The town is now quite filled with inhabitants, which in regard to their country, religion and trade, are very different from each other. You meet with excellent masters in all trades, and many things are made here full as well as in England. Yet no manufactures, especially for making fine cloth are established. Perhaps the reason is, that it can be got with so little difficulty from England, and that the breed of sheep which is brought over, degenerates in process of time, and affords but a coarse wool.
Here is great plenty of provisions, and their prices are very moderate. There are no examples of an extraordinary dearth.
Every one who acknowledges God to be the Creator, preserver and ruler of all [[59]]things, and teaches or undertakes nothing against the state, or against the common peace, is at liberty to settle, stay, and carry on his trade here, be his religious principles ever so strange. No one is here molested on account of the erroneous principles of the doctrine which he follows, if he does not exceed the above-mentioned bounds. And he is so well secured by the laws in his person and property, and enjoys such liberties; that a citizen of Philadelphia may in a manner be said to live in his house like a king.
On a careful consideration of what I have already said, it will be easy to conceive how this city should rise so suddenly from nothing, into such grandeur and perfection, without supposing any powerful monarch’s contributing to it, either by punishing the wicked, or by giving great supplies in money. And yet its fine appearance, good regulations, agreeable situation, natural advantages, trade, riches and power, are by no means inferior to those of any, even of the most ancient towns in Europe. It has not been necessary to force people to come and settle here; on the contrary foreigners of different languages, have left their country, houses, property and relations, and ventured over wide and stormy seas, in order [[60]]to come hither. Other countries, which have been peopled for a long space of time, complain of the small number of their inhabitants. But Pensylvania, which was no better than a desart in the year 1681, and hardly contained five hundred people, now vies with several kingdoms in Europe, in number of inhabitants. It has received numbers of people which other countries, to their infinite loss, have either neglected or expelled.
A wretched old wooden building, on a hill near the river somewhat north of the Wickako church, belonging to one of the Sons of Sven, of whom, as before-mentioned, the ground was bought for building Philadelphia upon, is preserved on purpose, as a memorial of the poor state of that place, before the town was built on it. Its antiquity gives it a kind of superiority over all the other buildings in town, though in itself the worst of all. This hut was inhabited, whilst as yet stags, deers, elks, and beavers, at broad day light lived in the future streets, church-yards, and market-places of Philadelphia. The noise of a spinning wheel was heard in this house, before the manufactures now established were thought of, or Philadelphia built. But with all these advantages, this house is ready to [[61]]fall down, and in a few years to come, it will be as difficult to find the place where it stood, as it was unlikely at the time of its erection, that one of the greatest towns in America, should in a short time stand close up to it.
September the 7th. Mr. Peter Cock, a merchant of this town, assured me that he had last week himself been a spectator of a snake’s swallowing a little bird. This bird, which from its cry has the name of Cat bird, (Muscicapa Carolinensis, Linn.) flew from one branch of a tree to another, and was making a doleful tune. At the bottom of the tree, but at a fathom’s distance from the stem, lay one of the great black snakes, with its head continually upright, pointing towards the bird, which was always fluttering about, and now and then settling on the branches. At first it only kept in the topmost branches, but by degrees it came lower down, and even flew upon the ground, and hopped to the place where the snake lay, which immediately opened its mouth, caught the bird and swallowed it; but it had scarce finished its repast before Mr. Cock came up and killed it. I was afterwards told that this kind of snakes was frequently observed to pursue little birds in this manner. It is already [[62]]well known that the rattle snake does the same.
I walked out to day into the fields in order to get more acquainted with the plants hereabouts, I found several European and even Swedish plants among them. But those which are peculiar to America, are much more numerous.
The Virginian maple grows in plenty on the shores of the Delaware. The English in this country call it either Buttonwood, or Waterbeech, which latter name is most usual. The Swedes call it Wattenbok, or Wasbok. It is Linnæus’s Platanus occidentalis. See Catesby’s Nat. Hist. of Carolina, vol. 1. p. 56. t. 56. It grows for the greatest part in low places, but especially on the edge of rivers and brooks. But these trees are easily transplanted to more dry places, if they be only filled with good soil; and as their leaves are large and their foliage thick, they are planted about the houses and in gardens, to afford a pleasant shade in the hot season, to the enjoyment of which some seats were placed under them. Some of the Swedes had boxes, pails, and the like, made of the bark of this tree by the native Americans. They say that those people whilst they were yet settled here, made little dishes of this bark for gathering [[63]]whortleberries. The bark was a line in thickness. This tree likewise grows in marshes, or in swampy fields, where ash and red maple commonly grow. They are frequently as tall and thick, as the best of our fir trees. The seed stays on them till spring, but in the middle of April the pods open and shed the seeds. Query, Whether they are not ripe before that time, and consequently sooner fit for sowing? This American maple is remarkable for its quick growth, in which it exceeds all other trees. There are such numbers of them on the low meadows between Philadelphia and the ferry at Gloucester, on both sides of the road, that in summer time you go as it were through a shady walk. In that part of Philadelphia which is near the Swedish church, some great trees of this kind stand on the shore of the river. In the year 1750, on the 15th. of May I saw the buds still on them, and in the year 1749 they began to flower on the eighth of that month. Several trees of this sort are planted at Chelsea near London, and they now in point of height vie with the tallest oak.
September the 18th. In the morning I went with the Swedish painter, Mr. Hesselius, to the country seat of Mr. Bartram, which is about four English miles to the [[64]]south of Philadelphia, at some distance from the high road to Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. I had therefore the first opportunity here, of getting an exact knowledge of the state of the country, which was a plain covered with all kinds of trees with deciduous leaves. The ground was sandy, mixed with clay. But the sand seemed to be in greater quantity. In some parts the wood was cut down, and we saw the habitations of some country people, whose corn-fields and plantations were round their farm-houses. The wood was full of mulberry-trees, walnut-trees of several kinds, chesnut-trees, sassafras, and the like. Several sorts of wild vines clasped their tendrils round, and climbed up to the summits of the highest trees; and in other places they twined round the enclosures, so thick, that the latter almost sunk down under their weight. The Persimon, or Diospyros Virginiana, Linn. sp. pl. p. 1510, grew in the marshy fields, and about springs. Its little apples looked very well already, but are not fit for eating, before the frost has affected them, and then they have a very fine taste. Hesselius gathered some of them, and desired my servant to taste of the fruits of the land; but this poor credulous follow, had hardly bit into them, when he felt the [[65]]qualities they have before the frost has penetrated them. For they contracted his mouth so that he could hardly speak, and had a very disagreeable taste. This disgusted him so much that he was with difficulty persuaded to taste of it during the whole of our stay in America, notwithstanding it loses all its acidity and acquires an agreeable flavour in autumn and towards the beginning of winter. For the fellow always imagined, that though he should eat them ever so late in the year, they would still retain the same disagreeable taste.
To satisfy the curiosity of those, who are willing to know, how the woods look in this country, and whether or no the trees in them are the same with those found in our forests, I here insert a small catalogue of those which grow spontaneously in the woods which are nearest to Philadelphia. But I exclude such shrubs as do not attain any considerable height. I shall put that tree first in order, which is most plentiful, and so on with the rest, and therefore trees which I have found but single, though near the town, will be last.