ed meat, and some oyster-soup, formed the whole of the
repast.

The town of Williamsburgh contained, at this time, about twelve hundred
inhabitants; and the society in it was thought to be more extensive, and
at the same time more genteel, than in any other place of its size in
America. No manufactures were carried on here, and there was scarcely
any trade.

From Williamsburgh to Hampton the country is flat and uninteresting.
_Hampton_ is a small town, situated at the head of a bay, near the mouth
of James River. It contained about thirty houses and an episcopal
church; and was a dirty, disagreeable place.

From this town there is a regular ferry to Norfolk, across Hampton
Roads, eighteen miles over. _Norfolk_ stands nearly at the mouth of the
eastern branch of Elizabeth River, the most southern of the rivers which
fall into _Chesapeak Bay_. This is the largest commercial town in
Virginia, and carries on a flourishing trade to the West Indies. Its
exports consist principally of tobacco, flour, and corn, and various
kinds of timber. Of the latter it derives an inexhaustible supply, from
the great "Dismal Swamp," which is immediately in its neighbourhood.

The houses in Norfolk were about five hundred in number; but most of
them were of wood, and meanly built. These had all been erected since
the year 1776; when the place had been totally burnt, by order of lord
Dunmore, then the British governor of Virginia. The losses sustained, on
this occasion, were estimated at three hundred thousand pounds sterling.
Near the harbour the streets are narrow and irregular: in the other
parts of the town they are tolerably wide. None of them, however, are
paved, and all are filthy. During the hot months of summer, the stench
that proceeds from some of them is horrid.

There were, at this time, two churches, one for episcopalians, and the
other for methodists; but, in the former, service was not performed more
than once in two or three weeks. Indeed, throughout all the lower parts
of Virginia, that is, between the mountains, and the sea, the people
seemed to have scarcely any sense of religion; and, in the country
districts, all the churches were falling into decay.

From Norfolk Mr. Weld went to the _Dismal Swamp_. This commences at the
distance of nine miles from the town, extends into North Carolina, and
occupies, in the whole, about one hundred and fifty thousand acres. The
entire tract is covered with trees, some of which are