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Kaskaskia, Randolph County, Ill. Dec 6, 1830

Brother Kimball, Your Letter of Oct 27, gave me pleasure. Though it has lain before me a week or two, I have neglected answering, hesitating how I could get the fullest, most inteligible, & correct answer before you. Facts which have fallen under my eyes, in travelling through the state 200 miles from North to south, some distance from East to West, up the Missippi, & thence up the Illinois River on its East side, in the sundy school service, together with those which I have obtained upon what I consider the best information, & my opinion respecting upon them, I could not communicate without filling a number of sheets. I am thinking of publishing a few numbers, before long, that is, as soon as I can possibly get time to write them, in the Newspaper of this place, in answer to your queries, If I should do this I will not fail to forward the papers containing the numbers [to?] you. In the meantime I will state what I can in this letter. My journey I consider prosperous, but a little more expensive than I had calculated. As I lingered in Ohio some weeks, my entrance into this region was in a season of the year, unfavorable to the health of newcomers. Yet I have not for some years enjoyed, for the same length of time, so good health, as since I left Dudley. And in this connection it ought to be borne in mind, that I had been of a strongly billious habit for 15 or 20 years, & frequently laid up for a day or two, by billious irregularity of the bowels, & yet I have not confined myself to the most healthy part of the country, but in my travels have taken it just as it came. My Daughters have enjoyed fine health, but they have been much more confined. My sons have had the fever & ague, but are now in good health. The past season, (& the sickly months are August, Sept. & Oct.) is extensively spoken of as more sickly, than any preceding season for a number of years. Yet I verily believe it has not been, excepting upon the Bottom lands, & in the neighborhood of creeks, more sickly than it ordinarily is in New England at the same season of the year. The country from the Eastern part of Ohio to the Missippi has undoubtedly a billious tendency. This is manifest in the countenances of the inhabitants. As soon as I entered Ohio, & so ever since, I saw less of the rose on the cheek, & more of a sallow appearance, than what prevails in the East....And almost every where in this widely extended region, the chill & fever are occasionally felt. But it is a poor country for Doctors. The fevers have a remarkable similarity; & may be treated with a good degree of safety in a very uniform