Page images
PDF
EPUB

the same place, in a compact state, also in a granulated or crystallized form in the ravines. Native copper, on the Blue Ridge in Washington county; arsenical grey copper at Pipe creek, eighteen miles from Baltimore, and at Liberty, in Frederick county; lead ore near Baltimore; manganese in small quantity.

Agate and jasper are found near Baltimore,-the latter in detached masses of a red, brown, and yellow colour; marble is now worked on the Potomac river, in the county of Montgomery; imestone, which exists in great quantity, forms a cavern, in Washington county, remarkable for its extent; Swinestone, or fetid carbonate of lime, is abundant in the Alleghany ridge of mountains; talc, known by the name of soapstone, on the bare hills near Baltimore; Turkey, or whetstone, on the Patuxent river, near the road to Washington; clays southward of the granitic ridge; of coal two beds have been lately discovered near the city of Baltimore.

Forest Trees and Shrubs.-The principal forest trees are oak, walnut, ash, hickery, chestnut, magnolia, andromeda, pine, sassafras, poplar, cypress, &c. &c. In Queen Anne and Talbot counties, the soil is of a whitish clay, and is covered with oak and pine. Near the borders of marshes small oak and hickery are the only trees which thrive. The candleberry myrtle grows in moist places along the shores of the Chesapeak. Along the sea-beach ridges and swamps, and particularly in Worcester county, there grows a wild grape, the fruit of which yields a pleasant wine, in the proportion of four gallons to a bushel.

Animals. The quadrupeds are the same as in Vir ginia.

I

Fishes. The waters abound with various kinds; rockfish, drum, white and yellow perch, shad, sheepshead. The rockfish weighs from three to ten pounds, and some have grown to sixty. The soft crabs of the Chesapeak bay are in high estimation. The terrapin, or land tortoise, is eaten, and there is a great plenty of oysters. Among the wildfowl which frequent the Chesapeak bay, the canvas-back duck is the most esteemed.

[blocks in formation]

The increase of whites during the last ten years was 13,119, or 5ths per cent.; that of blacks 17,735, or 14 per cent.

According to the census of 1810, there were,

[blocks in formation]

57,102 males. 53,970 females.

[blocks in formation]

In point of population, Maryland is the 8th state in the Union.

Diseases. Near the close of autumn the eastern shore is unhealthy, as is evident from the paleness of its inhabitants; but those who live in the more elevated and western parts are strong and healthy. The

country around Annapolis has never been visited with any endemial disease; but the yellow fever appeared at Baltimore in the summer and autumn of 1800. In 1811 the author recollects to have seen several individuals who were enjoying full health and vigour beyond the age of fourscore. In June 1816 the death of Mr John Mitchell of Dorchester county was announced, who had lived to the age of 105 years and nine months.

Bill of mortality for 1814, when the population of Baltimore

[blocks in formation]

The greatest number of deaths was, in October, 125; the least, in June, 62. The diseases to which the deaths were attributed were, consumption, 225; cholera morbus, 102; bilious fever, 118; typhus, 56; other fevers, 7; fits 80; old age, 69; pleurisy, 110; still born, 70; worms, 85; dropsy, 36; croup, 25; &c.-(Nile's Register, Vol. VII. p. 353.)

(Manners and Political Character.-The inhabitants, whose chief business is agriculture, live on their plantations. They are distinguished by their agreeable manners, and their kindness and hospitality to the unfortunate of every country. The women are goodlooking, amiable, and accomplished. They generally marry about seventeen, and the men about twenty

one.) This state, which so strenuously resisted the encroachments of parliament in 1769, and so actively promoted the revolution in 1775, was the last to sign the articles of confederation in 1781; and the federal constitution met with strong opposition from some of the ablest members of the convention, but was finally adopted in April 1788, by a majority of fifty-one. Besides other objections to the articles of confederation, it was maintained, that the immense tract of unappropriated western territory, of which this state owned no portion, ought to be considered as the common property of the union, not of particular states, and should be reserved as a fund for the redemption of the national debt. In the defence of Baltimore during the late war, the militia manifested great firmness, and the people have since evinced their patriotism by rais ing 100,000 dollars towards the erection of two monu. ments, the one to the memory of General Washington, the other in honour of those who fell in defence of the city, at North Point, on the 12th of September 1814. The first is also to serve as a land-mark for vessels coming up the Patapsco. The expence has been estimated at half a million of dollars; that of the other at fifty thousand.

This province formed a part of Virginia until the year 1632, when it was detached from it at the solicitation of George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who, after several years' residence in the province of Newfoundland, obtained a grant of this province as an asylum for the persecuted Catholics of his native country; but, as he died before the delivery of the charter, it was vest

[blocks in formation]

ed in his eldest son, who followed up the same enterprise. The first colony, consisting of 200 Roman Catholics from England, arrived in the summer of 1634. They established themselves at St Mary's, then the capital, where their numbers were increased by emigrants from New England, and nonconformists, driven from Virginia by Berkeley the governor. The form of government was modelled after that of England. The council, which resembled the House of Peers, was composed of some of the more distinguished members of the society, and the Lower Chamber of Deputies of the counties. The right of convoking, proroguing, or dissolving the parliament, was in the lord-proprietor, who had a negative upon its proceedings. At the death of Charles I. Lord Baltimore lost his rights, but was re-established in them by Charles II. Under William III. he was allowed to enjoy the revenues of his property, but not to continue as governor. An act of parliament passed in this reign, disabled Catholics from holding lands either by descent or purchase.

The friendly disposition of the Indians, which favoured the growth of this colony for some time, was afterwards interrupted by the conduct of Captain William Claiborne, who stirred them up against the colonists, and, in 1635, went so far as to attack their vessels, though without success. The colonists were also annoyed by the jealousy of the Virginians; but these troubles were at length composed, and the colony increased in numbers under the protecting influence of its own legislature. Lands were purchased in the in

« PreviousContinue »