316 TRAVELLING CHEAP LAND. 



affording mental and bodily exercise, apart from worldly 

 cares, and more especially under the circumstances I was 

 situated, having- had choice of time, route, and distance, with 

 out incumbrance of any kind. 



For weeks together I seldom entered a house which was 

 not the scene of human suffering. Associating with disease 

 and pestilence, I conversed at the bedside of the fever patient, 

 and rubbed the muscles of the victim of cholera. I had been 

 exposed to the effects of solar heat, night-damp, rain, cold, 

 huager, and fatigue. Few people perhaps ever enjoyed so 

 large a measure of health as fell to my lot during my wander 

 ings in the western parts of inhabited America, and at no 

 period of life did I possess so much mental and bodily vigour. 

 While I gratefully acknowledge my health and strength to 

 have emanated from divine agency, I may state my habits 

 were strictly temperate, having denied myself every liquid but 

 water and tea. The trammels of society prevented me trying 

 the effects of absolute temperance at an earlier period. They 

 exceeded my expectations, and from experience;, I recommend 

 temperance to all who wish to enjoy life. 



On the second day after my arrival at New York, I 

 attended a sale of land by auction, which I had observed 

 advertised. An estate fifty miles from Albany, sold at about 

 Vs. 6d. sterling per acre. Another, situated in St Lawrence 

 county, state of New York, consisting of 25,000 acres, was 

 knocked down, in one lot, at Is, Hd. sterling per acre. 



On the same day, there was an election of members of 

 Senate for the state. The legislature of the state of New 

 York consists of a Senate and Assembly. The Senate contains 

 thirty-two members, who are elected for four years, and vacate 

 their seats by rotation, one-fourth yearly. The right of suf 

 frage belongs to every white male citizen, who has at 

 tained 21 years of age, and who has resided six months in the 

 state, and paid taxes. Men of colour are allowed to vote if 

 they are 21 years of age, and have been citizens of the state 

 three years, and possess a clear freehold of $250. 



On getting into the street after breakfast, I did not see any 

 thing indicating an election, the people seemed going about 

 in their ordinary way. There was not a crowd, or idler of any 



