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."