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Show • TRAVELS IN THE UNITED STATE L E T T E R XXXVII. Aaount if Batb.-0) the Nt!igbbourhood.-Singulczr Method taken to improve it.-SjJem!fltors.-D~j{:njJtion if OJU', in a Letter from an Amcri( a/l Farmen-Conhorton Cree/.:..-1/iew of the Navigation from Bath do'wnwards.-Lea've Bath for Newtown.-Embark in C.moes.Stranded in the Ni'ght.-S~ck }or Shdtcr i11 a neighbouring Houfi.D/ Iftculty q/ procurtizg Prov!fons.-Rijilme our Voyage.-Locharifburgh.- Dejcription qf the eajlern Branch q/ the S1yquchmmah River. -French 'Iown.-Frem:/.; and Americans ill jieited to each otl1er.- 1f/ilkcfoarri.-Mozmtaius tit the Neighbourhood.-Country thinly Jettled to'l.oards Pllt/aclelphia.-Difc:ripti(m of the Pf/ind-Gap in the Blue Mountains.-Summary ..~1ccozmt qf the Morrl'Uitm Settlemmt at Betblebem.- Return to Philadelphia. Philadelphia, November. BATH is a pofl: town, and the principal town in the weflcrn parts of the fbte of New York. Though laid out only three years ago, yet it already contains about thirty houfes, and is increafing very f.1fl:. Amongfl: the houfl~s are fevcral fl:orcs or !hops well furni!hed with goods, and a tavern that would not be thought meanly of in any part of Amcnca. This town was founded by a gentleman who fL,rm rly bore the rank of captain in his Majefl:y's fervice; he h::ts likewife been the founder of Williamiliurgh and Falkner's Town; and indeed to his exertions, joined to thofc of a few other individuals, may be afcribed the improvement of the whole of this part of the country, hefl: known in America by the name of the Genefee Country, or the ounry of the Lakes, from its being watered by , that river, and a great number of {mall lakes. The bndcd property of which this gentleman, who founded Bath, &c. has had the aCtive management, is faid to have amounted originally to no lefs than fix millions of acres, the greater part of which belonged to an individual in England. The method he has taken to improve this property MET II 0 D 0 F IMP R 0 VI N G P R 0 PERT Y. 439 property has been, by rrranting land in fmall portions and on long credits to individuals who would immt:diatcly improve it, and in larger portions and on a flwrtcr cr dit to others who purchafed on (peculation, the lands in both ca fcs being mortgaged for the payment of the purchafc money; thus, ihould the money not be paid at the appointed time, he could not be a lofer, as the land were to be returned to him, and 1Jwuld they happeu to be at all improved, as was mofl: likely to be the cafe, he would be a confiderablc gain 'r even by h aving them returned on his hands; moreover, if a poor man, willing to fettle on his land, had not money fullicient to build a houfe and to go on with the ncccf1ary improvements, he ha ,lt on c ii.1pplicd him, h aving had a large apital himfelf, with what money he w:1ntcd for that purpofe, or fent his own workmen, of whom hc keeps a protligious number employed, to l uild a houfc for him, at the fame time tal ing the man's note at three, four, or five years, for t e cofl of th houft.:, &c. with interefl:. lf the man fhould be unabl to pay at the appoi.J tcd time, the houfc, mortgaged like the lands, 11111fl: revert to the orig inal proprietor, and the money ariGng from its ·de, and that of the farm adjoining, partly improved, will in all proL,tbJ ity be fonnd to amount to ITIOre than what the poor man had promifed to pay for it: but a man taking up land in Ameri a in this Inilnner, at a moderate price, cannot fail, if indufl:rious, of making money fufficient to pay for it, as well as for a houfe, at the appointed time. The numbers that have been induced by thefe temptations, not to be met with elfewhere in the States, to fettle in the Genefee County, is afl:onifhing; and numbers are fiill flocking to it every year, as not one third of the lands arc yet difpofed of. It . was currently reported in the ounty, as I pa.fied through it, that this gentleman, of whom I have b en fpe:J.king, had, in the notes of the people to whom he had fold land payable at the end of three, or four, or five years, the immenfe fum of two millions of dollars. The original cofl: of the land was not more than a few pence per acre; what therefore mufl: be the profits l It may readily be imagined, that the granting of land on fuch very eaiy crms could not fail to draw crowds of fpeculators (a fort of gentry with which |