Having very unexpectedly procured a boat, I left my house yesterday afternoon, came hither by land, and proceed in a few minutes for St. Mary's. It is possible that I may extend my tour to St. John's, and even to St. Augustine's; but, if so, it will be very rapid; a mere flight, for I propose to be at home (Hampton, St. Simon's) again in eight days.
On the 12th I sent by a special messenger, who was to go from Darien to Savannah on foot, my journal for the ten or fifteen days preceding, with some account of the hurricane; but a man this day from Darien says that our express can by no possibility reach Savannah; for that every bridge and causeway is destroyed, and the road so filled with fallen trees as to be utterly impassable. I apprehend that the roads on the whole coast as far north, at least, as Cape Hatteras, are in the same condition. If on my return I should receive intelligence confirming those apprehensions, it will compel me to abandon the hope of seeing you until the last of February. On this, as on all other occasions, let me find that you exhibit the firmness which I have been proud to ascribe to you. Let me hear that you are seriously engaged in some useful pursuit. Let me see the progressive improvement of your mind, and it will console me for all the evils of life.
My young friend Swartwout is still absent, and I suppose at Savannah.
It is not probable that I shall see him again before my return to
New-York.
A Mr. Bartram, of Philadelphia, travelled through Georgia and the Floridas in 1772. His travels are published in one large octavo volume. Procure and read it, and you will better understand what I may write you. I promise myself much gratification in this little trip. If an opportunity should offer for Charleston by water, I shall venture a letter to you. This will be forwarded before my return; if not, it will lay here. I am writing to you before sunrise, and am now summoned to the boat (canoe).
A. BURR.
TO THEODOSIA.
Hampton, St. Simon's, September 26, 1804.
I returned yesterday from my Florida excursion, about which I wrote you on the 15th inst. The weather prevented me from going farther than the river St. John's, about thirty miles from St. Augustine. I have been making out for you a journal of my tour, but I still entertain a slight hope of seeing you somewhere within a fortnight; if at all, it will be by the 10th of October. Pray keep yourselves in readiness to meet me at Columbia, or still more southward if I should require it.
Not a line from you or your husband since those of the 25th of July. Your letters have either been lost in the hurricane or are now in the mail-boat, which, by some mistake, has brought down the Darien mail and carried it on more southward, so that it will not reach Darien till I am off; yet I entertain a hope of finding letters at Savannah.
A boat has at length been found to take me to Savannah, and thither I go to-morrow, or rather set out, for I shall not reach it till the 30th instant. What course I shall take thence will be determined by what I may hear at that city. You will have a line from me as soon as I arrive there; meaning always that the line will be written, and sent on by the first mail, to get to you as soon as it can.