"For parlour, for kitchen and hall;"
and furnishes a proof, though perhaps not sufficient for every one, (the world is so incredulous,) of Mr. Birkbeck's humility, for he certainly does not at present enjoy the otium cum dignitate whatever he may have in prospect.
Up to this log building with some meandering I drove; and seeing a little man, who by description received, appeared to be Major domo, I sent to tell him that an English traveller had called and begged to see his improvements; upon which he approached, and after salutation, turning towards and pointing to his primitive hut, observed that it was still his residence, to which so attached had he become that he should quit it with regret. He then drew my attention to his new house, which he said, was building according to a promise made to his daughters; and he invited us to inspect it. Alighting therefore, he led the way [117] over a sufficiently commodious dwelling, no part of which was yet finished but the library, placed at the gable end on the first floor and the approach to it up a high flight of stairs on the outside of the house: here we found the Misses B.; they were engaged in some ornamental needlework, and received us like sensible, agreeable girls. Upon the table lay a flute, an instrument upon which one of them plays; and every thing was well arrayed to give effect, as well as the sterling, good, and for a private library large assortment of books. A fine healthy boy, his son, came up and presented to us some bunches of wild grapes he had just gathered, the only refreshment I believe offered; and I took leave, after having in vain endeavoured to gain information as to his corn-crops, the success of clover, and other seeds.
This was strange, but not so particularly unaccountable as at the time I thought it; for, I afterwards learned he had not sown either one or the other, although he ventures to put forth this year in one of the American newspapers, what in charity we will suppose a day-dream—a pleasing mental deception, in the form of a letter in which he expresses himself thus; (I quote from memory having mislaid the journal,) "We have now about as many acres [118] of corn sown as there are settlers, that is seven hundred."
Now, from the best inquiries I could make, there was not then two hundred and fifty acres sown in the whole settlement, and on Mr. Birkbeck's ground not a rood! Therefore, it may be truly said, that the colony was still for its existence depending for bread upon the exertions of those who, from a distance of many miles, bought and brought corn and flour for the market. In corroboration, I will here insert an extract from a published journal by a Mr. Hulme,[40] formerly a great bleacher near Manchester, and a friend of Mr. B., who had lately paid him a visit. Mr. H. writes, "The whole of his operations had been directed hitherto (and wisely in my opinion,) to building, fencing, and other important preparations. He had done nothing in the cultivating way but make a good garden, which supplies him with the only things that he cannot purchase, and purchase too with more economy than he could grow them."
This Mr. Hulme knew the comforts and cheapness of Philadelphia, and its market, too well to think of settling at Boulton-house Prairie; besides, he evidently sneers, as much as a friend can, at the choice of situation Mr. B. has made, because it appears not to possess any [119] of the capabilities for mills, &c.: he adds, "I was rather disappointed, or sorry at any rate, not to find near Mr. Birkbeck's any of the means for machinery, such as waterfalls, minerals, and mines; some of those however he may yet find."
Thus has Mr. B. chosen to build a house, plant a garden, and dwell in a situation where he cannot grow corn so cheap as he can purchase it, and have it conveyed at a considerable expence from the settlement of Harmony,[41] distant above twenty miles; in a situation too, which if it have any recommendation at all, it must be for the purposes of agriculture, for others it has none that are yet discovered. This may be to the taste, and it may suit the purse of Mr. B., and no one could fairly find fault with him for pleasing himself; but, when he steps beyond this line, and publishes plausible representations to induce others to seek fortune and independence in such situations, he is then doing that which he has no right to do, and has much to answer for: he has led people into this wilderness where, for any thing he has done, they may in vain look around for the expected shelter; they will see only Mr. B's house and garden, and perhaps [120] two or three log huts which at present constitute the whole of the new town of Wansborough; in short, he seems only to have thought of himself and to have falsified his public promises. I believe it to be a fact that the colony could not have outlived the winter of 1818, but that the whole must have been dispersed or starved, had it not been for the exertions of Mr. Flower; who perceived in time the coming want, and at considerable trouble and expence obtained a sufficient and timely supply. Mr. Birkbeck, in his publication, inveighs strongly against land-jobbing; yet if I am correctly informed he has obtained and is now gaining great profits by it,—he has entered as many as thirty thousand acres, which he now disposes of in lots as high, where he can, as four dollars per acre; it seems indeed to be his only business, to carry on which with better success he has given to others, it is said, an interest in the concern to find out and bring in purchasers of more money than judgment. One of these jackals, reported to be so employed, I met with on the road.
Having said thus much of an individual who has become noted for promissory books, and who therefore deserves to be noted for non-performance, let us turn to the contemplation of that which has been accomplished by those who did [121] not promise any thing, but who have done much. Mr. Flower, ably assisted by his father and in conjunction with a few others, has formed the settlement of New Albion, (an auspicious name;) and notwithstanding the miserably unprovided state in which I found it, much had certainly been done, and more was rapidly doing towards rendering the place habitable. Among other well-judged resolutions, they had determined, that in future all the houses should be substantially built of bricks, for the manufacture of which they have, as I understood, plenty of good clay in the neighbourhood.
A neat covered market, and place of worship, as before observed, had been finished and opened to the public; to which I have to add that a roomy boarding house and tavern were half up; a store (shop) pretty well supplied was opened; a wheelwright has been already mentioned: besides this trade many other artisans had come in, and the chief want was a sufficiency of the several materials of their business to work upon; but fair expectations may be entertained that, ere this account shall be published, the place will have become well supplied with most of the common comforts of life, not excepting the essential of water.
It clearly appears, that at present the [122] produce of the earth can be bought cheaper than it can be grown here; but let us look forward to the period when this shall not be the case, and the time must surely soon arrive or the colony cannot long exist:—What then will be the prospect of a market that the settler will have for the produce, which shall be more than the consumption of the neighbourhood? It is this,—at about twelve miles distance is a place called Bon Pas, consisting of a tavern and two or three houses, situated upon a creek communicating with the Wabash river; to this creek, (the mud in which not always allowing boats to come up it,) as the nearest point from the English settlement to water carriage, all the corn and other exportable produce must be hauled by land; to be conveyed in boats down to Shawnee town on the Ohio,[42] (sixty miles,) and thence down that river and the Mississippi to New Orleans: there to be shipped either for Europe, or for the eastern ports of America. It must be obvious then, that the price which can possibly be allowed to the western grower, in order to meet the eastern farmer on equal terms in his own market, must ever make the business of the first a comparatively bad one: and as it is thus in the American markets so will it be in Europe; the freight from the eastern ports being so much less, as [123] the distance is less, and navigation safer;—but against this manifest disadvantage may be set the supposed greater fertility of the western country, and the less price of the land per acre: but it will never do.—These advantages, if granted, are more than counterbalanced by the higher price of all the imported articles of common consumption.