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healthy, except the women who have for the most
part lost their teeth, with eating too many fruits
which they have here in great plenty.
Here they have plenty of good horses and all other
kinds of cattle, and the ground produces wheat,
barley, Rye, Indian Corn, oats, buckwheat, flax, peas
and beans of various kinds. They have likewise
Melons, Cucumbers, squashes, gourds and pumpkins
-growing in the open fields, and their gardens are
well supplied with all kinds of roots and other garden
stuffs that are to be found in Europe.
The air is commonly clear, and the country is as
healthy as any place in Europe, excepting only where
there are large Marshes or ponds of stagnated water,
which is dangerous for agues but we have not yet
seen one have the ague since we came to the
Country. The summer is pretty hot, but not to such a
degree as people at home are taught to believe. They
tell us the winters are mostly frosty, but clear, sun
shine weather, which prevents it from being so cold
as it would otherways be.
A
MERICAN
P
ATRIOT
Elizabeth and Alexander Thomson arrived at Boston
Harbor on September 10, 1771 with 11 children: William,
Agnes, Alexander, Archibald, Elizabeth, Margaret, Barbara,
Mary, John, Janet, Andrew and Ann. There would be two
additional children, James (1772) and Jane (1774).