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Show jJ~ TRAVELS TI-IROUGH NORTH AMERICA: by Philadelphia on the othcr, the towns n1ofi ~ap~lily fi~uatcd .~or the purpofc. There are about twu hundred houfcs m New ~runfw1ck, ancl about the ftme number in Trenton on Delaware, the cap1tal of the fiatc. PhiLulclphia, the largcft town· in the union, has evidently been raifed to that {bte of pre-eminence by her cxtcnfl.ve inland con1mcrcc .. Oa one fide is the river Ddawarc, which is navigable in floops for thirtyfive miles above the town, and in boats carrying eight or nine tons one hundred miles further. On the other fide is the Schuylkill, navigable, cxce1 ting at the ftlls, for ninety miles. But the country b.orJcring u~on thdc rivers is but a trHling part of that which Philadelph1a trades with .. Goods are forwarded to IIarrifburgh, a town fituated on the Sufquchannah, and fi-on1 thence fcnt up that river, and difpcrfcd throughout the adjoining country. The cafl:crn br:mch of Sufq uchannah is na v jga ble for two hundred and fifty miles above Harriiliurgh. This place, wh iclt in 1786 fcarcc1y deferved the natne of a village, now contains upward of three hundred houfes. By land carriage Philadelphia alfo trades with. the weftern parts of Pcnnfylvania, as far as Pitt!burg itfelf, which i~ 011. th~ Ohio, with the back of Virginia, and, firange to tell, with Kentucky, fcven hundred n1ilcs diftant. Philadelphia, however., docs not enjoy the exc1uiive trade to Virginia and Kentucky; Baltimore, which lies more to the fouth, comes in for a confiJcrable fhare, if not for the greatefi: part of it, and to that is indebted for her fudden rife, and her great fuperiority over AnnrtpolisJ the capital of Maryland. Annapolis, although it has a good harl.Jour, and was n1ade a port of entry as long ago as the year 1694, has fcarcely ~my trade now. Baltimore, fituated more in the heart of the country, has gradually drawn it all away frmn her. Frotn Baltimore nearly the entire of Maryland is furni(hed with Enropc.an mat uLd:ures. The· very flonri{hing fiate of this place has already been mtntioncd. As the Patowmac river, and the towns upon it, are to come more particularly under notice afterwards, we n1ay fron1 hLncc pars on to the other towns in Virginia. With regard to Virginia, however, it is to be {)bfc.:rved, that the impolitic laws '*· which have been enacted in that fiate . ~ For fome account of them fcc Letter XIII. have VIE\V OF TilE TRADING TOWNS. .)S l1avc thrown a great chl.n1p upon trade; the Virginians too have always been n1orc difpoil:d tO\\·ards ngricu lture tlun track, fo that the towns in that fiate, fo:ne of which arc n1ofi advantagcoufl)' fituatcd, have never incrcafcd as they woulJ have done had the county bt en inh:lbited Ly a diftl:rcnt kind of people, and 1Md diflcrcnt Jaws confcqucntJy cxificd ; fiill however we fhal1 fi nc.l that the mofl flourifhing towns in the !late are thofc which arc open to the fca, and fituated n1ofl: conveniently at the ftmc time for trading with the people of the back country. On Rappahannock River, for inilancc, Tappahannock or IIobb's If ole was laiJ out at rhe Lune time that Philadelphia was. Frcdcrickfhurgh was built many years afterwards on the iatnc river, but thirty miles higher up, and at the head of that part of it which was navigable for fca veffels; the confequence of this has been, that Frcderickiliurgh, frotn being fituatcd more in the heart of the country, is now four tin1es as large a town as I-Iobb's flole. York River, frozn running fo clofcly to jan1es River on the one fide, and the Rappahannock on the other, docs not afford a good fituation for .a large town. The largefi town upon it, which is York, only containa feventy houfes. Williaznfburgh was forn1crly the capital of the fiatc, and contains about four hundred honfes; but infl:cad of increafiJJg, this town is going to ruin, and nlllnbcrs of the houfes at prefent are uninhabited, which is evidently on account of its inland fituation. 'There is no navigable flrcam ncar~r to it than one mile and a half, and this is only a finall creek, which runs into James River. Richznond, on the contrary, which is the prefent cap.it~l of the fiate, has increafcd very fa!1, becaufc it fiands on a Jargc navigable river; yet R.ichmond is no more than an interme .. diate place for the dcpofit of goods paffing to and from the back country, veifels drawing more than fevcn feet water being unable to come up to the town. The principal place of trade in Virginia is Norfolk. This town has a good harbour, and is enabled to trade with the upper parts of the country, by means of James River, near the tnouth of which it fl:ands. Dy land alfo a briik. trade is carried on with the back parts of Notth Carolina, for in that il:ate tllere are no towns of any itnportance. T'hc F 2 entrance |
