PART III.] MORRIS BIRKBECK, ESQ. 573 



depend on your leave to get it, and fetch it half 

 a mile into the bargain. 



1026. To talk seriously upon such a subject 

 is impossible, without dealing in terms of repro 

 bation, which it would give me great pain to 

 employ when speaking of any act of yours. 

 Indeed such a family will be free; but, the 

 Indians are free, and so are the gypsies in Eng 

 land. And I most solemnly declare, that I 

 would sooner live the life of a gypsy in Eng^- 

 land, than be a settler, with less than five 

 thousand pounds, in the Illinois ; and, if I had 

 the five thousand pounds, and was resolved to 

 exchange England for America, what in the 

 name of common sense, should induce me to go 

 into a wild country, when 1 could buy a good 

 form of 200 acres, with fine orchard and good 

 house and out-buildings, and stock it completely, 

 and make it rich as a garden, within twenty 

 miles of a great sea-port, affording me a ready 

 market and a high price for every article of my 

 produce? 



1027. You have, by this time, seen more than 

 you had seen, when you wrote your " Letters 

 " from the Illinois." You would not, 1 am 

 convinced, write such letters now. Butj lest 

 you should not do it, it is right that somebody 

 should counteract their delusive effects; .and 

 and this I endeavour to do as much for the sake 



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