LIFE OF "WILSON. xix 



" I have had four letters from home, all of which I have answered. Their 

 news are — Dull trade — provisions most exorbitantly high — R.'s sister dead — 

 the Seedhills mill burnt to the ground — and some other things of less conse- 

 quence. 



" I doubt much if stills could be got up in time to do anything at the dis- 

 tilling business this winter. Perhaps it might be a safer way to take them up, 

 in the spring, by the Susquehanna. But if you are determined, and think 

 that we should engage in the business, I shall be able to send them up either 

 way. P. tells me that his two stills cost about forty pounds. I want to hear 

 more decisively from you before I determine. Sooner than live in a country 

 exposed to the ague, I would remain where I am. 



"0. comes out to stay with me two months, to learn surveying, algebra, &c. 

 I have been employed in several places about this summer to survey, and have 

 acquitted myself with credit and to my own satisfaction. I should not be 

 afraid to engage in any job with the instruments I have. * * 



" S. continues to increase in bulk, money and respectability; a continual 

 current of elevenpenny hits pouring in, and but few running out. * * 



"We are very anxious to hear how you got up; and well pleased that you 

 played the Horse Jockey so luckily. If you are fixed in the design of distil- 

 ling, you will write me, by the first opportunity, before winter sets in, so that 

 I may arrange matters in time. 



" I have got the schoolhouse enlarged, by contributions among the neigh- 

 bors. In summer the school is, in reality, not much ; but in winter I shall be 

 able to teach with both pleasure and profit. 



" When I told R. of his sister's death, ' I expected so,' said Jamie, ' any 

 other news that's curious V So completely does long absence blunt the 

 strongest feelings of afiection and friendship. May it never be so with you 

 and me, if we should never meet again. On my part it is impossible, except 

 God, in his wrath, should deprive me of my present soul, and animate me with 

 some other." 



Wilson next changed his residence for one in the village of Bloomfield, New 

 Jersey, where he again opened a school. But being advised of a more agree- 

 able and lucrative situation, he solicited, and received, an engagement from 

 the trustees of Union School, situated in the township of Kingsess or King- 

 sessing, a short distance from G-ray's Ferry, on the river Schuylkill, and about 

 four miles from Philadelphia. 



This removal constituted an important era in the life of Wilson. His 

 school-house and residence being but a short distance from Bartram's Botanic 

 Garden, situated on the western bank of the Schuylkill, — a sequestered spot, 

 possessing attractions of no ordinary kind, — an acquaintance was soon con- 

 tracted with that venerable naturalist, Mr. William Bartram,* which grew into 



*The author of " Travels through North and South Carolina, Gebrgia, East and West 

 Florida," &c. This excellent gentleman closed his long and useful life on the 22d July, 

 1823, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 



