Part 9

Beyond Newgate, Bull Run was to be crossed. Having passed that famous stream, the pedagogue and peripatetic, after a mile or two, came to the Ball plantation. An old negro showed him the way, who related, among many other things, that when he was a young buck he made as much as fifteen dollars one winter as capitation money--“Master, I don’t tell you a word of a lie”--levied on the wolves of the region. At Mr. Ball’s: “In my way through the garden I passed two young ladies gathering roses, who, however immured in the woods, were clad with not less elegance than the most fashionable females of Europe. I asked them whether Mr. Ball was at home. They replied that their papa was in the parlour, and with much sweetness of manner directed me by the shortest path to the house. Mr. Ball[O] received me with undissembled accents of joy. He said he had long expected my coming and was gratified at last. I was not a little delighted with the suavity of his manners and the elegance of his conversation. I now opened what some called an Academy and others an Old Field School; and, however it may be thought that content was never felt within the walls of a seminary, I for my part experienced an exemption from care and was not such a fool as to measure the happiness of my condition by what others thought of it. Of the boys I can not speak in very encomiastic terms. Of my female students there was none equal in capacity to Virginia. Geography was one of our favorite studies. I often addressed the rose of May in an appropriate ode--

_TO VIRGINIA, LOOKING OVER A MAP_

“Powerful as the magic wand, Displaying far each distant land, Is that angel hand to me, When it points each realm and sea.

“Plac’d in geographic mood, Smiling, shew the pictur’d flood, Where along the Red Sea coast Waves o’erwhelm’d the Egyptian host.

“Again the imag’d scene survey, The rolling Hellespontic Sea, Whence the Persian from the shore Proudly pass’d his millions o’er.

“And behold to nearer view, Here thy own lov’d country too-- Virginia! which produc’d to me A pupil fair and bright like thee.”

What with a horse, the artisanry of verse, a mild philosophy, and the business of his office, John Davis spent three months very agreeably on Bull Run, within sight of the Blue Ridge. Then a New Jersey farmer of the neighborhood discovered that his eldest boy wrote a better hand than the teacher. Davis resigned the academy to the carpenter of the plantation. “I now once more seized my staff and walked towards Baltimore. It was a killing circumstance to separate from Virginia (the student of geography), but who shall persume to contend against fate? _Phyllida amo ante alias, nam me discedere flevit._ I embarked August, 1802, in the good ship Olive, Captain Norman, lying at Baltimore, for Cowes, in the Isle of Wight.”

LIST OF TRAVELS

1. A Tour in the United States. Containing an Account of the Present Situation of that Country, the Population, Agriculture, Commerce, Customs & Manners of the Inhabitants, &c., &c. By John Ferdinand D. Smyth. Two Volumes. London, 1784.

2. Travels through the Interior Parts of America. In a Series of Letters. By an Officer. [Thomas Anburey.] Two Volumes. London, 1789.

3. New Travels through North America. In a Series of Letters, exhibiting the History of the Victorious Campaign of the Allied Armies, under his Excellency General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau in the Year 1781. Translated from the Original of the Abbé Robin. Philadelphia. Robert Bell: Third Street. 1783.

4. Travels in North America in the Years 1780-81-82 by the Marquis de Chastellux, one of the forty members of the French Academy & Major General in the French Army, serving under Count de Rochambeau. Translated from the French by an English Gentleman [George Grieve] who resided in America at that period. With Notes by the Translator. New York. 1828. [From the English edition of 1787.]

5. Reise durch einige der mittlern und südlichen vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten, nach Ost-Florida und den Bahama-Inseln, unternommen in den Jahren 1783 und 1784. Von Johann David Schoepf. 2 Bde. Erlangen. 1788.

[Translated and edited by A. J. Morrison. Two Volumes. William J. Campbell. Philadelphia. 1911.]

6. Viaggio negli Stati Uniti dell’ America settentrionale, fatto negli anni 1785, 1786, e 1787, da Luigi Castiglioni, &c., &c. 2 Tome. Milano. 1790.

7. Extracts of the Journals of the Rev. Dr. Coke’s Five Visits to America. London. 1793.

8. Voyage dans l’Intéreur des États Unis, à Bath, Winchester, dans la Vallé de Shenandoha, etc., etc., etc., pendant l’été de 1791. Par Ferdinand M. Bayard. Paris. 1797.

9. Travels through the States of North America and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. By Isaac Weld, Junior. 3rd Edition. Illustrated and embellished with sixteen plates. Two Volumes. London. 1800.

10. Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada. In the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, &c., &c. By the Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. [Translated by H. Neuman.] Two Volumes. London. 1799.

11. Travels of Four Years and a Half in the United States of America. During 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, and 1802. Dedicated by permission to Thomas Jefferson, Esq., President of the United States. By John Davis. London. 1803.

[Edited by A. J. Morrison. Henry Holt & Co. New York. 1909.]

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Or Hicksford, now Emporia.

[B] Richard Henderson, one of the Colonial Judges of North Carolina, b. Hanover County, Va., 1735.

[C] In Pittsylvania County, near the North Carolina line, and northwest of the Little Sawra Towns. cf. Map, Jefferson’s _Notes_, Ed. 1787.

[D] Smyth’s entire book, two volumes, is one of the most interesting of that period. It is possible he exaggerates, and he may be a compiler here and there when he professes to be giving his own adventures. He is readable always. Chapters of his book offer puzzles which are yet to be elucidated. Some one must carefully check up the adventures of John Rowzee Peyton with those of Smyth. (See John L. Peyton, _Adventures of My Grandfather_.)

[E] And it is not at all impossible that the work was wholly a compilation, done skilfully at London.

[F] Translated by Philip Freneau. Philadelphia, 1783: Price ‘two thirds of a dollar.’

[G] The Marquis Armand de la Rouërie, called in America Colonel Armand.

[H] Colonel Banister was the son of the botanist. cf. Campbell, p. 725.

[I] Dr. Greenway was a connection of Gen. Winfield Scott. cf. Scott’s _Autobiography_, I, pp. 3-5.

[J] John Wesley, d. in London, March 2, 1791. In Georgia and the Carolinas Dr. Coke had been on ground familiar to Wesley. cf. _Rev. J. Wesley’s Journal_, 1st American edition, New York, 1837. Vol. I, pp. 1-52 (1735-1738).

[K] From the description of the plantation, acreage, equipment, etc., and the character of the proprietor, Col. P. might have been Col. Richard Kidder Meade, father of Bishop Meade, to whom Washington’s farewell advice was, “Friend Dick, you must go to a plantation in Virginia.”

[L] New York at that time, according to this traveler, had but two banks; and there were but three at Philadelphia, the commercial centre of the country.

[M] Davis wrote in 1806 a historical novel, _The First Settlers of Virginia_, largely the story of Pocahontas. In the modern romantic way, Davis discovered the Princess Pocahontas.

[N] During the war in Europe the United States were a sort of temporary depot of the produce of all countries. Commodities over and above consumption were re-exported. Madeira might come back a second time. cf. La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Vol. II, p. 588.

[O] Spencer Ball, m. a daughter of Robert Carter of ‘Nomini.’ cf. _Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian_, p. 70.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Text of direct quotes has been retained from the original, with no correction of spelling or grammatical errors.