6lo 
Mrs, Wright's Travels in the United States . 
or five years will now fully complete 
this work. The most troublesome op¬ 
position it has encountered, is in the 
vast Onondaga swamp, and not a few of 
the workmen have fallen a sacrifice to 
its pestilential atmosphere. 
Leaving Utica, the country begins to 
assume a rough appearance; stumps 
and girdled trees encumbering the in¬ 
closures; log-houses scattered here and 
there; the cultivation rarely extending 
more than half a mile, nor usually so 
much, on either hand ; when the forest, 
whose face is usually rendered hideous 
to the eye of the traveller by a skirting 
line of girdled trees, half standing, half 
falling, stretches its vast, unbroken 
shade over plain, and hill, and dale; 
disappearing only with the horizon. 
Frequently, however, gaining a rising 
ground (and the face of the country is 
always more or less undulating,) you 
can distinguish gaps, sometimes long 
and broad, in the deep verdure, which 
tell that the axe and the plough are 
waging war with the wilderness. Owing 
to some disputed claims in the tenure 
of the lands, cultivation has made less 
progress here than it has farther west, 
as we found on approaching the Sknene 
atalas, Cayuga, Seneka, Onondaga, and 
Canadaigua lakes. Having passed the 
flourishing town of Auburn, we found 
the country much more open; well- 
finished houses, and thriving villages, 
appearing continually. The fifth day 
from that of our departure from Albany 
brought us to this village, where our 
kind fellow-travellers insisted on be¬ 
coming our hosts. The villages at the 
head of the different lakes I have enume¬ 
rated above, are all thriving, cheerful, 
and generally beautiful; but Canadia- 
gua, I think, bears away the palm. The 
land has been disposed of in lots of 
forty acres each, one being the breadth, 
running in lines diverging on either 
hand from the main road. The houses 
are all delicately painted; their win¬ 
dows with green Venetian blinds, peep¬ 
ing gaily through fine young trees, or 
standing forward more exposed on their 
little lawns, green and fresh as those 
of England. Smiling gardens, orchards 
laden with fruit — quinces, apples, 
plums, peaches, &c. and fields rich in 
golden grain, stretch behind each of 
these lovely villas ; the church with its 
white steeple rising in the midst, over¬ 
looking this land of enchantment. 
The increase of population, the en¬ 
croachment of cultivation on the wil¬ 
derness, the birth of settlements, and 
their growth into towns, surpasses be¬ 
lief, till one has been an eye-witness of 
the miracle, or conversed on the Npot 
with those who have been so. It is 
wonderfully cheering to find yourself 
in a country which tells only of im¬ 
provement. What other land is there 
that points not the imagination back to 
better days, contrasting present decay 
with departed strength, or that, even 
in its struggles to hold a forward career, 
is not checked at every step by some 
physical or political hinderance ? 
MR. WADSWORTH. 
We were received with a warm wel¬ 
come by Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth. 
The American gentleman receives his 
guest in the true style of old patriarchal 
hospitality—with open hand at the gate, 
and leads you over the threshold with 
smiling greetings, that say more than a 
thousand words. 
This house stands pleasantly on the 
gentle declivity of a hill, commanding 
a fine prospect of the Genessee flats 
(beautiful prairie land bordering the 
river), and the rising grounds, covered 
with dark forests,bounding them. Some 
scattered groups of young locust trees 
spread their checquered shade upon the 
lawn; down which, as seated beneath 
the porch, or in the hall, with its wide 
open doors, the eye glances, first over a 
champaign country, speckled with 
flocks and herds, and golden harvests ; 
and then over primeval woods, where 
the Indian chases the wild deer. To 
the right stretches a scattered village of 
neat white houses, that have just started 
into being ; from the bosom of which 
rises the spire of a little chapel, flash¬ 
ing against the sun; behind, barns, 
stables, and out-houses: and to the 
right a spacious and well-replenished 
garden, with orchard after orchard, 
laden with all the varieties of apple, 
pear, and peach. 
Mr. Wadsworth is the patriarch of 
the Genessee district. He is a native 
of New England, in whose earliest his¬ 
tory the name appears frequently and 
honourably. It is scarcely nineteen 
years since this gentleman, with his 
brother, Col. Wadsworth, pierced into 
these forests, then inhabited only by 
the savage and his prey. The rich and 
open lands here stretching along the 
river, fixed their attention, and having 
purchased a considerable tract of land 
from the Indian proprietors, they set¬ 
tled 1 hemsel ves down among them. The 
first six years were years of fearful 
hardship; every autumn brought fevers, 
intermitting 
