80 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: 
the present time more rapidly in population 
than any other part of the whole continent; 
there is a good foundation for thinking that the 
federal .city, as soon as the navigation is per¬ 
fected, will increase most rapidly; and that at 
a future day, if the affairs of the United States 
go on as prosperously as they have done, it 
will become the grand emporium of the west, 
and rival in magnitude and splendour the cities 
of the old world. 
The city is laid out on a neck of land be* 
tween the forks formed by the eastern and 
western, or main branch of Patowmac River* 
This neck of land, together with an adjacent 
territory, which is in the whole ten miles square, 
was ceded to congress by the states of Mary-* 
land and Virginia. The ground on which the 
city immediately stands was the property of 
private individuals, who readily relinquished 
their claim to one half of it in favour of con¬ 
gress, conscious that the value of what wag 
left to them would increase, and amply com¬ 
pensate them for their loss. The profits 
arising from the sale of that part which has 
thus been ceded to congress will be suffi¬ 
cient, it is expected, to pay for the public 
buildings, for the watering of the city, and 
also for paving and lighting of the streets. 
The plan of the city was drawn by a French¬ 
man of the name of 1/Enfant, and is on a 
