XXXV111 
LIFE OF 
with a hocus-pocus-man, for whom he plays the clarionet. New 
York swarms with newly imported Irishmen of all descriptions, — • 
clerks, schoolmasters, &c. &c. The city is very sickly : Mitchell, 
and all the rest to whom I spoke of you, believed that your success 
here would be even more unsuccessful than in Philadelphia, and 
related so many stories to that purpose, that I was quite dis- 
couraged. Mr Milne attempted it there, but was obliged to remove, 
and is now in Boston, wandering through the streets insane. I 
staid only one night in York, and being completely run out except 
three elevenpenny bits, I took the first school, from absolute 
necessity, that I could find. I live six miles north from Newark, 
and twelve miles from New York, in a settlement of canting, 
preaching and praying, and snivelling, ignorant Presbyterians. 
They pay their minister £250 a-year for preaching twice a-week, 
and their teacher forty dollars a quarter, for the most spirit-sinking 
laborious work, six — I may say twelve — times weekly. I have no 
company, and live unknowing and unknown. I have lost all relish 
for this country ; and, if Heaven spare me, I shall soon see the 
shores of old Caledonia. How happy I should be to have you 
beside me; — I am exceedingly uneasy to hear from you. Dear 
Ord, make no rash engagements that may bind you for ever to this 
unworthy soil. I am, most sincerely, your affectionate friend, 
44 Alexander Wilson.” 
44 P. S. — Let’s contrive a plan to leave this country, and try old 
Scotia once more in company.” 
Wilson remained only a little while at Bloomfield ; for, hearing 
of a better situation, he applied for it, and obtained an engagement 
from the trustees of the Union School, a short way from Gray’s 
Ferry on the Schuylkill, and about four miles from Philadelphia. 
Upon his first arrival in America, nothing appears to have struck 
him so much as the birds. The variety of their forms and rich 
colours had at once impressed his mind. The difference of the 
feathered race from those of his native country, is noticed in his 
first letter to his parents, written only a few days after his arrival ; 
and his sensations on viewing the first bird that presented itself as 
he entered the forests of Delaware, were most vivid : it was a 
