Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/282

272 THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA: BEING A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND POLICY OF THAT VAST CONTINENT.

HERE is a tradition, that, in the planting of New-England, the firſt ſettlers met with many difficulties and hardſhips; as is generally the caſe when a civilized people attempt eſtabliſhing themſelves in a wilderneſs country. Being piouſly diſpoſed, they ſought relief from Heaven, by laying their wants and diſtreſſes before the Lord, in frequent ſet days of faſting and prayer. Conſtant meditation and diſcourſe on theſe ſubjects kept their minds gloomy and diſcontented; and, like the children of Iſrael, there were many diſpoſed to return to that Egypt which perſecution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was propoſed in the aſſembly to proclaim another faſt, a farmer of plain ſenſe roſe, and remarked, that the inconveniencies they ſuffered, and concerning which they had ſo often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not ſo great as they might have expected, and were diminiſhing every day as the colony ſtrengthened; that the earth began to reward their labour, and to furniſh liberally for their ſubſiſtence; that the ſeas and rivers were found full of fiſh, the air ſweet, the climate healthy; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious: he therefore thought, that reflecting and converſing on theſe ſubjects would be more comfortable, as tending more to make them contented with their ſituation; and that it