Travels in the United States of America Commencing in the Year 1793, and Ending in 1797 | Page 4

Baltimore; the
captain's account of the longitude 67. Our joy in being so near the land
was of short continuance; for, in one hour after, we spoke with the
Union, eight days from Philadelphia. The captain informed us, there
was a sort of plague in that city, which carries off great numbers, and
that ten thousand of the inhabitants had fled to the country, to avoid the
infection.
_Sept. 24th_.--Soundings at 60 fathom: lay to all night.
_Sept. 25th_.--Woke with the cry of "Land." At 10 A.M. we took a
pilot on board: he informed us the disorder at Philadelphia is the yellow

fever, imported in a french schooner from the West Indies; some of the
passengers of this vessel died of this fatal disorder, at a lodging-house
in Water-street, and communicated the infection to the family. It is now
spreading rapidly through the city, in all directions. The faculty, so far
from being able to cure this disorder, have, in several instances, fallen
victims to it's fury. Within this few days, a Dr. Rush has discovered this
disorder is not the yellow fever of the West Indies and has applied an
opposite mode of cure by copious bleedings, mercurial medicines, &c.
with some success. What is truly extraordinary, the infection does not
affect _people of colour!_
_Sept. 28th._--Came to an anchor off Glocester Point, five miles below
Philadelphia: the vessel proceeds no further at present, as all
intercourse with the city is cut off, and business at a stand.
_October 1st_.
Brought my baggage on shore, and arrived, at four in the afternoon, at
Woodbury, the county town of Glocester, in the state of West Jersey.
With some difficulty I procured a lodging within half a mile of the
town. Woodbury consists of about fifty well built houses, chiefly
inhabited by quakers, and other dissenters of the most rigid kind; so
very primitive are they in their appearance, that a barber cannot make a
living among them.
_Oct. 13th_.--Spent the last ten days in shooting, and rambling about
the woods. The face of the country is exactly that of an immense forest,
entirely covered with wood, except the plantation cleared by the settlers.
The land sandy, and by no means of a good quality; the chief produce
maize, or indian corn. I counted the increase of one stalk with three ears;
the amount of the grains were upward of one thousand two hundred.
_Oct. 16th_.--I believe the Americans conceive their woods to be
inexhaustible. My landlord this day cut down thirty-two young cedars
to make a hog-pen. A settler informs me, he raised a gum tree from the
seed, which, in sixteen years, measured twenty inches diameter, three
feet from it's base. He tells, me they have ten species of oak; viz, white,
black, red, spanish, turkey, chesnut, ground, water, barren, and live oak.

The white, turkey, and chesnut are used for ship-timber; the acorn of
the latter very superiour in size to any other. Red oak is chiefly used for
pipe-staves, and exported to most parts of Europe, and the West Indies.
Black oak is a dry wood, and easily splits; is chiefly used for the rails
and fences of their enclosures. Ground oak is bushy, and seldom
exceeds six feet in height; it bears a small acorn of a very superiour
flavour, which is the chief food of the deer, and sheep, who run wild in
the woods. Water and barren oak are small and bushy, and only used
for firing. Live oak is said to be very superiour to all the rest, and the
best _ship-timber_ in the world. I am informed it is a sort of evergreen,
seldom met with north of the Carolinas.
_Oct. 26th_.--Went to Philadelphia.--After crossing the Delaware, I
found the land very different from the Jersey shore; a fine stiff black
soil, the clover growing spontaneously. The city exhibited a most
melancholy spectacle; most of the houses and stores shut up, and grass
growing in many of the streets; what few white inhabitants I met with
had a most dejected appearance. The disorder has been most favourable
to the softer sex; women with child, and those above and under a
certain age, were in general free from the infection: but so fatal has it
proved to the other sex, that, in Apple-tree-alley, which does not
exceed fifty yards in length, there are upwards of sixty widows within
these two months. The total loss on this melancholy occasion already
exceeds four thousand, nearly one tenth of the inhabitants! Returning to
Woodbury, I met with a quaker, who informed me of the cause of the
infectious disorder in the Great City: "It is a judgment on the
inhabitants for their sins, insomuch that they sent to England for a
number of play-actors, singers, and _musicians_,