Such a number of roads in different directions cross over these flats, upon none of which there is any thing like a direction post, and the face of a human being is so rarely met with, that it is scarcely possible for a traveller to find out the direct way at once. Instead of twelve miles, the distance by the straight road from Port Tobacco to the ferry, my horse had certainly travelled twice the number before we got there. The ferry-house was one of those old dilapidated mansions that formerly was the residence perhaps of some wealthy planter, and at the time when the fields yielded their rich crops of tobacco would have afforded some refreshment to the weary traveller; but in the state I found it, it was the picture of wretchedness and poverty. After having waited for two hours and a half for my breakfast, the most I could procure was two eggs, a pint of milk, and a bit of cake bread, scarcely as big as my hand, and but little better than dough. This I had also to divide with my servant, who came to inform me, that there was absolutely nothing to eat in the house but what had been brought to me. I could not but mention this circumstance to several persons when I got into Virginia, and many of them informed me, that they had experienced the same treatment themselves at this house; yet this house had the name of a tavern. What the white people who inhabited it lived upon I could not discover, but it was evident that they took care of themselves. As for the poor slaves, however, of which there were many in the huts adjoining the tavern, they had a most wretched appearance, and seemed to be half starved. The men and women were covered with rags, and the children were running about stark naked.
EXCELLENT FISH.
After having got into the ferry boat, the man of the house, as if conscious that he had given me very bad fare, told me that there was a bank of oysters in the river, close to which it was necessary to pass, and that if I chose to stop the men would procure abundance of them for me. The curiosity of getting oysters in fresh water tempted me to stop, and the men got near a bushel of them in a very few minutes. These oysters are extremely good when cooked, but very disagreeable eaten raw; indeed all the oysters found in America, not excepting what are taken at New York, so close to the ocean, are, in the opinion of most Europeans, very indifferent and tasteless when raw. The Americans, on their part, find still greater fault with our oysters, which they say are not fit to be eat in any shape, because they taste of copper. The Patowmac, as well as the rest of the rivers in Virginia, abounds with excellent fish of many different kinds, as sturgeon, shad, roach, herrings, &c. which form a very principal part of the food of the people living in the neighbourhood of them.
The river at the ferry is about three miles wide, and with particular winds the waves rise very high; in these cases they always tie the horses, for fear of accidents, before they set out; indeed, with the small open boats which they make use of, it is what ought always to be done, for in this country gusts of wind rise suddenly, and frequently when they are not at all expected: having omitted to take this precaution, the boat was on the point of being overset two or three different times as I crossed over.
On the Virginian shore, opposite to the ferry-house from whence I sailed, there are several large creeks, which fall into the Patowmac, and it is impossible to cross these on horseback, without riding thirty or forty miles up a sandy uninteresting part of the country to the fords or bridges. As I wished to go beyond these creeks, I therefore hired the boatmen to carry me ten miles down the Patowmac River in the ferry boat, past the mouths of them all; this they accordingly did, and in the afternoon I landed on the beach, not a little pleased at finding that I had reached the shore without having been under the necessity of swimming any part of the way, for during the last hour the horses had not remained quiet for two minutes together, and on one or two occasions, having got both to the same side of the boat, the trim of it was very nearly destroyed, and it was with the utmost difficulty that we prevented it from being overset.
VIRGINIANS.
The part of the country where I landed appeared to be a perfect wilderness; no traces of a road or pathway were visible on the loose white sand, and the cedar and pine trees grew so closely together on all sides, that it was scarcely possible to see farther forward in any direction than one hundred yards. Taking a course, however, as nearly as I could guess, in a direct line from the river up the country, at the end of an hour I came upon a narrow road, which led to a large old brick house, somewhat similar to those I had met with on the Maryland shore. On enquiring here, from two blacks, for a tavern, I was told there was no such thing in this part of the country; that in the house before me no part of the family was at home; but that if I rode on a little farther, I should come to some other gentlemen’s houses, where I could readily get accommodation. In the course of five or six miles I saw several more of the same sort of old brick houses, and the evening now drawing towards a close, I began to feel the necessity of going to some one of them. I had seen no person for several miles to tell me who any of the owners were, and I was considering within myself which house I should visit, when a lively old negro, mounted on a little horse, came galloping after me. On applying to him for information on the subject, he took great pains to assure me, that I should be well received at any one of the houses I might stop at; he said there were no taverns in this part of the country, and strongly recommended me to proceed under his guidance to his master’s house, which was but a mile farther on; “Masser will be so glad to see to you,” added he, “nothing can be like.” Having been apprized beforehand, that it was customary in Virginia for a traveller to go without ceremony to a gentleman’s house, when there was no tavern at hand, I accordingly took the Negro’s advice, and rode to the dwelling of his master, made him acquainted with my situation, and begged I might be allowed to put my horses in his stable for the night. The reception, however, which this gentleman gave me, differed so materially from what I had been led to expect, that I was happy at hearing from him, that there was a good tavern at the distance cf two miles. I apologised for the liberty I had taken, and made the best of my way to it. Instead of two miles, however, this tavern proved to be about three times as far off, and when I came to it, I found it to be a most wretched hovel; but any place was preferable to the house of a man so thoroughly devoid of hospitality.
VIRGINIA.
The next day I arrived at this place, the residence of a gentleman, who, when at Philadelphia, had invited me to pass some time with him whenever I visited Virginia. Some of the neighbouring gentlemen yesterday dined here together, and having related to them my adventures on arriving in Virginia, the whole company expressed the greatest astonishment, and assured me that it was never known before, in that part of Virginia, that a stranger had been suffered to go away from a gentleman’s house, where he stopped, to a tavern, although it was close by. Every one seemed eager to know the name of the person who had given me such a reception, and begged me to tell it. I did so, and the Virginians were satisfied, for the person was a—Scotchman, and had, it seems, removed from some town or other to the plantation on which I found him but a short time before. The Virginians in the lower parts of the state are celebrated for their politeness and hospitality towards strangers; beyond the mountains there is a great difference in the manners of the inhabitants.