Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/31



LETTER I

Voyage from Greenock to New York—Circumstances of Passengers—Arrival, &c.

New York, July 10, 1818.

As I have already informed you, I sailed from Greenock on the 24th of May last, in the American ship Glenthorn, Stillman Master, bound for this place.

I observed that my fellow emigrants were much affected when about to take a final leave of their native land: some regretting the separation from their native soil, while others, mute and thoughtful, seemed to suffer under feelings of a more tender kind.

To some it may appear inconsistent in people to regret leaving their homes and their friends, while the emigration is voluntarily undertaken; but on this occasion, the paradox will be explained, when their circumstances and views are taken into consideration.

Of our party were three farmers, with their families, whose leases were expired; all of them having declined engaging for a new term of years, {2} under the apprehension of seeing their paternal stock, and the savings of many years' industry, divided between the landholder and the collector of taxes. A native of Scotland, who had resided several years in America, returned with the intention of resuming business in the town where he was born, but the thick ranks of a necessitous and half employed population, had closed on the place he had left. There was a widow,