Travels In The United States Of America; Commencing In The Year 1793, And Ending In 1797. With The Author's Journals Of His Two Voyages Across The Atlantic By William Priest
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This You Will Not Wonder At, When I Tell You There
Are Seven Free Schools In Boston, Containing About Nine Hundred Scholars,
And That In The Country Schools Are In A Still Greater Proportion.
They
are maintained by a tax on every class of citizens, therefore education
may be claimed by _all_ as a _right_.
This climate is much colder, compared with yours, than I can account for
geographically; but it may perhaps be owing to our having a greater
proportion of easterly winds, which, coming immediately from the banks of
Newfoundland, are attended with a cloudy sky, and thick atmosphere. These
may tend to mitigate the heats of summer, but are very disagreeable in the
other seasons. The coldness of the climate is plainly to be perceived in
the birch tree, which is here common in the woods; and the _want_ of
the mocking bird, the red bird, and a great variety of others, that visit
you in the glimmer from South America. The fox squirrel too is scarce, and
the gray squirrel almost white. We cannot cultivate the sweet, or tropical
potatoe, but import it from Carolina. Even the peach is late, small, and
acid. The coldness of the climate, and the fanaticism of the inhabitants,
make the New England states by no means such desirable places of
residence, as those of the south, to
Yours, &c.
* * * * *
_Dover, April 22nd, 1797._
DEAR FRIEND,
On the 12th of March I embarked in the Betsy, captain Hart, for London; my
live stock consisted of some fowls, four brace of partridges, a flying
squirrel, and a young racoon.
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