hoe's FERRY- 139 
to go to decay, as the Sand around them is 
worn out, and the people find it more to their 
interest to remove to another part of the 
country, and clear a piece of rich land, than 
to attempt to reclaim these exhausted plains. 
In consequence of this, the country in many 
of the lower parts of Maryland appears as 
if it had been deserted by one half of its in¬ 
habitants. 
Such a number of roads in different direc¬ 
tions cross over these fiats, upon none of which 
there is any thing like a direction post, and the 
face of a human being is so rarely met with, 
that it is scarcely possible for a traveller to 
find out the direct way at once. Instead of 
twelve miles, the distance by the straight road 
from Port Tobacco to the ferry, my horse had 
certainly travelled twice the number before 
we got there. The ferry-house was one of 
those old dilapidated mansions that formerly 
was the residence perhaps of some wealthy 
planter, and at the time when the fields yielded 
their rich crops of tobacco would have af¬ 
forded some refreshment to the weary travel¬ 
ler ; but in the state I found it, it was the 
picture of wretchedness and poverty. After 
having waited for two hours and a half for 
my breakfast, the most I could procure w as 
two eggs, a pint of milk, and a bit of cake 
bread, scarcely as big as my hand, and but lit- 
