60 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



thousands of English seamen, and if only in that re- 

 spect, was an object of the greatest consequence to 

 Great Britain, which must now share the profits 

 with other nations. To be sure, many merchant ves- 

 sels are built in Virginia, but mainly for sale, and 

 thesle are known and well-regarded as good, fast- 

 sailing ships. Of the European merchants estab- 

 lished here before the outbreak of the disturbances, 

 and as British subjects compelled to leave during the 

 war, divers came in the spring and summer with car- 

 goes for Virginia, hoping to trade as before with their 

 old friends and acquaintances. The government of 

 Virginia, still full of bitter spleen, forbade them to 

 land and obliged them to go elsewhere with their 

 goods and seek other markets, which they soon found 

 and not far off. Virginia then began to suffer for 

 lack of European wares, and had to fetch, at a loss, 

 from Philadelphia and Baltimore the very same it had 

 at first prohibited. Besides, the ships of other 

 European nations, against which there was no ex- 

 ception taken, if they came into the Bay were unwilling 

 to be at the trouble of seeking purchasers for their 

 cargoes among the few merchants scattered here and 

 there, but preferred rather to go straight to one of 

 the fore-mentioned places, where they could reckon 

 upon a quicker sale. The Virginians moreover 

 thought to deal on long credit, which they and all their 

 neighbors have long been accustomed to at the hands 

 of British merchants; but neither French nor Dutch 

 were so agreeable as that, when the question was one 

 of borrowing, and if they were, had oftentimes cause 

 to rue their complaisance. Virginia needs and takes, 

 (and has always), more foreign articles than it can 



