51 



of which General Washington had given 

 me a plan, and a report along with it— 

 the rent being fixed at eighteen hundred 

 bushels of wheat for twelve hundred acres, 

 or money according to the price of that 

 grain. I must confess that if he would 

 have given me the inheritance of the land 

 for that sum, I durst not have accepted it, 

 especially with the incumbrances upon it; 

 viz. one hundred and seventy slaves young 

 and old, and out of that number only 

 twenty-seven in a condition to work, as 

 the steward represented to me. I viewed 

 the whole of the cultivated estate — about 

 three thousand acres ; and afterward dined 

 with Mrs. Washington and the family. 

 Here I met a Doctor Thornton, who is 

 a very pleasant agreeable man, and his 

 lady ; with a Mr Peters and his lady, who 

 was a grand- daughter of Mrs. Washington. 

 Doctor Thornton living at the city of 

 Washington, he gave me an invitation to 

 visit him there : he was one of the commis- 

 sioners of the city. 



e 2 



