150 APPENDIX. 



concise history in manuscript of Xova Scotian Forest Trees, and Shrubs, which 

 contains much valuable information. He retained a vigorous intellect even to 

 extreme age and by a kindly disposition manifested to those around him gained 

 the good will of all. He died at his residence in the Dutch Village, a small-farm 

 house on the borders of the forest, which had been for many years his home, and 

 according to his wish was buried in a picturesque spot in the pine woods overlook- 

 ing the calm waiers of Bedford Basin. 



The following letter was written by his brother, resident in the United States, 

 in answer to enquiries made respecting his early life : — 



" Wateetown, Jefferson Cocxty, 

 March 10, 1850. 

 "Dear Sir, 



"Yours of the 4th ult., came duly to hand, in which you inform me that the friends 

 of my late brother are making arrangements to publish his writings, and ask me 

 for such facts as memory can furnish relative to his parentage, the character and 

 standing of his father, his motives for leaving the United States and adopting Xova 

 Scotia as his final residence, and his position during the American Revolution. Also, 

 indications of character, and predominating attachment to particular branches of 

 science manifested by my brother in early life; also for his correspondence withme. 

 The latter has been wholly of a very domestic character, and very few of his letters 

 remain in my possession, having been transmitted to a sister of his and mine, 

 residing at a distance, and who now like him is numbered with the dead. On the 

 general subject of your enquiry, the information must necessarily be limited, 

 about fifty-four years having passed away since I last saw my brother ; but such 

 information as I have here to give, obtained from my father and some of his early 

 friends, added to what memory can supply on the subject of your enquiry, will be 

 most cheerfully communicated, Indeed it is a source of gratification that the 

 gentlemen you name, should give so distinguished a mark of consideration to the 

 memory of one so very dear to me, the constant companion of ray childhood, and 

 to whom I feel indebted, for the early inculcation of the principle ' that knowledge 

 is better than fine gold.' 



" I shall speak in the first person in naming recollections of our ancestors, who 

 at an early day emigrated from England and settled on the Connecticut Eiver, in 

 South Hadley, county of Hampshire, and now state of Jlassachusects. The first 

 of whom I have any knowledge, was my grandfather, generally known as Deacon 

 John Smith, who was born about the year 1690, and was by occupation a farmer. 

 During much of his life theological considerations engrossed almost the entire 

 public mind. The settlements too were surrounded with tribes of hostile Indians, 

 so that procuring the necessaries and comforts of life, and guarding the frontier 

 against the inroads of the savages, left little time for literary pursuits. Neither 

 have I any knowledge of his tastes. He held the rajik of a captain in the Frontier 

 Guards, and occupied for most of his life the position of Select-man ; (three oflBcers 

 bearing that title being elected by the inliabitants of the town, to whose hands was 

 committed the public concerns of the town) ; he was considered a man of strong 

 common sense. My father who was his fourtli son, was born June -t, 1734:. Of his 

 early history I know but little. His constitution was not strong, and having an 

 ardent desire to study, he fitted for college; but the war with France of 1756 coming 

 on, and the French having brought many of the Indian tribes into their interest, 

 the utmost vigilance was required to protect the inhabitants of the frontier. My 



