Landing on this great continent is like going to sea, they must have a compass, some friendly directing needle; or else they will uselessly err and wander for a long time, even with a fair wind:  yet these are the struggles through which our forefathers have waded; and they have left us no other records of them, but the possession of our farms.  The reflections I make on these new settlers recall to my mind what my grandfather did in his days; they fill me with gratitude to his memory as well as to that government, which invited him to come, and helped him when he arrived, as well as many others.  Can I pass over these reflections without remembering thy name, O Penn! thou best of legislators; who by the wisdom of thy laws hast endowed human nature, within the bounds of thy province, with every dignity it can possibly enjoy in a civilised state; and showed by thy singular establishment, what all men might be if they would follow thy example!

In the year 1770, I purchased some lands in the county of——­, which I intended for one of my sons; and was obliged to go there in order to see them properly surveyed and marked out:  the soil is good, but the country has a very wild aspect.  However I observed with pleasure, that land sells very fast; and I am in hopes when the lad gets a wife, it will be a well-settled decent country.  Agreeable to our customs, which indeed are those of nature, it is our duty to provide for our eldest children while we live, in order that our homesteads may be left to the youngest, who are the most helpless.  Some people are apt to regard the portions given to daughters as so much lost to the family; but this is selfish, and is not agreeable to my way of thinking; they cannot work as men do; they marry young:  I have given an honest European a farm to till for himself, rent free, provided he clears an acre of swamp every year, and that he quits it whenever my daughter shall marry.  It will procure her a substantial husband, a good farmer—­and that is all my ambition.

Whilst I was in the woods I met with a party of Indians; I shook hands with them, and I perceived they had killed a cub; I had a little Peach brandy, they perceived it also, we therefore joined company, kindled a large fire, and ate an hearty supper.  I made their hearts glad, and we all reposed on good beds of leaves.  Soon after dark, I was surprised to hear a prodigious hooting through the woods; the Indians laughed heartily.  One of them, more skilful than the rest, mimicked the owls so exactly, that a very large one perched on a high tree over our fire.  We soon brought him down; he measured five feet seven inches from one extremity of the wings to the other.  By Captain——­I have sent you the talons, on which I have had the heads of small candlesticks fixed.  Pray keep them on the table of your study for my sake.