grapher of his friend Beauchamp. In a letter from Mt.
Carmel, of May 6, 1842, Hinde says: "I have just returned from the East,
having visited the Atlantic cities generally for the first time, after
forty-five years pioneering in the wilderness of the West. I have been
three times a citizen of Kentucky, twice of Ohio, and twice of Illinois."
Hinde died in 1846 and was buried at Mt. Carmel. Among his writings is
found one of the most acute analyses of frontier character that has
appeared. The writer points out that eastern ministers have often been
unsuccessful and eastern immigrants unpopular, because they have
underrated the people of the West, among whom there are many people of
culture. They prefer "the _useful_ to the shining or showy talent." In the
West the best work has been done by westerners. The English spoken in the
West is the purest to be found, because the various provincialisms of the
immigrants are mutually corrective. The Virginian, who retained his
unbounded hospitality, was the most prominent character in the West. "If
we expect to find on crossing the mountains a people either illiterate or
ignorant as a body, we will assuredly, in many instances, be happily
disappointed. It too often happens, that one puffed up with self
importance, and possessing a conceited and heated imagination, will form
wild conjectures as to men and things. We have been amused at the
bewildered minds of such, with the 'whys' and 'wherefores'; and one of the
most ridiculous whims of some, is to endeavour to press every thing into
their own _mould_; and shape it, be it what it may, if possible, after
their own manner, custom, or operation, forgetting that 'we have to take
the world as it is, and not as we would have it to be.' The fact is, an
emigrant should come forth as an inquirer, and set himself down to learn
at the threshold of experience. On this rock thousands have been injured,
and none have suffered more than the English emigrants. Oh! with what
poignant grief have I heard the English emigrant exclaim with the
bitterest invectives on his own course and conduct, as to this particular.
Conceiving that he knew every thing, when he came here to test his
experience, he soon found that he 'knew nothing.' This circumstance I have
found too to have its bearings upon American emigrants from different
states; upon families, upon individuals, and upon preachers also. How
often have I heard the old settler complaining, (who having hi