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UGUST 27th, 1832-Started from Canton, Massachusetts, and travelled through Sharon, Wrentham, Franklin, Bellingham, Mendon, Upton, Grafton, Worcester, Leicester, Spencer, Brookfield, Palmer, Williamstown, Springfield, Westville, Granville,

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September Granby (state Connecticut), Hartford, &c. Most of the above towns have a good soil, and are well cultivated. I passed many fine farms, particularly in Worcester, Grafton, Upton, Brookfield, &c. The country after leaving the Connecticut river at Springfield begins to assume a hilly aspect as you travel toward Westfield, at which place it becomes quite mountainous, yet in the valleys there are fine farms, with large stocks of cattle. This is a great country for butter & cheese. The country around Hartford & along the Connecticut river down to its mouth has a rich soil and produces great crops of hay & grain. I observed large fields of broom corn, which had a beautiful appearance to the eye as one travelled along the road. While at Hartford I went to the Asylum for the deaf & dumb. The institution is situated on an eminence commanding a full view of the surrounding country. The

scholars are orderly & well behaved. & have a very neat and decent appearance. The boys & girls have separate apartments to study in. There is about an equal number of cach sex-I saw Julia Brace, the girl who is deaf & dumb & blind. She is rather small in person, of a pale look & tolerable handsome. I saw her walk about, as well nearly, I thought, as though she could see. It was very interesting to see her way of communicating her ideas to her schoolmates & showed how great improvements the human faculties are capable of. From Hartford I took passage in steamboat for New York, this in the summer & fall is a very pleasant voyage. The passage through Hellgate in Long Island sound is a great curiosity to a stranger. It is sometimes dangerous for ships to attempt a passage through without quite a strong breeze. But steamboats pass in safety at all times except in very rough weather. As you approach New York through the sound you have a very fine view of it & of Brooklyn, situated on the island. south of New York. When I arrived the cholera had abated some, but still raged to quite an extent 40 & 50 dying daily. This alarmed me some at first, but notwithstanding I

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stopped here a few days to see the place & at last became quite unconscious about the cholera. strange it is; when at a distance I was somewhat fearful, but in the midst of it I was perfectly at ease, fearing nothing, so it is familiarity with danger makes us fearless of its consequences.

October-From New York I started for Pittsburg by iand & on foot, crossed the ferry at Jersey City, state of New Jersey, travelled through Newark, Camptown, Springfield, Morristown, Mendon, Chester, Easton (state of Pennsylvania), Bethlehem, Allentown, Hamburg & other small towns to Rheveesburg, Jonestown, small towns to Harrisburg, capitol of Pennsylvania, seat of government. From Harrisburg to Carslile, Strausburg, Vanetsburg. Greensburg to Pittsburg on the Ohio river, a distance of 361 miles which I travelled in 12 days on foot. The country from New York to Strawsburg, state of Penn, is generally level,

so than in New England, & the soil is richer. In some of the towns are large villiages, as Newark in New Jersey, Easton in Penn, Allentown, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Pittsburg. The inhabitants through New Jersey & Penn are many of them of Dutch descent. They are a very neat, industrious, frugal people, they are good farmers, they raise much wheat, the land being very suitable for it. Some of them keep large dairies. Their houses & barnes are often made of stone or brick. They most all have what is called a spring house to keep milk in summer & for other uses. Their houses are small in general, their barns large & well filled with hay and grain & most of them have a

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lightning rod on them. places I saw threshing machines. which would thresh out 100 bushels of wheat in a day. I saw at one house a dog performing the operation of churning butter, which he was made to do with an ingenuity that would surprise a yankee as much as he might pretend to know. From Strausburg on west the country becomes more uneven & broken till you arrive at Fanetsburg, when the Allegahney Mountains are in full view. They are a number of hills rising one above another like stairs, till at last you arrive at the top, where you can look either way for a great distance, a view from the top of those mountains is truly romantic & picturesque, here we see nature in some of her grandest works, here is a huge craggy rock overhanging your head, there deep valley with a small rivulet rushing through its centre. All of which tends to lead the mind to contemplate on the wisdom & power of that Being who created all things. After crossing the mountains the country becomes gradually more level till you arrive at Pittsburg, which is situated on an alluvial bottom, where the Allegheny & Monongahela rivers unite to form the Ohio. It is a place of great business. of all kinds, but especially of the manufactory of iron into different articles of use. Many steam engines are built here, also steamboats, flat boats, &c. There are inexhaustible mines of stove coal here which will in time cause it to be an immense manufacturing place. The population at present is about 30,000 including the suburbs. From this place I started for St. Louis by water, in steamboat Boston. The water was rather low & our prog

ress was rather slow on account of snags, sawyers & shoal places, & we could not run nights on account of the fog. Arrived at Cincinatti in 4 days from starting. Passed many fine villiages, such as Beaver, Stubenville, Wheeling, Marietta, Pourtsmouth, Maynville, Ripley in the states of Ohio, Virginia & Kentucky. In those villiages one will find the inhabitants of the different states. The shrewd yankee, the frank & open hearted Virginian, the bold boasting Kentuckyian, each pursuing his favorite employment. The people of the West are less reserved in their manners than those of the East. They enter into conversation more easily, less cerimonious & soon to get acquainted with. The people are more on a level with each other as respects manners & property. The polished gentleman converses freely with the poor rustic who dwells in his log cabin & often partakes with him in coarse fare, while travelling through the country. Cincinatti next to Pittsburg is the greatest town in the west it contains about 30,000 people. It is a great place of travel for all the surrounding country. Here is always a great number of steamboats loading and unloading, starting from & arriving at the place. There a large manufactory-Here large iron works &c. When I arrived the cholera had just broken. out from 10 to 15 died daily for some time. I did not make a long stop here-proceeded to St. Louis. Reached Louisville, Kentucky in 22 days from Cincinatti. Passed a number of very pretty towns on the river, Lawrensburg, Madison, Veney, Jeffersonville nearly opposite to Louisville, here the cholera was also. From 8 to 10 died daily.

I was obliged to stop 3 days on the boat, which could not get over the falls at this place, the water being too low & the canal was being repaired. At last I took passage on the Don Juan Steamer for St. Louis. Proceeded down the river again passing by a pleasant little villiage quite often. It was not till after I left Louisville that I observed any cane brakes, about the same place I also saw first the cottonwood tree. The country on either side of the Ohio is in many places a fine level, rich soil, in others it is rugged, precipices from 100 to 300 feet high close to the river bank. There are many caverns in those rocks, one in full view as you pass on the river, said once to have been the abode of a banditt of robbers. Between Between Louisville & St. Louis there are many fine villiages, some of them I will name. New Albany, Smithland, Paducha, Shawneetown, America, Golconda, &c. We had quite a pleasant trip till near the mouth of the Ohio when the cholera broke out on the steamer-most all were sick, 2 died with the disease-soon after the second death the pilot, by accident, run the boat aground on a sand bar. After trying 2 days to get off, could not as the river fell one foot in that

time, leaving the boat almost on dry land. I concluded to leave the steamer & go to St. Louis by land, it being about 175 miles. So leaving my trunk in the care of the clerk, I was put on shore & started on foot through the woods about 4 miles to the road. On my route I passed through the towns of Vienna, Brownsville, Rock Spring, Bellville &c. The country was level & much of it prairie. In some places the timber is very thin, so that grass

grows in it, this is called barrens, a term that means poor land, but it is a rich soil compared with the eastern states, when cleared it yields good wheat & corn-The prairie is generally very rich & covered with tall grass to the height of about 3 feet-This grass supports numerous herds of cattle during the greater part of the year & the farmers cut some of it green for winter use. To a stranger these prairies are a great curiosity they appear a perfect level, but in travelling over them you will find considerable hills of a gradual ascent. In the middle of some of the large ones you can scarcely see any trees except at a great distance. Some of them are so level that they are inundated in the spring & are of course unhealthy. The timbered country is very rich soil and is thought to be more healthy. In many places the trees are very large & tall & stand very thick, the oak, poplar, hickory, ash, mulberry, cucumber, cottonwood & hornbeam are the principle kinds of growth. The woods are free from under brush in many places.

November-When I arrived at St. Louis the cholera had made great havoc for a place so small & was still raging severely 20 & 30 died daily. The population is about 7,000. I was creditably informed that upwards of 500 had died when I arrived. It is a place of much business, you will see here steamboats from New Orleans, Pittsburg, Cincinatti, Jefferson City and Nashville. A branch of the American Fur Company is established at this place. I happened to be there when a party returned from a successful hunt to & beyond the Rocky Mountains. I saw several thousands of Beaver skins & witnessed

the operation of packing them. The hunters are a curious sort of being, a mixture of French, Indian & all other nations, they are hardy and robust, capable of undergoing great hardship with a patience truly surprising. I could relate tales of their suffering and hair breadth escapes that would be disbelieved by those who never saw them & conversed with them. Their living is very simple, wild meat & occasionally flour, salt & tobacco-This is the whole of their fare & they informed me that they were scarcely ever sick, although they were constantly exposed to the weather, frequently wet for a week at a time. Their dress is almost wholly of deer skin & the fashion they wear it, gives them the appearance of Indians more than white men. Indeed they are almost as copper colored as an Indian caused by their exposure to the sun-Not liking the country about St. Louis & hearing fine stories about the territory of Arkansas I was tempted to go & see. I took passage from St. Louis down the Missippi river as far as a place called Cape Giradau, landed there, travelled through a town called Jackson in a southwest direction from St. Louis-Very few inhabitants, game plenty, deer, wolves, panthers, wild turkeys, raccoons & grey squirrels. The face of the country is uneven and rolling much like New England. The soil in the valleys is very fertile, producing cotten, tobacco & hemp in plenty. The hills have a poor soil & are not much cleared yet. Travelled on Southwest to a place called Greenville in the territory of Arkansas. Continued on towards a place called Batesville, crossing Big & Little Black rivers, also Currant river all