LIFE OF WILSON. x l v 



ther improvement as a means of distinction, would fain become 

 a traveller, even at the very moment when the sum total of his 

 funds amounted to seventy-five cents! 



TO MR. WM. DUNCAN. 



Gray's Ferry, December 24, 1804. 



" You have no doubt looked for this letter long ago, but 1 

 wanted to see how matters would finally settle with respect to 

 my school before I wrote; they remain, however, as uncertain 

 as before; and this quarter will do little more than defray my 

 board and firewood. Comfortable intelligence truly, methinks 

 I hear you say; but no matter. * * * * 



" I shall begin where you and I left off our story, viz. at 

 Aurora, on the shores of the Cayuga.* The evening of that 

 day, Issac and I lodged at the outlet of Owasco Lake, on the 

 turnpike, seven or eight miles from Cayuga bridge; we waded 

 into the stream, washed our boots and pantaloons, and walked 

 up to a contemptible dram-shop, where, taking possession of 

 one side of the fire, we sat deafened with the noise and hubbub 

 of a parcel of drunk tradesmen. At five next morning we 

 started; it had frozen; and the road was in many places deep 

 and slippery. I insensibly got into a hard step of walking; 

 Isaac kept groaning a rod or so behind, though I carried his 

 gun. * * * We set off again; and we stopped at the out- 

 let of Skaneateles Lake; ate some pork-blubber and bread; and 

 departed. At about two in the afternoon we passed Onondaga 

 Hollow, and lodged in Manlius square, a village of thirty 

 houses, that have risen like mushrooms in two or three years; 

 having walked this day thirty-four miles. On the morning of 

 the 22d we started as usual by five road rough and Isaac 

 grunting and lagging behind. This day we were joined by 

 another young traveller, returning home to his father's on the 

 Mohawk; he had a pocket bottle, and made frequent and long 

 applications of it to his lips. The road this day bad, and the 

 snow deeper than before. Passing through Oneida castle, I vi- 



* Mn Duncan remained among his friends at Aurora, 



