140 TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA * 
tie better than dough. This I had also to 
divide with my servant, who came to inform 
me, that there was absolutely nothing to eat 
in the house but what had beers brought to 
me. I could not but mention this circum¬ 
stance to several persons when I got into Vir¬ 
ginia^ and many of them informed me, that 
they had experienced the same treatment 
themselves at this bouse ; vet this house had 
the name of a tavern. What the white peo¬ 
ple who inhabited it lived upon 1 could not 
discover, but it was evident that they took 
care of themselves. As for the poor slaves, 
however, of which there were many in the 
huts adjoining the tavern, they had a most 
wretched appearance, and seemed to be half 
starved. The men and women were covered 
with -rags, and the children were running 
about stark naked. 
After having got into the ferry boat, the 
man of the house, as if conscious that he had 
given me very bad fare, told me that there 
was a bank of oysters in the river, close to which 
it was necessary to pass, and that if I chose to 
Mop, the men would procure abundance of them 
for me. The curiosity of getting oysters in 
fresh water tempted me to stop, and the men got. 
near a bushel of them in a very few minutes. 
These oysters are extremely good when-cooked* 
but very disagreeable eaten raw-; indeed, all the 
