158 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



transportation clear through, and pay it, and take a re- 

 ceipt, specifying the contract completely. If you have a 

 family, you will have enough to look after, without 

 watching your freight all the journey. Many articles are 

 lost, through the carlessness of the owners. Articles are 

 sold every year in Chicago, "for freight and charges," 

 that never had any mark upon them of owner's name or 

 destination. You cannot be too careful. Be economical, 

 prudent and good natured upon your journey. Avoid 

 haste and hasty words, although often provoked, and be 

 determined to have a pleasant journey, and my word for 

 it, you will have. And at whatever sacrifice, be sure to 

 settle all your business before you start. For I have 

 found out that "money to come from the East," is a very 

 snail of a traveler ; it but rarely overtakes the emigrant ; 

 and as for "going back after money," you can earn two 

 new dollars here while you can hunt up one old one there. 



If it be possible, always fix upon some definite spot for 

 your location before you start — and when you arrive in 

 a new settlement, beware of sharks. Be careful to settle 

 in a healthy spot, although the soil should be less rich. 

 Nothing disheartens the new settler so much as a season 

 of sickness in the first year; and it is often brought on 

 by great imprudence. 



One prevailing fault among new settlers, is undertak- 

 ing too much the first years. I have known many to 

 completely prostrate themselves in a vain endeavor to 

 fence and cultivate forty acres with strength only suffi- 

 cient for ten, and after months of toil, finally compelled 

 to witness the destruction of the whole crop, in conse- 

 quence of their inability to "finish the fence." Not only 

 the loss of crop, but a severe fit of sickness, brought on 

 by over-exertion and exposure. For probably, while toil- 

 ing at the field, the finishing of the house has been put 

 off, and at last when placed in a situation to require a 

 comfortable shelter from storms and winds, there is noth- 

 ing of the kind. I have personally known much suffering, 

 and sometimes death, to arise from such circumstances. 



