Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/220

 wild beasts and birds, nothing industrious generally, except pigs, which are so of necessity. Work or starve is the order of the day with them. Nothing happy but squirrels; their life seems all play, and that of the hogs all work. I reached Princeton at sun-set.

3rd.—I looked round Princeton, a four-year old town and county-seat. Here I found and called on my countryman Mr. Phillips, who came a visitor from Somersetshire, but fixed on a pleasant good farm of 300 acres close to the town, which he bought with some improvements, such as a small log-house, and a few acres cleared by art and nature, at 20 dollars an acre; "the only farm (says he) which I would have in this state of Indiana, but which I mean to improve and re-sell, and then return to England. I hate the prairies, all of them; insomuch that I would not have any {222} of them of a gift, if I must be compelled to live on them. They are all without water, except what is too muddy and distant for use. I am much perplexed with labourers; both the English and natives are good for nothing; they know nothing, and it is impossible to get any kind of business well done, either with or without money. Money cannot be gained by cultivation. There is no certain good market; farm produce may, perhaps, be sold at some price, but you cannot get your money of the cheats and scum of society who live here. I think that Birkbeck is right in not cultivating his land, though wrong and mortified in having written so hastily and prematurely. He and Flower are both sinking and scattering money, which they will never see more or gather again. They cannot even hope to gain or increase their capital, but by the contingent increase in the value of their land, which is not the best of its kind. With hired labour and a market, I should prefer the west