the manners of the people who reside in the town or most populous parts; but as natural history, and more especially vegetable productions, with the state of agriculture, were the chief object of my researches; my business was to avoid the parts most known, in order to visit those which had been less explored; consequently, I resolved to undertake the journey to that remote and almost isolated part of the country. I had nearly two thousand miles to travel over before my return to Charleston, where I was to be absolutely about the beginning of October. My journey had likewise every appearance of being retarded by a thousand common-place obstacles, which is either impossible to foresee, or by any means prevent. These considerations, however, did not stop me; accordingly I fixed my departure from Philadelphia on the 27th of June 1802: I had not the least motive to proceed on slowly, in order to collect observations already confirmed by travellers who had written before me on that subject; this very reason induced me to take the most expeditious means for the purpose of reaching Pittsburgh, situated at the extremity of Ohio; in consequence of which I took {25} the stage[1] at Philadelphia, that goes to Shippensburgh by Lancaster, York, and Carlisle. Shippensburgh, about one hundred and forty miles from Philadelphia, is the farthest place that the stages go to upon that road.[2]
- ↑ Till the year 1802, the stages that set out at Philadelphia did not go farther South than to Petersburg in Virginia, which is about three hundred miles from Philadelphia; but in the month of March of that year, a new line of correspondence was formed between the latter city and Charleston. The journey is about a fortnight, the distance fifteen hundred miles, and the fare fifty piastres. There are stages also between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as between Charleston and Savannah, in Georgia, so that from Boston to Savannah, a distance of twelve hundred miles, persons may travel by the stages.—F. A. Michaux.
- ↑ For historical sketch of Shippensburg, see Post's Journals, vol. i of this series, p. 238, note 76.—Ed.
