Mr. Jefferson's appearance is rather prepossessing. He is tall and very thin, a little bent with age, with an intelligent and sprightly countenance. His manners are dignified, but courteous and gentlemanly; and he enters into conversation with great ease and animation.

After two hours téte-à-téte, I rose about six o'clock to take my leave. He invited me to stay all night; but I thought I had already encroached sufficiently on his time, and I was not sure that we should withdraw to the ladies, of whom I had just seen enough to feel persuaded that I should have passed a very agreeable evening with them. While sitting with this philosophical legislator and his polished family, in a handsome saloon, surrounded by instruments of science, valuable specimens of the fine arts, and literary treasures of every nation, and every age, I could not help contrasting my situation with some of those which I had occupied during the preceding month, when sleeping on a bear-skin, on the floor of an Indian hut, listening to the traditions of my Chickasaw or Choctaw host, or dandling on my knee a young Indian warrior, with his miniature belt and mocassins, his necklaces and feathers, and his little bow and arrow, doomed to provoke nothing but a smile. In the course

of a few weeks, I had passed from deep forests, whose silence had never been broken by the woodman's axe, to a thickly settled country, where cattle were grazing in extensive meadows, and corn fields waving in the wind; where commerce was planting her towns, science founding her universities, and religion rearing her heaven-directed spires. In the same period, I had traced man through every successive stage of civilization, from the roaming savage, whose ideas scarcely extend beyond the narrow circle of his daily wants, to the statesman who has learnt to grasp the complicated interests of society, and the philosopher, to contemplate the system of the universe.

Crossing the Rivannah, at the bottom of Mr. Jefferson's grounds, the water up to our saddleskirts, we proceeded to Mr. Boyd's tavern, about eight miles distant. On Monday, the 19th, we resumed our journey, breakfasting at Well's tavern, and resting four hours at Mrs. Tetley's, much more like a private lady's house than an inn; her manners quite those of a gentlewoman. She had a good library, where I recognized many old friends, the Edinburgh Review, Matthew Henry, Mrs. Hannah More, &c. &c. We slept at a small house, 42 miles from our resting place the preceding night; and starting

at half-past three o'clock on the 20th, reached Richmond, 25 miles, about eleven o'clock, having breakfasted at Powell's, a very comfortable inn, with an opulent tobacco planter and his wife, who were going to Richmond. The lady's black maid rode on horseback behind: I suppose nothing would induce them to admit her into the carriage. The black servants, who drive their master and mistresses in gigs, generally sit on the step, which has a most unpleasant and unsafe appearance. I was particularly struck with this at Charleston and Savannah.

I forgot to say, that at Mr. Jefferson's, I saw the belt and shot pouch of the famous Tecumseh, to whom I have already introduced you.*

* Page 136.

"Tecumseh, before his untimely death, had conceived a plan of collecting all the Indians of North America to some portion of the Continent not inhabited by white people, there to dwell together under their own government and laws; to enjoy their own customs and religion, inherited from their ancestors; to live in a state of independence; to sell no more of their lands to the white people; to cultivate, by all means, peace with them; to wage no other than necessary defensive wars; to quit roving and hunting for subsistence; to divide their territory into farms; and to live as do the whites, by agriculture and the arts. In this way he conceived that Indians might recover what they had lost; rise again into importance and influence; and once more assume their rank among the nations of the earth."-Dr. Morse's Report on Indian Affairs.

Letter XX.

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Baltimore, 13th July, 1820.

I WROTE last from Richmond. While there, I staid at a hotel kept by a brother of the Attorney-General of the State, and of the Governor-elect of Louisiana. There were about forty usually at table, nearly one-half less than at the Eagle, where I staid before. The brother of Governor H, who was so kind to me at Natchez, was staying there, being a Judge of the Supreme Court, which was sitting. The weather was too hot, however, to enjoy any thing, even rest, after our journey, the excellent regulations even of that well conducted house being unable to protect us from little torturers, which continually drove me from my bed to the floor. I saw nothing of the society of Richmond, except in one agreeable family, where I met many of the principal merchants. The view from the Terrace, which has been so much extolled, and which appeared to me so brown in winter, is greener, to be sure, and not without interesting features, but tame,

Y

indeed, compared with the prospects from the Alleghany and the Blue Ridge. I went a few miles out of Richmond, on the 24th, to an inn, called the Shut Pump, where I thought I might, perhaps, be cool. The house, though a large one, was a pattern of cleanliness and comfort; and my host, Col. Sanders, and his wife, appeared very respectable. They had family-worship morning and evening, to which the travellers are invited, and were busy on the Sunday, in establishing a Sunday-school in the neighbourhood. This part of Virginia is not distinguished for an interest in religion, We had service only once in the day, and the clergyman returned home with us to dinner. On the 26th, we set off early, and rode 45 miles along a dull road, to a tavern, where we slept, taking coffee, about five o'clock, at a neat whitewashed English looking inn, where we found a poor destitute Spaniard, whom the people of the house were nursing with great care. He was taken ill on the road, and they made him a fire at his request, communicated by signs, in the room where they were sitting, although the heat of the weather rendered it very unpleasant to them. This was charity. In the corner of the inn-yard was a little girls'-school, which the wife of my host conducted. The following