This village contains about thirty tolerable houses—has a meeting-house, and a school, when a master {19} can be got, which is not always the case, the place having now been some months vacant, to whom the trustees ensure twenty-five scholars, at two dollars each per quarter, which being only two hundred dollars per annum, I would have supposed insufficient for his support, if at the same time I had not been informed that his board and lodging in the most respectable manner, will not cost him above eighty dollars a year, in this cheap and plentiful country.[8]
After resting about an hour, and not feeling at all fatigued, at half past four, I proceeded for Middleton, eight miles further, first loading one of the barrels of my gun with a running ball, as I had to pass near where one Eshelman was robbed and murdered last fall.
The road over Connewago hills was bad, and by the time I arrived at the bridge over Connewago creek, three miles from Elizabethtown, my left foot began to pain me, so that I was forced to slacken my pace, which made it dark before I arrived at Swatara creek, when the pain had much increased, which was occasioned by my stepping through the ice up to my knees in a run which crossed the road, which the darkness prevented my seeing.
The boat was at the other side of the creek, and the German family at the ferry-house let me kick my heels at the door until I was quite chilled, before they invited me in, which old Mrs. Smith did at last with a very bad grace, and she almost scolded me for risking the dropping on her very dirty floor, the spirits of turpentine, with which I was wetting the feet of my stockings to prevent my catching cold, a phial of which I carried in my pocket for that purpose. In about half an hour, which appeared to me an age, the boat returned, and I gladly left the dirty, boorish, inhospitable mansion, crossed the creek in a canoe, hauled over by a rope extended from bank to bank, about 70 yards, and in a few minutes after {20} I found myself in Mrs. Wentz’s excellent inn, the sign of general Washington in Middleton. My foot being much blistered, I bathed it in cold water, and then injudiciously opened the blisters with a lancet, and spunged them with spirits of turpentine: I then got a good supper and an excellent bed, but my foot pained me so much as to prevent my sleeping, so I arose early, unrefreshed, and breakfasted with my landlady, an agreeable, well bred woman.
The view down the Susquehannah from Mrs. Wentz’s back piazza is very fine. The town contains about a hundred houses and is well and handsomely situated about half a mile above the conflux of Swatara creek with Susquehannah river, the former of which forms a good harbour for boats, which it is in contemplation to join to the Schuylkill by a canal, in order to give Philadelphia the benefit of the navigation of the Susquehannah through its long course above Middleton. If this is carried into effect, it will draw to Philadelphia a vast quantity of produce, which now goes to Baltimore.[9]
The Susquehannah is a noble river, here about a mile wide, with fine sloping wooded banks, and abounds with rock-fish, perch, mullet, eels, suckers, cat-fish and white salmon, which last is described as a fine fish from seven to fifteen pounds weight, but a distinct species from the red salmon of the northern rivers. Notwithstanding their plenty, Mrs. Wentz assured me that she was seldom gratified with a dish of fish; for though there are many poor people in the town and neighbourhood, who might make a good living by fishing, she says they are too lazy to do any thing more than will procure them some whiskey, in addition to a miserable subsistence, which a very little labour will suffice for in a country where work is so well paid for, and where the necessaries of life are so abundant and cheap.
Was it not that the Susquehannah abounds with {21} falls, shallows and rapids which impede the navigation, it would be one of the most useful rivers in the world, as its different branches from its different sources, embrace a wonderful extent of country, settled, or rapidly settling, and abounding in wheat and maize (Indian corn,) which most probably will always be staples of the large and flourishing state of Pennsylvania.
The road to Harrisburgh leads parallel to the Susquehannah, in some places close to the river, and never more distant from it than a quarter of a mile, along a very pleasant level, bounded on the right by a ridge of low, but steep wooded hills, approaching and receding at intervals, and affording a fine shelter from the northerly winds, to the farms between them and the river; which perhaps is one reason that the orchards are so numerous and so fine in this tract.
I have rarely seen in any country, a road more pleasant than this, either from its own goodness, or the richness and variety of prospect. The Susquehannah on the left about three quarters of a mile wide; sometimes appearing, and sometimes concealed by orchards, groves or clumps of wood. The fine wooded islands in the river. The mountains which terminate the ridge called the South mountain (which crosses part of Virginia, and the southern part of this state) rising abruptly from the margin of the river, in which they are charmingly reflected, altogether form a scenery truly delightful.
About three miles below Harrisburgh the mountains terminate, and the south bank of the river becomes more varied, though still hilly; and here on an elevated promontory, with a commanding view of the river, from above Harrisburgh to below Middleton, is a large, and apparently fine stone house, owned by general Simpson who resides in it on his farm, and is proprietor of a ferry much frequented by the western wagonners, as the road that way is {22} shorter by two miles, than that by Harrisburgh.—He farms out the ferry on his side for about three hundred dollars per annum, while on this side the proprietor rents it at four hundred and seventy. The value of this ferry called Chambers’s, may serve to convey some idea of the state of travelling in this country, particularly if one reflects that there are many other well frequented ferries where publick roads cross the river, within thirty miles both above and below this one, and which are all great avenues to the western country.