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Show 434 TRAVELS IN THE UNITED STATES: them, but as from friend whom they had been aLTlfl.ing, and were now forry to k ave. . . The vilbgc where we !lopped confifl:ecl r about ctght_ or n~nc fl:r,1ggling houfes; th~.: bd 1: built one among th.cm was that m wht~h we lud,rcd. It belong d. to a fatnily from ~.:w l',ngbnJ, who ab ut hx year bt:for. hnd pen trated to thi:; fj1ot, then cover~d with woods, and one hundreJ and fifly mile. dil1ant from any other iettlcme11t. Settlements arc n w J~attcred over the whole of the country which they had to pafs through in oming to ic. The hou!l: \Vas com.modious and w_dl built, and the people decent, ivil, and reputable. It lS a very rare ctrcumfl: an e to me ·t with fuch ~Koplc among(l: the firfl: fettlcrs on the frontier ; in gcn ral they ore men of a morofe and i ~tvarrc difpofition_, and the very outca!ls of Co iety, who bury thcm!dvcs in the woods, as tf defirous to .fhnn the face of their fellow reatnrcs ; there they build a rude habitation, and ckar pcrh::q s three or four acre of land, jufl: as much as they find fufJicient to provide their families with corn: for the great,er part of their food they depend on their rifle gnns. Thefe p oplc, as tne fettlcmcnts advanc , arc fuccc dcd in general by a fecond [<;t of men, lc.li· 'i~wag(' than the fir£1:, who clear more land, and do not d ·pend fo much llpon hunting as upon agriculture for their fublifl:ance. A third fct fucceed thcfe in turn, who buill good houCe , and bring the land into a more improved fiate. The fidl fettler , as foon as they have difpofed of their 1nifcrablc dwellings to advantag , immediately penetrate farther back into the wood , in order to gain a place of abode fuitcd to their rude mode of life. Thefe are the bwlcf: people who en roach, as I have before mention d, on the Indian territory, and are the occaGon of the bitter ~mimoiitics between the whit s and the Indians. 'The fi.:cond fettlcrs, Jikcwi[c, when difpbced, feck for fimilar pl.:tces to what thofc that they have lc..ft were when they firil: took them. I found, as I proceeded through this part of the country, that there was fcarcely a man who h~;d not changed his place of abode fcven or eight different times. A none but very miferable hodi s were to be procurcll at this village on the Genefee River, and as our expedition through the woods had ,iven us a reli.fh for walking, we determined to proceed on foot, at d 1ncrcly COUNTRY BORDERING ON GENESEE Rl 1-:R. 435 merely to hire horfcs to arry our ba ~gngc; nc ordi11gly, h::tV:ng engaged a pair·, and a boy to onduCl: them, we !ct off early on the fccond morning from that of our arrival at the village, for the town of Bath. The c untry bctw ·n thefe two plnces is moO: agreeably diverfi fied with hill and dale, and as th traveller paflcs over the hills which overlook the Gencfcc River and the flats bordering upon it, he is entertained with a variety of noble and piCl:urefque views. We were particularly ftruck with the profpcCl: from a Ia rgc, and indeed very bandfumo hou(c in its kind, belonging to a Miljor Wadfworth, built on one of thcfc hills. 'I'he ,eneLcc 1 ivcr, bordered with the ri h !1: woods jmaginablc, might be fccn from it fo•: many miles, meandering through a fertile country; and beyond the flats, on ea h fide of the river, appeared fcvernl ranges of blue hills rifing up one behind another in a rnofl: fanciful manner, the whole together forming a moil: beautiful landfi ape. Here, however, in the true American tafl:e, the greatefl: pains were taking to dimini{h, and, indeed, to .fhut out all the beauties of the profpett; every tree in the neighbourhood of the houfe .wa felled to the ground; infl:cad of a neat lawn, fi r which the gr und fcemed to be fingubrly ·wdl difpofed, a wheat field was bid down in front of it; and at the bottom of the !lope, at the difl:ancc of two hundred yards fi'om the houfe, a town was buildinrr by the m:0or, whi h, when completed, would cffdlually fcrccn from the dwelling houft.: cv ' ry fight of tl e river nnd mountain . '] he Am ricans, as I before obfcrvcd, fecm to be totally dead to the beantics of nature, and only to admire a fpot of ground a it appears to be more or Ids cal ulatcd to enrich the occupier by it pr duce. The G ·nefc River tnkcs its name from a lofty hill in the I11dian terri tory, ncar to which it pailcs, called by the India11s cncfcc, a word lignifying, in their hnguagc, a grand cxtcnfivc;: pr fpccr. . The flat<: bordering upon the 'cndce River arc amongfl the nchefl: lands that arc to be met with in North Amcri a, t the can of the Ohio. Wheat, as I told you in a former letter, will not grow upon them; .1ml it is not found that the foil is im povcrilhcd by the fucccDi ve crops 3 K 2. of |