LIFE OF WILSON. 
XXV 
Pennsylvania. But being dissatisfied with this situation, he remo- 
ved to Milestown, and taught in the schoolhouse of that village. 
In this latter place he continued for several years ; and being defi- 
cient in the various branches of learning necessary to qualify him 
for an instructor of youth, he applied himself to study with great 
diligence ; and acquired all liis knowledge of the mathematics, 
which was considerable, solely by his own exertions. To teaching 
he superadded the vocation of surveying; and was occasionally 
employed, by the neighbouring farmers, in this business. 
Whilst I'esiding at Milestown, he made a journey, on foot, to 
the Genessee country, in the state of Newyork, for the purpose of 
visiting his nephew, Mr. William Duncan, who resided upon a small 
farm, which was their joint property. This farm they had been 
enabled to purchase through the assistance of Mr. Sullivan, the 
gentleman in whose employ Wilson had been, as before stated. 
The object of this purchase, which some might deem an act of im- 
prudence in those whose slender funds did not suffice without the 
aid of a loan, was to procure an asylum for Mr. Duncan’s mother 
and her family of small children, whom poverty and misfortune 
had, a short time before, driven to this country. This was some- 
what a fatiguing journey to a pedestrian, who, in the space of 
twenty-eight days, travelled nearly eight hundred miles. 
The life of Wilson now becomes interesting, as we are ena- 
bled, by a selection from his letters, to present him to the reader 
as his own biographer. 
VOL. IX. 
G 
