534 LETTER TO '[PART III. 



by all means. But, as there is a country, a 

 settled country, a free country, full of kind 

 neighbours, full of all that is good, and when 

 this country is to be traversed in order to get 

 at the acknowledged hardships of the Illinois, 

 how can a sane mind lead an English Farmer 

 into the expedition ? 



986. It is the enchanting damsel that makes 

 the knight encounter the hair-breadth scapes, 

 the sleeping on the ground, the cooking with 

 cross-sticks to hang the pot on. It is the 

 Prairie, that pretty French word, which means 

 green grass bespangled with daisies and cow 

 slips ! Oh, God ! What delusion ! And that a 

 man of sense; a man of superior understanding 

 and talent; a man of honesty, honour, huma 

 nity, and lofty sentiment, should be the cause 

 of this delusion; I, my dear Sir, have seen 

 Prairies many years ago, in America, as fine 

 as yours, as fertile as yours, though not so ex 

 tensive. I saw those Prairies settled on by 

 American Loyalists, who were carried, with 

 all their goods and tools to the spot, and who 

 were furnished with four years' provisions, all 

 at the expence of England; who had the 

 lands given them; tools given them; and 

 who were thus seated down on the borders of 

 creeks, which gave them easy communication 

 with the inhabited plains near the sea. The 



