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Show TRAVELS THROUGH NORTH AMERICA: nifon that had been jnfl: killed. I went on fifty miles further, from Staunton, before I got any again. Salted pork, boiled with turnip tops by way of greens, or fried bacon, or fi-icd i~llte~ fi£11, wi_th ~varm falbd, drdfed with vinegar and the melted f.'lt wht h remmns .111 the frying-pan after drd1ing the bacon, is the only food to be got at m ~fl: of the tavems in this country; in fpring it is the confrant food of- the people in the country; and indeed, throughout the whole year, I am told, fi1lted meat is what they mofl: generally ufe. In every part of America a European is furprifed at fin iing fo many men with military title , and fiill more fo at feeing fuch number of them employed .in capacities apparently fo inconlillcnt with their rank; for it is nothing uncommon to fcc a captain in the fhape of a waggoner, a colonel the driver of a fhgc coach, or a general dealing out penny ribbon behind his counter; but no where, I believe, is there fuch a fuper. fl.uity of the(e military pcrfomges as in the little town of Staunton; there i hardly a decent p rfon in it, excepting lawyers and medical men, but what is a colonel, a major, or a captain. This is to be accounted for as follows : in America, every freeman from the age of fixteen to fifty years, whofe occupation does not abfolutely forbid it, mu!l: enrol himlclf in the militia. In Virginia alone, the mili tia amounts to about fixty-two thoufand men, and it is divided into four divilions and feventccn brigades, to each of which there is a general and other ot11- ccrs. Were there no offic:er th erefor , excepting tbo(c aCtually belonging to the militia, the number mu£1: be very great; but independent of the militia, th ere arc alfo volunteer corps in mofl: of the tow ns, which have Jikcwife their refpectivc officers. In Staunton th re arc two ol thefc corp,, one of cavalry, the other of artillery. T'hdc are Jormcd chiefly of men who find a certain dcgr e of amufcmcnt i11 exc rciling as foldiers, nnd who arc alfo induced to ailociate, by the vanity of appc.1 ring in regimen tals. Th~; militia is not affemblcd oftener than once in two o~ three months, and as it rcfl:s '"·ith every individual to provide himt"·lf WI~h arms and acco utrements, ani no firefi being laid upon coming in untfonn, the appearance of the men is not very military. 1 umbers alfo of the oi1iccrs of thc!c volunteer corps, and of the militi<J, are rcfigning every W I N C 11 E S T E lL I ' l ~v ry tby; an~l if a m:1n h.ts b. en a c:~p '·ain or a colonel but one day, ·ither in the one bo ly or the other, it fc~m to be an efi.a )lifhed rule that he i~ to lw,·e nomin<ll rank the refl of his li1l:. Added to al l, there nrc ii:veral ol1icc ·s of the old continental auny ncith<.:r in the m1litia nor ·n the voluntcl:r corps . Vi ncheflcr ilands one hundred miles to the northward of tau 11 ton, and i the brgefl town in the United State on the wcfl:cn l!Jc of the Blue l\1ountains. The houfcs arc efiimatcd at three hundred and fifty, and the inhabitants at two thou.Gmd. There an~ four churches in th is town, whi ·h, ns well a" ~he houfc<;, arc phinly built. The firects arc regular, but very narrow. There is nothillg particularly d<:fcrving of at- 1cntion in this pbcc, nor indeed in any of the o~hcr iinall to vns w hie h ha vc been mentioned, none of them cont.tining more than fcventy houics each. L E T T E R XVIII. D~ji.:riptirm qf the Pt1[j'zge ofPato'wmac aud Sl.mumdoah Rivers t/;rortgb a Break in dJL' .Dhe ll~lomztt im.-Son• O('jt"rl'atio7lf on ll1r. ~!tjj~1jon's Account q/ t/JI} Scme.-Silmmary Accoztllt if Afary!.md.-Arri·ual at P!Ji/,tdJjJbt~z .-Pem zrks on tbe Climate q( tl.h· Uititd St,rtes.-Stat~· qf the City oj l'hi/,, lelpbla during tbt! Ileal of SmJZitlt'r.-D!fj/~.,·ulty qfp!'t'- jt~rvillg Butter, Milk, Mt.'ctt, Fijb, &c.-General L(Jt" of Ic·e.-Of the lf/iuds.-Statl} of fYcatbl}r in A11z.:rica dt'jJmds greatly 11po11 tbmt. Phibdelphi1, .ftJne. J-J A VI N G traver fed, in v..tri us lEr Ctions, the country to th(' weft oft 1C Blue Mountains in Virgini:t, I c, n t r llC 1 att;W,tl:.lC . at tl<.: phtcc where tha river _i),dles tl rough the il.'u • . ; .) , ·:.-' ·ch Nft-. JdF.: 1Ctm, in his Notes upon jrginia, h. s rcprdePt. . . .; 0.1~ of the nttJi~ "iluocndou ' ' {ccncs m• na ture, and worth a Vl ya ...: acrofi· the AtlJnti " TJ h ap- T p:·oach |
