EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY. 191 



Smith, Isaac Townsend, Ananias Osborne, Robert Cresse, and 

 Thomas Hewitt." 



From Thomas Chalkley's journal, a traveling Friend from Eng- 

 land, dated 2nd month, 1726, it appeared to have been a wilderness 

 between Cohansey and Cape May. 



" From Cohansey I went through the wilderness over Maurice 

 River, accompanied by James Daniel, through a miry, boggy way, 

 in which we saw no house for about forty miles, except at the ferry ; 

 and that night we got to Richard Townsend's, at Cape May, where 

 we were kindly received. Next day we had a meeting at Rebecca 

 Garretson's, and the day after a pretty large one at Richard Town- 

 send's, and then went down to the Cape, and had a meeting at John 

 Page's ; and next day another at Aaron Learning's ; and several ex- 

 pressed their satisfaction with those meetings. I lodged two nights 

 at Jacob Spicer's, my wife's brother. From Cape May, we traveled 

 along the sea-coast to Egg Harbor. We swam our horses over Egg 

 Harbor River, and went over ourselves in canoes ; and afterward 

 had a meeting at Richard Sumers, which was a large one as could 

 be expected, considering the people live at such distance from each 

 other." 



Jacob Spicer, in his Diary, gives us the following estimate of the 

 resources and consumption of the county, in the year 1758. 



" And as my family consists of twelve in number, including my- 

 self, it amounts to each individual £1 3s. 8Jc?. annual consumption 

 of foreign produce and manufacture. But perhaps the populace in 

 general may not live at a proportionate expense with my family, I'll 

 only suppose their foreign consumption may stand at £4 to an indi- 

 vidual, as the county consisted of l-lOO souls in the year 1746, since 

 which time it has increased; then the consumption of this county 

 of foreign manufacture and produce, will stand at £4400 annually, 

 near one half of which will be linens. 



