ACCOMMODATION. 
183 
brandy, and when properly matured it is an 
excellent liquor, and much esteemed ,* they 
.give it a very delicious flavour in this part 
of the country, by infusing dried pears in it. 
Spirit and water is the universal beverage 
throughout Virginia. They also make consi¬ 
derable quantities of tar and pitch from the 
pine trees. For this purpose a sort of pit is 
dag, in which they burn large piles of the 
trees. The tar runs out, and is deposited at 
the bottom of the pit, from whence it is takers, 
cleared of the bits of charcoal that may be 
mixed with it, and put into barrels. The tar, 
inspissated by boiling, makes pitch. 
The accommodation at the taverns along 
this road I found most wretched ; nothing was 
to be bad but rancid fish, fat salt pork, and 
bread made of Indian corn. For this indiffer¬ 
ent fare also I had to wait oftentimes an hour 
or two. Indian corn bread, if well made, 
is tolerably good, but very few people can 
relish it on the first trial; it is a coarse, strong 
kind of bread, which has something of the 
taste of that made from oats. The best way 
of preparing it is in cakes; the large loaves 
made of it are always like dough in the 
middle. There is a dish also which they 
make of Indian corn, very common in Vir¬ 
ginia and Maryland, called, hominy/' It 
consists of pounded Indian corn and beans 
