29th. At Chambersburgh. From Lancaster, by Columbia passing over the beautiful Susquehannah by a close bridge of one mile and a quarter long, to this town the roads are at present wretched, even dangerous; and the settlers, German and Dutch boors, as abominable. Having broke a buckle of one of the traces, we applied to a blacksmith to mend it, which he refused to do. Night with a thunder-storm approaching, we tied up the harness as well as we could, wasting plenty of hearty bad wishes upon the cursed smith which some poor Irishmen working on the road joined us in, though they could not assist us; and proceeded some distance, the storm still lowering, to a tavern kept by one of the above wretches where we were absolutely refused admittance: obliged to drive on we just got to the door of another, when the thunder in tremendeous peals burst over us [39] accompanied with torrents of rain; here we bolted in determined to be received, and found ourselves in the midst of parties of ill-looking people drinking whiskey and smoking. It was the bar or tap-room, and as no offer was made of a better or safer place for ourselves and luggage, and a little disapprobation being consequently shewn by some of my party, the brute landlord, notwithstanding the storm, told us we had better drive on to the next town, if we disliked his accommodations.—Not chusing to be drenched in rain for his ill humour we were obliged to remain during pleasure; until at length I got mine host into better humour, and he gave us a tolerable good supper and beds, though with the usual company of bugs and fleas, and without water for washing, which they positively refused to let us have; observing, we might wash out of doors. This man boasted of being possessed of thirty-five thousand dollars in property, and said, that land now worth one hundred dollars per acre was bought by his father for four dollars.
Tired of such abominable inns and the keepers of them, we have now twice boiled the kettle in the woods and breakfasted upon the contents [40] of our canteen, a plan we have much enjoyed, and recommend to all travellers in this country whose convenience it may suit. The scenery is beautiful, the land pretty well cultivated and finely interspersed with woodland; the harvest, except Indian corn or maize, is nearly got in, and seems to have been abundant. Man alone here stands an object of disgust. How strangely to our circumscribed views does Providence work its purposes! To a rough untutored set of naked savages, another race of little less than savages (clothed savages) has succeeded; who, in all probability, will in their turn give place to a third of some intellect and refinement; themselves driven from their paternal hearths by the insolence of an aristocracy, the intolerance of a state religion, or the craving demands of an extravagant government: these, seeking for themselves and their posterity relief from such evils, will bring into this fine portion of the earth, the letters and refined manners, which alone it wants to make it perhaps one of the most desirable countries of the globe.
We are now ascending the first range of mountains separating the eastern from the western part of the continent. The grand and ancient monarchs of the forest have only been removed where the road is opened for the passage of the [41] traveller. The Oak, the Chestnut, the Locust and various other trees tower aloft in their prime, while some lie fallen with age, and others, inclining from their aged roots, ready to follow,—emblems these of the lot of humanity!
The heat of the sun, though great, is here tempered by a cool air from the mountains. A man, his wife, and children travelling in their light waggon with one horse, have joined us; they are on their way to Virginia, in which State he lives; he seems to be a good-natured civil being and by no means wanting in humanity in general; yet custom could make him smile at my expression of abhorrence, when he said there was no law practically for slaves in that State, and that he has frequently seen them flogged to death!
Widow McMurran's Tavern, Scrub Ridge