XX 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
New Jersey, with an acquaintance, in the capacity of a pedler, 
and met with tolerable success. 
His diary of this journey is interesting. It was written with 
so much care, that one is tempted to conjecture that he spent 
more time in literary occupation than in vending his merchan- 
dise. It contains observations on the manners of the people; 
and remarks on the principal natural productions of New Jer- 
sey; with sketches of the most noted indigenous quadrupeds 
and birds. In these sketches one is enabled to perceive the 
dawning of that talent for description, which was afterwards 
revealed with so much lustre. 
On his return from this trading adventure, he opened a school 
on the Oxford road, about five miles to the north of Frankford, 
Pennsylvania. But being dissatisfied with this situation, he 
removed to Milestown, and taught in the school-house of that 
village. In this latter place he continued for several years; 
and being deficient in the various branches of learning, neces- 
sary to qualify him for an instructor of youth, he applied him- 
self to study with great diligence; and acquired all his know- 
ledge 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 neigh- 
bouring farmers, in this business. 
Whilst residing at Milestown, he made a journey, on foot, 
to the Genessee country, in the state of New York, for the pur- 
pose of visiting his nephew, Mr. William Duncan, who re- 
sided 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 imprudence, in those whose slen- 
der funds did not suffice without the aid of a loan, was to pro- 
cure an assylum 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 somewhat a fa- 
