Chapter II: Part 2

M. de Chastellux and his aids arrived at Offley at 1 o’clock on the 10th of April, and spent two rainy days there. General Nelson was absent, but Secretary Nelson was there, an old man very gouty, who related with a serene countenance what the effect had been of the French batteries in front of Yorktown. “The tranquility which has succeeded these unhappy times by giving him leisure to reflect upon his losses, has not embittered the recollection; he lives happily on one of his plantations, where in less than six hours he can assemble seventy of his relations, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. The rapid increase of his own family justifies what he told me of the population of Virginia in general, of which, from the offices he has held all his life, he must have it in his power to form a very accurate judgment. In 1742 the people subject to taxes in Virginia amounted only to the number of 63,000; by his account they now exceed 160,000.

“After passing two days very agreeably with this interesting family, we left there the 12th at 10 in the morning, accompanied by the secretary and five or six of his young relations, who conducted us to Little River Bridge, a small creek on the road about five miles from Offley.”

Eleven miles through woods brought them to Willis’s Ordinary, a solitary place, but at the moment crowded. “As soon as I alighted I inquired what might be the reason of this numerous assembly, and was informed it was a cock fight. This diversion is much in vogue in Virginia, where the English customs are more prevalent than in the rest of America. Whilst our horses were feeding we had an opportunity of seeing a battle. The stakes were very considerable; the money of the parties was deposited in the hands of one of the principal persons, and I felt a secret pleasure in observing that it was chiefly French. Whilst the interested parties animated the cocks to battle, a child of fifteen, who was near me, kept leaping for joy and crying, ‘Oh, it is a charming diversion.’ We had yet seven or eight and twenty miles to ride to the only inn where it was possible to stop before we reached Mr. Jefferson’s.”

Keeping on towards Monticello, the party passed an ordinary, some sixteen miles from Willis’s, kept by an extremely fat man. They found him contented in an arm chair, which served him also for a bed. A stool supported his enormous legs. “A large ham and a bowl of grog served him for company, like a man resolved to die surrounded by his friends.”

They spent the night twelve miles farther on at a house where there were fourteen children, not one of them ten years old; and set out at 8 o’clock the next morning through the foothills of the Southwest Mountain. That day, the 13th of April (an important day with Mr. Jefferson) they came to Monticello. “The visit which I made Mr. Jefferson was not unexpected, for he had long since invited me to come and pass a few days with him; notwithstanding which I found his first appearance serious, nay even cold; but before I had been two hours with him we were as intimate as if we had passed our whole lives together. Walking, books, but above all a conversation always varied and interesting, made four days pass away like so many minutes. I recollect with pleasure that as we were conversing one evening over a bowl of punch, after Mrs. Jefferson had retired, our conversation turned on the poems of Ossian. In our enthusiasm the book was sent for and placed near the bowl, where by their mutual aid the night far advanced imperceptibly upon us. Sometimes natural philosophy, at others politics or the arts, were the topics of our conversation, for no object had escaped Mr. Jefferson; and it seemed as if from his youth he had placed his mind, as he had his house, on an elevated situation, from which he might contemplate the universe.”

Mr. Jefferson and M. de Chastellux rode over to Charlottesville, “a rising town,” to see Colonel Armand,[G] whose legion was in quarters there. Colonel Armand had a pet wolf which had been caught wild in the neighborhood. M. de Chastellux left Monticello on the 17th, and on the 19th arrived at the Natural Bridge, by way of Rockfish Gap and Steel’s Tavern. Returning by way of New London (Bedford), “already a pretty considerable town, at least seventy or eighty houses,” the party of tourists reached Cumberland Courthouse on the 23d. “This is the chief manor house of a very considerable country; it is situated in a plain of about a mile diameter, sixteen miles from Hodnett’s, which we had passed. Besides the courthouse and a large tavern, its necessary appendage, there are seven or eight houses inhabited by gentlemen of fortune. I found the tavern full of people, and understood that the judges were assembled to hold a court of claims--that is to say, to hear and register the claims of sundry persons, who had furnished provisions for the army. We know that in general, but particularly in unexpected invasions, the American troops had no established magazine, and as it was necessary to have subsistence for them, provisions and forage were indiscriminately laid hold of on giving the owners a receipt, which they call a certificate. During the campaign, whilst the enemy was at hand, little attention was given to this sort of loans, which accumulated incessantly, without the sum total being known, or any means taken to ascertain the proofs. Virginia being at length loaded with these certificates, it became necessary, sooner or later, to liquidate these accounts.

“The last Assembly of the State of Virginia had accordingly thought proper to pass a bill, authorizing the justices of each county to take cognizance of these certificates, to authenticate their validity, and to register them, specifying the value of the provisions in money, according to the established tariff. I had the curiosity to go to the courthouse to see how this affair was transacted, and saw it was performed with great order and simplicity. The justices wore their common clothes, but were seated on an elevated tribunal, as at London in the court of King’s bench or common pleas. We had rode forty-four miles, and night was closing fast upon us when we arrived at Powhatan Courthouse, a more recent settlement than that of Cumberland. We had a good supper and good beds, but our horses were obliged to do without forage.”

Early in the morning of the 24th they left Powhatan, and rode forty-four miles to Petersburg, passing Chesterfield Courthouse, where were still to be seen the ruins of the barracks occupied by the Baron Steuben and burned by the English. At Petersburg M. de Chastellux called at ‘Battersea’ and was entertained at ‘Bollingbrook.’ The town is described as already flourishing, and destined to become more so every day--the depot for a vast region to the south. “Five miles from Petersburg we passed the small river of Randolph over a stone bridge, and traveling through a rich and well peopled country, arrived at a fork of roads, where we were unlucky enough precisely to make choice of that which did not lead to Richmond, the place of our destination. But we had no reason to regret our error, as it was only two miles about and we skirted James River to a charming place called Warwick, where a group of handsome houses form a sort of village, and there are several superb ones in the neighborhood. As we had lost our way and traveled but slowly, it was near 3 o’clock when we reached Manchester, a sort of suburb to Richmond, on the right bank of the river, where you pass the ferry. The passage was short, there being two boats for the accommodation of travelers. Richmond is divided into three parts. I was conducted to that on the west, where I found a good inn. Mr. Formicola, my landlord, is a Neapolitan, who came to Virginia with Lord Dunmore, but had gone rather roundabout, having been before in Russia. His only error was the exalted idea he had formed of the manner in which French general officers must be treated. After dinner I went to pay a visit to Mr. Harrison, then Governor of the State. He talked much of the first Congress in America, in which he sat for two years. This subject led us naturally to that which is the most favorite topic among the Americans--the origin and commencement of the present revolution.”

This conversation with Governor Harrison, other conversations, and M. de Chastellux’s own careful observations led him to form opinions about Virginia, then the most influential of the States, which were correct enough. His analysis was a forecast. There can be found no better summary of conditions in Virginia at that time, the statement of a man of great good sense and a wide experience of men and affairs. He remarks: “One must be in the country itself, one must be acquainted with the language, and take a pleasure in conversing and in listening, to be qualified to form, and that slowly, a proper opinion and a decisive judgment. After this reflection the reader will not be surprised at the pleasure I took in conversing with Mr. Harrison. He urged me to dine with him next day, and to pass another day at Richmond. We set out, however, on the 27th, at 8 in the morning for Westover. We traveled six and twenty miles without halting, in very hot weather, but by a very agreeable road, with magnificent houses in view at every instant; for the banks of James River form the garden of Virginia.

“It is not by accident,” observes the Marquis of Chastellux, writing at Williamsburg, May 1, 1782, “that I have postponed the consideration of everything respecting the progress of the arts and sciences in this country until the conclusion of my reflections on Virginia; I have done it expressly because the mind, after bestowing its attention on the variety of human institutions, reposes itself with pleasure on those which tend to the perfection of the understanding, and the progress of information. The College of William and Mary, whose founders are announced by the very name, is a noble establishment which embellishes Williamsburg and does honor to Virginia. I must add that the zeal of the professors has been crowned with the most distinguished success, and that they have already formed many distinguished characters, ready to serve their country in the various departments of government. After doing justice to the exertions of the University of Williamsburgh, for such is the College of William and Mary, if it be necessary for its farther glory to cite miracles, I shall only observe that they created me a doctor of laws.”

_V._

_DR. JOHANN DAVID SCHOEPF, SURGEON TO THE HESSIAN TROOPS._

_1783._

_Dr. Schoepf--Leesburg--Plantation Houses--The Price of
Land--Fredericksburg--Hunter’s Iron-Works--Richmond--The
General Assembly--The Tavern Formicola--Manchester--Mr.
Rubsamen--Williamsburg--Yorktown or Little York--Surry Court
House--Smithfield--The Nation of Virginia--Suffolk--The Trade in
Salt._

Dr. Johann David Schoepf was born at Weinsiedel in 1752 and died in the year 1800. He studied medicine at Hof, Erlangen, Berlin and Vienna, then traveled in Russia, Italy and Switzerland, and made his degree in medicine at Erlangen in 1776. That year he came to America as surgeon to the Hessian troops in the British army. In 1784 he went to London and traveled through England and in France, Spain and Italy. He published in 1787 a _Materia Medica Americana_. Dr. Schoepf was particularly interested in scientific matters, was an accurate observer of things and of people, and his book is one of the best of the early travels in this country. These volumes have now been translated, and the account given below is a modification. Dr. Schoepf approached Virginia from the north, coming through Western Maryland.

“By this road Leesburg is the first town on the Virginia side, a place of few houses, small and wooden. On account of the high, pleasant and healthful situation a Latin school has been established here. An advertisement of this institution was to be seen on the tavern door, recommending it in a handsome style to the public, which should give it patronage, since schools hitherto, except in the chief cities, are scarce enough in America. It is not the universal custom in America to hang shields before the inns, but inns may always be identified by the great number of papers and notices with which the walls and doors of these public houses are plastered--and the best inns are in general the most papered. From such announcements the traveler gets a many-sided entertainment, and gains instruction as to where taxes are heavy, where wives have eloped or horses been stolen, and where the new doctor has settled.

“Along the road from Leesburg towards Fredericksburg there was not a little difference to be remarked between the appearance of the country and the thickly settled regions of Piedmont Maryland and Pennsylvania, through which we had just passed. It was strange to see so much wild and newly cleared ground, due not to any unfertility of the soil, but to the large estates whose owners were unwilling to sell and found it difficult to secure tenants where there is so much land to be had almost for the asking. And the contrast in the appearance of the plantations, after the Potomac is crossed, is rather striking. In this part of Virginia, as in lower Maryland, the farmer builds a small village about him. In some cases, however, all of his buildings would scarcely make one comfortable house. From the time of his first clearing he is continually adding, and his plan may be not a very good one. We passed Moore’s Tavern and the Red House (30 miles from Goose Creek), and skirting the Bull Run Mountains, approached the strictly tobacco country. Fairly good tobacco is raised to the west along the foothills, but the profit is trifling on account of the heavy expense of carriage to warehouses whence it can be taken off by the European ships. In this region the crop had been greatly damaged by an August frost. The loss was the greater because many of these planters raise only the Sweetscented, a tender variety, but more profitable by 2-1/2 shillings the hundred, or 25 shillings Virginia currency the hogshead.

“We spent a night at a plantation where, although no tavern is kept, the traveler is entertained for pay. There are disadvantages about this sort of inn, but on the one hand the proprietor escapes the payment of a liquor license and the trouble of catering to a crowd of idlers, and on the other hand the guest must answer only a few times the usual questions as to where he is going, where he came from, and what his business is. The captain had a large family, and wished to sell some of his land, of which he owned 4,000 acres. Land hereabouts can be bought for from 25 to 50 or 60 shillings Virginia currency. The captain would sell his for 40 shillings cash, and with the proceeds move to Kentucky. The people throughout are bent on providing for their children. This is difficult to do in the East, and hence the steady emigration to Kentucky.

“Beyond this we got out of the right road, and meeting only a few darkeys, whose horizon was not extensive, traveled half a day before we were set right. We passed Cedar Run at a dangerous ford, and came to a plantation where there is a copper mine worked intermittently, a narrow vein. Following the direction, “keep straight on” (nobody thinks the stranger can be quite as ignorant as he says he is), we crossed Acquia Creek, and reached Fredericksburg. The public buildings of Fredericksburg--church, market house and court house--we found in bad condition, not because they had been damaged directly by the war, but simply because during the war there had been no use made of them. Tobacco was bringing a small price here, and at a sure profit to the buyers. No ships were in and taxes were due; the price had been knocked down to 25 shillings the hundred. The same at Alexandria. Hunter’s Iron Works, near Fredericksburg, at the falls above Falmouth, is one of the finest and most extensive works of this sort in America. There is a rolling and a slitting mill, both very ingeniously contrived, and of this description of iron works there have been up to this time only one or two established in all America. Under the British rule such enterprises were forbidden. Past Fredericksburg, we had the honor to breakfast with an American general, whose attire was conspicuous--a large white chapeau, a blue coat, a brown waistcoat and green breeches decorated him, and he a short, fat man.

“From this point on towards Richmond the country is open and level, and adorned with many large and at times tasteful dwellings. The rich Virginians do not prefer a town life. Here and there we passed large wheat fields. Several years before the war, owing to the heavy English import duties on tobacco, the people had begun to raise wheat on a more extensive scale. Here, as in other parts of America, the cornfields are seeded to wheat without removing the stalks. The weevil is bad, especially if the grain lies long in the straw. After floating off the light seed the good, heavy grain is broadcasted, mixed with shell lime. Between Fredericksburg and Richmond we noticed a good many swampy spots, which might easily be drained. We met on this road, to our great surprise, two Alsatians traveling along on foot, with their bundles slung behind. They had come into the Chesapeake on a French ship, and were seeking their fortune in Virginia. A foot passenger is a very unusual sight in Virginia. Passing Hanover Courthouse (December 18, 1783) and Hanover Town, we came to Richmond. On this road we were struck with the little provision made for the winter feeding of cattle. How easy it would be to lay down grass. Near Richmond we saw mules, the first pair. Mules, being found well adapted to the country, are beginning to be used a good deal.

“Richmond, before 1779 not a very important town, is built on two heights, separated by a creek called Shokoes. The houses are in general of wood, and are irregularly scattered about. A recent census gives the number as 280, and the population about 2,000. The falls of the James engaged my curiosity first. The total fall of the river from Westham to Richmond (7 miles) is only seventy-one feet, and hence there is no stupendous cataract. But the falls as a whole, over innumerable boulders, between winding wooded banks, present a great and striking appearance. The sound of the water, particularly at night, is heard not only through the entire town, but before the wind for several miles around. At the falls innumerable herring and shad are caught early in spring, and at times even in February. These appear in the Delaware and the Hudson not before the middle of April or the first of May. James River is one of the greatest and most beautiful of American streams.

“During my stay at Richmond the Assembly was in session. A small frame building serves as House of Assembly, and with a change of properties as ballroom and banquet room. The term is used, ‘the Assembly sits.’ This does not seem to me to be precisely descriptive. The members appeared to me to be anywhere rather than in their seats, and to be discussing anything except laws to be framed. The doorkeeper was busy, and in the vestibule there was an uproar. The vestments of the members are diverse--boots, trousers, Indian leggings, great-coats, the usual coat, and short jackets. In other words, each one wears what he pleases. The members from the West are greatly inconvenienced in coming so far. They even speak of establishing a separate government for the West, as in the province of New York, where there is a Governor at New York and another at Albany. If this is done, the West will very likely become in a short time an independent State. The pay of members has recently been fixed at 18 Virginia shillings or 3 Spanish dollars per diem. During the war they preferred tobacco (50 pounds) to currency. At a vote, the Speaker calls for the Ayes and Noes, and judges with a critical ear which side has made the majority of sounds. If the predominance is a matter of doubt a division is called.

“I stopped at the Tavern Formicola, which was naturally much crowded at that season. Every evening there came generals, colonels, captains, senators, delegates, judges, doctors, clerks and gentlemen of every weight and calibre to sit around the fire, drink, smoke, sing and swap anecdotes. Very entertaining, but Formicola’s not being a spacious house, I found the crowd embarrassing. There is only one newspaper published at Richmond; this paper appears twice a week.

“On the south side of James River, opposite Richmond, lies a little town called Manchester. The rocks in the river between the two places have been bought up, as well as a narrow strip along each bank, and the owner proposes to throw a fine bridge across, which, if built, will be the first and only one of the kind in America. The project depends upon whether the Assembly will license this bridge as a toll bridge. At Manchester I visited Mr. Jacob Rubsamen, a German, who was before the war engaged in mining in Jersey. At the outbreak of the war he came to Virginia and set up a powder mill, the first powder mill to be established in this country. Rubsamen was able to find saltpetre in the mountains; his sulphur he brought from Europe, on account of the heavy expense of getting it out in this country. His works were not very profitable, and were destroyed in the end by the British. Mr. Rubsamen told me that lead ore is found on New River and the Greenbrier, copper on the Roanoke (Dan), and iron everywhere about, particularly in Buckingham County. Coal was recently discovered twelve miles from Richmond by the mere chance of the uprooting of a tree by the wind. This coal brings 1 shilling a bushel (at the wharf), Virginia currency. Its smell is disagreeable, as I observed when at Richmond.

“Leaving Richmond we reached Williamsburg in two days, passing by Warwick (where the British had destroyed a considerable plant for the working of iron), Osborne’s, a pleasant place, though small, and Petersburg, a town of a thriving trade and larger than Richmond. Cotton is raised in this region on good new land or on heavily fertilized land, and the favorite tobaccos are the Sweetscented, the Long Green, the Varina, the Frederick, the Oroonoko, the Hudson, Thickjoint, Thickset, Shoestring and other varieties.

“Williamsburg is to be counted among the most beautiful of American cities. The Capitol, or Statehouse, closes one end of the High Street, a large and modern building. Because no better use can be made of it now, a Latin school is to be established where the government was once installed. Doctors in all the faculties are graduated at the College of William and Mary. Most of the students, however, complete their studies at the English and Scottish universities. The citizens of this town, as of all lower Virginia, greatly hope that the seat of government will be brought back to Williamsburg. At the tavern I found very good entertainment and paid high for it. The black attendants, neatly and modishly attired, make their bows with dignity and respectfulness. They spoke with enthusiasm of the politeness of the French officers lately quartered there.

“We made an excursion to Yorktown, called also Little York, to see that famous place, and particularly to inspect the great oyster banks there. The inhabitants have not yet recovered from the disturbances of war, and many houses are still in ruins or half repaired. The spars of the ships sunk in the river to block the passage are yet to be seen. We returned the same day to Williamsburg, to set out the next morning for the South. Seven miles from Williamsburg, on the Southern road, we came to James River, and after much delay were obliged to turn back to Williamsburg because of an unfavorable wind at the ferry. The next day at sunrise, when the wind is generally still, we came again to the ferry and were put across, but not without delay. Lord Cornwallis was the excuse. They said he had ruined the wharf, and the tide was not yet high enough to take off men and horses from the bank, which is there low.

“Not far below the ferry lies James Island, formerly only a peninsula; in a fierce storm with high water the river broke through the slender tongue of land. Jamestown appears in several modern geographies as a place of eighty to a hundred houses. In reality there are there but one or two, and they ruinous. The most valuable land in this region is that along the rivers and creeks, not so much from the superior fertility, as because of the accessibility to water transportation. Such land sells at four, five or six pounds, Virginia. If the corn crop fails the planter is in straits, and if the price of tobacco is high everything else--bacon, corn, etc.--is high in proportion. Desiring gain, and spending his time on tobacco, the planter loses through not giving attention to those articles of necessity which he might produce at home.

“Five miles from James River we came to Surry Courthouse, where there was a crowd, because it was court day. Eleven miles farther on we passed Nelson’s Ordinary, and after ten miles more reached Smithfield, or Isle of Wight Courthouse. The road from Williamsburg is mainly through woods, but we passed more churches (five, that is to say) than during any other day’s journey in America.

“Towards Smithfield the traveler passes beyond the tobacco country. The chief exports here are tar, pitch, turpentine and salted meat. A barrel of tar, thirty-one and one-half gallons, costs from 8 to 9 Virginia shillings; a barrel of turpentine 18 shillings, and a barrel of salted pork (220 pounds) 50 shillings. At Smithfield we spent the evening with a party of gentlemen from the neighborhood. The conversation was for the most part on the subject of Virginia, what advantages that State has over every other State in the world, and how the nation of Virginia is superior to every other nation--in resources, manners, purity of speech and in all respects.

“The stranger notes deficiencies. For instance, a gentleman of Petersburg remarked to me that he thought of sending his son to Edinburgh to make a doctor of him, since he would probably not marry and set up as a planter, being now past the age of twenty-one. But it must be admitted that physically, the Virginians are a comely race, and they show on all subjects clear and strong understandings. It is to be regretted that they do not give more attention to the exact sciences. They read, but they do not study.

“Christmas Eve we came to Everett’s Bridge, and the next day to Suffolk, on another arm of Nansemond Creek. In the month of May, 1779, a great part of Suffolk was burned by the British. There are no stones at this place, and the deep, fine sand of the streets is an inconvenience. Before the houses they lay a sort of pavement, pitch and tar mixed with the sand and allowed to harden. They drive a trade from this place to the West Indies in small vessels, shallops of twenty to fifty tons burthen. Salt is an especial article of their traffic. When the vessels, which bring it from Tortola, Turk’s Island and other of the West Indies, are delayed, the price of salt is tripled and quadrupled. During the war the people were greatly in want of salt, and the attempt was made to get it from the sea by damming the water in ponds along the coast. Little success attended this experiment south of the thirty-seventh parallel, probably because of the frequent rain-storms which freshened the ponded sea water.

“From Suffolk to Cunningham’s we skirted the great Dismal Swamp. Along the road from York, in Virginia, to this point it is observable that the south bank of all the rivers and creeks is steeper and rougher than the north bank. This may be due to the weathering of the north and northeast storms.”

_VI._

_COUNT CASTIGLIONI, CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ST. STEPHEN, P. M._

_1786._

_Luigi Castiglioni--Alexandria--Mount Vernon--General
Washington--Fredericksburg--Peach Trees and
Persimmons--Richmond--Petersburg--Colonel Banister--Dr.
Greenway--Colonel Coles--Staunton River--Buckingham Court
House--Eniscotty--Rockfish Gap--Staunton--Middle River
Ford--Winchester--Charlestown._

In the diary of George Washington for the year 1785 appear these entries: “Sunday, December 25.--Count Castiglioni came here to dinner. December 29.--Count Castiglioni went away after breakfast on his tour to the southward.”

This was Count Luigi Castiglioni, who had landed at Boston in May, and after going through New England and a part of Canada, had come to New York, whence, on the 27th of November, he had set out for the South, reaching Alexandria December 24th, and spending Christmas at Mount Vernon. Count Castiglioni was a man of science, Chevalier of the Order of St. Stephen, P. M., member of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and also member of the Patriotical Society of Milan, Patrician of Milan. The book written by him, _Viaggio negli Stati Uniti_, is particularly descriptive of the useful plants to be found in this country, with a view to their introduction into Europe, either for the farm and the kitchen garden or for practical inclusion in the _materia medica_. This book and that of Dr. Schoepf, 1783-1784, give an excellent statement as to the natural history, the methods of agriculture, milling, mining, etc., of that period in the history of the fourteen States.

“Alexandria,” says Count Castiglioni, “numbers 300 houses and possibly 3,000 inhabitants. At times, although the latitude is only 38 degrees 45 minutes, the cold is so great that the Potowmack may be ridden and driven over. Such freezing weather is never of long duration, and many winters the river is not frozen at all. This newly established town has already received the name and the privileges of a city, and as soon as the Potowmack is made navigable will become one of the most flourishing of the trading towns of Virginia.

“When I was there the plan for the improvement of the navigation (suggested by General Washington) was beginning to be put into effect. Near Alexandria brick and tiles are made at a reasonable price, the soil thereabouts being a soft, viscous clay. They make lime there from the oyster shells, which are found in extraordinary banks. The people have two theories about these great shell banks, one being that they are due to successive inundations of the sea, the other that the aborigines assembled them, either for burial mounds or for some other religious purpose.

“The morning of the 25th of December I left Alexandria and went to Mount Vernon. There I spent four memorable days. General Washington is perhaps fifty-seven years of age, a man large and strong of build, of a majestic but kindly bearing, and, notwithstanding the fatigues of war, appears not yet to be aging. This celebrated man, who began and so happily carried through the American war, seems, as it were, to have been formed by nature to free this country of European rule and to inaugurate an epoch in the history of mankind. Bred to arms, he has not neglected the study of politics, and there is probably no one in America who has a better knowledge of the present condition of the United States or more sincerely desires their welfare. May Heaven spare him many years for the good of his country, for an example to it and to Europe.

“Leaving Mount Vernon December 29th, in the morning, I went by Colchester, a little place on the River Ochoquan, Dumfries, where there are several warehouses for tobacco; Aquaja (only a few houses), and fourteen miles beyond came to Falmouth, on the Rappahannock, whence it is the custom to ferry down to Fredericksburg, on the opposite bank. Fredericksburg, like Alexandria, is by law styled a city, and carries on a heavy trade in tobacco. From Fredericksburg many plantations are seen, larger and smaller. The large houses are generally built with a porch, and the outbuildings ranged at either side. The tobacco exhausts a cleared field in three years, and no attempt is made to manure, the cattle being kept at large in the woods. Two acres in tobacco bring about two hogsheads, or maybe 3,000 pounds. One thousand pounds (a hogshead) fetches from 27 to 39 shillings Virginia money the hundred.

“The following day I traveled thirty miles through a district where much tobacco is raised, and much peach brandy and persimmon beer is made. The peach flourishes so in Virginia that often when a tract of land is cleared the peach trees take possession of the whole area, nothing being done for the propagation of them except letting in the sun on the ground. The persimmon is gathered from a sort of Guayakana in the woods. The fruit would be very good to eat but for the skin, which has an unpleasantness in the taste. In the evening I came to Richmond, now the capital of Virginia, a town which has grown rapidly, and numbers some 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses. The town is built on two hills, separated by a brook, over which is thrown a wooden bridge, with side ways for foot passengers. The trade of the place consists largely in tobacco, and there is much competition from the other markets at Alexandria and Petersburg. When I was there a well had just been dug to the depth of seventy feet on one of the hills, which rise one above another from the James, here a river foaming among great rocks. I visited the spot. The earth removed smelled of sulphur, and had the look of rotted wood, ash gray, but turning white on exposure to the air. There were found at the bottom of this well, bedded in the earth described, many bones, some larger than the bones of cattle, and also remains of the aboriginal Indians, stone implements, etc., proof that these tribes had been in possession of the land many centuries before.

“January 6th [1786] I passed on to Petersburg, through Osborne’s. Blandford, Pocahontas and Petersburg are now incorporated under the name Petersburg. Great quantity of tobacco is brought to Petersburg, even from the North Carolina country, and is there exported to Europe as James River tobacco, which is the best sort.

“A mile from the town lives Colonel Banister, a nephew[H] of the famous John Banister, who gave up his place as professor of botany and librarian at the University of Oxford, and settling in this part of Virginia, at great pains and with rare judgment collected and described a number of the scarcest plants. From Colonel Banister’s I went, on the 9th, to Kingston, a rich plantation belonging to Captain Walker, in the county of Dinwiddie. The following day I visited Dr. Greenway, by birth an Englishman, and an amateur of botany.[I] I examined his collection with true pleasure, and the next day came again, since Dr. Greenway had given me leave to transscribe from his notes; I have included this material in my descriptions of American plants, relative to the medicinal practices of the aborigines. Five miles from Kingston the traveler passes the River Nottoway. The few Indians remaining of the tribe of that name live near Southampton Courthouse, forty miles distant.

“Having come from Kingston along this road, by the Nottoway and Hiksford (a wooden bridge leads over the Meherrin), thirteen miles beyond the Meherrin, I entered the State of North Carolina on the parallel thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. In this and other parts of Virginia, as also in both the Carolinas, there is found a very noxious serpent called by the inhabitants the Moquisson.

“Returning from Georgia and the Carolinas, after I had passed the River Dan [May 11, 1786] three miles from the North Carolina line, I came to the plantation of Mr. W----. In the evening prayers were read, but after the first verse the announcement was made that it was bed time, and we had better disperse. The next day I reached Colonel Coles’s, having come forty miles through Paintonborough and by a bridge over Banister River. I had met Colonel Coles at Richmond, and was received by him with great cordiality. When he heard that I was on my way to Philadelphia he gave me a letter to his brother, Colonel John Coles, who has a place on that road, near Charlottesville. I examined with pleasure, at Colonel Coles’s (on Staunton River) several artificial meadows of clover and rye grass, or wild rye, and also the Colonel’s stud.

“I crossed the Staunton in a boat the morning of the 14th. Here I left the main road and traveled twenty miles through a rough country. The next day, after passing Johns’ Ordinary, I came to Buckingham Courthouse, situated on a high hill, at the foot of which runs the Appomattox.

“I spent the night at Mr. Patteson’s, who has a fine plantation near, and the following day reached James River, twenty miles beyond. A mile from the river a high wind began to blow and the sky was suddenly covered with black clouds.

“Thunder and lightning followed, and the rain and hail came down in streams. The horses were frightened and would not go on. When we reached the bank the storm had almost passed. We called to the ferryman, who was standing in his door on the other side, but he moved not a foot until the rain had entirely ceased, and then gave as excuse that he had not seen us. While we were waiting a large serpent came out of the river onto the banks. I killed it, and found it to be not unlike what they call in Lombardy the smiroldo. On the other side of the river, in a group of houses, stands the building in which the court of Albemarle County was formerly held. I dried my clothes here, ate dinner, and kept on four miles to Eniscotty, the residence of Colonel John Coles, who received me hospitably as his brother. The situation, at the top of a hill, is such that the leaves fall later there, and appear earlier in the spring, than in the country adjacent. The calicanthus grows well, with such an exposure; the hill is called in the neighborhood the Green Hill, which, indeed, in situation and fertility may be compared with the foothills of Monte di Brianza. The mulberry and the vine should flourish here.

“May 18th I left Eniscotty. I crossed the Blue Ridge by the road through Rockfish Gap, which is not comparable, either in steepness or in length, to the roads over the Apennines, much less those over the Alps. Thick fog, followed by rain, compelled me to spend the day at a house on the divide, the proprietor of which told me much regarding the fertility of the lands in that region and the customs of the inhabitants. He informed me that many people from the lower country stayed at his house on their way to the springs in the Alleghany Mountains. Having crossed the Blue Mountains and the South River, I came to Stantown the morning of the 23d. Here I was enabled to see a mocking-bird. These birds are often kept in cages, and are bought by the English at extravagant prices. They are very scarce to the north, and have many times fetched three to four guineas at Boston. About Stantown tobacco is only beginning to be cultivated. They raise wheat, Turkish corn [Indian corn] and hemp. Heavy rains kept me at Stantown until the 27th, and prevented me seeing the extraordinary Natural Bridge.

“At Middle River, a small stream usually fordable the year through, I found several travelers waiting for an opportunity to cross. I put up at a house nearby, and as often as the rain permitted went out, like the Egyptians, to measure with a rod the rise or fall of the waters.

“The morning of the 29th the good man of the house advised me that I might now cross. A crowd of people were at the bank to see us make the attempt. My servant stripped himself and ventured in (on horseback) with the carriage. He had hardly left the bank when the force of the stream swept him down and overturned the calesche. I called to him from where I was standing that his only hope was to let the horse go, and swim; he kept by the horse, and managed to save both it and himself. I resolved never again, in the matter of ferrying a swollen stream, to trust to the advice of these wild pioneers. The next morning I was able to cross, and at the North River was taken over in a flat canoe, the horses swimming at the side.

“The following day, having passed Smith Creek, a dangerous stream, I came into a new road, full of roots and bad from the rain besides. The wheels of the calesche, which had already been many times repaired, broke into a hundred pieces, and at the first smithy I determined to abandon the vehicle and continue the journey on horseback. Beyond the Shenadore, which we crossed in a canoe, the horses swimming behind, we fell into a marshy and rocky road, which leads over Mill Creek and Stony Creek. Keeping on, through a country of many delightful prospects, between the Blue and the Alleghany Mountains, we passed through Millerstown, the county seat of the county of Shenadore, Stowerstown, Newtown, and arrived at Winchester.

“Winchester, for commerce, is one of the most important towns of Virginia. The number of the houses is about 200. The traffic is in wheat, flour and hemp, sold at Baltimore and Philadelphia, whence European manufactures are brought and expedited further beyond the mountains. The water at Winchester--limestone--has a strong effect on first being used. The 18th of June I left Winchester and spent that night at Weathers-don-Marsh, called also Charletown, and from there, on the following day, passed the Blue Ridge for the second time at Harper’s Ferry.”

_VII._

_DR. COKE IN VIRGINIA._

_1785-1791._

_Dr. Thomas Coke--The Eastern Shore--Alexandria--Swollen
Creeks--The Pies of Mecklenburg--A Retired Dancing-Master--Halifax
County--Following the Spring--Petersburg--Dan River
Landscapes--Richmond--Port Royal._

It would be an interesting book that should give the history of missions in this country. That godly man, Nicholas Ferrar, who was so active in the affairs of the London Company; the good minister of Jamestown, who came with the first supply; the pastors of the congregations that settled in Massachusetts; the Jesuit fathers; the emissaries of the Society of Friends; the Presbyterians from the north of Ireland and from Scotland; Whitefield, Asbury, Coke--how large was the share of these men in the making of America. Among them, Dr. Thomas Coke was not the least. He was nine times in this country and covered a great part of it as then known, including the islands of the British and several of the French Indies.

Dr. Coke was born in 1747, and was graduated B. A. at Oxford in 1768. In 1775 he was made D. C. L., and had considerable prospects of church preferment, but was reckoned a Methodist after 1776. His bishop reproved him, but declined to remove him. His rector dismissed him. Wesley employed him for a time to assist in answering his voluminous correspondence. In 1782 he was the first president of the Irish Conference, and held the office for the rest of his life, with a few intermissions. In 1784 he drew up a plan for missions, and was appointed superintendent, with episcopal functions, in America. That year he came to this country and ordained Asbury, at Baltimore, as deacon, elder and superintendent. Wesley was very indignant at the change of the title superintendent to bishop, and the confirmation of the change led in 1792 to the O’Kellyan schism. Dr. Coke possessed a private fortune of £1,200 a year. He died in 1813 on a voyage to India. His work in the field of missions was cosmopolitan, and to him more than to any other the creation of the vast network of the Methodist foreign missions is due.

September, 1784, Dr. Coke sailed from King Road, Bristol, for New York. In November he was on the Eastern Shore. Returning to Philadelphia and Baltimore, he was at Alexandria March 9, 1785. This great man was able to enjoy the country. He was born in Wales. But he does not seem to have been skilled in the art of cross-country horsemanship in all weathers. He writes (March 9th): “In my ride this morning to Alexandria through the woods, I have had one of the most romantic scenes that ever I beheld. Yesterday there was a very heavy fall of snow and hail and sleet. The fall of sleet was so great that the trees seemed to be trees of ice. So beautiful a sight of the kind I never saw before.”

There was no one to pilot Dr. Coke from Alexandria, and his servant had overstayed his time on a visit to the Eastern Shore. Between Alexandria and Colchester there were two runs to be crossed, both greatly swollen from the sudden thaw. “A friend who lives in Alexandria came with me over the first run, and everybody informed me I could easily cross the second if I crossed the first. When I came to the second (which was perhaps two hours after I crossed the first) I found that I had two streams to pass. The first I went over without much danger; but in crossing the second, which was very strong and very deep, I did not observe that a tree, brought down by the flood, lay across the landing place. I endeavored, but in vain, to drive my horse against the stream and go around the tree. I was afraid to turn my horse’s head to the stream and afraid to go back. In this dilemma I thought it most prudent for me to lay hold on the tree, and go over it, the water being shallow on the other side. No sooner did I execute my purpose so far as to lay hold of the tree (and that instant the horse was carried from under me) but the motion that I gave it loosened it, and down the stream it instantly carried me.” The tree, with passenger, lodged below at a little island, and then there floated down another tree. The doctor, besides being thoroughly wetted, was near losing his life. After more than a hundred years the suggestion may be offered that the first tree should never have been laid hold of. “I was now obliged to walk,” continues Dr. Coke, “about a mile, shivering, before I came to a house. The master and mistress were from home, and were not expected to return that night. But the principal negro lent me an old ragged shirt, coat, waistcoat, breeches, etc., and the negroes made a large fire and hung my clothes up to dry all night.” Before bedtime the horse, having got around the tree, was recovered and brought in by a neighbor, who supposed the rider to be drowned. “As he seemed to be a poor man, I gave him half a guinea. I trust I shall never forget so awful but very instructive a scene.”

After this March welcome to Virginia, Dr. Coke passed through the State into North Carolina, and returned to Alexandria May 23d. He was at Fredericksburg and Williamsburg (where inquiring for a Methodist he was told there was one in the town, who proved to be “a good old Presbyterian” and hospitable), at Smithfield and Portsmouth, in Mecklenburg County, at New Glasgow, towards the mountains, and in Culpeper County. These sojournings are specified. There was a bad season in May that year, and near Alexandria the creeks were again difficult at the crossings. It was observed on this, the first tour, that in Mecklenburg County “they have a great variety of fruit pies--peach, apple, pear and cranberry, and puddings--very often.” About New Glasgow (on Buffalo River, just north of Amherst Courthouse) Dr. Coke remarks: “The wolves, I find, frequently come to the fences at night, howling in an awful manner; and sometimes they seize upon a straying sheep. At a distance was the Blue Ridge, an amazing chain of mountains. I prefer this country to any other part of America--it is so like Wales, my native country. And it is far more populous than I expected.”

In April, 1787, Dr. Coke was a second time in Virginia, scarcely a fortnight. He had come from England to the Island of Antigua, and sailed from St. Eustatia in a large Dutch ship, February 10th, for Charleston. “In the course of our journey through North Carolina I preached at the house of a gentleman near Salisbury, who was formerly a dancing-master, and has amassed a considerable fortune, with which he has purchased a large estate. In traveling through Virginia our rides were so long that we were frequently on horseback till midnight after preaching in the middle of the day. Since I left Charleston I have got into my old romantic way of life, of preaching in the midst of great forests, with scores and sometimes hundreds of horses tied to the trees, which adds much solemnity to the scene.

“In the course of my journey through this State I visited the county of Halifax, where I met with a little persecution on my former visit. I am now informed that soon after I left the county on my former tour a bill was presented against me as a seditious person before the grand jury, and was found by the jury, and ninety persons had engaged to pursue me and bring me back again. Another bill was also presented in one of the neighboring counties, but was thrown out. Many of the people, I find, imagined that I would not venture amongst them again. However, when I came they all received me with perfect peace and quietness. Indeed, I now acknowledge that however just my sentiments may be concerning slavery, it was ill-judged of me to deliver them from the pulpit. Many of the inhabitants at Richmond, I was informed, said that I would not dare to venture into that town. But they did not know me, for I am a plain, blunt man, that goes directly on. However, instead of opposition, the Governor of the State, who resides there, ordered the Capitol to be opened to me, and a very respectable and very attentive congregation I was favored with.” On the way from Richmond to Alexandria there was a plot laid for Dr. Coke by a company of agreeable men at one of the inns. “In the first dish of tea there was a little rum; in the second a little more, but the third was so strong that on our complaining of a conspiracy, it seemed as if the rum had sprung into our tea of itself, for both company and waiters solemnly protested they were innocent. On the last day of April Mr. Asbury and I arrived at Baltimore.”

The following year, 1788 (the Atlantic seems to have been but a ferry even then), Dr. Coke was in Virginia again for a few days, coming, as in 1787, from the West Indies by Charleston. “In traveling from North Carolina to Virginia we were favored with one of the most beautiful prospects I ever beheld. The country, as far as we could see from the top of a hill, was ornamented with a great number of peach orchards, the peach trees being all in full bloom, and displaying a diversity of most beautiful colors--blue, purple and violet. On the opposite side of a beautiful vale which lay at the foot of a hill, ran the River Yeadkin, reflecting the rays of the sun from its broad, placid stream; and the mountains which bounded the view formed a very fine background for the completing of the prospect. The two days following we rode on the ridge of a long hill, with a large vale on each side, and mountains rising above mountains for twenty, and sometimes, I suppose, for forty miles on each hand. In Halifax County, Virginia, where I met with much persecution four years ago, almost all the great people of the county came in their chariots and other carriages to hear me, and behaved with great propriety: there were not less than five colonels in the congregation. On the 18th of April we opened our first Virginia Conference for the State of Virginia in the town of Petersburgh. From Petersburgh we set off for our second Virginia Conference, which we held in the town of Leesburgh, visiting Richmond by the way.”