END OF THE LETTERS
{55} NOTES[68]
[Note A, page 139.]
The following Remarks respecting the want of water, and the account of the English settlement at the Illinois, are taken from a most entertaining, interesting, and elegant work, lately published, and of which a second edition is in the press. I here insert them, as they tend to confirm the correctness of the accounts published by Mr. Birkbeck and my brother, and contain some excellent advice to emigrants,
"You have expressed in your late letters, some curiosity regarding the condition of the English settlement, in the Illinois, adding, that the report has prevailed that those spirited emigrants had been at first too sanguine, and had too little foreseen the difficulties which the most fortunate settler must encounter. This report, I believe, to have originated with Mr. Cobbett, who thought proper to pronounce upon the condition of the farmer in the Illinois, in his own dwelling upon Long Island. Feeling an interest in the success of our countrymen in the West, I have been at some pains to inform myself as to their actual condition. The following statement is chiefly taken from the letters of two American gentlemen, of our acquaintance who have just visited the settlement; they inform me that its situation possesses all those positive advantages stated by Mr. Birkbeck; that the worst difficulties have been surmounted; and that these have {56} always been fewer than what are frequently encountered in a new country.
"The village of Albion, the centre of the settlement, contains at present thirty habitations, in which are found a bricklayer, a carpenter, a wheelwright, a cooper, and a blacksmith; a well supplied shop, a little library, an inn, a chapel, and a post office, where the mail regularly arrives twice a week. Being situated on a ridge, between the greater and little Wabash, it is from its elevated position, and from its being some miles removed from the rivers, peculiarly dry and healthy. The prairie on which it stands, is as exquisitely beautiful; lawns of unchanging verdure, spreading over hills and dales, scattered with islands of luxuriant trees, dropped by the hand of nature, with a taste that art could not rival—all this spread beneath a sky of glowing and unspotted sapphires. The most beautiful parks of England, would afford a most imperfect comparison. The soil is abundantly fruitful, and of course has an advantage over the heavy timbered lands, which can scarcely be cleared for less than from twelve to fifteen dollars per acre, while the Illinois farmer, may in general clear his for less than five, and then enter upon a more convenient mode of tillage. The objection that is too frequently found to the beautiful prairies of the Illinois, is the deficiency of springs and streams for mill seats. This is attended with inconvenience to the settler, though his health will find in it advantage. The nearest navigable river to Albion is the Wabash, eight miles distant: the nearest running stream, that is not liable to fail at Midsummer, the Bonpaw, four miles distant. The stock of water in ponds for cattle, was liable to run dry in a few weeks, and the settlement apprehended some temporary inconvenience from {57} the circumstance. The finest water is every where to be raised from twenty to twenty-five, or thirty feet from the surface, these wells never fail, but are of course troublesome to work in a new settlement.
"The settlement at Albion, must undoubtedly possess some peculiar attractions for an English emigrant, promising him, as it does, the society of his own countrymen, an actual or ideal advantage, to which he is seldom insensible. Generally speaking, however, it may ultimately be as well for him, as for the community to which he attached himself, that he should become speedily incorporated with the people of the soil: many emigrants bring with them prejudices and predilections which can only be rubbed away by a free intercourse with the natives of the country. By sitting down at once among them, they will more readily acquire an accurate knowledge of their political institutions, and learn to estimate the high privileges which these impart to them, and thus attaching themselves to their adopted country, not for mere sordid motives of interest, but also from feeling and principle, become not only naturalized, but also nationalized. I have met with but too many in this country, who have not advanced beyond the former. I must observe, also, that the European farmer and mechanic, are usually far behind the American in general and practical knowledge, as well as enterprise. You find in the working farmer of these states, a store of information, a dexterity in all the manual arts, and often a high tone of national feeling, to which you will hardly find a parallel amongst the same class elsewhere. His advice and assistance always freely given to those who seek it, will be found of infinite service to a stranger; it will often save him from many rash speculations, at the same time that it will dispose {58} him to see things in their true light, and to open his eyes and heart to all the substantial advantages that surround him."
Views of Society and Manners in America, in a series of Letters from that Country to a Friend in England during the years 1818, 1819, 1820. By an Englishman, 8vo.[69]
The above as the reader will notice, was written two years ago, since which the settlement, as appears by the letters now published, has considerably increased, and for the time it has been established, is in a very flourishing state.