Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/268

 *criminately coming from afar, would be no bad policy. Mr. Birkbeck is of a small, unformidable, but erect stature, and swarthy Indian complexion. The contour of his face, with the exception of a fine nose, possesses little that is striking; and the face, viewed as a whole, indicates little of the exactness, ripeness, sweetness, and finished taste, which are known to distinguish him. Notwithstanding the shock his feelings recently received, he seems enviably happy in the bosom of his family, which consists of four sons and two daughters, mistresses of the lyre and lute, and of many other accomplishments. Mr. B., and every branch of this happy family, with the exception of his son Richard, retire at ten every evening to their sleeping rooms, where a fire is kindled for them to read and study by, half the night. "I am happy," said he, "in my family!" His favourite son Morris, a finished scholar, disliking a rustic life, is {281} about returning to England. Mr. Birkbeck had not the advantages of his children, but still is master of the dead and several of the modern languages. He, only a few days since, returned from a tour through Illinois, by way of Kascasky, where he was chosen President of the agricultural society of Illinois, one grand object of which will be, to rid the state of stagnant waters. He visited many settlements, but saw none so desirable as his own. On the Little Wabash, is one, of which he says Mr. Grant of Chatteris farms a part, very fine rich land, but rather sickly, and during the winter and spring inaccessible, by the overflowings of the Little Wabash, which then becomes five miles wide, imprisoning the settlement. Mr. Grant has been burnt out once, and lost cabin and all it contained. His daughter lives away from him at board. Not wishing to become prisoner to the Little Wabash, I declined, though I once intended, visiting this first-rate