lii 
MEMOIR OF 
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 ayes for subscribing were none ; and so it was unani- 
mously determined in the negative. Nowise discouraged 
by this sage decision, 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 philo- 
sophy both abandoned me, arid 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 w T retchedly clad : their whole covering, in many 
instances, assumes the appearance of neither coat, waist- 
coat, nor breeches, but a motley mass of coarse, dirty 
woollen rags, of various colours, 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, wfith both arms, in order to cover 
their nakedness, and came out, very civilly, to shew 
me the way.” 
“ I mentioned to you, in my last, that the streets of Nor- 
folk were in a most disgraceful state ; but I was informed, 
that, some time before, they had been much worse ; that 
at one time the new r s-carrier delivered his papers from a 
boat, wdiich he poled along through the mire ; and that 
a party of sailors, having nothing better to do, actually 
lanched a ship’s long boat into the streets, rowfing along 
with four oars through the mud, while one stood at the 
bow, heaving the lead, and singing out the depth.” 
“ The general features of North Carolina, where I 
