“Leaving Mount Vernon December 29th, in the morning, I went by Colchester, a little place on the River Ochoquan, Dumfries, where there are several warehouses for tobacco; Aquaja (only a few houses), and fourteen miles beyond came to Falmouth, on the Rappahannock, whence it is the custom to ferry down to Fredericksburg, on the opposite bank. Fredericksburg, like Alexandria, is by law styled a city, and carries on a heavy trade in tobacco. From Fredericksburg many plantations are seen, larger and smaller. The large houses are generally built with a porch, and the outbuildings ranged at either side. The tobacco exhausts a cleared field in three years, and no attempt is made to manure, the cattle being kept at large in the woods. Two acres in tobacco bring about two hogsheads, or maybe 3,000 pounds. One thousand pounds (a hogshead) fetches from 27 to 39 shillings Virginia money the hundred. “The following day I traveled thirty miles through a district where much tobacco is raised, and much peach brandy and persimmon beer is made. The peach flourishes so in Virginia that often when a tract of land is cleared the peach trees take possession of the whole area, nothing being done for the propagation of them except letting in the sun on the ground. The persimmon is gathered from a sort of Guayakana in the woods. The fruit would be very good to eat but for the skin, which has an unpleasantness in the taste. In the evening I came to Richmond, now the capital of Virginia, a town which has grown rapidly, and numbers some 4,000 inhabitants, and 400 houses. The town is built on two hills, separated by a brook, over which is thrown a wooden bridge, with side ways for foot passengers. The trade of the place consists largely in tobacco, and there is much competition from the other markets at Alexandria and Petersburg. When I was there a well had just been dug to the depth of seventy feet on one of the hills, which rise one above another from the James, here a river foaming among great rocks. I visited the spot. The earth removed smelled of sulphur, and had the look of rotted wood, ash gray, but turning white on exposure to the air. There were found at the bottom of this well, bedded in the earth described, many bones, some larger than the bones of cattle, and also remains of the aboriginal Indians, stone implements, etc., proof that these tribes had been in possession of the land many centuries before. “January 6th [1786] I passed on to Petersburg, through Osborne’s. Blandford, Pocahontas and Petersburg are now incorporated under the name Petersburg. Great quantity of tobacco is brought to Petersburg, even from the North Carolina country, and is there exported to Europe as James River tobacco, which is the best sort.