Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/55

45 people to emigrate from Europe with the view of purchasing lands in the United States; but experience has convinced them of the deception; for besides the expenses of transportation, and the inconveniences always attendant upon new and remote establishments, the labour is immensely arduous, and wages very high. Instead of the large fortunes which they expected, and which at first were really made, the adventurers and settlers who have latterly gone from Europe to America, have generally found nothing but misery or death. When at the conclusion of the war in Europe, an enthusiasm for emigrating to America was excited, ships successively sailed for the United States, loaded with miserable wretches, principally from Switzerland, Holland, and Germany: these unhappy beings were obliged to sell or bind themselves for a certain number of years, to pay the cost of their transportation and maintenance; and finding purchasers with difficulty, they at last become discontented and groan with repentance, at having abandoned their own country.