“During my stay at Richmond the Assembly was in session. A small frame building serves as House of Assembly, and with a change of properties as ballroom and banquet room. The term is used, ‘the Assembly sits.’ This does not seem to me to be precisely descriptive. The members appeared to me to be anywhere rather than in their seats, and to be discussing anything except laws to be framed. The doorkeeper was busy, and in the vestibule there was an uproar. The vestments of the members are diverse—boots, trousers, Indian leggings, great-coats, the usual coat, and short jackets. In other words, each one wears what he pleases. The members from the West are greatly inconvenienced in coming so far. They even speak of establishing a separate government for the West, as in the province of New York, where there is a Governor at New York and another at Albany. If this is done, the West will very likely become in a short time an independent State. The pay of members has recently been fixed at 18 Virginia shillings or 3 Spanish dollars per diem. During the war they preferred tobacco (50 pounds) to currency. At a vote, the Speaker calls for the Ayes and Noes, and judges with a critical ear which side has made the majority of sounds. If the predominance is a matter of doubt a division is called.
“I stopped at the Tavern Formicola, which was naturally much crowded at that season. Every evening there came generals, colonels, captains, senators, delegates, judges, doctors, clerks and gentlemen of every weight and calibre to sit around the fire, drink, smoke, sing and swap anecdotes. Very entertaining, but Formicola’s not being a spacious house, I found the crowd embarrassing. There is only one newspaper published at Richmond; this paper appears twice a week.
“On the south side of James River, opposite Richmond, lies a little town called Manchester. The rocks in the river between the two places have been bought up, as well as a narrow strip along each bank, and the owner proposes to throw a fine bridge across, which, if built, will be the first and only one of the kind in America. The project depends upon whether the Assembly will license this bridge as a toll bridge. At Manchester I visited Mr. Jacob Rubsamen, a German, who was before the war engaged in mining in Jersey. At the outbreak of the war he came to Virginia and set up a powder mill, the first powder mill to be established in this country. Rubsamen was able to find saltpetre in the mountains; his sulphur he brought from Europe, on account of the heavy expense of getting it out in this country. His works were not very profitable, and were destroyed in the end by the British. Mr. Rubsamen told me that lead ore is found on New River and the Greenbrier, copper on the Roanoke (Dan), and iron everywhere about, particularly in Buckingham County. Coal was recently discovered twelve miles from Richmond by the mere chance of the uprooting of a tree by the wind. This coal brings 1 shilling a bushel (at the wharf), Virginia currency. Its smell is disagreeable, as I observed when at Richmond.
“Leaving Richmond we reached Williamsburg in two days, passing by Warwick (where the British had destroyed a considerable plant for the working of iron), Osborne’s, a pleasant place, though small, and Petersburg, a town of a thriving trade and larger than Richmond. Cotton is raised in this region on good new land or on heavily fertilized land, and the favorite tobaccos are the Sweetscented, the Long Green, the Varina, the Frederick, the Oroonoko, the Hudson, Thickjoint, Thickset, Shoestring and other varieties.
“Williamsburg is to be counted among the most beautiful of American cities. The Capitol, or Statehouse, closes one end of the High Street, a large and modern building. Because no better use can be made of it now, a Latin school is to be established where the government was once installed. Doctors in all the faculties are graduated at the College of William and Mary. Most of the students, however, complete their studies at the English and Scottish universities. The citizens of this town, as of all lower Virginia, greatly hope that the seat of government will be brought back to Williamsburg. At the tavern I found very good entertainment and paid high for it. The black attendants, neatly and modishly attired, make their bows with dignity and respectfulness. They spoke with enthusiasm of the politeness of the French officers lately quartered there.
“We made an excursion to Yorktown, called also Little York, to see that famous place, and particularly to inspect the great oyster banks there. The inhabitants have not yet recovered from the disturbances of war, and many houses are still in ruins or half repaired. The spars of the ships sunk in the river to block the passage are yet to be seen. We returned the same day to Williamsburg, to set out the next morning for the South. Seven miles from Williamsburg, on the Southern road, we came to James River, and after much delay were obliged to turn back to Williamsburg because of an unfavorable wind at the ferry. The next day at sunrise, when the wind is generally still, we came again to the ferry and were put across, but not without delay. Lord Cornwallis was the excuse. They said he had ruined the wharf, and the tide was not yet high enough to take off men and horses from the bank, which is there low.
“Not far below the ferry lies James Island, formerly only a peninsula; in a fierce storm with high water the river broke through the slender tongue of land. Jamestown appears in several modern geographies as a place of eighty to a hundred houses. In reality there are there but one or two, and they ruinous. The most valuable land in this region is that along the rivers and creeks, not so much from the superior fertility, as because of the accessibility to water transportation. Such land sells at four, five or six pounds, Virginia. If the corn crop fails the planter is in straits, and if the price of tobacco is high everything else—bacon, corn, etc.—is high in proportion. Desiring gain, and spending his time on tobacco, the planter loses through not giving attention to those articles of necessity which he might produce at home.
“Five miles from James River we came to Surry Courthouse, where there was a crowd, because it was court day. Eleven miles farther on we passed Nelson’s Ordinary, and after ten miles more reached Smithfield, or Isle of Wight Courthouse. The road from Williamsburg is mainly through woods, but we passed more churches (five, that is to say) than during any other day’s journey in America.
“Towards Smithfield the traveler passes beyond the tobacco country. The chief exports here are tar, pitch, turpentine and salted meat. A barrel of tar, thirty-one and one-half gallons, costs from 8 to 9 Virginia shillings; a barrel of turpentine 18 shillings, and a barrel of salted pork (220 pounds) 50 shillings. At Smithfield we spent the evening with a party of gentlemen from the neighborhood. The conversation was for the most part on the subject of Virginia, what advantages that State has over every other State in the world, and how the nation of Virginia is superior to every other nation—in resources, manners, purity of speech and in all respects.
“The stranger notes deficiencies. For instance, a gentleman of Petersburg remarked to me that he thought of sending his son to Edinburgh to make a doctor of him, since he would probably not marry and set up as a planter, being now past the age of twenty-one. But it must be admitted that physically, the Virginians are a comely race, and they show on all subjects clear and strong understandings. It is to be regretted that they do not give more attention to the exact sciences. They read, but they do not study.