18. prisoners killed and roasted for a great Festival where the Canadi [mutilated in MS.] Indians are eating American flesh, Colonel Butler an English officer sitting at table.

19. British officers who, being prisoners on parole, are well received in the best American families, and take that opportunity of corrupting negroes and engaging them to desert from the house, to rob, and even murder their masters.

20. American officers who, as they arrive in the British camp, are insulted by an enraged soldierytheir money, their cockades, their sword, and all their clothes taken away from them.

21. A duty prison-ship where American officers are confined without being at liberty to take the air, and so crowded that they can live but a few days. British officers come to laugh at them and insult their miseries

of

22. British officers plundering with their own hands from houses, abusing the old people of the house, insulting the young landlady, and frightening the children.

23. An honorable captain coming last spring in the house of a gentleman called Mr. West at White Marsh, rushing in the room where Miss West and another young lady were sleeping, at two o'clock in the morning. The captain and soldiers jump to the beds of the two ladies and with fixed bayonets upon their breasts, make several enquiries and laugh at their dreadful situation in the most abusive manner. 24. An other right honorable captain going out on a detachment and killing defenceless people.

25. General Gage's perfidy to the inhabitants of

Boston.

26. Counterfeiting the paper money.

MDXXXVII

THE PROSPECT FOR EMIGRANTS TO AMERICA

Your queries concerning the value of land in different circumstances and situations, modes of settlement, etc., etc., are quite out of my power to answer; having while I lived in America been always an inhabitant of capital cities, and not in the way of learning any thing correctly of country affairs. There is a book lately published in London written by Mr. Hector St. John, its title, Letters from an American Farmer, which contains a good deal of information on those subjects; and as I know the author to be an observing, intelligent man, I suppose the information to be good as far as it goes, and I recommend the book to your perusal.

There is no doubt but great tracts may be purchased on the frontiers of Virginia and the Carolinas, at moderate rates. In Virginia it used to be at £5 sterling the 100 acres. I know not the present price, but do not see why it should be higher.

Emigrants arriving pay no fine or premium for being admitted to all the privileges of citizens. Those are acquired by two years' residence.

No rewards are given to encourage new settlers to come among us, whatever degree of property they

may bring with them, nor any exemptions from common duties. Our country offers to strangers nothing but a good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air, free governments, wise laws, liberty, a good people to live among, and a hearty welcome. Those Europeans who have these or greater advantages at home, would do well to stay where they are.

MDXXXVIII

TO ALEXANDER SMALL

PHILADELPHIA, 19 February, 1789.

DEAR FRIEND:-I have just received your kind letter of November 29th, and am much obliged by your friendly attention in sending me the receipt, which, on occasion, I may make trial of; but, the stone I have being a large one, as I find by the weight it falls with when I turn in bed, I have no hope of its being dissoluble by any medicine; and having been for some time past pretty free from pain, I am afraid of tampering. I congratulate you on the escape you had by avoiding the one you mention that was as big as a kidney bean; had it been retained it might soon have become too large to pass and proved the cause of much pain at times, as mine had been to me.

Having served my time of three years as President, I have now renounced all public business, and enjoy the otium cum dignitate. My friends indulge me with their frequent visits, which I have now leisure

VOL. XII.-5.

to receive and enjoy. The Philosophical Society, and the Society for Political Inquiries, meet at my house, which I have enlarged by additional building, that affords me a large room for those meetings, another over it for my library, now very considerable, and over all some lodging rooms. I have seven promising grandchildren by my daughter, who play with and amuse me, and she is a kind, attentive nurse to me when I am at any time indisposed; so that I pass my time as agreeably as at my age a man may well expect, and have little to wish for, except a more easy exit than my malady seems to threaten.

The deafness you complain of gives me concern, as, if great, it must diminish considerably your pleasure in conversation. If moderate, you may remedy it easily and readily by putting your thumb and fingers behind your ear, pressing it outwards and enlarging it, as it were, with the hollow of your hand. By an exact experiment, I found that I could hear the tick of a watch at forty-five feet distance by this means, which was barely audible at twenty feet without it. The experiment was made at midnight when the house was still.

I am glad you have sent those directions respecting ventilation to the Edinburgh Society. I hope you have added an account of the experience you had of it at Minorca. If they do not print your paper, send it to me, and it shall be in the third volume, which we are about to publish of our transactions.

Mrs. Hewson joins with us in best wishes for your health and happiness. Her eldest son has gone

through his studies at our college, and taken his degree. The youngest is still there, and will be graduated this summer. My grandson presents his respects; and I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately,

B. FRANKLIN.

I

P. S.-You never mention the receipt of any letters from me. I wish to know if they come to hand, particularly my last, enclosing the Apologue. You mention some of my old friends being dead, but not their names.

MDXXXIX

TO MRS. CATHERINE GREENE

PHILADELPHIA, 2 March, 1789.

DEAR FRIEND:-Having now done with public affairs, which have hitherto taken up so much of my time, I shall endeavor to enjoy, during the small remainder of life that is left to me, some of the pleasures of conversing with my old friends by writing, since their distance prevents my hope of seeing them again.

I received one of the bags of sweet corn you were so good as to send me a long time since, but the other never came to hand. Even the letter mentioning it, though dated December 10, 1787, has been above a year on its way; for I received it but about two weeks since from Baltimore, in Maryland.

I Relating to the claims of the so-called American Loyalists. See Supra, p. 58.