2.
Isaac Weld, who spent about two years in this country, from 1795 to 1797, returned to Ireland “without entertaining the slightest wish to revisit the American continent.” During his visit he saw a great deal, wrote a very good book after going home (an extraordinary book as the work of a very young man), and it is a matter of congratulation that he came. Weld was a little past twenty-one when he landed at Philadelphia. He was born in Dublin, of influential family connections, and had the advantage in his youth of an acquaintance with the Martineaus, those exceptionally intelligent people. Isaac Weld died in 1856. He had been for years vice-president of the Royal Dublin Society, and was famous as a topographer. Some account has already been given of his tour through the Northern Neck to Richmond. The observations continue:
“Having stayed at Richmond somewhat longer than a week, which I found absolutely necessary, if it had only been to recruit the strength of my horses, I proceeded in a north-westerly direction towards the Southwest or Green Mountains.
“The first week in May had arrived; the trees had obtained a considerable part of their foliage, and the air in the woods was perfumed with the fragrant smell of numberless flowers and flowering shrubs. The music of the birds was also delightful. It is thought that in Virginia the singing birds are finer than what are to be met with on any other part of the continent, as the climate is more congenial to them. The notes of the mocking-bird, or Virginian nightingale, are in particular most melodious. It is a remark, however, made by Catesby, and which appears to be a very just one, that the birds in America are much inferior to those in Europe in the melody of their notes, but that they are superior in point of plumage. I know of no American bird that has the rich, mellow note of our blackbird, the sprightly note of the skylark, or the sweet and plaintive one of the nightingale. After having listened to the mocking-bird, there is no novelty in hearing the song of any other bird in the country; and indeed, their songs are, for the most part, but very simple in themselves, though combined they are pleasing.
“The frogs in America, it must here be observed, make a most singular noise, some of them absolutely whistling, whilst others croak so loudly that it is difficult at times to tell whether the sound proceeds from a calf or a frog; I have more than once been deceived by the noise when walking in a meadow. These last frogs are called bullfrogs; they mostly keep in pairs, and are never found but where there is good water; their bodies are from four to seven inches long, and their legs are in proportion; they are extremely active, and take prodigious leaps.
“The first town I reached on going towards the mountains was Columbia, or Point of Fork, as it is called in the neighborhood. It is situated about sixty miles above Richmond, at the confluence of Rivanna and Fluvanna Rivers, which united form James River. This is a flourishing little place, containing about forty houses, and a warehouse for the inspection of tobacco. On the neck of land between the two rivers, just opposite to the town, is the magazine of the State, in which are kept 12,000 stand of arms, and about thirty tons of powder. The low lands bordering upon the river in this neighborhood are extremely valuable.
“From Columbia to the Green Springs, about twenty miles farther on, the road runs almost wholly through a pine forest, and is very lonely. Night came on before I got to the end of it, and, as very commonly happens with travelers in this part of the world, I soon lost my way. A light, seen through the trees, seemed to indicate that a house was not far off. My servant eagerly rode up to it, but the poor fellow’s consternation was great indeed when he observed it moving from him, presently coming back, and then with swiftness departing again into the woods. I was at a loss for a time myself to account for the appearance. I found it proceeded from the firefly. As the summer came on these flies appeared every night. After a light shower in the afternoon I have seen the woods sparkling with them in every quarter.
“After wandering about till it was near 11 o’clock, a plantation at last appeared, and having got fresh information respecting the road from the negroes in the quarter, who generally sit up half the night, and over a fire in all seasons, I again set out for the Green Springs. With some difficulty I at last found the way, and arrived there about midnight. The hour was so unseasonable that the people at the tavern were very unwilling to open their doors. Besides the tavern and the quarters of the slaves, there is but one more building at this place. This is a large farmhouse, where people that resort to the springs are accommodated with lodgings about as good as those at the tavern. The springs are just on the margin of the wood at the bottom of a slope which begins at the houses, and are covered with a few boards merely to keep the leaves from falling in. The waters are chalybeate, and are drank chiefly by persons from the low country, whose constitutions have been relaxed by the heats of summer.
“Having breakfasted in the morning at this place, I proceeded on my journey up the Southwest Mountain. In the course of the day’s ride I observed a great number of snakes, which were now beginning to come forth from their holes. I killed a black one that I found sleeping, stretched across the road; it was five feet in length. The black snake is more commonly met with than any other in this part of America. It is wonderfully fond of milk, and is frequently found in the dairies, which in Virginia are for the most part in low situations like cellars.
“The Southwest Mountains run nearly parallel to the Blue Ridge, and are the first which you come to on going up the country from the sea coast in Virginia. The soil here changes to a deep argilaceous earth, particularly well suited to the culture of small grain and clover, and produces abundant crops. As this earth, however, does not absorb the water very quickly the farmer is exposed to great losses from heavy falls of rain. On the sides of the mountain, where the ground has been worn out with the culture of tobacco, and the water has been suffered to run in the same channel for a length of time, it is surprising to see the depth of the ravines, or gullies, as they are called. However, the country in the neighborhood of these mountains is far more populous than that which lies towards Richmond; and there are many persons that even consider it to be the garden of the United States. The salubrity of the climate is equal also to that of any part of the United States; and the inhabitants have in consequence a healthy, ruddy appearance. The people appeared to me to be of a more frank and open disposition, more inclined to hospitality, and to live more contentedly on what they possessed than the people of the same class in any other part of the United States I passed through.
“Along these mountains live several gentlemen of large landed property, who farm their own estates, as in the lower parts of Virginia; among the number is Mr. Jefferson. His house is at present in an unfinished state, but if carried on according to the plan laid down, it will be one of the most elegant private habitations on the United States. Several attempts have been made in this neighborhood to bring the manufacture of wine to perfection; none of them, however, have succeeded to the wish of the parties. A set of gentlemen once went to the expense even of getting six Italians over for the purpose. We must not, however, conclude that good wine can never be manufactured upon these mountains. It will require some time, and different experiments, to ascertain the particular kind of wine, and the mode of cultivating it best adapted to the soil of these mountains.
“Having crossed the Southwest Mountains I passed along to Lynchburgh, a town situated on the south side of Fluvanna River. This town contains about 100 houses, and a warehouse for the inspection of tobacco, where about 2,000 hogsheads are annually inspected. It has been built entirely within the last fifteen years, and is rapidly increasing, from its advantageous situation for carrying on trade with the adjacent country. The boats, in which the produce is conveyed down the river, are from forty-eight to fifty-four feet long, but very narrow in proportion to their length. Three men are sufficient to navigate one of these boats, and they can go to Richmond and back again in ten days. They fall down with the stream, but work their way back again with poles. The cargo carried in these boats is always proportioned to the depth of water in the river, which varies very much. Along the banks I observed great quantities of weeds hanging upon the trees considerably above my head, though on horseback. A few miles from Lynchburgh, towards the Blue Mountains, is a small town called New London, in which there is a magazine and also an armory, erected during the war. About fifteen men were here employed, as I passed through, repairing old arms and furbishing up others. At one end of the room lay the musquets, to the amount of about 5,000, all together in a large heap, and at the opposite end lay a pile of leathern accoutrements, absolutely rotting for want of common attention. All the armories throughout the United States are kept much in the same style.
“Between this place and the Blue Mountains the country is rough and hilly, and but very thinly inhabited. The few inhabitants, however, met with here are uncommonly robust and tall; it is rare to see a man amongst them who is not six feet high. These people entertain a high opinion of their own superiority in point of bodily strength over the inhabitants of the low country. A similar race of men is found all along the Blue Mountains.
“Beyond the Blue Ridge, after crossing by this route near the Peaks of Otter, I met with but very few settlements till I drew near to Fincastle, in Bottetourt County. This town was only begun about the year 1790, yet it already contains sixty houses, and is most rapidly increasing. The improvement of the adjacent country has likewise been very rapid, and land now bears nearly the same price that it does in the neighborhood of York and Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. The inhabitants consist principally of Germans, who have extended their settlements from Pennsylvania along the whole of that rich tract of land which runs through the upper part of Maryland, and from thence behind the Blue Mountains to the most southern part of Virginia. They have many times, I am told, crossed the Blue Ridge to examine the land, but the red soil which they found there was different from what they had been accustomed to.
“The difference indeed between the country on the eastern and on the western side of the Blue Ridge, in Bottetourt County, is astonishing, when it is considered that both are under the same latitude, and that this difference is perceptible within the short distance of thirty miles. On the eastern side of the Ridge, cotton grows extremely well; and in winter snow scarcely ever remains upon the ground more than a day or two at a time. On the other side cotton never comes to perfection, and in every farmyard you see sleighs or sledges. On the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, in Virginia, not one of these carriages is to be met with.
“Another circumstance may also be mentioned (besides the contrast in the soils) as making a material difference between the country on one side of the Blue Ridge and that on the other, namely, that behind the mountains the weevil is unknown. In the lower parts of Virginia, and the other states where the weevil is common, they always thresh out the grain as soon as the crops are brought in, and leave it in the chaff, which creates a degree of heat sufficient to destroy the insect. According to the general opinion, the weevil originated on the eastern shore of Maryland, where a person, in expectation of a great rise in the price of wheat, kept over all his crops for the space of six years, when they were found full of these insects. For a considerable time the Potowmac River formed a barrier to their progress. The Blue Mountains at present serve as a barrier, and secure the country to the westward from their depredations.
“Bottetourt County is entirely surrounded by mountains. The climate is particularly agreeable. It appears to me that there is no part of America where the climate would be more congenial to the constitution of a native of Great Britain or Ireland. In the western part of the county are several medicinal springs, whereto numbers of people resort towards the latter end of summer. Those most frequented are called the Sweet Springs. A set of gentlemen from South Carolina have, I understand, since I was there, purchased the place and are going to erect several commodious dwellings in the neighborhood.
“The country immediately behind the Blue Mountains, between Bottetourt County and the Potowmack River, is agreeably diversified with hill and dale, and abounds with extensive tracts of rich land. The natural herbage is not so fine here as in Bottetourt County, but when clover is once sown it grows most luxuriously; wheat also is produced in as plentiful crops as in any part of the United States. Tobacco is not raised excepting for private use, and but little Indian corn is sown, as it is liable to be injured by the nightly frosts, which are common in the spring. The whole of this country to the west of the mountains is increasing most rapidly in population. In the neighborhood of Winchester it is so thickly settled that wood is now beginning to be thought valuable.
“As I passed along the road from Fincastle to the Potowmack, which is the high road from the Northern States to Kentucky, I met with great numbers of people from Kentucky and the new State of Tennessee going towards Philadelphia and Baltimore, and with many others going in a contrary direction ‘to explore,’ as they call it, that is to search for lands conveniently situated for new settlements in the western country. These people all travel on horseback, with pistols or swords, and a large blanket folded up under their saddle. There are now houses scattered along nearly the whole way from Fincastle to Lexington, in Kentucky. It would be still dangerous for any person to venture singly; but if five or six travel together they are perfectly secure. Formerly travelers were always obliged to go forty or fifty in a party.
“The first town you come to, going northward from Bottetourt County, is Lexington, a neat little place that did contain about 100 houses, a courthouse and gaol, but the greater part of it was destroyed by fire just before I got there. Thirty miles farther on stands Staunton. This town carries on a considerable trade with the back country, and contains nearly 200 dwellings, mostly built of stone, together with a church. Winchester stands 100 miles to the northward of Staunton, and is the largest town in the United States on the western side of the Blue Mountains. The houses are estimated at 350.”
X.
THE DUKE OF LA ROCHEFOUCAULD-LIANCOURT.
1796.
The Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt—The Status of Norfolk—From Yorktown to Richmond—The Business of Richmond—Tobacco Inspection—Administration of Virginia—The Dover Mines—Goochland Court House—Monticello—Staunton—Winchester—Alexandria—Roads and Inns.
THE Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt was born January 11, 1747, and died in 1827. He was in this country, of which he made a thorough investigation, during the years 1795, 1796 and 1797, having been obliged to quit France in 1792 by reason of the insanities of the Revolution. It is stated that his education was neglected. He was early in the army, and was in England in 1769. On his return from England he made a practical application of the methods of agriculture he had studied in that country. He set up a model farm on his estate, and established a school of arts and trades for the sons of soldiers, which, in 1788, numbered 130 students. It was he who made the answer to Louis XVI, “No, sire, it is Revolution,” when the King observed, “This seems to be a revolt.” He turned over a part of his fortune to the King. From 1792 to 1795, and after his return from America, he was in England, being much with Arthur Young, the famous agriculturist. Returning to France in 1799, he continued his scientific and philanthropic works, and (as much as was possible) was active in public affairs. He was the organizer of the first savings bank.
The two large volumes of travels in this country by the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt were translated, and published at London in 1799. These volumes are a record, and a summary of statistics for that period of the history of this country such as are not to be found elsewhere, the work of a man who had an eye for both the intimate and the exterior concerns of the State. France was a volcano in those years, and the observer was glad to give an undivided attention to the facts of the new country across the seas. Below are a few statements bearing on Virginia, taken from the second volume of this remarkable book. The traveler came by ship, three days from Charleston to Norfolk, landing May 29th [1796].
“Norfolk is built on Elizabeth River, at nine miles from the spot where it discharges its waters into the bay. In the intervening space there are few houses. An almost uninterrupted succession of pines are the only object which meets the traveler’s eye. Erancy Island lies nearly in the middle of the river at a short distance above its mouth. Two points of land, which approach within a quarter of a mile of each other in front of Norfolk, are strengthened with forts which are capable of successfully defending the entrance. Portsmouth, a small assemblage of houses on the opposite side of the river, did not share in the conflagration of Norfolk. From its situation it seemed entitled to expect all the commerce of Elizabeth River; at its quays the greatest depth of water is found. But at the conclusion of the peace, the inhabitants, being incensed against the English, refused to admit any merchant of that nation, or any newcomer whose political principles were liable to suspicion. The consequence has been that the inhabitants have removed to the opposite side; that Norfolk has been rebuilt, and that its trade is twenty times more considerable than that of Portsmouth.
“At the close of the year eighty-three there were not yet twelve houses rebuilt at Norfolk. At present the number is between 700 and 800. Last year the yellow fever is said to have carried off 500 persons from a population of 4,000. The inhabitants of Norfolk, even those among them who are the most opulent, fancy that the use of wine and strong liquors furnishes them with a preservative. Previous to the war the town is said to have contained 8,000 inhabitants. Norfolk carries on a considerable trade with Europe, the Antilles, and the Northern States. Her exports are wheat, flour, Indian corn, timber of every kind, particularly planks, staves and shingles; salt meat and fish, iron, lead, flaxseed, tobacco, tar, turpentine, hemp. All these articles are the produce of Virginia, or of North Carolina, which latter State, having no seaports, or none that are good, makes her exportations principally through those of Virginia. This port almost singly carries on all the commerce of that part of Virginia which lies south of the Rappahannoc, and of North Carolina far beyond the Roanoke. They are at present forming a canal which, passing through the Dismal Swamp, is to unite the waters of the south branch of Elizabeth River, or rather of Deep Creek, with Albemarle Sound. What must appear very surprising is that for this canal, which already seems in such a state of forwardness, no levels have been taken. It is thus almost all the public works are carried on in America, where there is a total want of men of talents in the arts, and where so many able men, who are perhaps at this moment unemployed in Europe, might to a certainty make their fortunes at the same time that they were rendering essential service to the country.
“The European demand has within four years more than doubled the value of the exports from Norfolk. A barrel of flour, whose medium value in 1791 was $5.55, rose in 1795 to $9.35; and Indian corn was at 37 cents the bushel in 1791, at 54 in 1792, and at 66 in 1795. Exclusive of the flour exported from Norfolk, there is drawn from the State, through that and other ports, a great quantity of wheat, which is taken by the merchants of Philadelphia and New York, or the millers of Brandywine, who manufacture it into flour, which they export to Europe. Good mills are not very common in Virginia. The exportation of tobacco from Norfolk has by the diminution of the culture of that article in Virginia, been reduced above one-third within the last five years. The medium rate of house rent at Norfolk is $230. Many English commercial houses are established at Norfolk. This year England procured from Virginia a number of horses to mount the cavalry, which she proposes to send to the French islands. Of 400 horses already shipped off, only 150 lived to reach the place of their destination.
“Agriculture can hardly be said to exist in Norfolk County or in that of Princess Ann. The landed property is much divided, and the inhabitants devote themselves rather to the selling of timber than to the cultivation of the soil. In all these parts land is sold at from $6 to $7 per acre; and often the value of the timber, which it offers for the axe, amounts to four or five times the price of the original purchase. From eighty to ninety vessels of different dimensions are annually built at Norfolk. The price of building is, for the hull on coming from the hands of the carpenter, $24 per ton for those above 120 tons. Ready for sea, they cost from $47 to $50 per ton. It was intended that Norfolk should build one of the six frigates of which the United States had determined to compose their marine. That which was to have been built at Norfolk was among the number countermanded: it was begun at Gosport, where there are dock yards for the construction of the largest vessels. The communication between Norfolk and Portsmouth is continual: it is carried on by six rowboats belonging to a company, and by three scows, in which horses and carriages are conveniently ferried over. The fare for each passenger is one-sixteenth of a dollar; but on paying $6 a person may become free of the passage for twelve months. To the port of Norfolk, above any other in the United States, came the greatest number of colonists escaped from Saint Domingo. Private subscriptions raised in all the towns of Virginia, together with further sums voted by the State Legislature and by Congress, afforded the unfortunate French incontestable proofs of the benevolence and generosity of the Americans. Major William Lindsey, commissioner of the Custom House, is, of all the inhabitants of Norfolk, the individual with whom I have the most particular reason to be satisfied. He is a man recommended by simplicity of manners and goodness of heart, and is held in universal esteem. I am profoundly indebted to him for information on a variety of subjects.
“A wherry, employed in transporting the mail from Norfolk to Hampton, whence it is forwarded by land to Richmond, is the usual conveyance for passengers who intend to pursue that route. In good weather the passage is performed in two hours: we were ten hours in crossing for want of wind. The Richmond mail arrives at Hampton, an inconsiderable village, three times a week. Formerly there was a custom house established here. In 1795 this was united with that of Norfolk. The monument voted by Congress for erection at York Town is not even yet begun. Such negligence is inconceivable, shameful and unaccountable. On the opposite side of the river from York Town, in Gloucester County, are annually built a considerable number of vessels. The highest rents at York Town are from $80 to $100. Flour, an article which it is difficult to procure, costs at present $15. From York Town to Williamsburg land is sold at $4 or $5 the acre. The students at the college in Williamsburg pay $14 to each professor whose course of lessons they attend. Their board and lodging cost them from $100 to $120. The lands about Williamsburg yield from eight to twelve bushels of wheat per acre, or from twelve to fourteen of Indian corn. Those few spots that are manured with dung produce double that quantity. Crowded in the stage by ten passengers and their baggage, we did not arrive at Richmond before 11 o’clock at night, though we had set out from Williamsburg at 8 in the morning; the rain, which has been abundant during the last two days, having rendered the roads very bad.
“The position of Richmond is truly agreeable. On the opposite side of the river the country rises in a gentle aclivity; and the little, but well-built town of Manchester, environed by cultivated fields, which are ornamented by an infinite number of trees and dotted with scattered houses, embellishes the sweet, variegated, agreeable and romantic perspective. This town has prodigiously increased, but within the last two or three years it has remained stationary. A few years back a conflagration consumed almost all the lower part of the town. At present there are few wooden houses at Richmond. The trade of this town consists in the purchase of the country productions, and in selling at second-hand the articles of domestic consumption, which are generally procured from England. The number of merchants who carry on a direct commerce with Europe is inconsiderable. They keep their ships at Norfolk, and send down the produce of the country in smaller vessels. The commission trade may be considered as the real business of the place. It is from the merchants of Richmond or Petersburg that those of Norfolk most commonly purchase the grain, flour and tobacco which the latter export. The country produce is paid for by the merchants in ready money or at short credit; they even frequently obtain it on cheaper terms by furnishing the planters with an advance of money on their crop. The Richmond merchants supply all the stores through an extensive tract of back country. As they have a very long credit from England, they can allow a similar indulgence of six, nine or twelve months to the shop-keepers whom they supply. All the merchants deal in bills of exchange on Europe.
“The falls of James River, which obstructed its navigation from the distance of seven miles above Richmond, heretofore imposed the necessity of employing land carriage for that space. At present a canal, running parallel with the course of the river for those seven miles, connects the communication by water, and opens a navigation which extends without interruption 200 miles above Richmond. I have seen one of the two mills at Richmond. It stands below the falls of the river, receives a great power of water, and turns six pair of stones. It is a fine mill, and unites the advantages of all the new inventions: the cogs of the wheels are clumsily executed. It costs a yearly rent of near $6,000 to Monsieur Chevalier, a Frenchman from Rochefort, heretofore director of the French paquets to America, and now settled in Virginia. Flour mills are more numerous at Petersburg than at Richmond, and the mills there are also upon a good construction. The exportations of Petersburg are more considerable than those of Richmond, although generally speaking, the produce it receives is inferior in quality. Tobacco, for instance, which sells at Richmond for $6 or $7 the hundred weight, does not fetch quite $5 at Petersburg. City Point, or Bermuda Hundred, is the spot where the custom house is established for these two places. At half a mile from the custom house stands the habitation of Mr. D. Randolph, who is fully entitled to the reputation which he enjoys of being the best farmer in the whole country.
“The inspection of tobacco in Virginia, and especially on James River, is esteemed to be conducted with a degree of exactness and severity, which contributes as much as the real superiority of the article itself to keep up its price in the market. The hogsheads are broken at the warehouse, and examined in every direction and in every part. The tobacco is then repacked in its hogshead, which is branded with a hot iron, marking the place of inspection and the quality of the contents. The planter receives a certificate of the particulars. It is by selling this ‘tobacconote’ to the merchant that the planter sells his tobacco. The civil laws of Virginia have struck me as wisely ordained. The State of Virginia has no public debt, except $100,000, in which she was found debtor to the Union on the settlement of the accounts of the States with the general government; and a claim made on the part of France for arms and military stores furnished during the war. From the condition of the finances of the State of Virginia it follows that the taxes are by no means heavy. The counties impose no taxes, unless when they have bridges, prisons or courthouses to build. The slave laws are much milder here than in any of the other countries through which I have hitherto traveled.
“On the 20th of June Mr. Guillemard and myself set out for the mountains; Monticello, the habitation of Mr. Jefferson, was the object of this part of our journey. Messrs. Graham & Havens, merchants of Richmond, and owners of a coal mine at Dover, near by, were so kind as to conduct us thither. This mine is scarcely wrought. There is not one person throughout America versed in the art of working mines. The country between Dover and Goochland Courthouse, where we stopped at night, is more variegated than before; you find there more heights, and some fine prospects, especially on Mount Pleasant, which commands a wide extensive vale entirely cleared, and full of houses and clumps of trees. This day was a court day at Goochland. It was near 9 o’clock at night when I arrived. At the inn the company easily discerned that I was a Frenchman. There arrived a large bowl of grog, and we drank one after another, toasting the French, France, America, Virginia, and M. de la Fayette, whose name they mentioned with enthusiasm. In spite of my little disposition for drinking, I was obliged two or three times to drink in my turn, for it was absolutely necessary to empty the bowl. It was with great difficulty I prevented the arrival of a second. The road grows duller after you leave Goochland Courthouse. The plantations become constantly less frequent and less extensive. Inns are very scarce on this road; the next is nearly seventeen miles distant from that where we passed the night. I went a mile farther on, to stop at one which I knew was kept by a Frenchman. After having spent nearly the whole day there, we went ten miles farther on to an ordinary, where we stopped for the night, and the next day proceeded to Monticello.
“Mr. Jefferson’s house commands one of the most extensive prospects you can meet with; when finished by his new plan, it will certainly deserve to be ranked with the most pleasant mansions in France or England. He has divided all his land under culture into four farms, and every farm into seven fields of forty acres. His system of rotation embraces seven years. Mr. Jefferson possesses one of those excellent threshing machines, which a few years since were invented in Scotland. He has a drilling machine, invented in his own neighborhood. Mr. Jefferson, in common with all landholders in America, imagines that his habitation is more healthy than any other; that it is as healthful as any in the finest parts of France. In private life Mr. Jefferson displays a mild, easy, and obliging manner, though somewhat cold and reserved; he possesses a stock of information not inferior to that of any other man. His daughters have been educated in France, where they became acquainted with my family. Fifteen hundred leagues from our native country, in another world, and frequently given up to melancholy, we fancy ourselves restored to existence when we hear our family and our friends mentioned by persons who have known them.
“We arrived at Staunton by the road through Rockfish Gap. The most frequented road to the Sweet, Warm and Hot Springs at Greenbriar, and from thence to Kentucky, passes through Staunton. Eight inns are established there, three of which are large. Hemp, which grows very fine, is cultivated throughout the whole of this country. Wheat in this region is mowed with the sickle, as in Europe, and is infected with the rot. On the other side of the Blue Mountains they mow with the scythe. From Staunton we passed by Keyssel Town, Newmarket, Strasburgh (formerly called Stover’s Town), and Newtown, to Winchester. Winchester sends to Alexandria the whole produce of the upper country, and draws from Baltimore, but especially from Philadelphia, all sorts of dry goods. Upwards of thirty well-stocked stores, or shops, have been opened at Winchester. The town contains ten or twelve inns, large and small, which are often full. In the course of last year upwards of 4,000 persons passed through the place, going to settle in Tennessee or Kentucky. Landed property in the vicinity of Charlestown is more divided, perhaps, than in any other part of Virginia. Very few of the planters possess more than 2,000 acres of land, and few even so much. Alexandria is, beyond all comparison, the handsomest town in Virginia, and, indeed, is among the finest in the United States. Alexandria carries on a constant trade with the West India Islands, and also some with Europe. There is a bank at Alexandria, the only one in Virginia. The establishment of a bank at Richmond was authorized by the Legislature of Virginia in December, 1792, but the subscriptions not filling it does not exist.[L]
“The roads are in general good throughout this State; and although the inns are sometimes bad, yet upon the whole they are better than in the other States. Those in the back country, where I have traveled, are preferable to the inns in many of the most inhabited parts of New England.”
XI.
JOHN DAVIS OF SALISBURY.
1801-1802.
The Sailor Turned Author—Vice-President Burr—Washington in 1801—Cherokees—Gadesby’s—Colchester—Occoquan—Romantic Situation—Tavern Luxuries—Eloquence and a War-Dance—Parson Weems—Scholarship Per Se—Frying Pan—Newgate—Mr. Ball—‘To Virginia.’
IN the year 1798 John Davis came to America. He had been very much of a traveler, had lived in the East Indies, had crossed the equator several times and doubled the Cape of Good Hope more than once. Davis came from Salisbury, in England. He deserves a place in the biographical dictionaries, but is not found there. Having been a sailor before the mast for eleven years, he became a desultory man of letters, of considerable literature, who paid his way while in this country by potboiling for New York and Philadelphia booksellers and by teaching in South Carolina and Virginia.[M] He brought with him across the Atlantic a library of 300 volumes, French, Latin and English. These books he read. For statistics, commerce, land speculations, Davis cared nothing whatever. He was an impressionist and not to be disregarded as a poet. His work, therefore, is distinct among these early travels which are usually records of fact as fact, and as such are extremely valuable. However a man sees, let him write.
Thomas Jefferson, who was pleased to accept the dedication to him of this volume, supposed that it would be of a statistical sort. “Should you in your journeyings have been led to remark on the same objects on which I gave crude notes some years ago, I shall be happy to see them confirmed or corrected by a more accurate observer,” wrote President Jefferson from Monticello.
Davis accepted the acceptance and published a book as little like the “Notes on Virginia” as any book could well be. The author had read Horace and believed as that poet did that his work was going to last. “That this volume will regale curiosity while man continues to be influenced by his senses and affections, I have little doubt,” was the statement of John Davis in his preface. “It will be recurred to with equal interest on the banks of the Thames and those of the Ohio. There is no man who is not pleased in being told by another what he thought of the world and what the world thought of him.” There is a good deal of truth in both the particular and the general observation. We have not yet taken the time to review our history with much care. Whenever that is done, John Davis, of Salisbury, citizen of the world, more or less, should find readers again after a hundred years.
Having translated for bookseller Caritat, in New York (at Aaron Burr’s suggestion), “The Campaign in Italy of General Buonaparte,” and afterwards having spent a winter as tutor in the family of Mr. Drayton, of South Carolina, Davis came back to the North, wrote a novel called the “Wanderings of William,” for Thompson, of Philadelphia, and, nevertheless, being in want of ready money, applied to Mr. Burr, now Vice-President, for a recommendation that might lead to government employment. The Vice-President very obligingly promised the indigent author a place in the Treasury Department. Davis set out for Washington, which at that time had only begun to emerge. The village of 1801 is thus described, as if by Goldsmith: “Washington, on my second journey to it wore a very dreary aspect. The multitude had gone to their homes, and the inhabitants of the place were few. There were no objects to catch the eye but a forlorn pilgrim forcing his way through the grass that overruns the streets, or a cow ruminating on a bank, from whose neck depended a bell, that the animal might be found the more readily in the woods. I obtained accommodations at the Washington Tavern, which stands opposite the Treasury. There I found seven Cherokee chiefs. They came to be instructed in the mode of European agriculture.” Presenting himself to Secretary Gallatin immediately after the Cherokee chiefs had descended the Treasury stairs, Davis was told by the Secretary that the Vice-President had made a mistake, and that there was no consulship or any other office to be had. Another instance of the startling difference between promise and fulfilment.
“Finding a schooner at Georgetown ready to sail for Alexandria, I put my trunk on board of her, and left without regret the Imperial City. The wind being contrary, we had to work down the Potomac. The river here is very beautiful. Mason’s Island forms one continued garden; but what particularly catches the eye is the Capitol, rising with sacred majesty above the woods. It was easier landing at Alexandria in America than Alexandria in Egypt; and I found elegant accommodations at Gadesby’s hotel. It is observable that Gadesby keeps the best house of entertainment in the United States. The splendour of Gadesby’s hotel not suiting my finances, I removed to a public-house kept by a Dutchman.
“To what slight causes does a man owe some of the principal events of his life. I had been a fortnight at Alexandria, when, in consequence of the short advertisement I had put in the Gazette, a gentleman was deputed to wait on me from a Quaker, on the banks of the Occoquan, who wanted a Tutor for his children. The following evening I left Alexandria on horseback to visit the abode of Mr. Ellicott. Having crossed the bridge [at Colchester], which is built over the Occoquan, I alighted at the door of the tavern.
“Having ordered supper, I gazed with rapture on the Occoquan River, which ran close to the house, and, gradually enlarging, emptied itself into the capacious bosom of the Potomac. The fishermen on the shore were hawling their seine, and the sails of a little bark, stemming the waves, were distended by the breeze of night. The seaboy was lolling over the bow, and the helmsman was warbling a song to his absent fair.
“The next day I proceeded to Occoquan; but so steep and craggy was the road that I found it almost inaccessible. On descending the last hill, I was nearly stunned by the noise of two huge mills, whose roar, without any hyperbolical aggravation, is scarcely inferior to that of the great falls of the Potomac, or the cataract of Niagara. My horse would not advance; and I was myself lost in astonishment.
“Friend Ellicott and his wife received me with an unaffected simplicity of manners, whom I was happy to catch just as they were going to dinner. An exquisite Virginia ham smoked on the board, and two damsels supplied the guests with boiled Indian corn, which they had gathered with their own hands. Friend Ellicott, uncorrupted by the refinement of modern manners, had put his hat to its right use, for it covered his head.
“Our agreement was soon made. Quakers are men of few words. Friend Ellicott engaged me to educate his children for a quarter of a year. He wanted them taught reading, writing, and arithmetic. Delightful task! As to Latin or French, he considered the study of either language an abuse of time; and very calmly desired me not to say another word about it.
“No place can be more romantic than the view of Occoquan to a stranger, after crossing the rustic bridge, which has been constructed by the inhabitants across its stream. He contemplates a river urging its course along mountains that lose themselves among the clouds; he beholds vessels taking on board flour under the foam of the mills, and others deeply laden expanding their sails to the breeze; while every face wears contentment, every gale wafts health, and echo from the rocks multiplies the voices of the waggoners calling to their teams.
“No walk could be more delightful than that from Occoquan to Colchester, when the moon was above the mountains. You traverse the bank of a placid stream over which impend rocks, in some cases bare, but more frequently covered with an odoriferous plant that regales the traveller with its fragrance. So serpentine is the course of the river that the mountains, which rise from its bank, may be said to form an amphitheatre; and nature seems to have designed the spot for the haunt only of fairies; for here grow flowers of purple dye, and here the snake throws her enamelled skin.
“After clambering over mountains, almost inaccessible to human toil, you come to the junction of the Occoquan with the noble river of the Potomac, and behold a bridge, whose semi-elliptical arches are scarcely inferior to those of princely London. And on the side of this bridge stands a tavern, where every luxury that money can purchase is to be obtained at a first summons; where the richest viands cover the table, and where ice cools the Madeira that has been thrice across the ocean.[N] The apartments are numerous and at the same time spacious; carpets of delicate texture cover the floors; and glasses are suspended from the walls in which a Goliah might survey himself. No man can be more complaisant than the landlord. Enter but his house with money in your pocket, and his features will soften into the blandishments of delight; call and your mandate is obeyed; extend your leg and the boot-jack is brought you.
“On the north bank of the Occoquan is a pile of stones, which indicates that an Indian warrior is interred underneath. The Indians from the back settlements, in traveling to the northward, never fail to leave the main road, and visit the grave of their departed hero. If a stone be thrown down, they religiously restore it to the pile; and, sitting round the rude monument, they meditate profoundly; catching, perhaps, a local emotion from the place.
“A party of Indians, while I was at Occoquan, turned from the common road into the woods to visit this grave on the bank of the river. The party was composed of an elderly Chief, twelve young War Captains, and a couple of Squaws. Of the women, the youngest was an interesting girl of seventeen; remarkably well shaped, and possessed of a profusion of hair, which in colour was raven black. She appeared such another object as the mind images Pocahontas to have been.
“The Indians being assembled round the grave, the old Chief rose with a solemn mien, and, knocking his war-club against the ground, pronounced an oration to the memory of the departed warrior. No orator of antiquity ever exceeded this savage chief in the force of his emphasis, and the propriety of his gesture. Indeed, the whole scene was highly dignified. The fierceness of his countenance, the flowing robe, elevated tone, naked arm, and erect stature, with a circle of auditors seated on the ground, and in the open air, could not but impress upon the mind a lively idea of the celebrated speakers of ancient Greece and Rome.
“Having ended his oration, the Indian struck his war-club with fury against the ground, and the whole party obeyed the signal by joining in a war-dance—leaping and brandishing their knives at the throats of each other, and accompanying their menacing attitudes with a whoop and a yell, which echoed with ten-fold horror from the banks of the river. The dance took place by moonlight, and it was scarcely finished, when the Chief produced a keg of whiskey, and having taken a draught, passed it round among his brethren. The squaws now moved the tomahawks into the woods, and a scene of riot ensued. The keg was soon emptied. The effects of the liquor began to display itself in the looks and motions of the Indians. To complete the scene, the old warrior was uttering the most mournful lamentations over the keg he had emptied; inhaling its flavour with his lips, holding it out with his hands in a supplicating attitude, and vociferating to the bye-standers, ‘Scuttawawbah! Scuttawawbah! More strong drink! More strong drink!’
“About eight miles from the Occoquan mills is a house of worship, called Powheek Church; a name it derives from a Run that flows near its walls. Hither I rode on Sundays and joined the congregation of Parson Weems. I was confounded on first entering the church-yard at Powheek to hear
‘Steed threaten steed with high and boastful neigh.’
Nor was I less stunned with the rattling of carriage-wheels, the cracking of whips, and the vociferations of the gentlemen to the negroes who accompanied them. But the discourse of Parson Weems calmed every perturbation.
“After church I made my salutations to Parson Weems, and having turned the discourse to divine worship, I asked him his opinion of the piety of the blacks. ‘Sir,’ said he, ‘no people in this country prize the Sabbath more seriously than the trampled-upon negroes. They are swift to hear; they seem to hear as for their lives.—How, sir, did you like my preaching?’ ‘Sir,’ cried I, ‘it was a sermon to pull down the proud and humble the haughty.’
“I had been three months at Occoquan. My condition was growing irksome. I, therefore, resigned my place to an old drunken Irishman, who was traveling the country on foot in search of an Academy. I remonstrated with Friend Ellicott on the impropriety of employing a sot to educate his children. ‘Friend,’ said he, ‘of all the schoolmasters I ever employed, none taught my children to write so good a hand, as a man who was constantly in a state that bordered on intoxication. They learned more of him in one month than of any other in a quarter. I will make trial of Burbridge.’”
Davis returned to New York, collecting a few dollars at Philadelphia, due him from sales of “The Wanderings of William.” In April, 1802, he was at Washington again, where Congress was in session. “I watched an opportunity to make the Vice-President my salutations as he came out of the Capitol. He demonstrated no little pleasure to see me; and his chariot being at the steps, he took me home with him to dine.” The House of Representatives was then sitting in a detached temporary building. Davis thought John Randolph the most eloquent in debate. After a few days in Washington, the itinerant passed on to Prince William County, where he had been engaged as tutor by Mr. Ball at twenty-five pounds the quarter. At Frying Pan, in Prince William County, Davis inquired the way. “How far, my boy,” said I, “is it to Frying Pan?” “You be in the Pan now,” replied the boy.
“Frying Pan is composed of four log huts and a meeting-house. It took its name from a curious circumstance. Some Indians, having encamped on the run, missed their frying pan in the morning, and hence the name was conferred on the place. I did not stop at Frying Pan, but prosecuted my walk to Newgate, where in the piazza of the tavern I found a party of gentlemen from the neighboring plantations carousing over a bowl of toddy and smoking segars. No people could exceed these men in politeness. On my ascending the steps to the piazza every countenance seemed to say: This man has a double claim to our attention because he is a stranger. In a moment there was room made for me to sit down; a new bowl was called for, and every one who addressed me did so with a smile of conciliation. The higher Virginians seem to venerate themselves as men. Whatever may be advanced against Virginians, their good qualities will ever outweigh their defects; and when the effervescence of youth has abated, when reason asserts her empire, there is no man on earth who discovers more exalted sentiments, more contempt for baseness, more love of justice, more sensibility of feeling, than a Virginian. At Newgate my pilgrimage was nearly at an end, for Mr. Ball’s plantation was only distant eight miles.”
Beyond Newgate, Bull Run was to be crossed. Having passed that famous stream, the pedagogue and peripatetic, after a mile or two, came to the Ball plantation. An old negro showed him the way, who related, among many other things, that when he was a young buck he made as much as fifteen dollars one winter as capitation money—“Master, I don’t tell you a word of a lie”—levied on the wolves of the region. At Mr. Ball’s: “In my way through the garden I passed two young ladies gathering roses, who, however immured in the woods, were clad with not less elegance than the most fashionable females of Europe. I asked them whether Mr. Ball was at home. They replied that their papa was in the parlour, and with much sweetness of manner directed me by the shortest path to the house. Mr. Ball[O] received me with undissembled accents of joy. He said he had long expected my coming and was gratified at last. I was not a little delighted with the suavity of his manners and the elegance of his conversation. I now opened what some called an Academy and others an Old Field School; and, however it may be thought that content was never felt within the walls of a seminary, I for my part experienced an exemption from care and was not such a fool as to measure the happiness of my condition by what others thought of it. Of the boys I can not speak in very encomiastic terms. Of my female students there was none equal in capacity to Virginia. Geography was one of our favorite studies. I often addressed the rose of May in an appropriate ode—
TO VIRGINIA, LOOKING OVER A MAP
“Powerful as the magic wand,
Displaying far each distant land,
Is that angel hand to me,
When it points each realm and sea.
“Plac’d in geographic mood,
Smiling, shew the pictur’d flood,
Where along the Red Sea coast
Waves o’erwhelm’d the Egyptian host.
“Again the imag’d scene survey,
The rolling Hellespontic Sea,
Whence the Persian from the shore
Proudly pass’d his millions o’er.
“And behold to nearer view,
Here thy own lov’d country too—
Virginia! which produc’d to me
A pupil fair and bright like thee.”
What with a horse, the artisanry of verse, a mild philosophy, and the business of his office, John Davis spent three months very agreeably on Bull Run, within sight of the Blue Ridge. Then a New Jersey farmer of the neighborhood discovered that his eldest boy wrote a better hand than the teacher. Davis resigned the academy to the carpenter of the plantation. “I now once more seized my staff and walked towards Baltimore. It was a killing circumstance to separate from Virginia (the student of geography), but who shall persume to contend against fate? Phyllida amo ante alias, nam me discedere flevit. I embarked August, 1802, in the good ship Olive, Captain Norman, lying at Baltimore, for Cowes, in the Isle of Wight.”