mercial eminence. The principal town is Chilicothe, situated nearly in the centre of the state; there the govern ment resides, and is held the principal land office, &c. &c. - The land of the plains; of the borders of rivers; of the great meadows, and of all the tract lying between the two Miamis (two rivers so called) is without any exception the finest known in the world. The great part then of this land being obtained by Congress from the Indians by an imposition, called by the fallacious name of a legal purchase, is known by the name of "Congress Lands," as stated in the early part of this letter, and exposed you to this long dissertation on Indian war and topographical history. I resume however the subject of Congress Lands."

By virtue of the treaty with the aboriginal confederacy and subsequent purchases, Congress has become the proprietor of nearly all the fine lands in the state. I have mentioned where such lands most abound, and should have stated that nearly one third of the country is mountainous and ridgy, bog and morass, to such a degree as not to be worth one cent per acre. The principal part of the state of this character lies to the north-east, and east of the river Scioto. The best land is to the west of that river, and continues with few exceptions to the boundary westward of the Great Miami. It is very necessary that purchasers at a distance should be aware of this, as I have known several who bought in a distant market at a good price come several thousand miles to take possession of a sterile mountain or an unreclaimable swamp. The truth is, that no person should buy who is not on the spot, or who has not a confidential agent. The mode of sale adopted by Congress is highly commendable. The entire country is surveyed and divided into sections of six hundred and forty acres each. A certain number of these sections lying contiguous compose a township, and a certain number of townships form a range. The sections are all numbered, and each number sixteen in every township is reserved for the purpose of education and the support of its professors. There are also reservations which cannot be sold under eight dollars an acre; but every other acre of Congress land is sold at two dollars per acre forever: and, to enCourage settlers, the period of four years is allowed for the

entire payment which commences one-fourth at the bargain, and the remainder at three yearly instalments. This indulgence on the part of government was most productive to a few sordid monopolizers, called land jobbers, or land speculators, who made large contracts for twenty thousand to five hundred thousand acres of the best land and in the best situations, and have already sold the greatest part at from three to five dollars an acre. A meadow called the Rick-a-way plains, containing ten thousand acres free of wood, is advanced by one of these gentlemen, from the two dollars an acre to be paid by his contract, to thirty dollars per acre, and a considerable part of it is already sold. The portion under cultivation has yielded one hundred and ten bushels of corn, and fifty bushels wheat per acre. The land the most sought after is on the Scioto, the Ohio, and the Miamis on which situations the title of Congress is for the most part bought up, and the present owners demand for it from six to twelve dollars per acre. But if the land should be on a mill seat, or place eligible for the site of a village or town, the price might probably be raised to one hundred dollars per acre.

Many local circumstances sometimes also unite to raise the price of certain lands. Such as their vicinity to improving towns; their abundance of ship timber, the facility of conveying it to builders' yards, and their possession of the sugar maple, cherry tree, sassafras, cotton, and other plants. On the whole, I know of no speculation so promising, as that of buying the remaining good lands, reservations, and all (except schools, reservations which are never to be sold) from Congress at two dollars per acre, and of holding them for the space of ten years; after that period no moderate land will be sold under ten dollars per acre, and land of the first qualities and situation will fetch fifty in general, and much more in particular, per acre. The reasons for this are obvious; the lands of the Atlantic States are not to be compared to these in point of fertility and every excellence; the climate here is not worse, and the State tolerates no slavery.

This last circumstance has already given it the name of the independent country; the state where man is free but not licentious. In consequence, quakers, and other religious professors, enemies to intolerance and oppression, whether christian or political, have settled in the state, and are

daily followed by thousands who either admire, or affect to advocate their principles and doctrines. Such has been this rage, that the last ten years has added to the state one hundred thousand inhabitants, said to be the most peaceable, inoffensive, moral, and industrious citizens belonging to the American nation. I have a very strong predilection for the state, I must own to you, and a presentiment, from what I observe and hear at present, that my future experience will justify all my hopes, and prove to you that I am more happy when a people permit me to say any thing in their favour, than when their vices and follies compel me to condemn them. I do not mean to be more particular on the subject just now, as I shall have to observe and say a vast deal more relating to the state during my voyage down its southern border along the river. I must notwithstanding remark, generally, that the climate is very relaxing from excess of heat in summer, and very dangerous from the precarious and uncertain vicissitudes of it in winter. Those two seasons are however the most healthy. The spring and fall, as autumn is here called, are subject to vissitations of diarrhæ and fever, but not in so great a degree as in the lower parts of the river. These facts might be sufficient to deter moderate minds from exposing themselves and families to such a climate and to such vicissitudes;-if they be not, there are not wanting others sufficiently cogent and strong to cause reflection at least before steps of such consequence as emigrations are taken. I have asserted and have to maintain it, that land is to be had of the most superior quality at an extraordinary low price. But I ask you, who are a lover of reasoning and an advo>>cate of common sense, whether the words good and cheap are not to be considered as relative terms to be compared with those of moderate and dear, in order to distinguish their appropriate acceptations. But to have done with this jargon, and speak a more comprehensive language, I will give you an honest Dutchman's opinion of the business, who has purchased experience and qualified himself to give instruction and advice:-Being dissatisfied with lands in Pennsylvania, which with hard and unceasing industry, yielded but from seven to twelve bushels of wheat per acre; from twenty-five to thirty-five of corn; and so on in proportion with other produce, he came into the Ohio state and purchased a very fine section from Congress at two dol

lars per acre. This land was equal to his most sanguine expectations. Three years after it was cleared it produced him one hundred bushels of Indian corn, and from forty to fifty of wheat per acre. This delighted the Dutchman; the argument appeared strong, and the old Pennsylvania farm began to be talked of only to be despised. This triumph was but of short duration. The Dutchman was near two thousand miles from the principal market;. this he could not attend; storekeepers and itinerant merchants bought his produce at their own prices in exchange, often for unnecessary goods,. and the profits of his most luxurious harvests were no more, saying the best, than those of his former farm, when in the vicinity of a market, where the price of produce always bore affinity to the quality of land and the labour employed to render it prolific. The Dutchman had to compare but one article: at his former market he could get from ten to twelve dollars per barrel for his flour, in his present situation he can get but three. And, as he is occasionally visited by grubs, flies, and clouds. of locusts, he cannot average his wheat crop at above thirty nett bushels per acre; therefore he and his family must: in future speak in less disrespectful terms of the old Pennsylvania farm, and recommend, as he tells me he always does, his former neighbours to enquire the price of pro. duce before they pretend to fix a value on land, or leave their old settlements without the good grounds of unprejudiced calculations, and ample and liberal enquiries.

I

I propose to leave this place to-morrow morning. I have not heard of any thing further of sufficient interest to improve or entertain, though you may be well convinced. that I annoy every person whose countenance beams intelligence, and even those whose features manifest none. make no doubt that I am considered a strange medley; an interrogative animal passing through society merely to perplex it with questions; to gain all information and, to communicate none. Some stare at me with astonishment when I abruptly address them, and others not knowing what to answer turn on their heel. What a foolish man,. say all, to loose his time and go in such a manner through. the world, merely to ask questions!

LETTER XL

Charlestown-Vicious taste in building to the river-copied from Philadelphia-its punishment-Navigation from Charlestown to Wheeling-this port-town described-its origin-sketch of the inhabitants and their propensitiesa Virginian horse-race-a boxing-match-A ball and sup per-the sequal a pathetic story.

Wheeling, Virginia, April, 1806. THE morning after my departure from Stubenville, I dropped seven miles lower down to breakfast at Charlestown, on the opposite shore.

Charlestown is finely situated on the Virginia side, at the junction of Buffaloe creek and the Ohio. It is a flourishing place, commanding the trade of the surrounding rich settlement; and having many excellent mills, is much resorted to by purchasers of flour. The boats can be purchased at the Pittsburg price, and articles of provision on very reasonable terms.

The town, which contains about one hundred and fifty houses was originally well laid out with the best row facing the river, and the intermediate space answered the purpose of a street, explanade and water terrace, giving an air of health and cheerfulness gratifying to the inhabitants, and highly pleasing to those descending the stream.-However, owing to the avarice of the proprietor of the terrace, and a disgraceful absence of judgment and taste, he has sold his title to the water side, and the purchasers are now. building on it; turning the back of their houses immediately close to the edge of the bank, and excluding all manner of view and communication from the best of the town. This violation of taste, it seems, is not to go unpunished. The bank is undermining fast, and in a very few years, these obtruding edifices must fall unless removed. This vice of building to the high water mark, is not peculiar to Charlestown Philadelphia set the example. Philadelphia, which might have had an open airy explanade of four miles long, on a beautiful river, facing a delightful cultivated shore, has not now thirty feet of quay. The store