Chapter IV: Part 4

PHILADELPHIA now wears a very different aspect to what it did when I landed there in the month of November. Both congress and the state assembly are sitting, as well as the supreme federal court. The city is full of strangers; the theatres are open; and a variety of public and private amusements are going forward. On General Washington’s birth day, which was a few days ago, this city was unusually gay[15]; every person of consequence in it, Quakers alone excepted, made it a point to visit the General on this day. As early as eleven o’clock in the morning he was prepared to receive them, and the audience lasted till three in the afternoon. The society of the Cincinnati, the clergy, the officers of the militia, and several others, who formed a distinct body of citizens, came by themselves separately. The foreign ministers attended in their richest dresses and most splendid equipages. Two large parlours were open for the reception of the gentlemen, the windows of one of which towards the street were crowded with spectators on the outside. The sideboard was furnished with cake and wines, whereof the visitors partook. I never observed so much cheerfulness before in the countenance of General Washington; but it was impossible for him to remain insensible to the attention and the compliments paid to him on this occasion.

Footnote 15:

On this day General Washington terminated his sixty-fourth year; but
though not an unhealthy man, he seemed considerably older. The
innumerable vexations he has met with in his different public
capacities have very sensibly impaired the vigour of his constitution,
and given him an aged appearance. There is a very material difference,
however, in his looks when seen in private and when he appears in
public full drest; in the latter case the hand of art makes up for the
ravages of time, and he seems many years younger.

Few persons find themselves for the first time in the presence of
General Washington, a man so renowned in the present day for his
wisdom and moderation, and whose name will be transmitted with such
honour to posterity, without being impressed with a certain degree of
veneration and awe; nor do these emotions subside on a closer
acquaintance; on the contrary, his person and deportment are such as
rather tend to augment them. There is something very austere in his
countenance, and in his manners he is uncommonly reserved. I have
heard some officers, that served immediately under his command during
the American war, say, that they never saw him smile during all the
time that they were with him. No man has ever yet been connected with
him by the reciprocal and unconstrained ties of friendship; and but a
few can boast even of having been on an easy and familiar footing with
him.

The height of his person is about five feet eleven; his chest is full;
and his limbs, though rather slender, well shaped and muscular. His
head is small, in which respect he resembles the make of a great
number of his countrymen. His eyes are of a light grey colour; and, in
proportion to the length of his face, his nose is long. Mr. Stewart,
the eminent portrait painter, told me, that there are features in his
face totally different from what he ever observed in that of any other
human being; the sockets for the eyes, for instance, are larger than
what he ever met with before, and the upper part of the nose broader.
All his features, he observed, were indicative of the strongest and
most ungovernable passions, and had he been born in the forests, it
was his opinion that he would have been the fiercest man amongst the
savage tribes. In this Mr. Stewart has given a proof of his great
discernment and intimate knowledge of the human countenance; for
although General Washington has been extolled for his great moderation
and calmness, during the very trying situations in which he has so
often been placed, yet those who have been acquainted with him the
longest and most intimately say, that he is by nature a man of a
fierce and irritable disposition, but that, like Socrates, his
judgment and great self-command have always made him appear a man of a
different cast in the eyes of the world. He speaks with great
diffidence, and sometimes hesitates for a word; but it is always to
find one particularly well adapted to his meaning. His language is
manly and expressive. At levee, his discourse with strangers turns
principally upon the subject of America; and if they have been through
any remarkable places, his conversation is free and particularly
interesting, as he is intimately acquainted with every part of the
country. He is much more open and free in his behaviour at levee than
in private, and in the company of ladies still more so than when
solely with men.

General Washington gives no public dinners or other entertainments,
except to those who are in diplomatic capacities, and to a few
families on terms of intimacy with Mrs. Washington. Strangers, with
whom he wishes to have some conversation about agriculture, or any
such subject, are sometimes invited to tea. This by many is attributed
to his saving disposition; but it is more just to ascribe it to his
prudence and foresight; for as the salary of the president, as I have
before observed, is very small, and totally inadequate by itself to
support an expensive style of life, were he to give numerous and
splendid entertainments, the same might possibly be expected from
subsequent presidents, who, if their private fortunes were not
considerable, would be unable to live in the same style, and might be
exposed to many ill-natured observations, from the relinquishment of
what the people had been accustomed to; it is most likely also that
General Washington has been actuated by these motives, because in his
private capacity at Mount Vernon every stranger meets with a
hospitable reception from him.

General Washington’s self-moderation is well known to the world
already. It is a remarkable circumstance, which redounds to his
eternal honour, that while president of the United States he never
appointed one of his own relations to any office of trust or
emolument, although he has several that are men of abilities, and well
qualified to fill the most important stations in the government.

The ladies of the city, equally attentive, paid their respects to Mrs. Washington, who received them in the drawing room up stairs. After having visited the General, most of the gentlemen also waited upon her. A public ball and supper terminated the rejoicings of the day.

Not one town of any importance was there in the whole union, where some meeting did not take place in honour of this day; yet singular as it may appear, there are people in the country, Americans too, foremost in boasting to other nations of that constitution which has been raised for them by his valour and wisdom, who are either so insensible to his merit, or so totally devoid of every generous sentiment, that they can refuse to join in commendations of those talents to which they are so much indebted; indeed to such a length has this perverse spirit been carried, that I have myself seen numbers of men, in all other points men of respectability, that have peremptorily refused even to pay him the small compliment of drinking to his health after dinner; it is true indeed, that they qualify their conduct partly by asserting, that it is only as president of the United States, and not as General Washington, that they have a dislike to him; but this is only a mean subterfuge, which they are forced to have recourse to, lest their conduct should appear too strongly marked with ingratitude. During the war there were many, and not loyalists either, who were doing all in their power to remove him from that command whereby he so eminently distinguished himself. It is the spirit of dissatisfaction which forms a leading trait in the character of the Americans as a people, which produces this malevolence at present, just as it did formerly; and if their public affairs were regulated by a person sent from heaven, I firmly believe his acts, instead of meeting with universal approbation, would by many be considered as deceitful and flagitious.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

+LETTER + VIII.

_Singular Mildness of the Winter of 1795-6.—Set out for
Lancaster.—Turnpike Road between that Place and Philadelphia.—Summary
View of the State of Pennsylvania.—Description of the Farms between
Lancaster and Philadelphia.—The Farmers live in a penurious
Style.—Greatly inferior to English Farmers.—Bad Taverns on this
Road.—Waggons and Waggoners.—Customs of the latter.—Description of
Lancaster.—Lately made the Seat of the State Government.—Manufactures
carried on there.—Rifle Guns.—Great Dexterity with which the Americans
use them.—Anecdote of Two Virginian Soldiers belonging to a Rifle
Regiment._

MY DEAR SIR, Lancaster, March.

THIS winter has proved one of the mildest that has ever been experienced in the country. During the last month there were two or three slight falls of snow, but in no one instance did it remain two days on the ground. A smart frost sat in the first week of this month, and snow fell to the depth of six or seven inches; but on the third day a sudden thaw came on, and it quickly disappeared: since then the weather has remained uncommonly mild. The season being so fine, and so favourable for travelling, I was unwilling to stay at Philadelphia; accordingly I set out for this place on horseback, and arrived here last night, at the end of the second day’s journey. From hence I intend to proceed towards the south, to meet the approaching spring.

The road between Philadelphia and Lancaster has lately undergone a thorough repair, and tolls are levied upon it, to keep it in order, under the direction of a company. Whenever these tolls afford a profit of more than fifteen per cent. on the stock originally subscribed for making the road, the company is bound, by an act of assembly, to lessen them. This is the first attempt to have a turnpike road in Pennsylvania, and it is by no means relished by the people at large, particularly by the waggoners, who go in great numbers by this route to Philadelphia from the back parts of the state.

[Sidenote: ROADS.]

The state of Pennsylvania lies nearly in the form of a parallelogram, whose greatest length is from east to west. This parallelogram is crossed diagonally from the north-east to the south-west by several different ridges of mountains, which are about one hundred miles in breadth. The valleys between these ridges contain a rich black soil, and in the south-west and north-east angles also, at the outside of the mountains, the soil is very good. The northern parts of this state are but very thinly inhabited as yet, but towards the south, the whole way from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, it is well settled. The most populous part of it is the south-east corner, which lies between the mountains and the river Delaware; through this part the turnpike road passes which leads to Lancaster. The country on each side of the road is pleasingly diversified with hill and dale. Cultivation is chiefly confined to the low lands, which are the richest; the hills are all left covered with wood, and afford a pleasing variety to the eye. The further you go from Philadelphia the more fertile is the country, and the more picturesque at the same time.

[Sidenote: FARMS.]

On the whole road from Philadelphia to Lancaster there are not any two dwellings standing together, excepting at a small place called Downing’s Town, which lies about midway; numbers of farm houses, however, are scattered over the country as far as the eye can reach. These houses are mostly built of stone, and are about as good as those usually met with on an arable farm of fifty acres in a well cultivated part of England. The farms attached to these houses contain about two hundred acres each, and are, with a few exceptions only, the property of the persons who cultivate them. In the cultivated parts of Pennsylvania the farms rarely exceed three hundred acres; towards the north, however, where the settlements are but few, large tracts of land are in the hands of individuals, who are speculators and land jobbers. Adjoining to the houses there is generally a peach or an apple orchard. With the fruit they make cyder and brandy; the people have a method also of drying the peaches and apples, after having sliced them, in the sun, and thus cured they last all the year round. They are used for pies and puddings, but they have a very acrid taste, and scarcely any of the original flavour of the fruit. The peaches in their best state are but indifferent, being small and dry; I never eat any that were good, excepting such as were raised with care in gardens. It is said that the climate is so much altered that they will not grow now as they formerly did. In April and May nightly frosts are very common, which were totally unknown formerly, and frequently the peaches are entirely blighted. Gardens are very rare in the country parts of Pennsylvania, for the farmers think the labour which they require does not afford sufficient profit; in the neighbourhood of towns, however, they are common, and the culinary vegetables raised in them are equal to any of their respective kinds in the world, _potatoes_ excepted, which generally have an earthy unpleasant taste.

Though the south-east part of the state of Pennsylvania is better cultivated than any other part of America, yet the style of farming is on the whole very slovenly. I venture, indeed, to assert, that the farmers do not raise more on their two hundred acres than a skilful farmer in Norfolk, Suffolk, or Essex, or in any well cultivated part of England, would do on fifty acres of good land there. The farmer also, who rents fifty acres of arable land in England, lives far more comfortably in every respect than the farmer in Pennsylvania, or in any other of the middle states, who owns two hundred acres of land, his house will be found better furnished, and his table more plentifully covered. That the farmers do not live better in America, I hardly know whether to ascribe to their love of making money, or to their real indifference about better fare; perhaps it may be owing, in some measure, to both; certain it is however, that their mode of living is most wretched.

[Sidenote: WAGGONS.]

The taverns throughout this part of the country are kept by farmers, and they are all very indifferent. If the traveller can procure a few eggs with a little bacon he ought to rest satisfied; it is twenty to one that a bit of fresh meat is to be had, or any salted meat except pork. Vegetables, seem also to be very scarce, and when you do get any, they generally consist of turnips, or turnip tops boiled by way of greens. The bread is heavy and sour, though they have as fine flour as any in the world; this is owing to their method of making of it; they raise it with what they call _sots_; hops and water boiled together. No dependance is to be placed upon getting a man at these taverns to rub down your horse, or even to give him his food, frequently therefore you will have to do every thing of the kind for yourself if you do not travel with a servant; and indeed, even where men are kept for the purpose of attending to travellers, which at some of the taverns is the case, they are so sullen and disobliging that you feel inclined to do every thing with your own hands rather than be indebted to them for their assistance: they always appear doubtful whether they should do any thing for you or not, and to be reasoning within themselves, whether it is not too great a departure from the rules of equality to take the horse of another man, and whether it would not be a pleasing sight to see a gentleman strip off his coat, and go to work for himself; nor will money make them alter their conduct; civility, as I before said, is not to be purchased at any expence in America; nevertheless the people will pocket your money with the utmost readiness, though without thanking you for it. Of all beings on the earth, Americans are the most interested and covetous.

It is scarcely possible to go one mile on this road without meeting numbers of waggons passing and repassing between the back parts of the state and Philadelphia. These waggons are commonly drawn by four or five horses, four of which are yoked in pairs. The waggons are heavy, the horses small, and the driver unmerciful; the consequence of which is, that in every team, nearly, there is a horse either lame or blind. The Pennsylvanians are notorious for the bad care which they take of their horses. Excepting the night be tempestuous, the waggoners never put their horses under shelter, and then it is only under a shed; each tavern is usually provided with a large one for the purpose. Market or High-street, in Philadelphia, the street by which these people come into the town, is always crowded with waggons and horses, that are left standing there all night. This is to save money; the expence of putting them into a stable would be too great, in the opinion of these people. Food for the horses is always carried in the waggon, and the moment they stop they are unyoked, and fed whilst they are warm. By this treatment half the poor animals are foundered. The horses are fed out of a large trough carried for the purpose, and fixed on the pole of the waggon by means of iron pins.

Lancaster is the largest inland town in North America, and contains about nine hundred houses, built chiefly of brick and stone, together with six churches, a court-house, and gaol. Of the churches, there is one respectively for German Lutherans, German Calvinists, Moravians, English Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics. The streets are laid out regularly, and cross each other at right angles.

[Sidenote: RIFLE GUNS.]

An act of assembly has been passed, for making this town the seat of the state government instead of Philadelphia, and the assembly was to meet in the year 1797. This circumstance is much in favour of the improvement of the town. The Philadelphians, inimical to the measure, talked of it much in the same style that they do now of the removal of the seat of the federal government, saying, that it must be again changed to Philadelphia; but the necessity of having the seat of the legislature as central as possible in each state is obvious, and if a change does take place again, it is most likely that it will only be to remove the seat still farther from Philadelphia. On the same principle, the assembly of Virginia meets now at Richmond instead of Williamsburgh, and that of New York state at Albany instead of the city of New York.

Several different kinds of articles are manufactured at Lancaster by German mechanics, individually, principally for the people of the town and the neighbourhood. Rifled barrel guns however are to be excepted, which, although not as handsome as those imported from England, are more esteemed by the hunters, and are sent to every part of the country.

[Sidenote: RIFLE GUNS.]

The rifled barrel guns, commonly used in America, are nearly of the length of a musket, and carry leaden balls from the size of thirty to sixty in the pound. Some hunters prefer those of a small bore, because they require but little ammunition; others prefer such as have a wide bore, because the wound which they inflict is more certainly attended with death; the wound, however, made by a ball discharged from one of these guns is always very dangerous. The inside of the barrel is fluted, and the grooves run in a spiral direction from one end of the barrel to the other, consequently when the ball comes out it has a whirling motion round its own axis, at the same time that it moves forward, and when it enters into the body of an animal, it tears up the flesh in a dreadful manner. The best of powder is chosen for a rifled barrel gun, and after a proper portion of it is put down the barrel, the ball is inclosed in a small bit of linen rag, well greased at the outside, and then forced down with a thick ramrod. The grease and the bits of rag, which are called patches, are carried in a little box at the but-end of the gun. The best rifles are furnished with two triggers, one of which being first pulled sets the other, that is, alters the spring, so that it will yield even to the slight touch of a feather. They are also furnished with double sights along the barrel, as fine as those of a surveying instrument. An experienced marksman, with one of these guns, will hit an object not larger than a crown piece, to a certainty, at the distance of one hundred yards. Two men belonging to the Virginia rifle regiment, a large division of which was quartered in this town during the war, had such a dependance on each other’s dexterity, that the one would hold a piece of board, not more than nine inches square, between his knees, whilst the other shot at it with a ball at the distance of one hundred paces. This they used to do alternately, for the amusement of the town’s people, as often as they were called upon. Numbers of people in Lancaster can vouch for the truth of this fact. Were I, however, to tell you all the stories I have heard of the performances of riflemen, you would think the people were most abominably addicted to lying. A rifle gun will not carry shot, nor will it carry a ball much farther than one hundred yards with certainty.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

+LETTER + IX.

_Number of Germans in the Neighbourhood of York and Lancaster.—How
brought over.—White Slave Trade.—Cruelty frequently practised in the
carrying it on.—Character of the German Settlers contrasted with that
of the Americans.—Passage of the Susquehannah between York and
Lancaster.—Great Beauty of the Prospects along the River.—Description
of York.—Courts of Justice there.—Of the Pennsylvanian System of
Judicature._

MY DEAR SIR, York, March.

[Sidenote: WHITE SLAVE TRADE.]

I Arrived at this place, which is about twenty miles distant from Lancaster, yesterday. The inhabitants of this town, as well as those of Lancaster and of the adjoining country, consist principally of Dutch and German emigrants, and their descendants. Great numbers of these people emigrate to America every year, and the importation of them forms a very considerable branch of commerce. They are for the most part brought from the Hanse Towns and from Rotterdam. The vessels sail thither from America, laden with different kinds of produce, and the masters of them, on arriving there, entice on board as many of these people as they can persuade to leave their native country, without demanding any money for their passage. When the vessel arrives in America, an advertisement is put into the paper, mentioning the different kinds of men on board, whether smiths, taylors, carpenters, labourers, or the like, and the people that are in want of such men flock down to the vessel; these poor Germans are then sold to the highest bidder, and the captain of the vessel, or the ship holder, puts the money into his pocket[16].

Footnote 16:

Thousands of people were brought from the north of Ireland in the same
way before the war with France.

There have been many very shocking instances of cruelty in the carrying on of this trade, vulgarly called “The white slave trade.” I shall tell you but of one. While the yellow fever was raging in Philadelphia in the year 1793, at which time few vessels would venture to approach nearer to the city than Fort Mifflin, four miles below it, a captain in the trade arrived in the river, and hearing that such was the fatal nature of the infection, that a sufficient number of nurses could not be procured to attend the sick for any sum whatever, he conceived the philanthropic idea of supplying this deficiency from amongst his passengers; accordingly he boldly sailed up to the city, and advertised his cargo for sale:

“A few healthy servants, generally between seventeen and eighteen years of age, are just arrived in the brig ——, their times will be disposed of by applying on board.” The cargo, as you may suppose, did not remain long unsold. This anecdote was communicated to me by a gentleman who has the original advertisement in his possession.

When I tell you that people are sold in this manner, it is not to be understood that they are sold for ever, but only for a certain number of years; for two, three, four, or five years, according to their respective merits. A good mechanic, that understands a particular kind of trade, for which men are much wanted in America, has to serve a shorter time than a mere labourer, as more money will be given for his time, and the expence of his passage does not exceed that of any other man. During their servitude, these people are liable to be resold at the caprice of their masters; they are as much under dominion as negro slaves, and if they attempt to run away, they may be imprisoned like felons. The laws respecting “redemptioners,” so are the men called that are brought over in this manner, were grounded on those formed for the English convicts before the revolution, and they are very severe.

[Sidenote: GERMAN SETTLERS.]

The Germans are a quiet, sober, and industrious set of people, and are most valuable citizens. They generally settle a good many together in one place, and, as may be supposed, in consequence keep up many of the customs of their native country as well as their own language. In Lancaster and the neighbourhood German is the prevailing language, and numbers of people living there are ignorant of any other. The Germans are some of the best farmers in the United States, and they seldom are to be found but where the land is particularly good; wherever they settle they build churches, and are wonderfully attentive to the duties of religion. In these and many other respects the Germans and their descendants differ widely from the Americans, that is, from the descendants of the English, Scotch, Irish, and other nations, who, from having lived in the country for many generations, and from having mingled together, now form one people, whose manners and habits are very much the same.

The Germans are a plodding race of men, wholly intent upon their own business, and indifferent about that of others: a stranger is never molested as he passes through their settlements with inquisitive and idle questions. On arriving amongst the Americans[17], however, a stranger must tell where he came from, where he is going, what his name is, what his business is; and until he gratifies their curiosity on these points, and many others of equal importance, he is never suffered to remain quiet for a moment. In a tavern he must satisfy every fresh set that comes in, in the same manner, or involve himself in a quarrel, especially if it is found out that he is not a native, which it does not require much sagacity to discover.

Footnote 17:

In speaking of the Americans here, and in the following lines, it is
those of the lower and middling classes of the people which I allude
to, such as are met with in the country parts of Pennsylvania.

[Sidenote: GERMAN SETTLERS.]

The Germans give themselves but little trouble about politics; they elect their representatives to serve in congress and the state assemblies; and satisfied that deserving men have been chosen by the people at large, they trust that these men do what is best for the public good, and therefore abide patiently by their decisions: they revere the constitution, conscious that they live happily under it, and express no wishes to have it altered. The Americans, however, are for ever cavilling at some of the public measures; something or other is always wrong, and they never appear perfectly satisfied. If any great measure is before congress for discussion, seemingly distrustful of the abilities or the integrity of the men they have elected, they meet together in their towns or districts, canvass the matter themselves, and then send forward instructions to their representatives how to act. They never consider that any important question is more likely to meet with a fair discussion in an assembly where able men are collected together from all parts of the states than in an obscure corner, where a few individuals are assembled, who have no opportunity of getting general information on the subject. Party spirit is for ever creating dissentions amongst them, and one man is continually endeavouring to obtrude his political creed upon another. If it is found out that a stranger is from Great Britain or Ireland, they immediately begin to boast of their own constitution and freedom, and give him to understand, that they think every Englishman a slave, because he submits to be called a subject. Their opinions are for the most part crude and dogmatical, and principally borrowed from newspapers, which are wretchedly compiled from the pamphlets of the day, having read a few of which, they think themselves arrived at the summit of intellectual excellence, and qualified for making the deepest political researches.

[Sidenote: THE SUSQUEHANNAH.]

The Germans, as I have said, are fond of settling near each other: when the young men of a family are grown up, they generally endeavour to get a piece of land in the neighbourhood of their relations, and by their industry soon make it valuable; the American, on the contrary, is of a roving disposition, and wholly regardless of the ties of consanguinity; he takes his wife with him, goes to a distant part of the country, and buries himself in the woods, hundreds of miles distant from the rest of his family, never perhaps to see them again. In the back parts of the country you always meet numbers of men prowling about to try and buy cheap land; having found what they like, they immediately remove; nor having once removed, are these people satisfied; restless and discontented with what they possess, they are for ever changing. It is scarcely possible in any part of the continent to find a man, amongst the middling and lower classes of Americans, who has not changed his farm and his residence many different times. Thus it is, that though there are not more than four millions of people in the United States, yet they are scattered from the confines of Canada to the farthest extremity of Georgia, and from the Atlantic to the banks of the Mississippi. Thousands of acres of waste land are annually taken up in unhealthy and unfruitful parts of the country, notwithstanding that the best settled and healthy parts of the middle states would maintain five times the number of inhabitants that they do at present. The American, however, does not change about from place to place in this manner merely to gratify a wandering disposition; in every change he hopes to make money. By the desire of making money, both the Germans and Americans of every class and description are actuated in all their movements; self-interest is always uppermost in their thoughts; it is the idol which they worship, and at its shrine thousands and thousands would be found, in all parts of the country, ready to make a sacrifice of every noble and generous sentiment that can adorn the human mind.

In coming to this place from Lancaster I crossed the Susquehannah River, which runs nearly midway between the two towns, at the small village of Columbia, as better boats are kept there than at either of the ferries higher up or lower down the river. The Susquehannah is here somewhat more than a quarter of a mile wide, and for a considerable distance, both above and below the ferry, it abounds with islands and large rocks, over which last the water runs with prodigious velocity: the roaring noise that it makes is heard a great way off. The banks rise very boldly on each side, and are thickly wooded; the islands also are covered with small trees, which, interspersed with the rocks, produce a very fine effect. The scenery in every point of view is wild and romantic. In crossing the river it is necessary to row up against the stream under the shore, and then to strike over to the opposite side, under the shelter of some of the largest islands. As these rapids continue for many miles, they totally impede the navigation, excepting when there are floods in the river, at which time large rafts may be conducted down the dream, carrying several hundred barrels of flour. It is said that the river could be rendered navigable in this neighbourhood, but the expence of such an undertaking would be enormous, and there is little likelihood indeed that it will ever be attempted, as the Pennsylvanians are already engaged in cutting a canal below Harrisburgh, which will connect the navigable part of the river with the Schuylkill, and also another canal from the Schuylkill to the Delaware, by means of which a vent will be opened for the produce of the country bordering upon the Susquehannah at Philadelphia. These canals would have been finished by this time if the subscribers had all paid their respective shares, but at present they are almost at a stand for want of money.

[Sidenote: LAWYERS.]

The quantity of wild fowl that is seen on every part of the Susquehannah is immense. Throughout America the wild fowl is excellent and plentiful; but there is one duck in particular found on this river, and also on Patowmac and James rivers, which surpasses all others: it is called the white or canvass-back duck, from the feathers between the wings being somewhat of the colour of canvass. This duck is held in such estimation in America, that it is sent frequently as a present for hundreds of miles—indeed it would be a dainty morsel for the greatest epicure in any country.

York contains about five hundred houses and six churches, and is much such another town as Lancaster. It is inhabited by Germans, by whom the same manufactures are carried on as at Lancaster.

The courts of common pleas, and those of general quarter sessions, were holding when I reached this place; I found it difficult, therefore, at first, to procure accommodation, but at last I got admission in a house principally taken up by lawyers. To behold the strange assemblage of persons that was brought together this morning in the one poor apartment which was allotted to all the lodgers, was really a subject of diversion. Here one lawyer had his clients in a corner of the room; there another had his; a third was shaving; a fourth powdering his own hair; a fifth noting his brief; and the table standing in the middle of the room, between a clamorous set of old men on one side, and three or four women in tears on the other; I and the rest of the company, who were not lawyers, were left to eat our breakfast.

[Sidenote: PENNSYLVANIA COURTS.]

On entering into the courts a stranger is apt to smile at the grotesque appearance of the judges who preside in them, and at their manners on the bench; but this smile must be suppressed when it is recollected, that there is no country, perhaps, in the world, where justice is more impartially administered, or more easily obtained by those who have been injured. The judges in the country parts of Pennsylvania are no more than plain farmers, who from their infancy have been accustomed to little else than following the plough. The laws expressly declare that there must be, at least, three judges resident in every county; now as the salary allowed is but a mere trifle, no lawyer would accept of the office, which of course must be filled from amongst the inhabitants[18], who are all in a happy state of mediocrity, and on a perfect equality with each other. The district judge, however, who presides in the district or circuit, has a larger salary, and is a man of a different cast. The district or circuit consists of at least three, but not more than six counties. The county judges, which I have mentioned, are “judges of the court of common pleas, and by virtue of their offices also justices of oyer and terminer, and general gaol delivery, for the trial of capital and other offenders therein.” Any two judges compose the court of quarter sessions. Under certain regulations, established by law, the accused party has the power of removing the proceedings into the supreme court, which has jurisdiction over every part of the state. This short account of the courts relates only to Pennsylvania: every state in the union has a separate code of laws for itself, and a distinct judicature.

Footnote 18:

This is also the case in Philadelphia, where we find practising
physicians and surgeons sitting on the bench as judges in a court of
justice.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

+LETTER + X.

_Of the Country near York.—Of the Soil of the Country on each Side of
the Blue Mountains.—Frederic-town.—Change in the Inhabitants and in
the Country as you proceed towards the Sea.—Numbers of Slaves.—Tobacco
chiefly cultivated.—Inquisitiveness of the People at the
Taverns.—Observations thereon.—Description of the Great Falls of the
Patowmac River.—George Town.—Of the Country between that Place and
Hoe’s Ferry.—Poisonous Vines.—Port Tobacco.—Wretched Appearance of the
Country bordering upon the Ferry.—Slaves neglected.—Passage_ _of the
Patowmac very dangerous.—Fresh Water Oysters.—Landed on a deserted
Part of the Virginian Shore.—Great Hospitality of the Virginians._

Stratford, March.

IN the neighbourhood of York and Lancaster, the soil consists of a rich, brown, loamy earth; and if you proceed in a south westerly course, parallel to the Blue Mountains, you meet with the same kind of soil as far as Frederic in Maryland. Here it changes gradually to a deep reddish colour, and continues much the same along the eastern side of the mountains, all the way down to North Carolina. On crossing over the mountains, however, directly from Frederic, the same fertile brown soil, which is common in the neighbourhood of York and Lancaster, is again met with, and it is found throughout the Shenandoah Valley, and as far down as the Carolinas, on the west side of the mountains.

[Sidenote: FACE OF THE COUNTRY.]

Between York and Frederic in Maryland there are two or three small towns; viz. Hanover, Petersburgh, and Woodsburg, but there is nothing worthy of mention in any of them. Frederic contains about seven hundred houses and five churches, two of which are for German Lutherans, one for Presbyterians, one for Calvinists, and one for Baptists. It is a flourishing town, and carries on a brisk inland trade. The arsenal of the state of Maryland is placed here, the situation being secure and central.

From Frederic I proceeded in a southerly course through Montgomery county in Maryland. In this direction the soil changes to a yellowish sort of clay mixed with gravel, and continues much the same until you come to the federal city, beyond which, as I have before mentioned, it becomes more and more sandy as you approach the sea coast. The change in the face of the country after leaving Frederic is gradual, but at the end of a day’s journey a striking difference is perceptible. Instead of well cultivated fields, green with wheat, such as are met with along that rich track which runs contiguous to the mountains, large pieces of land, which have been worn out with the culture of tobacco, are here seen lying waste, with scarcely an herb to cover them. Instead of the furrows of the plough, the marks of the hoe appear on the ground; the fields are overspread with little hillocks for the reception of tobacco plants, and the eye is assailed in every direction with the unpleasant sight of gangs of male and female slaves toiling under the harsh commands of the overseer. The difference in the manners of the inhabitants is also great. Instead of being amongst the phlegmatic Germans, a traveller finds himself again in the midst of an inquisitive and prying set of Americans, to gratify whose curiosity it is always necessary to devote a certain portion of time after alighting at a tavern.

[Sidenote: FALLS OF THE PATOWMAC.]

A traveller on arriving in America may possibly imagine, that it is the desire of obtaining useful information which leads the people, wherever he stops, to accost him; and that the particular enquiries respecting the object of his pursuits, the place of his abode, and that of his destination, &c. are made to prepare the way for questions of a more general nature, and for conversation that may be attended with some amusement to him; he therefore readily answers them, hoping in return to gain information about the country through which he passes; but when it is found that these questions are asked merely through an idle and impertinent curiosity, and that by far the greater part of the people who ask them are ignorant, boorish fellows; when it is found that those who can keep up some little conversation immediately begin to talk upon politics, and to abuse every country excepting their own; when, lastly, it is found that the people scarcely ever give satisfactory answers at first to the enquiries which are made by a stranger respecting their country, but always hesitate, as if suspicious that he was asking these questions to procure some local information, in order to enable him to overreach them in a bargain, or to make some speculation in land to their injury; the traveller then loses all patience at this disagreeable and prying disposition, and feels disposed to turn from them with disgust; still, however, if he wishes to go through the country peaceably, and without quarrelling at every place where he stops, it is absolutely necessary to answer some few of their questions.

Having followed the high way as far as Montgomery court-house, which is about thirty miles from Frederic, I turned off along a bye road running through the woods, in order to see the great falls of Patowmac River. The view of them from the Maryland shore is very pleasing, but not so much so as that from the opposite side. Having reached the river therefore close to the falls, I rode along through the woods, with which its banks are covered, for some distance higher up, to a place where there was a ferry, and where I crossed into Virginia. From the place where I landed to the Falls, which is a distance of about three miles, there is a wild romantic path running along the margin of the river, and winding at the same time round the base of a high hill covered with lofty trees and rocks. Near to the shore, almost the whole way, there are clusters of small islands covered with trees, which suddenly opposing the rapid course of the stream, form very dangerous eddies, in which boats are frequently lost when navigated by men who are not active and careful. On the shore prodigious heaps of white sand are washed up by the waves, and in many places the path is rendered almost impassable by piles of large trees, which have been brought down from the upper country by floods, and drifted together.

[Sidenote: PORT TOBACCO.]

The river, at the ferry which I mentioned, is about one mile and a quarter wide, and it continues much the same breadth as far as the falls, where it is considerably contracted and confined in its channel by immense rocks on either side. There also its course is very suddenly altered, so much so indeed, that below the falls for a short distance it runs in an opposite direction from what it did above, but soon after it resumes its former course. The water does not descend perpendicularly, excepting in one part close to the Virginian shore, where the height is about thirty feet, but comes rushing down with tremendous impetuosity over a ledge of rocks in several different falls. The best view of the cataract is from the top of a pile of rocks about sixty feet above the level of the water, and which, owing to the bend in the river, is situated nearly opposite to the falls. The river comes from the right, then gradually turning, precipitates itself down the falls, and winds along at the foot of the rocks on which you stand with, great velocity. The rocks are of a slate colour, and lie in strata; the surface of them in many places is glossy and sparkling.

From hence I followed the course of the river downwards as far as George Town, where I again crossed it; and after passing through the federal city, proceeded along the Maryland shore of the river to Piscatoway, and afterwards to Port Tobacco, two small towns situated on creeks of their own name, which run into the Patowmac. In the neighbourhood of Piscatoway there are several very fine views of the Virginian shore; Mount Vernon in particular appears to great advantage.

I observed here great numbers of the poisonous vines which grow about the large trees, and are extremely like the common grape vines. If handled in the morning, when the branches are moist with the dew, they infallibly raise blisters on the hands, which it is sometimes difficult to get rid of.

Port Tobacco contains about eighty houses, most of which are of wood, and very poor. There is a large English episcopalian church on the border of the town, built of stone, which formerly was an ornament to the place, but it is now entirely out of repair; the windows are all broken, and the road is carried through the church-yard over the graves, the paling that surrounded it having been torn down. Near the town is Mount Misery, towards the top of which is a medicinal spring, remarkable in summer for the coldness of the water.

[Sidenote: HOE’S FERRY.]

From Port Tobacco to Hoe’s Ferry, on the Patowmac River, the country is flat and sandy, and wears a most dreary aspect. Nothing is to be seen here for miles together but extensive plains, that have been worn out by the culture of tobacco, overgrown with yellow sedge,[19] and interspersed with groves of pine and cedar trees, the dark green colour of which forms a curious contrast with the yellow of the sedge. In the midst of these plains are the remains of several good houses, which shew that the country was once very different to what it is now. These were the houses, most probably, of people who originally settled in Maryland with Lord Baltimore, to go to decay, as the land around them is worn out, and the people find it more to their interest to remove to another part of the country, and clear a piece of rich land, than to attempt to reclaim these exhausted plains. In consequence of this, the country in many of the lower parts of Maryland appears as if it had been deserted by one half of its inhabitants, but which have now been suffered

Footnote 19:

This sedge, as it is called, is a sort of coarse grass, so hard that
cattle will not eat it, which springs up spontaneously, in this part
of the country, on the ground that has been left waste; it commonly
grows about two feet high; towards winter it turns yellow, and remains
standing until the ensuing summer, when a new growth displaces that of
the former year. At its first springing up it is of a bright green
colour.

Such a number of roads in different directions cross over these flats, upon none of which there is any thing like a direction post, and the face of a human being is so rarely met with, that it is scarcely possible for a traveller to find out the direct way at once. Instead of twelve miles, the distance by the straight road from Port Tobacco to the ferry, my horse had certainly travelled twice the number before we got there. The ferry-house was one of those old dilapidated mansions that formerly was the residence perhaps of some wealthy planter, and at the time when the fields yielded their rich crops of tobacco would have afforded some refreshment to the weary traveller; but in the state I found it, it was the picture of wretchedness and poverty. After having waited for two hours and a half for my breakfast, the most I could procure was two eggs, a pint of milk, and a bit of cake bread, scarcely as big as my hand, and but little better than dough. This I had also to divide with my servant, who came to inform me, that there was absolutely nothing to eat in the house but what had been brought to me. I could not but mention this circumstance to several persons when I got into Virginia, and many of them informed me, that they had experienced the same treatment themselves at this house; yet this house had the name of a tavern. What the white people who inhabited it lived upon I could not discover, but it was evident that they took care of themselves. As for the poor slaves, however, of which there were many in the huts adjoining the tavern, they had a most wretched appearance, and seemed to be half starved. The men and women were covered with rags, and the children were running about stark naked.

[Sidenote: EXCELLENT FISH.]

After having got into the ferry boat, the man of the house, as if conscious that he had given me very bad fare, told me that there was a bank of oysters in the river, close to which it was necessary to pass, and that if I chose to stop the men would procure abundance of them for me. The curiosity of getting oysters in fresh water tempted me to stop, and the men got near a bushel of them in a very few minutes. These oysters are extremely good when cooked, but very disagreeable eaten raw; indeed all the oysters found in America, not excepting what are taken at New York, so close to the ocean, are, in the opinion of most Europeans, very indifferent and tasteless when raw. The Americans, on their part, find still greater fault with our oysters, which they say are not fit to be eat in any shape, because they taste of copper. The Patowmac, as well as the rest of the rivers in Virginia, abounds with excellent fish of many different kinds, as sturgeon, shad, roach, herrings, &c. which form a very principal part of the food of the people living in the neighbourhood of them.

The river at the ferry is about three miles wide, and with particular winds the waves rise very high; in these cases they always tie the horses, for fear of accidents, before they set out; indeed, with the small open boats which they make use of, it is what ought always to be done, for in this country gusts of wind rise suddenly, and frequently when they are not at all expected: having omitted to take this precaution, the boat was on the point of being overset two or three different times as I crossed over.

On the Virginian shore, opposite to the ferry-house from whence I sailed, there are several large creeks, which fall into the Patowmac, and it is impossible to cross these on horseback, without riding thirty or forty miles up a sandy uninteresting part of the country to the fords or bridges. As I wished to go beyond these creeks, I therefore hired the boatmen to carry me ten miles down the Patowmac River in the ferry boat, past the mouths of them all; this they accordingly did, and in the afternoon I landed on the beach, not a little pleased at finding that I had reached the shore without having been under the necessity of swimming any part of the way, for during the last hour the horses had not remained quiet for two minutes together, and on one or two occasions, having got both to the same side of the boat, the trim of it was very nearly destroyed, and it was with the utmost difficulty that we prevented it from being overset.

[Sidenote: VIRGINIANS.]