NO EMIGRATION. 43 



England. If you want grist ground, you must take it in 

 your waggon or sleigh to the mill, and even into the mill, 

 and out again when ground; the same at the distilleries 

 and stores; goods are seldom delivered even to the door; 

 every person in business acts as if conferring a favour. 



I had been directed to Colonel Talbot, who has a grant of 

 two townships from the government, with a view to having 

 a &quot; lot,&quot; and in proceeding to his residence passed through 

 several miles of pine wood to Big Creek, and twelve miles 

 further of wood before coming into &quot; Talbot Street/ as it is 

 called, having houses on each side, at about one-fourth of a 

 mile distance from each other, or about eight in a mile, one 

 on each lot of 200 acres. This lower part of Talbot 

 Street is on a bank of sand, or pine ridge, of barren soil. 

 There is some good land on each side of this ridge, but 

 rather flat and swampy. Three parts of the houses are 

 empty, the inhabitants having &quot; cleared out&quot; for better land, 

 I &quot;guess;&quot; but those that remain say in consequence of 

 &quot; sickness&quot; (illness). Stop often to get a drink of water, 

 or butter-milk, and inquire about the country. A person is 

 always welcome in every house to rest himself, and need 

 not hesitate to ask any question, as he will be answered 

 generally without reserve. A stout, jovial, and rather 

 liberal, Yankee working miller, who has been in the pro 

 vince three years, overtook me to-day, going to &quot; draw &quot; 

 land of the Colonel, so we travelled on together. On 

 first coming into the wilderness, it is rather depressing 

 to the spirits ; but the mind soon recovers by the cheerful 

 ness and absence of discontent in the settlers, and the pros 

 pect, although at first perhaps slow, yet certain, of growing- 

 prosperity. From the two Otter Creeks, and Catfish to 

 Kettle Creek, the land appears pretty good, of sandy and 

 clayey loams, but in some places is much broken by ravines 

 and gullys. We arrived at the new small village of St. 

 Thomas, rather pleasantly situated on the banks of Kettle 

 Creek ; it has a church, two taverns, a mill, two stores, and 

 an academy, &c. ; and on July 30th, we arrived at Col. 

 Talbot s. As the Colonel takes no fee for his trouble in 

 giving out the government land, and people are continually 

 going to him for information respecting new lots to draw, 

 (choose), as well as exchanging them (sometimes repeatedly) 

 for others, it cannot be surprising that he should sometimes 

 assume a severity of manner not natural to him, to pre- 



