xxxiv LIFE OF WILSON. 
momeuts that sliould be devoted to this pursuit, provided I could have hopes 
of succeeding. Your opinion on this subject will confer an additional obliga- 
tion on your affectionate friend." 
It is worthy of remark, that when men of uncommon talents conceive any 
great scheme, they usually overlook those circumstances of minor importance, 
which ordinary minds would estimate as first deserving attention. Thus Wil- 
son, with an intellect expanded with information, and still grasping at further 
improvement as a means of distinction, would fain become a traveller, even at 
tlie very moment when the sum total of his funds amounted to scvaifij-five 
cen ts ! 
To Mr. Wm. Duncan. 
"Gray's Ferry, December 24tli, 1804. 
'• You have no doubt looked for this letter lijng ago, but I 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, Isaac 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 setoff again; and we stopped at the outlet of Skane- 
ateles 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 ftither's on the Mohawk; he had a pocket bottle, and made fre- 
quent and long applications of it to his lips. The road this day bad, and 
the snow deeper than before. Passing through Oneida castle, I visited every 
house within three hundred yards of the road, and chatted to the copper- 
colored tribe. In the evening we lodged at Lard's tavern, within eleven miles 
of Utica, the roads deplorably bad, and Isaac and his disconsolate companion 
groaning at every step behind me, so that, as drummers do in buttle, I was 
frequently obliged to keep before, xind sing some lively ditty, to drown the 
sound of their ohs ! and ahs ! and 0 Lords ! The road for fifteen or twenty 
miles was knee-deep of mud. We entered Utica at nine the next morning. 
This place is three times larger than it was four years ago; and from Oneida 
*Mr. Duncan remained among his friends at Aurora. 
