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sold under execution or through distress, at a very low rate—some at twopence an acre; but few had money to purchase, and there was a certainty that the money must lie dead for some time. Mr. N wrote to me a long time ago to purchase a grant for him, and go as far as £600. I should have been ruined if I had done so, for he did not send the money, and that is the very thing that is wanted here when people sell. There is also a Mr. James Henty, who was formerly a merchant here, and who is now in London. You could hear of him at Cross's. I think he has a large grant at the Leschenhault Inlet, or somewhere thereabouts. Perhaps he would sell. I am speaking almost at random about this company and your plans, for I am in no way informed of its existence save by an advertisement in Stewart's Dispatch. So far as it goes Sir James is greatly pleased with it.
The subject of imigration is one which I approach with great diffidence. It is so comprehensive and so various that it is not possible to treat it methodically in the due bounds of my compressed journal. Were I sitting beside you for an hour, I could disabuse your mind of many false impressions which seem to rest upon them. There is naturally in the mind of every one who thinks of emigrating, so much that is enthusiastic and visionary, so much of fancy and romance, so much of theory and imagination, so little of practice and business, so much contemplation of every probable advantage and so much oversight of all actual difficulty, that it is hard to be prepared for the reality. Then, how many are but badly qualified for settlers! There must be enthusiasm and there must be steadiness, energy, and patience, quickness, and perseverance, courage, and forbearance, promptitude, and prudence, and many other opposite qualities; and, at the back of them all, there must be—money. I mean for one who sets up for himself, and not as the servant or steward of another. I think few situations could be much more trying than that of a person arriving here now with but a small
