XXIX 
THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA; BEING A TRUE 
DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND POLICY 
OF THAT VAST CONTINENT 
There is a tradition that, in the planting of New 
England, the first settlers met with many difficulties 
and hardships; as is generally the case when a civil- 
ized people attempt establishing themselves in a 
wilderness country. Being piously disposed, they 
sought relief from Heaven, by laying their wants and 
distresses before the Lord, in frequent set days of 
fasting and prayer. Constant meditation and dis- 
course on these subjects kept their minds gloomy 
and discontented; and, like the children of Israel, 
there were many disposed to return to that Egypt 
which persecution had induced them to abandon. 
At length, when it was proposed in the Assembly to 
proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense rose, 
and remarked that the inconveniences they suffered, 
and concerning which they had so often wearied 
Heaven with their complaints, were not so great as 
they might have expected, and were diminishing 
every day, as the colony strengthened; that the 
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