their employments: while to remedies, besides such as are supplied by their own skill and patience, they can scarcely have any access. Even to procure the assistance, necessary in the critical season of female suffering, must be attended with no small difficulty.

As most of the first planters were poor; and as many of them had numerous families of small children; the burden of providing food for them was heavy, and discouraging. Some relief they found, at times, in the game, with which the forests were formerly replenished. But supplies from that source were always precarious; and could never be relied on with safety. Fish, in the wild season, might often be caught in the streams, and in the lakes. In desperate cases the old settlements, though frequently distant, were always in possession of abundance; and, in the mode, either of commerce, or of charity, would certainly prevent them, and theirs, from perishing with hunger.

To balance these evils, principally suffered by the earliest class of planters, they had some important advantages. Their land, usually covered with a thick stratum of vegetable mould, was eminently productive. Seldom were their crops injured by the blast, or the mildew; and seldom were they devoured by insects. When the wheat was taken from the ground, a rich covering of grass was regularly spread over the surface; and furnished them with an ample supply of pasture, and hay, for their cattle.

Beside the abundance of their crops, they had the continual satisfaction of seeing their embarrassments daily decreasing, and their wealth, and their comforts, daily increasing. The value of this kind of property is enhanced by two causes: the labour, which is done upon it; and the multiplication of settlers in its neighbourhood. Every good planter, who seats himself in a new township, increases the value of every acre, which it contains; because he induces other men to settle around him. Accordingly, the owners of large, unsettled tracts give several farms to individuals, who are willing first to settle on them, that they may induce others to purchase the remainder. At the same time, every stroke of the axe leaves behind it more than the value of the labour: while the proprietor gathers another rich compensation in certain, and abundant crops. A farmer

of my acquaintance advanced his property four hundred per cent, in twelve years, by placing himself on a new farm.

During this period also, the planter is cheered by the continual sight of improvement in every thing about him. His fields increase in number, and beauty. His means of living are enlarged. The wearisome part of his labour is gradually lessened. His neighbours multiply; and his troubles annually recede. Hope, the sweetener of life, holds out to him at the same time, brighter and brighter prospects of approaching ease and abundance.

Among the enjoyments of these people, health, and hardihood, ought never to be forgotten. The toils, which they undergo; the difficulties, which they surmount; and the hazards which they escape; all increase their spirits, and their firmness. A New-England forest, formed of hills and vallies, down which the waters, always pure and sweet, flow with unceasing rapidity; or of plains, dry, and destitute of marshes, is healthy almost of course. The minds of these settlers, therefore possess the energy, which results from health, as well as that, which results from activity: and few persons taste the pleasures, which fall to their lot, with a keener relish. The common troubles of life, often deeply felt by persons in easy circumstances, scarcely awaken in them the slightest emotion. Cold and heat, snow and rain, labour and fatigue, are regarded by them as trifles, deserving no attention. The coarsest food is pleasant to them; and the hardest bed refreshing. Over roads, encumbered with rocks, mire, and the stumps and roots of trees, they ride upon a full trot; and are apprehensive of no danger. Even their horses gain, by habit, the same resolution; and pass rapidly, and safely, over the worst roads, where both horses and men, accustomed to smoother ways, merely tremble, and creep. Even the women of these settlements, and those of every age share largely in this spirit. The longest journies, in very difficult roads, they undertake with cheerfulness, and perform without anxiety. I have often met them on horseback; and been surprised to see them pass fearlessly over those dangers of the way, which my companions and myself watched with caution and solicitude. Frequently I have seen them performing these journies alone.

Another prime enjoyment of these settlers is found in the kindness, which reigns among them universally. A general spirit of

good neighbourhood is prevalent throughout New-England; but here it prevails in a peculiar degree. Among these people, man rarely tells the story of his distresses to deaf ears; or asks any reasonable assistance in vain. The relief given is a matter, not of kindness merely, but of course. To do kind offices is the custom; a part of the established manners. This is seen everywhere; and is regularly experienced by the traveller; whom they receive as a friend, rather than as a stranger; as an object of good will, and not as a source of gain.

These things grow naturally out of their circumstances. In addition to the humane impressions, acquired by their early education, such offices become peculiarly valuable, and necessary, by their situation. Every case of distress is easily realized by all; because all have been sufferers. "Miseris succurrere disco," may every new settler say with emphasis, as well as truth. Like sailors, these people learn from the evils of life mutually to feel, and relieve. This vivid sympathy mightily contributes to lighten the evils, and soothe the sufferings, incident to a new settlement; and spreads cheerfulness, and resolution, where a traveller would look for little else, beside discouragement, and gloom.

Among the pleasures, furnished by the amelioration of their circumstances, the exchange of their log-huts for decent houses must not be forgotten. Building, particularly with wood, must be cheap, where timber abounds. Within a few years, the industrious planter finds his circumstances so much improved, that he is persuaded to erect a permanent habitation. This is a change, always bringing with it a train of advantages. The comfort, the spirit, the manners, nay even the morals, of his family, if not of himself, are almost of course improved. The transition from a good house is, by the association of ideas natural to the human mind, a very easy one to good furniture; a handsome dress; a handsome mode of living; better manners; and every thing else, connected with a higher reputation.

That, which may be called the second set of planters, may be considered as regularly superiour to the first: and the third, when there is a third, is superiour to the second. By this time the country has chiefly assumed the aspect of good farming, and regular society.

You will not understand, that I here intend all which is sometimes meant by those terms. A great difference is made, with respect to the state of society, by the governments, under which the different settlers live. In Massachusetts, where the system was comparatively stable, the character of the rulers well known, the laws wise, and good, and the administration such as compelled respect; where, in a word, the recent planters were under exactly the same government, as the inhabitants of the older towns; a regular state of society was introduced at a very early period. Here it was a thing of course; and every planter went upon his farm with a full conviction, that no change was to be expected in his civil concerns. Every thing here grew up, as a child in a well-educated family grows up, to habits of order, and happy intercourse: and no real chasm existed, unless accidentally, between the first excursion into the forest, and the complete population. . .

A reflecting traveller, passing over these roads, [of Northern New Hampshire] is naturally induced to recollect the situation of the first Colonists in New-England; and to realize some of the hardships, which those intrepid people endured in settling this country. Among the difficulties, which they had to encounter, bad roads were no contemptible one. Almost all the roads in which they travelled, passed through deep forests, and over rough hills and mountains, often over troublesome and dangerous streams, and not unfrequently through swamps, miry, and hazardous; where wolves, bears, and catamounts, haunted and alarmed their passage. The forests they could not cut down the rocks they could not remove: the swamps they could not causey; and over the streams they could not erect bridges. Men, women, and children, ventured daily through this combination of evils; penetrated the recesses of the wilderness; climbed the hills; wound their way among the rocks; struggled through the mire; and swam on horseback through deep and rapid rivers, by which they were sometimes carried away. To all these evils was added one, more distressing than all. In the silence, and solitude of the forest, the Indian often lurked in ambush near their path; and from behind a neighbouring tree took the fatal aim; while his victim, perhaps, was perfectly unconscious of danger...

A person who has extensively seen the efforts of the New-England people in colonizing new countries, cannot fail of being forcibly struck by their enterprise, industry, and perseverance. In Maine, in New-Hampshire, in Vermont, in Massachusetts, and in NewYork, I have passed the dwellings of several hundred thousands of these people, erected on grounds, which in 1760 were an absolute wilderness. A large part of these tracts they have already converted into fruitful fields; covered it with productive farms; surrounded it with enclosures; planted on it orchards; and beautified it with comfortable, and in many places with handsome, houses. Considerable tracts I have traced through their whole progress from a desert to a garden; and have literally beheld the wilderness blossom as the rose.

III. EARLY LIFE IN THE MIDDLE WEST

1 It is natural, I think, that you should expect by this time some account of the inhabitants, their manner of living, the mode of settling the country, the routes, distance, and mode of travelling to it, with some information respecting religion and political sentiments, and the social pleasures of the people; all of which, I am afraid, will require too much time for a letter, and therefore I beg that you will be content to receive the information in the desultory manner in which I shall be enabled to send it.

In some of my first letters I gave you an account of the first settlement of this country. The perturbed state of that period, and the savage state of the country, which was one entire wilderness, made the object of the first emigrants that of security and sustenance, which produced the scheme of several families living together in what were called Stations.

As the country gained strength, the stations began to break up in that part of the country, and their inhabitants to spread themselves, and settle upon their respective estates. But the embarrassment they were in for most of the conveniences of life, did not admit of their building any other houses but of logs, and of opening

1 Imlay, A Topographical Description of the Western Territory of North America [1792], pp. 132-133, 133-137, 141-149.