y.] may be
considered but as one town, as the interval that parts them is already
laid out for building.

There is not perhaps on the face of the earth so many excellent situations
for a sea-port as in this vicinity; and yet they have fixed on the very
spot where the town should _not_ be.

Baltimore, by being built so far from the bay of Chesapeak, has not depth
of water for a vessel of two hundred tons, nearer than the Point. The
lower part of the town is a dead flat, intersected with canals and docks,
filled with stagnated water from the Basin: owing to this circumstance the
town is unhealthy at certain seasons, and subject, in the fall, to
musquitoes: these inconveniences might have been avoided by building the
town a mile lower, on either side the bay.

But there is a much better situation for a town and port on an inlet from
the Patapsico, west of the town, round a point, which runs about W.N.W.
where I have marked No. 10.

On this spot is water for a vessel of eight hundred tons burden,
sufficiently fresh to exclude the worms, and at the same time a current
strong enough to prevent stagnation. A bay perfectly secure from the N.W.
and other dangerous winds, a gradual rise of ground consisting of a fine
dry gravel to build upon; in short, every natural advantage. This was the
original situation designed for the town; but the proprietor was concerned
in a wharf in this neighbourhood, and fearing the new town would injure
his business, positively refused his consent to the proposals made him on
this occasion, and by that means, lost one of the first estates perhaps
ever offered to an individual.

I was in this bay, on a fishing party, a few days ago, with one of his
descendants, who was lamenting the infatuation of his ancestor. This
gentleman was so kind as to point out and explain the foregoing
particulars.

You will naturally inquire how the town came to be built in it's present
situation? The governor of the province was proprietor of most of the
land. Is not _that_ a sufficient reason.

About forty years ago the two towns of Baltimore, and the Point, contained
only _two_ brick houses, and a few wooden ones: in a late edition of
Salmon's Geography, I find Baltimore described as consisting of a few
straggling houses, scarcely deserving the _name_ of a _town_. Within these
fifteen years it has increased in size and population beyond all
precedent. It now contains nearly twenty thousand inhabitants; and, in