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I
SCIENCE  OF  BONE  SETTING.

             BY WATERMAN SWEET,

       NATURAL ANATOMIST AND BONE SETTER :
fn which the Author undertakes to prove, that Surgery and Anatomy are
   intuitive Sciences, and which can be understood only by those who
      have a talent for the profession, and are endowed by nature
          with the sufficient ability to discharge  the duties
             of one of the most complicated sciences
                      known to man.
<&'i-'Lu  . .\.i.-J-..*
*» $..
\>*
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              PROVIDENCE.
PRINTED FOR THF AUTHOR RY MARSHALL AND HAMMOND,
t-
1829.
                  SCHEME CTADY:                 m
RE-PRINTF.D FOR THF. AUTHOR RY S. S. RIGGS, \n. 10, UNION-STREET.
         >'
                         1833. 
•\

A 7* _
/ $33
• 
/
          TO THE AFFJJCTEP,

       WHEREVER THEY MAY BE FOUND,
THIS PAMPHLET IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND OBEDIENTLY DEDICATED,
                     BY THE AUTHOR,

               WATERMAN SWEET,

      SELF EDUCATED SURGEO& AND NATURAL BONE SETTER.
                                    I «
Of each and all of you, I respectfully solicit a kind and atten-
tive perusal of the essay I offer, and of the proofs I adduce, to
satisfy the world, that the science of Anatomy, maybe, and is
understood by those who have not been regularly graduated in
the hall of the physician.
  Providence, R. 1. April 10,1829. 

%        4
*; 
AN  ESSAY.
    .1*
   The man who shall venture to offer his professional services
 to the world, without being possessed of "a diploma from the
 College of Physicians at  Edinburgh,"  must calculate to  be
 assailed with  all the malevolence,' satire and ridicule of the
 "learned doctors;" and I am  prepared to receive and  repel
 all the odium  which may  be thrown at me.  I know that by
 the "profession" I shall be scouted; I shall be pronounced
 an impostor and a quack ;  but  since I am doubly fortified with
 proof, to sustain, and that too in the most satisfactory manner,
'my claims to eminence in the sciences of intuitive  and self-
 taught surgery and anatomy, I care not what my revilers say
 of me.  Whilst they, inflated with jealousy and grown arro-
 gant  with  the  possession of scholastic  honors, have  failed in
 their  attempts to follow the healing art,  I have succeeded ; and
 in numerous instances have been called upon to attend to cases
 which they had  abandoned  as hopeless.  Where they  have
 failed, I have  succeeded, as  will be shown by the certificates
 which I shall presently offer for the perusal and consideration
 of the public.                           ^
  Let it not be understood, that I  attempt to assert, that any
 man,  was ever by intuition, a practical  surgeon or anatomist;
 on  the contrary, I  only say,  that by  intuition we all of us,
 have  a taste for some particular science or  profession.   The
 painter, the poet, the machinest, the sculptor, all at an early
 age, evince a taste for the distinct professions they follow; by
 its impulses they are led onward, and he who never possessed
 an intuitive taste for any science, never succeeded in any thing.
 It is in vain that you may attempt to teach a man the art of 
                            I'»

 painting unless he possess a taste for it; he may tug and toil,
 and cudgel his brains, and though lie  may learn like a com-
 mon parrot, to imitate others, he will always be a mere daub-
 er !  Who ever knew a musician, who had not an ear for mu-
 sic—who  ever knew a painter, whose  eye  was not delighted
 with tints  and shades of the pencil; who ever knew a poet,
 who was not  a  worshipper at the  shrine of the muses, and a
 lover of the wild and sublime !   We must all have an intuitive
 taste for the profession we follow ;—and no man ever assumed
 the study  of  any science, who had not for it  an original and
 an intuitive predilection.
   As for  myself, I can speak  without  prejudice and  without
 egotism, when I say, that from an early day of my infancy, I
 had a predilection for the science of anatomy.   It was a study
 to which all  my family were  addicted  in a greater or less de-
 gree ;  and most if not all of them succeeded.
   With pleasure I assure the public, that, together with a mind
 directed to this peculiar study, the practice  of about forty
 years in different parts of America, and cases of almost every
 description that have come under my inspection, like all other
 sciences, is continually adding to my  faculty  in bone cases.
 Also, fron% a  child I have often been engaged in procuring and
 preparing  Roots and Herbs, and Bark, and have made .some
 use of them, as directed by my father, who, from my childhood
 has been a celebrated Bone Setter and Botanist; and is, per-
 haps, as successful as  most  men in his calling.   I also had
 theperusal of his ancient authors, as well as many of modern
 times :   But I do not wish to boast of any of my performances
 as boasting ought to  be excluded, and cures  and operations
 attributed  to the blessing of God, through  whose instrumen-
 tality I think  I may with confidence and propriety say, many
 have been benefitted by my  prescriptions and  operations:
 As such, I do not wish to irritate or hurt the finest or tender-
esf feelings of Physicians, or any of my fellow-men;  neither
do I by any means speak against cultivating talent or educa-
 tion, or the use of medical aid, or of apothecaries' medicine,
 in their proper place; but think the rich and fertile shores pro-
 ductive of its  own materials; and furnishes  medicine suited to
 the disorders  and difficulties that its inhabitants are subject to,
 under the  directions of the Supreme Being who endows by 
constant  impulses of mind, to search  diligently after, by wis
dom and education, to a knowledge  of procuring and using
for the benefit, and often, the  recovery of the health, repara-
tion and the proper use of our limbs.  And as I am taught
by experience no one man is endowed with all this knowledge;
but God has imparted such parts of these arts, knowledge and
science  to whom he please.  All may be useful in their own
parts of the sciences, as the  Lord  has given wisdom and un-
derstanding  to each one;  and  I think all  ought to be faithful
in their calling, and honest enough in  heart to tell their clients,
patients and employers, when called on  in that branch they do
not  know, to direct  them to those that do.  In so doing, all
might have employment in their own proper parts of the sci-
ences, in all  harmony and love; and answer that purpose for
which we were  intended by the great  Creator—by doing to
others as we would that others should do to us.  I desire not
to be understood by the former remarks, to speak against any
surgeon or regular bred physician, only to claim an indepen-
dent stand in those parts that I think Providence has assigned
me, under the laws of a land of christian light and liberty.
   To prove, that anatomy is an intuitive  science, I will quote
from a variety of authors, all of whom support me in my as-
sertions.
   The  Count La Sallee, in one of his papers addressed to
the Academy Des Arts at Paris, thus expresses himself in re-
lation to this interesting subject.  The paper is dated August
10,  1565.
   "In my travels through the wilds of America, I visited most
of the Indian tribes, which  populate the regions of the west.
I commenced my pilgrimage at the mouth of the St. Lawrence,    *
and ended it at the passes of the Mississippi.   A nobler race
of beings I never witnessed ; and I was surprised when I found
that though unacquainted with any of the sciences, they were
masters of the art of surgery.   During my travels I found  a
number of the aborigines, who had  been wounded and man-
gled in the wars, but I  never found  one who was in the least
deformed, by the fracture of bones,  and  the  numerous acci-
dents to which Indian  warfare is liable.   I  had noticed in
most of the hospitals of Europe, that but few  of the inmates,
who had been confined came out, without being lame and de- 
formed ; and when I recollected this, 1 expressed my astonish-
ment to the chiefs of the tribes that the invalids perfectly re-
covered the use of their limbs, and  did  not  bear  any of the
marks  of previous disaster.   To  my observations one of the
chiefs replied,  "you have men to mend limbs, who are taught
by men to do so ; we  obtain  our  knowledge from the  Great
Spirit.  We are perfect, for our knowledge comes  from the
clouds; yours comes from man only."  I confess that I was
thunder-struck with the reply; but I could not but  admit the
justice  and accuracy and pungency of the remark."
  The celebrated Missionary John  Zimmerman, as early as
the year  1620, made a voyage to Patagonia, under the au-
spices^f the Moravian church, and in one of his letters to the
Synod, took  an elaborate view of that people, and from the
which, we make the following extract. ,
  " 1  was not more  surprised than delighted to find among
this people, men  who  were  practically  and  theoretically ac-
quainted with  Surgery, though they were unacquainted with
the terms and phrases which are employed by civilized nations.
T inquired of  them how they become acquainted with the art,
their reply was our God forms not his mortals without intelli-
o-ence, and" he has  wisely ordained  that we should all possess
the capacity of supplying our wants.  He that formed us,  en-
dowed us with the  necessary knowledge to  enable us to heal
our wounds, and restore our fractured  bones."
   Such was the account that was given  of the Patagonians by
the pious Zimmerman ;  and if it be admitted, as it certainly
must,  that our common God blessed the Indian, can it be sup-
posed  that he is less favourable to the enlightened white man ?
   But I will not weary the  reader with an elaborate essay on
 a subject of this kind, since I am  satisfied, that  they will be
 convinced of my ability to practice in my profession, by the
 following  certificates which I have  received from a variety of
 our most respectable citizens, ladies and gentlemen of Provi-
 dence and its vicinity.  If any other proofs, than those  which
 I now adduce were necessary, I could produce them  ; but since
 I am  confident that those which I shall furnish, will prove en-
 tirely satisfactory, I shall  simply  offer the following  certifi-
 cates. 
CERTIFICATES.
  This is to certify that I, Deacon Benjamin Sweet of Johnston, in the state
of Rhode Island, and County of Providence, have for several years known
Mr. Waterman Sweet,  bone"setter, and have been a  witness to his decided
and complete success,  in a number of complicated and distressing cases.—
His operations, have in several instances been performed in my house, and
I do not  hesitate to recommend him  to the public, as proficient in the  art
which  he professes and practices.  From the decided success  which Mr.
Sweet has had for several years, as a friend of humanity and of publfc justice,
I do most heartily recommend him to the attention and employment of the
unfortunate.                                   BENJAMIN SWEET.
  Providence, March 19, 1829.
  I hereby certify, that about the month of July, 1827,  my  son  Stephen
Gardner, "fell from a  vessel to the wharf,  and split and fractured his leg
and put out his ankle, and wa3 very lame and would have been a cripple all
his days; but I called on Doct. Waterman Sweet,  who in  a very short time
set his  leg and ankle to  my entire satisfaction.  And I hereby do recom-
mend him as a  good Bone-Setter to any one who may have  bones out of
place, and have no doubt  from the knowledge I have of him and his family,
that his moral and religious character stand fair, and a man to  be depended
upon for truth and veracity.                      HENRY GARDNER.
  Newport, R. I. March 18th, 1829.
  I hereby certify, that I have seen Doct. Waterman Sweet set bones, and
that the above Certificate signed by Henry Gardner, is the truth, and that I
was an eye witness to the fact above stated, and believe Doct. Waterman
Sweet to understand setting, and has been very successful in many very
difficult cases.                               NATHANIEL SWEET.
  Newport, R. I. March 18th, 1829.
  We the undersigned have for many years been acquainted with the family
of the Sweets, and have seen them perform wonders far beyond what any
of our best Physicians could do  in the line of setting bones.  We do cheer-
fully recommend Doct. Waterman Sweet as a man on whom the fullest con-
fidence  may be placed as a man  of truth  and veracity,  and from what we
have  seen  of his  performances in the line of setting bones, and in particu-
lar in one case we saw Doct. Waterman Sweet set a leg and ankle that was
out and in  a very  bad state, about the month of July,  1827.  The young
man would have been a cripple all his days for what our physicians could
do, and we were faithless and unbelieving and prejudiced against them alto-
gether, but when  we saw with  our own  eyes  were obliged to believe Mr.
Sweet did set this young man's leg and ankle admirably well,  and we re-
solved never again to say or think that any of the physicians  can perform
theso operations like the Sweets.                 ABBY R. POTTER.
  Newport,  March 18th, 1829.                     HENRY GARDNER. 
10
  This may certify/that I Richard Sweet of the town of Johnston, dislocat-
ed my ankle about three years ago, I called on a regular Physician and he
said my ankle was only strained,  and as Waterman  Sweet was passing by
I called  him in,  as I could not bear any weight at all on my feet, but had to
go on crutches, and he said it was dislocated, and set it, and 1 could walk
immediately, and did not use them since it got well immediately.
          J                                    RICHARD SWEET.
  Mr. John Hunt of Fall River came here in February, 1827, with a lame-
ness upon him in consequence of having dislocated his shoulder in Septem-
ber 1826;  the doctors had told him that it was not out although he continued
lame and by my advice he applied to Mr. Waterman Sweet who pronounced
it out,  and immediately  placed it  in its proper place, from  which moment
he experienced relief, and in about a fortnight a perfect cure, and the entire
use of his  arm.   He had previously consulted four  Doctors in the vicinity of
his place of residence, but experienced no relief from them.  Mr. Sweet has
also within a few days placed an ankle of my son, which had been out two
years, and effected an immediate and perfect cure.    WM. T. PULLEN.
  Providence, March 20,  1828.
  This is to certify, that my child James Augustus, was for sixteen months
troubled with a lame leg, and was so much annoyed by it that he could not
walk.  Whilst it was in this distressing situation, I applied to Doctors Mau-
ran and Miller, of this town, for professional aid.  They both agreed in say-
ing that no bone was out of place, and were of opinion that an abcess or tu-
mor was gathering on the thigh,  and recommended the application of blis-
ters.  I complied with these instructions for several months, and being sat-
isfied that the child was undergoing unnecessary  torture,  I abandoned the
process.   In this stage of the  affair, I called on Doctor Waterman  Sweet,
natural Bone Setter, and requested his opinion.  After a moment's examina-
tion, he informed me that the child's thigh was out of joint, and said that he
could replace it, though he was not  certain that a positive cure  could be  ef-
fected.  He, however, performed an operation, and I am happy to say that
the boy is fast recovering, and, as I hope, will in a very short time possess
the original and complete use of  his  limbs.
  I do  further certify, that my  son,  William Henry Carder, by misfortune
displaced the two large joints of his thumb, and that on application to Doc-
tor Sweet, they were replaced without delay, and the boy is now perfectly
well.                                                WM. CARDER.
  This may certify, that I have been acquainted with Mr. Waterman Sweet
for several  years, and that he has boarded with me four  winters in succes-
sion, which has afforded me  sufficient opportunities to witness his operations
on dislocated joints and broken bones, to the general satisfaction of all those
who have called on him for  assistance, and others of his acquaintanc who are
satisfied that he is a natural Bone Settee.        JESSE AMSBURY.
  February, 1829, I fell from a two story house, broke my arm, put out my
elbow, both wrists, and both thumbs.  I called on Waterman Sweet, and he
replaced them to my satisfaction; and I have got well so as  to be about my
work.                                        CALEB WHITFORD
  Providence, February 28, 1£29. 
1]
  This may certify, that I dislocated my shoulder the 7th of January , and  1
called on Waterman Sweet a few days after, and he replaced it.  It has got
well,  so that I have been  some time to work, and it does not hurt me :  I
consider  it well.                                    SARAH WOOD.
  Providence, March 19, 1829.                    ^
  This may certify, that I dislocated my wrist, and after suffering great dis-
tress, in consequence of it, about four weeks, I called on Waterman Sweet,
and after his operation  on it, I immediately found  relief from pain.  It  has
been gaining ever since, and I now consider it well.
                                                 SUSAN JORDAN.
  Providence,  Feb. 1829.
  Hearing that there was a controversy between the  Physicians of Provi-
dence and Mr. Waterman Sweet, bone setter, and having tried the profes-
sional skill of Mr. Sweet, I here beg leave to state facts as they are.
  About  one month  since,  my ancle joint  was put out by a fall,  and my
friends advised me to call on a very eminent physician of this town: I did
so, and he examined my leg and pronounced, that there was no bone out.  I
paid him  for his services and dismissed him.   It continued to pain  me very
much, and being confined to my room, I was prevailed upon to employ Dr.
Sweet.   When he looked at my leg, he pronounced,  in  one moment,  that
there were two bones out of joint.  He went to work, and in about five min-
utes he set both bones ; and I was able immediately to walk without crutch-
es, before which I could not walk,  or even touch my foot to the ground.  1
do believe him to be  the greatest bone setter in the  United States.
                                              PATRICK BAXTER.
  I hereby certify, that my wife, Mrs. Mary L. SouthworHi, more than three
years ago, injured her foot, and displaced a bone, and for nearly two years
was scarcely able to walk.   I consulted the most eminent surgeons, and they
united in saying that  there  was  no  bone  displaced.   In December last,
contrary  to  my wishes, a friend invited Mr. Waterman Sweet to examine
the foot; he declared there  was a bone out, and immediately replaced it.
From that day to this Mrs. Southworth has been as able to walk as she ever
was. and suffers no inconvenience from her foot.
                                 SYLVESTER S. SOUTHWORTH.
  Providence, April 2, 1829.
  Wc, the subscribers, residents of the County of Montgomery, in the State
of New-York, do herebv certify, that we have for several years known Mr.
Waterman Sweet, and'have always heard him spoken of as a man of good
moral character, and as a successful practitioner in the art of bone setting.
Having every confidence in  his ability and skill, we recommend him to the
attention of those who are so unfortunate as to dislocate their joints,  or
fracture their bones.                         JOHN S. SCHUYLER,
iracture meir u                              JUBEL LIVERMORE.
                                           ISAAC JACKSON.
  Florida, April \, 1829. 
12
  I do hereby certify, that Waterman Sweet set a bone in my ankle, which
was dislocated, and from that day I have not been annoyed with it, or *in"
dured any pain.   I also certify, that my two daughters, Frances T. R. Wa-
terman and Betsey WatermaD, availed themselves of his  professional  aid.
Frances had her knee dislocated, and it had remained so for several  weeks,
when I called on Mr.  Waterman  Sweet, and he set it in a few moments,
and she is now well.  My daughter Betsey was unfortunate enough to dis-
locate her hip, knee and ankle, all of which joints were set by Doctor Sweet
in a little time, and she is now in the perfect enjoyment of her limbs.  My
grandson, Daniel  Steere, also availed himself of  Mr. Sweet's services, when
having dislocated his ankle, and it was immediately restored.  From the
knowledge I have had of Mr. Sweet, and the success that he has had in my
immediate family, I, as well as mv daughters and grandson, do recommend
him to the patronage and attention of all who are so unfortunate as to re-
quire the services of a bone setter or surgeon ; and in fulfilment of this wish
have hereunto set our hands.                  DANIEL WATERMAN,
                                           BETSEY WATERMAN,
                                           F. T.  R. WATERMAN,
  •                                        DANIEL STEERE.
  Johnston, April U, 1829.
  I hereby certify, that rising of seven years past, I had the thigh, knee and
ankle of my left leg dislocated so far that my thigh and ankle bones were
entirely out of place, and the joints stiff, my knee moved partly out of joint
but not entirely stiff.  Sundry able surgeons were employed  at the time,
from whom I received no benefit, and I despaired of ever again having the
use of my joints or* a sound leg, until a short time since,  when I  heard  of
Waterman Sweet, the bone setter,  whom I immediately employed,  and
after following his directions a few days he replaced my ankle ; cheered by
the success  and the fond anticipation of having my joints restored to their
former use, I cheerfully  awaited the result, which in a  few days terminated
for the better; he replaced my thigh and knee without  causing but very lit-
tle, pain compared no what I anticipated, or had undergone heretofore ; it has
now been about four weeks since, and I can walk without limping; but
very little previous my leg was about two inches shorter than the other ;  it
is now nearly as long and  bids fair to become sound. The benefit I have al-
ready received is considerable, and cannot be better appreciated than by an
unfortunate cripple, previously doomed by the ablest surgeons  to wear out
this life with a stiff leg and dislocated jqints, again being restored to active
life.                                          JOSEPH  A. CHEDEL.
  Providence, March 6, 1829.
  The person whose name is attached to the above certificate, bavins lived
with me  for some  time  past, I do  hereby attest and  certify that his°ankle
knee and thigh bones were dislocated as above described, thereby rendering
that leg considerably shorter than the other, and the joints almost useless.  I
further certify, that I was present at the  time that said Sweet replaced'his
thigh bone, and that it is now in its proper place, and  appears to be in a fair
way to become well and sound.  Considering the length of time  that said
bones have been displaced, I consider the act of replacing them  one of rare
and uncommon performance, and the person who performed it, to be one of
superior skill in his profession, and on whom all persons  that are afflicted
with broken and dislocated bones can safely depend.
                                           WILLARD  A. HANDY.
  Providence, R. I. March 6th, 1 &2rJ. 
13
  I hereby certify, that I moved a joint in my neck by a turn of my head
to pin my clothes, which gave me pain and distress, and I could not raise
my head erect.  I called on Waterman Sweet and he replaced it, so that I
soon got well.                          PRUDENCE BAXTER.
  North Providence, Feb. 20, 1829.
  In consideration of the short pilgrimage of man here, and
the certainty of death, and uncertainty of long life, as well as
some weighty impulses of mind of the necessity of being useful
to my fellow creatures in tne most useful science, in benefitting
the unfortunate and distressed; that not only the rich, but the
poor of  the land might experience ease and restoration of
broken bones and dislocated joints, as most people have been
on whdm I have performed operations.  For about five months
the number  on which I have operated, has been about two
hundred  and fifty bones out of joint, including a few broken
bones, as my memorandum of names  and different joints in
these  regions, from new cases to that from five to ten years
standing, as informed by patients, very few have been unsuc-
cessful, by  the blessing of God, which encourages me, by par-
ticular desire of a large number of the respectable  inhabitants
of Providence and its vicinity, from the Governor of the State
down to jthose poor  as  to property, to take up my residence
here,  as  much as  I consistently can, to wait on all who may be
pleased to  call  on me,  as a servant  to the public.   The poor
may receive equal benefit as the rich, who call at my office, on
moderate terms—if very poor, gratuitous.  The above certifi-
cates I adduce  to the public,*on the above conditions, for the
benefit of the unfortunate, and the answer of a good conscience
to God and man.  I  have more certificates on  hand, if more
reference is desired; and many  more I expect soon to receive
from those who were my patients a long  time ago.
   Permit me just to say to  the public,  that I have been,  al-
though in my feeble and unlearned way, trying to preach Christ
and him crucified,  about twenty years, by being licenced  by
different  churches in the Baptist order, and to exhort and pray
men, in  Christ's  stead, to be reconciled  to  God; and I  still
feel willing my  tongue should  bear his part in proclaiming that
crospel which I  trust I have not received of  man; neither  by
man but bv the Holy Ghost, whether man will hear or forbear. 
                          14
  I submit my pamphlet to the consideration and perusal of
the public, with my most sincere thanks to the people for the
patronage they have shown me in these regions, and to who-
ever these lines may come.
    I subscribe myself your most obedient servant,
                          WATERMAN SWEET.
  Providence, May, 1829.                       u~i~ 
On the 24th of February, 1831, in the city of New-York, by particular impul-
  ses of mind, I began the work of writing and publishing a Narrative of
  my Life and Adventures, up to the present  time.
                     PREFACE

   To the Life lutd Adventures of Waterman Sweet.

  By my short narrative, I do not intend to make any entirely
new disclosures, or to display any great talents, for I profess no
scientific acquirements.   Having been brought up in the coun- >
try most of my days, I have had but little time or opportunity
to  acquire  an education, being  bred  to  the farming busi-
ness in the wilds of the state of New-York/as I shall hereafter
show.   By peculiar and constant impulses of mind on  this
subject, I trust directed or influenced by the good Spirit of the
Lord, to take my pen in  hand to give  as concise a narrative as
the Lord may  enable me from memory,  having never kept a
journal in any degree.   I trust my only  motive in view is the
glory of God and the good of my fellows in life, both in tem-
poral and spiritual blessings,  by disclosing my own  experience
in natural and spiritual things, as blessings and crosses and tri-
als have opened  to  my  view,  may have a tendency to bring
past experience to present view, solely for the  mutual good,
happiness and satisfaction of those who may be induced  to
give this treatise a  reading.   May the blessing of the great
I AM attend the communications for present and future bene-
fit, to all who may peruse the same.
    I subscribe myself, an Obedient Servant to a grateful and
       most Respected  Public, to which  I am indebted for
       patronage in  a science most useful to humanity and res-
       toration of dislocated limbs, being  a native of Rhode
       Island,
                             WATERMAN SWEET. 
V
NARRATIVE.
  Courteous Reader: —
         I Now pen a few reflections of past experience, for the
  perusal of those who may think proper to give it a perusal and ,
  examination.  I hope it may not have a tendency for the worse,
  but the better, while I undertake to set  forth the place of ray
  nativity, my parentage,  progress and adventures in life to the *
  present time, hoping  that the blessing of the Most High may
  attend the manuscript for present and future well being to my
> fellows and superiors  in life.
    I  proceed to speak of my parentage.   My father was born
  in Warwick, R. I.  While an infant, my  grandfather, Matthew
  Sweet, removed to Smithfield, six  miles north of Providence
  Plantation, where he was brought up to  the farming business,
  till he saw-fit to take to the study of phyisc and surgery, being
  possessed of the science of naturaf bone setting, as well as his fa-
  ther and ancestors before him.   His name was Samuel Sweet.
  My  mother was born in North Providence,  about four miles
  out of Old Providence.  She was a  daughter of Nathaniel
  Waterman—her name was Hannah Waterman.   They were
  married about the year, 1792.   Their first child was a daugh-
  ter,  who did not long survive.  After whom, in 1796, the 8th *
  day  of April, I was born, in  the town of Johnston, R.I. about
  six miles northwest of Providence, of poor parentage.  As my
  parents inform me, they began their career in life bare handed,
  as the saying is, yet  respected as citizens, and of a reputable
  character, which  they have ever sustained, both moral and re-
  ligious, to a good old age.   Father is in the eighty-third year  ^
  of his age, and  mother in the eighty-sixth,  now alive.  In  the*
  Revolution, my father moved to'Woodstock,  (Conn.)  when I
  was  an infant, where I first came to a knowledge of time and
  things.  After  a short  time he removed  to. Pomfret in  the
  state aforesaid, and from thence to Killingly, one year from
  that time, in February before  peace was declared.  In  May,
  father removed to the city  of Newport, R. I. where we re- 
17
\mained six years, and my father followed the coasting business
in the river and to Virginia and Carolina for a livelihood, a9
by  the depreciation of  paper  money he lost most he had ac-
cumulated before, times being hard.  Although my father, by
prudence and frugality in business, had bought half a  house,
and owned a small sloop, which he sold and bought a third of
a larger one, and built a quarter of a sloop of ninety tuns,  as
times were, and property depreciated, he thought best  to sell
all he had at a sacrifice, and try the wilds Of New-York for an
assylum or residence.  When he had collected all his property
together he had only five hundred  dollars to take  with  him,
and that in West India goods, as money was so scarce lie could
procure scarcely enough to move with.   We set sail for a wil-
derness about forty miles north of Albany,  designated as Kay-
aderosseras Patent, where he had previously made a purchase
of what he thought the ^most fertile soil laying on or near the
said creek.   The interval was covered with alder bushes, the
upland with hemlock and  spruce, mixed with various other
kinds of timber.  When  we came to clear it up and cultivate
it, it proved cold sand land, very different from our expecta-
tion.    By this time my father had expended about half the
goods he had started with.  Being subject to frost, he was
discouraged in a great measure, having lost our summer's la-
bor by early frost, which occasioned a  great scarcity of bread
in this new place.  Having labored hard to save a large fallow
of wheat, which at harvest was so blasted that we hardly reaped
the seed, he was still more discouraged.  Our new habitation
differed much from the dwelling we had left at Newport, which
was a comfortable one.   When we arrived at our new home
we  found a  log or block house, put  up of logs in this state,
twenty-two feet square, and covered shed fashion with ash and
elm bark, bound on with poles ; the under  floor of bass-wood
logs split in halves and laid down and dotted so as to get about
on them : there was no chimney, hearth,  or even  stone back,
and no door nor a pane  of glass.   Here we lived from spring
till  cold weather came on,  when  we made  some alterations
to protect us against the  cold.  This building he erected  in a
fortnight, while his family remained at Ballston. As I pass on,
I will relate the fortune of our passage  to Albany.  We had a
short  passage to New York ; it blowed a gale, and in twenty-
             3 
h-
six hours from Newport wc  arrived at New-York in  safety,
being, however, very sea-sick.  After a few days we set  sail for
Albany, andhaving head winds and no real pilot we grounded,
if my memory serves, nine times before we arrived at Albany,
being nine days on the river.   Soon after we left New-York,
my father, while trying to get some fresh shad one evening,
staid on the fishing ground late and got wet, and was taken
with the pleurisy, which nearly proved  mortal.  But the Lord
spared  him to take care of us, my mother and three brothers,
of whom I was the oldest.  After much trouble and fatigue,
we arrived at our new  habitation in  the wilderness; almost,
as we might say, the outside  house in our course as far as we
knew towards Canada.   Here we suffered hardships, trouble,
cold  and hunger.  In the great severity, my father by some
means  obtained  five  dollars, and went to Lansingburgh and
bought five bushels of Virginia corn, and hired some  one  to
take  it to the red mills in Milton,  as  now called, ten miles
from home.   He, knowing the situation he left the family in,
got a bushel of corn ground and brought it home on his back,
to our great  comfort and satisfaction, as  we* had not had a
mouthful of bread for three days,, to the best of my recollection,
and  there was but one  horse that could be had to go to mill
within  our acquaintance,  as  they were very scarce, and that
was  a  mile and a half, as we called it, out of the  woods, and
a road  but just cut through, and many mud holes that a horse
or an ox could not pass without miring.  Father had obtained
a yoke of oxen and one cow, bartering some goods for them ;
and while moving in the woods he mired his oxen down several
times,  and we were  obliged  to carry  a considerable portion
of our goods, part or all the way for a mile and a half,  on
our backs.   The first summer it took a great deal of labor to
make a road  passable at all,  for we who were new  settlers had
to make about one third of the way cross-ways, or lay bridges  ,
to pass with sleds and oxen,  which were, in a manner, all the"
carriages we had; and all the way we could do to  pay for any
land there was to begin a new place and make a little clearing
and  sell it and begin another and sell that, and at last  in that
dreary, wild, and hardest new settlement we ever have  known
to begin in,  we  were  enabled to pay,  after hard struggling
about  nine years, for a hundred acres of poor land that would
scarcely bear any wheat anc[ not very good for  grass, corn and 
10
'»'■>'e,  Oats, Sic. we  could  raise, although it was very heavy
clearing.  We obtained at last a very comfortable support, al-
though  my father  was the  most part  of his time from home,
leaving me, though young, to drive the business and take care
of the family.   His doctoring and business abroad took up a
considerable portion  of his time, but when at home, being a
stout and healthy man, he did as much work as any other.
   But here I pause,  and go back to the autumn of the second
year after we arrived at the place before mentioned,  now cal-
led Greenfield,  Saratoga County.
   I here state my father's second undertaking in  the wilds of
America, to  procure a support or livelihood for himself and
family.   As I before  mentioned,  he was  disheartened about
living where he was at that time—all the talk was about going
to Genesee as a lubber land ; but it was  so far and no road
cut a great part of the way, many were afraid  to  go.  But fa-
ther being a resolute man and void of fear, determined on go-
ing to explore the new world, as it was called by many.  Ac-
cordingly he set out in October, 1790, if my  memory  serves,
and went on from Utica by marked trees,  taking his lodging
in wigwams with the natives, who were very kind and humane.
He made his way through by the assistance of some Indian pi-
lots, till he arrived at Canandaigua lake,  where now stands a
large and elegant village, where he  found but one white family,
that of  a Mr. Smith, who had been some  years  with the na-
tives.   However,  he,  it seems, found  General Israel Chapen,
a land holder, of whom he purchased  a mile square of land,
situate on both  sides  of the outlet of the said lake, about two or
three miles from the lake, in No. 10, in the second range, now
called Gorham,  at fifty cents per acre.  Having retained in store
two hundred and fifty dollars  worth of his West-India goods at
Albany, he turned them out in payment towards the purchase.
The next season  he went on to commence a clearing of his
new and distant uncultivated farm-  With many difficulties and
inconveniences  he effected a small clearing and sowed it with
wheat and had a decent crop.   Provisions the first season were
scarce,  being carried in by water and otherwise, till some
was raised, and then there was no mill much  nearer than the
Jemima  mills at the Crooked Lake, some forty  miles distant.
After harvest,  the inhabitants there who had  secured their
'jrops, clubbed together, and some two or  three  men went to 
                           20
the mill with from four to six oxen, as well as they could, there
being but poor roads through  the woods.  But people flocke°
into that wilderness like birds of the forest.   Soon mills and
conveniences in  life  were  erected,  and soon  provisions were
plenty.  Yet it seemed to be unhealthy ; the fever and ague and
lake fevers  were  prevalent, and sometimes there were hardly
well ones enough to take care of the sick, as my father has in-
formed me.   The  natives  were scattered through the woods,
in wigwams, hunting their prey; yet they seemed  generally
friendly.  The wilds of that region abounded in wild beasts of
prey of almost every kind, too tedious to mention.   Fowling
and fishing were pretty good, which were of great use  to help
other provisions  in a wild so  far from inhabitants, then  con-
sidered  almost out of the  world by many whose fears of In-
dians and sickness far distant from home, made the old proverb
good—" Fear kills one half and natural affection the other;"
yet many, like my father, took their lives in their hand, and the
small effects they had, and pressed on to seek an assylum in
this new found land, and nearly all prudent and industrious
people soon obtained  a comfortable living;  while men  of a
speculating and  discerning mind soon made themselves rich or
independent by the rise of lands or agriculture, who survived
till naturalized  to the climate ; for  the soil was  fertile and
brought forth abundantly.   In this new world my father trav-
eled  back  and forth on foot,  and worked at clearing and other
business seven seasons—leaving me, though young, in care of
the family  and farm  during the summers,  one year excepted,
in  which he took me with him, intending to  move during the
following winter.  But this was the second season he went on,
and for some reason, he said fear of sickness, he gave up mov-
 ing and came and took me home to take care of the business
 there,  while he went back to work, as we were low in funds
 and  money was scarce.  As my father  informed me,  he suf-
 fered hunger, cold, and, at several different times, nearly per-
 ished in storms, and sometimes losing his way and getting in
 swamps, having large streams to cross in  the woods, either
 by fording or finding large trees or drifts of trees to cross on,
 he was in great jeopardy,  it being cold weather.  At these
 times he thought he must perish, and no doubt he would had
 he not been a man  of robust stature and constitution  and full
 of courage.  He pressed  on through dangers  and difficulties 
21
 almost insurmountable, and yet survives with me in Florida,
 Montgomery County, N. Y. in the eighty-third year of his age,
 and my mother in her eighty-sixth.  After raising a family,
 suffering the hardships of a new country,  they still  enjoy  as
 good health as can be expected in advanced age ; though my
 father had the  misfortune to lose his natural sight twelve years
 since, which is a great affliction ; and  my  mother has become
 hard of hearing—yet they have  the view of their Redeemer,
 and seek by faith and hope  for a  building  prepared  for them
 not made with  hands, a habitation eternal in the heavens, that
 fadeth not away, which buoys up the aged and comforts youth.
   Once more: I will relate  some further  sketches  of my fa-
 ther's trials and adventures.   After his beginning in  the wilds
 of Genesee, it was ascertained; as levelled by Miller Pitts, that
 there was a site for mills on the outlet nearest of consequence
 ever could be.   Father not  being in funds  to build alone, was
 solicited by Gen. Chapen'*  son Francis,  to take a partner,
 each  half,  and father to do  all he could;  and if said Chapen
 paid more,  he  was to have a chance to pay as he  might  be
 able.  All being agreed on, they went to work to build  a saw-
 mill—got the  frame  for  dam and  mill by mistake or oth-
 erwise,  unknown  to  father.   When the  foundation of the
 dam was laid and a few posts set up, father told the chief mill-
 wright that he had not framed the dam according to agreement
 —it is  eighteen inches too  high.  He  was  very angry, and
 they had  a high dispute.  When measured and the contract
 examined,  it proved  as father said.  Mr.  Chapen being  from
 home, as agent among the  Indians, he  stopped  all hands till
 Mr. Chapen's return, and then told him the chief mill-wright
 had gone contrary  to agreement and  had  stopped raising till
 he returned,  as he  feared the fall *vas not  sufficient  to admit
 that height—it would overflow too much  land.   He seemed
 miffed and  said, it is right—put it up.   According to  agree-
 ment, either party,  being dissatisfied, was to give the other the
 refusal.  Accordingly father told him he was ready to s*ell and
the chance was his first, to which  he readily agreed.
  Capt. Chapen purchased five hundred acres of the land for
five hundred and twenty-four pounds.  The dam being raised
and covered, overflowed a large  tract of land up the outlet,
and also raised Canandaigua lake some one or two feet.  In
consequence of which, it destroyed the mill site, and he had  to 
22
 move it lower down the outlet.  My father then purchased two
 farms in the town of Florida, Montgomery county, on which
 we resided some  years.   He being  a  man  of a  speculative
 mind, thought best to erect a grist and saw-mill on one of the
 farms, having there a site; which, had it proved as anticipat-
 ed, would have been  a decent fortune.   But to our great
 disappointment, after we had erected them, the foundation be-
 ing blue clay instead of rock, the'floods came and destroyed
 our dam, which occasioned us, as we nuilt in partnership,  a
 loss of  some fifteen hundred dollars :  this was a great discou-
 ragement to me, just beginning the concerns of life. However
 with a blessing, we surmounted the loss, and by prudence and
 industry increased in property, and are yet alive.
   Here I  pause  and say,  perhaps  some may wonder at  my
 giving a short narrative of my father's progress in life; if so,
 permit me to say, it seemed expedient  that I might more clear-
 ly discover the dispensations of God  to me, as I have been
journeying on in life.
   I now proceed  to give a narrative  of my own  experience,
 from  memory and observation, hoping it may not be as water
 spilled upon the ground, that cannot be gathered up, or bene-
 fit to the use of by-standers, nor  allay the traveler's thirst.—
 May the blessing of God attend it for comfort and edification.
   As I remarked,  in the beginning of this narrative, 1 was
 born in  the town of Johnson, R. I. about six miles from Pro-
 vidence.  At the commencement of the revolution,  my father
 removed to Woodstock, Conn, before my remembrance, where
 I first came to the knowledge of time and things.
   As afflictions, perhaps, are as soon realized as any thing of
 experience, both  with the  aged and youth, I recollect being
 sorely afflicted with the phthisic, that often caused my  parents
 to think of my dissolution and yet  spared:  at times I was seiz-
 ed violently with the sick head-ache, seemingly more than any
 youth could bear,  which, as tender parents feel, often caused
 much sympathy, regret and anxiety.  I recollect hearing them
 say,  the child  cannot  live through  many more such turns,
 which, like all children, caused fears of sudden death in my
 mind.  Here I must remark, although it is a common thing for
the most tender parents to express their minds before small
 children on such subjects,  if rightly considered, had better be
expressed  to each  other alone, as little ears hear and under- 
23
stand such expressions, and sensibly realize them coming from
parents: but this, by observation, is only intended as a cau-
tion, to show these  representations increase afflictions rather
than abate them.   I very  well remember the anxiety of my
dear and  most affectionate parents on  my account.  Every
means and all care and pains were no doubt taken by them to
preserve life, comfort and ease,  and the blessings of God at-
tended in  preservation.   Permit me, as simple as it may seem
to some, to relate a saying I often heard my father and mother
mention, of a dream they had a little before my birth, respect-
ing me, that ever seemed fresh in their minds,  as  though the
Lord had some peculiar work for me to perform, and what it was
they yet seemed to be pondering in their minds about, waiting
to see the Lord's will made manifest.^ When between four and
five years of age, my parents moved  to  Pomfret,  Conn, at
which time religious tenets were rigorously used and burdens
laid on by the standing orders,  more than at the present time.
But it seemed the Lord passed through that town,, and a num-
ber of converts were hopefully, spiritually born into the  king-
dom of God's  grace, which caused great excitement.  It hap-
pened to be that some joined with the  then despised Baptists,
with  whom  my father and mother joined in membership.—
Although it may seem singular for me to mention the circum-
stance, referring to myself, yet I feel it my duty to mention it,
not as any thing referring to  myself as tribute, being an infant,
but to show how the Lord makes a display of his goodness,
and through the  smallest means.  Even  babes and sucklings
are used to perfect praise, to the  astonishment of the  wise and
great.   My father, like most young men in the beginning of the
business of life, thought but little of a future state.  He came
in one morning to breakfast and took me on his lap ; and as
children are often inquiring of their parents about their busi-
ness,  I said  to  him, Father, what are you going to  do to-day ?
He said to me, I  am going to do such a piece of work to-day if
I live.  I said to him, and what  are you going to do if you
don't live ?  as children  often talk to their parents ; and the
Lord was pleased to cause those words to become an arrow
that reached his heart.  It was a thought he never  before had
realized, and it had  a tendency to  bring him  to most serious
considerations of death, judgement and eternity.   He could not
rest, day nor night, till he found peace in believing on a bless- 
24
ed Savior.   This occurence, together  with others, had a sol
emn and a weighty effect upon the mind of my mother, and
she was brought to confess and acknowledge the goodness of
the blessed Savior, and in a short time they both were baptised
by  immersion  in the Quinebaug river, confessing their sins.
As  I well recollect, my father carried me in his arms to the
water side, in the presence of a large concourse of people, as-
sembled to witness a ceremony which was then of rare occur-
rence.   My parents ever since that time have had a good stand-
ing in the Baptist  denomination, even to the good old age of
eighty-two and eighty-five.  May the Lord make their last days
their happiest, and at last grant them an abundant entrance in-
to that rest where the  wicked  cease from troubling and the
weary are at rest.
  From thence my father*, having sold his farm, moved to Kil-
lingly,  where we  remained one year,  and then moved to the
city of Newport, in February, before  the close of the  revolu-
tion, where I was put to school and made all the proficiency I
could.   My father followed the seas.  We lived here  six years,
in which time a reformation took place in Newport and various
other places, called by the name of the New; Light  Religion.
As I used to go to meeting often with my parents and friends
serious impressions of the concerns of another world,  and fears
of death in an unprepared statecame frequently upon  my mind,
though I was but a child.  These impressions,  however, soon
wore off.  I went to school  till I was about twelve years of
age, and then we moved to Saratoga, N- Y. on Kayaderosseras
Patent, then called, in the wilderness.  Since that time I have
been to school but five days.   While  in  Newport I was re-
spected as a child by old and  young, as much so, at least, as
common.   When we arrived at  our new habitation in the
wilds of New-York, the pleasing scenes of a city and sea shores
which were amusing to youth, were banished.   The difference
of situation, of buildings, from a good house to the one above
described, was surely melancholy, as well as the difference with
a child, from school to hard work  and hard  fare and the wil-
derness to roam in for miles to find our cattle.  Another boy
and myself, our cows being wonted to go together, would often
go miles to find them, without road or path  to  follow.  The
reduced circumstances we were in, as I have before related,
together with the cares of business usual in life, made it neces- 
                            25
 sary for my father to be gone much of his time, and I was oft-
 en left  for weeks together in care of what business we had, al-
 though small at that time, as I  was the oldest I had to see  to
 all as far as I could.
   At this time I used to be inclined to go to meeting, as a great
 excitement had taken  place, fulfilling  the scriptures—"The
 wilderness and the solitary places rejoiced and blossomed as the
 rose,"   Converts were greatly multiplied and old saints were
 rejoicing with joy unspeakable  and full of glory.  Being often
 seriously affected, being deluged in tears and under great con-
 cern about my poor sinful  soul, I often wept in secret places
 and often conversed with my parents, and with  ministers and
 members of the church.  Some would say to me, I think you
 must have experienced  religion ; but that gave me no satisfac-
 tion at  all.  Though I  often thought my greatest desire was to
 know and experience the love of a blessed Savior, yet my heart
 seemed hard, and although I liked the company of christians,
 I  was  yet sensible that there  was a lack in me that others
 felt not, and my cry was—Lord, bring me to see and feel those
 heart-cheering evidences that others  express.  But they  were
 still hid from  me, and I felt  that even though, all my  friends
 had an evidence that I  had  met with a change it would do me
 no good, unless I felt that love  in my own heart spoken of in
 scripture.  Although I  was  a stranger to vital and experimen-
 tal religion, I learned from the bible that it consisted in loving
 God supremely  and our neighbors as ourselves.   This love I
 felt destitute of, as it seemed to me to be a hard thing for any
 one to be in possession  of,  for as self-love reigned in all seem-
 ingly, so even in professors I thought I could discover it; and
 not being willing to deceive  myself or to deceive others, I pon-
 dered these things in my heart,  waiting for light to open to my
 mind, if it was  the Lord's will  it might.   Before this it had
 been said in my hearing, and through others, by ministers and
 deacons and some  others who had been acquainted with me,
 and had observed my sobriety  and modesty and deportment,
 " Waterman must have met with a change of mind or have been
 sanctified from the womb."   Being young it sometimes seemed
 to prompt me  to think that I was, perhaps, almost if not alto-
 gether  a christian.  I have  not  the least reason to suppose if I
 had made application but 1 might have been received as a mem-
ber of the church ; but I then had this view of a change, that, 
20
 if a person met with a change, a light from  heaven,  or some
 great noise and some very signal instance of Providence must
 take place, in view of a true convert, in the things of nature, to
 give sufficient evidence, as is often the view of those under con-
 viction, forgetting the small, still voice of the Almighty that is
 spoken of, that whispers peace to the troubled conscience, and
 says, Peace, be still and know that I am God.   After quite a
 reformation, and a goodly number had united and formed a
 Baptist church, the excitement ceased, and the enemy came in.
 Difficulties arose, as is often the case in other places so in the
 wilderness of Kayaderosseras, now Greenfield, Saratoga county.
 A sifting time came on after harvest, and some were turned out,
 others under trials, while it seemed that the love of many had
 waxed cold.  The prospect to my view appeared very different
from what it had a short time previous, and I, by observation,
could discover but little difference in appearance between pro-
fessors and other people, and, as others often are, I was look-
ing for perfection, at least in christians, although I have never
 as yet found it  to the present day, but I find that all come
 short of what unbelievers are  looking to see.
  My mind seemed to be in  consternation,  and was  puzzled
 what to think of these things-   If religion  was  of so  happy a
 nature as spoken of by them who professed it, how it was pos-
 sible that some so soon turned aside, and the gold became dim
 and the most fine gold  changed,  was a matter of trial to my
 mind, and I became careless and more thoughtless and uncon-
 cerned, even about things of so eminent importance.
  About this time, it being, as near as I can recollect, Febru-
 ary 26th, 1790, my father was to move a family on to Gene-
 see, on his land, and he saw fit to  take  me with him to help
 make preparation to move on the next winter,  leaving mother
 and my two brothers in Greenfield, to  their own care, while
 we went to prepare a better habitation in the  wilds  of New-
 York. We set off with one yoke of oxen and a sled, having on
 board a family, a man and wife and three children,  and four
 men in company and myself. We had as tedious a journey
 as any poor souls ever need have, for it was snowing and drift-
 ing in such a manner as to render it almost impossible to pro-
 ceed.  On one day, I recollect, we had  to unyoke  the oxen
 five times, and shovel out and unload part of the goods to get
 on the track, leaving the women and children the best way we
 could, at the nearest house we could find, to prevent their per- 
21
 .siiing.   I was fourteen years of age.   My father was a very
 stout, resolute man, or I do not know  but  some of us would
 have perished before we reached the place  where Utica  now
 stands.   It was then a wilderness stretching on as far as Can-
 andaigua.   There were but two old shells of houses, aban-
 doned by their former occupants, on the banks of the Mohawk,
 where Utica now is.  Some families had just begun a settle-
 ment along the road, out as far as Westmoreland.  We found
 shelter in a log tavern.  My father being acquainted with Cap-
 tain Olverson,  at  Whitestown, obtained  provisions for the
journey, and we proceeded.  The road had been  cut through
 only the fall before, and as many of the trees were still lying
 across it we found it very  difficult to get along.  We had to
 fall bass wood trees to browse our cattle on at night, and we
 also gave  them  ears  of corn which we had brought along to
 keep a cud for them.   Before we arrived in Canandaigua we
 had to stay in the woods five nights, making a fire and laying
 down hemlock boughs to sleep on, with  the canopy to cover us,
 only some times  put boughs over us.  As we proceeded on, the
 lowlands were bare in many places, while on the highlands the
 snow was deep,  especially in the Onondaga woods for thirty-
 six miles without a house, thence to Cayuga lake ;  one night
 we encamped on the bank  of the Owasco outlet, where Auburn
 now stands, being then only a pole bridge over it, as it was all
 a wilderness;  when we got to the lake the ice was  poor, but
 we ventured over in the morning, the night having been very
cold, we crossed by the side of the road on the ice;  we could
 force a cane through the ice,  but we got safe over, feeling very
 thankful for our  preservation.  That day was warm, and the
 snow went like dew ; the streams rose over the lowlands which
 made it difficult  to proceed, having sometimes to wade to drive
 the team.   We crossed the Seneca outlet at a small  ferry and
 got on to Flint creek, a considerable stream; the ice had just
broken up and no bridge over it; here we found some families
 encamped, and we had  to  stop two  days, till five families got
together, which made considerable of a company in encamp-
ment.  A council was held, and early  the third morning all
hands turned out and felled a row of trees across the flats for
about forty rods.   Finding a large hemlock tree on the oppo-
site bank, a raft  was  made of poles and bushes and two or
three men went across and  felled it, and it happened to reach
across so as not to float away, and other trees were felled from 
25
 each side, which enabled us to lead  the ladies  over  on the
 trees, carrying the children over in our arms; and  though
 their fear caused many screeches and disagreeable sensations,
 we all got safely over.   Our sleds and goods we dragged over by
 hand. It now remained for us to get our cattle across.   The suc-
 ceeding night was cold, and it froze over the flats so as to bear
 a man part of the way, and even if the ice broke the water was
 only from  knee to  waist deep.  The cattle were driven to the
 stream, and roped across, though in swimming the more rapid
 part some  of them were nearly drowned, they at length reached
 the  opposite shore in safety.   We went on to  the outlet of
 Canandaigua lake, which  we had to  ford.   The water being
 high, the men had to  wade on each side of the sled to keep it
 from floating away.   A considerable portion of our  goods
 was  wet.   On the evening of the 13th  of March,  1790, we
 arrived at  our cabin, near the outlet, two miles from where the
 village is now built.  When we arrived there we had nothing
 but browse to feed our oxen and cow on, and a tedious storm
 of snow ensued—but by going four miles we obtained a few
 bundles of rye straw, which was all the fodder we could get.
 In a few days,  however, it grew warm, and the leeks  sprung
 up,  and the cattle began to thrive by ranging the woods and
 going on  the openings about three miles distant.  As I was
 the  boy amongst them, I often used to go alone after the cat-
 tle,  and find them,  if I could, by their bell, which I was anx-
 ious to hear, as pretty much all we had  to depend upon  for
 support, bread excepted, and but a short allowance of that, for
 five men, as my uncle was on there, the family of three children
 and myself, was the milk and what fish and fowl we could get
 aud what  we could procure with the gun.  We children used
 to get more than our equal share of milk by watering it often
 to make it go round.   W7hen I could not find the cows I have
 often spread salt on my bread, and it then  tasted as  good as
 butter often does now.  Here we  were  in a hut fourteen feet
 square, in the  wilderness.   Some  roads were cut out, and  I
* often had  to go off around, sometimes in them and  sometimes
 through the woods some miles to do errands, where bears and
 deer and  wolves were in abundance.  Sometimes while roving
 about I would suddenly come upon a wigwam where the In-
 dians had assembled for hunting.   They seemed  kind and
 friendly, and would offer me such  as  they had to eat; but see-
 ing  them  cook the guts by just emptying them and  stewing 
29
them up, 1 could not eat with them, but  I would sometimes
broil a piece of venison and eat it without bread.   Here 1 as-
sure you I  underwit hardships.   In April, four hundred  In-
dians, of all ages and descriptions, came to Canandaigua, and
encamped,  to receive presents and pay for land, at which I was
somewhat alarmed, being young, not knowing but some mis-
chief might ensue.   They were friendly, however, and no in-
jury was done.   But a greater  alarm was sounded, that  a
large army of  Seneca and Flat Head Indians were coming on
to destroy Indians and people, which caused some to leave that
place for home.  One of our company tried hard to  persuade
father to take  all he had with him and leave, but father's reso-
lution prevented, and the man set oft'for home, saying he  was
not a going to  be killed by the Indians.  His departure I sup-
pose was greatly to his  disadvantage, as the alarm was occa-
sioned by  an  idle rumor having no foundation  whatever in
truth, and  industry  and frugality were used to improve, to clear
up and  cultivate the wilderness with success.   The lands being
fertile produced an  abundance of provisions.  My health was
preserved till the September following, when running after cat-
tle evening and morning and Working during the long  days, I
was taken  down with the fever and ague, and had a hard siege.
I thought it would prove fatal, but  that and lake fevers  pre-
vailed which were not dangerous, though discouraging.  After
three months I was restored to health.   In November my fa-
ther went home to Greenfield to move on his family as soon as
sleighing commenced, leaving me with my uncle in the hut,  as
the family  had built a house one mile distant.   We kept bach-
elor's hall, and cooked  for  ourselves.   Soon  after,  foddering
time came  on, when my uncle had to take our cattle, four ox-
en and one cow, and drive them to  Genesee river, where  they
went in  summer to  cut hay, and stacked it up  to winter  the
stock on, as many did, it being a natural growth of bent grass
which any one could go and cut.  I was left alone to do and
shirk for myself.   Here I staid alone till about the 1st of Janu-
ary, sleeping in *he hut, alone, except some traveler or others
came in to stay with me.  Sometimes the  Indians would come
and ask me to let them stay over night, at which I was some-
times afraid, but dared not deny them for fear of worse conse-
quences.   Oftentimes I  was awakened by the screeches and
howlings of wolves, most hideous and alarming.  At  this time
there came a heavy snow-storm, and three feet of snow fell, and 
30
I was in my cabin.  In the morning I got up and looked out
It seemed horrid.  Towards noon, the man that we moved on
there came on snow shoes,  to  see  if I  wt* alive, and I was
pleased enough ; but we lived on the road from Canandaigua
to the only gristmill any where  near, just finished  down the
outlet of the lake, and the people after two or three days broke
through to mill.  A rain came and crusted the snow, and ma-
ny deer and wolves were taken by dogs and men on snow shoes,
on account of the snow and the  crust.  As the  people passed
to mill they called into the hut to warm themselves, and found
me in a most pitiful condition, almost destitute of fire ; having
no wood prepared I had  to burn the fence near the hut,  as  I
could not possibly get any wood elsewhere.  They informed
the miller of me and my case, telling him I was a lone boy and
would perish.  Lieutenant Day was the humane  man who took
his sleigh and horses, and came  and took me to his house and
made me welcome to the best he had.  In return for this kind-
ness  I assisted him to tend the mill, as he had to grind day and
night; he tended one half the time and his son and myself the
other.  It often brings tears into my eyes when  I think of this
man's kindness to me.  Here I  staid till March, not  hearing
of my father, but expecting every day to see  the family come.
To my surprise, however, my father  came on foot,  the 1st of
March, having given up moving, to  take me home to see to
the family while he went back there to work that season.   1
was  rejoiced to see him, yet disappointed, as I  wished to stay
there.  When  he came I had got very hearty and well, though
I was very weak when Mr. Day took me, just recovering from
a three months' ague.  My father  was in poor circumstances
to take me home, having only one dollar in  cash to bear our
expenses two hundred miles; but he filled a knapsack with pro-
visions, about sixty pounds, and we set out on the 5th of March.
The  traveling was bad—it thawed  fast, and we often  had to
wade for some  distance in low land to get along.  All that we
had to buy was our lodging, and many would not receive pay
for that.  When we came to the Seneca outlet my father took
me on  his back with his pack and carried me over.   The wa-
ter was about thigh deep,  running very swiftly, and the bottom
was stony.  Twice my father stumbled, and like to have fallen,
but he  did not.   In six or seven days we reached home, and
found all well, and my mother  was much pleased  to  receive
me alive.   Soon after my father went back, and left me to see 
32
 to the family, to raise bread, he  For five seasons in  succes-
 sion after that I had to do the same,  till father sold out and
 came home, and soon after he purchased in Florida.   In this
 time, one of the neighbors having a sister in Massachusetts,
 brought her to live with him, as she was an orphan child.   I
 formed an acquaintance with  her, and before I was twenty- we
 were married, and I  began tO try to provide  a  livelihood of
 my own.   My wife had about one hundred dollars, which fell
 to her as a dowery, and this she laid out in furniture and one
 cow, and we began to try to live, this in Greenfield.  I built a
 comfortable log  house joining my father's, by his request, as
 he depended on me to take care of his  family, he being so
 much from home-  Soon after we bought in Florida, and mov-
 ed there, March 1st,  1797.  I moved on a farm of ninety-five
 acres, and ray father on one of fifty-one acres, one mile apart,
 and we went to work together and had all things common ; as
 respected living all fared alike, but I had nothing I could call
 my own of landed property.   One of my brothers left home at
 the age of fifteen, to study merchandise in Newport, R, I. with
 Elder Caleb Green; my youngest brother  was out of health af-
 ter awhile, and I had the care of all the  business,  if any in-
 crease, and no prospect for me no more than my other broth-
 ers.  Having nothing to depend  upon for my family it made
 me feel disagreeable, for having been married  eight years we
 had now four  children.   At  this  time  my  brother Nathaniel
 and wife came home on  a visit, and he  wanted help or part of
 the property.  Father had always said he would not give any
 of his property off till he had done with it.  My  brothers had
 talked about it and spoke to me about  it,   and I  was glad  to
 have them.  I told them they  must  speak to  father about  it,
 but they seemed to put it on me-   It was  a hard job and one
 which I had been dreading eight years,  but I plucked up cour-
 age and said to father, I  have a family to provide for and have
 not any thing to depend  upon  if I  should  be taken away—I
 have  a mind to leave and try the new country, or  attend to set-
 ting bones.  Father was so much affected that he could scarcely
 speak.  I then informed him that my brothers had mentioned
 to me that they wanted to have some help.   He said to  me, all
I have is yours, as I consider it.  But,  said I, I have nothing
I can call my own.  He replied that  he  would give me  a  deed
of all he possessed.  I told him I would not take it.  He said
I had been the means  of saving and getting or  helping to get 
32
it, and he would give it to me and I might allow the other boys
what I saw fit, if any thing.  I told  him 1 was willing they
should have such part as he saw fit.   He then  said we might
talk  it over, and as we agreed he would divide his property,
and give up business as to care, by our giving him and mother
a life lease  to secure him and her their support.   I  informed
my brothers of what he  had said, and told them  to go by
themselves  and by the next day make up their minds what they
would be satisfied with.  The next day they came and told me,
and we agreed.   The property was divided, and each gave
equal security.  Then I knew what I had to depend  upon.  I
had ninety-five acres of land and stock and farming utensils by
assuming all the debts, about one thousand dollars.  This debt
had accrued in consequence of building the mills, and had our
creditors pushed hard for it the property would  have been torn
to pieces.   We had suffered great loss, but as I undertook  to
settle all the debts, they gave me a  chance, and as soon as it
was possible, by farming in the summer and trading to the west
in the winter, I paid them off.   About this time father bargain-
ed for a fifty acre lot adjoining, the deed of which I  took  in
my name, and I had that to cope with.  It cost me seventeen
and a half dollars per acre.  I gave brother John a  wood lot
of what we called ten acres.  With a blessing I paid  that.   I
then bought ninety-eight acres joining on the other side  of my
farm, and paid fifteen dollars per acre, and  got  through with
that all but about one hundred dollars, and calculated to build
a new house and got a part of the materials together, when I
heard of a farm  of two hundred acres in the lower part  of the
town to sell, that had a good house on it,  for fourteen hundred
pounds.   I went to look at the farm, and bought it, after I had
seen the men that held a mortgage against it.  I agreed to pay
four hundred dollars down, which I hired of a friend and paid.
I then left my son Leonard to manage, he being my oldest son,
at the age of seventeen years, father and mother  with him to
keep house, till he married.  I moved to my new  habitation
and drove on business, cultivating my farm and keeping a tav-
ern and a grocery, and butchering, by which means  I paid off
the debt at last; but hi about four years I owed one thousand
 dollars on the old property I purchased, and bound  myself for
 four thousand five  hundred and seventy-five dollars,  for three
 hundred acres of land in Schenectady patent, at auction, when
 every thing was high.  I thought I could soon pay that off; but. 
33
 in  a  little time every thing fell, money was scarce, produce
 very  low, semi-annual interest to pay on the debt, buildings to
 erect and clearing to effect a comfortable situation for my se-
 cond son.   This was a great expense and cost me labor and
 fatigue, day and night.  During the day I followed butchering
 and selling meat, together with the occupation of my  farming
 in the summer—and for winter business, as trade grew dull to
 the west, every one who could go went  west to trade, I  took
 an eastern course to  Boston and Rhode  Island, with sleighs
 and wagons, with butter, cheese and various other articles of
 trade.  The  expenses being high  I did  not  clear much.   1
 drove several droves of horses and cattle and some sheep, but
 my profit was small.   I then went by  water and carried pro-
 duce, sometimes small quantities  and sometimes large—one win-
 ter I passed  more  than twenty thousand weight of butter
 through my hands.   For nine seasons I have been in this trade,
 and setting bones whenever  called upon, on  the road or on the
 water and elsewhere.   So I,  by industry  and fatigue,  have
 made out to keep up to contracts and to satisfy  my creditors,
 till the present time.
   Here I  turn back and begin  an account of my career in
 bone  setting.  At about fourteen  years old I began to set bones.
 The first joint, I recollect,, was  a playmate's thumb,  which I
 dislocated, by throwing him in a scuffle.   As father was a pro-
 fessed bone setter,  the boy, being very lame, came to him to
 set his thumb.   My father  said to  him, you  and Waterman
 have  been scuffling and have put it  out, now  he must set it.
 So he came to me and I put  it in place ;  father looked at it and
 said it was right.  I  Used to go  often with father to assist him
 to set bones, which  gave  me some idea of  the human frame.
 After I set the boy's thumb, and people  came to see father, as
 he was often from home they would wish me to try  to do for
 them, and I used to advise them  to wait father's return, but al-
 most  all would have me try  to set their bones, which I seldom
 failed to do.   At length it happened to be  my lot to be called
 to see a man with his knee dislocated, which he said  he had
 had all the doctors in  town  to see;  his leg  was straight,  his
 knee  stiff, and they could not bend it. I took hold and put it
 in place and bent it right down, and  he immediately arose and
walked, and  the next day he was  at work  in his  blacksmith 
31
 shop.  This made a great rumor and vaunt to my science j the
 confidence of the people was in me, and I used often to be call-
 ed upon as being in a country place,  sometimes going thirty
 miles to attend to such things.  From  a child I  was directed
 to the study of the human system, and without the  assistance of
 man sense, or anatomy, or much  reading on anatomy, I have
 practiced in this  science  to the advantage of many.  My mind
 was tried for many years about going off through  the country,
 or to some city,  and make a business of bone setting.  But
 many difficulties  were in  the way, a young family, a  farm and
 parents to take care  of.   I waited till my children all got  old
 enough to take care of themselves and  to take charge of my
 home concerns, being steady and industrious.  I  made up my
 mind to go out on that business  and do all  the good I could to
 my fellow-creatures  in affliction.  I went  to old Providence
 to trade, and by  the secret impulses of mind and wishes of my
 relations, advertised  myself a bone setter, and calls commenced
 and  increased  and I had as much  as  I wished to do of that
 business there-   I had  calls or patients from  every  direction
 round about Nantucket,  New Bedford, Fairhaven, Rhode Isl-
 and, Bristol, Warren, and out round Providence,  and my great
 success astonished the people I  helped.  A Captain  Stewart,
 at Fairhaven, having heard of my  performances, sent an ad-
 dress to me to come to Fairhaven, and see his daughter, who
 had been some years very lame and had tried a number of doc-
 tors at Fairhaven without effect.   He  wrote me  the  situation
 of his daughter, and I judged it a suspicious case  and wrote
 him  so, and waited  an answer, but he  being out a boating did
not write soon.   I thought on the subject, as he wrote me he
 was poor, and it  seemed  to trouble my mind so that I could not
 rest  easy nights,  till I  made up my mind to go and see his
 daughter. I took my horse and went and found her on crutch-
 es and very lame-  I examined  her  case, and  found her  hip,
 knee and ankle out  of joint.   As her father was not  at  home,
 I left her to go to New Bedford  to stay all night. I had gone
 but a short distance before I met a man, in the evening.  He
 walked up to me and said, is your name Sweet ?  I  had never
 seen the man before and asked him how he came to think I
 was the man he  sent for ?  He told me the Spirit had revealed
 it to  him, and it was so  riveted  in his mind that I should be at
 his house that day,  that he left his vessel  about sixteen miles 
35
 down the cape and walked home; he was sure I was the man
 as soon as he discovered me in the  dark,  and that made him
 ask such a question.   I went back and staid over night.  The
 next morning I set the girl's joints, and in a few days she be-
 gan to walk  without crutches, and in a short time  could  walk
 a mile.   The doctors said  many things to discourage  them
 from having any thing done, but after they saw the effects they
 were as still as  mice in a  cheese.   The girl recovered and
 soon after was married to a smart whaleman.   This cure made
 a great rumor throughout the country.  In  the winter  I  went
 to New Bedford and  set bones for a  number there and in the
 region round about.   The last day of December, 1829,1 sailed
 on to Nantucket, and staid there till  the 10th  of January, and
 set bones for thirty-six people.  I came back to Providence,
 setting bones about the country as I passed on.  I  was called
 to North Andover, Massachusetts, and set a hip and wrist for
 a Mr. Spafford, twenty-five miles below Boston.  I stopped in
 Boston a week, at Mr.  Joseph Howard's, in Howard street.
 I advertised in two papers, but had but one call.  As my busi-
 ness was in Providence I returned there,  and attended to my
 business and  bone setting till the 1st of June, when  I returned
 home.   In November, 1829, I advertised and  staid ten days in
 New-York, and had as much as I could do while  I staid.   I
 left Providence in March again, had some calls at Fall River
 and New Bedford.  I set bones on  the way, and at this  place
 and at  Bedford and in the regions round about, I set  a num-
 ber.   On the third of April I sailed for the Vineyard and staid
 there five days and set bones for six  people-  I left there on
 the 8th for Nantucket, where I was providentially detained till
 the 1st of June, 1830.  On this island I set bones both times
 for nearly three hundred  people,  as those said  who copied my
 memorandum.  I had two calls on Cape Cod I went to see,
 which I set, and business so increased, by advice and my own
 impulses of mind, I traveled  the south of the cape to Province
 Town  and back to Bedford,  and set bones for one hundred
 and forty people in seven weeks there, in Bedford for fourteen,
 and on my return  to  Newport on the  island,  for a number.
 From thence  I returned again  to Providence  and  settled my
 business and set some bones.   I left the last of July for home,
 by the  way of New-York, sent notice to Newburgh  and staid
one day,  went to Albany, my advertisement  being out,  where 
M'>
 I  staid a week, and  got home to Florida the 5th of August,
 1830.  I advertised in Schenectady,  got some business there
 and considerable at home and in the region round about.   My
 house wanting repairs I went  right to work,  repaired it  and
 built out houses  for the  convenience and  comfort  of  my
 family,  till about  the 15th day of November I left for Alba-
 ny.   I had a drove of horses, and butter,  &ic.  to the amount
 of about three thousand dollars, for trade to the east.   I stop-
 ped in Albany about  a week and set bones for a number of
 people.  I started on  the 23d of November for New-York,
 and arrived on  the 24th,  having received  a line sent to me
 by Mr.  Samuel S.  Brewster at the American Hotel,  who  had
 addressed me at my residence in Florida,  after I left home, he
 being acquainted with Mr. James  Gould of Albany, for whom
 I had set a bad ankle, addressed him and he  gave me the line-
 Mr. Brewster had  been hurt in August, had a number of doc-
 tors at Syracuse where he was hurt, but got no relief; he came
 to New-York, where he had been  under the inspection of Dr.
 Mott and some others, but their prescriptions did not help him-
 I called on him and examined his  ankle, and found it in a very
 bad state-  By his request I went to work at it and set the
joint, so that he left his crutches in the house and attended soon
 to his business and recreations, for about two weeks, when he
 considered he  could return to  Syracuse.  The  same day, by
 the request of Captain Samuel Wiswall, I  began  to prepare
 his little daughter's remarkable stiff knee.   One other notice 1
 had in the city which  I examined  and did not  operate upon.
 Here unexpectedly I was providentially detained from my east-
 ern route, my property went to commission men.  I could not
 leave my patients as they were not willing, and therefore I  con-
 cluded to stay a few days and advertised my science, and calls
 came in so I could not leave, and by the 10th  of April  some
 four hundred addresses were offered in the city'and out—some
 from almost every direction as [far west as  Onondaga, which
 kept me very  busily employed.  I  sent for my youngest son,
 W. Sweet, Jr. and he assisted me seven weeks, after which my
 son Samuel came and assisted me awhile.   Many very remark-
 able cases offered which  I reduced to joint, and the benefits
 astonished parents and people. Many very remarkable instan-
 ces of restoration were realized by many on the island of Nan-
 tucket, the cape, and through the towns on  to Rhode Island, 
37
as my certificates will show, which I shall hereafter insert from
fourteen years old to the present day, which benefits have been
appreciated by those afflicted at those places above mentioned.
For forty-one years  I have met with opposition from some doc-
tors, especially at Nantucket, but by benefitting at least so many
by my practice I gained the confidence of the people in all places,
so that the doctors were not in my way.  I have had the sat-
isfaction of operating on  patients who  had had the stars of
America to see them, as they informed me, and have operated
upon them to their satisfaction.
   I was detained in  New-York unexpected to me.   I attended
to all  calls, both  rich and poor  without exception.   While I
did the best in my power for the  poor gratis, I  charged high
for the rich, and so according to circumstances.  Eleven weeks
I improved my time from morning till eleven o'clock at night,.
on an average, through  all weathers, till at last I took a heavy
cold.   After setting a hard shoulder case, af long standing
for Gen. Hopkins, which he informed me had been  set by  pul-
leys and hand by different doctors, yet I found it had never
been  put in the socket and he wished an operation.   I pro-
ceeded,  assisted by Capt.Wiswall;  the  case required power,
and I took hold with a  full intention  not to miss, and succeed-
ed in  reducing it to joint, by which means 1 burst a small blood
vessel in my breast,  and going home, it being very chilly, took
cold.    The  next morning I was seized with <»gue chills, for
which  I sweat over night; but the urgencies of my business
called me out the next day, so  I repeated the  sweat three times
till from full  strength I  was reduced  to perfect weakness  and
raised blood and  bad matter.   Myself as well as others, sup-
posed I should go into a quick consumption: by advise I call-
ed on  Dr. Chapman, whom I  had been attending with a lame
ankle, and we went to  work and, with the blessing  of the Al-
mighty,  removed  the  difficulty  in  about  two  weeks.  Dur-
ing the time of my confinement and weakness, from  ten to for-
ty came in a day to get  advice or have bones set:  some ladies,
with tears in their eyes, saying they were afraid I  would die
before I  set their children's bones.   Some light cases I set in
my weak state, while I put  off others till I recruited my health;
after which I set them, and then received patients and addres-
ses from  ni ne o'clock in the morning till twelve, noon, from
New-Jersey,  Long-Island  and Connecticut,  all up the river 
                            3S
and on to Onondaga and Geneva,  which I  attended to in or-
der, according to the best of my abilities.
  In the mean time, evil reports were circulated by doctors and
others; but as I have had to bear these insinuations for many
years, I became careless about them and they  do not affect me
as they did in the beginning of my practice, as I feel myself in-
dependent of acquired knowledge or skill from man, yet whol-
ly dependent  on the Higher Power, who has committed this
most noble science to  my mind, for the benefit of rich and
poor, without distinction, whether I am compensated  or  not,
I trust the Giver of all blessings will reward me for the entirely
destitute.  While I charge a sum according to circumstances,
as the Lord has seen fit to bestow, the rich  I  charge high as I
say to them if asked before an operation as well as after.  The
abundance of proofs—the sufficient references I have,  and the
benefits appreciated in so singular and most extraordinary ca-
ses, in different parts of America, give me an unshaken confi-
dence of my  knowledge of the  bone system,  and prompts me
against enemies and false representations ; so  that as long as I
act in conformity to justice, in doing good to all I can, although
I do not  profess to cure all,  I fear not man who at most can
only kill the body, but God who is the great preserver of the uni-
verse, to protect me in the performance of my  duty to God and
man, till I am  removed to  worlds to us  unknown,  till I may
receive the reward of my labours,  good or bad.  I do not  set
myself up to  oppose others, as a great part of ray practice con-
sists of cases abandoned by others; so if I fail  in some, it is
not to  be wondered at,  as I only agree to do all in my power,
according to the best  of ray abilities,  for  health and use of
limbs.   I consider blistering, setons, issues or cupping very in-
jurious in dislocations, as they often occasion abscesses where
there would otherwise be none, as well  as destroy  joints and
nerves, as I have little difficulty in reducing joints,  even of
lo'ng standing, where none of these means have been used.
   1 now return to describe  the conceptions of mind-  As I  be-
 fore remarked, when about fourteen years of age I had serious
 impressions of mind about a future state.    Like  many  other
 youths, having my mind taken up with youthful vanities and
 the beginning of the cares  of life, and my  associates  a  rude
 company and some who had imbibed the  universal doctrine,
 my mind was taken with that, it being a pleasing belief and  one 
39
that gave room for lenity of action and pursuits.  I set myself
to work, as I had been taught that the scriptures were a golden
rule and the only foundation of salvation, and I must  say that
I ever had that idea of them myself; I searched them well to
try to be established in  the  doctrines of universal salvation,
and sometimes thought I was, but at times some secret impulses
of mind  seemed to teach me  better ;  still I often contended
with people and ministers, and could  often, as  I thought, get
the better  of them  in argument,  which would  be  pleasing to
me and seem  to strengthen me in my belief;  at other times,
when alone, in meditation and in reading the scriptures to try
to pick out passages to  confirm my opinion, I confess I  was
often  stumbled and afraid to trust in a few  passages to support
a belief where so much depended in a matter of the  greatest
moment in this world and that to come.  The doctrine of the
new birth spoken of by  the Savior, the opposition and perse-
cutions against him and his apostles, the final judgement, a day
of separation of the righteous and the wicked, the awful threats
announced against the finally impenitent, a heart by nature and
will opposed  to the government of the Supreme Author of all
things, used often,  by day and by night, to rouse my  attention
to serious considerations.  While fears of the terrors of a law
which I was sensible I had often broken, or at least come short
of keeping as  required, would occasion deep sighs and groans
in secret, I still often contended the same points for  mastery
and in arguments and to conceal  a troubled mind, and often
in secret I vowed a reform-  At this time, among my  mates, I
used  profane  language  and was  given to light conversation,
which after awhile I learned was  not a becoming or a well ac-
cepted practice even amongst the  profane, for they  discard that
in others which they practice themselves.   I quit profanity or
swearing, but  light and airy conversation, a sprout of nature,
I could not wholly refrain from.  It has been  like a  thorn in
my flesh, a sweet in my mouth often bitter in the belly to the
present time.   About ten or twelve  years  I imbibed  this and
deistical and  atheistical  views, and tried  every  place  for  ease
or refuge of this nature, striving to live a moral life and trans-
act business on a fair scale, pay all contracts, and  that was as
much as those did who  professed  abundance of sanctity,  and
perhaps more, as  often  even  some  of them came short.  I
thought if I did as well as I could  in this way,  I stood as good 
40
    a chance as those who professed religion, or better, for it was
    often some did not as well as they might have done,  so like
    many others lived on the imperfections of others, which is poor
    feed, being still in darkness,  as it respected spiritual things.—
    After this an  excitement took place in Florida of a religious
    nature; meetings were held often, assemblies large, professors
    engaged, many awakenings,  some professing faith  in  Christ
    and rejoicing.   This spring I had met with the loss of my mills
    by a freshet, and it made me rather  melancholy,  being  all my
    dependence in earthly things.  This loss brought me  to  see
    more sensibly  the fading nature of time  and things than  ever
    before  realized by me, as I was driving hard to obtain a prop-
    erty.  It would  often occur to my  mind that my misfortune
    was in  consequence  of  my  belief, or that I was striving for
    worldly goods  and neglecting to secure an interest of a more
    permanent nature, that the floods and storms could not remove,
    and I even attribute that dispensation to be a means of bring-
    ing me  to real serious considerations.  As I  often  attended
    meeting it was discovered by some that I was serious, which  I
    used to try to  hide.  I used to try  to be merry in  sorrowful
    times in my mind, for fear some might observe it,  and if I was
    in company  with converts I would try to contend and joke with
    them in a hectoring way to bother them.  So I worked along,
   stifling convictions, till the 1st of November, 1803, convictions
.   rolled on.   My past offences, my misspent time, my refusals of
   offered mercy in youth, the good counsel of parents  and  min-
   isters and friends, in not sooner attending to the one thing
   needful, it sensibly occurred to my mind the solemn prayers of
    my parents in  silent hours of night, especially my  mother who
   was always at  home with me, her anxiety  often awoke me in
   petition to the  Lord for her unconverted children and the«gen-
   eral good of mankind, made me often feel solemn, but now re-
   alized sensibly, these,  together with  a view of all past events in
   life, caused me to tremble,  and the fear of death, judgement
   and eternity opened to view.   I was enlightened, but it  was,
   I feared, for ever too late  for me—I had sinned  away the
   day of grace—I was, in my own view, without hope and with-
   out God in this world, and must be  eternally  so  in the world
   to come, sounded in my ears continually.  Sometimes this
   would be in my  mind—O, that I had known  the things that
    make for my  peace,  but it  is  too  late, they are  hid from my 
41
eyes—I must lie down in sorrow for ever.  In this situation t
continued some days—my  sleep in a measure departed—my
food became loathsome—I could scarcely attend to any busi-
ness to advantage.  I went to meeting, I read the Bible some,
but it brought no comfort to  me—all read condemnation—no
peace to the wicked.  I  conversed with ministers and people^
but no comfort could I find.  One evening I went to hear
Nicholas Hill, a Methodist minister, preach* as heavily burden-
ed as I could live, seemingly.  He began  to preach, and his
discourse, was so directed to my case,  that at  first I thought
some one had told him of it, but on consideration I remember-
ed that I had never let any body  know my feelings,  only by
appearances, and though I  had talked  some  on such subjects
I had tried to keep my feelings  concealed as much as possible,
yet our people discovered me in trouble, and had some  fear I
would be insane or do myself harm in consequence of the loss
I had met with, but that trouble was banished by a greater.
What shall  it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose
his own soul ?  In this state, when I was out of doors, I sought
for a place to try to pray, but sometimes dared not open my
mouth or ask for mercy—at other times I was afraid some one
might hear me.  On the morning  of the 24th of November,
1803, as I well recollecct, I arose early, as I had hardly  closed
my eyes that night, and went out of the  door—I looked all
round to see if any body was stirring, but saw no one.  I made
up my mind if I must perish I would  perish begging for mercy.
I was at first afraid to set off, for fear it would scare  my wife,
as I left her in bed, but I moved slowly on and heavily towards
a piece of woods of thick hemlock  bushes, so far as I thought
no one would hear me, for I would not have had any one hear
me a praying for any thing.
  All  nature wore a gloom to me—here I sunk on my knees
and cried to the Lord to have mercy on me, if possible, a poor
sinner, and  take away my hard and stony heart, which was as
hard as the nether mill-stone, and  give me a heart of flesh or
tenderness, to grant a pardon of sin if consistent  to his holy
will;  as in a moment I felt relieved of a heavy burden  taken
from my shoulders—a relief from hardness of heart-I  felt as
calm in mind as a  little child.  As I rose from my knees and
opened my eyes, the forest seemed to glow with beauty, the l.t-
            6 
42
  tie birds on the boughs began to chirp their notes of praise, a?
  I thought, to God for preservation.   All I saw, the fields, vc-
- getation and every thing, seemed to bespeak the praise and the
  goodness  of the Lord.  When the sun arose, it seemed to show
  a new lustre.  I  went singing and  rejoicing,  and thought I
  would take the bible and read till my wife  got breakfast—now
  it appeared like a new book, whereas before it had  read con-
  demnation in  almost every page—now  its promises and the
  permanencies of its foundations, appeared  precious and glori-
  ous—my  fears were banished,  my  mind  composed.    After
  breakfast  I went to my field and all was pleasant—the day
  passed off with pleasure—I amused  myself in contemplations'
  singing of hymns  and songs, making melody in my heart to
  God.  I  was not sensibly convinced I had met with a change
  to my satisfaction till the next evening, when I had been abroad
  on business, walking along through a piece of woods, this pas-
  sage came to my  mind—By this shall all men  know they  are
  my disciples, if they have love one for another,  or if they love
  the brethren.  Here I perceived  the word and spirit agreed,
  and the sealing evidence  made  known, such love to God and
  love to man made manifest, as many waters can not quench  nor
  the floods drown.  When  I got home, I expressed my feelings
  and my willingness  to acknowledge to God and my fellow-
  creatures, all past offences and restorations in scripture terms.
  In this  I  received satisfaction—it opened  a way for me to set
  up a family altar in my house.   The next  morning I felt it my
  duty to spend the day in visiting  my neighbours all round, to
  tell them  what a dear Savior I had found,  and  to lead them, if
  possible,  to a bleeding Savior as a  friend indeed.  Some re-
  ceived me kindly—others seemed offended or rather put out:
  but I talked calmly and they heard.   Some seemed to rejoice
  that a prodigal  had returned,  while others said, well Water-
  man, we  believe what you say is true; but we do  not know
  any thing about  these things,  we never knew any such exer-
  cises ; yet they were elders and deacons and members of chur-
  ches.   This seemed strange to me,  as I thought they must be
  people of experience.  I went  on showing the goodness and
  mercy of the Lord, and if I met one on the way and opportu-
  nity offered, I had something to say  about this blessed Savior-
  It was my delight to go to meeting,, and I was called in differ-
  ent denominations,  at suitable times, to  exhort  and pray in 
43
 meetings, where we enjoyed peace and happiness.  As the Me-
 thodists were the most active in religion, I was solicited to join
 them ;  I asked for their discipline,  which I received from the
 hand of Mr. Nicholas Hill.   After giving it a reading, I went
 and carried it home and pointed out to him a variety of points
 wherein I could not join the class under such a discipline.—
 We conversed all day on the points, without coming any nearer
 than  when we began, the particulars of which I did not or
 could not conceive to be consistent.  Instead of taking the ex-
 ample of Christ and his apostles, to be buried with him in
 baptism, they left the candidates to their own mind in two dif-
 ferent ways,  in which the scriptures  were  silent; the govern-
 ment of the  church  despotic, as the members had no great to
 do with it—closed doors in class meetings, and as I conceived
 it I could not see into the mode of receiving members on trial,
 as I consider the Work of grace or change of heart, quick and
 powerful:  subjects are in  the state of nature or  in the state of
 grace—if they are changed, they become immediate subjects of
 grace and  members  of the mystical kingdom of Christ  to fol-
 low his directions.  At this time there was no Baptist church
 in  Florida ;  but  a few members from different churches, who
 being in a lonely situation, had not assembled  together to keep
 up meetings.  They  began, however,  to feel it a duty to call a
 meeting, and inquire if it was not expedient to have regular
 meetings and attend  them.    They convened,  therefore,  and
 agreed to keep up meetings.   Soon an article or covenant was
 drawn up and subscribed to by a number; with these I attended
 and served as clerk, and was soon  baptized.  After a while a
 council was called and a church fellowshipped, by the name of
 the first church of Florida.  We had an Elder Holmes, who
 preached with us  a while, and then we had supplies from other
 churches.
   In some  two years, having had serious trials that bore on my
 mind, I at  last, as expected by the brethren, opened my mind
 to Eld.  Elnathan Finch—first of all respecting my trials, and
 he said he would consult with the brethren, which he did, and
 they appointed a meeting for me to improve, by way of doctrine,
 which I attended, and satisfaction was obtained, that I had
 better improve  every convenient opportunity; and as we had
no  settled minister, I soon had frequent opportunities,  till  I
was called to take the lead in all the  meetings.  By a vote of
*he church,  I was licensed to go abroad and change with mi^ 
44
 nisters, which I did after a little while, three years as near as
 I can recollect.
   The subject was called in question with regard to me, whe-
 ther I ought to be set apart to the ministry—all were satisfied
 except one brother and his wife, who thought no one ought to
 preach unless he was educated—it was deferred.  The church
 increased considerably after this—it seemed to be a trial or
 difficulty that caused a division and coldness—meetings not at-
 tended so well.   I  moved  about  six miles  off—some moved
 away—some died, and the church dwindled and finally dis-
 solved.   This being the case and I rather  disheartened, im-
 proved whenever I was called on for a time.   Being very much
 engaged  in business, being in debt,  and having to exert my-
 self to make good my  contracts, I concluded to give up public
 improvement, and as soon as I did my mind was darkened;  1
 took a voyage to Tarsus, till I  got down by the cold streams
 of Babylon and  almost on the dark mountains of despair, so
 that I could not attempt to pray in public or in my family for
 a long time.
  At length one of the neighboring women died and I went to
the funeral, not expecting to be called on to make a prayer or
any observations.  But after we were convened they called on
me to make a prayer.   I was put to blush and trembled, and
to refuse  was hard and to attempt  was a great trial, but I at-
tempted and had as  much liberty as I could expect.   It gave
 me some relief of mind.  Soon after I went a journey to Rhode
 Island.  When I arrived there a reformation had commenced,
 and all were engaged in religion.  I went to meeting and sate
back in the corner of the room, not meaning to  say  any thing
 —but my brother called on me  to read a chapter and remark^
 I tried to be excused,  but he urged me forward and I complied
 with his request, and had a happy meeting.  I went to bed that
 night reflecting upon my misimproved time.  I wet  my couch
 with tears of repentance,  resolving never to neglect to dis-
 charge my duty again, but to declare the gospel to my dying
 fellow creatures, whether they hear or forbear, wherever a door
 might open, which I have attended to.  When I arrived home
 I notified a meeting in our school house,  where collected  a
 large congregation for the  country, and 1 addressed them from
 the prophet Isaiah—" Arise and  shine,  for  thy light is come
 and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee."   While  I ac- 
45
knowledged my inattention to the duty of preaching, and  my
backslidings, I found relief of mind and confidence in declar-
ing the gospel.  I was  called upon by different ministers and
different  denominations to preach  for them, and in different
neighborhoods, which I attended often with good congregations
and solemn ones.   Being invited by  Deacon  Charles  Howe,
I visited Duanesburgh and Florida church—I went and preach-
ed.  As I was then situated,  the church to which I had belong-
ed being dissolved and I, as  it were, alone, it seemed  to be  a
matter of question with some of the brethren whether it  was
right for  me to preach, unless I joined another church.  I  told
them I did not think I ought to confer  with flesh and blood,
but if it had hurt  any minds  I was sorry.  They desired me to
join with them, which  I did.   I gave a relation of my  experi-
ence, and  was received  and requested to improve by  way
of doctrine or preaching, as they  then had no settled preach-
er.  At this meeting Deacon Howe, who had been a long  time
under heavy trials about preaching, was called upon to prove
his gift more fully.  It was voted that he should occupy  one
half of the time and myself the other, he being an established
soldier  of the  cross and faithful  steward of his  master.  Al-
though he sunk, as it were,  at first, he gained  confidence  and
strength,  being brought up  there, and  has become a faithful
minister  of the New  Testament.  Soon  after, a brother Mar-
shall joined the church, and on opening  his mind to the church
he was called to improvement. Having a supply I used to at-
tend on calls in different places in town and out.  In about
two years or less  it was thought best to call  the church  to a
decision on account  of the gifts in  the church, and the greater
part of the church was satisfied and expected  the three would
be set apart.   But Deacon  Shutes and  some  more seemed  to
think that as I was a man who had a great deal of worldly
business to do and see to, I  had not ought to  be  a minister—
and this seemed to influence some more.   The  question was
put to me to ascertain  my mind upon the subject.   I saw  that
Deacon  Shute was set on his point, and was influential; I told
them I had never been in a  hurry to be  ordained, and submit-
ted  it  altogether to  the church,  and Deacon Shute made so
many remarks and  preambles that a minister ought  only  to
own one acre of land and improve that  and not be  cumbered
with business, and that the  council would  not ordain a  man 
46
 who was in such business as I was, keeping  au inn, that they
 concluded to ordain the other two  and let me stand-   I had
 held a letter of license to  preach  wherever the door opened
 —this seemed, as any one may see, to bring  on my mind some
 trials of parley.  It may not be my duty to improve, as some
 think, but I  made up my mind to stem the torrent a little
 longer, and I have improved in different towns and cities, gen-
 erally having as large congregations as common to  attend.   I
have had some signs of a  blessing attending my feeble endeav-
 ors.   I thought if one might be awakened  through my  instru-
mentality it would recompense me for all my pains; a number
have dated their awakening from it as a means, and 1 feel to
leave it with the Lord to  do his will in  all things;  all I have
to do is to keep a conscience void  of offence towards God and
my fellow men-  I remained a member of that church till one
was  fellowshipped in  Amsterdam  village—as  they said their
number was small, and no minister but  what they hired, they
solicited me  to come and join  with them, which after awhile I
 did,  and  improved statedly in the church as  much as  I  could
when at home*.   Soon  after I joined,  having  by subscription
 about one thousand dollars, it was moved  in  the  conference
meeting to begin a meeting house.  It seemed  to be the  minds
of the church to go to more expense than I thought our circum-
stances would admit.   I  frankly  told them my opinion, that
we had enough money signed to build a comfortable house, if
rightly laid out, and that  the church was small and  in low cir-
cumstances—but they seemed miffed and scattered ; some said
they could get three thousand dollars signed to build with.   I
told them I was in debt, and if that was their intention I should
 not do much towards it, as I feared we should lose  the house.
 They went on and bought a site and dashed away, till all in
 trouble, they called on me.  I took up about one hundred and
 thirty dollars subscription—I paid ten dollars.  I went to New-
 York, Albany and Schenectady, but got no money at all.   I
 then tried to the east and got none.
  Of the gospel of Christ as committed to me in  sincerity and
 truth, I mean the  gospel of Christ as  he declared in person
 and by his holy apostles that he is the Mesias  which was pro-
 mised, and has come by promise and appointment,  to fulfil  the
 law  and  answer  the demands it  had on us as transgressors,
 and  to bring in everlasting righteousness for all that believe on 
                             47
 him as the Creator, Supporter and Redeemer of lost and sin^
 ful men, and acknowledge that it  pleased the Father that  in
 him all  fulness should dwell, and to him all  power committed
 both in  heaven and on earth—the  only one  ordained to  give
 repentance and remission of sins—as Advocate in the capacity
 of a servant, yet Lord of all—second in office as Son, the only
 begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, who has become
 the propitiation for all,  especially  for those  that  believe and
 continue obedient to the heavenly calling, not according to our
 own works, but his purpose  and  grace purposed in him before
 the world began—observing not to teach for  doctrine the com-
 mandments of men, if we do we cease to be servants of Christ,
 but seek for honor to ourselves or for others, which is idolatry,
 by conferring honor on man which is due to  God alone.   The
 gospel is good news to all that  hear;  but men by nature are
 deaf and do not hear the joyful sound till their ears are opened
 —blind  to the beauty and excellencies discovered by sight—
 strangers to the treasures contained, a translation  out of dark-
 ness into his marvellous light, a knowledge of spiritual things,
 an evidence of being adopted sons  in the family of Christ and
 children of the Heavenly Kingdom.   For these  blessings we
 are dependent on him and him alone,  as  they cannot  be  pur-
 chased with money, or conquered by power, or communicated
 from parents to children, or from bishops  to  friends or adher-
 ents, or from masters to  servants-   It is a free gift to ail  who
 are in possession of this inestimable treasure,  grace, free grace,
 and the  glory due alone  to Jesus Christ,  who is Lord to the
 glory of God the Father—who is the Resurrection and the  Life
 —the Judge of quick and dead—the Giver of mercies—the  Re-
 warder  of justice on impenitent  offenders.   Through him  a
 door of hope is opened which no man can shut, for the chief of
 sinners.  From him a proclamation hath gone out—" Ho, ev-
 ery one that thirsteth, come  ye to the waters, come, buy wine
 and milk without money and without price"—a  mediatorial
 representation  of salvation by grace, a freedom for all to come
 and take of the waters of life freely, showing  the willingness of
 the Savior and freedom of the Lord on his part for all, brit on
 our part, through the effects of the  fall, no disposition to re-
 ceive on  so free and amicable terms, but a disposition opposed
 to his government and a want of desire to obtain a pearl of so
great price, in nature  no  thirsting after God, but rather saying. 
                            4S
I desire not the knowledge of thy ways.  Hence saith the scrip
tures, I have called, but ye have refused, 1 have stretched out
my hand, but ye have disregarded it, therefore I will laugh  at
your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh.  We say,
who is God that we should obey him in this ? since we are ac-
counted as strangers and foreigners, dead in trespasses and sins,
blind  and deaf to our best good, poor and needy, helpless and
forlorn, dependent on  God  altogether  for temporal blessings
and spiritual life and strength to help in time of need, uncon-
cerned, sporting on the thick bosses of his buckler, and laying
blame on God, or saying, I have done all I can do and all will
be well; or saying as did the young lawyer,  all these things
have I kept from my youth up,  referring,  as  many do,  to  the
law, and yet there is a lack, for by the deeds of the law no flesh
shall be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin—it is
a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.  Being insensible of our
danger we say, a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little
more  folding of the hands to sleep—and thus we remain dor-
mant, till the good Spirit of our Lord quickens our minds, ex-
cites attention,  discloses  the danger, breaks up the dark vault
of nature,  opens to us the necessity of repentance of sins com-
mitted and a need  of forgiveness.   Conviction of crimes com-
mitted  brings  weight of guilt on  criminals,  and punishment
threatened for offences brings terrors of a breach of law.   How,
says the man, or how, says the woman, shall I escape ?  What
prison or natural death ?—no, this is not  what so much trou-
bles the mind—but  how shall  I stand before my Judge in a
coming day, or suffer the wrath of my Maker, seeing I have  of-
fended him who cannot look on sin with the least allowance ?
Here the man is brought to a stand, and  says, what shall I do ?
—my case is desperate—I will fly to the law—I will keep that
—if so, it requires  that which is past—I will read the Bible, it
condemns me—I will go to our ministers  or deacons and see if
they can not grant relief; but this avails nothing to my troub-
led conscience—I am left alone to mourn my lost condition  till
all hope is lost and every refuge fail; clothed in shame and sin,
in my own view, of sinners the chief, in an unexpected mo-
ment the Savior appears and  soothes;   the Savior calms the
fears  of him  clothed in  sin and shame,  puts on  him the best
robe, even his righteousness, a ring on  his hand a token of
friendship and love, a seal of the New Covenant of grace, not 
49
of works, we  exclaim  not unto us—not unto us—but  to Thy
name be the glory—to  Thee all honor is due—I read the pro-
mises with pleasure and delight—the foundation of God's word
permanent—the gospel precious, like the honey or honey comb
—the new-born babe goes on his way rejoicing,  desiring  the
sincere  milk of the word that he may grow and thrive—and
                " No tongue can express
               The sweet comfort and  peace
            Of a soul in its earliest love."
The desire is  to follow  Christ in his teachings and examples*
pinning his faith on no other man,  or minister, or doctrines
afloat of men, that do  not agree  therewith, after the  cunning
craftiness of men who lay in  wait to deceive or sap the founda^
tions of the gospel for popularity or filthy lucre's sake—having
real desire  to follow the Lamb whither soever  he has gone,
through evil as well as good  report, speed his way on happily
and heavenly, being at peace with all as  much as possibly in
him lies.   By these remarks  I mean an experience of the new
birth, or what our Savior referred to when he said to  Nicode-
mus—Except  a man be born  again he cannot see the kingdom
of God.  The evidence of this is in our hearts—peace of con-
science, joy in the Holy  Ghost, love supreme to God and filial
and affectionate to men, enemies or friends, doing to others as
we would others should to  us-   The evidence to others is to
be  Christ-like in precept and following his example by doing
good to all, especially the poor, by being good citizens, kind
husbands, or  wives, affectionate parents,  obedient children,
faithful servants, good  neighbors, just stewards, noble officers
of  states  or towns, by obeying the  higher powers as ordained
of God, the Great, the Supreme Lawgiver, willing to be judg-
ed by him instead ofjudging or condemning others, for that he
himself alloweth, but esteeming others better than ourselves and
in humility and love, for in keeping his commands  there is  a
great reward,  and his ordinances are pleasant to every believ-
er,  as he left them in word by precept and example, as he saith,
if any man will come after me let him  deny himself and take
up his cross and follow me, but a stranger he will not  follow;
his trust is fixed in God  and  not in  himself, yielding himself a
living sacrifice to God,  saying, take  me and do with me as
seemeth unto thee good ; grant me wisdom to know and do thy
            7 
50
 will, enable me to grow in grace and in the knowledge of thy
 ways, that in thy light I may sec light and have a light to my
 feet and a lamp to  my path to guide me into thy testimoniens,
 remembering the  name of the  Lord is  a strong tower into
 which the righteous flee and are safe—help mc not to trust in
 man or to follow their devices, or teach for doctrines the com-
 mandments of men,  or to pin my faith on other men's sleeves,
 which must fail and perish.   The scriptures are  a plain rule
 and the only sure guide to look to for the tule of rectitude, or
 way  of escape from death to life, or to cause darkness to flee
 away and the true  light to shine on our dark and benighted
 mind or conscience, that we may see ourselves as in a glass,
 and when we see the true state we are in  by nature,  it abases
 and humbles  us in  the  dust before  him, which  is  the only
 means by which we are led to discover the disproportion be-
 tween us and a righteous and holy God, and the  propriety of
 the rigor of  his law in condemning us as the chief of sinners •
 being already condemned and under  the  curse of God's law,
 without God and without Christ in the world, we  say  within
 ourselves, whither shall we go, or whither shall we flee for
 refuge or safety ?  The law condemns me and my own con-
 science condemns me, and God cannot look on sin  with any
 allowance—
              " How lost is my condition
              Till Jesus makes me whole"—
          " Till late I heard my Savior say,
          Come hither, soul, I am the way."
 Here faith comes by  hearing and hearing by the word of God,
 As foolish and vain  as it may seem to others, to the soul thus
 affected it is wisdom and power and love  and peace—not the
 wisdom of this world that comes to nought, but true  wisdom
 and that of God in a mystery.   The soul  is made to say, good
 news, but unexpected—it scarcely can be true.  It is, says the
 man,  a wonder of wonders !
            " Why was I  made to hear thy voice,
             And enter while there's room,
            While thousands make a wretched choice,
             And rather starve than come?"
 The man looks round and says, what have  I  done  to  obtain
this ?—have my good works obtained it ?   No—I have not
merited it—I have not purchased it with money,  or by giving
tny goods to the poor—nor have  I fallen  an heir to it by pa- 
51
rent, or ministers, or angels.  Whence then have 1 received it ?
I must think it is like the wind—it bloweth  where  it listeth—I
cannot tell whence it coraeth or whither it  goeth—so is  every
one that is born of the Spirit.  I feel the Spirit of God to bear
witness that I am born of God,  by free and sovereign grace,
abounding to me through Jesus Christ, to the chief of sinners;
the heart is prepared to exclaim—Not unto  us, not unto us, but
unto  Thy  name be  all the glory and praise, now and ever.
Amen.
   I consider such a  subject translated out  of the Kingdom of
Darkness into the Kingdom of God's  dear  Son,  under new
laws, directed by the Spirit, acting from different motives, obey-
ing the  orders of his new King  out  of love and not by con-
straint, remembering the Lord loves the cheerful giver and pa-
rents love  willing and obedient childreu.   If we love our new-
King, he tells us to  keep his commandments, as he makes  no
harsh or abstruse laws, as earthly kings often do—nor does he
lead his subjects where he himself would not go, but only where
he himself has been-  He  does not say,  go  before me—but, fol-
low on after—himself marking out the path—leaving his own
footsteps distinct and plain, that we  may not mistake, if by con-
sideration  and examination of his law, we  hear his voice  and
follow on to know the Lord, that his  going forth  may be pre-
pared as the morning, beautifnl and glorious—as  new-born
babes, desire  the sincere milk of the  word that we may grow
and thrive thereby.   Nor did his holy apostles direct any  one
to follow them any  farther  than  they followed Christ.  I  am
conscious that this is humiliating both to nature and to many
of the subjects of this spiritual kingdom, in this day  as  it  was
 with his brethren, when on  earth.  Inquiring who shall be  the
greatest seems to be very common at  the present day—striving
for mastery or power, or forming new codes of laws, or  saying
that something else is better, or, we may change the directions
or orders of the King, or attend  to his ordinances as may  best
please our own mind—it is no matter  to be particular about it,
our wav is the best-one way is as  good as another—if we  are
conscientious and answer our own minds and please our min-
isters we  shall  do  well enough-it will not be asked whether
we have attended to his ordinances as directed by him, or in
our own way.   If our King was like some  earthly kings, pur-
blind, or hard of hearing, dull of under-landing, careless abc 
52
his subjects whether they obey him or not,  but leave them  to
follow their own devices and change their ordinances, it might
be well enough.  But not so with the King of Zion—his eye
surveying at one glance every subject that composes his King-
dom—he searches all hearts—he knows whether  men obey his
law,  or attend to his ordinances, or disobey and  change them
to suit their own fancy, or their priests, or friends, or  to run
round the cross instead of taking it up—whether  we teach for
doctrine the commandments of men,  or the doctrines he left  on
record, or attend to his own examples, or the  devices of cun-
ning and.crafty men, who lay in wait to deceive or lead unsta-
ble minds off from the simplicity of the truth.  In  ancient times,
under the law, God complained of Israel, and said, is it no-
thing that you should change my ordinances and disannul my
commandments ?   Much more, under the gospel dispensation,
must we  expect to be called to'an account for not taking heed
to the things we have heard—if we let them slip, or say  by
words or practice, it is no matter, who is God that we should
obey him ?—or say, we will walk in  our own  way and in the
light of our own eyes and all will be well, while the Savior says,
I am the Way, the  Truth and the Life.   If we strictly examine
the Bible, we find  in the parable of the builders, that one is
compared to a man who built on a rock, in reference to Jesus
Christ, as being a sure foundation, and wise men build  on him
by repentance and evangelical faith, an  acknowledgement  by
practising his examples as laid down in the word of God, they
stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free.
But  only to profess to believe that Jesus Christ is ever so great
a man and not the  promised  Mesiah, Jehovah, God with us, is
a man that builds on the sand, because they sap the foundation
of salvation and nothing to build upon permanent or sure.  In
the day  of trouble  they must, if the Bible is true, fall and come
short of being saved by the blood of Christ that cleanses from
all sin, as the  only means of grace  by which  we can possibly
be saved from the wrath to come and be brought to eternal fe-
licity.
   The last day of May, 1831, I left New-York for home.  I
called at Newburgh, Poughkeepsie,  Hudson and other places,
 and set some bones, and in Albany and Schenectady  and  on
 home.    Soon after, I went to Saratoga Springs,  and advertised
 to be there part of the time through  the summer.   I visited 
53
cities and villages, Schenectady, Albany  and Troy, Lansing-
burgh  and Waterford and on the  west  side of the River to
Schuylerville—on the  east  side from Sand Lake  to Union
Village and Cambridge, Greenfield, Milton, Galway, Provi-
dence, Ballston, Charlton, Glenville and to  Florida,  Duanes-
burgh  and Middleburgh, I had constant  business, except two
visits in the time to New-York and New Jersey and Long Isl-
and, till I left in October for the  South—reduced joints for
many of the afflicted, besides some boarders  at my house to be
attended.
  On the 11th of October, 1831, I left my residence in Flori-
da,  accompanied by my youngest  son, Waterman Sweet, Jr.
for a tour to New-York city.  We visited Schenectady and Al-
bany and attended  several  cases.   Being specially called up
the river, we  proceeded  above Waterford and attended the ca-
ses and returned and took the steamboat and called at Hudson
and Athens and Catskill—examined several  cases and perform-
ed  several operations—passed down to  Poughkeepsie a short
time and  passed on. When we arrived in New-York we found
patients waiting, and had constant employ some time. We then
went over to  New Jersey,  and passed on to.Cranberry  Point,
through  New-Brunswick,  examining and  operating several
days, when we returned, having calls in Connecticut and Mas-
sachusetts—went to Norwalk and set some bones and examin-
ed  some cases—proceeded on to  Danbury, and  finding no
speedy conveyance took stage and boat and returned to  New-
York.   I returned up the river to Hudson  by  steam, crossed
by  stage  over to Egremont and operated  on  six cases, then
took stage for Providence via Hartford, where I again met my
son, who went east by steam-boat.   We  remained there some
days and attended to  business.  From  thence we passed  to
Fall River and New Bedford, where we performed a number
of operations.   On the morning of the  25th  of  November,
1831,  we sailed for Nantucket—arrived in a little over five
hours, and attended nine  cases.   Here  we were detained by
wind and weather, till the 3d of December.   We made one at-
tempt  to put  out from land in the mail packet, but were driven
back by a snow squall.  We landed at  Hiannis.  Not being
able by any means to obtain a conveyance,  we traveled all the
way to New Bedford in that extreme cold weather-   When we
arrived there we  had a number of cases waiting, which we at- 
                            54
tended, and then took stage back to Fall River, where we had
to stop and attend several operations.   We then went to Pro-
vidence.   Having received a special address from a gentleman
in New-York  to  return with all speed to his assistance,  we
went  on  board the Benjamin Franklin to obtain  a passage,
when the captain  informed me he, had just dispatched  a mes-
senger for me to go on with  him to set his  grand-daughter's
shoulder, and I must not deny him—he would take us on and
return us, passage free.   Accordingly in  a few hours  we  set
off.  The next day we arrived in  New-York, where we had
left much to do.   Business  was good there, and we did not
return to Rhode  Island. We were also in different towns in
New  Jersey,  such as Newark,  Patterson, and near flacken-
sack,  Orange,  Elizabethtown, Amboy, Piscataway,  Plainfield,
Union or West Farms, &c-   About the 1st of January,  1832,
having some  addresses from Philadelphia, we went down to
Trenton, where  I received a line  from  friend Joseph II; n-
drickson, which had been sent to New-York  after we left and
was sent on after us, and handed me by a gentleman in  Tren-
ton.   We went to Crosswick, and found that his daughter, an
interesting young  lady, had been some four years on crutches.
I reduced her ankle, and she left her  crutches and  recovered,
I likewise performed several  other  operations,  and then took
stage  to Philadelphia, and having examined a number of cases
there, by the request of friend Isaac Collins, went up to Bur-
lington to see his  sister, Mrs. Jerlet, set her ankle and she re-
covered her health and strength considerably, and was able to
take more exercise, but being delicate and timid about  using
it, she did  not receive as much benefit as some  others.  In
that place I operated on eight cases and returned to Philadel-
phia.   Being  about to leave for New- York, by  means of a
line from Mr.  Hendrickson, Mr. A. C. Logan called  on me,
wishing me to see his lady who had been  almost three years a
cripple.  After examination I found it a severe case—she had
but little use  of her  limbs after the accident, it being so re-
markably tender  to the touch that  she could not bear it down
on the floor, but  supported  it  on  a settee  or chair.   I gave
them my opinion  of her case, and they desired my aid.   I pre-
pared for operation and reduced the joints, and she found re-
lief and bore  a little weight on her  foot and  walked a little by
a little help.   She began to amend, and when I again saw her 
                             55
 >n June following, she was able to oversee her house concerns
 from the cellar  to  the garret, and could walk so well as not
 to be discovered to limp, to the great joy of herself and fam-
 ily and friends in all that  region. I then returned to New-
 York and attended to business there, till past the 20th of Feb-
 ruary,  when I  was called to Wilmington, in  Delaware state,
 by the agency  of  friend Isaac  Course of this city  and friend
 Starr of that place, to wait on a friend, William Marshall, who
 had been hurt by the falling of a heavy oak plank on his ankle
 or foot.  We went down, and fortunately for him, having been
 some four months growing worse, I discovered symptoms of
 mortification.   We immediately went to work, used every ex-
 ertion  and a blessing  attended, and he recovered from his
 sticks.   My intentions  were,  when I had attended this case
 and a few  others mentioned in the address, to  return to New-
 York ;  but we had so many calls in the town, and from every
 direction round about, I staid two weeks and operated on some
 one hundred cases, and was just ready to step into the stage
 to attend several calls at Newcastle and pass  on to Philadel-
 phia, having special calls from there,  when a  Miss Needles
 from Baltimore, arrived,  having been afflicted several years —
 I  was called on.   I  stopped  and reduced her joints,  to the
 great satisfaction  of herself and friends.  In  consequence of
 this delay, we had, at a late hour of night, to  hire a  private
 conveyance to Newcastle, where we operated on  several extra-
 ordinary cases before the  Philadelphia boat came ; then we left
 and came to Philadelphia, and found  a number of addresses
 left at Mr. H. Wade's Hotel, and several  waiting from Balti-
 more.   We had full business, and calls came in faster than we
 could attend to them.  I received by one who came from Balti-
 more, a letter requesting me not to fail to visit Baltimore, as
 there were many desirous of my  services,' and would pay me
 well if I would come down, which I answered in  the negative?
 as I had more to do in Philadelphia than we coujd accomplish,
 and I  was anxious also to  return home—so I received more
anxious letters.  In some ten days I had waited  on nearly one
hundred patients, and answered their letters thtt  I would come
for a few days.   I  advertised our leaving and  went  down and
found so many afflicted people there, that I could not with any
propriety leave till some seven weeks, being extremely drove, in
which  time I  was  called out in different directions by  the 
                           5G
planters.  I was called upon to visit the lady of Mr. William
Hall.  She had not walked for seven years.   I attended to
her case and helped her to walk.   We relieved many who had
been sorely afflicted for years, and often we were crowded with
at least forty applicants in the  forenoon  during our stay.—
Being  desirous  of seeing the capital and its inmates, we  step-
ped into the stage and went to Washington, for a short excur-  I
sion of pleasure.   We arrived there Saturday  evening, and
having a desire to see Alexandria, we  took the morning boat
down and went to church—saw the situation of the place, and
walked a small  distance into Virginia and  returned to Wash-
ington  that evening.  Monday morning my advertisement came
out, and I had five cases.  At an early hour  on Wednesday
we returned to  Baltimore, and found that they had been  over-
run with applicants at Mr- Barnum's City Hotel,  where we
boarded—they were out of patience with the  uproar and  ques-
tions of applicants, and gave me a reprimand for being away,
and said I  must take an office in a basement room if I contin-
ued there, to which we conceded and it gave some relief to the
bar.   The people flocked in from every direction, so that we
had to advertise,  first,  to leave,  if consistent, at such a  time,
and then certain.  Having calls at York and Columbia, (Penn.)
and other places on the way, as we understood, we took the
stage,  and  having traveled upwards of twenty miles, found  we
were on the wrong course to meet certain engagements.  We
made every effort to hire some one to take us across to Bell-
air, where we had to meet several people  at 12 o'clock.  The
road being bad—a bye-road across the plantations—we had to
shoulder our trunks  and a velisse, and  go on over bills and
vales,  woods and foot-paths, trying at every place to hire a
passage, but we could find  none.   At length  night came on.
We hired a negro to "pilot us and carry a  part of the baggage
four miles to an inn, where they said we might hire a passage-
We arrived there just as the landlord locked his door for bed.
We knocked, and he let us  in, but seemed surprised to  see us
 lug in our baggage and without a carriage.   I informed him
 of the reason and said I hoped  we might hire him to take  us
 on in  the morning, but the  poor man had neither horse  nor
 wagon,—he only kept a small tavern to  support himself and
 old lady.  We were  much beat out, but had got on a plain
 road—we  went on to the next inn in good hope, but when we 
57
came there we found that the  inn-keeper had hired his horse
and wagon out.  We took breakfast, and he said there was a
river to ford, as the bridge was broke down-  Just  as we were
ready to go there came a heavy team along, and we put our
baggage on, and the teamster  took us over to the next tavern,
where we  hired the landlord to carry us on, if his  wagon did
not  break down,  which  I  feared it would.  But  we arrived
safe, and  found quite a  number waiting, whom we attended-
Next day, finding no other conveyance, we took the stage back
to Baltimore, and having had some requests at Frederick City,
took the rail  road  there  and  set some  bones—then the stage
to York, (Penn.) set some bones—passed on to Columbia, set
bones for  nine subjects—continued on'by Lancaster to Phila-
delphia, where we  remained  till the last day of June, 1832.
We  took the steam-boat  and  arrived in New-York, where I
had  full employ—was called out on the Island and set a hip—
went to Flushing to examine a case I had attended in Phila-
delphia—besides the city business—was called to Mount Plea-
sant, near Morristown, N. J.  to reduce  a lady's hip.  On the
5th of July, was the great alarm of cholera, causing the flight
of the citizens in great numbers.  I took the 5  o'clock boat,
Ohio, up the river.  When  opposite the  State Prison, the boil-
er burst.   Three men were  scalded, and two  leaping over-
board, were drowned.    Most distressing seemed  the groans,
and  shrieks, and cries of those poor souls, saying,—" What
shall we do!" " Where are we going to!" conscious that death
was  unavoidable.   It could  but move the hardest  heart—it
was  the most solemn scene  I  ever witnessed—no relief to  be
administered, I could but stand still and  be astonished at the
mercy and salvation of the Lord that so few among so great a
a crowd were injured—and I  asked myself, why  was  I spared
as a monument of God's mercy, as I  had passed but a few
minutes previous by the place which proved the gate of death
to others.   As instantaneous as the discharge of a  cannon, it
caused great consternation and uproar, fearing we should next
go to the bottom.   By the friendly and courteous management
of the captain and  gentlemen on board all were calmed, and
soon a boat came up and took off all who wished to leave.
had  agreed to call  at Cold  Springs, with Mr. Kimball, to ex-
amine his  two daughters, whom I had attended  in New-York
            8 
58
 before I went south—he being on board took me to lus broth-
 er's  house, where his  lady and children were.   I considered
 them doing as well as I could expect.  The next  flay I came
 up the river and  on home,—having been absent nearly nine
 months, traveling  through and about eight states and into the
 ninth,  in attention to  the science of bone-setting—performed
 some twelve hundred operations—about eight hundred south
 of New-York, as per memorandum.  I returned home, found
 my family well, and assisted my sons  in harvest—attending
 some cases about home, and made a visit to Greenfield to see
 our friends—operated on seven cases.  I had  some come from
 a distance to my house, whose joints I reduced.   On the 2d
 of October, 1832, having business in Providence, R. I. having
 more horses than we needed to use on the farms, I started with
 four  and sold three of them—I set bones  in Albany for several
 and also in Newport.  One lady  ii> Providence, in particular,
 had badly dislocated her ankle and could not put it to the floor
 for six days.  She sent for me.  I told her that  her ankle was
badly out—the doctor had said it was not out but only sprain-
 ed.   I set the joint, and she walked immediately.  After my
 return I set some bones,  and after a short time  I  took a  tour
 to Albany, Troy,  and so on to Ballston  Spa, to examine and
 set bones for a number—on the way received addresses from
 New-York and  Connecticut.  At Ballston Spa I reduced for
 Dr. St. John's  lady, September  11, 1832, a broken limb of
 five  years  standing, hip,  knee and ankle, which I consider
 doing well for the time and, without further accident, likely to
 recover in time from the use of canes, if so,  it will be one of
 the most extraordinary cases I ever attended, on the account
 of the time standing and  the bones not  united.  In this last
 year's experience I have only noticed a few of the most partic-
 ular  ca^es by name, to give a just idea of my  operations.   I
 have received a number of very permanent certificates from the
 first  class of gentlemen and ladies,  whose names I have  not
 mentioned, some of which  may be inserted  in this publication.
   On the 1st of December, 1832, by a line from Easton, N- Y.
 I left home and  proceeded there, and  reduced a lady's hip
 seventy-five years old ; then came back to Lansingburgh and set
 some bones—continued on to Albany, and Hudson, and New-
 York, and reduced some bones, and soon went to attend calls
 at Saugatuck, (Conn.)—attended thirty cases and returned to 
59
New-York, had full business there, till I had to return to Con-
necticut again.  I began at Stamford, and passed to New-Ha-
ven—stopt at the villages, and having an anxious call at Dan-
bury, went out and attended some thirty cases there, and re-
turned to New-York in twelve days, having reduced joints in
that town for seventy patients.  I operated on some more there
till I had a call back to New  Haven, and  in six  days I per-
formed fifty operations in that city, of from  one to twenty years
standing,  and three  on  the passage back.  I stopt in New-
York a few days, then went south through the cities to Wash-
ington, in attention to bone-setting—arrived the 2d of March,
1833, and on the 4th saw the inauguration of the President—
came back to Baltimore and reduced joints for several there,
and some in Wilmington, Delaware.  I passed on to Philadel-
phia and attended some one hundred cases.  Being called to
New Hope,  I  proceeded  on and  set a  gentleman's  hip at
More's Town, and found the case at New Hope not practica-
ble without  relaxing—reduced a hip and  ankle  for  another
man, and came to Trenton and set bones for several there-
returned to New-York and found many waiting for help—wait-
ed on several,  and passed on by steam-boat to Providence,
R. I.—staid a few days and operated on fourteen cases—called
down to Warwick and  set a bad broken leg for Mr. Gardner's
son, in Cranston a hip and ancle for Deacon Potter—then
took the stage for Hartford and New  Haven, where I examin-
ed many cases of last winter's operations with much satisfac-
tion to myself and those on whom I had waited—came by
steam-boat to New-York and attended a  few cases, and then
returned home by calling at Catskill,  went out over the moun-
tain to  Windham, by address, and set a lady's hip, by order
of Mr. Aursburn, she being his sister, and reduced joints for
three more gentlemen there-   In that place I received very
uncouth and ungentlemanly treatment from Dr. Camp, whom I
permitted to be present at the operations.   I returned to Hud-
son and examined the hip of a daughter of Mr. Macy, gave her
means  to relax the muscles, and came home,—ten days after
I  went to Schenectady and set a hip for Mr. Nelson Servoss,
passed on to Hudson and reduced the lady's hip,  set bones for
three others there, went back to Albany and set an ankle for a
man at the City Hotel, and then returned  home.   In my tour
of five months / received a number of certificates of extraor- 
60
dinary cases from the first  class of population, and was much
pleased to find so general satisfaction and so much  gratitude
expressed by my employers, south and east.   Soon after, being
called to New-York as a witness, on account of a lad's having
been run  over by a  carriage,  and  being called  specially to
Lansingburgh, I left home, and called there and reduced joints
for eight patients there and one in Troy—stopt at Hudson and
examined those I had recently  operated  on, and  found them
improving fast—went down to New-York and found  a number
waiting, performed several operations—went to  New Haven
and looked over my patients there, and found them gratified be-
yond measure—came  along shore to  Norwalk, and found them
well satisfied—returned to  New-York, attended to a number
more—came up to Poughkeepsie and Hudson, and  on  home,
and found a number had  been to  see me and had  left word
for me to come over Catskill mountain to attend a number of
cases.  My son  and I took a horse and wagon and went to
Schoharie, and attended on a shoulder case for Mr. Defraite,
and up the creek to Lexington, and Windham.  A Mr. Gard-
ner, at Catskill, sent  for me  there.   I went and  reduced his
hip and ankle, and joints for two other gentlemen, and return-
ed to  Windham,  and on  home by  Durham, having reduced
joints for nineteen in  six days.   After I returned home, having
advertised in New York to visit the Springs, I passed through
Schenectady, Albany, Troy, Lansingburgh and Waterford, to"
examine cases and reduce joints-  Having calls from Philadel-
phia, I made a short stay and returned home by Glenville to at-
tend a gentleman from Schoharie, by engagement. I purposed
to leave the first  of July for the south, by New-York to Phila-
delphia, on express-
  July 1st, 1833, I left home,  on calls at Philadelphia and
Connecticut, stopt at Schenectady and  examined some cases,
and also  at Albany—was called to  New Scotland, ten miles
from  the latter place, and  set bones for three people, and three
miles out  on the road south by the mills, for two—then passed
 on to  Hudson, and set bones for some—crossed over to Ath-
 ens, and set two cases—then to Catskill, and attended to fifteen
 cases, and examined those I  before attended—passed  on  to
 New-York, and  found as many waiting as I could attend in
 two days—then  I went to  Connecticut, and examine^ Mr.
 John Waterbury's son, and set a man's hip—returned to New- 
                           61
lork, and found a number more very anxious  cases,  and re-
mained a few days in full business—went on to  Elizabethtown,
and  set bones for some—then  on to Rahway, and examined
some—then on to New-Brunswick and Trenton to Philadel-
phia, and  attended some  twenty  cases—returned  to Borden-
town and Crosswick, and looked  over some cases—then back
to Trenton, and found that Mr. Anthony Taylor had left a re-
quest for me to call and see his daughter, near Bristol, (Penn.)
an interesting young lady who had  been lame twenty years.
I reduced  her hip and ankle, and she was relieved, as she in-
formed me at Trenton.   A few  days after I  came on  near
Princeton,  at the turnpike  gate,  and set bones  for  several,
and passed on to New-Brunswick and New-York,  and had*full
business about a week—then I left for Catskill,  where I looked
over a number of cases, and passed on to Athens and went up
to the gate towards Coxsakcie, and set a man's hip and ankle
to his joy and surprise.  I  crossed  over to Hudson  and set
bones for three ladies, two of whom were from  South  Caroli-
na, the other  from New-York.  There I  met my son, Water-
man  Sweet, Jr.  We took  stage, and went out  to  Lenox;
(Mass.) by special request of Captain Joseph  Palmer, to see
his lady and  daughter, who had been thrown out of a one
iiorse wagon.   I set a number of bones for both of them, re-
lieved his lady immediately, and his daughter some—I set her
bones, but her elbow being much contracted, could not imme-
diately bring  her hand to her shoulder, and I left  medicine to
relax.  We set bones for five others at his house.  By his re-
quest, I, in company with himself and lady,  went down to Lee,
where I operated  on  seven  more the next day, and returned
home with them at 7 o'clock, and found an  anxious letter for
me not to fail to come over  Becket mountaiu,  fourteen miles,
to see  a  lady,  who had been  lame some  twenty  years.  I
agreed with Mr. Palmer to send me there that night.   At eight
o'clock we set off.  A heavy shower came  up  and it became
so dark that the driver had to walk and lead the horse, till we
came to an inn, where we staid till the moon rose, then pro-
ceeded on, arrived there at 3 o'clock in the morning, and re-
duced the lady's hip and ankle, took  breakfast, and returned
to Lee and set bones for four more there—went to Old Stock-
bridge, and took stage to Albany,  where I arrived that evening.
The  next morning I took  the boat back  to Hudson, and set 
                           62
an  ankle  for a daughter of Mr. Weed, for whose lady from
South Carolina I reduced a shoulder which had been put out
on  a visit to Oak Orchard.  I also set a shoulder for a Mr,
Porter,  put out by the unexpected discharge of a rocket on in-
dependence.   That evening I left  for Catskill,  and  looked
over some cases, and went out to Lexington, thirty-three miles
west, and  reduced a hip, knee and ankle for a lad—returned
to the above mentioned places—left Hudson for Coxsackie and
set  some joints, and on to Albany and set  some, in town and
out of town—then left for home, and found several there wait-
ing my return, one from one hundred and eighty miles distance
—I attended them, and then went to  the Springs, and visited
Mrs. St. John, at Ballston Spa, and  found her considerably
improved, likewise  a  child whose shoulder I  had reduced at
Saratoga,  perfectly restored—went to  Greenfield aud reduced
joints for four  there, and being unwell I returned home, and
had several more come to my house for attendance whom  I
have now  to visit, and in a few days I purpose leaving  home
for the Eastern States, to attend on  special calls in the line of
my profession, at different places, to the eastern shores of Mas-
sachusetts, by Lenox and Northampton,  and back by Hart-
ford, if permitted.
  Having arranged my narrative, I intend to put it to press,
together with certificates  of a  few of the most extraordinary
cases, which I have received from the first elass of people in
different states and cities of America, who  have been benefitted
by  me.   These certificates are sufficient to give a general idea
of  the benefits of my operations, but should any  one desire
more reference, I think I  have some two hundred certificates,
and doubt not of thousands of living  evidences, who have re-
ceived benefits, whom I have seen in  their afflicted  conditions
of  almost every description the human frame may be invested
by  broken bones  and  dislocated joints,  and  rheumatism,
 &ic. &tc.
     I subscribe  myself, an Obedient Servant to a  Generous
          Public.
                               WATERMAN  SWEET.
    September,  \,  1S33. 
TO  THE PUBLIC.
  After a long and laborious and extensive practice in the sci-
ence of bone-fetting, of upwards of forty years experience,  in
which time a great variety of almost every description of cases
has been under my inspection, I feel in duty bound to remark,
that I have  been studying  night and day  to find out the use,
propriety, consistencies of a practice used by most physicians,
and even those who are raised to the highest state of eminence,
after whose administrations and operations I have  been called
on to examine and operate, has given me such disagreeable sen-
sations, seeing the patients'  nerves injured, or contracted  by
means of leeches, setons, and issues, which I often find burnt
about joints,  or so near them as to be very injurious, or almost
spoil  some joints  or  main ligaments, injuring them in such a
manner as to render it very  difficult  in  many cases to reduce
them  to joint—I must say,  in  all my practice I  have never
found  any good resulting from them,  but on the contrary, in-
jury—I feel in duty bound to ask the use or propriety of them,
and I must say, that when I find cases that have not been  han-
dled in these ways, I find but little difficulty in reducing  to
what I do where those applications have been  used.  I have
labored under so much difficulty of mind, day and night, in-
quiring what was my duty, yet  feeling a delicacy  on account
that it is not  my wish to injure  the most tender  feeling of any
physician, or surgeon, or any other fellow creature—but,  feel-
ing it my duty to obey God rather than  man, I  adduce this to
public view, for consideration—that the  public may look back
and see if they have ever known  any good resulting  from the
above  mentioned means.  If so, any doctor, or other person
who has set a bone, or restored a joint, or had one  restored
that was dislocated, will be entitled to the thanks and the hum-
ble  acknowledgements of a friend to all the afflicted.  And this
is not  all that affects  my mind  in this case-  The pain—the
torture—the anxiety of people under these administrations is
extreme and heart-rending, especially to parents,  while  their 
64
children are experiencing such pain, and so much  attendance
and no good consequences resulting from the whole, as  I am
daily informed, and almost hourly, by  people  and parents of
children.  While  I am  penning these few lines to adduce to
public view, I am prompted to think that those who may pe-
ruse them will see some propriety in my penning a few thoughts
on a subject that has been in my mind night and day for years,
as a duty to disclose, to answer a conscience void of offence to
my Maker and my fellow-men, from sympathy and affection.
    I  subscribe myself, the  most  Obedient  Servant to the
        Public.
                             WATERMAN SWEET.
  Florida, Montgomery County, N. Y. Sept.  \, 1833- 
CERTIFICATES,
              DR. SWEET—-THE BONE SETTER.
   We have already spoken of the extraordinary performances of this man,
and we continue to hear, almost daily, of new'cases in which he has suc-
ceeded in effecting cures—or  affording essential aid.   Many individuals
who have been relieved by him, express the highest satisfaction and grat-
itude for his services.   We  annex  the following communication  from
Captain Wiswall, a respectable and well-known citizen, and one of the
harbour-masters of this port, (New-York.)   Certificates of a like charac-
ter, from other individuals in this city have been voluntarily  handed to us
for publication.
                          COMMUNICATION.
   To Parents having children  suffering with dislocated limbs, King's Evil,
Scrofula, Rheumatism, and White Swellings, of long or short duration,
—A. plain matter of fact.
   I have a child nine years old, who had  a fall about  five years since,
which disabled her much, and  the faculty, whom I consulted, could not do
any thing for her.   Since that period she has walked on crutches.
   Hearing of Mr. Waterman  Sweet, I put my child under  his direction
about eleven  weeks since.  She had  her shoulder and hip out, her knee
drawn to a square  with contracted cords, and her health was very feeble.
After ten days application he was able, and did set her shoulder and hip, in
the presence of three witnesses, in less than five minutes time without ap-
parent pain to the child—in fact it was like a magic.  I could hardly realize
it, as I expected the operation  would  have been very severe.   Her health
has continued to improve and by the application of his oils  to her knee,
for eight weeks, her limb is made straight, and she is enabled to walk with-
out crutches.  This case is the more remarkable as the palrn bone was
displaced, and the leg withered and cold.   Since her limb has  been straight
it  has become healthy,  and is filling up and regaining its natural feeling.
Although my child limps some,  I flatter myself she will continue to im-
prove ; and I feel satisfied with what has been done, and take much plea-
sure in laying the case before the public—humanity prompts  me to do so.
   I have accompanied  Bone Setter Sweet on many of his visits, and have
been present and assisted him in placing seven  hips and five shoulders,
and several feet, hands  and fingers, some of which were done  in my  house
to  poor persons gratuitously.   At my instance, in the presence of some of
my family, he set a wrist for a lady eighty-two years of age.   Any unbe-
lievers may call  at my  house, 42 Hamilton-street, between  11 and 1 o'-
clock.                                     -SAMUEL WISWAL.
  A'ew- York, February 24, 1831.
              9 
GG
                                Philadelphia, 3rd Month 23tf, 183S.
   Waterman Sweet—
       Respected Friend—The operation performed by  thee on my son
Thomas, about a year ago, having succeeded far beyond  any thing I had
expected or hoped  for, it gives me great pleasure to state the facts of  the
case for the information  of others.
   In the year 1823, (being then about eight years old) his knee became
very much diseased, and his thigh and leg exceedingly inflamed and swell-
ed, resulting in ulceration.  He was confined to his bed about twenty-one
months, during which time, and afterwards, many pieces of bone from  his
knee and leg to near the ankle were thrown off—(one I think I may safely
say,  between  two and three inches long)—the knee became very much
enlarged and  the joint destroyed, the thigh bone drawn out of the socket
at the hip, and the main tendon of the leg so contracted that the foot was
drawn violently down and very much twisted.  The limb  gradually healed
—when able to go about, he went for a while on crutches, and afterwards
was able to go with one  crutch and a cane, and so continued ; but it was
with very painful feelings I observed his hip joint continually getting more
out of place—the1 limb pushed  more and more up, presented to my view  the
melancholy prospect of perfect decrepitude.   Under these circumstances,
I was induced to send for thee, with, I acknowledge, hardly a hope of his
being benefitted : to my great surprise, however, not only has his hip joint
been restored, but his foot so altered in shape as not to look like the same,
and the joints of  the ankle, instep and toes so adjusted,  that from being
stiff as a stick, they have now their natural play.
   Several of our doctors have examined  him and have candidly acknow-
ledged that it was a case in which any of the faculty would at once have
pronounced a cure impossible  by any art of theirs.   One of them, whom I
think stands as high for  skill as any surgeon in this city,  and who had at-
tended him when  confined about nine years ago and since,  seemed very
much gratified and observed, that this was one of those very striking facts,
which it was useless either to  deny or contest.
   Having, as a parent, naturally anxious for the welfare of his child, long
suffered on account of my poor afflicted son,  far beyond what  I can  ex-
press, I feel very desirous that others similarly circumstanced may have an
opportunity of trying the same means of relief, and would strongly recom-
mend them so to do, being fully persuaded that where thou dost not believe
thou canst relieve—thou wilt candidly say so, as was the  case with regard
to my son's knee joint, which thou at once pronounced to be beyond remedy.
   I may add, that at the time thou performed the operation on my son, at
the request of a young  woman, who for eight  months  had  been utterly
unable to walk, being  merely able to move about the house on crutches, in
great pain, I sent  thee to her.   The  same day thou adjusted the joints of
her knee and hip, so as to enable her to walk at once, and she now walks
as perfectly as any of us.
   Hoping thou mayest be instrumental in relieving many more of the af-
flicted, I remain,  with much esteem, thy assured friend.
                                            OTHNIEL  ALSOP.
  This is to certify, that I had my hip bone put out of place sixteen years
ago, and on the 11th of April, 183£, had it put in place by Waterman
Sweet, since which time I feel myself considerably benefitted.
                                        HOWARD IRESBURY.
  Baltimore, May  11,18S2. 
67
  State of New-York, Montgomery co. and township of Florida, to wit:
To all persons to whom it may concern,—I do hereby certify, that Doct.
Waterman Sweet has  been a resident of the town of Florida for thirty
years or more, and that he has practised  bone setting, more or less, ever
since he first came into the town, and that people generally are well satis-
fied with his practice ; and further, I have  been eye witness  to a number
of his operations, which were attended with  entire success, and as respects
his moral and religious character, it is untarnished even  by the tongue of
the slanderer.   Given under my hand at Florida, this 25th day of "May,
1829,                                JOHN G.  SWEET, M. D.
                                        Providence, Oct. 20, 1829.
  My Dear Sir—I send you the following as a testimony of my belief in
your skill in  bone setting, in the hope that it may be an inducement to
some unfortunate persons like  myself, to put your well-tested powers to
the proof, for your own and their good, as well as to show to you, that I
conceive myself to have  been  very fortunate in  receiving the benefit of
your satisfactory skill and attention.
                                Yours, very respectfully.
  Mr. W. Sweet.                 STEPHEN A.  APLIN, Jr.

  In the month of June last, I fractured my  knee pan for the third time :
being acquainted with Mr.  Waterman Sweet, I employed him, and, con-
trary to my own and my friends expectations, have become as sound as
before the last fracture, although the  bone was broken in  three instead of
two pieces, as before.  I believe him to be skilful in his  profession, and
an}r one having broken or dislocated  bones, will,  in my opinion, be fortu-
nate in having his assistance.          STEPHEN A.  APLIN, Jr.
  Providence, Oct. 20, 1829.
                                      Nantucket, 3rd Month, 1830.
  We, the subscribers, feel it a duty due from us to recommend Water-
man Sweet as a man of superior skilHn setting bones, that are out of their
place, in any part of the human frame.   Some of us, of a recent date, have
been cripples and suffered much pain on account of our bones being out of
their proper place, and some of us have suffered many.'years, and all hopes
of recovery having vanished, and by the superior skill of Waterman Sweet
have received much benefit, and many of us now have the use of our limbs
and many of us are recruiting as fast as  we have any reason to expect.—
In his extensive operations, wc do not know of an individual that has re-
ceived the least injury.             CROMWELL BARNARD,
                                  REUB'N. JOY, for himself, Anna
                                      Kay, and Samuel C. Joy,
                                  ELISHA GREEN.
  This is to certify, that I had my hip bone put out of joint  twenty years
ago last September, and on the 29th of March, 1832, had it replaced by
Dr. Waterman Sweet ; since then I have been mending every  day.
                                                JOHN A. KIRK.
  Baltimore, May 11, 1832. 
b'8
  This is to certify, that I, Elizabeth M. Britt, of the  city of Baltimore,
have been lame upwards of thirty-three years.  When young, having the
advice of eminent physicians, they pronounced my lameness incurable.
There  was an entire deadness of the  limb, and  no  hopes of recovery.
Hearing of Dr. Waterman Sweet, I immediately applied to know il help
could be  afforded.   He  gave me immediate satisfaction, by putting the
joints in place.  In the course of three  weeks, I was enabled  to walk the
length of the room, and, in the short space of four weeks, two squares and
a half, with the assistance of a cane.    ELIZABETH M. BRITT.
  Baltimore, May 9, 1832.
  This certifies, that I had a fall and dislocated my knee bone, and put my
hip out of joint, and was unable to move my body for thirty-four days, and
for fourteen weeks was unable to walk without crutches, and was in violent
pain, and entirely lost the use of my limbs.   But hearing of Dr. Sweet,
and his great ability in  bone setting, I  applied to him and was perfectly
cured,  and am now in  the full possession of my limbs, which can be at-
tested by my father and others.               HANNAH P. BRAY.
                                           ISAIAH BRAY,
                                           father to the above.
  This  may certify that Mr. Waterman Sweet set bones in my family
geven or eiaht years ago, which soon got well—and I have been acquaint-
ed with said Sweet for twelve or fourteen years, and know him to be  a
man of good moral character.                   JELLIS SWART.
  Florida, Montgomery County, JY.  Y.  May 26, 1829.
  To all whom it may concern, this certifies, that Mr. Waterman Sweet
has attended my daughter for a weakness and injury to her arm  and leg;
and has greatly improved her, in the use of both limbs.  And  I recom-
mend him to all whose limbs are dislocated, or  who suffer under similar
maladies.                                  NATH. WILLIAMS.
  Baltimore, May 9, 1832.
  This may certify, that I dislocated my knee, and after two days I called
for Dr. Waterman Sweet and he said it was out of joint, and in a few mo-
ments he replaced it to my joy and satisfaction, and I soon got well.
                                            PARDON HANDY.
  Providence, February 10, 1829.
  This is to certify, that I have been a cripple  for sixteen  months ; my
hip and knee were out of place, and I was not able to walk without crutch-
es : and I am now able to go without.  The cure was performed by Dr.
Sweet.                                    RUTH MATTOCKS.
  Baltimore, May 1, 1832. 
69
  This will certify, that we, James Helme and Juda Helme, are well ac-
quainted with Dr.  Waterman Sweet,  and know him to be a man that bears
a good moral character and religious  sentiments, and has been a member
of a Baptist society a number of years, and his  character unimpeached ;
we have known him to set bones ;  when a young man he set Juda Helme's
leg that was broken in two places, and out of joint.  We know by  expe-
rience that he is very skilful in setting bones.   We have been eye witnes-
ses to a number of his operations wherein he gave good satisfaction.
                                               JAMES  HELME
                                               JUDA HELME.
  Florida, Montgomery County, N. Y. May 26, 1829.
                                       Baltimore, 3d mo. 9th,  1833.
   This is to certify, that my eldest daughter, when about six years of age,
was at school and playing with other children, by sliding on a wet plank,
fell down and hurt herself, so as to cause her to be lame for several days,
after which she got well enough to go to school again, but had frequent
spells of lameness, often so as to be confined to the house.  She continu-
ed getting worse, although many remedies were applied,  but all  without
success.  Physicians were applied to, who recommended the  use  of blis-
ters and issues and to lay still in bed, which she did for about six  months,
after which she was able to walk about with a cane, but it was  not long
before she had to  use crutches.  She suffered almost continual pain,
which increased with age—when about one year ago we heard of Water-
man Sweet's  being in Wilmington, performing many cures of dislocated
joints.  She  was induced to go on to see him.   She accordingly went on,
with much pain caused by exercise in riding.   She met with  him the
same evening, when, upon his examining  her,  he pronounced  her hip,
kneee and ankle out of joint.  He operated on her, in about half an hour,
after having her bathed or rubbed with a preparation he makes for  the pur-
pose—when she  arose up and walked across the  floor without aasistance.
She felt immediate relief, and in a few days returned home, quite restored,
with the exception of some soreness in the joints, which has gradually
subsided, and now she is able to walk without limping, except from habit,
and  appears to be perfectly restored, to our great joy.   1 would, therefore,
recommend all those who are afflicted with dislocated joints-, to go  to
Waterman Sweet for relief.                    JOHN NEEDLES.
  N. B.  My daughter  was lame about twelve years.
                                    New-York, February 15, 1832.
  Mr. Waterman Sweet—
       Dear Sir—I have deferred writing to you until  the present time,
wishing to be fully satisfied of the permanent  effects of your operations
upon my child.  You will recollect it is now about a year since you was
called to see her.  You found her leg withered to nothing but  skin and
bone, and as useless as a rag, not having been able to perform a single step
without the use of a crutch for the last seven years, during which  time I
had employed several eminent physicians and surgeons,  all of whom pro-
nounced her case one of nervous  debility ; no one  ever  intimating that
her bones were displaced ;  but  administered medicine internally, and  or-
dered frequent rubbing to produce a cutaneous excitement and circulation
of the blood as the only possible means to restore the use of her limb ; all 
70
of which were entirely ineffectual.   Some person told my  littlo daughter
that you could cure her ; and more to gratify  her feelings, I assure you,
than faith to believe  you  could do her any good, induced mc to call on
you ; when you at once said her hip, knee and ankle were out of joint, and
in one hour placed  them all right, leaving nature to do the rest.  It is now
about one year and she has not used a crutch  or even a staff, since  you
performed the operation, her leg has about doubled its former size and is
now nearly as large as the other.   She goes daily to school and limps but
very little.   We feel the utmost confidence that in time she will be perfectly
well.   You will  please accept our heart-felt gratitude, for if a kind Provi-
dence had not sent you to us, our daughter must have been a cripple for
life.  We do most unhesitatingly recommend you to all laboring  under
similar complaints.  Mrs. Kellogg, at 88 Sands street, Brooklyn, where I
reside,  is  always gratified  in  answering the  inquiries of  any one, or if
more satifactory see my daughter herself, when any doubt, of even the
most sceptical, of your superior skill as a bone setter, must be removed.
   I am, sir,  with much respect, your obliged and humble servant.
                                             TIMO. KELLOGG.
   No. 7,  Merchant's  Exchange, N. Y.
  This  is  to  certify, that I have been acquainted with Mr. Waterman
Sweet about fifteen years, and think him to be a good moral character and
a man of good standing in this place, and I am knowing of his selling a
broken leg for Mr. Hulin that was very badly broken, and it got well and
he had the  use of it as well as the other, and have known him to be called
on a number of times to set bones.               DANIEL STARK.
  Glenville, May 27, 1829.
  This may certify, that I have been under the care of Mr. Sweet for  an
enlargement and weakness of the ankle joint, which has troubled me  for
more than twenty years, and  I can truly say that I have been greatly re-
lieved, and, in fact,  cured.                           H. FOWLER.
  Neiv-York, February, 3, 1831.
  This is to  certify, that I have seen  Dr. Waterman Sweet operate on
rising of one hundred cases, and the most of them  have received more or
less benefit.   I believe him to be a natural bone setter.  I have seen those
who could not use their  limbs, till Dr. Sweet had operated on them, and
now they have perfect use of them.               Wm. R. COFFIN.
  Nantucket, February, 1831.
  1 hereby certify, that I dislocated my ankle on the 1st of August, and
cracked my out leg bone.   I called on Waterman Sweet and he replaced
it and it soon became useful.   He has also performed several operations
in my presence, and all done well so far as I know.
                                            SWEETING  TAFT.
  Providence, October 21, 1829. 
71
  This  may certify, that Mr. Waterman Sweet set a bone in my ankle
which was dislocated in the fall of 1805—also  a  bone in my elbow some
time in the winter of 1806 ; the bones soon got  well and have not troubled
me since.  I have been acquainted with the aforesaid Sweet for rising of
thirty years, and know him to be a man of a good moral character.
  N. B.   Mr, Sweet has set bones in my father's family.
                                              JOHN T. GREEN.
  Amsterdam, Montgomery County, N. Y. May 23, 1829.
  T hereby certify, that three years ago I broke a bone in my ankle and
it troubled  me very much, and I called on Waterman Sweet, and he re-
paired it to my satisfaction.            CLARISSA D.  HIGGINS.
  Albany,  May 29,  1829.
  We certify, that my daughter Amanda, dislocated her ankle January,
1826, and about eight months after I called on Waterman  Sweet;  he set
it to  my satisfaction, and it soon got well.—Albany, May 29, 1829.
                                      AMANDA  M.  HIGGINS,
                                      C. HIGGINS.
                                        Baltimore, March 9, 1833.
   Dr. Waterman Sweet—
       Dear Sir—Hearing of your arrival in this city again, I avail myself
of the occasion to perform a duty to you and  the public, that I  had some
time since contemplated, to render you my voluntary testimony  and grate-
ful thanks, for  the  extraordinary  and  perfect cure you  effected of my
daughter.
   Miss Dorsey  had been  ill for more than two years,  the greater part of
which time she was unable to walk, and suffered excruciating pain,  with
little hope of recovery, though attended  bjr physicians of the highest tal-
ents : and when a faint prospect was afforded of returning bodily health,
it held out only the melancholy prospect of seeing her a cripple for life, as
weeks and months had passed in vain efforts to restore to use her disloca-
ted limb, which was disjointed at the hip  and toes,  and contracted at the
knee ; until you attended her, when, at the very first application, we had
the inexpressible, delight to behold that she could  put her heel to the floor,
and in three weeks to have her  accompany us to church ; and I have just
now parted from her in the street, walking as  well as she ever did,  and
urged on by her to perform this duty, declaring at the  same time that she
thinks, but for you, she would  have been  a cripple for life.
   Mrs. and Miss D. and  all my family, unite in  requesting to  present to
you their grateful acknowledgements, with, dear  sir, your  obliged friend
and obedient humble servant,                  JOSHUA DORSEY.
  I do hereby certify, that, in consequence of a sprain in one of my feet, I
have been unable to walk without crutches, except at one or two intervals,
for nearly fourteen  years ; and for seven years past, the last three of which
my lameness was much increased by a sprain  of my other foot, I have at 
72
no time been able to walk  without  them.  The advice and prcscriptiona
of the most respectable physicians  had been resorted  to without experi-
encing any beneficial  effect, and I  had become in a great measure recon-
ciled to my misfortune, having very little hope of ever being able to use
my feet again.
  Being in Philadelphia a few weeks since, and hearing of the many sur-
prising cures performed by Mr. Waterman Sweet, the  ''natural bone set-
ter," I was inouced'to apply to him ;  and contrary to my own expecta-
tions, and those of my friends, I am now able to walk  about comfortably,
and as four weeks have elapsed since the operation, I  have no doubt the
cure will be permanent.
  Gratitude to Mr. Sweet, and a desire that others afflicted in like man-
ner, may be induced to apply to him for relief, are my motives for furnish-
ing this brief statement of facts in my case.
                                         VIOLETTA  P. BUCK.
  Bridgeton, N. J.  June 26, 1832.

  Being personally familiar with the circumstances of the case alluded to
in the above certificate, I cheerfully testify to the correctness of the state-
ment.                                               F. N. BUCK.
  Philadelphia, July 28, 1832.
  This may certify, that the  last of February, 1830, stepping out of a
sleigh I injured my hip, knee, and ankle, and remained on crutches three
months.   Being advised by Dr. Talman of this city, to see Dr. Sweet, the
natural bone setter, who was then in New-York setting bones, I was in-
duced to take a safety barge down, and call him or> board.  When he had
examined my case he said my joints were dislocated.   By my desire  he
replaced them, when I could walk a  little, and kept improving and gaining
strength as fast as could be expected.  I was obliged to use my crutches
for about six  weeks after the  operation,  when I  gave them up and have
not had occasion to use them since.   I think if I had listened to the phy-
sicians here, I should not have been  living, as  I  was consuming away
with weakness and pain ;  they told me  there  were not any bones out,
but a very bad sprain.
  To Dr. Sweet I must here say, I never can be thankful enough towards
you for setting me on my feet  and enabling me to walk about,  which at
one time  I  never  expected  was possible.   I shall always remember you
with feelings of gratitude and thankfulness.
     I remain your sincere friend,                MARY C. MACY.
  Hudson, August 12.
  I hereby certify, that Mrs. Mary Whipple came to my house with her
Wrist very badly dislocated.  It had been out about twelve weeks, and she
had called on a  doctor to  no  purpose.  She called on  Dr. Waterman
Sweet, and  he  immediately replaced  it  to her satisfaction, and I have
heard that it was doing well.  Also, he has performed several other opera-
lions with success and satisfaction.
                                             RICHARD SMITH.
  Providence, Oct. 21, 1829. 
73
  I feel it my duty to the public, and particularly to the afflicted part  of
society, to testify to an  extraordinary cure effected by Mr. Waterman
Sweet, in replacing the ankle joint of my son, (after six years'  suffering)
which was effected in a few minutes, with but little additional pain, in ray
presence,  in  a very mechanical and skilful manner, for which he has ray
sincere thanks.                               SAMUEL TILLER.
   Philadelphia, March 18, 1833.
  This may certify, that I have been some time acquainted with Dr. Wa-
terman Sweet in his visits to this island, and am  well satisfied that he is
well skilled in the practice of bone setting, and within my knowledge  has
relieved many that were troubled with dislocated bones.
                                             JAMES  BARKER.
  Nantucket, 4th mo. 13, 1830.
  State of New-York, Montgomery. County, Township of Florida, ss.
    This  may  certify, that  I  have been personally acquainted with Dr.
Waterman Sweet for some  twenty-five or  thirty years, and that during
that time I have known him  to practice bone setting to some considerable
extent and with very good success, and as it  respects his moral or religious
character, it is unblemished.
  Given under  my hand this 28th day of May, 1829.
                                         PALMER ROWLAND.
  This may certify, that Mr. Waterman Sweet has set bones in my fam-
ily, and in my father's family, and many others in the neighborhood where
I live, and I have been acquainted with the aforesaid  Sweet for upwards
of thirty-five years, and know him to be a man of a good moral character.
                                           HENRY MALLERY-
   Florida, Montgomery County, N. Y.
  This  may certify, that I was lame from a fall for three years and six
months, not able to take a step without the use of crutches, at the same time
suffering the most trying sensations in my ankle and at times severe pain.
After trying several  of the most skilful physicians, and despairing of ever
enjoying the inestimable privilege again, we were told  by some of  our
friends of the cures the great bone setter, Waterman Sweet, had  perform-
ed ; soon after  which father wrote to him—he came and performed an op-
eration, which enabled me to lay aside my crutches, and  I have  not used
them since.  It is now better than a year, and I enjoy the full privilege of
walking, besides the  restoration of my health, which are privileges I know
not how to be thankful enough for.  May those who are in a similar  sit-
uation be encouraged.   With  the most heartfelt thanks I set my name to
this.                              REBECCA HENDRICKSON.
  Father also sets his name with the greatest delight.
                                   JOSEPH HENDRICKSON.
  Crosswick, N. J.  7th mo. 20th, 1833.
            10 
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