from his friend CONTENTS. Letters relating to the Early Settlement of the North- Western Territory-contained in a series addressed to J. DELAFIELD, JR. Esq., during the years 1837-8 -By J. BURNET: Annual Discourse, delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society at Columbus, on the 23d December, 1837-By TIMOTHY WALKER, ESQ. A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the An Essay on the Origin and Progress of Political Communities, delivered before the Ohio Historical A Fragment of the Early History of the State of Ohio an Address delivered at Marietta, on the BURNET'S LETTERS. CINCINNATI, OCTOBER, 1837. MY DEAR SIR:- WHEN I last saw you in Columbus, you expressed a desire that I would commit to paper, in the form of a letter, or otherwise, a biographical sketch of myself, and also such incidents, relating to the early settlement of the Northwestern Territory, within my recollection, as might be considered worth preserving. A selection, of the character you mentioned, will be attended with difficulty and delicacy; as many of the occurrences, to which your request extends, relate more or less to myself, and I have not the vanity to believe, that such matters can be of much interest, even to my friends, and certainly of none to the public generally. I frequently took notes of events, as they happened, in the early settlement of the Territory; though it was not my common practice. You may, therefore, infer, that many things which occurred, in the course of my long residence in the west, and which were of interest when they took place, have escaped my recollection, or are defectively remembered: and that the narrative you ask for, must be imperfect. The partiality of friendship generates a disposition to be gratified, by incidents concerning our friends, which, if related of strangers, would be heard with indifference. To that cause I must ascribe your request, as far as it relates to myself. Without further apology, then, I proceed to state, that Dr. Ichabod Burnet, my grandfather, was born and educated in Edinburg, and, after finishing his collegiate and professional studies, emigrated to the colonies, and established himself at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he continued in the practice of physic and surgery, till he attained to a very |