Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/135

 *clusive of maintenance. Land 15 miles N. W. of Georgetown, and about Rockville, is better than it appears to be; for, out of cultivation, it has no face, never having been sown with grass seeds. Some time since it cost 7 dollars an acre, and is now offered at 15 dollars, with good buildings, fences, and other improvements.

Sunday, August 1st.—I heard the Rev. Dr. Allison, a judicious Gillite,[23] and chaplain to Congress; and, in the evening, I attended an interesting {120} conversation at the hospitable seat of T. C. Wright, where I met several native and adopted citizens. Emigration was the theme. It was agreed that emigrants should all come in the temper and spirit of the fathers, the first settlers; that, ultimately, such pioneers as Birkbeck and Flower in the wilderness, must benefit themselves, and that the last twenty years' history of emigrants furnishes encouragement still to emigrate. "The English," says Mr. Wright, "who have to live here by their own hands, make the most dissatisfied of labourers. They run all over the land in quest of the highest wages; and in so doing, lose half the week in finding wages for the other half, and part with the substance for a shadow.

Two or three of the English have this day and recently fallen dead at the city fountains, in consequence of drinking excessively of cold water, while they were in high perspiration, under a heat, by the therm. 98° and 100°, in the shade. To avoid this danger, it is only necessary to drink a wine-glass half full of brandy first, and a pint of water immediately after. Thirst is thus safely quenched,

[Footnote: 23 Calvinists are here called Gillites, or disciples of the late Dr. John Gill.—

Comment by Ed.—Disciples of John Gill (1697-1771), an English Baptist clergyman, for fifty years pastor of a London church, and an eminent theological writer.]