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.
“Christmas Eve we came to Everett’s Bridge, and the next day to
Suffolk, on another arm of Nansemond Creek. In the month of May,
1779, a great part of Suffolk was burned by the British. There are no
stones at this place, and the deep, fine sand of the streets is an
inconvenience. Before the houses they lay a sort of pavement, pitch
and tar mixed with the sand and allowed to harden. They drive a trade
from this place to the West Indies in small vessels, shallops of twenty
to fifty tons burthen. Salt is an especial article of their traffic.
When the vessels, which bring it from Tortola, Turk’s Island and other
of the West Indies, are delayed, the price of salt is tripled and
quadrupled. During the war the people were greatly in want of salt,
and the attempt was made to get it from the sea by damming the water
in ponds along the coast. Little success attended this experiment
south of the thirty-seventh parallel, probably because of the frequent
rain-storms which freshened the ponded sea water.
“From Suffolk to Cunningham’s we skirted the great Dismal Swamp. Along
the road from York, in Virginia, to this point it is observable that
the south bank of all the rivers and creeks is steeper and rougher than
the north bank. This may be due to the weathering of the north and
northeast storms.”
_VI._
_COUNT CASTIGLIONI, CHEVALIER OF THE ORDER OF ST. STEPHEN, P. M._
_1786._
_Luigi Castiglioni--Alexandria--Mount Vernon--General
Washington--Fredericksburg--Peach Trees and
Persimmons--Richmond--Petersburg--Colonel Banister--Dr.
Greenway--Colonel Coles--Staunton River--Buckingham Court
House--Eniscotty--Rockfish Gap--Staunton--Middle River
Ford--Winchester--Charlestown._
In the diary of George Washington for the year 1785 appear these
entries: “Sunday, December 25.--Count Castiglioni came here to dinner.
December 29.--Count Castiglioni went away after breakfast on his tour
to the southward.”
This was Count Luigi Castiglioni, who had landed at Boston in May,
and after going through New England and a part of Canada, had come
to New York, whence, on the 27th of November, he had set out for the
South, reaching Alexandria December 24th, and spending Christmas at
Mount Vernon. Count Castiglioni was a man of science, Chevalier of
the Order of St. Stephen, P. M., member of the Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia, and also member of the Patriotical Society of Milan,
Patrician of Milan. The book written by him, _Viaggio negli Stati
Uniti_, is particularly descriptive of the useful plants to be found
in this country, with a view to their introduction into Europe, either
for the farm and the kitchen garden or for practical inclusion in
the _materia medica_. This book and that of Dr. Schoepf, 1783-1784,
give an excellent statement as to the natural history, the methods of
agriculture, milling, mining, etc., of that period in the history of
the fourteen States.
“Alexandria,” says Count Castiglioni, “numbers 300 houses and possibly
3,000 inhabitants. At times, although the latitude is only 38 degrees
45 minutes, the cold is so great that the Potowmack may be ridden and
driven over. Such freezing weather is never of long duration, and many
winters the river is not frozen at all. This newly established town has
already received the name and the privileges of a city, and as soon as
the Potowmack is made navigable will become one of the most flourishing
of the trading towns of Virginia.
“When I was there the plan for the improvement of the navigation
(suggested by General Washington) was beginning to be put into effect.
Near Alexandria brick and tiles are made at a reasonable price, the
soil thereabouts being a soft, viscous clay. They make lime there
from the oyster shells, which are found in extraordinary banks. The
people have two theories about these great shell banks, one being that
they are due to successive inundations of the sea, the other that the
aborigines assembled them, either for burial mounds or for some other
religious purpose.
“The morning of the 25th of December I left Alexandria and went to
Mount Vernon. There I spent four memorable days. General Washington
is perhaps fifty-seven years of age, a man large and strong of build,
of a majestic but kindly bearing, and, notwithstanding the fatigues
of war, appears not yet to be aging. This celebrated man, who began
and so happily carried through the American war, seems, as it were,
to have been formed by nature to free this country of European rule
and to inaugurate an epoch in the history of mankind. Bred to arms, he
has not neglected the study of politics, and there is probably no one
in America who has a better knowledge of the present condition of the
United States or more sincerely desires their welfare. May Heaven spare
him many years for the good of his country, for an example to it and to
Europe.
“Leaving Mount Vernon December 29th, in the morning, I went by
Colchester, a little place on the River Ochoquan, Dumfries, where there
are several warehouses for tobacco; Aquaja (only a few houses), and
fourteen miles beyond came to Falmouth, on the Rappahannock, whence it
is the custom to ferry down to Fredericksburg, on the opposite bank.
Fredericksburg, like Alexandria, is by law styled a city, and carries
on a heavy trade in tobacco. From Fredericksburg many plantations are
seen, larger and smaller. The large houses are generally built with a
porch, and the outbuildings ranged at either side. The tobacco exhausts
a cleared field in three years, and no attempt is made to manure, the
cattle being kept at large in the woods. Two acres in tobacco bring
about two hogsheads, or maybe 3,000 pounds. One thousand pounds (a
hogshead) fetches from 27 to 39 shillings Virginia money the hundred.
“The following day I traveled thirty miles through a district where
much tobacco is raised, and much peach brandy and persimmon beer is
made. The peach flourishes so in Virginia that often when a tract of
land is cleared the peach trees take possession of the whole area,
nothing being done for the propagation of them except letting in the
sun on the ground. The persimmon is gathered from a sort of Guayakana
in the woods. The fruit would be very good to eat but for the skin,
which has an unpleasantness in the taste. In the evening I came to
Richmond, now the capital of Virginia, a town which has grown rapidly,
and numbers some 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses. The town is built
on two hills, separated by a brook, over which is thrown a wooden
bridge, with side ways for foot passengers. The trade of the place
consists largely in tobacco, and there is much competition from the
other markets at Alexandria and Petersburg. When I was there a well had
just been dug to the depth of seventy feet on one of the hills, which
rise one above another from the James, here a river foaming among great
rocks. I visited the spot. The earth removed smelled of sulphur, and
had the look of rotted wood, ash gray, but turning white on exposure
to the air. There were found at the bottom of this well, bedded in the
earth described, many bones, some larger than the bones of cattle, and
also remains of the aboriginal Indians, stone implements, etc., proof
that these tribes had been in possession of the land many centuries
before.
“January 6th [1786] I passed on to Petersburg, through Osborne’s.
Blandford, Pocahontas and Petersburg are now incorporated under the
name Petersburg. Great quantity of tobacco is brought to Petersburg,
even from the North Carolina country, and is there exported to Europe
as James River tobacco, which is the best sort.
“A mile from the town lives Colonel Banister, a nephew[H] of the
famous John Banister, who gave up his place as professor of botany and
librarian at the University of Oxford, and settling in this part of
Virginia, at great pains and with rare judgment collected and described
a number of the scarcest plants. From Colonel Banister’s I went, on
the 9th, to Kingston, a rich plantation belonging to Captain Walker,
in the county of Dinwiddie. The following day I visited Dr. Greenway,
by birth an Englishman, and an amateur of botany.[I] I examined his
collection with true pleasure, and the next day came again, since Dr.
Greenway had given me leave to transscribe from his notes; I have
included this material in my descriptions of American plants, relative
to the medicinal practices of the aborigines. Five miles from Kingston
the traveler passes the River Nottoway. The few Indians remaining of
the tribe of that name live near Southampton Courthouse, forty miles
distant.
“Having come from Kingston along this road, by the Nottoway and
Hiksford (a wooden bridge leads over the Meherrin), thirteen miles
beyond the Meherrin, I entered the State of North Carolina on the
parallel thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. In this and other parts of
Virginia, as also in both the Carolinas, there is found a very noxious
serpent called by the inhabitants the Moquisson.
“Returning from Georgia and the Carolinas, after I had passed the
River Dan [May 11, 1786] three miles from the North Carolina line,
I came to the plantation of Mr. W----. In the evening prayers were
read, but after the first verse the announcement was made that it was
bed time, and we had better disperse. The next day I reached Colonel
Coles’s, having come forty miles through Paintonborough and by a
bridge over Banister River. I had met Colonel Coles at Richmond, and
was received by him with great cordiality. When he heard that I was
on my way to Philadelphia he gave me a letter to his brother, Colonel
John Coles, who has a place on that road, near Charlottesville. I
examined with pleasure, at Colonel Coles’s (on Staunton River) several
artificial meadows of clover and rye grass, or wild rye, and also the
Colonel’s stud.
“I crossed the Staunton in a boat the morning of the 14th. Here I
left the main road and traveled twenty miles through a rough country.
The next day, after passing Johns’ Ordinary, I came to Buckingham
Courthouse, situated on a high hill, at the foot of which runs the
Appomattox.
“I spent the night at Mr. Patteson’s, who has a fine plantation near,
and the following day reached James River, twenty miles beyond. A mile
from the river a high wind began to blow and the sky was suddenly
covered with black clouds.
“Thunder and lightning followed, and the rain and hail came down
in streams. The horses were frightened and would not go on. When
we reached the bank the storm had almost passed. We called to the
ferryman, who was standing in his door on the other side, but he
moved not a foot until the rain had entirely ceased, and then gave as
excuse that he had not seen us. While we were waiting a large serpent
came out of the river onto the banks. I killed it, and found it to
be not unlike what they call in Lombardy the smiroldo. On the other
side of the river, in a group of houses, stands the building in which
the court of Albemarle County was formerly held. I dried my clothes
here, ate dinner, and kept on four miles to Eniscotty, the residence
of Colonel John Coles, who received me hospitably as his brother. The
situation, at the top of a hill, is such that the leaves fall later
there, and appear earlier in the spring, than in the country adjacent.
The calicanthus grows well, with such an exposure; the hill is called
in the neighborhood the Green Hill, which, indeed, in situation and
fertility may be compared with the foothills of Monte di Brianza. The
mulberry and the vine should flourish here.
“May 18th I left Eniscotty. I crossed the Blue Ridge by the road
through Rockfish Gap, which is not comparable, either in steepness or
in length, to the roads over the Apennines, much less those over the
Alps. Thick fog, followed by rain, compelled me to spend the day at a
house on the divide, the proprietor of which told me much regarding
the fertility of the lands in that region and the customs of the
inhabitants. He informed me that many people from the lower country
stayed at his house on their way to the springs in the Alleghany
Mountains. Having crossed the Blue Mountains and the South River, I
came to Stantown the morning of the 23d. Here I was enabled to see a
mocking-bird. These birds are often kept in cages, and are bought by
the English at extravagant prices. They are very scarce to the north,
and have many times fetched three to four guineas at Boston. About
Stantown tobacco is only beginning to be cultivated. They raise wheat,
Turkish corn [Indian corn] and hemp. Heavy rains kept me at Stantown
until the 27th, and prevented me seeing the extraordinary Natural
Bridge.
“At Middle River, a small stream usually fordable the year through, I
found several travelers waiting for an opportunity to cross. I put up
at a house nearby, and as often as the rain permitted went out, like
the Egyptians, to measure with a rod the rise or fall of the waters.
“The morning of the 29th the good man of the house advised me that I
might now cross. A crowd of people were at the bank to see us make the
attempt. My servant stripped himself and ventured in (on horseback)
with the carriage. He had hardly left the bank when the force of the
stream swept him down and overturned the calesche. I called to him from
where I was standing that his only hope was to let the horse go, and
swim; he kept by the horse, and managed to save both it and himself. I
resolved never again, in the matter of ferrying a swollen stream, to
trust to the advice of these wild pioneers. The next morning I was able
to cross, and at the North River was taken over in a flat canoe, the
horses swimming at the side.
“The following day, having passed Smith Creek, a dangerous stream, I
came into a new road, full of roots and bad from the rain besides. The
wheels of the calesche, which had already been many times repaired,
broke into a hundred pieces, and at the first smithy I determined to
abandon the vehicle and continue the journey on horseback. Beyond the
Shenadore, which we crossed in a canoe, the horses swimming behind,
we fell into a marshy and rocky road, which leads over Mill Creek
and Stony Creek. Keeping on, through a country of many delightful
prospects, between the Blue and the Alleghany Mountains, we passed
through Millerstown, the county seat of the county of Shenadore,
Stowerstown, Newtown, and arrived at Winchester.
“Winchester, for commerce, is one of the most important towns of
Virginia. The number of the houses is about 200. The traffic is in
wheat, flour and hemp, sold at Baltimore and Philadelphia, whence
European manufactures are brought and expedited further beyond the
mountains. The water at Winchester--limestone--has a strong effect on
first being used. The 18th of June I left Winchester and spent that
night at Weathers-don-Marsh, called also Charletown, and from there,
on the following day, passed the Blue Ridge for the second time at
Harper’s Ferry.”
_VII._
_DR. COKE IN VIRGINIA._
_1785-1791._
_Dr. Thomas Coke--The Eastern Shore--Alexandria--Swollen
Creeks--The Pies of Mecklenburg--A Retired Dancing-Master--Halifax
County--Following the Spring--Petersburg--Dan River
Landscapes--Richmond--Port Royal._
It would be an interesting book that should give the history of
missions in this country. That godly man, Nicholas Ferrar, who was
so active in the affairs of the London Company; the good minister
of Jamestown, who came with the first supply; the pastors of the
congregations that settled in Massachusetts; the Jesuit fathers; the
emissaries of the Society of Friends; the Presbyterians from the north
of Ireland and from Scotland; Whitefield, Asbury, Coke--how large was
the share of these men in the making of America. Among them, Dr. Thomas
Coke was not the least. He was nine times in this country and covered
a great part of it as then known, including the islands of the British
and several of the French Indies.
Dr. Coke was born in 1747, and was graduated B. A. at Oxford in
1768. In 1775 he was made D. C. L., and had considerable prospects
of church preferment, but was reckoned a Methodist after 1776. His
bishop reproved him, but declined to remove him. His rector dismissed
him. Wesley employed him for a time to assist in answering his
voluminous correspondence. In 1782 he was the first president of the
Irish Conference, and held the office for the rest of his life, with
a few intermissions. In 1784 he drew up a plan for missions, and was
appointed superintendent, with episcopal functions, in America. That
year he came to this country and ordained Asbury, at Baltimore, as
deacon, elder and superintendent. Wesley was very indignant at the
change of the title superintendent to bishop, and the confirmation of
the change led in 1792 to the O’Kellyan schism. Dr. Coke possessed a
private fortune of £1,200 a year. He died in 1813 on a voyage to India.
His work in the field of missions was cosmopolitan, and to him more
than to any other the creation of the vast network of the Methodist
foreign missions is due.
September, 1784, Dr. Coke sailed from King Road, Bristol, for New York.
In November he was on the Eastern Shore. Returning to Philadelphia
and Baltimore, he was at Alexandria March 9, 1785. This great man was
able to enjoy the country. He was born in Wales. But he does not seem
to have been skilled in the art of cross-country horsemanship in all
weathers. He writes (March 9th): “In my ride this morning to Alexandria
through the woods, I have had one of the most romantic scenes that ever
I beheld. Yesterday there was a very heavy fall of snow and hail and
sleet. The fall of sleet was so great that the trees seemed to be trees
of ice. So beautiful a sight of the kind I never saw before.”