Western Countries were not the countries for English 

 farmers to settle in : no, nor for American farmers, un- 

 less under peculiar circumstances. The settlers, who 

 have gone from the New England States, have, in ge- 

 neral, been able men with families of stout sons. The 

 contracted farm in New England sells for money 

 enough to buy the land for five or six farms in the 

 W^est. These larn»s are made by the labour of the 

 owners. They hire nobody. They live any hoic for a 

 while. I will engage that the labour performed by one 

 stout New England family in one year, would cost an 

 English farmer a thousand pounds in wages. You will 

 say, why cannot the English labour as hard as the 

 Yankees '\ But, mind, I talk of a family of Yankee 

 sons; and^ besides, I have no scruple to say, that one 

 of these will do as much work in the clearing and 



