The winters can yet be counted, when they went
almost naked, when they procured their living
by fishing, and by the bow and arrow in hunt-
ing; and when they lived in houses no better
than yours. They were encouraged by some,
who came from towards the sun-rising, and
lived amongst them, to change their mode
of living. They did change; they cultivated the
earth; and we are sure the change was a happy
one.

Brothers and Friends,
We are not ashamed to acknowledge, that
the time was, when our forefathers rejoiced at
finding a wild plum-tree, or at killing a little
game, and that they wandered up and down,
living on the uncertain supplies of fishing and
hunting. But, brothers, for your encourage-
ment, we now mention, that by turning their
attention to the cultivation of the earth, instead
of the plum-tree, they soon had orchards, of
many kinds of good fruit; instead of the wild
game, they soon had large numbers of cattle,
horses, sheep, hogs, and other valuable ani-
mal; an in many places, instead of their fo-
rests, they had large fields of corn and of other
grain, as also of many other valuable produc-
tions of the earth.