204 
Washington. The arches are of brick* The government doe^ 
not build by contract, but by measure, what the French call 
au mitre cube; whereby it obtains good work. The masons 
work only is performed by hired workmen, mostly by blacks; 
other work is done by military prisoners, who have been condemn¬ 
ed by court martial to public labours. The garrison consists of 
eleven companies of artillery, which form a provisional regi¬ 
ment, and are under the command of Colonel Fenwick, and 
Lieutenant-Colonel Eustis. The first officer I became acquainted 
with, at General Brown’s in Washington, where he is still resid¬ 
ing. To the latter I was recommended by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Bankheard from New York. Mr. Eustis invited me to stay till 
to-morrow, in order to show me his regiment; but I was^oblig¬ 
ed to decline his invitation on account of time. 
We availed ourselves of the opportunity, which the steam-boat 
Potomac presented coming from Washington to go to Norfolk, 
and went on board of her in a boat rowed by artillerists. About 
nine o’clock, P. M. we landed in Norfolk, all day we had disa¬ 
greeable rainy weather. I designed to stay longer in order to 
see the navy-yard in Gosport, a mile distant from Norfolk; Mr. 
Meyau would accompany me. The landlord, who was willing 
to derive as much advantage as possible from my presence, had 
advertised in the papers, he would on that day give a dinner of 
turtle-soup, game, wild ducks, &c., but it was written in the 
book of fate, that I should not partake of these dainties. On 
inquiring, I was told that the mail stage was the only ordinary 
means of communication with the south, and went only on Tues¬ 
days and Fridays to Fayetteville, and consequently if we did not 
leave Norfolk in half an hour, we should be obliged to wait until 
the next Tuesday. This not at all agreeing with my travelling 
plan, and as a hired coach could not be procured, I packed up 
my baggage in great haste, bid the friendly Mr. Meyau farewell, 
and left Norfolk at half past ten o’clock in the mail stage, con¬ 
nected with the Baltimore steam-boat. 
We went sixty-eight miles to Murfreesborough, where we ar¬ 
rived about eleven o’clock in the evening. We crossed at first 
two small inlets of the bay, on very long wooden bridges, pass¬ 
ed through Portsmouth, a small place near the navy-yard, where 
I saw the ship of the line Delaware, and the frigate Macedonian, 
taken from the British, in ordinary, but had no time to examine 
this very interesting establishment. We had scarcely left this 
place when we entered a forest, through which we travelled 
during the day. The country is a large marsh, called the Dismal 
Swamp, crossed by a sandy road. The forest is very thick, and 
consists of oak trees, among which I noticed the live oak, cypress, 
cedar and pine trees; on the marshy spots there are evergreen 
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