Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mr. Andrew Fulton, Kentucky, to the Rev. Mr. Alexander Pringle, Perth.

Very dear Sir,

You

Camerun, Jan. 9, 1799.

OU will have heard, I doubt not, long before you receive this, of our arrival in America, and, perhaps, in Kentucky. The cordial friendship you manifefted after we became acquainted, the active part you took in the miffion, and the zeal you have otherwife difcovered for spreading the gofpel, make it evident, that the news of this will afford you gladnefs of heart, and occafion thanksgiving to the great Head of the church. Such a long journey over both fea and land, by various means of conveyance, you may easily conceive, would fubject us to many inconveniences, and to fome few hardships. But God, by his kind providence, protected us from the dangers to which we were expofed, carried us through difficulties, and, at length, brought us in fafety to the place of our deftination.

We arrived at New-York upon the 13th of October. Although we thought our paffage tedious, we met with nothing diftreffing. There were fome pretty fevere gales of wind, but for any thing we know the failors did not apprehend any danger. The people of New-York, in connection with us, fhewed every mark of kindness and attention to us. There we had the pleasure to see Mr. Marshall, who had been attending the meeting of Presbytery fome weeks before, and had not returned to Philadelphia on account of the yellow fever. In company with him we left the city on the 26th, and arrived at Philadelphia the next day. By that time the dif temper had greatly abated, and the people were returning. The city is extenfive, regular, and beautiful; but it appeared then to wear a melancholy gloom. The people were few to appearance, dejected, and fomewhat thy to one another. We hear the difeafe this feafon has

been much worse, and has extended to New-York and other places on the eastern fhore. God is punishing the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. In Europe the fword is devouring, and a species of peftilence feems annually to return to America, and to wafte fome of their moft flourishing cities; but the wicked are not repenting of their evil deeds, nor returning to the Lord.

We were detained in Philadelphia eight or ten days before our books came from New-York. After they arrived, we agreed with a waggoner to take our books to the river Ohio. We went back the country in company with your two nephews by the way of Lancafter and Carlifle, and came to Pittsburgh on the 19th of November. About half way from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, we travelled in the ftage coach, and afterwards partly on foot. We fhould have bought horfes at Philadelphia. One waggon, with five horfes, carried all our baggage. The waggon was about three weeks in coming to Pittfburgh after we were there; and by the time it came, on account of the froft, it was not reckoned fafe to go down the river. We therefore refolved to wait till fpring. The froft is much more fevere in that country than in Scotland; but last winter, at least, it was not constant. Some time about the new year there came a fresh, which raised the rivers, and carried off the ice. Several boats that were waiting at Pittsburgh and other places went away. Had we got a boat convenient, I believe we all would have attempted to go. Your friends became impatient, and went away in one of the boats. And they only went about an hundred miles down till they were ftopped with ice. In company with others, they went down through the wilderness, and fo by that means were at Kentucky fome weeks before us. The week after we went to Pittsburgh, moft of our minifters in the back woods came to fee us, for it was then thought we would have gone away immediately.

Mr. Armstrong and I preached in various places of the country round Pittsburgh, and fometimes in the

As it was winter, the meetings were not large in

that country. A great many of the inhabitants here come from Ireland. They feem to be an induftrious people, and many of them religious. Pittsburgh stands upon a neck of land between the Allegany and Monongahela rivers, each of which feems to be as large as the Tay. Clofe below the town thefe rivers join, and then it is called the Ohio. The fituation is beautiful; the town is fmall, but faft increafing. A great many travellers go that way, and often have to ftop for weeks, which makes it expenfive 'for ftrangers to be long in Pittsburgh. Many of the inhabitants are in a public line of life, and care little about religion. We got acquainted, however, with fome who were very defirous of the gofpel, but were much difcouraged, owing to the fmallness of their number. We left Pittsburgh, I think, upon the 21ft of February, and came to Limestone on the firft of March. The weather when we were upon the river was cold and wet, the boat much crowded, and not well fitted off; therefore our paffage down the Ohio was not accompanied with all thofe agreeable senfations which, in other circumstances, might have been expected. We floated at the rate of between three and four miles an hour, and after fome time went night and day. About an hundred miles down, the country on each fide is partly inhabited, but after that, till we came to Limestone, which is about other 400 miles, we faw very few houses. We put our baggage into a warehouse at Limestone, and came to Canerun about the middle of March. The distance is about feventy miles. Our friends received us very kindly, and fent a waggon for our books.

Before we left the back part of Pennsylvania, we were told that there were few religious people in that country; that it was not neceffary for us to go down, or if we went down, it would be prudent to leave our articles at Pittsburgh, till we faw the country and the people. Such was the account which fome minifters brought up: but we both went, and actually found that only a small number of people openly profeffed an attachment to reli

gion. For feveral months we were a little difcouraged at the profpect. In this place indeed a confiderable number of people attended fermon; but till of late it did not feem probable that a congregation could have been formed here, that would have been able to fupport the gofpel. When we came to this State, there was a Mr. Proudfoot, and. a Mr. Steel, both young men, belonging to the Union Synod. It is common in this country for one minister to have two, three, or even four places of worship under his charge, and to preach at each alternately. Eight of thefe congregations, as they are called, belonging to that body, were not very distant from one another, and fome were adjoining to this place, Four of these gave a call to Mr. Proudfoot, and the other four to Mr. Steel. Mr. Proudfoot, fome time after we came down, returned to Pennfylvania, and accepted a call that had been given him before he came down. It was about the beginning of October before the people heard that he was to return. Thefe eight congregations met together by commiffioners, with Mr. Steel among them. He endeavoured to perfuade them to give a call to a Mr. Young, in Virginia, who had been formerly here, and was very popular, and was about to leave his people; but two of the congregations would not confent, and have applied to us for fermon. We have fince preached feveral times at thofe places, and conversed with fome of the people. One of thefe places is distant from us fourteen miles, the other nine. It is proposed that one of us fhould have the charge of thefe two places, together with this. 1

At Drennon's creek, where your brother lives, the congregation is fmall; fome of the country near it is not yet fettled. There are fome Baptifts and Methodifts in that neighbourhood, and many make no profeffion of religion. The people there, however, are preparing to build a meeting-houfe. We have preached fometimes at Shellyville, about fourteen miles from your brother's, but there is little profpect of forming a congregation in that place. It is the county town. A good many peoVOL. I. No. 2.

E

ple live in and near it. They are deftitute of the gofpel, and what is ftill worse, they feem to have little refish for it. About three months ago we were invited to preach at Beargrafs, near the falls of the Ohio. There the prospect for the prefent is much better. A confiderable number of the inhabitants feem willing to hear and fupport the gofpel. It is propofed the other of us fhould have the charge at Drennon's creek and Beargrafs. Thefe are diftant better than twenty miles, which makes it inconvenient.

When we were in Philadelphia, Mr. Marshall showed us petitions from two different places in Teneffee state, to their Prefbytery, and defired us, if poffible, to give them fome affiftance, for they could afford them none; and he wrote them to apply to us. Accordingly, about the beginning of May, a man came from Cumberland fettlement, with a petition for one of us to go there for fome short time. It was agreed betwixt us that I fhould go for a few weeks. I went there about the middle of June, and ftaid there feven Sabbaths. I preached three Sabbaths at Nashville, the chief town in that place, and in various other parts of the country. In that town, and indeed in almost all the new formed towns in this weftern colony, there are few religious people. The inhabitants chiefly confift of lawyers, tavern and ftore-keepers, and many of thefe are infidels. There are a number of religious people in the country around Nashville. A certain William Turnbull, a Scotfman, who (if I recollect right) was once a member of Mr. Arnot's congregation, is a very worthy man, and has been remarkably ufeful in diffufing religious knowledge. There I baptized 16 children and two women. On the north fide of Cumberland river, the country is fettled to a confiderable extent. Two Prefbyterian minifters are in it, about fifty miles diftant from each other. On the fouth fide of the river, where I chiefly was, the fettlement is not fo extenfive of any kind. The people with whom I got acquainted earneftly defire a minifter of the gofpel; and they think they are well able to fupport one.