Autograph Letter Signed, New York, November 30, 1832, to his older brother, Alexander Peterkin, Edinburgh, Scotland

Peterkin, Hope

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folio, three pages, plus stamp-less address leaf, formerly folded, in very good, legible condition. Newly arrived in New York after 13 years wandering in North America, Peterkin had expected to meet another Scotsman, an in-law, in Canada, but " . such was the dread entertained by the country people of the cholera which then raged in N. York and in every town . that had I started. and got sick by the way, I must certainly have gone the same road with the hundreds of immigrants who were seized with cholera. Therefore, I determined to remain where I was and wait till a healthier season . to have gone to a strange place, crowded with strangers in want of employment, at a time when business of every kind was at a stand would have been an unwise calculation. Mr. G. [Giles, probably his brother in-law] may not be in Canada or he may be dead . the season is too far advanced to think of going, unprovided, to so cold a country. I shall go in the spring and endeavor, should circumstance force any of my old friends from home, to secure a resting place for them. I spent a winter in Canada about 12 years since, and I met with few Scotch folks who appeared satisfied with the exchange of circumstances they had made. This appeared to me to arise from the isolated state in which they were and from a disposition in the older settlers to look upon them as intruders. However, old acquaintances settling near enough to form a neighborhood of themselves, may secure almost without money a great amount of the comforts of life in a country whose agricultural productions cannot supply the wants of its inhabitants - but to accumulate money - the mere representation of wealth - is a thing impossible. Among American settlers in Canada, the mode of managing matters in good times used to be this. They made extensive clearings and the potasta produced from the ashes of the wood burned, paid for the land and for the labour of clearing it, with houses so open that in cold weather it required an immensity of labour to keep them in firewood (nearly their winter's work), these settlers, though fitted by previous habit, have few enjoyments, while a man accustomed to a civilized life need covet, and no European can expect, by adopting their system, even to attain such enjoyments. If, instead of clearing more land, than they are able to cultivate, they would girdle the large trees and cut down the smaller trees, for fencing stuff on what ground they could cultivate to advantage, sufficient time would be allowed to make provision for winter. Any man who could work, tho' unacquainted with wooden labours, would succeed, were he to adopt this plan. Trafficking of every kind is overdone in this country, and farming cannot be very profitable when men who can succeed at nothing else for want of capital, betake themselves to farming as a business that can be carried on with little or no capital. There is one evil which occasions the ruin of thousands in the States, and which no doubt exists in Canada viz taxes are paid in money and money cannot be attained in exchange for grain or cattle when taxes have to be paid, without a sacrifice of property. If a greedy, intriguing, trading Tory faction constitute the dominant party in the Prov[incial]. Parl[iamen]t (as I suspect it does) you would, by coming to Canada, put it in the power of these wretches to revenge whatever injuries they imagine you have done their party in your editorial capacity at home. By trying what can be done and letting you know how I succeed after a year's trial appears to me to be the safe way, but to settle on a place which would not pay itself in a few years, I would never dream of. Your idea that "one accustomed to labour can never want for the necessities of life" is quite inapplicable to this Country ever since I came to it. Each sect and party reserve the wage of labour for the attainment of party ends, and where party ends are not to be gained, labour is not to be had that will yield more than 'vi.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Autograph Letter Signed, New York, November 30, 1832, to his older brother, Alexander Peterkin, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Publisher: 0
• Binding: No Binding
• Condition: Very Good
• Book Type: Handwritten