[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]

In my la&longs;t letter I had got a little
too forward in my &longs;tory, in point of
time; but as I write by piecemeal, and
often in a hurry, you mu&longs;t excu&longs;e chronological
inaccuracy. I now go back to
tell you, that between the lands occupied
by Marygold, and tho&longs;e on which Ploughshare
had made his &longs;ettlement, was a large
tract of wa&longs;te, where none of Mr. Bull's

[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]

family had ever been; but the report of
the plantations which one and another of
them had made, drew the attention of
Bull's neighbours. Among the&longs;e, Nicolas
Frog[20] was not an idle &longs;pectator. He
was as &longs;ly a fellow as you will meet with
in a &longs;ummer's day, always attentive to his
intere&longs;t, and never let &longs;lip an opportunity
to promote it. Ob&longs;erving that Mr. Bull
was rather carele&longs;s of the Fore&longs;t, and
tru&longs;ted his lawyers and &longs;ervants with the
management of it, and knowing there
was a large &longs;lice of it unoccupied, he
clande&longs;tinely &longs;ent out &longs;ome &longs;urveyors in
the di&longs;gui&longs;e of hunters, to make a description
of the country, and report to him at
their return. Another good neighbour,
Gu&longs;tavus the ironmonger† was gaping after
it, and gave out word among his journeymen,
that if any of them would adventure
thither and &longs;et up their trade, he
would uphold them in their preten&longs;ions,
and lend them any a&longs;&longs;i&longs;tance in his power.

[figure description] Page 045.[end figure description]

Accordingly one of them, by the name of
Ca&longs;imir, ventured to make a beginning on
the &longs;hore of a navigable creek;[21] but did
not care to penetrate far into the country,
on account of the wolves and bears, which
were very numerous thereabouts. As
&longs;oon as Frog heard of this, he picked a
quarrel with Gu&longs;tavus, and in&longs;i&longs;ted that
the land was his by po&longs;&longs;e&longs;&longs;ion, becau&longs;e
he had already &longs;ent &longs;urveyors thither.
It happened, however, that the place
which Frog's people had pitched upon
was at the mouth of another creek,† at a
con&longs;iderable di&longs;tance; where they had
built a hut, on a point of land, and farther
up the creek had erected a kind of
lodge or hunting hou&longs;e,[22] for the convenience
of collecting game. On this plantation
Frog had placed Peter Stiver, a one-legged
fellow, as his over&longs;eer. As &longs;oon
as Peter heard of the quarrel between his
ma&longs;ter and Gu&longs;tavus, he thought the
quicke&longs;t way of ending it was the be&longs;t;

[figure description] Page 046.[end figure description]

and therefore, without waiting for orders
or ceremony, he went and commanded
Ca&longs;imir off the ground; and with one of
his crutches beat his hou&longs;e to pieces about
his ears. The poor fellow &longs;tared at
this rough treatment; but was glad to escape
with whole bones, and humbly requested
leave to remain there with his
tools, promi&longs;ing to follow his bu&longs;ine&longs;s
quietly, and become an obedient &longs;ervant
to Mr. Frog; upon the&longs;e conditions he
was permitted to remain, and the whole
tract was reputed Frog's property.

While the&longs;e things were doing, John
Bull was confined to his hou&longs;e with a violent
fever and delirium,[23] under which
he laboured for a long time, and his imagination
was the &longs;eat of every wild freak
and &longs;trange vagary. One while he fancied
him&longs;elf an ab&longs;olute monarch; then, a
pre&longs;byterian clergyman; then a general of
hor&longs;e; then a lord protector: His noddle

[figure description] Page 047.[end figure description]

was filled with a jumble of polemic divinity,
political di&longs;putes, and military arrangements,
and it was not till after much
blood letting, bli&longs;tering, vomiting and
purging, that he began to mend. Under
this &longs;evere, but whole&longs;ome regimen, he at
length grew cool and came to him&longs;elf,
but found on his recovery that his affairs
had gone behind hand during his sickness.
Be&longs;ide the lo&longs;s of bu&longs;ine&longs;s, he had
phy&longs;icians' and apothecaries' bills to pay,
and tho&longs;e who had attended upon him as
nur&longs;es, watchers, porters, &c. all expected
wages or douceurs, and were continually
haunting him with, How does
your honour do? I am glad to &longs;ee your
honour &longs;o well as to be abroad. Some
one or more were continually putting
them&longs;elves in his way, and if they did not
directly dun him for payment, their looks
were &longs;o &longs;ignificant that a man of le&longs;s penetration
could ea&longs;ily have gue&longs;&longs;ed what
was their meaning.

[figure description] Page 048.[end figure description]

Bull was &longs;omewhat perplexed how to
an&longs;wer all their demands and expectations.
He was too far behind hand to
be able to &longs;atisfy them, and withal too
generous to let them remain unpaid. At
length he hit on this expedient: “The&longs;e
fellows, &longs;aid he to him&longs;elf, have &longs;erved me
well, and may be of u&longs;e to me again.
There is yet a con&longs;iderable part of my
fore&longs;t unoccupied. I'll offer to lea&longs;e
them tracts of land which co&longs;t me nothing,
and if they will accept them at a low rent,
they may prove u&longs;eful &longs;ervants, and I
&longs;hall be a gainer as well as they.” Having
come to this re&longs;olution, he began to
enquire into the affairs of his fore&longs;t, and
found that his neighbours had intruded upon
his claim. Lewis had taken po&longs;&longs;e&longs;&longs;ion
at one end;[24] Lord Strut at the other;†
and Nic Frog in the middle,§ and his own
tenants had been quarrelling with their
new neighbours, as well as among them

[figure description] Page 049.[end figure description]

&longs;elves. “Hey day! &longs;ays John, this will
never do; I mu&longs;t keep a good look out
upon the&longs;e dogs, or they will get the advantage
of me.” Away he goes to Frog,
and begun to complain of the ill treatment
which he had received. Frog, who
had no mind either to quarrel, or to cry
peccavi, like a fly, eva&longs;ive whore &longs;on as
he was, &longs;hrugged up his &longs;houlders, disowned
what his &longs;ervants had done, and
&longs;aid, he &longs;uppo&longs;ed they only meant to kill
game, and did not intend to hold possession.
Bull was not to be put off &longs;o; his
blood was up and he determined to treat
Frog's &longs;ervants as they had treated Casimir.
So, calling a tru&longs;ty old &longs;tud out of
his compting hou&longs;e, “Here Bob,[25] &longs;aid he,
take one of my &longs;ervants with a couple of
blood hounds, and go to that part of the
fore&longs;t where Peter Stiver has encroached,
give him fair warning; tell him the land
is mine, and I will have it; if he gives up

[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]

at once, treat him well and tell him I'll
give him leave to remain there; but if he
offers to make any re&longs;i&longs;tance, or he&longs;itates
about an an&longs;wer, &longs;et your dogs at him and
drive him off; kill his cattle and &longs;et his
hou&longs;e on fire; never fear, I'll bear you
out in it.” Away goes Bob and delivered
his me&longs;&longs;age; Peter at fir&longs;t thought it a
matter of amu&longs;ement, and began to divert
him&longs;elf with it; but as &longs;oon as the dogs
opened upon him he found his mi&longs;take,
and rather than run the ri&longs;k of being
driven off, he quietly &longs;ubmitted to the
conditions propo&longs;ed. “Hang it, &longs;aid he
to him&longs;elf, what care I who is my landlord?
Gain is my object; I have already
been at great expen&longs;e, and have a prospect
of getting an e&longs;tate. To remove
will ruin me; I'll therefore &longs;tay here, and
make money under Bull, or Frog, or any
other ma&longs;ter that will let me &longs;tay.”

In a &longs;ub&longs;equent quarrel which happened
between Bull and Frog—the latter

[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]

&longs;eized upon this plantation again, and
Peter recognized his old ma&longs;ter; but upon
a compromi&longs;e it was given up to Bull
in exchange for a tract of &longs;wamp[26] which
lay far to the &longs;outhward. Peter continued
on the ground through all the&longs;e
changes, and followed his bu&longs;ine&longs;s with
great diligence, collecting game and pelts,
and vending them &longs;ometimes to Mr.
Bull, and &longs;ometimes to Mr. Frog. However,
Bull thought it be&longs;t, that in token of
&longs;ubjection, Stiver &longs;hould change his name;
to which he con&longs;ented, and partly to
plea&longs;e his new ma&longs;ter, and partly to retain
the remembrance of his old one, he
a&longs;&longs;umed the name of Bullfrog.

The whole tract which was thus gotten
from Frog, was thought too large for
one plantation, and therefore Mr. Bull,
in pur&longs;uance of the plan which he had
formed appropriated the rents of the
plantation, on which Bullfrog was feated,
to his brother, and the other was leaf

[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]

ed to two of his &longs;ervants, Cartrut and
Bareclay, and &longs;ometime after another
tract was &longs;et off to William Broadbrim,
who&longs;e father had been an assiduous
ratcatcher in Mr. Bull's family; but
more of this hereafter.

Cartrut and Bareclay agreed to divide
their land into two farms, which they
called the ea&longs;t and we&longs;t farms;[27] but when
they came to run the divi&longs;ion line, their
compa&longs;&longs;es differed &longs;o much that they
could not fix the boundary. This was
one cau&longs;e of di&longs;&longs;ention. Another was the
different humors and di&longs;po&longs;itions of their
families. Tho&longs;e on the Ea&longs;t farm were
brought up under Mr. Bull's &longs;i&longs;ter Peg,†
and as it is well known that &longs;he and her
brother had long been at variance, &longs;o their
dome&longs;tics had got tinctured with the notions
and prejudices of their re&longs;pective
families. The family on the We&longs;t farm
was made up of per&longs;ons who were &longs;ubject

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

to the epidemic ague or &longs;haking pal&longs;y;[28]
with &longs;ome &longs;truggles from Bullfrog's and
Ca&longs;imir's families. From this diver&longs;ity
of con&longs;titutions and humours aro&longs;e bickerings
and quarrels, a di&longs;inclination to
work and &longs;ubmit to family government.
The&longs;e di&longs;orders continued a long while,
and bu&longs;ine&longs;s went on very &longs;lowly, till at
length the heads of both families agreed
to give up their &longs;eparate lea&longs;es, and take a
new one of the whole, and let Mr. Bull
appoint an over&longs;eer. By the&longs;e means
peace was re&longs;tored, and the new over&longs;eer,
who was &longs;uppo&longs;ed to be a de&longs;cendant of
Julius Cæsar, gave the name of his ancestor
to the farm, which has ever &longs;ince
been called Cæsarea.

There was another portion of the forest,
which lay &longs;outhward of Walter Pipeweed's
plantation, and which no per&longs;on
had yet taken up, though &longs;ome had made
attempts and had been driven off by the

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

numberle&longs;s mu&longs;quitoes and &longs;and flies,
which abounded in tho&longs;e places. Mr.
Bull was &longs;till de&longs;irous to reward his
friends in the cheape&longs;t-manner, and at the
&longs;ame time to keep his neighbors from encroaching
upon him, and &longs;ecure the possession
of the fore&longs;t to him&longs;elf. In pursuance
of his plan, and to make &longs;hort work
of it at once, he lea&longs;ed the whole of this
&longs;outhern extremity to Charles Indigo,
[29] who was expre&longs;sly ordered to take
under his care and into his family all persons
who had attended Mr. Bull, in his
late &longs;ickne&longs;s, in quality of nur&longs;es, druggists,
apothecaries, laundre&longs;&longs;es, upholsters,
porters, watchers, &c. &c. By this
order Charles found him&longs;elf at once surrounded
by a large body of retainers of
various ranks and qualities, and being a
&longs;peculator him&longs;elf, he employed a speculative
man, Mr. Padlock, who had written
a large treati&longs;e upon Ideas, to draw
up fome rules, for the management of
&longs;uch a family, intending when he &longs;hould

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

build an hou&longs;e, to pa&longs;te it up in the parlour,
as a directory to his wife. Accordingly
Mr. Padlock went to work, and with
an exqui&longs;ite mixture of political and metaphysical
knowledge, di&longs;tingui&longs;hed between
the hall, the parlour, the dre&longs;&longs;ing
room, the gallery, the mu&longs;ic room, the
bed chambers, the chapel, the kitchen, the
water clo&longs;et, &c. &longs;hewing what was to be
done in each, and the proper subordination
of one to the other, all which would
have been of excellent &longs;ervice in a palace,
and among people who had got to a high
degree of re&longs;inement, but was ill &longs;uited to
the circum&longs;tances of new adventurers in a
fore&longs;t. They rather needed to be instructed
in the method of felling trees,
draining &longs;wamps, digging clams, guarding
again&longs;t mu&longs;quitoes, killing wolves and
bears, and erecting huts to keep off the
weather. To the&longs;e nece&longs;&longs;ary affairs they
were obliged to attend, and Mr. Padlock's
fine &longs;pun rules were laid by and little
thought of.

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

Charles had pitched upon a &longs;andy
point, between two brooks, for his mansion
hou&longs;e, and had made a &longs;mall beginning,
when his repo&longs;e was di&longs;turbed by
one Augustine,[30] a lubberly fellow, who
had taken a lea&longs;e of Lord Strut, and lived
farther &longs;outhward. This Strut was
the large&longs;t landholder in the country, and
was never &longs;atisfied with adding field to
field. He had already got much more
than he could manage, and had greatly
impoveri&longs;hed his home&longs;tead by attending
to his extra territories. His tenants were
infected with the &longs;ame land fever, and
wi&longs;hed to have no neighbors within fight
or call. From this envious di&longs;po&longs;ition
Augu&longs;tine collected a rabble of lou&longs;y fellows,
and was coming to di&longs;po&longs;&longs;e&longs;s Charles,
thinking him too weak to make a defence;
but Charles was a lad of too much &longs;punk
to be brow beaten. He armed all his
people with &longs;ome weapon or other, and
advanced till he came within fight of the

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

place where Augu&longs;tine was, who on seeing
him, took wit in his anger, and went
back, without attempting any mi&longs;chief.

Another difficulty which Charles expected
to encounter was from the wild
bea&longs;ts; but luckily for him, the&longs;e creatures
got into a quarrel among themselves,
and fought with each other till
they had thinned their numbers considerbly,
&longs;o that Charles and his companions
could venture into the woods, where they
caught &longs;ome few and tamed them, as was
the u&longs;ual practice among all Mr. Bull's tenants
at that day. Of this practice a more
particular account &longs;hall be given in my
next letter. Adieu.

eaf005.n20

[20] The Dutch.

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