Ix LIFE OF WILSON. 



York in the month of March, 1809. This was rather an unproductive tour; 

 but few subscriptions being obtained. 



To Mr. D. H. Miller. 



"Washington City, December 24th, 1808. 

 " Dear Sir. 



" I sit down, before leaving this place, to give you a few particulars of my 

 expedition. I spent nearly a week in Baltimore, with tolerable success, having 

 procured sixteen subscribers there. In Annapolis I passed my book through 

 both houses of the legislature : the wise men of Maryland stared and gaped, 

 from bench to bench ; but having never heard of such a thing as one hundred 

 and twenty dollars for a booJc, the ai/es for subscribing were none ; and ■ so it 

 was unanimously determined in the negative. Nowise discouraged by this sage 

 dejision, I pursued my route through the tobacco fields, sloughs and swamps, 

 of this illiterate corner of the state, to Washington, distant thirty-eight miles ; 

 and in my way opened fifty-five gates. I was forewarned that I should meet 

 with many of these embarrassments, and I opened twenty-two of them with all 

 the patience and philosophy I could muster; but when I still found them 

 coming thicker and faster, my patience and philosophy both abandoned me, 

 aud I saluted every new gate (which obliged me to plunge into the mud to open 

 it) with perhaps less Christian resignation than I ought to have done. The 

 negroes there are very numerous, and most wretchedly clad ; their whole cover- 

 ing, in many instances, assumes the appearance of neither coat, waistcoat, nor 

 breeches, but a motley mass of coarse, dirty woollen rags, of various colors, 

 gathered up about them. When I stopped at some of the negro huts to 

 inquire the road, both men and women huddled up their filthy bundles of rags 

 around them, with both arms, in order to cover their nakedness, and came out, 

 very civilly, to show me the way. ' 



" I cannot pretend, within the bounds of a letter, to give you a complete 

 description of Washington. It consists of a great extent of confined com- 

 mons, one-half of which is nearly level, and little higher than the'Potomac; 

 the other parts, on which the Capitol and President's house-are built, are high 

 and commanding. The site is much better than I expected to find it; and is 

 certainly a noble place for a great metropolis. I saw one brick house build- 

 ing, which is the only improvement, of that kind, going on at present. The 

 taverns and boarding-houses here are crowded with an odd assemblage of 

 characters. Fat placemen, expectants, contractors, petitioners, office-hunters, 

 lumber-dealers, salt-manufacturers, and numerous other adventurers. Among 

 the rest are deputations from different Indian nations, along our distant fron- 

 tiers, who are come hither to receive their last alms from the President, pre- 

 vious to his retirement. 



" The President received me very kindly. I asked for nobody to introduce 

 me, but merely sent him in a line that I was there ; when he ordered me to be 

 immediately admitted. He has given me a letter to a gentleman in Virginia, 

 who is to introduce me to a person there, who, Mr. Jefierson says, has spent 

 his whole life in studying the manners of our birds; and from whom I am to 

 receive a world of facts and observations. The President intended to send 

 for this person himself; and to take down, from his mouth, what he knows on 



