LIFE OF WILSON. 
xlv 
ther improvement as a means of distinction, would fain become 
a traveller, even at the very moment when the sum total of his 
funds amounted to seventy -jive cents! 
TO MR. WM. DUNCAN. 
Gray’s Ferry, December 24 , 1804 , 
. “You have no doubt looked for this letter long 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, Issac 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 set off again; and we stopped at the out- 
let of Skaneateles 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 father’s on the 
Mohawk; he had a pocket bottle, and made frequent and long 
applications of it to his lips. The road this day bad, and the 
snow deeper than before. Passing through Oneida castle, I vi- 
* Mr. Duncan remained among his friends at Aurora. 
