STATE OF DELAWARE 395 



baptizing of a young and handsome Anabaptist, which 

 was announced for a cold Sunday morning of this 

 chilly November; but I came too late to the Schuyl- 

 kill where the ceremony was performed. It was in- 

 deed very cold ; but these good people do not believe 

 that the coldness of the water at a time of baptizing 

 can be injurious to the health, even of the tenderest 

 woman, as this candidate was. 



At Philadelphia I could not be too circumstantial 

 with my acquaintances in telling of my journey to the 

 mountains. To many of these citizens everything I 

 had remarked, seen, or brought back with me was great 

 and surprising news. This is not to be wondered at, 

 what with the almost total lack of a precise geographi- 

 cal and topographical description of the country. Many 

 of the small towns and villages are scarcely known even 

 by name, and one might almost say that beyond the 

 range of their inhabitants and nearest neighbors they 

 are many times not known at all ; and as regards full 

 accounts touching their situation, size, management, 

 history, trade, population, ceconomy, and plenty or 

 goodness of their particular products, there are no 

 public reports whatever to be had. It is therefore 

 greatly to be wished that patriotic American scholars + 

 might soon determine to give an exact and complete 

 description of their fatherland. It would be received 

 thankfully by both foreigners and natives. According 

 to the plan which, on leaving New York, I had made 

 of visiting the most remarkable regions of the inner 

 and frontier parts of the middle provinces, I had now 

 travelled more than 1200 English miles in about three 

 months ; this space of time, to which I was necessarily 

 restricted, did not permit me to linger as I should have 



