conduct respecting the first, in affairs of business. Sunday is so little marked as a day of rest or religious duty that I believe no attention is paid to it, (except by the French catholics, who have a wooden chapel;) and a stranger, who should arrive on a Sunday, might well be led to conclude that it was a colony of Jews rather than of Christians, and that their sabbath had been kept the day before; tradesmen I saw carrying goods; farmers _hauled_ their corn; and the water-mill went merrily round. The price of labour is apparently high; a carpenter {98} or bricklayer receives two dollars and his board per day; but as competition increases I will not recommend the mechanic to rely upon getting such wages: and if he should, he must take notice that the high price he must pay for most articles of necessity, will bring his wages down nearer to a level with other places than he might at first suppose; to be sure, there is here less competition at present. Having examined the town, and both ourselves and horses sufficiently rested, we made the necessary inquiries and preparations to proceed to the English Prairie in the Illinois State; from thence intending to visit the German Settlement called Harmony on the Wabash, and returning to winter at Vincennes. Receiving however, meanwhile, a pressing invitation to accompany a gentleman to his country house about twenty miles distant, it being represented as little deviating from our intended route, I accepted of it; the more inclined perhaps, because of his pleasing manners, and his being a native of the northern part of my own country. Having however a little apprehension as to the fitness of the roads we were going to pass over for wheels, I inquired of him whether they would permit a carriage to travel; and all my doubts were removed by his answer that "they were {99} as good as the town street," where we happened to be standing: we shall soon see how accurate his account turned out to be.