LIFE OF WILSON. Ixxxvii 



teen. I shall set off, on finishing this letter, to Georgetown 

 and Alexandria. I will write you, or some of my friends, from 

 Richmond." 



TO MR. D. H. MILLER. 



Charleston, February 22, 1809. 

 "Dear Sir, 



66 1 have passed through a considerable extent of country 

 since I wrote you last; and met with a variety of adventures, 

 some of which may perhaps amuse you. Norfolk turned out 

 better than I expected. I left that place on one of the coldest 



mornings I have experienced since leaving Philadelphia. 



* * # * 



" I mentioned to you in my last that the streets of Norfolk 

 were in a most disgraceful state; but I was informed that some 

 time before, they had been much worse; that at one time the 

 news-carrier delivered his papers from a boat; which he poled 

 along through the mire ; and that a party of sailors, having no- 

 thing better to do, actually lanched a ship's long-boat into the 

 streets, rowing along with four oars through the mud, while 

 one stood at the bow, heaving the lead, and singing out the 

 depth. 



" I passed through a flat, pine covered country, from Nor- 

 folk to Suffolk, twenty-four miles distant; and lodged, in the 

 way, in the house of a planter, who informed me that every 

 year, in August and September, almost all his family are laid 

 up with the bilious fever; that at one time forty of his people 

 were sick; and that of thirteen children, only three were living. 

 Two of these, with their mother, appeared likely not to be long 

 tenants of this world. Thirty miles farther, I came to a small 

 place on the river Nottaway, called Jerusalem. Here I found 

 the river swelled to such an extraordinary height, that the old- 

 est inhabitant had never seen the like. After passing along the 

 bridge, I was conveyed, in a boat termed a flat, a mile and 

 three-quarters through the woods, where the torrent sweeping 

 along in many places rendered this sort of navigation rather 



