xlviii 
MEMOIR OF 
passage, I would again wing my way across the western 
waste of waters to the peaceful and happy regions of 
America. What has become of David, that I never hear 
from him ? Let me know, my dear father, how you live, 
and how you enjoy your health at your advanced age. I 
trust the publication I have now commenced, and which 
has procured for me reputation and respect, will also 
enable me to contribute to your independence and comfort, 
in return for what I owe to you. To my stepmother, 
sisters, brothers, and friends, I beg to be remembered 
affectionately.” 
In the latter part of September, 1808, Wilson set out 
on a journey to the eastward, to exhibit his book, and 
procure subscribers ; and, during the succeeding winter 
and spring, he visited the Southern States. This was 
almost a renewal of the adventures of his youth, when he 
traversed Scotland with the prospectus of his poems; 
and, from his journal, which he kept as formerly, it 
appears that the treatment he met with was scarcely 
more encouraging; and that the character of the man 
himself had experienced no other change than may be 
attributed to the prudence and firmness of maturer years, 
and to his enlarged acquirements. Amid numberless 
disappointments which he again experienced, his ardour 
continued unabated ; and, as this part of his history can 
be best told by a series of extracts from his own letters, 
we proceed to lay these before our readers. Writing to 
a friend, dated Boston, October, 1808, he says, — 
“ I have purposely avoided saying any thing, either 
good or bad, on the encouragement I have met with. 
I shall only say, that among the many thousands who 
have examined my book- — and among these were men 
of the first character for taste and literature — I have 
heard nothing but expressions of the highest admiration 
and esteem. If I have been mistaken in publishing a 
work too good for the country, it is a fault not likely to 
