194 



travels like myself, who tells me that the boat on Lake 

 Ontario does not sail whilst to-morrow. Though these 

 expressions are quite intelligible, yet they afford some 

 ground for the opinion w^hich a Yankee will occasionally 

 express, that his countrymen talk English quite as well 

 as ourselves. 



Of course, I do not allude to provincial dialects, which 

 have not yet had time to spring up in the States, but 

 which, as with us, will gradually arise out of the dif- 

 ferent nationalities settled in different districts. 



The distance by rail to Buffalo is 180 miles, which 

 we took fully twelve hours to accomplish. The whole 

 day's ride was along the belt of wheat-country of which 

 I have already spoken, though by no means in a straight 

 line, or always on its richest and most improved parts. 



In the future history of mankind, if present appear- 

 ances are to be trusted, the counties of Wayne and 

 Ontario, through which we passed in the early part of 

 the day, are likely to derive an interest and impor- 

 tance, in the eyes of a numerous body of people, from a 

 circumstance wholly unconnected either with their social 

 progress, or with their natural productions or capabilities. 

 In these counties lie the scenes of the early passages in 

 the life of Joe Smith, the founder of the sect of the 

 Mormons. 



Born in December 1805, in Sharon, Windsor County, 

 State of Vermont, he removed with his father, about 

 1815, to a small farm in Palmyra, Wayne County, New 

 York, and assisted him on the farm till 1826. He 

 received little education, read indifferently, wrote and 

 spelt badly, knew little of arithmetic, and, in all other 

 branches of learning he was, to the day of his death, 

 exceedingly ignorant. 



His own account of his religious progress is, that as 

 early as fifteen years of age he began to have serious 

 ideas regarding the future state, that he got into occa- 



