. 'Swiss,
Swiss, Swiss!' exclaimed the landlord, in astonishment. 'Which of
the ten tribes are the Swiss?'"

Nor was this an unnatural remark. At this time Mr. Gallatin did not
speak English with facility, and indeed was never free from a foreign
accent.

At the little cafe they met a Swiss woman, the wife of a Genevan, one De
Lesdernier, who had been for thirty years established in Nova Scotia,
but, becoming compromised in the attempt to revolutionize the colony,
was compelled to fly to New England, and had settled at Machias, on the
northeastern extremity of the Maine frontier. Tempted by her account of
this region, and perhaps making a virtue of necessity, Gallatin and
Serre bartered their tea for rum, sugar, and tobacco, and, investing the
remainder of their petty capital in similar merchandise, they embarked
October 1, 1780, upon a small coasting vessel, which, after a long and
somewhat perilous passage, reached the mouth of the Machias River on the
15th of the same month. Machias was then a little settlement five miles
from the mouth of the stream of the same name. It consisted of about
twenty houses and a small fortification, mounting seven guns and
garrisoned by fifteen or twenty men. The young travelers were warmly
received by the son of Lesdernier, and made their home under his roof.
This seems to have been one of the four or five log houses in a large
clearing near the fort. Gallatin attempted to settle a lot of land, and
the meadow where he cut the hay with his own hands is still pointed out.
This is Frost's meadow in Perry, not far from the site of the Indian
village. A single cow was the beginning of a farm, but the main
occupation of the young men was woodcutting. No record remains of the
result of the merchandise venture. The trade of Machias was wholly in
fish, lumber, and furs, which, there being no money, the settlers were
ready enough to barter for West India goods. But the outlet for the
product of the country was, in its unsettled condition, uncertain and
precarious, and the young traders were no better off than before. One
transaction only is remembered, the advance by Gallatin to the garrison
of supplies to the value of four hundred dollars; for this he took a
draft on the state treasury of Massachusetts, which, there being no
funds for its payment, he sold at one fourth of its face value.

The life, rude as it was, was not without its charms. Serre seems to
have abandoned himself to