Heading: (Imaginary Voyage)
Author:
Title: "Hollow Earth" expedition proposed by John Symmes
Place Published: New York
Publisher:
Date Published: Oct. 24, 1826
Description:

W.S. Wetmore. Autograph Letter Signed. [Ham.Cob?}, Postmarked Clinton, New York. Oct. 24, 1826. 3pp.+ stampless address leaf. To his brother, Isaac M. Wetmore, Lowville Academy, Lewis County, New York. Several words missing from seal opening.

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Replying to an inquiry from his 17 year-old brother : ; "The renowned Capt ;Symmes,,, intends ;starting this fall, in search of ;Symmezonia, the Internal World - or the Infernal Region... call it by which name you please. He will set out from New York or some other seaport, and sail South - South - South - till he reaches the ;170th ;degree, he will then be turning over the verge, and going ten or twelve degrees father, he will find himself in the big hole, You must understand that (as he says), each end of the world is cut off about the ;70th ;or ;80th ;degree North and South, so that his big hole is about 4,000 miles across. When he is...in the hollow, he expects to find [?] sailing [?] he arrives at ;Symmezonia. If you have any money to lay out in new land, I would advise you to send it by ;Symmes ;and purchase a farm in the Infernal Regions, that is if you think you should like the country..."

John ;Cleves ;Symmes ;spent more than a decade lecturing on (and proselytizing for) his theory that the earth was hollow and contained a number of concentric spheres, that an opening at the Poles would allow discovery of those inner spheres. Throughout the ;1820s, he tried to stir up popular support for the US Government to fit out an expedition to explore the Northwest coast, the northern Pacific Ocean to the continent of Asia and the "unknown regions" beyond the Arctic Circle. ;Wetmore ;apparently heard ;Symmes ;speak in the Albany area; though his advice to his brother seems to have been written with tongue in cheek, any contemporary writing about the Symmes ;"Expedition" is rare.

While the recipient, young Isaac ;Wetmore, did not join ;Symmes ;in search of the Infernal Regions, he did later display the adventurous spirit of an explorer. The year he received this letter, leaving school, he went to the Beaver River Valley in the Adirondacks and made his living as a hunter trapper and wilderness guide. Ten years later, after marrying, he left his wife and children behind and moved to Illinois, arriving on horseback by way of Chicago, to start the first farm (and become the largest landowner) in Ontario, Knox County.

Very good.