238 Obfervations made during a Tour in the United States. [April 1, 
punifhment defeats itfelf, and atrocious 
criminals are enabled and encouraged to 
deipife the reftraints of law. 
While at Warren, one of the miffion- 
aries fent by the ftate of Connecticut to 
inftruct the Indians in the dogmas of 
Chriftianity, officiated after the Prefby- 
terian form. We attended; his name 
is Robbins: he is a little man, loaded 
with high-church do¢trine, but delivered 
with conliderable eloquence a plain mo- 
ral extemporary fermon. About eighty 
perfons were prefeat. The next mght 
the inhabitants requefted our attendance 
at a ball, at which were prefent about 
fixteen or feventeen couple, including 
tome very handfome, and one (my pait- 
ber) as handfome a woman as ever en- 
tered a ball-room. We fpent a very 
pleafant evening ; and the next morn- 
ing, being the 7th of May, left Warren 
for Mefopotamia, eighteen miles. For 
the firit fix or eight miles, the land did 
not feem quite fo good as to the eaft of 
Warren; it alfo appeared to labour un- 
der the want of a due fupply of water, 
an evil whict. probably will be remedied 
when the country becomes more open, 
as it is very cultomary to find numerous 
fprings upon clearing of wood-lands. 
The latter part of our journey was 
through a very rich country. For the 
firft five miles we travelled along the 
meanderings of the Mohaning branch of 
the Beevor ; the next three miles was on 
an apparently flat country, at the extre- 
mity of which we reached the fources of 
Grand River, which empties itfelf into 
Lake Erie, and fo through the river St. 
Lawrence into the Atlantic; whilft the 
waters of the Beevor pafs down the Ohio, 
into the Mifliffippi, and thence into the 
Gulf of Mexico. It is certainly extra- 
ordinary, that the fources of thefe rivers, 
fo near to each other, fhould be undi- 
vided by-any ridge or high land ; for the 
eye alone could not afcertain why either 
of thefe waters purfues the courfe it does, 
rather than an oppofite one, the ground 
being there fo very level. Although all 
the lands in this county may with truth 
be called good, yet a preference is un- 
doubtedly to be given to thofe which are 
watered by the rivers which empty them- 
felves into the lake, rather-than to the 
Jands on the different branches of the 
Beevor. We flept at Mefupotamia; and 
as the good people of the houfe at which 
we ftopped had only one {pare bed-room, 
we furrendered it to Mr. G.. who on that 
day had been very unwell, whilit mytelf 
aud companion weit to bed in the fame 
pA 
room where the man and his wife flept 
im one bed, and two beautiful girls in 
another, fo near my bed-fide that, had 
I been fo difpofed, I could have touched 
them with my hand. The novelty of 
this utuation to affeéted my rifible facul- 
ties, that I could not fleep, to the no 
{mall annoyance of my bed-fellow, who, 
accuttomed to fimilar fcenes, was very: 
much difpofed to fleep. ‘The reft of the 
party, alfo, appeared unconfcious of any 
peculiarity in the circumitance, and flept — 
with as much compoture as if every per- 
fon in the room had been of the fame 
fex. There were then but ten ‘families 
fettled in Mefopotamia. In every part 
of the United States with which I have 
any acquaintance, cattle more anxioufly 
feek for falt than in England: this defire 
-€ncreales as you proceed from the ocean ; 
and in Weftern America, if you do not 
occafionally give your hortes falt, they 
will eat their bridles, the flaps of their 
faddles, and fuch other parts of their 
furniture as being moifiened with their 
perfpiration they can get at with their 
mouths. May uot this be occafioned b 
the want of a due portion of faline par- 
ticles in the atmofphere, in confequence 
of its remotenefs from the fea; and if 
fo, may it not account for another faét, 
mentioned with a view to difparage this 
country, by fuch authors as Weld and 
Parkinton, (the firft of whom afferted 
that mufquitces would bite through a 
boot, on the authority of General Wati- 
fhington, who I am informed actually told 
him fo, to ridicule his credulity; and 
the fecond boldly affures his readers, | 
that there is no bread in America), that 
our horned cattle will eat the horfe-dung 
in the ftreets: the fact is fo, and I pre- 
fume they do fo in pvrfuit of the falt 
contained in the excrement. 
From Mefopotamia to Windfor is feven 
miles; the country very little cleared, 
and covered with lofty timber, of which 
we counted, belides innumerable {maller 
ones, twenty-three different kind of 
trees, viz. white, black, -and yellow oak, 
chefnut, black walnut, fugar, maple, foft 
maple, cherry, yellow birth, papaw (very 
plentiful), white walnut or butter-nut, 
bitter or fmooth-barked hickory, linn or 
bafs, white poplar or fattin wood, cu- 
cumber, white elin, white afh, ilippery 
or red elim, black afh, and iren wood. 
Windfor contained fourteen families, 
‘twelve of which, confifting of feventy 
perions, had emigrated from Conneéticut 
that fpring. Emigrants generally pre- 
ferred the beech and maple lands, as 
the 
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