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made all the haste I could to wait on Dr.
Witherspoon, at Princeton, in West Jersey; and when
I had gone there I was sorry to hear that he had gone
away in a day or two before to convey some of his
pupils home to their parents who lived in Virginia but
I had the good luck to come up with him in the city of
Philadelphia.
I delivered to him the letters I had from Scotland
and he received me kindly. When he understood my
errand, he was very earnest to assist me to get a
right farm. He advised me to take patience and that I
should not be hasty in making a bargain, but that he
was upon a journey and I should wait at Princeton till
his return, when he would do all he could to get me
settled in a comfortable manner.
...My plantation, which I have called Corkerhill, after
the name of the farm where my father lived and died,
and where I lived so long--my plantation consists
wholly of limestone land, and in general, limestone
land is reckoned the best in the country.
Dear sir, I do assure you I am well pleased with the
country and with my situation in it. I bless God that I
came here and I heartily thank every man who
encouraged me to get the better of that fear which a
man is under when he is to venture over so wide a
sea, and, indeed, when excepting my eldest son, I was