length, there are upwards of sixty widows within these two months. The
total loss on this melancholy occasion already exceeds four thousand,
nearly one tenth of the inhabitants! Returning to Woodbury, I met with a
quaker, who informed me of the _cause_ of the infectious disorder in the
Great City: "_It is_ a judgment on the inhabitants for their sins,
insomuch that they sent to England for a number of play-actors, singers,
and _musicians_, who were _actually arrived_; and as a just judgment on
the Philadelphians for encouraging these _children of iniquity_, they were
now afflicted with the yellow fever." I told him, that more likely the
sins of the _quakers_ had drawn down this judgment on the city _of
brotherly love_, and that it was now scourged for _their_ hypocrisy,
lying, canting, and other _manifold iniquities_.

_Oct. 27th_.--Very cold wind at N.W. In the evening snow.

_Oct. 29th_.--Favourable accounts from Philadelphia: the late cold
weather has entirely stopped the progress of the disorder.

_November 26th_.

Set out for Annapolis, and arrived there in health, the 29th, at five in
the afternoon.

* * * * *

_Annapolis, 17th December, 1793._

DEAR FRIEND,

The bay of Chesapeak is one of the largest in the world. From it's