TRUE USE OF WEALTH.

55

Here, certainly, they move in the same course. Exclusive of a few attempts which have lately been made to establish academies (of which I believe one, two, or three have succeeded), and some efforts which are made in the principal towns, schools in this state can hardly be said to exist. The gentlemen, with whom I conversed on this subject, expressed their mortification and their reprobation of the conduct of the state, in strong terms; but they seemed to be hopeless concerning a reformation. Without churches, men will be vicious of course; without schools, they will be ignorant; and ignorance and vice are sufficiently melancholy characteristics of the people in whom they are united.

It is not impossible, perhaps not improbable, that the energy awakened in this state by the diffusion of manufactures, may be productive of some beneficial consequences both to learning and religion. The wealth of the inhabitants is visibly increasing with rapidity, and will probably continue to increase through an indefinite period. Wealth, wherever it is spread, generates of course the desire of character, and this passion regularly stimulates mankind to the use of those means by which it may be gratified. The first step towards giving character to children is to give them at least a decent education, and this step is always taken whenever wealth begins to be diffused. The next is not uncommonly the building of churches; and the next, the settlement and support of ministers; such, I mean, as are qualified to discharge the duties of the sacred office. Should this be the course of events in Rhode Island, it is hardly possible that the character of the inhabitants at large should not be essentially meliorated *.

The manners of the body of the people differ materially

* These observations were made in the year 1800. Since that time, the prediction of the writer has to a considerable exter. been fulfilled. The manufacturing establishments of this state have been enlarged and multiplied, and the wealth of the inhabitants increased in a more rapid manner than in any other part of New-England. With the acquisition of property, the people, particularly in the large towns, appear to have acquired more liberal views concerning the importance of learning to the community. Within three years, also, preceding 1821, revivals of religion have taken place in a good number of towns and churches, refreshing the hearts of Christians, and elevating the moral and religious character of the state.Pub.

from those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, as you will easily determine from the observations already made. The vices of ignorant people are always low, vulgar, and almost always predominant. Horse-racing has for a long period been a favourite pursuit. This gross amusement turns polished men into clowns, and clowns into brutes.

The Sabbath with a great part of this people is merely a day of visiting and sport. Many of the inhabitants have customarily devoted it to labour. A considerable number of persons in the trading towns, Providence excepted, have been deeply engaged in the slave trade. Some of the missionary societies have in their proceedings considered Rhode-Island as missionary ground.

I am, Sir, &c.

LETTER VIII.

Helburne Woods. Westport. New-Bedford. Its Situation, Commerce, and Settlement. Attack on Fair-Haven by the British in 1778. Gallant Defence of the Place by Major Fearing. Rochester. Wareham. Proposed Canal across the Peninsula of Cape Cod. Sandwich.

DEAR SIR;

FROM Tiverton the road speedily entered a forest, called Helburne woods: a wild, rocky, dreary tract, with hardly a cheerful object in view. The road is stony, and miserably repaired; the soil is lean; the little agriculture, found in a few solitary spots, is wretched; and the scattering houses appear as if they were inhabited by persons, who knew not where else to find a shelter. Happily, they are supplied with one great necessary of life, fuel, on easy terms. This forest is composed almost wholly of oak.

The moment we entered Westport the scene was changed. At the very boundary the earth assumes a handsomer aspect. The surface is less hilly, and less rocky. The soil, also, and the husbandry, are sensibly better. All this tract is better fitted for grazing than for agriculture. Here we saw pines, both yellow and white; the former of which continued with little interruption to Race Point.

The houses in this township are decent farmers' habitations. Except a small trading village near the mouth of a creek, at some distance south of the road, the township is distributed into plantations. The inhabitants are principally Quakers; and furnish a considerable {part of the daily supplies for the market of New-Bedford.

Westport was incorporated in 1787; 'and contained, in 1790, 2,466 inhabitants; in 1800, 2,361; and, in 1810, 2,585. The number of houses, in 1790, was 365.

New-Bedford is a town, situated on both sides of the river Acchusnutt*, the Indian name of the neighbouring country. The township, beside a collection of farms, contains three villages; the Town, or New-Bedford proper, on the western, and Oxford and Fair-Haven on the eastern side of the river.

The situation of New-Bedford proper is an easy declivity, sloping towards the river, which here forms a noble basin, about a mile in breadth. The surface is in some degree disfigured by rocks, but is otherwise handsome. The streets are either parallel, or at right angles with the river; being laid out with perfect regularity. Unhappily they are only forty feet wide. There are five of the former, and four of the latter. The houses are generally good, and some of them expensive and handsome. There are seven valuable mansions here, inhabited by the family of Rotch.

The township contains three Presbyterian churches; one at New-Bedford, one at Fair-Haven, and one in the interior. The first and last are supplied by a single clergyman. It also contains three Friends' meeting-houses.

The soil is hard, but well fitted for pasturage. Apples and several other fruits abound: but peaches, although they grow easily, and of good kinds, are much injured by the peach-worm.

The harbour is the basin mentioned above. The entrance is narrow, the anchorage good, and the depth sufficient to admit ships of four hundred tons to the wharfs, where they are sheltered from every wind.

Both the Town and Fair-Haven are busy, commercial villages. Fifteen thousand tons of shipping belong to this port, the great body of which is owned by the inhabitants. It is chiefly made up of large vessels, employed in the whale fishery about Falkland Islands, in the Pacific ocean, and elsewhere; or in a circuitous carrying trade. The business of all kinds done here, considering the size of these villages, is great; and, hitherto, has been almost uniformly profitable: but the duties collected are of no great importance. Yet the importations are probably smaller, when compared with the quantum of

Written Acushnett by Mr. Colton, of Plymouth, 1674.

BRIDGE AT NEW-BEDFORD.

59

business done by the merchants, than perhaps those of any other place in the union.

The following is an abstract of the duties collected in this

A bridge is begun across the Acchusnutt from the town of New-Bedford to Fair-Haven. The proprietors, that they might take the advantage of two small islands, lying in the river, and of a bar extending from one of them a considerable distance, have formed this structure in a circuitous manner. The abutments, islands, and bar, extend about 2,000 feet, and the bridge, 3,960, or three-fourths of a mile. The water in the channel is more than thirty feet deep. The expense, estimated at thirty thousand dollars, was defrayed by the inhabitants of these two villages.

New-Bedford and Fair-Haven were both settled in the year 1764. The ground, on which they are built, was formerly included in the township of Dartmouth, incorporated in 1664. Dartmouth originally included the present Dartmouth, and the whole of the townships of New-Bedford and Westport. New-Bedford was not incorporated until the year 1787: the same year with Westport. The ground, on which the town stands, was the property of a Mr. Russel; and was purchased of him by Mr. J. Rotch, a native of Nantucket. When the question concerning the name of the proposed settlement was started, Mr. Rotch observed, that Russell was the name of the Duke of Bedford; and that this spot, having been the property of a family having the same name, should be called Bedford. Fair-Haven received its name from the beauty of