thirty miles hence, being free from this plague, (by having a great
proportion of fresh water from the Patapsico in it's harbour) has drawn
all the trade from the _capital_: the Annapolians have now but _one_
square-rigged vessel belonging to their port, while their rivals have many
hundreds, and drive a brisk trade to the four quarters of the globe.

Annapolis is whimsically laid out, the streets verging from each other,
like rays from a centre. It is still the seat of government; and it's
state-house is by much the best building I have seen in America. This
little city is now the retreat of some of the best families in the
state. The inhabitants in general are passionately fond of theatrical
entertainments, and received us with a degree of kindness and hospitality
which claims our warmest acknowledgments. I spend my time here very
agreeably. The politeness, ease, and conviviality of the Annapolians form
a strong and pleasing contrast to the behaviour of the stiff, gloomy and
unsocial bigots I was lately surrounded with in the Jerseys. Next to
Virginia, this state was the most famous for tobacco-plantations; but the
people now find the culture of wheat more profitable, as well as less
injurious to the soil. No plant impoverishes the earth so much by it's
growth as tobacco; many plantations, owing to successive crops of this
_weed_, are what is here called _worn out_; formerly, when their land was
in this state, instead of endeavouring to bring it round by a few fallow
years and manure, as in England, they immediately cleared a fresh tract.
They now begin to use manure, and have discovered a very extraordinary
kind; viz. antediluvian oyster-shells, large beds of which are found
a few feet beneath the surface of the earth in several parts of the
state[Footnote: See Bartram's Account of a similar Bed in Georgia,
page 213.]: these being laid on the land, are, by the effect of the
air, crumbled into dust in a few days, and fertilize the earth in an
astonishing degree.--Farewell.--Conclude me