In the mean time, while I was engaged with the transactions in which my purchase from Mr. Peabody had involved me, the Glasgow emigrants had proceeded to the tavern, and as a preliminary to determining the course of their future proceedings, I had authorized Andrew Gimlet to send out with country guides two or three of the men to explore a proper situation within my twelve hundred acres for a village.

Reflection on the effect and situation of towns in the old country, as well as the best information to be obtained respecting the system adopted by the Americans in settling their wild lands, has persuaded me, that the first effectual step in colonization is to plant a village. The determination to commence by doing so had been fixed before my departure from England, and was known to the friends of Eric Pullicate, as my intention. Indeed, the plan is so obviously judicious, that two opinions cannot be entertained on the subject; for we see it is from towns in all countries that cultivation proceeds; and history, in describing the colonies of antiquity, distinctly shows that the first object was ever the choice of a proper site for a fortress or a city.

On the third day after our arrival at Sylvany, as the farm I had bought from Mr. Peabody was named, Andrew Gimlet with two companions came with an inviting description of a situation they had discovered on the banks of a considerable stream which crossed my property, but also with a representation on behalf of some of their associates, that they did not think the beginning with a village was so good as the practice of the country, where every man worked for himself on his own farm.