Page:Narrative of the life and adventures of Paul Cuffe, a Pequot Indian.djvu/23

Rh more large whale. We then stopped at Flores, and took in potatoes, onions, chickens, pumpkins and squashes. We stopped at several other of this group of Islands on our way home. We were gone eight months on this voyage. After unloading our ship, I stayed at New Bedford but a few weeks before I again left home on a visit to the State of New York, to see a cousin that I had not seen for more than eighteen years. This man lives in the town of Stockbridge, and county of Madison. His name is Michael Wainer, a man of good property and of respectable standing. I stayed at this place until the spring of 1838, when I went to Buffalo, and shipped aboard of the Steamer Wisconsin, bound to Detroit, in the Slate of Michigan. We had two hundred and fifty passengers, with their goods, on board. The next trip that we made was to Chicago, in the State of Illinois; our lading was the same as we had in our last trip. On our return passage, I hurt my foot while taking in wood, at Cleaveland in Ohio. After this I boarded a few days in Buffalo, but my foot continuing lame, I again returned to Stockbridge, where I arrived sometime in the month of June, 1838. Here I labored for several persons in the course of the season. I think the people of this place are as industrious and respectable as in any place with which I have been acquainted. They are, in general, good livers, have fewer poor people among them, than most of the places which I have visited, and very civil and courteous to strangers. They are principally emigrants from the New England States. The town is beautifully situated, having the Oneida Creek, running from south to north through its centre. Upon this stream are a number of grist and saw mills. Here would be an excellent place for erecting manufactories of cotton or wool. From the centre of this town to the Utica and Syracuse Rail Road is but seven miles. This town, produces excellent winter wheat, corn, rye, barley and oats. It is called one of the richest towns in the State of New-York.

I now take leave of those who may hereafter peruse this relation of events through which the writer has passed, during his stay among earth's travellers. May heaven's choicest blessings ever be theirs, together with the innumerable comforts which are the attendants of an earthly pilgrimage. Good bye.

PAUL CUFFE. Stockbridge, N. Y. March 18, 1839.