Ix 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
York in the montli of March, 1809. This was rather an unproductive tour; 
but few subscriptions being obtained. 
To Mr. D. H. Miller. 
"Washington Citv, 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. la 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 book, the ai/es for subscribing were none ; and so it 
was unanimously determined in the negative. Nowise discouraged by this sage 
decision, I pursued my route through the tobacco fields, sloughs and swauips, 
of this illiterate corner of the state, to Washington, distant thirty-eight miles; 
and in niy 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, 
and 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. Jeff'erson 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 
