After Travelling Eight Miles, We Passed Through A Long And Dreary Wood; Here We Met Two Negroes Conveying A Coffin On A Sort Of Sledge.

On inquiry, one of them informed us, the coffin contained the corpse of his mother; that on the death

Of his old master, his parents were sold to different planters, which his father took so much to heart, that he died soon after; his mother only survived him about five months; and they were now complying with her last request, which was, to be carried to a plantation about eight miles thence, and there buried with her husband. There seemed a great degree of dejection in the poor fellow's countenance; and I could not help telling him, by way of consolation, that his father and mother were gone to a better place, where there was no distinction of colour, and where no white man would dare again to part them; but as _words_ are _wind_, we agreed to administer some more _solid_ consolation, which the black man received with a look of gratitude, then cast his eye towards his mother's corpse, and shed a silent tear. Why was not _Sterne_ present at this scene?

I slept at an inn, about twenty miles from Annapolis, where we supped in the American fashion on fried squirrels and coffee, the former excellent.

_Feb. 5th_. - Arrived at Baltimore, and hired a caravan with four horses, which is here called a stage: the same afternoon we arrived at the Susquana.

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