The Columbia from Martinique, and the ship Lydia, Lemuel Toby, master, for London, which on September 6, 1792 had this advertisement in The George Town Weekly Ledger :
Will sail in twelve or fifteen days: such as may be desirous of taking passage in said ship may depend on being genteelly accommodated. For further particulars apply to Col. Wm. Deakins, or the Captain on Board.
Out beyond the northern limits of the Town, just opposite where Mount Alto Hospital now stands, high on a hill which has been dug away, stood in those days a tremendous oak tree which was used by the pilots coming up the river to guide them on their way. For a hundred years it stood, known as Sailors' Oak, but like so many other things, has had to go in the interest of Progress.
Chapter III
The Taverns, Shops, and Schools
WITH ships arriving and departing and the land travel passing from North to South and back again, besides the country gentlemen coming to town to sell their crops and tend to other business, there was need for many taverns, and plenty of them there were in George Town.
According to Mr. O. W. Holmes of the National Archives who has recently written a fine article on the Colonial Taverns of Georgetown for the Columbia Historical Society, which he read before the Society on January 16, 1951, the earliest tavern of which there is record was kept by Joseph Belt who was granted a license by the newly created Frederick County Court in August, 1751 "to keep a Public House of Entertainment at the Mouth of Rock Creek."