114 
During the four or five succeeding days, 
we travelled on from house to house, ge- 
nerally at fifteen or sixteen hours' distance 
from each other, and were received at all 
of them with a disinterested hospitality. I 
relate these occurrences with a scrupulous 
attention to fidelity, because the colonists, 
without distinction, have been frequently re- 
presented as a ferocious banditti, scarcely to 
be kept within the pale of authority. I be- 
lieve most of these people, at certain times, 
commit those depredations I have already 
described, and therefore deserve exemplary 
punishment ; but it was my good fortune 
to meet with a deserving class, and I con- 
sider it as an indispensable duty to pre- 
serve their characters from the general 
opprobium. 
During several days' travel we could get 
but little bread, and not much water. The 
countries through which we passed were 
alternately hill and dale, and often afforded 
the most romantic prospects. We fre- 
quently perceived vast quantities of wolves, 
and often such droves of that species of 
deer which the farmers call spring buck, 
that we supposed one flock alone could not 
