Volume 3

A collection of modern and contemporary voyages and travels containing, I. Translations from foreign languages ... II. Original voyages and travels ... Analyses of new voyages and travels / [Edited by F.W. Blagdon].

Date:
1805-1810
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A collection of modern and contemporary voyages and travels containing, I. Translations from foreign languages ... II. Original voyages and travels ... Analyses of new voyages and travels / [Edited by F.W. Blagdon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/106 (page 15)
    CHxlP. 1IL EPARTUR E FROM PHILADELPHIA FOR THE WESTERN COUNTRIES. COMMUNICATIONS BY LAND INTHE UNITED STATES. ARRIVAL AT LANCASTER,— DESCRIPTION OF THAT TOWN AND ITS ENVIRONS.— COLUMBIA.—PASSAGE OF THE SUSOUEHANNA, YORK, DOVER, CARLISLE. AR- RIVAL AT SHIPPENSBURGH. REMARKS ON THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE EXTENT OF THIS JOURNEY* IN the States of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Ohio, is conir prised that vast extent of land known in America by the name of the Western Country. Nearly all the Europeans who have pub- lished observations on the United States, have contented them- selves with remarking, according to the common report, that these countries are very fertile; but they have not entered into any particulars respecting them. It is true, that before arriving &t these new establishments we are obliged to traverse a consi- derable extent of uninhabited tracks ; and that the journies are long and difficult, and afford nothing of interest which might tend to delineate the manners of the people who inhabit the towns or other places : but as the natural history, and particularly the ve- getable productions and the state of agriculture, in those districts,, formed the principal objects of my enquiries, 1 was under the ne- cessity of travelling at a distance from those parts which are best known, and passing my time in such as have been but slightly mentioned. I therefore made a journey to these distant coun- tries; and had nearly two thousand miles to travel before I could return to Charleston, where 1 was absolutely obliged to be by the 1st of October. I expected indeed that my journey would ine- vitably be impeded by various obstacles of a local nature, which it would be impossible to foresee or prevent:—these considera- tions, however, did not induce me to change my determination, and I fixed my departure from Philadelphia for the 27th of June 1802. As I had no wish to travel slowly, to make observations which had already been repeated by various travellers, I resolved to proceed in the most expeditious manner to Pittsburgh, situated at the head of the Ohio; and at Philadelphia I took the stage which went to Shippeasburgh, by way of Lancaster, York, and Carlisle* Shippensburgh is one hundred and forty miles from Philadelphia, and is the most distant place on this road to which one can travel by the public carriages. Till the year 1802, the stages which went from Philadelphia proceeded southwards only as far as Petersburg!! in Virginia, >vhich is about three hundred miles from Philadelphia; but in