This book is a collection of letters that Fordham had sent home to England during his 18-month stay in America, mostly in Illinois. The letters were collected by a descendant and published early in the 20th century. Elias Pym Fordham was a young civil engineer who was a nephew of George Flower, one of the founders of the 16,000-acre English Prairie settlement in Edwards County, Illinois. Fordham arrived a year after Flower, accompanying the other principal founder, Morris Birkbeck, in 1817. He stayed at the settlement for some time, helping to prepare it for arriving English settlers. He became something of a frontiersman while there, as can be seen from his narrative. His wide-ranging observations and opinions differ somewhat from the optimistic account published by Flowers (found on the Illinois Local History page of this site).