252 JACKSONVILLE EMIGRANT FROM EDINBURGH. 



I had been intrusted with a letter to a gentleman in the 

 vicinity of Jacksonville, who formerly resided near Edinburgh, 

 and which I would have delivered personally, had I not been 

 informed, when approaching Springfield, that he had lately 

 moved from his first situation into the territory of Arkansas. 

 On this intelligence, I put the letter into the post-office, and a 

 few minutes afterwards learned, from unquestionable authority, 

 that my first intelligence was incorrect. Finding the stage 

 did not leave Jacksonville until two o clock in the morning, 

 I resolved to visit the gentleman, who resided about three miles 

 from the village. The moon being nearly full, I had little 

 difficulty in reaching his dwelling. It was late before Mr 

 L - made his appearance, who happened to be dining with 



Mr K , but the interim passed pleasantly in the company 



of Mrs L , whom I had seen in East Lothian, and a sensi 

 ble Irishman, who had settled himself about a hundred miles 

 higher up the Mississippi. The house was a log erection of two 

 apartments, and the family seemed to possess every necessary 

 of life. Want of light prevented me seeing the farm, and 

 forming an opinion of the prospects and circumstances of this 



emigrant. 



On returning to Jacksonville, I found some of the stage- 

 passengers partaking of coffee before setting out on the jour 

 ney. The vehicle was well filled, and contained a young 

 married woman labouring under ague. Some of the passen 

 gers were agreeable and communicative. We passed through 

 Caiiton, dined at a solitary log-house, apd reached Alton 

 sometime after night-fall. The hotel being crowded, there was 

 difficulty in accommodating the passengers, and I was asked 

 to take half a bed. I assented to this arrangement, but 

 added I was a foreigner, and not likely to make the most agree 

 able companion to a native, on which account I would feel 

 obliged to have, were it possible, a bed for myself; the land 

 lord indulged me. By following this policy, I invariably 

 obtained a whole bed in hotels, and it was only in the huts of 

 the remote parts of the country, where beds could not be ob 

 tained, that I did not sleep alone. 



The misrepresentations of American character, in connexion 

 with beds, are frequently met with in Britain, and of which the 



