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that?" My friend laughed, and told me it was a M nite: "a harmless creature," continued he, "belonging a sect who never inhabit_towns, nor ever cut their bea hair, or nails; wash or clean themselves; and whose dr habits, and general mode of life, are at variance with th of the rest of mankind." Pity now succeeded the e which I at first entertained.

I am sorry that I cannot make a favourable report of scholastic establishments of this town. There is but of a public nature; which is called an academy, and s ported by the voluntary munificence of the place. It under the direction of a number of trustees; who emp themselves so much in altercation whenever they meet, t they have not yet had time to come to any mutual und standing on its concerns. There is, however, a master a pointed, who instructs about twenty boys in a sort of tra atlantic Greek and Latin, something in the nature of w the French call patois, but which serves the purpose of pupils as well as if their teacher were a disciple of Dem thenes or Cicero.

There are a few private schools where the principles grammar, rhetoric, and a sound English education, may acquired the young ladies, while day-scholars, general attend a master, and the present minister of the Engli church is principal of a school for the fair sex. His cour of study is very liberal, philosophical, and extensive. Son of his scholars compose with great elegance, and read an speak with precision and grace. He makes them acquainte with history, geography, and polite literature; togeth with such other branches of instruction as are necessary correct the judgment and refine the taste.

The market-house, which stands in a square in the cent of the town, is frequented almost daily, but more particu larly on two stated days of the week, by vast numbers country-people, who bring to it provisions of every descrip

tion.

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rally fourteen cents a pound; eggs, five cents a d milk, three cents a quart. From this statemen readily perceive that living here must be extremel the best taverns charge half a dollar a day for t and lodging; and there are boarding-houses on th only a hundred dollars a year for board, lod washing. The great towns on the Atlantic are vast in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Ch the average price of decent accommodation being lars a week. Those places however have the ad respect to foreign manufactures, wine, and liquor Madeira is a dollar a bottle, but here it is a dol half; and spirits of course are in the same rates. the natural effect of the dangerous, difficult, and land-carriage. As these latter are articles of lux weight falls alone on the affluent the other cla ciety have excellent porter brewed in the town cheap rate, and whiskey is to be had for two s gallon.

The price of land varies with the quality, the from the town, and other causes. Farms on th of navigable waters are 300 per cent. dearer than t behind them. Good land on the banks of a river, a market-town, is not to be had under ten dollars but land under contrary circumstances brings only to two, or five dollars. Such land yields from thirty bushels of wheat, and from forty to sixty Indian corn.

As for the amusements here, they are under the of the seasons. In winter, carioling or sleying nates: the snow no sooner falls, than pleasure, b confusion, banish business, speculation, and strife is seen but mirth, and nothing is heard but harm young men of a certain condition provide themse

* A hundred cents make a dollar.

go by ing there, the ladies cast off their fur pelisses, assume their beauties, and with the men commence the mazy dan This is followed by supper, songs, catches and glees. Wh the voice of Prudence dispels the charm, they resume the vehicles, and return delighted with the moments which the have thus passed this is repeated frequently during t snow. The summer amusements consist principally of co certs, evening walks, and rural festivals held in the vicini of clear springs, and under the shade of odoriferous tred On the latter I shall dwell in some future letter; at presc I must conclude with the usual sentiments of attachme and regard.

LETTER IV.

The Subject of Emigration from Britain consideredHistory of an Emigrant Farmer-Kentucky people by a puffing Publication-Lord Selkirk's Colonization -District least pernicious for Emigrants.

Pittsburg, November, 1806.

AS the portrait which I gave you in my last, of thi town and its vicinity, might dispose some minds on your side of the water to emigration, it will be but fair and ho nest for me to consider that subject rather minutely, and shew you how far such a measure would tend to their hap piness or otherwise. For this purpose, let us suppose an individual determined to abandon the land of his nativity, and to break the chain of early attachments and maturer friendships, to go-whither? To a country of which scarcely any but unfaithful delineators have written; to regions described by persons who meant to impose on the public, by giving lavish and flattering details of which they themselves

rous effect of an opinion, that the public taste w endure a work destitute of false colouring and me embellishments; and that an author adhering to th city of truth, would be condemned as a gloomy pe represented nature in a dark disguise. To illustr observations, it may be useful to state a fact.

Only a few years have elapsed since a gentleman residing within three or four miles of Lewes, in th of Sussex, began to entertain unfavourable notio country; and to believe that he was a mere slave to the caprice of an arbitrary government. Perl will suppose that a course of unmerited adversity duced him to poverty and distress, and thus give happy turn to his thoughts; on the contrary, his his own; it enabled him to support a large family. the comforts and even luxuries of life, and the d performing acts of generosity among his relations a bours. Under what delusion then did he labout which arose from an extravagant admiration of th revolution, and the French patriots! He extolle they did, and trusted to all they said. They decl the people of England were not free, but in a stat mous servitude: he believed this; and to amend his condition, resolved to emigrate. He fixed on A his destination; and to obtain all the necessary in for this purpose, bought up every publication w fessed to describe that extensive country. He h read every one that abused and censured his own; his children were familiar with Jefferson's flights pendence, the blasphemies of Tom Paine, and the reveries of Priestley. Thus equipped, thus admin pared for the completion of his project, he sold and all his possessions, and embarked without any gret than what he patriotically felt for the calam degeneracy of his countrymen.

You need not be told, that on leaving the land countering storms and dangers of every kind, a ASHE.]

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along the shore to Boston in Massachusets. During tl period, the father was anxiously looking for that prospe of fields and villages, that general shew of improvement an abundance, which his reading had instructed him to e pect; but what was his surprise when he found that he cou observe nothing but immense forests, covering an endle succession of mountains which penetrated to the interior the country, and lost their summits in the clouds! He w not aware, that from the vast extent of America, the indu try of man cannot for centuries effect a visible change in th general and primitive face which it bears. The improv ments are but as specks scattered here and there, and ca only be perceived by particular researches: the survey from a distance represents a continued immeasurable tract woods, apparently occupied by beasts of prey, and inca pable of affording accommodation to man.

This unexpected sight engaged and astonished him; no were his reflections on it interrupted till he arrived in Bosto harbour, where other scenes gave him fresh cause for won der. A swarm of custom-officers were in an instant or board; and began their work of search, extortion, and pil lage. Having escaped from these, and landed, he found himself surrounded by a number of persons who, withou any kind of ceremony, crowded on him with the most fami liar and impertinent inquiries: such as why he left England whether he intended to settle among them, what were his means, what line of life be meant to follow, &c. One of them could let him have a house and store, if he turned his thoughts to merchandise: another could supply him at a low price, with the workshop of a mechanic, a methodistmeeting, or a butcher's shop, if either of these articles would suit him. Some recommended him to become a land-jobber; and to buy of them a hundred thousand acres on the borders of the Genessee country, and on the banks of extensive rivers and sumptuous lakes. This speculation was opposed by others, who offered him the sale of a parcel of town-lots, from which, by building on them, he could cleat 500 per cent.; or if he had not means to build for the present, he