JOURNAL.
Gravesend, on board the George Barclay,
31st of July, 1793.
Arrived onboard at 2 this afternoon, with an intention of sailing to Philadelphia: Gravesend is so called from it's being the end of a sailors grave, as those who die on a voyage after passing the fort are thrown over board.
August 1st.
Got under weigh with a light breeze at S.W., which not being sufficient to stem the returning tide, we dropped out anchor again off the Nore light.
Aug. 2nd.—Weighed anchor with the wind at S.E., and on the morning of the 3rd; off Deal, sent a boat on shore, which soon returned with a supply of meat, water, sheep, poultry gin, and gingerbread; dismissed our pilot, and soon after doubted the South Foreland; the prospect of Dover and the adjacent coast delightful.
Aug 8th.—Beating to windward with a fresh breeze off the Lizard; finding it impossible to clear the land, put about, and by three in the afternoon were safe moored in Falmouth harbour. Went on shore; the lower order of the inhabitants chaunt, or rather speak in recitative, a strange dialect, in which I could distinguish several English words.
Took a walk to Pendennis castle, which protects the West entrance of the harbour; found it garrisoned by a party of invalides, who informed me they had not two nights in bed to one up; hard duty after twenty years servitude!
Aug. 9th.—Dined on john dory, which I cannot think equal either to turbot or sole. Falmouth has the best fish market in England: I am informed, in the course of the year, they have upward of fifty different species for sale, on very moderate terms.
Aug. 15th.—Weighed anchor, and having a good breeze at N.E., we were soon clear of the land. On the evening of the 16th came on a smart breeze at S.W.; at 2 A.M. the wind changed to W.N.W. and blew a hard gale, which split our jib, and at last obliged us to lie too, under our courses: shipped some very heavy seas over our quarter, which drowned three parts of our stock of geese and other poultry; the baggage of near fifty passengers, for want of being properly lashed, was dashing about the steerage; which, with the shrieks of the women, heaving of the vessel, rattling of the wind, and all the et cetera of a storm, was dreadful indeed.
Aug. 18th.—Wind N.W. moderate; the morning delightful; appeared doubly so, contrasted with the horrours of the night.
Aug. 31st.—Fresh breeze at S.W. increasing to a hard gale, reduced us once more to our courses: at 8 P.M. calm, with a very heavy swell.
Sunday 1st September.
Pleasant breeze at N.N.E. The following hymn was written by Mr. Harwood, for this morning's service.
HYMN.
I.
Father of Heav'n, to thee we raise
(Mark'd by thy kind peculiar care,)
Our songs of thankfulness and praise,
To thee ascends the grateful pray'r.
II.
Thou didst direct the gentlest breath,
That o'er the sleeping waters stole;
Thine is the dreadful voice of death,
In which thy angry thunders roll.
III.
Father of all, 'tis thine to give,
Not what our erring pray'r demands;
With joy thy blessings we receive,
And bow submissive 'neath thy hand.
Sept. 7th.—First appearance of the gulf-weed. The trade wind, between the Equator and the extent of the northern Tropic, setting from the eastward, forces the water against the islands, and at length into the gulf of Mexico where it meets with an uniform opposition from the main, causing a strong current to the N.E., or points somewhat in that direction. This stream is so violent as to tear up the sea weeds in the gulf, and bear them as far to the north as latitude 44: the stream is soon after absorbed in the Western ocean; but causes certain counter currents, which, for want of being properly allowed for by mariners, have been the causes of many shipwrecks.
Sept. 8th.—Fine morning; wind at W.S.W. A beautiful dolphin struck at an artificial flying fish, hanging at our bow-sprit; the hook breaking, he escaped;—continued playing round our bows for some time, and struck at several flying fish; but we could not again tempt him with the artificial bait.
Mem. To read this lesson once a month.
Sept. 9th.—Calm and fog, several flocks of wild fowl. Suppose ourselves near the banks of Newfoundland. Thermometer sunk 18 degrees since yesterday.
Sept. 10th.—Pleasant morning, having run to the S.W. during the night: no sign of the banks. A land bird, of the thrush kind, came and settled on our main yard; seemed quite exhausted; fell upon the deck, and was taken up by the cabin boy. The poor creature must have been driven off the coast of America in a violent gale at N.W., the distance from any land being upwards of a thousand miles; no other circumstance could account for it's flying so far.
Sept. 19th.—Wind at N.N.W. very moderate;—the afternoon calm. The sun set this evening with uncommon beauty, that glorious luminary was surrounded with clouds of a vivid yellow, green, and red; strongly shaded with black half the extent of the horizon. The moon at the same time rising to the east-ward, with a cool and faint sky, formed a strong and beautiful contrast.
Sept. 21st.—Wind S. with rain. Caught four dolphins, which afforded us a most delicious repast: in the paunch of one was found a dodon, or globe-fish; the sailors call it a parrot-fish, from its having a beak exactly resembling that bird.—At 9 A.M. spoke with the Queen Charlotte of London, bound to Bristol, out ten days from Baltimore; the captain's account of the longitude 67. Our joy in being so near the land was of short continuance; for, in one hour after, we spoke with the Union, eight days from Philadelphia. The captain informed us, there was a sort of plague in that city, which carries off great numbers, and that ten thousand of the inhabitants had fled to the country, to avoid the infection.
Sept. 24th.—Soundings at 60 fathom: lay to all night.
Sept. 25th.—Woke with the cry of "Land." At 10 A.M. we took a pilot on board: he informed us the disorder at Philadelphia is the yellow fever, imported in a french schooner from the West Indies; some of the passengers of this vessel died of this fatal disorder, at a lodging-house in Water-street, and communicated the infection to the family. It is now spreading rapidly through the city, in all directions. The faculty, so far from being able to cure this disorder, have, in several instances, fallen victims to it's fury. Within this few days, a Dr. Rush has discovered this disorder is not the yellow fever of the West Indies and has applied an opposite mode of cure by copious bleedings, mercurial medicines, &c. with some success. What is truly extraordinary, the infection does not affect people of colour!
Sept. 28th.—Came to an anchor off Glocester Point, five miles below Philadelphia: the vessel proceeds no further at present, as all intercourse with the city is cut off, and business at a stand.
October 1st.
Brought my baggage on shore, and arrived, at four in the afternoon, at Woodbury, the county town of Glocester, in the state of West Jersey. With some difficulty I procured a lodging within half a mile of the town. Woodbury consists of about fifty well built houses, chiefly inhabited by quakers, and other dissenters of the most rigid kind; so very primitive are they in their appearance, that a barber cannot make a living among them.
Oct. 13th.—Spent the last ten days in shooting, and rambling about the woods. The face of the country is exactly that of an immense forest, entirely covered with wood, except the plantation cleared by the settlers. The land sandy, and by no means of a good quality; the chief produce maize, or indian corn. I counted the increase of one stalk with three ears; the amount of the grains were upward of one thousand two hundred.
Oct. 16th.—I believe the Americans conceive their woods to be inexhaustible. My landlord this day cut down thirty-two young cedars to make a hog-pen. A settler informs me, he raised a gum tree from the seed, which, in sixteen years, measured twenty inches diameter, three feet from it's base. He tells, me they have ten species of oak; viz, white, black, red, spanish, turkey, chesnut, ground, water, barren, and live oak. The white, turkey, and chesnut are used for ship-timber; the acorn of the latter very superiour in size to any other. Red oak is chiefly used for pipe-staves, and exported to most parts of Europe, and the West Indies. Black oak is a dry wood, and easily splits; is chiefly used for the rails and fences of their enclosures. Ground oak is bushy, and seldom exceeds six feet in height; it bears a small acorn of a very superiour flavour, which is the chief food of the deer, and sheep, who run wild in the woods. Water and barren oak are small and bushy, and only used for firing. Live oak is said to be very superiour to all the rest, and the best ship-timber in the world. I am informed it is a sort of evergreen, seldom met with north of the Carolinas.
Oct. 26th.—Went to Philadelphia.—After crossing the Delaware, I found the land very different from the Jersey shore; a fine stiff black soil, the clover growing spontaneously. The city exhibited a most melancholy spectacle; most of the houses and stores shut up, and grass growing in many of the streets; what few white inhabitants I met with had a most dejected appearance. The disorder has been most favourable to the softer sex; women with child, and those above and under a certain age, were in general free from the infection: but so fatal has it proved to the other sex, that, in Apple-tree-alley, which does not exceed fifty yards in length, there are upwards of sixty widows within these two months. The total loss on this melancholy occasion already exceeds four thousand, nearly one tenth of the inhabitants! Returning to Woodbury, I met with a quaker, who informed me of the cause of the infectious disorder in the Great City: "It is a judgment on the inhabitants for their sins, insomuch that they sent to England for a number of play-actors, singers, and musicians, who were actually arrived; and as a just judgment on the Philadelphians for encouraging these children of iniquity, they were now afflicted with the yellow fever." I told him, that more likely the sins of the quakers had drawn down this judgment on the city of brotherly love, and that it was now scourged for their hypocrisy, lying, canting, and other manifold iniquities.
Oct. 27th.—Very cold wind at N.W. In the evening snow.
Oct. 29th.—Favourable accounts from Philadelphia: the late cold weather has entirely stopped the progress of the disorder.
November 26th.
Set out for Annapolis, and arrived there in health, the 29th, at five in the afternoon.
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Annapolis, 17th December, 1793.