SCARCITY OF PROVISIONS. 345 ' 
and that if we could wait for an hour or two 
she would bake a loaf for us. This was most 
grateful intelligence: we only begged of her 
to make it large enough, and then set off to 
search in the interim for our canoes and bag- 
gage; At several other places, in going down 
the Susquehannah, we afterwards found aii 
equal scarcity of provisions with what we did 
in this neighbourhood. One morning in par¬ 
ticular, after having proceeded for about four 
or five miles in our canoe, we stopped to 
breakfast ; but nothing eatable was there to he 
had at the first house we went to, except a few 
« 
potatoes that were roasting before the fire. 
The people very cheerfully gave us two or 
three, and told us at the same time, that if we 
went to some houses at the opposite side of the 
river we should most probably find better fare: 
we did so; but here the inhabitants were still 
more destitute. On asking: them where we 
should be likely to get any thing to eat, an old 
woman answered, that if we went to a village 
about four miles lower down the river, we 
should find a house, she believed, where f<r iJicij 
did keep "actuals,” an expression so remarks 
able that I could not help noting it down im¬ 
mediately. We reached tins house, and find¬ 
ing it well stocked with provisions of every 
kind, took care to provide ourselves, not only 
with what we wanted for immediate use, but 
